Clash

Further in the slums there was a man who had a scar on his face which made him look very scary.

In a poorly lit room, he sat there and looked over towards the corner of the room with a look of annoyance in his eyes. "Everything is taking too long and there has been no reports back. Go finish it quickly."

There was a man with pointed ears and dark skin who had several pouches at his waist along with other light weapons which were hanging on his waist. "You want me to kill again? How many times is enough?"

There was a little irritation in his voice but also a hint of despair as he spoke to the other person.

The person who seemed to be in charge remained silent then answered. "You have no choice but to trust me. If you do not carry out what is asked of you then you should know what will happen to that little sister of yours right?"

The dark elf male grit his teeth and left the room full of helplessness, when the room had one person left in it, the boss spoke again. "He really is a useful tool. I am glad that I found his weakness before anyone else could."

He had obtained a young dark elf girl from a slave auction in the past and held her captive but one day the brother came looking for her.

The brother was not someone he could handle and his life would be in danger the moment his cards were exposed.

In order to continue living and making use of the brother, he had to keep the sister hidden and not reveal anything about her location.

He had been using the brother for a year to kill his enemies and anyone which tried to investigate into his illegal dealings but the brother was only usually sent out when a task was difficult or could possibly fail.

He had believed that killing two low trade mercenaries and a young girl was a simple task for those he hired but they failed because of the talismans which had recently appeared in the city.

The second arrangement happened as a result of Franco and Swaine appearing within his territory so he was still confident that the talismans could become useless after a certain period of time had passed.

With the bribes which had been taken by the nearby city guards, he did not fear them coming to investigate or stop anything which was happening.

The only reason why he sent the dark elf was because he had a bad feeling when there was no update on the progress of the task he had sent out.

The dark elf arrived at the area where the battle was ongoing then spotted Mallory fighting many on her own. "She must be one of my targets."

As Mallory was closing up any escape route and then started resorting to smashing any potion bottles which had been pulled out, the male dark elf stood in place and started to chant in his native language. "Surround my body and drive away the light, shroud of despair and numbing darkness. Dark Void of Despair."

His body seemed to be covered in darkness which helped him camouflage himself in the slums which were darker and poorly lit but the spell also seemed to weaken the light in his surroundings.

He then jumped down from the building which he was standing on then entered the battle.

Mallory saw that the spear had pierced into the ground after Oars threw it over so she quickly went to remove it.

She performed a couple of quick thrusts and cuts to the legs of the remaining people which she was dealing with.

Many had already been defeated or had voluntarily given up but a strange event took place as an attack came suddenly.

Mallory's senses were sharp enough and were able to pick up on the slightest sound even if the footsteps were very light and concealed.

She was barely able to avoid being assassinated when a curved elven blade cut towards her. "So close!"

Mallory was quick enough to retreat and gain a little distance then counterattacked with a swing of the spear which parried the other elven blade.

She noticed something strange after she had clashed against the opponent. 'This is not an ordinary opponent and there is something strange about that darkness around them. What is it?"

With a thrust of her spear, the dark elf avoided it which showed how agile and dexterous they were.

Their abilities could be compared to a level two and they had a strange magic or ability which had unknown effects so Mallory was filled with excitement.

Their battle heated up as Mallory used her previous experiences to parry and knock back the dark elf so they could not get too close to her while the dark elf defended himself well and almost slipped past her defence several times.

There were a couple of close calls but Mallory was able to react in time then avoid harm.

Throwing daggers were thrown out towards Mallory when the dark elf could not gain an advantage then switched back to his curved blades.

The light in Mallory's surroundings was fading and the space around her and the dark elf quickly became nothing but a void of darkness which the dark elf could hide within better.

There was no light and it was difficult to see within the space but Mallory did not panic as she held her fighting stance. 'This is indeed a tricky spell but.. it does not eliminate everything.'

Her emerald green eyes did not lose their excitement and confidence as her body revealed signed of being helpless and lost within the darkness.

The dark elf went in for the kill but then the spear turned around and pierced the leg of the dark elf which then went through into the ground which pinned him in place.

The dark elf did not give up fighting as he believed he had an advantage, his elven blades dropped as he started chanting quickly and quietly. "Become an arrow, blazing fire of destruction. Arrow of Doom."

A dark and destructive fire arrow was released from his hand which fired towards Mallory who was already very close to him.

Just as the magic was about to hit her, Mallory chanted in her native language. "Magic shield, magic shield, magic shield."

The first shield cracked and was broken through by the power of the dark fire arrow then broke past the second one.

The third put out the last of the energy before dispersing along with most of the power from the dark fire arrow.

The arrow hit Mallory but a protective layer of magic surrounded her body automatically which made her sigh. "I underestimated it."

She was still pushed back a little by the blast even if she had suffered no damage. "You are no ordinary person that is for sure."

Mallory drew in close as the elf attempted to remove the spear but the next moment, several pouches were dropped and strange powders mixed with the surrounding air.

The darkness started fading which showed how tired the dark elf had become, the dark elf stared at Mallory who was holding her arm to her mouth and nose to cover them. "I have to do this. Sorry. Gu.. aaah!"

He pulled harder on the spear and the wound started bleeding more when the spear was removed, a potion was applied to the wound then he picked up his blades once again.

Mallory seemed to be affected by the powders released and looked unwell or possibly poisoned so she was in a moment of weakness which the dark elf could take advantage of before reinforcements got close enough to offer aid.

Just as he was about to bring his blades down on her helpless body, he did not notice her strangeness as light entered her body and cleansed the poison. "Cleanse, cleanse."

She ducked under the beheading strike and got close enough to deliver an uppercut to the chin of the dark elf. "That was fun but this has really shown me how tricky combat can be against intelligent creatures and human races."

The dark elf lay on the ground completely exhausted and unconscious while Mallory was completely unharmed as she threw out a couple of talismans. "Cleanse! Cleanse, cleanse!"

The poison in the surroundings was met with the cleansing light released by the talismans so it was quickly removed from the area. 'Those spells were interesting but were useless against me who could see in the dark and use my sense of smell and hearing which is better than humans. If I did not have my talismans then there may have been a couple of times when the dark elf could have killed me.'

Although she was close to reaching level two and was better in stats than some level twos, Mallory still lacked proper experience and she still lacked an offensive, support or defensive spell or ability which could be used in a real battle.

Her opponent had been well trained, possessed two magic spells and a wide variety of tactics which could aid him.

Mallory rolled him over after she restrained him then ripped the back clothing.

As she gazed at the back, she looked impressed. "No status.. impressive! So he is like this without a gods blessing. There must be others out there just like him.. I can imagine the brute strength of the amazoness tribe and the others.. I wonder how strong the strongest warrior in my tribe is in comparison to my current strength."

If she had not been prepared then she would have died tragically without fully experiencing the world she was living in.

Mallory had made a couple of mistakes by not finishing the fight immediately and taking on the various attempts from her opponent but what let her win once she was unarmed was that she made use of the enemies final attack.

Oars had repeatedly told her to never give up in a fight, when an opponent feels that they have won then their moves would become more predictable as they go for the kill.

The path of the blades were easy to predict so it granted Mallory a moment to turn her disadvantage into her victory but it was mostly attributed her the opponent believing she was poisoned and was unable to continue fighting.

As she looked down on the body of the dark elf, Mallory observed the aura carefully then frowned. "Hmm strange. This is not really an aura of a killer.. although it has been tainted by several deaths, the full weight of it is not entirely affecting their purity. Is it because they believe themselves to be acting righteously or is there some other story behind this?"

She still did not have a complete understanding of the auras yet but the dark elf caught her interest because he was able to retain some of his goodness and not be completely corrupted by the deeds he had committed.

Mallory really wanted to know what caused it and what had made a dark elf appear in the Visa City slums.