2

I rushed across the rooftops toward the unfortunate elves that had just found their paralyzed brothers in arms. By now they'd determined that their ally was alive, and were working on picking him up so they could go raise the alarm. There were several ways they could retreat between the buildings so it was hard to guess which direction they were going to choose. Luckily I didn't need to guess. My foresight ability activated, and I could clearly see there was a high chance of them taking the shortest route.

It wasn't the only possible route they could take, and that gave me a slight headache. I snorted under my breath, and jumped into the shadows. Swimming through them easily as I masked my presence by using the minimal amount of mana, and disguising it as a surge in ambient mana. By the time they realized I was behind them one of them had already lost my head. My ice blade sung as the blade soaked in the blood of the elf.

Turning the blade blood red. The second elf turned to look at me in horror, but I'd already run him through. Gripping his throat tightly so he couldn't cry out. The cold of my blade spreading through his chest as it froze all the organs around it. I let him drop as the paralyzed elf watched from where he lay on the ground.

His emotions screamed horror. He was absolutely terrified.

"You're lucky," I gripped his armor as I smirked behind my mask, "You get to live because you can't move."

I dropped him like the trash he was. Moving on to catch up with the group. No else had interrupted our escape. I dropped down at the back of the group, and joined them easily. It was almost as if I'd never been away from the group.

We got out of the town fairly easily. Placing the slaves in a hollow where they would be hidden from view. They would also be able to see anyone coming fairly easily provided they paid a moderate amount of attention. Now it was on to the noble household in this town. That single house owned nearly as many slaves as the entire town put together.

I gripped Sekka's shoulder as I fused shadows with space. Using the shadows themselves to teleport us across town onto one of the buildings near the noble household. The modest compound was square in shape with a tree at the center. They were working on growing their future household. They'd made a good amount of money, and were starting to grow their future house.

It was a great show of power, and wealth. I was getting tired of dealing with these cocky nobles.

"Can you handle getting the slaves without me?" I stared at that tree with hatred.

"What do you plan on doing?" Sekka asked.

"Burning it," I smiled, "Burning everything they hold dear."

Sekka stared at me for a few minutes, "Have fun."

He was getting tired of all this as well. Sekka dove into the shadows. He didn't go far. He was waiting for the chaos to begin so that he would go unnoticed completely. I jumped down from the roof right next to the fancy tree.

The guards in the courtyard looked at me with surprise, and hatred. I extended my hand forward. Lightning, and fire danced on my finger tips as my mana surged down to my hand. The lightning fast flames that burst from my palm a split second later were too fast for the guards to stop. Even if they could easily tell where I was aiming none of them even had time to move before the most valuable thing on this noble's estate was on fire.

The flames bit deeply into the trunk of the tree. Creating a blaze that was an instant bonfire. I poured more mana into the flames. Superheating the tree sap until it caught fire as well. Now the wet wood was also acting as an accelerant.

All thirty feet of the tree was now completely ingulfed in flames. The guards didn't sit idle either. They managed to cross the distance between us in the single moment it took me to set the tree ablaze. Fifteen guards were suddenly upon me. Blades drawn.

I struck the blades with my bare hands. Using a circular motion to throw their attacks off of me. I jumped upward to avoid the counterstrike. Angling downward with my upper body so I could grab the head of the guard closest to me. My grip tightened on his head.

His helmet barely held against my brute strength. I was impressed, but not enough to stop me from killing him. Mana surged down my arm as his head was crushed. Blood, and brain matter poured from the destroyed cracks in his helmet. His body fell as I used it as a springboard to propel myself out of the encirclement.

I caught another blade with my gauntlets. Snapping it as if it were a twig. There were very few enchanted weapons in this poor noble household. Although the metals themselves were forged with mana rich materials that made them tougher then a mana less blade they still couldn't hold up to my brute strength. While I could break them with my bare hands, my enemies didn't need to know that just yet.

There was only one blade on this entire property that was even capable of cutting me, and it hadn't even started to properly wake yet. I'd never encountered a sentient blade before so I was actually curious how the blade would react to me. My soul blade vibrated slightly from within my body. It wanted to devour that sentient blade. I found that interesting.

I didn't know soul blades could devour other blades either. It only wanted to devour the sentient blade though. What effect would devouring a sentient blade have on my soul blade? I knew that soul blades could grow with their master given the right nutrition. Sentient blades were difficult to create.