Death’s Daughter Chapter 4
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Author: “FoodLovingPanda”
CHAPTER 4 – DARK MAGIC AT WORK
The incident with bandits passed without us suffering a single injury. Although afterwards I ended up puking seeing all the blood and dead bodies I felt rather cold towards the act of killing. I found myself not blaming the trio for their acts nor did I judge them for their actions.
The thing I noticed about them is that their cooperation was truly flawless. They knew
exactly how each and every one would act and complemented their attacks so they left no opening at all. They must have been in the same party for some time now.
Before we set off again, we took any valuables they had on themselves and burned their bodies leaving no trace behind. The money they had on themselves was split four ways even though I didn’t do anything. I wanted to decline it, but I really, really needed the money so I accepted it.
“Um… Nord-san, Colt-san why did you kill all of them and not capture them instead?
Wouldn’t it be better to interrogate them and try to learn more about where their hideout is or give them to the authorities?”
“Lassie, since you don’t remember lemme tell you about Black Hand. It is the most notorious organization that rules this world’s underground. They are responsible for the deaths of thousands of people. Their leader is called the Undead Necromancer and because of him dark/spirit magic combination is forbidden. There is a kill on sight order from the king about all members of Black Hand.”
I remained silent. There was nothing I could say. This thing was considered completely normal in this world. The rules and morals that were on Earth might not apply to this place at all. I thought since they were also humans they would be against killing no matter what but it seems I was wrong.
“Naoko-chan don’t look down. I don’t know what your life was before that you can recall, but this is a harsh world. You just need to adapt to it and look at everything about it, not just bad things. But let me ask you one small thing first. When those two jumped out of the forest and began rushing towards us, you looked rather excited and eager. Just what were you planning on doing?”
“I actually wanted to try and hit him with some magic, but you took him out before I could even utter a single word. You are much stronger than you look.”
“What the heck were you thinking of doing? Dark, Curse magic can only slightly lower the attack of defense of a person and it takes a large amount of mana especially on lower levels as yours is to keep that state, not to mention it is very slight.”
Huh? I thought I would be able to apply almost any debuff on him. Is it not the case? Also didn’t he say dark magicians are always wanted in parties? Isn’t that because you would need several just to be able to have any visible effect? How useless.
“But wouldn’t applying curses show different effect depending on the caster’s will and imagination? Let’s say a person casted slowness imagined it slowing down to 3⁄4 of the original speed. Wouldn’t it have different effect than the one casted by a person imagining it slowing down to 1⁄2 speed?”
“Interesting, but without knowing the original value how can you imagine what half the speed is? Also in order to have magic take effect you would need to directly know how it would manifest.”
“Aw, I want to try it out soon.”
I didn’t like the idea of being so limited. Wouldn’t imagining opponent moving in slow motion be good enough to slow him down? Why would I need to know the original value?
“Then how about trying it on me lass. I’m much stronger than you so I would be able to handle anything you throw at me.”
“Is that really okay? I wouldn’t want to hurt you at all.”
“Hahaha… come at me lassie. This old man won’t fall down no matter what. Once we make a stop at the end of the day, we shall cross our blades.”
I nodded enthusiastically. LV5 vs. LV who-knows-what. I just need to slow him down and weaken him. Also since I wanted to test my magic I should try some other stuff as well that Colt-san didn’t mention. I want to know what debuffs I can utilize and launch.
When we finally made a stop for the evening Nord-san and I stood opposite each other. He had an axe and I was bare-handed. Colt-san and Blink-san stood nearby observing.
“Ready lass, I’m going to begin.”
With those words, massive killing intent swept me. My heart began racing. This
sensation, this thrill, this is what I need, just like before in the game I enjoyed this feeling.
Licking my lips meeting his killing intent with my own I raised my hand towards him and began gathering the mana. Colt-san said the chant isn’t as important as the image behind it.
“Come forth darkness; [Bind],[Blind],
[Increase Weight], [Slow] and [Weaken]”
I didn’t know how much of an effect they might have on someone who was much stronger than me in both levels and strength. But right now I needed to know what exactly will happen to Nord-san, and can I use this type of magic along with sword fight. Taking a defensive stance I waited for him to come and attack me head on.
The results I wanted didn’t happen. I could see that something did occur that made him stop in his movements. I noticed that he was moving slower than in the battle before, but I didn’t know if it was on purpose or as an aspect of my magic. Finally after about a minute I suddenly felt dizzy and fell down on my knees.
“Stop! Naoko-chan release your magic, you are out of mana.”
Colt-san jumped in front of me and raised me up. Listening to his advice I stopped the
magic and almost immediately felt better. This should be a reference for any future events that I must not let my mana run low no matter what.
“Lass, you cast some weird magic on me. One second I was fine, the other it seemed like I was in a fever. How’d you come with that?”
“Yeah, Naoko-chan, your magic sounded rather weird. I never heard about anyone casting such undetermined magic. Usually, from Dark Magicians I worked with, whenever they cast a spell they would chant it continuously so that the imagery behind it remains constant.”
“Nord-san thank you for bearing with me. Colt-san these all would be called debuffs of a sort. I think of them as spells that would weaken the enemy, the one you call curse magic, but instead of thinking of them as a curse that works slowly I imagine them to start working immediately and remain in that same state for a while. No need to chant continuously that way.”
“How odd, your way of thinking is so much different from the rest of us. It almost reminds me of the way a certain young man I met long ago though. He also had a weird knack for new way of magic.
Thanking both Colt-san and Nord-san for helping me out and test out how magic works I went back into the carriage and prepare the food for their dinner. Since they allowed me to travel with them I offered to prepare all the meals for them during the time we travelled which they accepted gladly and even praised my cooking skills.
***Colt’s POV***
That fight earlier was outright weird from the beginning to the end. I know Nord better than anyone, and for sure he is not the type of guy that will not attack from the get-go, so whatever magic hit him was on a rather high level, otherwise he wouldn’t have stopped no matter if it was friendly or real fight.
“Nord what do you think about her now that you fought her once?”
“I can tell ya for certain she had seen many battles before she met us. She may be a child but I assume her battle experience is not much less than ours. Before I charged in I let out my killin’ intent towards her hoping to scare her and petrify her, but instead she became thrilled. She even matched my killin’ intent makin’ me feel shivers down my spine. I don’t know who she was in the past, but I can tell you she’s someone strong.”
“But you saw her status and said she was LV1 moreover her stats were extremely low. Could you have been wrong?”
“No, I am certain. Her status’ weak. What I think is that whoever did this to her and
dumped her here also used some power beyond our scope to completely seal away all her strength. She did have an unknown sealed title and an ominous soundin’ title [Daughter of Death]. By no means is she some mere commoner. But Blink didn’t recognize her so I assume she isn’t nobility from either Elicia or Vilikis.”
“Yeah, I don’t recognize her either, but after all, she is still young. Well she would have had an introduction party if she is already 17 but she never appeared at any noble party so far. Also Maeda is not a family name from this place. Just who is she? And is she dangerous to be left alone?”
“She is extremely dangerous. But as you saw by now she is also kind and well mannered so I have a feelin’ that as long as you do not upset her ya won’t be targeted by her anger. I do pity those that will try to cross her and make enemies of her.”
This child is an enigma. A family name that is not nobility, a magic that is beyond my
reasoning and battle experience that surpasses her strength. No matter how you think of it she is not your average person.
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