Rise of the Nightmare Crestmaster

Aldrich barged in through the dust and rubble like a hunter in pursuit of his prey. He surveyed his surroundings and spotted the she-orc, flopped over with her body in shambles.

But alive. Which honestly shocked Aldrich, he did not think that it was possible to survive that attack when it was taken head-on and at such close proximity.

This room had some kind of bar and the stench of alcohol and smoke was clear as day. Immediately most people ran away in panic.

He frowned and looked around at the rest of the low lives, the reason he didn't rush in to finish her off yet was because he would leave an opening for another Crestmaster to ambush him.

He walked over slowly over to the half-orc and raised his sword. And then swung to the left. His ears rang and his hand shook.

The dwarf behind the bar shot at him with a shotgun but he blocked with the sword. He guessed that there were nine pellets meaning that it was a 00 buckshot. It was dangerous even for a Crestmaster.

It's not that he was faster than a bullet but his sense of danger and perception were that good, to the point he moved before he was shot.

A shotgun was powerful but it took too long to reload, especially for someone as fas as Aldrich. But he didn't attack the bartender but ducked down and performed a wide sweep with his leg to his left.

The halfling hiding behind a flipped table had a crossbow aimed at him, if he attacked the dwarf he would have been shot in the back when he least expected it.

The halfling's bones broke on contact. His ribs punctured his lungs and that was it for him. The bartender dwarf was also dead. His invisible sword slashed open his throat when he turned around to deal with halfling.

Aldrich didn't waste any time and moved on to his true target the she-orc who was trying to muster her strength in vain.

However!

Before he could finish her, he was aware of a new presence by the destroyed room, it was a human man who was brimming with Ether. He was showing off his status as a Crestmaster openly.

A fireball twice the size of his head was hurled at him. He had to make a choice to kill the orc which would lead to him taking the hit directly.

Or, dodged to the side and look for another chance to kill her. But what if she was healed by a cleric while he was busy with the Pyromancer? If they teamed up against him he was done for.

If so then he had to kill the orc even if it meant taking the hit. Is probably what the pyromancer thought Aldrich would do.

But Aldrich didn't show any signs of hesitation at all he abandoned his attack on the orc and evaded the fireball. In an instant he activated [Light Step] and [invisible sword].

He would have like to used the invisible sword to ambush and kill the pyromancer but he was too far away and the sword only had a five meter radius. So he aimed it at the orc.

The pyromancer was astonished by the turn of events and watch in shock as something stabbed the orc through the forehead ending her miserable existence.

Aldrich was intent on ending the battle in one strike but something unexpected happened he felt his vision blur and twist.

Without knowing where he was going and what happened, with that speed he missed the pyromancer and crashed into the wall awkwardly.

At least he finally kill the annoying she-orc. Aldrich turned around but before he could do anything else he was bathed with a stream of fire.

"Aaaaggh!"

Aldrich braved through the burns, jumped away, rolled and aimed for an opening but the pyromancer just didn't stop he turned around with the stream of flames firing everywhere.

The wood and the room itself started to burn, Aldrich was kept at an arm's length and couldn't get close enough. He had to stay on the move or he risked being burnt to a crisp.

He wanted to keep running and let this asshole exhaust his Ether, he wanted to see how long he can last but when he looked around he grimaced.

If the place burned at this rate he would run out of oxygen and die of suffocating. Running around was not an option, he had to fine an opening.

Aldrich got an idea, while running he scooped up some rubble and shot a few at the unsuspecting pyromancer. He had to use his environment to his advantage.

"Agh!"

The pebbles were small but thrown by Aldrich they became deadly. The pyromancer was hit in the head and fell backwards, finally the flame stopped.

Pyromancers did not get the bulk of their enhancement into physique or endurance when they advanced. Otherwise it would not have worked.

Aldrich stomped on the ground and dashed, he was not about to waste this chance.

The pyromancer was in panic as he felt the danger approaching, in fact as soon as he fell down with his forehead bleeding thanks to the pebbles he reached out his hand and held a colorless orb.

"Disorienting orb!"

Aldrich once again felt that feeling, other than his vision he also felt like he forgot what he was doing and why?

It was this wondrous item! Aldrich knew, it was what caused him to lose sight of Keld in the street today. With seething anger he activated the [flames of damnation] and slashed.

"Curse you!!" The pyromancer squealed as he scrambled to his feet. Aldrich had only mange to take his left arm thereby he lost the Disorienting orb.

Before Aldrich could do anything he was boasted with a ring of fire that the pyromancer conjured faster than expected. He only managed to move out of the direction a bit but the explosion still got him.

The explosion seared his skin and sent him flying. Aldrich tried to summon his strength but it failed him. He used too many skills and exhausted his own stamina and energy.

The pyromancer gritted his teeth and ignored the insane pain of his removed arm. He pointed at the exhausted and burnt Aldrich, he didn't want to leave anything behind so he took a moment to charge his final attack.

"[Burning doom!]—"

However just as he was about to fire it off he was aware of a stab at his back, but he couldn't do anything it was too late, someone got too close to him without him even noticing. He focused too much on Aldrich.

"[Guttural dagger]"

A dagger from behind got him. It was Cole who remained inconspicuous. However, unexpectedly the dagger did not complete the job, as if it was stuck in the shirt of the pyromancer.

Even then it still drew blood and Cole immediately retreated after seeing that his ambush failed.

"The second one? But… how?" The pyromancer grumbled and frowned, "how? In that condition? …hm?! Where is your cleric friend hiding? Huh? Come out we can talk about this. It's a misunderstanding by my stupid underlings, we can talk about it."

The three were in a stalemate, and silently observed. Aldrich understood what was going on. The pyromancer deduced that they must have a cleric helping them since their heavy injuries were healed.

It was a reasonable guess, perhaps at the start he thought that it was odd that Aldrich was fine but he could chug it up to someone messing up. However after seeing Cole he knew that it was more than a mistake.

Cole looked confused at the question so Aldrich hurriedly answered, "wouldn't you like to know? Eh? Look at your situation, you think we'll give you an answer?"

Aldrich made sure to sound as confident and condescending as possible. The pyromancer paled at his words.

_{𝑓r𝘦𝘦𝘄eb𝒏𝙤vel.c𝙤𝙢}

"… like I said, this was a big misunderstanding. You're guild members of the Knights of Last Sustar, we can talk about this…"

"Where are our things?" Aldrich asked for starters.

"Here, we got them." Cole looked at him and showed him a backpack. Good it looks like he got that covered.

"…what are you doing?" The pyromancer asked looking nervous.

Aldrich smirked, "we're going out of here that's what. You sent for your goons out there right? You were trying to stall for time. Stay put and we'll get out of here."

The pyromancer looked shocked, he was indeed doing that. Good thing Aldrich overheard them talking about it when he first regained consciousness.

"You can go, you can go. You agree this is over right? The subordinate responsible was killed by you already. Let's forget about this whole thing."

"… one question," Aldrich pointed at the Disorienting orb clenched in the pyromancer's severed left arm, "this thing, does it cause hallucinations?"

"Eh? No, it just causes confusion for a moment that's all."

Aldrich bit his lower lip in a mixture of conflicting emotions, he knew now for a fact that Keld was here in Voryhrm.