Dren's steps suddenly halted.
He looked ahead, in a seeming inconsequential direction, with a neutral expression.
Neutral, yes - but to anyone who'd spent enough time around Dren, that utter emotionlessness would've sent several shivers down the spine.
The old man was angry, and not just with his trouble inclined disciple.
The Black Lake Healer arts were developed by Dren himself; naturally, he'd created several precautions to ensure his underlings' survival.
One of those precautions was a sort of 'connection' he shared with every member of his Syndicate, allowing him to sense their rough positions so long as the Veil of Darkness remained active.
But, that was the crux of the problem - the connection wouldn't get severed from simple exhaustion in battle, making false positives impossible. So long as even the slightest trace of essence remained in their bodies, the connection remained intact.
Some would call it inefficient, or perhaps foolish, to permanently dedicate a portion of a resources as precious as essence to an intangible connection, yet that wasn't a concern for Dren.
He'd raised his people well, to the point that such a meager amount of energy was nothing worth fussing over. Which only meant one of two things:
Eighty Fourth might've died in battle. It was possible, as the mission assigned to her was a dangerous one, however another possibility also remained.
She could've been tortured or brainwashed into manually deactivating Veil of Darkness…
Regardless of which it was, the conclusion was the same-
"Eighty Fourth is in trouble."
-That much was guaranteed.
Once again, Dren cast his deadpan gaze in the same direction as before.
The connection was severed from there. So, she's still inside Stone Cauldron's camp. Did they break our truce, after all?
"Hmpf."
Without wasting any more time on pointless assumptions, the old man grumbled under his breath and changed destination.
His disciple could wait - he had to see what happened to Eighty Fourth for himself, immediately.
*Whoooom*
Following a deep hum, the air warped, as if distorted by an immense force. The blinding rays of sun dimmed around Dren's frame, forced into submission by his overwhelming and all encompassing shadow.
Like a splotch of black ink, shapeless and infinitely deep, the Black Lake Syndicate Head darted away.
Whether Eighty Fourth died in battle, or the Stone Cauldron rats broke their promise and harmed his loyal underling…
If it really was the latter, Stone Cauldron's mighty forces might just end up as nothing more than a pile of rubble on this day.
***
My fingers nimbly manipulated a heap of threads that were spread out on a shabby bed, thought my thoughts were elsewhere.
Namely, I was in the middle of a desperate attempt to construct some form of coherent schedule that would also save my ass in the process.
First and foremost, I'd decided to gun for it.
Well, what else did you expect?
Thing is, this situation actually worked in my favor… If I really put my mind into it and went full delusional.
With Master's appearance now being inevitable, I figured that step one would be to get away from the camp, and did just that.
Oh, and I told the clumsy girl to keep her Veil of Darkness off, so that Master wastes his time rushing to her rescue.
Fingers crossed, that gives me enough time to get far away. If not… Yeah, I'd rather not think about it.
Ignoring the chilling sensation that enveloped me at the thought of my future punishment, I brought my thoughts back on track.
Thankfully, convincing - no, coercing - Eighty Fourth into staying put and waiting for Dren's arrival was as simple as got:
Some light pressure mixed with a twinge of Voracity's fear induction, and she instantly complied.
She did look to be on the verge of tears, thought.
Your sacrifice won't be forgotten, Eighty Fourth. May Master have mercy on your soul.
Anyways-
Step two was completing my disguise; the one I'm currently working on, matter of fact.
Thing is, I still wanna join the tournament. It's gotten a bit harder, yes, but not necessarily impossible.
Though hiding from Master is a good enough reason on its own, in truth there were better ways of going about it. Like hiding in a cave.
More importantly, my restriction on using Voracity to feed myself - imposed against my will - was only gonna stay in effect for another two weeks.
After that, I'll need to join plenty of battles to satiate my hunger, but doing so as 'Ori' would be troublesome.
As for proof, I needed not look any further than my most recent squabble with Coralridge's nerds. The fight itself went fine, of course, but explaining who I am and giving a backstory every damn time I ran into a new group of people, as well as choosing which side to pick, sounded god awful.
Plus, I really can't just go around announcing my presence with Master on my tail.
So, the best course of action was to fight undercover, hence my insistence on joining the tournament.
As long as I secured a good enough position, nobody would suspect a thing - Master hopefully included - and I would be able to gorge to my heart's content.
Still, Dren will no doubt flip the world on its head in search of me, so my chances of getting away with a plain disguise is basically null.
"Heh, but who's to say I have to use a plain disguise?"
I snickered under my breath, a smile creeping in without my noticing.
All I had to do was craft a perfect disguise - one so starkly different from my usual appearance that even someone like Master could mistake me for another person.
How?
Easy. Easy for me, at least.
Nobody else could do it; but I, a Threadripper? Piece of cake.
"Hey, ya listening?"
I spoke into thin air, not a person in sight, yet-
"What… Is… It?"
A deep growl resounded from inside my head, quite literally.
"What do you think is a perfect disguise that would fool Master? Ah, and it's a trick question, cuz only I have the answer."
"I.. Do Not… Know…"
Seemingly displeased to have its rest disturbed, Voracity responded with little enthusiasm.
"Well of course, it would be the look of a girl. But, don't you think a simple dress up is too obvious?"
I smugly rested my chin on the palm of my head as I spoke.
"Cross dressing is for lowlifes."
"…"
Unbothered by the unpaid resident's bland reaction, I continued:
"No, my plan is much better; why dress like a girl, when I can physically transform into one?"
My genius is insurmountable.
"Behold, my new persona… Ori, the noble Lady!!"
"Absurd."
Huh, that's a new word in Voracity's vocabulary. Wonder who taught it that?
And so, I was ready to announce the appearance of a new, never before seen genius to the world.
Young Lady Ori of Stone Cauldron.
The uhh… The name's subject to change.