Thief of Time

Claud knew full well that if it was anyone else who had been in his position, they would probably try to kill off some of the assassins after Isolde. They would probably take out the enemies with bows or something, in order to increase her chances of winning. Some of the more heroic ones might even jump into the fight, take on some of her assailants.

To Claud, however, these actions were just going to shorten his lifespan. No, he had a better idea. Producing a skillstick that held Presence Nullification, he jogged towards the town square, where Isolde was clashing with four assassins, who were all dressed in grey.

As he neared the battle, Isolde parried a glowing strike. Her leg lashed out a moment later, sending the unbalanced attacker flying, but before she could land a killing blow, arrows flew in once more, forcing her to back away. The sound of bows firing in unison rang out once more, harsh and unpleasant to the ears, and Isolde’s blade flashed wildly to form a silvery screen.

Up close, he could tell that her defence had been effective, but he could also tell that the arrows were glowing blue. In other words, they had been enhanced with mana.

So many mana-users…what’s the force that’s after Isolde? Claud clicked his teeth. He owed her a great debt, since she had imparted to him the ways of creating and running an organisation, so he couldn’t just stand by idly and let her get killed by a bunch of rapscallions.

Another volley of arrows came in, which Isolde deflected with masterful skill. Before she could draw breath, however, the four assassins pounced onto her from all directions. In that moment of crisis, Isolde’s sword seemed to come alive. Twirling on the spot, her blade drew peculiar, impossible arcs that deflected the assassins’ assault, drawing blood at the same time.

The four of them flew back and slammed into the ground hard. Bleeding off the force by rolling, the assassins exchanged glances with each other, and then vanished from view.

Claud paused. The assassins had clearly activated a skill of sorts. Maybe it was Presence Nullification, like his, or a skill that rendered them invisible. Either way, it was bad news for Isolde, who was clearly a regular fighter…and the best news that Claud could hope for.

Arrows began to shoot towards her in earnest, as the supporting archers fired over and over to make openings for their undetectable brethren. By all accounts, unless Isolde had something that could help her perceive those unseen foes, she would most likely die here.

That is, if Claud wasn’t around. Stopping at a few metres away from Isolde, he gripped the skillstick in his hand. Right now, the bounty hunter was on edge; she was going to attack anything she saw as a threat.

This was the reaction Claud was hoping for.

Throwing out the skillstick at Isolde, he watched in satisfaction as her sword crushed the little fragile thing into splinters. Immediately afterwards, her lithe form began to fade away, and Claud nodded with satisfaction.

She had activated the skillstick he’d tossed out with that slice, and in a way that left little evidence behind too.

For a moment, the battlefield fell silent. The archers had stopped firing, clearly confused by the sudden departure of their quarry from the battlefield. The sensation of activating a skill was rather distinct; even a fool would know that they had activated something.

“She’s gone!”

“Use your detection skill, fools!”

Shouts filled the square, and in the ruckus, someone had the bright idea to use a searching skill. A ring of nebulous power ebbed outwards from a random spot in the street, and Claud’s body lit up with an emerald green, along with three other green outlines. Arrows flew at them a moment later, and three men in grey rematerialized as they blocked the incoming attacks, scattering the arrows.

The last assassin appeared a few seconds later.

“Darn it. She’s gone,” said the burliest assassin. “What happened? Did you guys see it?”

“She was deflecting the arrows when she randomly vanished,” another assassin replied. “What manner of escape was that?”

“I suspect that she teleported away,” said the earlier speaker. “Or else she would have shown up when I used Life Search.”

“Ausch, use Mana Search too. She might be using mana tools to hide.”

“Fine.”

Power coursed out of him, making Claud and the others glow blue, but the burly assassin named Ausch shook his head. “No dice, Luthor. Looks like a teleport skill, but…”

“Is it even possible to learn teleport skills nowadays?” Luthor asked.

“Beats me, but that’s the only explanation we have for this. Nothing can hide from Life and Mana Search,” Ausch replied.

You’re right about that, Ausch. Claud let out a grin. I mean, it worked. You just couldn’t notice the two of us. We could be in bright pink and dancing on a ball, and you’d never notice us. All hail Presence Nullification!

“Moons take her. How did she learn a teleport skill?” Luthor looked around, irritated. “Can we mobilise someone with Dimensional Anchor? How much does the Emperor want her?”

Emperor? Emperor Grandis? Who are these guys?

“I’m not sure, but we’ll find out soon. For now, fall back and reconvene at the count’s palace.” Ausch flashed a few hand signals at the archers, who began to meld with the sky. Evidently, they had also activated their invisibility skill, which was important for missions and cool exits…although the four on the ground had to scramble away in a less dignified way.

Wiping a bead of sweat of his brow, Claud returned to the shop where Isolde had shoved him in. That encounter had been scary. That Isolde definitely had more secrets than she cared to let on, given the strength of her pursuers. If he had intervened with a conventional method, there would just have been one more dead body on the streets.

It was sobering to think about it, but against that many mana-users, each with their own skills, Claud really didn’t have the confidence of making it out that easily. Just who did Isolde provoke? And, if he didn’t hear things wrongly, why would Emperor Grandis want her dead or alive?

There were so many questions he wanted answers to, but…

Shaking his head, he waited near the shop, whiling away the skill’s duration. He could forcibly deactivate it by making contact with someone, but that had a high chance of making someone faint from fright. It would be better to wait it out naturally, unless there was an urgent need to communicate.

More importantly, no one would notice anything odd if Presence Nullification wore off on its own. People would just notice one extra person standing around, and that would be it.

Squatting on the ground under a tree, Claud began to draw small circles on the ground with a stray tree branch he’d picked up. Other than the gems in his bag, the master thief now had a new target in mind for a night visit — Count Nightfall’s palace. The masked men earlier had talked about meeting back up at a ‘count’s palace’, and there was only one place that could only be referred to as such.

If he played his cards right, the count might not even notice that a bunch of lifestones were missing, or at least he wouldn’t suspect a thief.

After all, there were some rather good suspects at his place, weren’t there?

Presence Nullification wore off ten minutes later, at which point he stood up and entered the shop that Isolde had pushed him into earlier. It was likely that Isolde would be waiting for him there, if only to give him an explanation…and to hear about why everyone seemed to ignore her all of a sudden.

He closed his eyes for a few more minutes, opening them when he felt someone appear in front of him. Claud didn’t quite have the words to explain how he felt when he saw the effects of Presence Nullification wear off, as usual, but it was an intriguing sensation nonetheless.

“Isolde.” A small smile graced his lips.

She grunted. The expression on her face was somewhat delightful to savour, as a mix of gratitude and guilt, and Claud found it a pity when her face returned to a mask of neutrality.

“Was that you earlier?”

“Yes,” Claud replied. “Two lifesaving skillsticks, gone like that.”

He made a point on the word ‘skillsticks’, since most people used their more ephemeral counterpart to store their own skills. Although both skillsticks and skillstrips were considered as trump cards of a sort — the former was regarded with far more value, since the skills stored on them had no time limit. It would not do him any favours if anyone found out that one of his skills was Presence Nullification, after all.

“How much did they cost?” Isolde asked.

“You don’t want to know,” Claud replied. “I am happy to see that you’re safe, but I think you need to disguise yourself better if your enemies have tracked you here.”

She mulled over his words for a moment, and then nodded.

“Well, those assassins have retreated for now,” said Claud. “I think it’s a good idea to get you some artefacts that could save your life if they attack again. Shall we?”

“Let’s go, then. I’ll need another artefact. Mind introducing something that can disguise me?”

Her words, for some reason, seemed a bit odd to Claud, but after thinking it through for a few moments, he couldn’t quite pinpoint the issue. Tossing it to the back of his mind, he began to lead the way.