Chapter 17

"Dagger of Time?" Mercury read the words in a whisper. "Who was that woman? And why appear now?" these were questions that Mercury wanted answers to.

Tapping the skill tree, the related abilities appeared before him.

Recall.

Slow.

Sandstorm.

Premonition.

"Only four?" Mercury said to himself. "That's pretty low compared to the other skill trees..."

Equipping the related dagger, a line of sand twirled around the weapon changing its look to a slightly longer blade with engravings. The hilt had a jewel imbued just below the blade and the weapon itself looked a bit ancient in design.

A small cartridge was held in the hilt, sand twirling like a mini whirlwind inside it. Mercury was actually rather fond of the design.

Feeling a tap on his shoulder, he glanced over to see Makoto leaning over the seat, her hair grey. Pointing at the dagger, Mercury held it up slightly. "This?"

Makoto nodded.

"I just got it." Mercury said. "I'm not sure what it can do, yet."

Putting the dagger away, Mercury leaned back. Looking forward, Mercury saw a village off the path to their right. "Daenerys."

"Hmm?" Daenerys looked back.

Let's stop at that village to get something to eat. I'd also bet that there's a few things we might be able to do for some coin."

"'Kay."

Turning down the path on the right, it wasn't long before they reached the village.

Hopping off the carriage after parking, Mercury unhooked Daenerys who changed back to her human form. While Mercury grabbed a few spare items from the back, Daenerys noticed something a bit off about the village.

"Mercury?" Daenerys said, getting his attention.

"Yeah?" he asked while continuing to grab the items.

"Where is everybody?"

Looking around, Mercury realized the village was rather quiet. No one was on the streets, not even a stray cat or dog.

Pulling out his weapons, Mercury felt a sudden wave of uneasiness. "Keep your guard up." he told his party. "Something isn't right."

Moving cautiously through the village, Mercury noticed one of the building's doors was knocked off its hinges. Along with the knocked down door was a bloodied body of a grown woman.

"What happened?" Daenerys asked.

"I don't know." Mercury said as Makoto's hair turned a bright purple, showing she was nervous.

Heading over to the door, Mercury knelt down, putting away one if his daggers and placing his hand on the back of the woman. Getting a better look at her, he saw she was a Demihuman with a pair of cat ears and tail.

As he stared at the woman's body, Mercury activated the skill "recall."

Suddenly, a ghost like vision appeared before his eyes, showing what had happened. Time seemed to go backwards as the events reversed, showing the woman had been thrown through the door, knocking the door off its hinges. Following the vision, he saw she was stabbed in the chest by someone who jumped out from the shadows.

As the vision continued to reverse, Mercury saw she was running from a group of bandits holding weapons high above them.

Suddenly, the vision stopped.

After a second, the vision played normally, ending with the woman being stabbed and thrown through the door of this building.

"The village was attacked by bandits." Mercury said.

"How do you know that?" Daenerys asked.

"It's a new ability." Mercury replied. "It showed me what had happened." he stared down at the woman's body.

"We should move on." Daenerys said. "I have a bad feeling about this place."

"Yeah, I-" a sudden gut feeling shot through Mercury like a bullet. Grabbing Makoto's arm, Mercury pulled her into the building as an arrow flew by where she was standing, hitting the wall on the other end of the room.

Next, Mercury quickly pushed Daenerys out of the way, getting an arrow in the shoulder. Ignoring the pain, Mercury retreated into the building. Leaning against the wall, Mercury groaned in pain as he ripped the arrow out of his shoulder, throwing it to the ground. "Daenerys!"

Rushing inside, Makoto drew her blade as Daenerys tried to peek out, only for a third arrow to hit the doorframe right beside her head. Quickly hiding behind cover, she wanted to change into her dragon form, but the room was too small.

"Get out here!" they heard a man's voice shout. "We'll make it painless!"

Glancing out, a fourth arrow was shot, cutting Mercury's cheek right under his left eye. Touching the wound, blood coated his index and middle fingers on his left hand.

Pinned with no long range weapons, Mercury opened his skill tree. Seeing his new skills, he looked at the descriptions. Slow allowed him to slow everything but himself, and sandstorm allowed him to move faster than physically possible for only a few seconds.

Coming up with a plan, Mercury closed his menu.

"I got this." he told his party.

"What're you going to-"

"Once there's an opening, I'm gonna need you to transform, Daenerys." Mercury told her.

Peeking outside, a large group of bandits approached the building Mercury, Makoto and Daenerys hid in.

"Hand over your valuables and we'll spare your lives." the bandit leader said.

Keeping quiet, Mercury readied his dagger. Activating his 'slow' skill, Mercury dashed outside. Slashing the throats of the bandits closest to their leader, he wrapped his arm around the leader's neck, pressing his blade hard against his back as his skill wore off.

The other bandits were shocked at their dead comrades and leader taken hostage, seemingly in the blink of an eye.

"Back off!" Mercury growled as he pulled the leader away from the bandits.

"How-?"

"Shut up!" Mercury cut the leader off as he moved his blade from the leader's back to his throat. "I swear to God, I'll kill this bastard!"

Suddenly, Daenerys rushed out, transforming into her dragon form and launching a column of fire into the sky to intimidate the other bandits.

Makoto quickly joined in, her weapon at the ready.

As he held the leader captive, Mercury counted eight bandits with one or two hiding in the trees.

"Daenerys, kill them." he told her.

Instead of arguing like last time, Daenerys pulled her head back and launched a column of fire at the bandits, cooking six of them alive. The other two tried to make a run for it, but Daenerys trapped them under her talons.

At this point, the leader wiggled out of Mercury's grasp. Turning around, he pulled out a small blade, attempting to stab Mercury. Grabbing the bandit leader's arm, Mercury stabbed the leader in his throat.

"That was dumb." Mercury said as he cleaned off his blade. Sheathing it, Makoto and Daenerys returned with Daenerys shifting back to her human form.

"The rest are dead." Daenerys told Mercury. She may have been reluctant to kill before, but now she didn't hesitate when it came to the safety of her friends.

Mercury didn't respond as he knelt down to loot the dead bandit leader. Finding a coin purse attached to his belt, Mercury took it and had a look inside.

Filled almost to the brim were shiny golden coins.

"Nice." Mercury chuckled to himself as he took the coin purse as his own.

Heading back to the carriage, Mercury suddenly frowned. "We'll have to tell the king about what happened here. I'd bet this village is in his kingdom." he hooked Daenerys up to the carriage.

Makoto sat down in the back of the carriage, clearly just as pissed about having to go back to Melromarc. "Damnit!" Mercury punched the empty spot beside him.

"Why not just continue to Siltvelt?" Daenerys asked.

Looking towards the village, Mercury sighed. "Screw it. Screw Melromarc. I doubt that shitty king'll do something other than shrug his shoulders and leave it at that. That whole kingdom hates Demihumans, so I highly doubt he'd do something about this. Keep following the path."

Daenerys nodded before doing as told. However, as the carriage began to move, she looked back at Mercury. "How did you know to push me and Makoto out of the way?"

End of chapter 17