Mage And Wolf
Chapter 106

Chapter 106: Chapter 106

Now that we’re both prepared to take on the Adventurer’s Guild quest, we review our inventory. I finally notice Hui’Jin has no storage ring at the moment, all her gear is stored in the Toyota. I should fix that, since storage is essential.

"Here, this is a storage ring I claimed from a fallen warrior. It’s not much space, but it’ll hold some essentials, like healing pills, coins and mana stones."

"Thank You Highness. It’s beautiful, what is this mark on it?"

"That’s the mark of the Shadowed Blade, an assassin’s Sect. Nobody should recognize it here."

"You have tattoos of the same thing. Are you one of them?" she asks with genuine interest, in reference to the mark left by the agreement with Sect Master Sun on my forearm.

Thinking of the True Transmission Token that marks me as an honorary Elder for life, I tell her "I suppose I am. They might not all be believers, but they please the Goddess."

"I understand. I accept this gift with pride"

Come to think of it, I’m not sure she knows any martial arts. We will have to fix that.

"Do you learn any martial arts during training?" I ask to be sure.

"Just basic sword techniques. They work well enough for defense though" she shrugs.

"I’ll teach you martial arts later, but first, you can start with the first technique I learned. Flame Sword" I pull the well worn scroll from my storage.

"It’s simple to use, and will resonate with Death Energy to make a deadly black flame. Being a Fire Mage you’ll likely be able to make better use of it than I can. But first, we should go somewhere less crowded."

’Better use of it’ was an understatement. We found a nice park to practice on with nobody around, and Hui’Jin got the hang of the skill in just 3 attempts. But she’s not using it on an actual sword. She’s got a flame blade spell that creates floating swords of magical flame and she has used the skill to enhance them.

The outcome is beyond my expectations. They’re agile as a thought, have a hundred yard range and melt the stones in the park with no effort at all. In fact, I believe she just found her own signature spell.

The fireball barrage is a great crowd control ability, but she can currently control 3 of these swords at the same time, using 2 for attack and keeping the last nearby for defense. A versatility that is hard to overlook.

We should really get going though.

The Adventurer’s Guild message says the Travel Gate can now take us to Houston, as both cities are added to the network just this morning. It’s not open to the public yet, but they’re not likely to stop a High Priestess on a Guild Mission.

"Hui’Jin, kindly inform Karl to be ready for an influx of visitors from Houston and Spokane. I don’t know when they’re planning to tell Arcana City that more Travel Gates will be coming online, but having direct links to three different cities will make for a lot of shoppers."

The actual structure of the Travel Spire in Arcana can accept 10 different locations, it’s just a matter of directing traffic once they are through the toll booth.

A few questions from the guards, one toll paid to bring the Toyota through and we’ve arrived in the fine city of Houston. Home of, well I don’t know what. But it’s hot. Very hot. and humid.

With pedestrian traffic taking over the walkways, and a lot of damaged roads, even our ever so capable lifted pickup truck takes almost an hour to get to the Guild house on the East side of the city.

"We’re here for the monster control mission, posted as an emergency in Spokane" I inform the clerk in the near deserted building. "Where is everyone else?"

"Four teams left earlier today Highness. More have entered the city, but as the day is getting late, they’re waiting until morning to organize and head out." The clerk informs me.

Hui’Jin pokes my side and points at 3 people sitting alone in a Shadowed corner.

One wears the white robes of a Junior Priestess and looks to be a Dragon Kin with little dragon blood, just pointy scaled white ears, no visible tail or horns. The two with her look to be men in their early 20s, both carrying bows, but no visible arrows. Maybe they’ve got storage rings?

"Are you three looking for more group members?" I ask, walking over and they all look up in shock.

"Well, uh, yes. But we need someone who is good in close combat to keep the big ones off of us while we clear the little ones."

"Then I’ve found the right group. I am a physical cultivator with a wealth of martial arts experience"

"And who might the tiny Dragonewt be?" one of the guys asks.

"Hui’Jin, my personal acolyte. A competent fire mage skilled in both area suppression and single target damage dealing."

"Can you really handle class 3 beasts in close combat Highness?" The other man asks skeptically.

"How about this. Fire an arrow at me and see what happens" I smile, letting power into my voice and activating the Dragon Armor.

"She is quite serious" Hui’Jin informs them. "Do not worry about the High Priestess, very little in this world can kill her"

Without hesitation one man grabs his bow, draws and fires a lightning arrow. It crashes into me with a rumbling boom of Thunder, leaving the floor around me scorched and the light fixtures flickering.

"Didn’t even flinch" the other man says.

"Is that even human?" The Priestess asks.

"In fact, no. I’m not human, I’m a Lycan. But the armor is a martial skill learned from a cultivation Sect who are human."

"We would be honored to join you High Priestess" The White robed dragon kin nods, smiling at me. "I am called Kel’Mira. These are Vinnie and Paul. Both specialize in lightning skills and archery. They’re mystic cultivators, not mages."

"We’ve got a team suite upstairs if you want to rest here the evening and get to know each other?" Paul suggests.

Kel’Mira gives him a dirty look for the lack of honorific, but I wave her off.

"Formality isn’t necessary on a combat team. It only complicates things, so for the time being I am not here as Katrina, High Priestess of the Death God, but ’Young Miss’ assassin of the Shadowed Blade Sect"

Vinnie and Paul go very pale at that name. "The Shadowed Blade Sect of Master Sun?" Vinnie asks quietly and I pull up my sleeve to show him the Sect mark.

"Will that be a problem?" I ask curious.

"Not at all Young Miss. Not a child from a cultivating family in our world doesn’t fear that name."

"Let’s talk about this somewhere private" Kel’Mira whispers urgently. "There’s still ears here"

"So you’re from the world I trained on then?" I ask once we’re safely in the suite.

"Yes Miss. From the Sacred Thunder Sect" Vinnie nods.

"Such a lovely fighting style. I wish I’d had more time to master your archery skills, but they’re difficult for physical cultivators"

"What do you mean by that?" Paul looks confused.

"I learned the essentials of your Sect Art" I demonstrate a few identifiable secret techniques and they stare open mouthed.

"That’s insane. How did the Shadowed Blade learn that?" they ask in weird unison and Kel’Mira laughs at them.

"Did you honestly think your world’s best assassins didn’t know the light sects styles?" she asks them, trying to contain her mirth at their reactions.

"Were you there too or did you meet here?" I ask her to give them time to process.

"We met this morning at the Guild. They seem nice, so I decided to stay with them instead of going for the first available group needing a healer."

"No shortage of groups needing healers" I nod. "You can afford to be picky"

"And you can’t?" Paul wonders.

"You look like you’ve got strong stomachs. A lot of partners flee once things get messy" I shrug.

"So it’s true a Death Priestess can make it rain blood?" he jokes and Hui’Jin shakes her head.

"Don’t remind me. She looks like she bathes in blood while fighting." she mutters.

It’s not my fault. Claws are messy weapons, so I just laugh off her assessment.

"Meditate or sleep as you will. I’ll wake everyone at first light" Vinnie assures us.