"Oh Lord Rakel," Eric chirped, giving him a little wave. "I heard you were looking for her. Thought i'd save you the stress."
Rakel's gaze never left Eric. "I see. And my men that I sent to get her? Where are they? Last I heard, they've buried their blades in her belly."
"Let's just say they volunteered for a crash course in gravity." he nudged the moaning guard at his feet with his toe. "This one was an eager participant too. But the main event is just starting."
Alley nodded, her face pale but determined.
"Good." Eric looked past Rakel into the main room of the brothel. It was a wide space of painted red to Eric's confusion because he didn't know if it was indeed painted red or it was the red bulb that gave it that hue. The insides was currently occupied by half a dozen more of Rakel's monstrous guards, who were slowly getting to their feet.
Eric raised my voice, projecting it into the room with a playful boom. "Alright, ladies! We're initiating a compulsory exercise. It is called 'Don't Get Set On Fire By A Girl.' Participation is mandatory!"
He turned back to Alley, lowering his voice to a soft whisper. "Okay, I don't think I have a plan 'cause these brutes are too weak for my plans. But I'm trying to make this fun for you. You're going to stand right here, in this open part of the hallway. Plenty of room to maneuver, see?
"They," he gestured with his thumb at the advancing guards, "are going to come at you, one or two at a time at first, then probably all at once when they realize you're not an easy target."
Her eyes were narrowed. "Six of them? All I need is a fire stream. The balls will only prolong the night, and I don't intend to do that."
"You have the almighty flamethrower built into your soul," said Eric, sounding like a real battle advisor with his dead serious tone. "You're not fighting to subdue them, Alley. You're fighting to turn them into charcoal. Remember the feeling. Just let the fire out and spray these walls hot. See, they don't even know you have the ability her, so they'll only attempt to capture you, which makes things even easier for you, and messier for them."
Eric fell back behind her with a majestic grin, a deep satisfaction spreading in him as he understood the feeling of being an instructor, a coach.
But what kinda instructor starts his first lesson with real life experience? And a deadly one at that. Should Alley make a tiny slipup in her attack, these guys will get her over with easily.
They look like they have the experience catching special beings. Yes, they should have panicked when they saw how I easily broke the arm of the biggest man here. But they kept their threatening aura, like what I did was nothing.
The first two guards, emboldened by their numbers and their boss's presence, charged. They were smart, trying to flank her. One came low, a thug-like tackle, while the other went high, swinging a heavy club.
"Left hand, low!" Eric called out, still pretending as if he was indeed adept in the instructor job.
What do I know? I'll just shout out commands and hope she listens. She don't need my commands anyway.
Here I go, my first job as an instructor. A dirty graduate of the Motherbase at the colony.
He leaned casually against the wall as if watching a mildly interesting sports match.
Alley reacted. A spurt of flame, wild and untrained, shot from both her palms. It wasn't a fireball, more of a fiery splash, but it was enough. It caught the low charger full in the face. He screamed, a truly horrific sound, running back and clawing at his burning features. The smell of burnt hair and cooked meat filled the hallway.
Now, that's how effective a fiery splash is. It burns you up and leaves its mark, if you pushed hard enough to make your attacker catch the fire. But it takes more energy than conjuring fireballs.
Eric was seeing Alley's stats on his screen, monitoring the changes as she uses those techniques. He was learning from it as well, calculating and envisioning himself and how he'd manage with the stat reduction whenever he fought with Pyrokinesis.
Her EP dropped a few points, I can see. Even more than it did when she conjured the fireball.
The guard with the club faltered for a split second after seeing that Alley wasn't going to be an easy capture. That was all the opening Alley needed.
"Now, right hand! Give him a proper hello!"
She pivoted, her body moving easily than she was normally accustomed to. This time, she had total control of the fire. A roaring ball of orange and red erupted from her right fist. It flew straight and true, making impact with the guard's chest with a solid bang. The force lifted him off his feet and sent him crashing into a nearby wall, which immediately erupted into flames but died down almost instantly.
"See?" Eric said, grinning. "You're a natural...no, you're supernatural."
"Sorry, have you heard that word before, 'cause I think I'm the one that came up with it. I mean, supernatural."
The remaining four guards hesitated, their bravado evaporating in the face of actual, raw elemental ability. Rakel watched from the doorway, his face an unreadable mask, but Eric could feel the thrum of his power intensifying. The floorboards beneath his feet groaned.
"I see you've quirked up in just a few days of betraying me, Queen," Rakel snarled furiously. "I don't know how you made that possible, but you must see that you're still not enough to handle my wrath."
"Don't just stand there!" he yelled. "She's just one girl! Overwhelm her!"
They came in a pack then forming a wall of muscle and rage.
"Alley, wide stance!" Eric barked, his playful tone gone, replaced by the coldness of a commander. "They're grouping up. Don't let them surround you."
She planted her feet, a deep frown on her face. As the four men closed in, she didn't try to aim. She crossed her arms over her chest and then flung them out wide, a dancer's move fueled by pure, unleashed fury.
Where did she learn that move?
She indeed is an ability geek. To know so much about abilities when she didn't even have one before. Pretty cool.
A wave of fire bloomed from her. It wasn't a projectile. It was a cone of incineration that filled the hallway. The guards' charge turned into a stumbling, shrieking retreat. Two of them were caught full in the blast, their bodies becoming living torches, their screams joining the horrific symphony of the brothel. The other two, on the edges, were badly scorched, their clothes smoking, their confidence utterly shattered.
The fire receded. Alley stood panting in the center of the carnage, surrounded by burning furniture and dying men. The air was thick with warmth and the sounds of agony. She was trembling, but she was standing. And she was powerful.
Eric pushed himself off the wall, clapping slowly. "Bravo! See? All you needed was the right motivation and a live audience."
Hell if I did anything.
If nothing, I even learnt from her. That conical fire she splashed on them was nothing but ecstatic.
What master steals a move from his slave? Me, I guess.
He walked over to her, stepping over a body without a second glance. Putting a hand on her shoulder, he said, "now, watch the master at work. You've handled the guards. Time for me to collect the boss."
Rakel hadn't run. A Tier-3 doesn't run from a single kid. Though he was visibly shocked by Alley's performance against his guards, he still stood his ground, his hands now clenched at his sides. The floor around him was shifting, the wooden planks cracking and splintering as chunks of rock and dirt pushed their way up from the foundation beneath.
"So," he said, his voice a low rumble. "You're not just a fast little freak. You're her new master. How did a kid like you get to completely get her under your custody when a strong man like me couldn't?"
"I prefer the term 'mentor'," Eric said, walking toward him calmly. "As regards how I got her, I simply gave her something she's always yearned for. What did you give her? Some brainwashing and a little paycheck to keep her running your slut house? Aren't you the manipulator who sold out his best employee to cover his own ass. Boring. Predictable. And frankly, a little pathetic."
"I see you've got a hang of what happened between us. I gave her a taste of power, and she had to betray me by disobeying the rules."
Rakel snarled and thrust his hands forward. The ground at Eric's feet erupted. A spike of jagged rock and compressed earth shot up, aiming to impale him from crotch to gullet. But, he felt the ground's tremor even before the rocks erupted.
A quick dash was all it took to escape Rakel's deadly attack.
"It's a pity you'll be destroying your beautiful floorboards. Terrakinesis is indeed a lame ability."