A Dragon Idol's Reincarnation Tale

Chapter 141: Raider: Saori.

[Sanctified Blaze][Shadow Armament (Full Body)] [Various Spell Buffs] inflicted on [Young Shadowstalker Cadejo, Saori Segawa]

Custom spell gained: [Smoky Haze]

“Well, it has been a while since we last came here. Right, Tasianna?”

“True, but this time we won’t be chased away at the reception.”

After separating from Hestia at her concert stage, Tasianna and I moved to the alchemy guild in order to capture Davison. We weren’t being accompanied by anybody, as this operation was supposed to be secretive due to the fear of leaks. Fae hunting was a serious issue for the Kingdom of Artorias, as it could threaten their relationship with the elves to deteriorate even further, so party Aurora would handle apprehending Davison.

It’s just a simple alchemist, so it shouldn't be too hard, even if he has guards protecting him.

We opened the door of the guild and entered its still-brightened interior. There, at the reception, we saw a man in a robe similar to the ones the alchemists from the different potion stores wore. He was pulling out wooden slates and pieces of parchment from the desk and putting them inside a bag in a hurry, looking anxious as he did so.

“Excuse me, where is the guild master?” Walking up to him, I drew his attention with a question.

“Wh-Where-Who are you?! Arrrrgh! Monster! Leave me alone!” he cried out, his eyes were shaking like a scared kid despite looking like someone in his late 20s. I guess wearing my pitch-black [Shadow Armament] does make me look pretty scary. Still, that was pretty rude.

As he didn’t answer my question, Tasianna stepped forward and pierced the desk with an ice spike. “Are you deaf, human?! Where is that fiend, Davison? And where is the way to the basement? Answer them, now!” Her eyes were calm, but showed an icy amount of hostility towards the man. They weren’t out of hatred, but out of impatience.

“Eiiieeek!” he squealed. “U-Up! Up! He’s still working in his office! P-Please, don’t hurt me!”

“And where is the basement?! I told you to answer both questions!”

“Eiiiiaaaaaaaaaa! There are stairs next to to the storage room with all the potions! It’s next to the workstation room. P-Please, please, leave me alone!” he yelled, shrinking into a fetus as he laid on the ground to hide from Tasianna’s sight.

Without another word, Tasianna and I moved away from him since we had what we needed. If it was possible, collateral damage should be avoided. Although, I wonder. The promotion should have been transmitted to the whole block, so shouldn’t he be aware of it? A bit sad that he has to work this late when a festival was going on, but I presume the alchemy guild is a bit like a black company. It’s what we Japanese call an exploitative, sweat-shop corporation.

Now that I think about it, although we were selling potions without the alchemy guild, nobody disturbed us when we did so. We didn’t receive any complaints nor representatives trying to recruit us. Could they have not noticed us? No, that was too naive to think. Guilds want more guild members for the revenue cut they would get from each member, as I had to pay money to both the chefs guild and merchants guild, although I wasn’t an official member yet for the latter.

“Guild Master, they’re here! They’re here!” Just when I was beginning to become suspicious of the situation, the alchemist shouted. When we turned around, he was yelling into a manatech similar to the one in Ellaine’s training room, the one that worked like an intercom.

I guess they knew we were coming. Lord Chezaic might have warned them…

Once the alchemist saw our glares, he dropped the manatech and was about to grab a bottle of green liquid from his pouch. That was when [Foresight] warned me of an attack.

However, I didn’t move.

“Grrrrrraaaaawrr!”

“Wh-ARRRRGRHHHHH, MY ARRRRRRM, ARGHHHH!”

From my shadow, a raven-black furred wolf leaped out and pounced at the alchemist’s arm, tearing and ripping it from skin and flesh to the point I could see bone. My shadow pack was provoked.

[“Uno, do not kill him. Instead, break his limbs so he cannot escape.”]

[“Yes, Alpha!”]

The three garms have successfully turned themselves into [Shadow Garms] using my unique skill [Shadow Pack].

Shadow Garm

A darkness garm whose soul was mutated with the mana of the Goddess of Death and then given a new body through the unique skill [Shadow Pack]. This garm has become one with its master’s shadow, being able to live inside it without any consequences. Although it doesn’t possess a mana body, this garm can control shadows as proficiently as its master, but suffers a debilitating weakness against holy element attacks. On the other hand, it can absorb dark elemental attacks and heal both Health and Mana with it. Rank C [Smoky Haze]

It took a while for the three faefolk spirits to assimilate into their new bodies, but it finished a week ago. I’m not sure why the System description called them darkness garm souls, but the spirits did mention they believe they are the garms now, and that nothing else actually mattered for them.

The fourth garm, the one still residing in Tasianna’s catalyst, couldn’t join its brethren, as I didn’t have enough SP to level up [Shadow Pack] to add additional spots for it. A shame, but I couldn’t do much about it since I haven’t been hunting recently due to the restaurant and this whole mess.

Regardless, my wolves were ready to hunt.

“AARRRRRRGH!” the alchemist screamed with blood gushing out of his broken limbs, but we ignored it.

“Miss Saori, we’ll go into the basement. You should go up to catch that demon,” Tasianna suggested after we found the way down.

I was confused why she would do that since it wasn’t just her that wanted to get revenge on Davison. However, that other person spoke to explain their thoughts to me, “I waaaantttt reeeeveeengeee! Buuuuut I can hear their voices! I can sense fae in anguish. ‘Humans are underneath,’ they cry. The fairy and I will kill them! You capture Davison. Bring him before me. Then, I will make him hear his screams as he suffocates in terror for all that he did!”

Kiiro’s onnikai side showed a bit throughout its bloodthirsty speech. They weren’t willing to give up on Davison, but they wanted to save the remaining faefolk inside the basement while also taking out anybody who was involved with them.

“Ok...I understand. However, Tasianna, keep a cool head, alright? Do not let yourself be consumed by Kiiro’s words. The conviction you showed Zephira and me: do not go back on it Do you understand? When we reunite, I want the Tasianna that swore loyalty to Hestia and me to come back, the one who has learned to tolerate humans,” I said, anxious that Kiiro might be infecting her mind with his revenge spiel.

“Yes, I know. Once again, my loyalty belongs to party Aurora alone. And Kiiro isn’t part of it…,” Tasianna said, glancing at the disgruntled spirit. “However, if I will have to kill anybody...please, forgive me.”

“Do not worry about it. I only care that you will make it back alive, so if they force your hand, do what Hestia and I would.” And with those words, we separated. She went downstairs to the basement, while I went up to the 2nd floor.

As I stepped foot on the last floor, [Foresight] and [Danger Sense] triggered, warning me to stop moving. When I did as I was told, an arrow zoomed past my face, penetrating the wall to my side.

“Shit, the intruder has high detection skills, Chief. Should be tougher than the run-of-a-mill soldier or guardsman.”

“Haha, really? Works best for me. Earning the dough without some action is boring.”

“Fuck, if it’s a noble knight or mage, then wouldn’t we be fucked? Chief, you sure the fat sack paid us enough?”

“Shut it, you two.”

Turning around, before me stood five men, all fully equipped with armor and weapons. They all had rough expressions with scars covering their faces as they leered at me with clear murderous intent.

There was a bowman in the back aiming an arrow at me and at his side was a dual dagger wielder. In front of them was a sword-wielding panther-looking beastman, a massive bear beastman martial artist, and a muscle-freak human in heavy armor wielding a massive shield and morningstar.

“Hey, wolfkin lass,” the armored human spoke, who most likely was the leader of this band since people referred to him as “Chief.” “You don’t look like a soldier or knight with that weird black armor. You a merc? Came here alone, cause my archer can’t sense anybody else, eh? Well, then do me a favor and fuck off if you know what’s good for you. You step any further and we’ll have to put you into the ground.”

Are they also mercenaries? He didn’t say “too” and my intuition is saying otherwise. Whoever they are, they are blocking my way to Davison.

“...Who are you?” I asked cautiously, needing to assess them a bit.

“Huh? Askin’ a question when we tol’ya to scram? Stupid bitch. Chief, we slice her up, paint the halls with her blood and make a nice rug out of her skin. Ehek ehek ehek ehek.” That laugh from the dagger wielder is chilling, honestly.

“We might have to when she’s trying to stall. Shoot!”

Immediately agitated, the battle began with the bowman shooting another arrow at me. I clicked my tongue as they didn’t give me enough time to use [Idenitfy], but went into action without a seconds delay. Whoever they were, they were out for blood.

I stepped to the side and my vision began being slightly blurred by a blood mist coming from my eyes, the natural response for a shadowstalker cadejo whenever a fight begins. The first action I took was to conjure up two [Dark Bolt]s and to shoot them at the two manatech light bulbs on the walls.

With the sound of broken glass, they broke and the light vanished in the first part of the hallway. There were still two bulbs at the other end which I needed to break to turn everything into darkness. I was outnumbered currently, so any advantage I can make for myself would be good.

“Shit, she’s a fucking dark mage. I can’t aim when it’s pitch black!” the archer announced to his comrades before shooting another arrow. He wasn’t wasting any second even if he was complaining.

“Hmph! You humans and your weak eyes,” the panther beastman mocked, before aiming his sword at me and charged. “Swift Pierce!”

Pulling my black tanto from my belt, I parried his sword and shot my left hand at his body. The corrosive obsidian claws were ready to maim this guy, but it wasn’t to be. With the movements of an acrobat, the panther beastman twisted his body and swung his sword like a roundhouse kick.

Naturally, I wasn’t a slowpoke and managed to block the attack with my tanto, but either it was because of the beastman’s Strength stat or just physics, I was pushed back a bit from the recoil. To prevent myself from tripping, I used my [Shadow Armament’s] suit to ground my feet into the floor and to elongate my tanto to give me more leeway to push the sword away from me.

The beastman didn’t expect me to do that, so his decision making slowed down for a moment, giving me a large opening to drive my tanto and claws into him. However, while my attack would have worked if he was alone...

“Charge!”

“Shield Slam!”

“Charged Shot!”

Tch!

As my feet were stuck on the floor, I had no other way but to dive into my shadow to avoid those three attacks. Using [Shadow Dash], I reappeared out of the shadow of the bowman, aiming to take him down first to get rid of the annoying ranged attacks, but, once again, my attack was hindered by something.

“Come ‘ere and bleed, ya bitch!” It was the foul-mouthed dagger wielder. “Ya think some dark mage is better than a pure dagger wielder?! Ya bet! I’mma hang your corpse over my-”

“Shut up. Wolf hunt.”

[“““Yes, Alpha!”””]

“Ahwroo! Garrrrrrrrrak!”

From my shadow, three abyss-black garms emerged with their teeth bared at the dagger wielder. He cursed as he saw that and tried to retreat, but I held his legs in place using my [Dark Tendrils]. With nowhere to go, the man was helpless as two of my wolves mauled his arms. He managed to stab his daggers into them, but their fur was similar to my [Shadow Armament]. They were sturdier than they looked.

“Shit! A tamer!” the armored person shouted, but I ignored him. I left my third wolf and my [Shadow Clone] to deal with him, while I threw corrosive sludge at the bowman’s eyes.

“Argh! Fuck, my arm,” he cried out as some of the purple sludge landed on his arm.

The obsidian claw protectors had a small socket where I could add toxin into them for easy toxin injection. Activated with a mana injection, I can control whenever to use this toxin, so I wouldn’t accidentally inject somebody into my everyday life. The toxin I used was one of Hestia’s, and you know that will bring in trouble.

“Arrrgh, w-what the fuck is this?! I-It’s melting!” The name Corrosive Obsidian wasn’t just for show as the sludge slowly melted through the bowman’s arm bracers and seeped into his body through his skin. The little bit of skin that was shown through the melted hole revealed it was turning purple. It was his right arm, so he can’t pull back his bowstring anymore.

I gave him a swift kick, knocking him against the wall, and ended his life with a stab into his head

Experience has reached multiple breaking points. [Young Shadowstalker Cadejo, Saori Segawa] has risen from [Level 23] to [Level 24]

Attributes have increased due to level up

Acquired 600 skill points

Experience has reached multiple breaking points. [Young Shadowstalker Cadejo, Saori Segawa]’s Job [Dagger Fighter] has risen from [Level 0] to [Level 5]

Max level of Job [Dagger Fighter] has been reached

Attributes have increased due to level up

Multiple proficiency requirements fulfilled. [Lupine Claws Lv. 3][Dagger Mastery Lv. 4] [Wisdom Growth Enhancement Lv. 5] gained

“Fuck, Tulson is down! Get off him, you mutt!” the bear beastman shouted, before slinging one of my wolves away like a rag doll, displaying how much Strength he must have. He then tried to pry the dagger wielder out of my tendrils, but it was all in vain. They were too tough.

Instead, I commanded the tendrils to grow and grab his beary arms. I then dashed into the fight with my wolves.

“Song, duck!” I ordered the second garm, making her dodge the panther’s sword slice and allowing me to use her as a platform to launch myself at the panther.

Not letting himself get surprised again, he reacted well and reciprocated my attacks in kind. A graceful dance of blades was exchanged as we tried to incapacitate each other or land a killing blow. Even to me, I found his deftness and skill quite impressive as he managed to react to each of my high-speed attacks. If he wasn’t flustered, he was the real deal.

“Morning Smash!” the chief wanted to intervene in our duel, probably recognizing it was better to take me down first,but...

“Song. Sarasa. Guard.”

[““Protect the Alpha!””]

Uno, Song, Sarasa. Those were the names I gave the wolves according to the different ways numbers were called in different languages. I wanted to give them proper names, but they didn’t have any personalities when I interacted with them, so it was hard to think of an elaborate one — the only thing they told me was the gender of their garm corpses. Numbers were the most appropriate that I could think of and I spiced it up by using different languages. Just to note, the fourth garm will be called “Quatre.”

The armored human’s attack was stopped as one of my garms used dark magic to pin his leg down with [Dark Bolt]. My garms’ skills were reset when they turned into shadow garms, meaning I had to teach them how to use dark magic again. I actually intentionally stopped Hestia from granting them the [Hestia’s Retainer] title since I still couldn’t trust them, so their growth was still slow. Their [Dark Magic] was still level one.

Everybody was preoccupied with their battles, unnerving me a bit as I wasn’t able to take care of this panther guy in front of me. Despite using magic and my tanto, I wasn’t able to best him. He was good, he was good...meaning I have to take out all my tools.

Activating [Storage Magic], I pulled out my two remaining daggers and threw them at the panther. He dodged, just as I anticipated he would, so I used [Dark Tendrils] to catch them mid-flight to then strike him at his back.

“Hey, Lain, watch it!” the bear beastman warned him, giving the panther enough time to respond. He should have [Danger Sense] or [Prediction], so it shouldn’t have been necessary, I think.

As he bent his body, I took out some red mana threads and bound them on a [Shadow Snake] before slicing my tanto at him. He responded and we continued our little dance before I saw a good opening to shoot out that snake from my [Shadow Armament]. It landed on his body and slithered around, wrapping the threads on him. I then poured mana into the red mana strings and fire burst out from them, scorching the panther’s gambeson.

“Argh! Fuck, she can create fire, too?!”

“Damnit, this isn’t worth the fuckin’ pay! Chief, call Boss Kaian already!”

“Fuck this shit! You damn bitch will pay for angering Yanderu Elusuess!” the armored human shouted, flinging Sarasa away with his shield, before taking out what looked like a catalyst. “Boss Kaian, they hired some B ranker! Tulson, dead. Black Blades, screaming. We need reinforcements!”

The moment he said that, the door where I thought Davison would be opened up, revealing a tall black panther beastman with a long spear. Behind him were a female mage loopridae, a rabbit beastman, and a crossbow-wielding arvisian, a bird beastman.

W-What?! How?! I know I checked for others and I couldn’t sense anybody behind that door.

And then I remembered the runes in Farron’s office. If there are sound-proof runes, then shouldn’t there be other kinds of sensing-prevention runes? At that moment, I also managed to find another person inside that room. He was in a back room, so it has to be the person of interest. Davison was there!

“Oooh, look at the party! And here I thought you said you could handle it by yourself? Who knew letting the whole group fight together was the smarter idea, instead of letting it become an ego trip? It’s not like the client hired the eight of us, right? Poor Tulson, ha ha ha!” the panther with the spear laughed out loud.

“Doesn’t matter, higher pay cut for the rest, Kaian,” the loopridae mage callously said before preparing a spell to shoot at me.

“Fucking hell! Tulson was my favorite from these bunch of vults. Bitch, you gonna pay for killing my drinking buddy!” the glint in the arvisian’s eye was chilling, as the bolt in his crossbow aimed at me.

Kuso! (Shit!)

There were six, and if they somehow were able to rescue the dagger wielder, then there will be seven. I was already outnumbered, but now even more people are coming. This was bad!

But the worst part was the spear wielder. My senses were telling me that he was the most dangerous. “Welp, time to earn our pay. Yo, wolfkin, show me a good time, eh? Spear on dagger, let’s go!”

A fire spell and a crossbow bolt were shot at me while the panther, Kaian was what they called him, dashed at me like a bullet.

Fuck! Shadow Dash!

The moment I melted into my shadow and Kaian’s spear nearly touched my nose, a dagger came out of my shadow.

A loud “Clang!” could be heard as the panther’s spear bounced back from the dagger. I didn’t see anything else of the fight, as I was fully enveloped in my shadow, except there, I saw somebody I thought I wouldn’t ever see again.

We emerged from the shadow next to the panther I wrapped around in my mana thread. Behind me, the wall was set on fire by the mage’s fire magic. I used this moment to end the panther duelist’s life, taking another person out of the equation.

Experience has reached multiple breaking points. [Young Shadowstalker Cadejo, Saori Segawa] has risen from [Level 24] to [Level 25]

Attributes have increased due to level up

Acquired 600 skill points

“Wow, that was a nice and clean strike. Huh, I told you that you didn’t need my help, pretty lady.” His smooth-talking was really irritating.

“Gael?”

To my surprise, the drunkard I knew in the slums was standing next to me with a long, well-crafted red dagger ready in his hand. Why was he here? The last time I saw him was after our little duel.

“Haha, yeah, Farron brought me to my feet with a favor. Also...trying to return another favor, and it also helps that I can meet up with some old friends,” he answered.

Once he was finished, the dagger-wielding man suddenly jumped up — his arms were in tatters, unable to pick up a dagger — and began shouting, “G-Gael?! Gael?! Gael! You fuckin’ twat! You fuckin’ traitor!”

“Ooooh, nice to see you again, Black Blades. Still using that stupid name?” Gael responded sarcastically.

“You fuckin’ bastard! Fuckin’ die!” the man charged at Gael with bloodshot eyes, completely ignoring everything around him, even the fact he didn’t have a weapon. Gael showed him a smug grin before using his dagger to quickly stab the Black Blades thrice, once in his stomach, then his solar plexus, and then into the middle of his forehead. Like a stringless doll, Black Blades fell down, lifeless.

“Critical Triple.”

“...And I knew you were hiding stuff from me. Also, your naming sense is terrible.” It was a slight jab, but it seemed Gael took it hard.

“Oooh, Gael? Ha, long time no see, man. Damn, can’t believe I get’ta see you at this time, on the other side even,” as I was bantering with Gael, the spear-wielding panther spoke. “When I joined Yanderu, I thought I get’ta work with you. Didn’t know you left the organization. Well, color me surprised.”

“Oh, Kaian? Wow, my information network didn’t tell me you were working with my old buddies now.”

“Ahh, yeah, you know, this is my first job. Had to hide for a while, you see. Those damn birds are annoying, as you should know.”

“Ahh, yeah, I guess you had to hide. Old band got wiped, right?” Gael then turned to me. “I wasn’t supposed to say this, but your new friends hired me, Saori. That man there, he was once part of the bandit group your party destroyed. The one with the rhinoncerum.”

“Oi, oi, oi, oi, you kidding me? That wolfkin brought down that fucking mountain Narube? What about Macklemor and Jaspar? Ohhh, now I’m less interested in you, Gael. The wolfkin got my attention now. In my opinion, that musclehead should've snapped the girl like a twig, but I guess you can never know what a rogue has under her sleeves, huh?” His eyes were like that of a battle junkie…

Gael smiled, then turned back to me, “When he was still part of the band, he had the honor of fighting against some holy knights of Aureolis. The Knights of Aurena, you see. During that raid, the knights were joined by some special guests — otherworlders.”

“Wha-What?”

This was the first news in nearly a month. The last time Ellaine mentioned the otherworlders, she said that her family at the capital couldn’t find any information on them since the church was hiding it. I wasn’t expecting anything after such a long radio silence.

“Yo, Kaian, you fought against some noble kids during the Knights of Aurena raid, right? Can’t believe my luck that you’re here, so mind telling us?” Gael asked.

However, the loopridae next to Kaian stepped forward to interrupt, “Kaian, stop speaking, can we just get to-”

“SHUT UP!”

“Wh-What?!”

“Kaian, what did they look like. Those noble kids. What did they look like?!” I was the one who shouted. Finally, some information on the otherworlders. Aurena’s words have been lingering inside me for so long that I was beginning to dream who they could be. Why did Hestia say that Aurena mentioned specifically that I would be glad to hear about it? Why?

“...Ohoho, that is some gusto. You know, that sorta stuff awakens the beast inside us, right? You’ll probably rip something out of me if I don’t answer, I can see it in your eyes,” he readied his spear. “Those kids looked pretty nice and well-fed, like you would expect from nobles. Weird thing is that nine of the ten had black or dark brown hair. Kinda rare to see such monotone hair colors, right? Could be siblings. The only one who didn’t was a white-robed with blue and black hair.”

He smiled for a second before continuing, “I forgot those kids’ names, you know, after I sent an army of desperate farmers-turned-bandits at them. Last time I checked, most of them were on their last legs. However, I do remember one of them. The one who I wanted my spear to pierce the most. A little spear-wielding berserker created a pile of corpses after his friend got shanked. Ehak hak hak hak...you wanna hear it?” His spear pointed at me.

Mana mist covered my body and my vision blurred even more with red mist.

[Humanization (Minor)] inflicted on [Young Shadowstalker Cadejo, Saori Segawa]

I took my stance. “Keep your word after I take your limbs.”

My shadow erupted in rage.

A note from AbyssRaven

Saori is here to teach you how to act like a badass.

If you guys want to support me, Hestia and "A Dragon Idol's Reincarnation Tale" (or just read up to 15 advance chapters + any Patreon-only chapters) please check out my Patreon: Rawr!

If you guys enjoyed this chapter then, please follow the story. If you guys want the story to grow, then giving it a rating or a favorite will do wonders: Rawr

Thank you for reading this chapter.

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About the author

1 Fictions 7 Posts 1 Threads

Thursday, March 18, 2021 5:38:08 AM
Germany
[Member of Zard Skwad]

Bio: Hey there, AbyssRaven here. I'm just an avid Light Novel and Fantasy story reader who randomly thought of a story and began writing about it.

I eventually found out that I've been spending a bit too much time with building, planning, and researching for the story, that I've decided to just share it with others.

Writing is mostly a hobby for me, but I would still love any kind of criticism to improve on it.

I'm also german, so please excuse anything that sounds a bit weird...I wouldn't mind you pointing it out though.

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