"You're a monster; an ordinary person can't have such strength at eighteen!" Peter yelled like a madman. Stop, he really is cut; I cut off his leg. "The four of us killed the three-eyed wolf yesterday! How did you manage to take us all down?!"
"Be quiet, will you?" I asked, catching my breath and giving him a stern look. "You can't escape without a leg anyway; live a little. Tell me about the Keepers, and I'll make your death as painless as possible." I smiled, heading towards him.
"What nonsense are you talking about! I won't tell you anything! You'd better hurry to help your buddies!" he yelled, flinching at the two daggers in my hand.
"Don't worry about them so much. You used this lure, right?" I asked, taking a recently purchased lure from my backpack. Peter's face made it clear that I was right. "Well, know this, this lure can attract, well, a couple of pack leaders at most, and then strong guys. Better tell me where all your things are; you should have soul vessels; I want them for myself."
"I won't tell you anything!" Peter shouted, but soon switched to a shriek due to the pain in his severed leg.
"Do you want me to inject painkillers?" I asked, taking a vial from my backpack along with a syringe. Peter nodded vigorously. "Then tell me where you left your things!"
"Not far from here; I'll show you, just stop the bleeding and inject the painkillers!" he shrieked, unable to bear the pain, though if he weren't a mage, he would have already lost consciousness.
"Show me," I said, after stopping the bleeding with a tourniquet and picking him up on my shoulders.
"And the painkillers?" he whined plaintively.
"When I find the things," I said confidently. "Show me, hurry up."
"Okay, let's go faster. Over there, in that direction," he said, sniffling and pointing the way. After a minute of walking, we reached a small clearing where traces of a camp were visible, and a couple of backpacks lay there.
Putting Peter on the ground and injecting him with painkillers, I began to sort through the things. I didn't have much time to examine them, so I threw all the notebooks and other items into my backpack, leaving the documents. I also found a couple of filled reusable soul vessels of servant level and one empty reusable soul vessel of pack leader level. Not a bad haul; I'll read the notes later at my leisure. Gathering all the things and Peter, I headed back to the scene of the slaughter.
"And now tell me, how do you want to die: by my dagger in the heart, quickly and painlessly, or after torture in the jaws of a wolf?" I asked Peter as I walked.
"Of old age at eighty in my own home! Don't kill me!" he screamed, starting to kick on my back.
"Sorry, that's a good joke, but you only have two options," I said, walking out onto the clearing and placing him in the center. "If you want a painless death, tell me everything you know about the Keepers," I said, heading to scatter the backpacks of the Jiaxing family members closer to their owners, although two of them were just bloody mush.
"I'll tell you, just make it so it doesn't hurt!" he begged when I returned to him.
"Okay, first, tell me how many mages you have and what level they are," I asked, sitting by his head.
"I don't know exactly, but we don't have many high-level mages. We are one of the noble families of Russia that guard ancient relics, but only we are called Keepers because we have the most preserved, three in total, if we count your tooth," he began to speak, gradually ceasing to whine and accepting his fate. "Only the supreme council of the family has reached a high level, and at the highest level, there can only be two people, the current head and his deputy. I don't know how many beginner and intermediate level mages there are, I think about three to five thousand, and non-mage members can be up to twenty thousand people. The family also owns a number of large companies and firms in the Far East and the Southern Urals."
"I see. Do you know what your clan guards, what relics or knowledge?" I asked the next question, simultaneously taking out the lure.
"You promised an easy death!" he yelled as soon as he saw it.
"Don't worry, you'll have an easy death, just speak faster, or I might not have time to kill you," I said, opening the iron box and spreading the lure. Now there were about three to four minutes left until the beasts would flock here.
"I know about three main relics: the dragon's tooth, the pendant of Perun, and the talisman of Stribog. I haven't heard about other relics, possibly just strong artifacts of the ancestors. There are also birch bark scrolls, where a couple of non-standard spells of various magics are recorded, but they are not shown to just anyone; there seems to be a worldwide ban on them, I don't know. I don't remember anything else," he said, trying not to forget anything.
"Okay, last question, who betrayed me, do you know his name or anything?" I asked, taking my dagger in hand.
"No, I wasn't told about that. I only know that this person has lived in China for a long time, has a family here, and has almost left the clan, but an order was given eleven years ago that if any member of the clan saw the dragon's tooth, they must report it. If they find out that you didn't report it, death awaits you. Usually, trusted spirit mages of the clan visited all members of the clan in China once a year and asked if they had seen the dragon's tooth; if the person lied, he understood it, even if the person forgot that they had seen it. I don't know anything else, kill me before the wolves come!" he begged, looking at the dagger, having finished his story.
I didn't torment him any longer and pierced his chest through the heart. I learned a lot. Firstly, that there are at least two more items in Russia comparable to my tooth, and judging by their names, they represent deities of the Slavic pantheon, something like Chinese totems. Then the question arises, what about my dragon's tooth, as they called it? It's probably connected to some dragon, possibly the well-known Gorynych, but that's for later. Secondly, the Keepers are clearly not an organization on the level of the Black Church; only a couple of high-level mages, who are unlikely to come for me so quickly, and there's also a shortage of high-level mages; they will probably send mid-level mages at their peak. I need to throw them off my trail, or they will kill me soon.
I mused as I approached the trees and climbed one of them. Thirdly, now I can figure out who betrayed me and, using that, throw the Keepers off my trail, buying myself a little more time. I need to hold out until I get into Minzhu; there I can calmly increase my strength. It's unlikely they will attack me there using high-level mages. But in any case, I need strength, and urgently! With a mage at the peak of mid-level, I might not be able to cope even in a one-on-one fight.
Meanwhile, about twenty one-eyed wolves ran onto the clearing, not all at once, of course, but gradually, but I think that's enough for now. I began to draw the star map of the wind while the wolves gnawed, tore, and scattered the belongings of the murderers and themselves. I need to leave at least a couple of wolf corpses here for credibility. Of course, I won't bring Lo Dong and the others here, but I'll say that someone scattered the lure and I was attacked by monsters, from which I barely managed to escape, and so on.
While I was drawing the star map, a three-eyed wolf came out onto the clearing. It approached the pile of minced meat that remained of Jiaxing Shan and began to devour it greedily; the other wolves were looking for a piece of delicacy. I chose the space under the belly of the three-eyed wolf as the place to deploy the spell; this would injure it and hit the bunch of one-eyed wolves.
The air currents condensed under the wolf and, a moment later, swirled into a fierce vortex, becoming full-fledged wind blades that literally tore and shredded everything in their path. A couple of wolves that were unlucky enough to be nearby were torn to shreds; another dozen received severe wounds from which they would not live long, they would be eaten. The three-eyed one received serious wounds to its paws, but continued to stand and retained its ability to move, and its belly was also slashed by the wind blades.
It howled in pain and began to circle, searching for the source of the attack, and soon noticed me, but unfortunately for it, almost ten seconds had passed, and I had completed another spell of wind blades. The activation site was the same as last time, directly under its belly. And again, a vortex of blades swirled beneath it, but it didn't wait to be completely minced and jumped towards me. However, this was a grave mistake; in its jump, its hind legs were attacked by blades and were almost torn to pieces.
The wolf landed right in front of the tree I was sitting on, and the hindquarters of its body crashed to the ground with a roar. Seizing the moment, I released the wrath of lightning directly into its upper eye, and a moment later, I pushed off the tree branch and jumped onto its muzzle, piercing its two eyes with daggers. Immediately after that, I tried to jump back and attack from a distance, but the fatigue after the battle with two mid-level mages took its toll, and the wolf, starting to thrash, threw me off.
Fortunately, most of the one-eyed wolves on the clearing were unable to move, so after a not very successful landing, I ended up with a sprained ankle, which could essentially mean my death if I couldn't overcome the pain. Quickly climbing the nearest tree using the wind step, I looked at the three-eyed one; it stopped thrashing its head and began to sniff and listen, searching for me. This was a real chance to kill it; everything was falling into place perfectly! So, I stayed and began to draw the star map, the whole process accompanied by increasingly severe headaches, but I only concentrated harder on the spell.
When I had only a little left, it looked directly at me and, with great effort, rose on its hind legs and stumbled towards me. Literally at the last moment before its charge, I finished the spell and activated it again under it, but this time closer to its already torn belly. The wind blades swirled again, and I felt dizzy and almost fell from the tree; after all, three consecutive, albeit with a short break, mid-level magics are a lot for me. Suddenly, I hunched over and vomited downwards, onto a one-eyed wolf that had approached the tree. Looking closely, I realized I was vomiting blood, and blood had been flowing from my nose for a long time! Damn, I didn't notice it while concentrating on drawing the star map! Damn greed!
However, it wasn't in vain that I subjected myself to such exhaustion; there was a whole soul left from the three-eyed wolf! I quickly took out the corresponding vessel and enclosed the soul in it; that's a whole mountain of money! I can buy a good artifact! Just then, more one-eyed wolves started approaching me, with a clear desire to have a bite of me. I tried to draw the star path of lightning, but my head throbbed with such pain that it was clear I needed to rest.
I didn't have much choice; sooner or later, they would climb the tree, so I had to hide from them among the branches and head towards the group. I hope they dealt with whoever those fools lured. Climbing higher into the tree, I began to move from branch to branch, from tree to tree. In my condition and without the help of the wind step, it was difficult, but the wolves weren't particularly eager to come to me either; after all, there was plenty of food below, even the carcass of the leader.
I moved like this for about five minutes until the last wolf fell behind, and I could sit down and rest. After all, a pile of meat on the ground is more attractive to wolves than a monkey in a tree. Now, drawing the star path caused less headaches, but they were still there; I would have to rest for quite a long time after this. Suddenly, a radio signal came from my backpack.
"Jiaxing Yun, how could you miss the monsters on our path? We almost died defending ourselves from them!" a furious voice from the radio snapped as I pulled it out.
"Wolves attacked you too? There was no one when I passed. I only went about a kilometer further when a whole pack attacked me! I barely managed to escape, I can't even create magic right now," I said in a quiet, exhausted voice. I didn't even need to fake it. "Where are you? I'll head your way. Where is Lieutenant Luo Dong now?"