Chapter 8: Ch 8: Verruka Saltpeter

Paula stepped outside with her new fancy hat. “Let’s hunt down and kill that bitch!”

I stepped out too. “Yeah! Give me my life back! Become the stepping stone for my magic circle research!”

“Hey you two it’s still early…”

“Come on Paul! Aren’t you excited to kill one of those that exiled me?” Paula locked arms with Paul.

“Sure, so where do we start looking?” Paul said as he flung his rucksack over his shoulder.

I flipped through the document. It seems she has fled toward the capital of Hjuva, Vong. “She went toward the capital!”

Paula took a pensive pose. “You don’t suppose she is trying to reach North Hjuva and go to our capital?”

“That is possible. A question Paul, why have the humans built their capital in such a hard-to-reach mountain?” I looked at Paul and he became wary.

“To be honest I have no idea. I am just from a small town named Girai.”

“Humans are so weird.”

I agreed with Paula but I think that humans are weird in a good way. “I think humans are nice! You should visit Gittrian, Paula! It’s so much nicer there!”

“Oh, you finally went outside! I will visit it when I have the chance.” We hopped on our staves. Paul hopped on Paula’s staff and we flew off.

It was quite some distance. We arrived at noon after 5 days of flying. It was easily accessible for us because we could fly. We just landed on the mountainside and walked toward the entrance of the city. The city was built inside the tip of the mountain. How and why, they built their city here, I don’t know but it was impressive. We looked around and at the hollowed-out mountain top.

I was fascinated “How did they do this?”

“I don’t know.” We acted like tourists by looking around. We spotted some humans who gave tours around the city. The houses in this city didn’t have any roofs. There was no need since the mountain top acted as a roof.

“Humans always make these interesting structures!”

Paul shook his head. “What about the Misha that blasted a mountain to build a city on? I think that is crazier than this.” I agreed with Paul.

“So, where do we look first?” I did not know the answer to Paula’s question.

“Oh, you look so stylish! Are you here for a visit?” A man in a black suit walked over to us.

“We are looking for someone.”

He inspected us. And walked around us to take a good look. “I see, you might think I’m shady but I don’t care, follow me if you want.” He started walking. Paul and Paula looked at me.

“We can always kick his ass if he’s up to no good.” We had decided to follow this strange man. He was making a lot of turns and walked into a building that had a roof. We followed him through several corridors and then into a flight of stairs that went down.

“I hope you three are fond of stairs.” We followed him or 15 minutes down the stairs. Paula and I were using [Levitate] but Paul had to walk and he was getting tired.

“Aren’t you going to help your man?”

“He has been eating a bit too much of my cooking lately, he needs to lose some weight.” I looked at Paul. He looked perfectly in shape to me.

We had finally arrived at the end of the stairs. We entered a large space that could hold a second city.

“Well, it’s not very original but this is the Underground. The two of you are Misha, right? We have one of you here as ehhm a questionable doctor, she might be able to help you.”

He led us to an open space and we could instantly recognize who we were supposed to meet.

“Well, well, what are 2 Misha doing so far from home?” A purple haired Misha was smoking a pipe and pushing wind needles into a spasming body.

“Is… is he still alive?” Paula asked. The Misha slapped the butt of the man and he grunted.

“He sounds alive to me, so what did I do to earn this visit?” She pushed in another wind needle and the man made a spastic movement.

I stepped forward and showed her a part of the document that had an image of our target. “We’re looking for her, she had assassinated a member of the council, stole all her magic skills and escaped.”

“Oh, so that bitch Verruka has finally gone crazy. She is not here that I can tell you, I do know that she headed toward North Hjuva, more specifically to the Shadow elf forest.”

“Huh? Not the capital?” I was just as surprised as Paula. The strange Misha puffed out some smoke and pushed another wind needle in the man's back.

“Aaagh!” His body felt limp.

“Oops.” She put her pipe down. “As far as I knew the shadow elf forest is also inhabited by Iris Glitterfall, an expert in dark magic, shadow magic, black magic and curses. If Verruka is collecting magic skills I assume she is going for that next. You two be careful.”

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“Oh, Aya that’s good news! Let’s go!” Paula turned around and bumped into a [Wind Wall].

“Not so fast, I didn’t give this information for free, I want you to help me in disp… bringing this body to a safe spot.” The purple Misha looked at the limp body of the man she was ‘treating’ earlier. I couldn’t detect any sign of life in him.

Paul got closer. “Is he still alive?”

The strange Misha pointed a wind needle at him. “Of course, he is! He just needs some rest, you look strong, can you carry him for me?”

Paul looked at the body which had multiple wind needles sticking out of his back. “He looks like a porcupine, how am I supposed to carry him?”

“Ugh, humans and their magical ineptness.” She waved her hand and the wind needles flew out. Blood came out of his back on the location she had placed he last needle.

Paul stared. “He is bleeding…”

“Stop complaining and carry him already!

“Hey! Don’t talk to my man like that!” Paula placed herself in between Paul and the strange Misha.

“It’s fine Paula.” He lifted the body on his back. “Where to?”

“Follow me.” It seems we are following a lot of people today.

“Hey, Aya isn’t that man already…” I nodded and gestured for Paula to keep it down.

We followed the Misha into a small park with a small bench.

“On this bench is good enough, I will take care of the rest, thank you.” She winked at Paul and flicked 2 silver at him. “For your troubles.”

I saw that Paula wanted to protest but I stopped her.

“Let’s get out of here and focus on our objective.” Paula hugged Paul and we teleported to the top of the mountain, hopped on our staves, and flew off. I wonder how it feels to hug someone. The longer and longer I hang around these two the more I wonder how it feels to be truly close to someone.

We flew for 4 days and arrived at the Shadow elf forest, or the northern elven forest.

“Hmm, this forest is quite large, finding one Misha will be quite hard, do you two have any magic to locate each other?” Paul said as he scanned the area for threats.

“No but I can find out what kind of magic has been used and when.” Paula stretched out her hand and pointed the staff. She slowly moved the staff sideways. “A high concentration of mana in that direction, it might be our target or the village of the shadow elves! “

“Not very reliable is it…” Paul sighed.

“Oh, so I assume you want to walk to there and find out Paul?”

“Uhh, I’m good, let’s go with your unre… wonderful detection magic!”

“I am going to kick your ass later on!” Paula pointed her staff at Paul.

“Ha! You could never win from me!” Paul drew his sword.

“That is because I’m a bad matchup for you! If you would just stand still then I could easily defeat you!”

I ignored the quarrelling couple and did my own scan. My scan was… unreliable, it was as accurate as Paula’s scan. I haven’t put any effort into creating skills made for detection. I noticed something approaching at high speed. “Hey! Stop quarrelling, something is coming!”

An unfamiliar magic flew at us. It looked like a black arm. Its structure was complicated but I could dispel it before it hit anyone.

“A loser, an outcast, and a human. Is this what Witchaven sent to catch me?” An ugly Misha with light blonde curly hair approached. She was eating something that looked like a heart. Both of her hands were bloodied and she was holding a hat that wasn’t hers. “But it seems I can become stronger quite easily. You, however…” She pointed her bloody finger at me. “You are a problem. I will kill you first!” More black hands shot out and I easily dispelled them. I have seen it before so I should dispel it with no problems.

“Hmm [Dark Grasp], doesn’t work, eh? That’s fine.” The ugly Misha readied more magic spells.

Paul carried Paula out of a barrage of attacks. “Hey, Paula, how come that Misha can use dark magic? Isn’t that rare under your race?”

“It is, I’m sure she was unable to use dark magic, she must have stolen it from Iris, Iris was one of the few Misha known for her dark magic, she had told me some tricks back in the day!” Paula covered us in [Shadow Cloaks] and ripped the shadow off Verruka.

“My shadow and dark magic will become stronger after I eat your heart and steal the skills out of your heart!” Verruka said with a voice that sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

“Paula's heart belongs to me!” Paul put Paula down and took a cool stance. He was a swordsman. According to Paula, he is super-fast. I blinked and I had lost sight of him.

Verruka tried to create a magic circle but most magic circles of Misha take 3-5 seconds to complete. He went in for a cut but got met with a [Dark barrier]. I used [Azure Flower] and threw an [Azure Spear] that broke through the barrier and grazed Verruka.

“What? How… you became even more powerful?" I tapped my hat and it left what I call ‘Stealth’ mode.

Paula looked at me wide eyed. “Aya… this mana… are you trying to become a god?”

I struck a sexy pose. “I could certainly become the goddess of Mistflowers!” I made the petals of [Azure Flower] close in on Verruka. She was throwing a lot of skills around that she didn’t know how to use. “So, you do have a weakness, you don’t know how to use these skills do you?”

“Shut up! I can only use the skills I've stolen shortly after I acquire them! My original skills are currently locked.” She blocked a sword strike from Paul with her cane and got sent flying into a tree. “I might be in a disadvantageous position. Count yourselves as lucky!” Verruka turned black and collapsed into a black puddle. The puddle which looked like a shadow moved to the shadow of a tree and we lost track of her.

“She also knows [Shadow meld], tracking her down is going to be difficult… Sweetie, are you ok?” Paula ran over to Paul.

“Yeah, I only got grazed by a stray attack.”

“Come here let me heal you.” It was quite heart warming to see their interaction. For the first time in my life, I felt something like envy. I shook my head. Paula is my dearest friend. I will ask her for tips on how I can find a suitable research partner.

We investigated the area. We found a cabin that was completely destroyed. Trees were uprooted, destroyed by blunt force, or cut down. I dispelled some curses that were corroding the trees that were still alive and Paula cleaned up the residual dark and shadow magic traces.

“This is terrible.” We looked at a black-haired Misha lying on the floor bloodied. Her chest was ripped open and her heart was missing. She had died with a look of terror on her face.

Paula kneeled down. “But she was so strong… she could easily be part of the council, how could Verruka kill her like this?” I was wondering this too.

“I don’t know Paula…” I used [Earth Tomb] and buried Iris. We would normally sign her hat with our names as per tradition and bury her with her hat. But that was not possible.

“Your hats are very important, right? Why would she do something like this?”

I responded to Paul. “Probably greed, she must be thirsty for more power. But for what…”

Nobody knew the answer to this. We decided to look around and attempt to locate Verruka but we did not find anything. We had to abort the search because we were concerned that the shadow elves might hold us responsible. We flew back to Witchaven empty-handed… I did spend 2 more weeks with Paul and Paula and then decided to leave them alone. I could notice that they wanted to do certain things that they couldn’t do with me around.

“Don’t hesitate to call us if you find a lead or need our help!”

“I will, now I will leave you lovebirds alone. I want to see your kids the next time I visit” Paula turned red and Paul laughed awkwardly.

I hopped on my staff and flew back to Witchaven.