Chapter 35: Their final pairing

The mystery man had had Jaeger running all around Anadora doing little jobs to suit his own needs. His ability, crime and punishment, was a terribly annoying one, and Jaeger hoped that his current undertaking would count for his punishment. Apparently, only four people existed who it wouldn't work on, and Jaeger could guess who, as there happened to be four overseers of the abyss. However, how the man knew this, he wasn't sure.

He had now come to his final task: to hunt down a pair of manipulators to be found north of Ostermark. That was quite a strange thing really, the man was meant to be working alongside them, but his motives were rather unclear, not that it mattered now. At the very least, this would be a much more enjoyable task than gathering intelligence on some minor baron. What use was that to such a high-class manipulator? This was the other annoying thing; he was also meant to be a high-class manipulator, but he had been completely taken by surprise by that man's ability, and he was still unsure as to how it could function as one. There was no way that the man was simply setting his own rules about what crime was because that would make it way too strong.

Wondering about this now was a waste of time, Jaeger decided, as he honed in on his prey, and he knew that he would be free soon enough. That would allow him to get back on track looking for the sword, regardless of whether it would turn out to be a trap or not, and he rushed through the branches of numerous tress with that happy thought in mind, the greenery speeding by below him.

Up ahead was a narrow dirt road, and upon it, several carts and people on foot were working their way towards Ostermark. Slowing his pace, Jaeger joined them, keeping an eye out for the characteristic blue cloaks, and he soon saw them just beyond him. Then walking up to be alongside them, he wondered if he ought to try and talk to them first or just go straight in with an attack as he was in the sort of mood where he would take any fight seriously, even if his opponents were no match for him.

By now, people were taking notice of this odd triad of travellers that had formed itself. Jaeger's clothes had hardly improved over his journey, and his hair, still reaching to his waist, looked like it belonged to a man who had returned from a decade on a deserted island and who hadn't the decency to remove a single twig from it or comb it even once. His presence, therefore, next to two manipulators was drawing some attention, and people ahead of them had increased their pace, whilst the people behind them had all simultaneously decided to take a break from walking or riding onwards. Everyone knew the danger that came with a battle between manipulators or at least had heard stories of the danger.

Of course, the two manipulators had taken notice of him, and their conversation had fallen silent. They were both moving on Jaeger's right side, with the closest being a blonde woman and the furthest being a black-haired man who was watching Jaeger closely with a pair of rather twitchy eyes. The woman decided that she would be the one to break the silence, "So, are you walking with us for the company or something more?" she asked.

"Something more," he replied, determined to be entirely honest as doing so probably wouldn't change the outcome of what was to come.

"What sort of something?"

"Two valuable somethings…."

"Are you trying to suggest that you're after our lives?" the man interjected as the pair of them stopped and moved to put some distance between themselves and Jaeger whilst keeping facing him at all times.

"Naturally," he said, looking up at the sky mournfully as he normally would have just passed them by, "I can't exactly tell you why though," he added.

"I don't suppose that you realize that we represent all of Krinestadt."

"I do."

"Then under segment 34 of our guide of conduct, you understand that this means a potential declaration of war between yourself, and whomever or whatever you serve, and Krinestadt."

"Not really." Jaeger told them, "The man who asked me to do this is supposed to work for Krinestadt."

This earnt him a slight expression of faint surprise from the woman, which quickly died away when she went on, "I think we'll either have to kill you or bring you in; we serve our kingdom." evidently looking for approval from her partner who nodded.

Arrgh, everything's so annoying here in Anadora, thought Jaeger. Why can't anything be simple here; I'm just after some voices in my head! These useless manipulators that served Krinestadt were the absolute peak of the source of this annoyance. They all acted so confidently and as though they were actually powerful, but they were not. Jaeger would have rather liked to have seen how they would cope in the abyss, or rather when approaching the palace within the abyss home to the four Overseers. None that he had seen so far would have stood a chance in whatever hellish punishment their god was meant to give to disbelievers of escaping.

Well, this was getting boring, but he still managed to be taken slightly by surprise when the two of them attacked him first as he was supposed to be the aggressor in this situation. They could have at least shown some proper decency and etiquette! You're meant to let the entrapped adventurer be the one to make the first move when defending your treasure – that's the unspoken rule of guarding enchanted objects at least!

The man created a large hand from his aura, which raced towards Jaeger, who let it push him towards the trees lining the road, his feet leaving furrows in its dirt surface where he was digging in to keep his balance. That was a terrible ability, he thought. It was quite similar to the chains but with less range, less energy efficiency and less versatility. Then, when his direction of motion was completely under control, the girl disappeared and reappeared behind him in an instant. Teleportation - talk about another dull ability.

He did as he always did to block her, manipulating the space between him and her to stop any strike, but her hand cut right through the altered space. That was odd, but he still managed to get out of the way of it as he was faster than her, and she hadn't aimed it well – too far to his side.

This was such a pain. He was already in a bad mood, and then his opponents just happened to be the most uninteresting manipulators they possibly could turn out to be. How had they even become manipulators, he wondered, humans only became them when they were smart and had an affinity for it, but these two seemed pretty dumb if these abilities were all they could come up with. They even seemed a little worried that they hadn't taken him down the first time from the way they were standing back together.

That was another thing; the woman hadn't used her ability efficiently at all. First, she had messed up her strike and then she had teleported away to be by the man as though she was expecting a counter which was completely unnecessary given that Jaeger hadn't been moving to hit her back. Out of the two, he wanted to kill this woman first as, if it went on too long, she could escape with her ability. But, deciding that she would come to him of her own intuition soon enough anyway, he ran at the man.

Again the man created an arm from his aura that went after Jaeger's left side, but he blocked it and ran along its length, shielding himself with the space beside him. When he got close enough, the arm disappeared as his opponent frantically tried to recreate it between himself and Jaeger, who grabbed his closest hand, pulled him to within striking distance, and went to knee him between the legs. This was blocked by his ability. Jaeger, slightly irritated by this, simply took the man's hand and pulled it over himself so that he went flying, landing on his back in the dirt with Jaeger still gripping him. Deciding that it was already over, Jaeger went to stamp on his fallen opponent's head, cutting through any aura he put there to defend himself with.

At this point, the woman responded and teleported in to strike and forcefully stop the crushing of her ally's skull. Well, at least she wasn't running yet, Jaeger thought.

He then repeated the action again and, a moment before he thought she would teleport, he punched towards his right side with his full strength. This was where he assumed she would appear because she had appeared on his left previously, and he guessed she would want to vary it a bit. As it turned out, he was right.

When she reappeared, she was right in the path of his fist and without the time to react to it. He caught her in the centre of her chest, sending her flying into, and then straight through, a nearby sturdy oak trunk.

He was prevented from going after her by the man's aura produced arm. However, any resistance was short-lived as it was simple for Jaeger to bypass it, as he had before, and finally complete the crunching stamp, feeling bone cave in beneath his heel. Leaving the corpse and going after the woman, he found his final target on the ground and hardly breathing at all, her eyes flickering open and closed.

Weird, he thought, he had tried hitting her quite hard, but it hadn't been that perfect of a strike, and he put her situation down to her own weakness before finishing her off too.