Inverted Deck

Inverted Deck (Chapter 3)

Chapter 3

As soon as I turn around, I meet eyes with a Chaiceann, a two-legged, overgrown, skinless rat, with two tiny arms, razor sharp teeth, red beady eyes and jaws large enough to completely cover a human head.

"Crimson Stake." Aylmer mutters behind me.

In mere seconds, Aylmer's Crimson Stake reduces the Chaiceann to ashes.

"Thanks. What are Chaiceanns doing in Cor, aren't they only bred in the nation of Ligonem?" I ask.

"Correct. Must be the work of a Queen Class Cardholder." He replies.

Just then we are here several sticks crack and leaves ruffle in the distance as a mass of Chaiceann emerge out from behind the various, large Sage trees. One or two Chaiceann is enough for even a middle-class adventurer to handle, but a large group of them... would probably be more then even a knight could handle. Their smart, nimble, fast, and I even hear a number of rare ones can breathe fire and acid. This excites me for some reason.

I begin to unsheathe the blade I just bought, from the holster on my back, before Aylmer steps in.

"Let me handle this." He says as he pushes his black framed glasses up on his face.

"Yeah?" I reply.

He extends his right arm from his left, as if he were pulling a bowstring, and what emerges from his fingertips is a Dark Reddish Orange burning stake, one of his signature moves; Crimson Stake. As more and more Chaiceann emerge, the frontline of them start to rush in.

"You sure that thing is enough for a group of that size?" I ask panicking as they rush ever closer, but the only reply I get is a smirk.

"Now, multiply." Alymer says calmly.

Suddenly, we're now surrounded by several spawned Crimson Stakes. That's right, not only is Aylmer of Elvien blood, but he also belongs to a Noble family, his internal Aether cap must be vast, he's practically a Well, overflowing with Aether, he doesn't even need to use external or environmental Aether essentially. Me on the other hand...

Aylmer releases all of the Crimson Stakes all at once, completely nuking all of the Chaiceann in the frontlines and even some in the back, leaving some for me.

"My Turn." I say as I rush in through the smoke, unsheathing my longsword.

"Wait Finn! Something's not right!" Aylmer screams behind me, but before I can turn back, I'm feet away from the face of Chaiceann with a scar over it's right eye. Now's my chance.

I swing my longsword with maximum force and precision, aiming for that scar over it's eye. My blade goes straight through the Chaiceann, but not in the way you would think. As my sword went through it's head, I felt little resistance or mass behind my slash, it seemed almost intangible. Almost immediately after, it dispersed into a large body of black smoke, something Chaiceann can't do.

The smoke feels my lungs and irritates my eyes, I sit there coughing and wheezing, as another Chaiceann leaps out of the smoke aiming for my head. Out of instinct, I lean and sidestep to left and pull one of the several daggers on my hip, to deliver a clean cut to Chaiceann's jugular. This one was different, it didn't turn into smoke, it just bled out a dark blue bood, like they normally do.

As I finish coughing and wheezing, I notice three Chaiceann left from the bunch in front of me heading my way, but something felt different about them. I used Aether sense to correct my suspicions, the Aether coming from the first two were different then the third in the back, I can tell the fakes from the real ones.

The one in the back is the real one, it's Aether seems natural while the other two's has this ominous feel stemming from somewhere else, somewhere close. When it comes to sensing the connections of Aether around us and the individual Aether signatures of others, I'm proficient in that area because of my mother's clan and a phenomenon we share called; Aether sense. Think of it as a sixth sense but specifically for Aether. Technically speaking any Cardholder can perform Aether Sense with enough training, we just happen to be able to perform it naturally and more precisely, like blood to a bloodhound.