Chapter 62: Karrn

Chapter 62: Chapter 62: Karrn

"Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt."

— Sun Tzu, The Art of War

The heavy wooden door of the safehouse clicked shut behind them.

Garreth walked past Riven without saying a word.

He crossed the dim room and tossed a heavy canvas coin pouch onto the scarred wooden table.

Clink.

The sound was different from ordinary coin.

Heavier.

Denser.

Riven looked toward the pouch.

Garreth pulled the string open.

Inside were several pieces of high grade silver bullion.

"This is your share."

Riven picked up one of the pieces.

It was worth more than several ordinary silver coins.

"For a D+ Rank adventurer, the guild would never pay this much," Riven said.

"Of course not."

Garreth leaned against the table.

"The guild pays according to rank. They have regulations, paperwork, limits, and people who have never seen the things they’re putting prices on."

Riven placed the silver back into the pouch.

"And the underground?"

"They pay for results."

Garreth pushed the pouch toward him.

"Nobody down here cares that you’re nine years old. Nobody cares that your adventurer card says D+. If the target is dead and the job is clean, they pay."

Riven picked up the pouch.

It was heavier than he expected.

He had been taking official guild quests every now and then.

Enough to keep his name active.

But the official jobs were not where the real money was.

The underground contracts paid far more.

They were also far more dangerous.

Garreth reached beneath his cloak and pulled out a fresh dossier.

He slid it across the table.

The cover was stained with dried blood.

Riven opened the dossier.

A rough sketch of a man was attached to the first page.

Large.

Broad shoulders.

Short hair.

A scar running from his left temple down to his jaw.

"Karrn," Garreth said.

Riven continued reading.

"Former enforcer. High Tier lightning user. Independent mercenary squad. Several caravan attacks."

"That’s the polite version."

Garreth tapped the page.

"Karrn has been ripping apart supply caravans crossing the basalt canyons outside the outer rim."

Riven flipped the page.

Three dead merchants.

Six missing guards.

Two destroyed wagons.

Several witnesses reported lightning magic.

Then he saw the important part.

"Spatial shield generator."

Garreth nodded.

"Built into his equipment. Probably stolen from a military contractor."

Riven studied the description.

"A portable barrier?"

"Something close to it."

Garreth folded his arms.

"It won’t make him invincible. But it will make ordinary attacks much harder to land."

Riven looked up.

"How strong?"

"Strong enough that I don’t want you treating this like the spellcaster you killed yesterday."

Garreth’s voice became colder.

"The contracts you’ve been taking are now operating around the C+ to B- threat range."

Riven closed the dossier.

"Meaning?"

"Meaning your mistakes will hurt."

Garreth pushed himself away from the table.

"This one is yours."

Riven stood.

"What are you doing?"

"Watching."

Garreth’s eyes narrowed.

"If you need me to save you, you’ve already failed."

Riven slipped the dossier into his pouch.

Garreth pointed toward the door.

"Bring me Karrn’s head."

Riven nodded.

Then he left.

The wind screamed through the basalt canyons.

Towering black pillars of volcanic stone rose from the earth on both sides of the canyon, forming a maze of narrow passages and steep cliffs.

Riven crouched on the edge of one of those cliffs.

Twenty feet below, a caravan had stopped in the middle of the canyon.

Three armored mercenaries guarded a heavy wagon.

Their weapons were already drawn.

Karrn stood near the front of the wagon.

He was enormous.

Lightning crawled across his arms.

Riven watched from above.

The wind carried the smell of ozone.

He studied the guards.

One was watching the northern path.

One was watching the wagon.

The third kept looking toward the cliffs.

Karrn was the dangerous one.

Riven’s hand settled on the hilt of his sword.

He took one breath.

Then stepped off the cliff.

He fell twenty feet.

His body remained completely relaxed.

Just before landing, he bent his knees.

His feet touched the loose shale.

Nothing.

No crunch.

No scrape.

No sound.

Acoustic Dampening.

Riven had trained the technique until silence had become part of his natural movement.

It was not simply a magical effect.

He controlled every part of his body that could produce noise.

His feet landed softly.

His knees absorbed the remaining force.

His muscles adjusted before the stones beneath him could shift.

The nearest mercenary never noticed.

Riven moved.

Darkness gathered around his body.

Shadow Leap.

His core pushed shadow mana through his body.

Riven vanished from his position.

A fraction of a second later, he appeared beside the crate.

The technique did not allow him to freely teleport anywhere.

He needed darkness and a suitable destination.

But inside an environment like this, with shadows cast between the towering rocks, those limitations barely mattered.

The nearest mercenary turned.

Riven’s hand moved.

A thin strand of darkness formed between his fingers.

Then it hardened.

Umbral Needle.

Riven compressed shadow mana into an extremely small projectile.

The smaller the projectile, the less mana he needed to spend.

The result was a fast, penetrating attack designed to strike vulnerable areas.

The needle flew.

It slipped through the narrow gap beneath the mercenary’s helmet.

The man froze.

Then collapsed.

Riven caught the body before it struck the ground.

He lowered it quietly behind the crate.

The second mercenary saw him.

"What the..."

The man ripped a heavy spiked chain from his belt.

He swung.

The weapon tore through the air.

Riven activated Vantablack Shroud.

Shadow mana spread across his skin.

The darkness absorbed the surrounding light and distorted the outline of his body.

That made it difficult to determine exactly where he was.

But the Shroud did more than conceal him.

The dense layer of shadow mana surrounding his body could also disperse part of the force from physical attacks.

The chain struck his shoulder.

The impact pushed him backward.

But it did not break bone.

Riven turned with the force instead of resisting it directly.

The chain slid off his shoulder.

The mercenary stared.

Riven was already moving.

The third mercenary rushed from the opposite side.

A combat knife burned with orange flame in his hand.

He swung toward Riven’s ribs.

Riven disappeared.

Phantom Step.

His body shifted away from the attack.

At the same time, a dense shadow afterimage remained where he had been standing.

The flaming knife struck the afterimage.

The concentrated shadow absorbed the blow.

The copy distorted violently.

Then collapsed into black smoke.

The mercenary’s eyes widened.

Riven appeared beside him.

His sword was already drawn.

A clean cut.

The mercenary dropped.

Riven turned.

The second guard was still standing.

The man charged with the spiked chain.

Riven stepped forward.

He did not retreat.

The chain came down.

Riven shifted his weight.

The weapon passed over his head.

He stepped inside the man’s reach.

Then drove the pommel of his sword into the guard’s jaw.

The man stumbled.

Riven followed with a precise strike.

The guard collapsed beside the wagon.

Three mercenaries.

Three bodies.

Less than ten seconds.

Then the lightning began to crackle louder.

Riven slowly turned.

Karrn was staring at him.

The man’s expression was no longer confused.

It was furious.

"You little bastard."

Lightning exploded from his body.

The stones around his boots cracked.

Riven’s eyes narrowed.

This was different.

Karrn raised both hands.

Mana gathered above him.

A massive sphere of lightning began forming between his palms.

The air trembled.

The hairs on Riven’s arms stood upright.

Karrn grinned.

"You think you’re fast?"

The lightning sphere grew larger.

"You’ll burn with the rest of them."

Riven watched.

He did not move.

Mana was flowing from Karrn’s core.

The energy was being compressed into the lightning sphere.

Riven focused.

Garreth’s lessons returned to him.

Do not attack the spell.

Attack what allows the spell to exist.

Riven raised his left hand.

Shadow mana gathered around his fingers.

He could feel the structure.

The weak points.

The connections.

The anchors.

Disturb Magic.

Riven struck.

The technique sent a concentrated spatial disruption through the spell’s structure.

At his current level, Disturb Magic was still developing.

It consumed a significant amount of mana.

It also required extreme precision.

But Riven had been training it for months.

The first anchor broke.

Then the second.

Then the third.

The lightning sphere flickered.

Karrn’s grin disappeared.

"What?"

The entire spell collapsed.

The accumulated mana vanished into the air.

No explosion.

The spell simply ceased to exist.

Karrn stared at his empty hands.

Riven was already moving.

Shadow gathered beneath his feet.

Shadow Leap.

He disappeared.

Karrn turned.

Too late.

Riven emerged from the darkness beside him.

Karrn swung his arm.

Lightning exploded from his fist.

The dark mana covering Riven’s body absorbed the first wave of force.

Riven twisted away from the second.

Lightning tore past his shoulder.

He felt the heat.

Then he stepped inside Karrn’s reach.

The rogue enforcer tried to bring his other hand down.

Riven used Phantom Step.

His body shifted.

The dense shadow afterimage remained in his place.

Karrn’s fist struck the copy.

The afterimage absorbed the impact and collapsed.

Riven appeared behind him.

Karrn spun.

Riven’s sword was already moving.

His technique was not about overpowering stronger opponents.

It was about timing.

Position.

Precision.

He had spent years learning how to turn the smallest opening into a decisive attack.

Krrk.

The blade struck.

Karrn froze.

The lightning around his body flickered.

His knees buckled.

He fell forward.

Riven caught him before he hit the ground and lowered him onto the stone.

Silence returned to the canyon.

Riven stood there for several seconds.

His chest rose and fell.

The shadows faded from his skin.

His core continued to pulse steadily.

This fight had been harder than the last.

Not because Karrn had been faster.

Not because he had been more skilled.

Because his raw power had been significantly higher.

Riven looked down at the body.

He crouched beside Karrn.

Then retrieved the blood stained dossier.

He marked the contract as complete.

Riven looked up toward the cliffs.

For a moment, he could feel someone watching him.

Garreth.

Riven said nothing.

He simply turned toward the canyon exit.

Another contract completed.

Another step forward.