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Chapter 45: Bait and Switch
🕑 Added 2025-11-03 14:44:44 +0000 UTCA drop of condensed fog still from down in the tubes dripped down from Rylan’s hair onto his nose. He ignored it, his gaze firmly focused on the solid bamboo railing he was squatting behind. Or rather, on the two blobs of blue approaching from the other side. Two. It seemed like Tamina had reached the Sapphire-Grade.
On the one hand, he was happy for her and moreover, relieved that her Mana Shell would be sturdier for it. On the other hand, it only made their odds of escaping here lower.
He took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, his gaze drifting back to the large ball of mana floating over his right palm. In order to have a shot at hurting Vidric, they needed textured mana, and Rylan was trained in making exactly one kind. His fingers jerked in rhythmic motions, the ball of mana wobbling as he used his mana control to excite it, the waveform slowly growing clearer, more angular.
He’d never tried creating it on this much mana before—a little over a full point—always careful not to waste any. Somehow, it was easier to sharpen the angles a little on the glut of mana, the waveform more stable, despite his nerves.
Rylan was crouched nearly all the way at the rear of the starboard railing, near the cabin and right next to one of the smaller, swivel-mounted harpooncasters. Nazyr was sitting by another in the centre, while Leahna and Artoran were next to a third all the way at the front.
Finally, Yuel, was up on the cabin, standing behind the steering wheel, still surreptitiously polishing some blood off the golden epaulettes on the black-and-yellow coat he’d liberated off the vessel’s captain, along with his tricorn hat.
The plan was simple: Yuel was going to give one last-ditch effort to get rid of Vidric through sheer bluff, but should it fail, they would jump out of hiding and shoot at Vidric from three different casters at once.
With his left hand, Rylan checked the tension in the drawstring one last time: it was still taut. Nazyr had helped him quickly crank it before he’d scuttled off to his own caster.
All Rylan had to do was add his mana to the harpoon, point, and shoot. He just hoped it would be enough to accomplish something.
Actually, first of all, he hoped he’d manage to hit the clodmonger.
Finally, the two blobs of blue started to slow down as the smaller vessel drew level with theirs on the starboard side some thirty feet away, just as expected.
One of the blue blobs was a little behind and to the right of the other. That had to be Vidric.
‘Arphin,’ Rylan sent. ‘Can you give Leahna and Yuel a sense for their positions as well?’
[Hmm, Leahna’s a bit far... but I’ll see what I can do, Boss!]
Tendrils of light started to stretch out from Arphin’s spirit, heading down the ship.
“Captain!” Vidric’s clear voice rang across the gap. “I hear you’re signing that you are ‘performing evasive manoeuvres’ because of a ‘short, angry woman.’ Care to explain?”
“Gladly, milord!” Yuel replied smoothly. “You see, I’m afraid my communications officer came down with a little case of stray-arrow-to-the-stomach, and my dim-witted deckhand claimed to know the flags almost just as well. As I’m sure you can imagine, his confidence is matched only by his incompetence. What he was supposed to sign, was that we were retreating due to concentrated fire at our position, and regrouping with the main fleet for new orders. Don’t worry; I’m having him flogged later.”
Rylan tried not to glare up at Yuel, even though the man was doing an excellent job at bluffing so far.
“I see,” Vidric replied lightly. “And, remind me, Captain... what is your name again?”
He knows.
Rylan glanced to the left and exchanged glances with the rest, then they all sprang into action. His father strummed his gittern, mana bursting forth towards their harpoon.
At the same time, Rylan shoved his hand towards his own harpoon, forcing in the mana. For a split second, it struggled, then a white glow with an angular texture erupted across the length of bamboo, spreading all the way to its steel, barbed tip.
Rylan jumped up, sharply yanked the caster to point it straight at Vidric, and pulled the trigger. The caster bucked, launching the harpoon with a twang, the spool of rope unfurling behind it.
Other twangs sounded around the same time—Nazyr’s leading the other two by a fraction—and three harpoons shot towards Vidric.
Tamina reacted instantly. Her shield was already up, and its runes lit, so it took only a fraction of a second for the cone of darkness to spread out to encompass Nazyr’s harpoon.
She took the bait!
Lacking mana, the central projectile quickly slowed to the point where it probably wouldn’t even reach the smaller vessel, but the remaining two harpoons came from too far aside to fit inside the cone.
Rylan saw the instant Tamina made her decision.
It wasn’t much of one, to be honest. Leahna had fired just a tad earlier, and her rapidly spinning harpoon was already too close for Tamina to intercept. A white glow erupted beneath her feet as she instead rapidly moved to intercept the projectile Rylan had fired.
His heart leapt into his throat as he watched her enter a collision course as if in slow-motion. She’d probably be fine, but he didn’t want to hit her in the first place!
Behind her, Leahna and Artoran’s rapidly spinning harpoon clashed with the glowing javelin in Vidric’s hand. He didn’t manage to parry it entirely, and the spinning harpoon still hit, causing his Mana Shell to flash brightly. Unfortunately, the large projectile only scraped across his upper arm, gouging the pristine yellow leather of his armour before it ultimately bounced off and disappeared into the fog.
However, Rylan’s eyes were focused elsewhere, shifting to the right almost on their own accord, to fall on the vessel’s last occupant.
Acting on a half-formed thought, Rylan reached out to the mana in the harpoon. Thanks to his training the past season, he’d instinctively held a tight grip on his textured mana, even as it flew away from him.
And now, as it threatened to hit a person rather dear to him, he reflexively pulled on his connection to it, and activated the textured mana.
As the harpoon came within mere feet of Tamina’s glowing shield, the mana around it flashed, and its course shifted by some thirty degrees.
It didn’t rotate to follow its tip, like Rylan had half-expected. Rather, the harpoon as a whole suddenly flew diagonally, swooping right past Tamina. Her perplexed face as it passed her by was great, but it could not compare to the scarred clodmonger’s bulging-eyed horror as the harpoon’s barbed tip plunged straight through his black leather armour, deep into his potbelly.
Tamina’s gaze locked onto Rylan’s. Her bright green eyes widened and her mouth fell slack. Her yellow surcoat was bright and clean in a way Rylan hadn’t seen in a long time, but her dark hair was in its customary braid.
The sight of her made his stomach flip.
Behind her, Vidric swore, clutching his bleeding arm and for once not smiling as he leapt for the ship’s steering wheel, roughly shoving his mortally wounded helmsman aside.
《Proficiency requirement met, Attribute requirements met,》 Ethereon spoke.《Congratulations. You—》
“I accept,” Rylan interrupted, still looking directly at Tamina.
For once, there was no reason for him to wait or hesitate. And he already knew what Skill Ethereon was offering him anyway.
The others were moving. Leahna fired off a curved, glowing arrow that glanced off of Vidric’s cheek despite his attempt to dodge.
“Tammi!” the blonde clodmonger yelled. “Focus!”
She shook her head and raised her shield. A cone of darkness slowed down the next arrow enough for her to get in front of it and block it with her glowing shield.
Vidric spun the wheel, and the smaller vessel turned and sped away. The spool of rope attached to Rylan’s harpoon unwound quickly, until it no longer could.
“No, w-wait—milord!” the scarred helmsman managed to rasp.
Then the line snapped taut, and the scarred helmsman was bodily lifted off the craft. He reached out pleadingly for Tamina, but she just side-stepped as he flew past, her face impassive as always, even as he smacked into the rear railing and was vaulted upwards.
Finally, in mid-air, the man’s glassy eyes settled on Artoran, recognition flashing over his face before gravity caught up to him and he disappeared into the fog, dangling from the rope like a fish from a line.
“Hey Dad,” Rylan called out, loud enough for the dangling torturer to hear. “I caught something for you. Want me to reel it in?”
Artoran beamed back at him. “That’s all right, son,” he replied just as loudly. “I don’t really feel the need to see that ugly mug again, ever. Besides, we don’t need any dead weight trash dragging us down; go ahead and cut the clodmonger loose.”
With grim satisfaction, Rylan pulled out his dagger, charged it with the bare minimum for Knife-Fighting, and sliced through the rope.
The moment its frayed end disappeared in the fog, a thick cloud of blue sprites descended onto his chest from the distance. Power flooded into the core of his being in a dizzying rush, causing him to stumble and need to catch himself on the railing. Looking down, Rylan watched as his spirit grew larger and brighter whilst shifting from green to blue.
《Skill conversion successful. 200 Quint Credits have been added to your balance. Awarded 6 Free Attribute Point.》
“Blessed Ethereon,” Rylan exclaimed, not quite believing what he felt thrumming beneath his sternum. “Please show me my Status!”
Status
Mana
Pool: 30/30
Shell: 7.8/12
Attributes
Strength 3
Dexterity 4
Endurance 2
Mind 5
Perception 3
Presence -1
Attribute Points: 6
Skills
Redirect, Rank 1
Jumping, Rank 4
Knife-Fighting, Rank 2
Knife-Throwing, Rank 4
Cooking, Rank 3
Stealth, Rank 1
Quint Structures
Mana Core, Tier I
Mana Pool, Tier I
Mana Shell, Tier VI
Quint Credits: 1048
Rylan blinked. He hadn’t been mistaken: in the process of all of his Quint Structures being upgraded, his Mana Pool had been completely refilled, even up to its new limit!
Even his Mana Shell had largely refilled just from the runoff of excess mana. The timing honestly couldn’t have been much better.
He also finally had enough credits for what he’d been wanting to purchase. Well, he saw no reason to save them any longer.
“Ethereon, please upgrade my Mana Core to the second tier, then show me the Quint Structures and Redirect Skill Windows!”
《Quint Structure installation requested. Deducting 1000 Quint Credits. Commencing Mana Core upgrade in three, two, one...》
Another flood of blue specks later, a window popped up in front of him.
Quint Structures
Installed
Mana Core, Tier II
(Produces Tier Mana per hour)×2
Mana Pool, Tier I
(10 + Tier Mana per Mind)×2
Mana Shell, Tier VI
(Capacity of Tier Mana)×2
Available
Mana Core Tier Up (2000 QC)
Mana Pool Tier Up (1000 QC)
Mana Shell Tier Up (100 QC)
Quint Credits: 48
Rylan had raised his mana generation from 1 per hour to now 4 per hour in one fell swoop. Gone were the days of rationing every single point of mana and neatly dividing them over his various Skills. He would have plenty to play with now.
Redirect
Rank 1
Effect
Alter direction of motion
Attribute Requirements
Dexterity ≥ 3
Perception ≥ 3
Mind ≥ 4
Well, that was... succinct. But it made sense. Sapphire-Grade Skills mainly just assisted in creating the associated waveform. The versatility came from how it was applied.
Rylan clenched his fists. This was real power. But he couldn’t get overconfident. He’d only just received his first Sapphire-Grade Skill, and he hadn’t trained with it at all. He also hadn’t distributed his 6 new Attribute Points yet, nor would he. Rylan didn’t have time to think about their spread and they would take hours to affect him anyway.
“It’s going to catch up,” Leahna shouted from atop the cabin, breaking Rylan’s reverie. “We need to go faster!”
He turned to look back, and found that the warship they had passed as they exited the harbour was now giving chase, its kite swooping in figure eights like their own. The problem was that it was clearly manned by a much larger crew than theirs, as broad oars were deployed out of both sides of each of the three floaters.
Rylan felt more than heard the steady beat of still-distant drums, dictating the rhythm in which the oars scooped through the fog.
They were catching up.
“Izzy!” he whispered under his breath. “We need to go faster; can you blow into the kite for us?”
The little spirit came twirling past in front of him, then flew up. The kite sail cracked and swooped as a breeze assaulted it, and the ship lurched forward.
“The wind’s picking up!” Yuel cried happily. “We’re a lot lighter; if we get out on the open cloudsea we might be able to outrun them!”
“It’s nah going ta matter if they hit us with that!” Nazyr replied.
Rylan glanced over at the chasing ship once more. A team of men in the Talon’s black and yellow retinue was at the prow, drawing and aiming the massive harpooncaster there.
Oh, fog!
Author's note:
Bam, Rylan made it to Sapphire-Grade. Now he just needs to escape so he can actually enjoy it. ;)
Thanks for reading! :)
Comments
H.C. Mills
That's awesome, thank you! ^^ And that was my plan for a bit, but I ended up settling on 6. I'll explain more above the next chapter. ;)
H.C. Mills
I thought it over some more, and I decided that I was overcorrecting. I'll make a note at the top of the next chapter. ;)
Crapgeezer
Loving the story! I bingeread everything in 2 days 😍 As another comment said, shouldn't he be getting 3 attribute points instead of 6? Keep up the good work! Groeten uit Rotterdam
yohan gu
6 attribute points ? I thought it was changed to only 3 to limit power creep?
