Tara, Stevens, and Audrey were in one of the larger towns in the southern part of the safe zone. They had already been to a couple small places, just a few buildings close together really, and in every place they visited, they went to the center of town and Stevens would just start talking to people. A few would listen, maybe one or two would talk but these people didn't have a claim to their land since there wasn't a lord around so what they could do with it was limited. This larger town they were in now was the home of Lord Ghost, so it had far more buildings of all sizes and shapes as well as an inner wall and an outer wall.
Tara didn't like the inner wall since it was to keep people out, the inner area was where the lord and his people stayed, fancier house and shop buildings, despite there being nothing in any of the shop buildings. But the lord was not to blame, he was out training for the next monster horde, his people mentioned he was going for an epic rating this time since he got rare last time. The town or city was run by one of his servants who didn't really seem to know what he was doing except maybe trying to mimic something he had read in a book.
There were a lot of people in this city because of the wall, the last monster horde had scared the survivors, of which the south had way more than the north of the safe zone. Some people with a bit of luck and talent got strong from the last event and were strutting along the streets, coming back from or going out to training or monster hunting. But the sad truth was, 35% of the safe zone had died, 15% got stronger, and the rest just hid and prayed. Now they are behind and still scared with stronger monsters coming this time.
This time, it wasn't long before Stevens' loud talking got some attention from people who seemed like they walked around with some authority. They weren't police or anything, probably just some groupies or tagalongs of a minion or something. The trust bond for servant and lord has high standards, but it falls off sharply after that. Minions and servants just seem to need to have a good understanding of each other. These guys seemed like the 'go get the boss' types to Tara so she let them walk around checking out what Stevens was doing and saying.
Audrey was in the crowd doing her best to eavesdrop on people talking to gather information. Tara was watching the exits and entrances to the area they were in, just outside one of the inner wall's gates. After a few more questions from Stevens to some people gathered, asking about Lord Ash and if anyone knew where he could be found, with a question or two about if the town had done what he asked and moved people that can fight north, a few of the guys skulking around stepped out of the crowd and surrounded him.
"We would like a word with you," one of them said.
"We can answer all your questions, these people out here don't know anything," Another one said.
"That would be nice, do you have any water? I'm quite thirsty," Stevens said, while doing an excellent job of feigning ignorance.
He was escorted inside the inner wall and brought to the building just inside the gate. It looked like it was being used as housing for whoever these guys were. He was forcibly sat in a chair with his hands tied and a bucket of water was dumped on him. There were five of them in the room and one outside watching for his back-up. They started things off with simple eloquently worded questions.
"Who you work fer?" the tallest of them asked.
"I'd like to consider myself an independent contractor," Stevens said with a grin.
"Why are you asking about Lord Ash?" one of the smaller but apparently smarter ones asked.
"Because I was hired to."
"Who hired you?" a third guy asked from behind him.
"Can you come around to the front? I don't like talking to people I can't see," Stevens said, he was attempting to be polite and annoying at the same time, and from the look on their faces, he was killing it.
"We don't want to get violent, but we will if you don't tell us what's going on," the smarter one said.
"Oh that's simple, I'm a spy, or more accurately I'm a contracted spy."
"Ok," the tall one said, they were getting frustrated and he was surprised that none of them had hit him yet. "Who hired you?"
"Well I'm sorry but according to my contract, I cannot tell you," Stevens said with an apologetic face.
"Go get the boss," one of them said to the taller one and he left.
Stevens was happy with how this was going, he thought they would beat him until he was close to death, then just keep hurting him and only after all that pain would they go get the boss. But this was great, he hadn't even been hurt yet and it seemed the guy they were looking for was coming.
"So how does this work exactly? Your scary boss shows up and uses his scary powers on me? Please tell me his powers are cool, I at least want to see some cool magic or something. No offense to you faceless goons, but this is getting boring." Stevens said, turning and talking to different ones as he spoke.
"I apologize for keeping you waiting," a new guy said as he walked into the room, "But I was handling other business."
"Oh om god, can you please start torturing me," Stevens said with complete indifference on his face. "I'm so bored I would prefer the torture at this point."
"I just want to ask you a question, and then you can go," the new guy said.
"At least punch me a couple of times, if I'm hurt when I report back maybe I can get some extra money out of it."
"Who else is here with you?" He asked.
"Look, just untie one arm, I'll punch myself, I can use the extra money in this nice brothel I know up north."
"Let him go," the new guy said after a long pause and staring contest. "He isn't worth the trouble."
"Well, there goes my hazard pay bonus, you know, some goons are just so inconsiderate." Stevens said, rubbing his wrists after being untied and heading for the door. "See ya later jerkbags."
"How did it go?" Tara asked after they met up, she had been waiting between two buildings not far from where Stevens was held.
"I think the 'boss' guy figured me out, but the rest were idiots." Stevens said while shaking his head.
"He figured out what? That you work for Ash?"
"No, he figured out that I was masking my level and presence to seem weaker. It seemed more like he had seen it before and thought that I was working for whoever he had seen with those abilities. He wasn't scared, more like he understood why I was here," Stevens trailed off in thought. He started literally scratching his head like the thought he was working towards would fall out.
"Ok so, you think we should pick this 'boss' guy to question then?" Tara asked.
"No," Audrey responded from behind them, startling both Tara and Stevens. "We should leave, there's something off here, the way people talk around here is odd. People near the outer wall living in tents or 20 to a room in a small building say things that you would expect them to say. They complain about normal things and don't seem to know much. But the closer you get to this inner part, the more people whisper to each other and say odd things."
"First, stop trying to sneak up on us just because you enjoy our startled reactions. Secondly, I agree that we should leave, but we should stick together. I want them to see us leave." Tara said as she directed them to start heading south.
"How long do you think it will be until I can have a cheese burger?" Stevens asked for the fourth time in the past two days.
They kept up the chit chat so the people following them wouldn't be suspicious that they knew they were following them. Stevens could talk forever and make it seem like it was natural and not forced at all. His biggest gift was his mouth, which in the past, Eli never missed a chance to use, to have him talk at someone until they gave up or tried to kill them. There were two following them but at a large distance, Audrey only sensed their magic when they would stop to sit for a while. Audrey also brought up that they might have another who is better hidden and stronger, at least she said that's what she would do.
Passing through a small town on their way south, they stopped for about an hour to try and get some more information about how the last monster horde event went. These people were very talkative but didn't know much, they had only seen a few monsters and the town leader and a couple of his friends handled them without much trouble. They started to leave the town as it was getting dark so instead of their jog from before they broke into a sprint to try and make it back to Eli before darkness made it harder to see things coming.
*************
The man that Bethany and Cody had been talking to limped away with three holes in his left thigh and a really pissed off look on his face. She was sure this was a show and he wasn't hurt or mad, aside from the first hit he took, she felt like he took the others on purpose. It was obvious this was all some kind of game, maybe to test them, or maybe just see what happens, she couldn't be sure but she knew it wasn't over.
"What do you think he meant by that? Cody asked Bethany as they watched him walk away with weapons still in their hands.
"By what?" Bethany asked, she had not been paying attention to him, getting lost in thought trying to figure out what the man's plan was.
"He said, 'Tell him that his life is in danger'"
"Oh, that," She said dismissively, "he probably was just hoping that we would let him talk to Ash if it sounded important," Bethany lied, she didn't want to say anything about it until she had more information to make a better guess. "Let's talk to Ash about it."
"That's all he said?" Eli asked after they explained it all to him. "No specifics or timeline?"
"That's it," Cody said
"Ok so he is definitely going to try and kill us," Eli said.
"What makes you say that?" Bethany asked, curious if he had already figured out what she couldn't or if he just had more information.
"That guy was strong, about as strong as Tara. Plus, there were three guys surrounding us ever since he left the barrier. They didn't get close, but I think one of them has some kind of movement skill related to wind or air, it was hard to make out. Either way, they were set for an ambush." Eli explained.
"The fact that he didn't hurt us and they didn't spring the ambush means their game is something else. Let's wait and see if the others come back with anything. I feel like there is something going on that we aren't seeing," Bethany said, tapping her finger to her chin in thought.
"I want to know how he hid his level, something in his magic was off, like he was altering or suppressing something." Eli said, as he scratched his chin, then noticed Bethany smiling at him while they both stood with similar body language. He smiled back, guessing at her thoughts.
"Stephen can do that," Cody said. "We have been working on altering ourselves to change what the system displays. I can't replicate what he does so we think it requires something people are born with."
"Huh," Eli said surprised. "Maybe he can teach all of us and see if we can do it too."
While discussing some possibilities of what these people could be up to, Eli saw the rest of their group approaching. They were moving fast, probably as fast as Audrey could move so they could stay together. They did not send any messages about danger so it was probably because they had information he needed or that they were being followed. While Eli's magic sense was far reaching, almost a one thousand feet, the divide of the safe zone barrier drastically reduced his range. While not seeing any problems, he was a little worried so he frantically searched around them to try and see if he could help with something.
They reached them shortly but stopped just shy of leaving the barrier. Bethany and Cody joined them inside the barrier and were exchanging information about what they all had seen and learned. Eli stayed out where he was, there was something off about his surroundings, a feeling in the air, a dangerous and spiteful feeling. There was definitely a trap about to be sprung on them, the magic in the air had tension, bloodlust, and envy in it, he glanced at his friends inside the barrier and made a choice. Instead of waiting to see what happened, Eli would make a large display of his power which would hopefully stop things like this from happening in the future.
He knew that this had to be big, flashy, and intimidating, something that was obvious for its power and easy to explain to others. The witnesses to this would need to describe it to others in a way people would easily understand, nothing that involved complex magic. His best solution was raw power in the form of an explosion, as big as he could make it. It's easy to understand a display of power when there's a large crater left behind. So he gathered up his internal magic, compressed it into a sphere and pushed it out of himself, which almost made him pass out having so much leave his body at once. Then, about ten feet over his head he used what magic he had left in an air detonation, compressing the magic further and igniting it. The explosion was, for all practical purposes, a magical nuclear bomb going off.
Eli was about one thousand feet from the barrier, but it still punched through and knocked all five of those from his group back about 50 feet. There was no flame, or smoke, only a magical wave or discordant energy knocking things back. He set the explosion off above his head so it pushed him deep into the ground. It all happened so fast, from an outside perspective, it must have looked like he self-destructed. The magic distortion cancelled any magic anyone was using, it even wrecked the enchantments on some of the more basic and weaker gear that his group was wearing. The magic came out in a rainbow of colors, with the most prevalent being red and purple, the purple having purple lightning accompanying it.
The magic cancelling revealed two things rather rapidly, one that there were people outside the barrier hiding, and two, that the safe zone barrier was stronger than they thought. Although the pressure wave and disruptive magic made it through, it was a fraction of what happened on the outside of it. There was a deep crater about 300 feet across and most of the trees in the area had been knocked over and blown away. Tara and the others got up and started to run towards the crater, but Bethany stopped them. She told them that there could be more bad guys out there just waiting for them to step out. They all just stared at the crater waiting for Eli to get up.