8 Chapter 8 - Village Resolution

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" asked Lory in a worried tone for the hundredth time.

I sighed, "Lory, it's going to be fine, just relax. it'll over before you know it." If I had known that Lory would become this worried, I wouldn't have told him until after the quest was done. He hadn't disagreed with me, but I could tell that he was worried about my safety. I snorted to myself at that, "if only you knew," I muttered under my breath.

"If only I knew what?" said Lory and I turned to him what a slightly shocked looked on my face, "Do you have super hearing or something?"

He just pointed to his feline ears, "Beastkin. Remember?" and I nodded, "Oh yeah." We walked the rest of the way to the main room in awkward silence and the moment we walked into the room Ron's eyes locked onto mine and he ran over.

He stopped in front of me and I noticed that he looked nervous and was sweating quite a bit. I raised a questioning eyebrow at him, "You ok Ron?" He went to nod, but stopped halfway, then bit his lip, "We may have a problem."

"A problem?" I asked. Oh no, I thought to myself. Had the instructions I had given really been that hard?

He looked around the room and I followed his gaze, noticing that there was no one else but us.

"I got everyone to head to Rory's house, but," he hesitated and sent me an apologetic look, "It turned into a full-blown riot."

That just gave me more questions. "What did you say or spread to get them to go to Rory's house.

He looked at bit sheepish at that question. "I may or may not have suggested that he was planning on selling some of us to slavers."

I heard Lory wince from beside me, but I kept my focus on Ron. It was time to play my role as a king. "Ron its doesn't matter now, just go and try to keep them at bay for a couple of minutes." The words were clear and commanding, and my expression became completely serious. Ron flinched at my voice for some odd reason and hastily nodded before running to the door. I turned to Lory, "Go to Lemma I'll call for you when this is all over." He still looked slightly worried, but didn't voice it again and instead just gave me a resolute nod. I returned it and focused on Leone and Domino. I sent them to storage then immediately resummoned them and Lilah next to me. Lilah walked over to my side while Leone and Domino both looked slightly confused for a second but then their eyes landed on me.

When they noticed my expression there smiles fell and looked at me questioningly "Time to free this village," I said and turned to Domino, "leone will tell everything you need to know on the way there." She nodded, "No problem. I'm dying for some action." We headed out of the Inn together and were able to easily hear the sound of distant shouting. We followed the sound and spotted no one on our way there. Well at least Ron did a good job In getting everyone to go there, I thought.

After 5 more minutes of walking, we finally saw the large crowd of villagers. They were all gathered in front of a large 2 story wooden house that looked in much better condition than the rest of the village. The house did still look pretty old and worn down, but compared to some of the other houses, which looked to be on the verge of falling over, it looked like a 5-star hotel. Probably the village chief's house, I thought to myself. I wasn't able to see what was going at the front as we were at the back, so I raised my voice and tried to get everyone's attention, but my voice just blended in with the rest of the shouts and yells.

I went to shout once more but was interrupted by a loud bang. The villagers stopped and I turned to see Domino holding a black pistol in the air. She shot me a grin and I sent her an appreciative nod. I turned back to see the eyes of all the villagers on us and cleared my voice.

"I'm the mage who killed tanner, and I'm going to need you to get out of my way, so I can deal with the problem!" The villagers didn't hesitate and parted to allowed us to walk to the front. I didn't miss the looks of fear and shock as we walked passed them, and I shook my head. I would deal with there worries once I was done. We arrived at the front and I immediately recognized the slimy face of Rick and his guards, although, they were a few new guards that I didn't recognize.

"I should have known it'd be you," sneered Rick when he spotted me. "And you've got another freak with you." his last comment was directed at Domino and I saw her grip tighten on her pistol. I had no idea why Rick thought it would be a good idea to insult me and my summons, did he honestly think he could defeat my summons? or was he just that stupid?

I focused back on Rick and sent him a fierce glare, "Your a real piece of shit, you know that. You're nothing!" I said in a cold voice. The words weren't meant to do much other than antagonize him, and from the pissed off expression on his face, it worked.

His face was red and he pulled his shortsword from his belt. I held back a laugh as griped the shortsword in both hands and charged at me. He really was just that stupid. I wasn't worried, but I did become very confused as mid charge his pants fell and he tripped, faceplanting into the ground.

I heard Domino laugh from beside me and a moment later my confusion was replaced by amusement as I realized what had happened. Domino's power had essentially given Rick bad luck. I sent a mental command to Domino to kill rick and a moment later his head exploded covering some of the guards in bits of blood and bone. There were gasps and scared mutterings from behind us and one of the guards in front fell to his knees and retched. I looked to the shocked guards and sent them a cold smile, "You have two options now, men"

Their eyes snapped from the corpse of there leader to me and a couple of them took a few shaky steps back.

"You can leave the Village or die. I've heard of what you've done and how you abused your power, so you'll get no mercy from me."

They didn't move or speak, but the fear was obvious in their eyes and stances.

"Is your mother a Donkey for something?" shouted a voice, and I froze. My eyes became cold and stormy as I turned to see one of the guards, an overweight fellow, staring at me. Everything had turned silent and the sound of breathing was all that could be heard. Did this piece of shit just insult my mother? I just killed his leader and he thinks its a good idea to piss me off? I really needed to reevaluate the intelligence levels of these people. Well fuck him and fuck these guards. My next words were filled with rage and were devoid of warmth.

"I gave you choice, remember that."

Kill.

The mental command was sent to Domino and the sound of gunfire rang out as she killed all the guards with a single shot each. The shocked looks and disbelief were still their eyes as they fell down, dead, and filled with lead. It was complete decimation on Dominos part and I nodded in approval. I was slightly worried that I hadn't felt much when they had died. Was I a bad person because of that? I shook my head, now wasn't the time for an existential crisis. As my anger cooled I realized that I had been so focused on the guards that I hadn't noticed the system notifications.

[Congratulations! You have Leveled up! You are now Level 3]

[Reward: Summoning Token]

[Reward: Ability(Commanding Aura)]

My anger cooled as I read the notifications, but I put them to the back of my mind, I'd check my new ability after the quest was complete. I turned back to the villagers and moved my gaze over them.

"I'm going to go deal with Rory now and while I do that I want you to decide who to put in charge, ok?" The villagers looked confused for a second as though they had expected me to attack them, but then hesitantly nodded. I turned back to my summons, "Come on, let's finish this." I didn't have much else I wanted to say to the villagers and at this point, I just wanted to get the quest over with so I could plan what I was going to do next.

We entered the building and heard the sound of a girl crying and maniacal laughter coming from an open door to our right. I could guess what was happening and realized I wasn't in the mood for another confrontation, so I turned to Lilah and Leone, "You two find Rory and bring me his head, and take the girl outside to the villagers." They both nodded and split off from us toward the open door. I motioned Domino to keep following me and headed up the set of stairs directly adjacent to the front door. There was one hallway and 3 doors on the second floor, so I had Domino search two while I searched one.

[Congratulations: Quest Completed: Abuse of Power: Help the village and get rid of Rory and Rick]

[Reward: Summoning Token]

The notification came as I opened the door to one of the rooms and I felt my happiness rise as I received another summoning token. I stepped into the room and a wide grin spread across my face. as my eyes roamed over its contents. In front of me was a room filled with shelves of books.