73. Winter Overworld (III)

Zane saw her Level.

86?

She wasn't just a World Ranker. She was ranked higher than him.

He was surprised. What were the odds of that? There must've been less than thirty people like her in the world.

She saw him staring at her and frowned. She threw a derisive glance at him like she'd just seen old gum sticking on the bottom of her shoe. Then she turned away, ignoring him.

Zane scratched his head. Had he done something wrong?

She turned to look to the spring at her feet, like she was searching for something. She narrowed her eyes.

Then she held out her hand, and gorgeous white staff burst into being, drizzling snowflakes. She stepped out onto the steaming water. It froze, crackling under her feet.

She took another step, then another. Soon she stood at the center of the pool, watching its depths.

She raised her staff. The weapon began to seethe. Cold light poured off it. A little storm of Law swirled around the tip of it. He felt the tremors drifting off it — at least two or three Major Laws all coiling together. And the essence…

So much poured into the staff it was a little shocking. And it just kept going, shining brighter and brighter until it was one line of dazzling blue-white light, drowning out all the other brightnesses around it. Hard to look at, like harsh sunlight shining off pure snow.

Zane was transfixed. The only person he knew who could put that much power in one shot was…well… himself.

Then she slammed the staff down.

It was like she dropped a pebble in the middle of a pond. A shockwave rippled the length of the spring.

Where it passed, water froze to ice. Not just the surface. It went down too, spiraling into the water's depths…

The steam burned off. Now the hot spring looked like just another chunk of that great frozen lake. Icy Laws coiled gently off its surface.

Then the whole thing started to tremble.

A little earthquake jarred the land, sent cracks shivering down the face of the ice. Vanessa leaped back with ease, landing nimbly as a cat. She eyed the cracking ice, staff raised, lips set.

Then the cracks all burst at once. They showered the air — a massive smoking hole had been blasted right in the middle of it.

And a serpent's head the size of a barm reared out, splashing steaming water everywhere. It kept going, climbing for the sky, and more and more of it burst out; it climbed so long you got the feeling it might go on forever. It was the size of a small skyscraper by the time its tail wrenched out. It loomed over her, blotting out the sun, its two orange slitted eyes like little devil-suns put there to replace it.

𝕆𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕝𝕠𝕣𝕕 𝔹𝕒𝕤𝕚𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕜 (𝕄𝕠𝕟𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣)

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟠𝟝

The Basilisk opened its mouth, fangs dripping black tar, and shrieked. Not like a snake but like some awful bird.

Vanessa didn't seem cowed in the slightest. She looked unimpressed if anything. She raised her staff.

One moment the air was clear.

The next there was blizzard.

It came so fast, so suddenly, it was like she'd opened up a portal to some sleeting chunk of the Arctic and called its fiercest winds through. It was a sunny day for the rest of them. But the Basilisk was caught in a funnel of shrieking, twisting white currents. It hissed and bucked, but the winds wrenched that massive beast in. They wouldn't let go.

The sheer amount of essence in that blizzard… she had to be a Mage. But even among Mages, this was something else. Zane could tell that Boss was no slouch. Just the power it took to trap something that big...

Then the air started shivering with power, and he realized this was only the beginning.

Icicles glistened in air. Blue-white crystals honing to infinitesimally sharp points, glinting meanly at the ends. And they just kept getting bigger, longer, crackling as they did. They went from arrows to spears to whaling harpoons, then further—until they were half the size of the Basilisk itself. Towers of glorious essence, primed to blow.

It was awesome to see, honestly. She had so much essence she pretty much just bullied that huge Boss.

…it was how Zane liked to fight too, honestly.

She waved a hand. An icicle shot forth.

It lanced straight into the Basilisk. There was an explosion of ice, of Law, of power — a CRACK, the shattering of a scale. And it slid on through. Right through the meaty center of that huge beast. Bursting out the other side, sliding through until she had it on a skewer.

She waved another hand. And skewered it again. And again. And all the Basilisk could do was shriek. It thrashed, it spat gobs of black poison. But her blizzard winds took its attack and threw it right back. And all the while, Vanessa just kept throwing one icicle after another.

The Basilisk's thrashes grew weaker and weaker.

Soon Vanessa didn't need the blizzard anymore. She let it drop.

She'd skewered the beast so many times her attacks held it up—like some massive ice sculpture shining in the mid-afternoon sun.

He'd just witnessed a brute force beating. Zane wasn't sure he could have killed the thing that clean…

Just watching it got his heart going fast. He found himself grinning.

The oddest thought came to him.

He really wanted to fight her.

The Basilisk slowly dissolved, swirling to essence, swirling into her...

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕆𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕝𝕠𝕣𝕕 𝔹𝕒𝕤𝕚𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕜 𝕙𝕒𝕤 𝕓𝕖𝕖𝕟 𝕤𝕝𝕒𝕚𝕟!

He wasn't really sure what to do in this kind of situation. It felt a little awkward just going up to her cold and saying, "Hi, my name's Zane. Would you like to fight me?"

And by how she'd looked at him, he got the sense she didn't want to be disturbed.

Besides, right now she looked pretty drained. That'd clearly taken a lot of essence out of her.

Eh. There were plenty of other fights to be had on the second floor, he was sure…

Something moved at the edge of his mini-map. It was coming in fast, weaving through the trees on the far side. Vanessa noticed it too. Her head snapped up. She frowned, then tensed.

A white dot with an S on it.

It take Zane a second to realize. That dot Zane had seen earlier, hanging around the pools... that really had been another Signed!

Darkness pooled at the edges of the trees, making a veil. And a man stepped out of the shadows.

He was dressed in black so fine he seemed made of shadows himself. He was a lean, muscular man with piercing dark eyes and jet-black hair slicked back. His face was sharp and subtly smiling. He wore a well-tailored suit with a plum-purple cravat. And he was clapping with hands gloved white.

𝕁𝕒𝕧𝕚𝕖𝕣 𝕄𝕖𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕤

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟡𝟘

𝕊𝕚𝕘𝕟𝕒𝕥𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕋𝕚𝕥𝕝𝕖: 𝕊𝕒𝕘𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 ℂ𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕔𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕄𝕠𝕠𝕟

ℂ𝕝𝕒𝕤𝕤: 𝔻𝕖𝕒𝕥𝕙𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕝𝕜𝕖𝕣

𝔽𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟: 𝕋𝕠𝕞𝕓 𝕂𝕚𝕟𝕘𝕤

Level 90? Tomb Kings?

And he'd caught her low on essence.

He must've waited for her to burn herself out.

…Just what was going on?

He strode out of the shadows with a cool, casual confidence. He said something. Vanessa's face darkened; she spat words back, chin held high. He still seemed relaxed, darkly amused.

Then he raised his hands, and two huge silver knives, curved like crescent moons, dropped into his hands. Vanessa shouted angrily back.

He ignored her. And he slashed. One huge, gleaming crescent moon rippled through the air. Silently, almost gently—but deceptively quick. It crossed half the space between them before she could even react.

She threw up a hand. A wall of ice burst forth. It fractured. But it blocked the arc of the crescent moon.

Only the moment that crescent struck, it shattered too—into two smaller arcs just as bright, running at her just as fast. Her eyes widened. She threw up another shield. It broke—and the slashes split into four.

And hit her all at once.

She cried out. Blood dripped down her snow-white dress. Cursing she raised her staff, and the air started shimmering blue-white… at the same time, Javier strode toward her. His knives made lazy loops around his fingers. Two discs of shifting silver.

Power erupted between them.

Zane still had no clue what was going on. This Javier had just ambushed her—and Zane wasn't a betting man, but he got the strong impression he wanted her dead.

He should probably just leave them to it. But for some reason, he couldn't make himself go. Maybe it was the draw of the fight. The force of it, the passion, the power… Man. He loved this stuff.

Just watching fascinated him. That girl was nearly tapped out, he could tell. But she still threw the house at Javier. Just an avalanche of ice pouring down on him, trying to bury him. She threw up blizzard winds, trying to trap him — and the man just easily shifted out of the way. She lanced at him with giant icicles — and he made her miss. And he struck back so easily, so effortlessly, it looked like he was dancing.

That man was smooth.

He took a few shots here and there. But he shrugged them off and struck back twice as hard. He was kind of butchering her. With grace.

… Now that Zane looked at it, Vanessa's moves were getting desperate. And he was only gaining. Even just in the way he moved. So clean, flowing like slivers of moonlight off a sharp edge. Damn!

Vanessa's solution was to just try harder. It… wasn't working. She was flagging. He was carving her up; beautiful curves of moonlight started ripping through her attack. She was a mess of blood, staggering now, almost delirious.

A thought crossed Zane's mind.

…Should he intervene?

Zane didn't know these people. It really wasn't his business, he told himself, scratching his head. And the Tomb Kings… he'd been warned about them. Don't get involved.

Though… it was kind of a low thing that Javier did, ambushing her like that, wasn't it? Then again—for all Zane knew, she could be a terrible person, and Javier was exacting justice or something.

All Zane really knew was that she was beautiful and he was part of a gang. Which was a pretty darn shallow set of facts to go off of. Just superficial appearances, really. She could even be a cartel member for all he knew. Maybe this was a gang war.

… Zane looked at her. She didn't really scream 'cartel gangster.'…

He stood there, torn.

He was getting a little itchy, which was a bad sign.

Best not to involve himself in other people's messes, he told himself yet again, like a mantra. Especially when it could put his own Faction at risk. That wasn't what he was here for. Really, this was none of his business…

…

God, he wanted to, though. Watching someone get ambushed and butchered right in front of him made him uncomfortable, sure—even if he didn't know the circumstances. But it was more than that, he told himself—and it was true. Javier fought beautifully, passionately—Zane really wanted to fight the man. The thought had him panting. He just knew it would be a great fight.

He'd have to make a choice very soon. This was getting brutal…

He shuffled nervously. He tapped his wrist just to make sure his Signal Blocker was still there. He took a step...

Then Vanessa chose for him.

She threw out one last blast. And she ran. Fleeing across the lake's frozen surface, across the bay… toward Zane, as luck would have it. He didn't think she even knew where she was going; she was stumbling, totally out of it.

She collapsed facedown in the snow in a bleeding heap. Not twenty paces from him.

And there came Javier, striding across the ice. He stopped in the middle of the lake. He and Zane locked eyes.

"…You saw all that, huh," he said. Even his voice—measured, smooth.

Zane shrugged. He felt a little tingly.

Javier pursed his lips. Then sighed. "That's unfortunate."

He reached into his suit pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. Then, slowly, methodically, he started wiping the blood off his crescent knives. The same knives he'd used to butcher a World Ranker 3 Levels higher than Zane.

"That was a dangerous thing you saw," Javier continued. He smiled wanly. "If word reaches her mother, I'm afraid I won't live out the month."

"So you'll have to kill me, then," said Zane.

Javier shrugged.

Zane was flooded with relief.

Oh well. He supposed he'd have to save this girl. And fight this awesome World Ranker. It just couldn't be helped.