Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 182: Ambush in the Wild Lands
Wild Lands
Kligoth Continent
Gnocyl Prime
March 10th, Unknown Year.
899th Cosmic Cycle
The convoy left Krovale in the wee hours of the morning, after suffering two attacks over the past 3 days they spent getting from Kauron to the Region’s borders.
Counting the last one that hit them before dawn, that was 3.
Getting to the Vroln region was a journey that shouldn’t even take up to day if they were to go full speed ahead, and Jamie had every intention of making that happen.
The man went ahead of the convoy and trashed all the bandit groups and rogue mages he could find, leaving rivers of blood and corpses that scared off the rest.
He encountered a few miasma swamps on the way and had to wait for the convoy to catch up so he could have Tiris purify them with her magic.
With each purification, Tiris got better at using her Purification with magic and her efficiency increased so she was very thankful to Jamie.
When they got somewhere halfway across the wildlands, they encountered another miasma swamp and stopped to take a few minutes to purify it.
Like usual, the Argeryan family guards and the Mercs took up a protective formation around them. At the same time, Jamie just sat in a corner counting the money he had extorted from the bandits he slaughtered earlier.
"You know all that money would be useless when we leave this planet, right?"
"I know. So, I’d spend it all before we leave here."
Jamie replied to Miranda as he tossed the fifth sack of cash into his subspace, glancing in Tiris’ direction to see her constructing the five-ringed magic circle for her purification.
"You seem to pay a lot of attention to that girl..."
Miranda spoke as she noticed his gaze and Jamie froze for a minute, before turning his eyes to her with a raised brow.
"Yeah? She’s the one who we’re meant to guard."
"Not that. Besides guarding her, you’re helping her with her magic and teaching her other things you don’t need to."
When she put it like that, Jamie realised he was indeed giving Tiris extra service, but considering he didn’t have much in the way of past times during this job, he shrugged and summarised it as a way to keep himself busy.
"I’ve got not much else to do, so I thought; why not?"
"...you should be spending that time with me..."
Miranda muttered this under her breath but it was impossible for Jamie’s werewolf hearing to miss this. The man sighed with a wry smile before putting aside the money and reaching out to her.
He grabbed her hand and pulled her onto his lap, poking her pouting cheeks with his finger as he laughed.
"Don’t worry, my dear. I’d be spending all my time with you soon."
"...why do I feel like you’re treating me like a clingy child?"
"It’s your imagination."
"..."
Miranda wasn’t buying it but Jamie wasn’t saying anything either. He sensed a wave of magic spreading omnidirectionally and looked up to see Tiris’ spell purifying the land.
"...huh?"
Suddenly, Jamie felt a chill and his eyes widened in shock.
Without hesitation, he teleported from his spot, and inadvertently Miranda who was seated on his lap fell onto the floor.
The man warped through space, reappearing beside Tiris, grabbing her with both arms and teleporting away.
"?! Sir Jami-!"
**BOOOOMM!!!
The ground trembled violently before an explosion of contaminated energy erupted from the centre of the swamp where Tiris had stood a mere half-second ago.
The force of the blast sent shockwaves rippling through the area, and waves of malignant magic power surged outward, filling the air with a poisonous miasma.
This corrupted energy resembled a gooey, black, slimy liquid that seeped into the freshly purified earth, undoing Tiris’ efforts in an instant. The once-cleansed land was now marred by the toxic sludge, which spread rapidly, tainting everything it touched.
From the swampy ground, twisted forms of monsters began to emerge. The monsters took shape, their flesh and bones forming grotesquely from the contaminated magic power, with some gaining multiple limbs, while others sported rows of sharp, jagged teeth.
One commonality they had was the malevolent aura they exuded.
Amidst the chaos, most of the malignant energy gathered at a single point with terrifying speed. In mere seconds, it coalesced into a towering figure—a giant ogre, its presence alone radiating an aura of power comparable to some of the strongest Argeryan guards.
Level 950!
This creature’s face looked like a manifestation of pure malevolence, with sinewy muscles and a hideous visage that struck fear into those who beheld it.
Around the giant ogre, smaller masses of magic power began to form other monsters. Nearly a hundred entities emerged, each one less powerful than the ogre but numerous enough to pose a significant threat.
The Argeryan guards, Priests and Mercs that remained after the previous attacks numbered a little bit above 100, but the monsters doubled that number in less than a minute.
Miranda, unbothered by her fall, narrowed her eyes as she observed the monsters and noticed something peculiar about them. While all the creatures were indeed created from miasma wells—
’—not all were created from this swamp!’
Furthermore, her sensitivity to spatial power, heightened by her time with Jamie, allowed her to detect a subtle spatial disturbance in the instant the contaminated energy had erupted.
’This isn’t a random event. It’s planned!’
Miranda quickly arrived at this conclusion as the Argeryan guards and Mercenaries steeled themselves for the fight, charging at the monsters clawing their way out of the corrupted earth.
She ignored the chaos unfolding around her, her eyes scanning frantically for Jamie. By the time she found him, he was already charging at the Level 950 Ogre.
"GWOAAAA!!!"
The monster let out a guttural roar and swung its massive fist toward Jamie and, the Hybrid met the attack with a punch of his own, the impact creating shockwaves that radiated outwards, blowing away everyone nearby.
Miranda dashed over to Tiris, grabbing her with her left hand while raising her right to conjure an energy barrier that absorbed the force of the shockwaves. The barrier shimmered with a brilliant light, holding firm against the powerful blast.
"Jay!"
"Protect Tiris."
Jamie shouted this command back at her without so much as a glance in her direction, but Miranda still tried to inform him about her discovery.
"The monsters ar—"
"Protect. Tiris."
Jamie cut her off, repeating his earlier words with extra emphasis and at this, Miranda’s eyes widened in realization.
’He knows!’
But of course, he did. If she could detect the spatial disturbance, how could Jamie of all people not do the same?
He was aware, and he was keeping silent about it, likely waiting for the one sending the monsters to arrive—or so she believed.
The truth, however, was much different from her assumption.
Miranda released a burst of flames that incinerated the monsters attacking her, the intense heat reducing them to ash in seconds.
She then pushed Tiris into one of the cars where Kendra was, conjuring a wall of flames around it for added protection. The flames roared and crackled, forming a barrier the encroaching creatures found impenetrable.
Turning back to the battlefield, Miranda engulfed her hands in flames, the fire dancing and flickering with fierce intensity. She charged at the monsters, her fiery hands leaving trails of burning destruction in her wake as she transformed the battlefield into a blazing inferno.
◇ ◇ ◇
Meanwhile, Jamie and the Ogre’s battle unfolded into a spectacular clash of power.
The ogre roared again, raising its massive hands coated in law energy, and the miasma swamp responded to its command.
Contaminated, liquified magic power surged up, forming massive tendrils of gooey black slime that lashed out at Jamie. The Hybrid dodged and weaved through the onslaught with preternatural agility, but the sheer volume of the attack forced him to switch his approach.
Jamie held up his left index finger and conjured a spatial blade which he used to slit his right wrist, spilling his blood into the air.
"Blood Manipulation."
He muttered under his breath, and the blood flowing from the wound formed into dozens of spiked crimson orbs that hovered around him. With a flick of his wrist, he sent these blood orbs forward, manipulating them with spatial power to increase their speed and precision, as well as giving them the ability to ignore defences.
Unperturbed by the blood orbs slicing through the miasma tendrils and evaporating the contaminated magic power, the Ogre raised its hand and slammed it down, causing the swamp to churn violently.
Pillars of tainted water and earth shot up, aiming to impale and crush Jamie and in response, Jamie conjured wormholes that redirected the pillars and returned them to the Ogre.
Hit with its own attack, the ogre stumbled backwards and roared with pain, gathering more miasma and forming it into a giant sphere of corrupted energy which he hurled at Jamie.
However, Jamie simply teleported out of its path and reappeared behind it, conjuring a spear of blood which he thrust into the monster’s back, piercing through its thick hide with ease.
"GRAARGHH!!"
