Mage And Wolf
Chapter 170

Chapter 170: Chapter 170

In the morning, we decide that a tour of the ruins is in order. After all, Betty led us here and hadn’t even had a chance to look around yet.

"Keep your eyes peeled, little one. There might be hidden treasures scattered through these ruins. No curse can harm you with us around." Elder Song whispers to our tiny guide.

Her determined face is adorable and both Alice and Elder Song are having far too much fun with our treasure hunt through the ruins. We’re looking though every side room and ruined storage building, pretty much all picked clean over the centuries.

"Hostile cultivator at 900 meters, 2 o’clock. Early Core Formation." Elder Song whispers so Betty doesn’t hear. I catch sight of him and there’s no doubt he’s hostile, I can feel the hatred in his glare from here.

"Six more incoming, all below the Immortal Realm." Song adds.

That sounds annoying, I need a go away button for instances like this. We’re just trying to spend a morning exploring and they have to ruin our fun. But come to think of it, I do have a go away button, the trigger on the Browning machine gun. That should change their minds in a hurry, and I’ve got the spare from the Toyota still stored in my rings somewhere.

Yes, there it is, already loaded and everything. "Karl, I’m going to tell them to go away, could you make some eat protectors for Betty?"

When Karl sees the rifle he smiles, knowing what I’m up to. All seven of them are perched on top of rubble in clear view now, a blatant attempt to intimidate with the killing intent they’re directing our way.

There’s a nice crumbled wall ahead that would make a proper standing height perch for the tripod to rest on, so I jog off to set up while Karl equips Betty with her new headgear.

Karl sees that I’m ready and gestures for the newcomers to go away, flipping his hand at then disdainfully. They return the sentiment with a finger across the throat gesture and stand up to move our direction.

A three shot burst drops the first arrival, red Blooming on his chest through his robes. The others seem confused, so I drop another, then another. Just to clarify their situation.

They finally get smart enough to duck behind the rubble and advance on us. Karl moves left while I move right, tucking the rifle away for later. my first opponent is on me in seconds, but the sound of an explosion as Karl starts casting spells at his opponents distracts him at the last second and I relieve him of his head before he can finish his attack.

The other coming my way is smarter. Not smart enough to bathe regularly in neutral scents, he’s about 30 meters upwind and I can smell him, but he’s at least hidden.

I activate Shadow Meld and equip my Royal Robes, an odd fit over the layer of Sect Robes I’m already wearing, but they provide the desired floating effect, so I don’t have any foot steps making noise to give me away.

He’s hidden inside a destroyed building, focusing hard trying to find me when I get behind him through a hole in the far wall. I send a punch his way from across the room, the Energy Dragons flying out to extend my reach. He senses them at the last moment and blocks one, rolling to the side to avoid the other.

I leap at him, still Shadow Melded, though he can likely sense me pretty clearly now and aim a kick at his head, the Dragons coming at his chest from both sides. He dodges back to avoid the kick and throws an arm to either side coated in energy to block the Dragons. But he’s made a fatal miscalculation, he’s inside a building, and his back hits the wall before he can get out of range of my kick.

The kick knocks him cleanly out and I grab his limp body by an ankle to drag him back to Elder Song for questioning, returning to just my Sect Robes.

Moments after I return, so does Karl, all covered in soot. What in the world was he doing over there?

"I brought one back for questioning." I say, pointing at the unconscious man and Betty giggles.

"I think you’re supposed to drag people by the top. look how his shirt is up under his armpits." She laughs.

"Close your eyes for a second, I am going to wake him up." I tell her, and when she does I dump a canteen of water on his face and kick him between the legs.

"Gah, dammit, stop! I surrender." he splutters, the water still pouring on his face.

Song and Karl are both giving me dirty looks, but Alice seems to be amused by my awakening technique.

"Care to explain what you thought you were doing?" I ask him with my best serious tone.

"We were following you to get vengeance for the Kuroki Sect." He sighs, knowing it’s a lost cause. If he resists I’m just going to torture him until he tells me what I want to know, so he might as well save himself the trouble.

"How many more, or is your Sect the only one hired?" Karl asks, looking at Betty with concern. Even with gun muffs on her ears she should be able to make out the conversation.

"We weren’t hired, we’re their business partners. Or former business partners, since they’re gone and you killed most of our Elders and our Sect Master." the man says, wiping his face dry with a sleeve, but only succeeding in making himself muddy.

"Well, if that’s all, this is easy to solve. They tried to kidnap me to do their alchemy, I punished them for their stupidity. Let it go and you can walk away. We’ve got things to do, so you don’t even have to see us again. Nominate yourself Sect Master for all I care." I explain.

"We can have you two do a blood oath, I know the spell. Swear you won’t interfere with our mission or attempt to have us harmed and I can let you leave." Karl says by way of reassurance. At this Elders cultivation the oath might our night not actually kill him if broken, it’s a pretty good deterrent.

When a minute, the spell is cast and the oath made, requiring nothing of me, but plenty of him. As soon as it seals he runs away at top speed, back towards the city, fleeing to save his own life.

"That’s way more adventure than I thought we would find in these ruins." Betty says, looking a bit stunned, making Elder Song pick her up and pat her head with a laugh.

"You never know how a day will turn out, do you?" he jokes.