The bronze-clad guards stopped, shoved the merchant woman aside, and readied their spears, approaching the priest.
"Now what a curious coincidence. A man wearing a grey robe. Isn't that who the old woman described before, fellas?"
The guards just coughed and confirmed with a simple 'mhm'.
"Listen, Mardukist. You know as well as I that more than half of this city is wearing grey. Why don't we come to an arrangement: you let the woman go with me, and you can go back to your temple and engage in your evening self-flagellation activities, or whatever it is you do there."
The priest's semi-smile slowly turned to a frown, apparently shocked at the way he was being addressed.
"You dare mock the Temple of Marduk? And there I was, thinking you could get away with a simple inspection and a fine for bringing up gold sickles, after a thorough vetting at the tribunal, of course. But now, I just think a grandtribunal needs to be assembled. Just for you."
It was clear where this was going. They were never going to let the woman go. Anzu calmly leaned his staff on his arm and placed his hand on his dagger.
"You have nothing to say, do you? Insolent wretch. Get him, fellas. Tie him up."
Anzu had seen the fight coming, and it was something he had mentally prepared for just before he jumped out of the shadows. His main concern had been which spell to choose. His mana pool had been greatly constrained by the [Debilitating Blood] debuff, which limited his spell repertoire significantly.
The [Tier 1-10] spell schools, such as Telekinetic or Elemental, were all Mana-Reliant Magic, which meant they used mana to trigger and power the spells. The Archsage [Tiers 11-12], on the other hand, consisted exclusively of Mana-Triggered Magic, where mana was used to trigger the spell and kept it active, but the spell itself was powered by something else. For Blood Magic this was blood, while for Necromancy it was necrotransmuted tissue.
That basically meant that Blood Magic and Necromancy were vastly more effective in terms of mana consumption. Usually, this didn't matter much. But with the [Debilitating Blood] debuff, Anzu speculated that he would drain his mana supply much too quickly with standard magic. Mind magic was a possible option, but he ruled it out due to its area-of-affect properties, since he didn't want to mess with the minds of Itani and the merchant.
Blood magic, it would need to be. It was the most mana-efficient and quick to cast.
The fight was inevitable now.
A few steps back was all it took for Anzu to get into his fighting form. As the guards began rushing to him, he retrieved his dagger and slowly began incising three long lines, each into one of his fingers on the left hand, the thumb, middle, and little finger. The guards were halfway to his position now, but Anzu had enough time.
Extending his cut-up, left hand, he channelled a good portion of his mana into his staff and sent it to his bleeding hand. The spell he chose was [Blood lacerate], a cone-attack, which he initiated by shouting:
"Taraaku!"
Three wide streams of red fluorescent rays zipped from the wounds on his left hand and onto the location occupied by the priest and guards. As the rays of blood magic hit their targets, the three became engulfed in a stream of agony. Laceration marks on their bodies emerged as their blood rushed out, piercing through bone, flesh, or skin.
It was a messy affair, as the blood splattered all over the street when exiting their bodies, leaving puddles of red liquid all over the sandy floor.
The Mardukist priest was so taken aback by the sudden Blood Magic attack that he failed to react fast enough. His robes and sash were oozing and dripping red, while his eyes contained a mixture of panic and anger.
As his health approached 50%, the priest came to and out of his bag, retrieved a scroll. He began reading it out loud at an extremely fast pace. Suddenly, his health pool began taking on the damage that was being inflicted by the [Blood lacerate] spell.
Anzu noticed the Mardukist's health slowly bouncing up and down as the effects of the scroll and blood damage fought. At least now it was clear. The priest was a Healer class, probably [Level 100], given how effective his heals were. And the healing scroll wasn't the usual kind: it didn't just heal a portion of your health instantly, but it seemed to grant a heal-over-time effect due to how his health pool kept fluctuating.
"Get him, you incompetent sloths. Attack now!" the priest shouted mid-agony, his voice all shaky and raspy.
Anzu watched the poor bastards obey the priest, their health pools approaching the 5% limit, and still, they were slowly crawling to his position. These must have been fairly high-level guards since they could withstand the damage dealt by a [Level 120] Archsage for this long.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"Itani, untie the woman's hands, quick!"
It was a critical moment, and he wondered whether she would hesitate, but the elf immediately jumped out of the shadows, with a dagger in her hands. The merchant woman started backing away in fear, but Itani raised her hands to show her that she was there to help. Cutting the thick rope around her hands, she waved to Anzu.
"It's done."
It was a relief that what they came here to do was accomplished. The fight wasn't over, but the woman had been rescued.
"Go now, run," Anzu shouted to the merchant, "If you have no place to go, find me at the Grand Tower in Larsa. Ask for Anzu."
The woman shot a quick, thankful look to Anzu over her shoulder and was immediately gone around the corner, not waiting for any of the violence in the street to catch up with her.
The fight continued in the meantime, and the guards were slowly approaching Anzu. But it was time to be careful. Even though he slipped into his Anzu skin so easily in a fight, his inner Anni kept reminding him: this is a real world, and people can die. For all he knew, these guards were just doing their jobs and had families to go back to. He needs to incapacitate, not kill, if at all possible.
As the guards' health pool reached 5%, Anzu cut off the mana current from his hand, rendering the two bronze-clad men unconscious but alive.
All this time, Anzu was also keeping an eye on the Mardukist priest, who had by now read out another scroll and was healing up. Just as Anzu turned to him, the priest threw a dagger, headed straight for his chest, and shouted with a low, raspy voice.
"Die, you ritualistic scum!"
Anzu just flicked his staff with a quick motion of his right wrist and deflected the incoming dagger. The priest immediately produced a new one, and before Anzu could speak to him, it swished past his head.
There was a green substance on this one. And he knew what it was. There were numerous occasions on which he had seen daggers tipped in poison; he even remembered which alchemical tincture was needed to brew it. Good thing the Mardukist missed. But at that moment, a high-pitched scream pierced his ears, originating from behind his back.
Oh, no.
As he turned, he saw Itani pulling the dagger out of her left thigh, which had a significant wound, and, more importantly, there was a dark green tinge around it. It was definitely poisoned.
Anzu raised his staff, performed a complex set of moves that resembled an intricate geometric pattern if connected, and with that cast [Dispell]. A white-blueish light appeared around Itani, concentrating around her thigh wound, instantly removing the green tinge it hosted.
"Listen, priest! Let's stop this and just walk away. This is..."
Before Anzu could finish the sentence, the Mardukist rummaged in his pouch and began producing a new dagger.
It was clear that he was not letting it go. This called for another cast of offensive magic. An area-of-effect spell wasn't needed this time, and Anzu's left hand already had three cuts in it, leading him to extend his right index finger and cast [Corrupt blood].
"Umun!"
A thin ray of fluorescent light struck the priest, making him fall to his knees and drop his dagger, as more blood began to gush out of his previously afflicted lacerations.
Suddenly, a spatter of red liquid struck Anzu. He flinched, and one of his eyes became drenched in blood.
DING! [Blowback] for 1% damage triggered.
Great, just great. Another novelty, and again it's a nuisance. So, his abilities can transfer some of the damage back to him via [Blowback]? It ate away at only a tiny fraction of his health pool, but it was another unpredictable mechanic that never existed in the game before. He hated that.
As before, Anzu shook off the intrusive thoughts and focused back on the fight.
Struggling to keep his balance, the Mardukist looked up, his eyes red with pain, and retrieved a small wooden whistle from his bag. He brought it to his lips and produced a shrill sound.
Anzu had no idea what this was, but it didn't seem good. Besides, he was too busy managing his spell right now. Not wanting to kill the priest, he tried to cut off the mana for the spell just when his health approached 5%, but this was significantly more difficult than with the guards due to the heal-over-time effect, which kept causing fluctuations in the health reading Anzu was seeing.
Just when he thought he had it, he prolonged the spell for a split second longer and, all of a sudden:
DING! [Blood spike] for 33% damage triggered.
The priest's health pool plummeted to 0% in less than a heartbeat.
The Mardukist collapsed into the sandy ground face-down. But no dust was raised by his fall, since the sand around them was by now thoroughly drenched with blood.
Anzu cursed silently.
The heal-over-time dynamics, when trying to incapacitate someone, were notoriously difficult to get right, but this new [Blood spike] effect was making things impossible.
Damn this glitchy build. He used to be a surgeon, fighting with scalpel-sharp precision, while now he seemed closer to a butcher.
As a result, he killed a man.
But the priest was simply evil, and Anzu didn't do it out of blood thirst. The world would be better off. Certainly. But that still didn't sit quite right with him.
However, there was no time for such deliberations.
DING! You have just increased your Bounty Karma.
The Karma thing again. He had forgotten about that, but there was no time to think. Too much was happening.
And something was afoot. Footsteps, in fact. They were echoing throughout the adjoining street.
Damn. That blasted whistle.
"Anzu! You hear that right?"
"I sure do. Damn. Let's try to avoid spilling any more blood."
"Agreed. Follow me, quick."
Following Itani down the street, he kept looking over his shoulder, checking whether the guards he fought were still incapacitated. It was a good thing the priest didn't heal them. That would've made incapacitating them much more difficult.
Suddenly, a host of guards and two Mardukists emerged from the adjoining street, cutting them off abruptly. Itani dodged to the side, while Anzu assumed a fighting position. However, they had a problem. A huge one.
DING! Not enough Mana to cast [Blood Lacerate]. Mana pool at: 0.5%.
And, of course. His messed-up build. With broken mana regeneration like this, Anzu was actually vulnerable now. Completely defenseless? Well, not quite. If only he could somehow play for time to regenerate mana. But with his current setup, it would take a while.
"What the gods is happening here?"
The two Mardukists quickly lifted their torches and inspected the blood-spattered street.
"A priest of Marduk? Murdered? Together with the guards? Oh, you're in for a world of pain, you scum."
Anzu coughed and lifted his right finger.
"Actually, allow me to correct you. The guards are only unconscious. But the priest, yes, is dead. He left me no choice, unfortunately."
One of the Mardukists went to check on the bodies further down the street, while the other gave Anzu a savage look and began shouting, propelling forward visible spit in the light of his torch.
"Guards, take the sage's staff and dagger, immediately!"