How do you know if you have made a name of yourself?
Fame and being talking about by a lot of people is definitely up there. Regardless of your personal achievements and your actual skill, being recognizable just from either your face or your name alone is a good bar to set. It’s why the term ‘household name’ is a very good measurement threshold. Tim definitely knew people personally who have businesses and personal successes to their name, yet never reached the status of being a household name. Edna and Dr. Schwartz were very influential people in Hargeon, yet the company’s name—with its scope and impact in the region—would turn heads more than them personally. Tim knew they didn’t mind that, but it bothered him slightly when he learned that fact years ago.
That being said, the opposite would also be true. There are people with little to no actual skill nor power, but had a reputation for the most miniscule of things they did. There was an old story of Hargeon town about a slaver wizard who pretended to be a Fairy Tail member, and they did it in front of the one they were supposed to be impersonating to! It would always be the first semi-anecdotal story Tim would remember and tell whenever people would ask about the town. It might have been an old wives’ tale, the story span over a century ago so there wasn’t really a concrete method to prove that it happened. But Tim now had a more recent—more personal—example of fame horribly catching up to someone.
And this example was swinging its blade for the umpteenth time, trying to cut off Tim’s limbs!
This was the first time Tim had someone actively tried to assassinate him outside of an official guild job. He was walking back to Full-Beard’s house carrying souvenirs he bought from the Halloween celebration booth when an honest to goodness assassin yelled ‘DIE!’ and tried to cleave his head. As Tim dodged his assailant’s blades his only thought was it was a good thing he let Heba and the others go back home first. Whoever this guy was, they at least waited to strike at night and over to the street where its street lights had been recently vandalized. Thinking about it, it wouldn’t be entirely inaccurate to blame it on them now and assume they might have sabotaged it so Tim couldn’t rely on its light to use his magic. If that was the case, they took time to research him. Usually when Tim used his magic, it would generally materialize as crystalized light. Any onlooked that had every intention of studying him would’ve gotten the conclusion of him having glass magic, or something close. Then again, Tim was sloppy when it came to keeping ‘his tricks underneath his sleeves’ or so the saying goes.
“Who sent you?” Tim already asked as many times as the attacker swiped their weapon, but on the off chance they might actually be cooperative later was tempting.
But the burly Joyan-looking assassin just huffed, not unlike how Wolf does, and finally took a step back. Speed wise, they were outmatched. Tim wasn’t even using his spells; he was just outclassing them physically. While the wizard wasn’t too worried about his assailant succeeding, he did note the fact they knew he stayed in Hargeon. They already might have an idea of the place he frequented!
Then the assailant smiled.
Tim flinched as he finally noticed their eyes looking over his shoulder. Before he could step aside, he felt a rubbery balloon hovered over his back. And when Tim slid back, dodging another strike, he felt heavy. The damned balloon was stuck over his back! Worse, when he tried to use his magic, the balloon bloated tenfold and became heavier. This wasn’t the assailant’s spell, was it?
“Like a shark making a home in a shoal infested with nothing but smaller fishes, you are easy to pin down.” His mystery assassin finally talked, and their voice sounded like they were swallowing marbles. “But taking your life entirely? Well, father did say ‘twas not an easy task.”
“And your father would be?” Tim summoned a glass ball of light and threw it over his shoulder, when he felt it bounce on top of the bloated balloon Tim detonated it sending shards of crystalized light bursting the bubble.
That was when Tim realized his mistake.
The explosion was big enough to shatter the all windows within the two rows of houses that made up the sides of the street! Tim was thrown across to one side, slamming himself into a large tree by the front yard of a larger looking house. He could hear people screaming from inside the house, it was either that or this was still the ringing in his ear from how loud that damned bubble was when it exploded.
“He will personally tell you after you have perished.”
“Whuzzat—?! G’me a sec, I can’t hear…anything…” Tim groaned, shaking his head as he sat keeping himself from throwing up. His back was seething, and on top of that, another balloon was somehow already stuck over half of his head.
What the hell? Was this some spell? But he didn’t even see the assailant cast anything!
“I said, he will personally tell you after you have perished.”
“Your father, you mean? Who is he again exactly? You didn’t really elaborate.” Tim was still sitting over the side of the house; he could feel the faint magic signature of the people inside. At least they knew not to play hero and try driving them off.
“Are you really that naïve? You have already asked about that, how many times now—yet still expect me to answer?”
“Yes, surprisingly.” Tim sighed. “About your father and this thing.”
He wiggled his head and let the balloon flail around, still completely stuck over the corner of his face.
“I truly wanted to tell you what these ‘bubbles’ are, if for nothing but to boast it.” They growled. “But it has been proven time and time again how so little information can lead to flips of a battle’s tide.”
‘Who the hell is this?’ Tim hissed from the pain. On top of his other eye being covered now, everything was already dark when he was attacked. If he could ride light somehow, he might be able to keep things at a distance while he observes what other tricks this bastard might have. But before that, he needed to stand back up. Unfortunately, his assailant did it for him. The wolf-looking prick stabbed Tim by the gut with a single stroke of his blade and lifted him up using nothing but the lodged horizontal weapon.
“Argh! You f—!” Tim gasped when he felt the blade cut his diaphragm. Each breath hurt!
“Feel it. Every breath you take is mercy from me.” The wolf-human looking hybrid sneered. “Each moment—”
Tim spat in his face, shooting a bloodied and crooked smile at the assailant’s reaction. In response they pulled the sword down, pointing its blade tip above to let Tim slide down the blade like a kebab. For the few seconds Tim slowly slid down his mouth was open, but no sound left it. He could barely breathe, let alone scream. He needed to do something, quick!
“When I was told you were an insolent excuse for a mortal, I did not expect this. You are out of your depth.”
Letting the clueless assassin monologue, Tim quickly concentrated his focus and breathed in as much as he could despite the broken diaphragm and let his magic burn up and get absorbed by the balloon.
“A last attempt of escape?” The hybrid scoffed.
“Something like that.” Tim materialized his chains, quickly wrapping it around the hybrid’s sword wielding arm and hooked it over his attacker’s neck. The chain was strong enough to hold a good grip forcing the wolf hybrid to raise his sword to the sky. Tim grunted as blood dripped down over the sword, but he wasn’t done! He then lowered his head, putting the bubble between him and his assailant, and smiled. “See you.”
Tim pointed a finger gun over the balloon and shot a beam of light causing an even bigger explosion!
Even if Tim’s arms were shielding his face, he felt his body flew up. When Tim finally felt his body stop at the apex of his explosion-aided flight, he materialized a ball of light and—looking at the brightest location he saw—threw it and detonated a beam of light towards him. Tim then rode the beam of light and used the momentum to land over the town park. He landed with a loud thud, ramming through a poor stone bench and into the fountain.
“Holy—! What was that?!”
“Tim?”
He could hear people from a bit further back. Tim didn’t waste his time and stood up despite the seething pain that didn’t seem to alleviate despite his attempts at healing it with his ‘Aid’ spell. If the tissues themselves wouldn’t repair, that meant there was a lingering magical energy from that bubble. Even with the advantage of being able to use the bright park lights, Tim’s recovery was horribly slow!
“Oy, Tim!” He heard one of the people hold him by his shoulders. “What happened?”
“Wolf—”
“Wolf, that large bugger y’always walk round town with?”
“No—” Tim coughed and swallowed his saliva. “Wolfman assassin… It tried to kill me.”
“Wolfman? Like a Joyan?” The man who carried him rested Tim over to one of the other stone benches. Taking a good look of the man, it looked like he was one of the workers who jump shifts around working in a ship and over the docks. Tim saw him a few times, but never really went pub crawling with the man. The other person with him was a woman in a pretty blue-white sundress.
“Bigger.” Tim hissed. “Get away from here, that guy’s still after me.”
“Right, and leave you here?” He scoffed. “We’ll take you to the town guards, they can—”
The woman cut him off. “He’s an S-wizard, right? If he couldn’t take on whoever this guy is, how can a few guards make any difference?”
“It’s a lot better than just doing noth—”
“Get down!” Tim jumped over them and landed on the opposite side, materializing a crystalized wall of light as quickly as he could!
The wall exploded from the shockwave of whatever landed, sending the shards over to all three of them! Tim was completely unharmed by the shards of light, only reabsorbing his spell. But the two behind him had their body lacerated by the broken spell. Their screams echoed as Tim saw his assailant, bloodied and bruised. Tim wanted to prioritize getting the two to safety, but he knew he couldn’t afford it while he was keeping himself from getting gutted any more than he already was by this persistent prick.
“Looks like someone isn’t as durable as they seem, huh.” Tim didn’t dial down his insults, however. At this point, anything that can throw off his attacker’s game was a victory in and of itself.
“You are quite resourceful.” They growled. “I will honor you with my name before I kill you.”
Tim huffed out a laugh, but his smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Let’s hear it.”
“I am the one who chases the Sun. The son of the God whose material form you humiliated and forced back into the halls of Valhalla!” He howled and his already towering body morphed. From his humanoid form, the wolfman went all fours and quite literally molded his flesh into the spitting image of the Wolf God Tim had beaten in the Lycan Woods! “Skǫll! Hear my name! I am mockery incarnate!”
Tim’s face fell, this was the last place he wanted a deity to come and stomp around!
The Wolf demigod then howled, crushing the stone pathways of the park with nothing more than just the force of the sound! Tim was blown away along with the two innocents, but he managed to ride light from the park’s lights and catch them. When he then tried to look for a better place to hide them a large paw swatted Tim like a fly, slamming him into the ground. Tim saw the two also slam alongside him. Tim could survive a fall from a building, if his rough estimate of his progress on his magic was to be believed. The two others who were dragged thanks to his attempt at escaping to a light abundant area, however?
“I don’t hunt for the sake of sport, do not be alarmed.” Skǫll placed his paw over Tim’s body, leaving only the wizard’s head and arm sticking out. “Not unless they have made a mockery of my kin.”
Tim cursed under his breath as he tried to wriggle out of the gigantic wolf’s limb to no avail. He even tried slamming his free arm overhead, but the wolf only applied pressure over Tim and the ground crushed beneath him. Not even a second later Tim felt a pop over his body and he couldn’t breathe properly! Tim gasped evenly, trying to make sense what happened inside him. Then the distinct sound of crushed fresh and bone—not unlike what Tim would hear in slaughterhouses—reached his ears. It continued for a few seconds along with the wolf licking his chops echoing which made Tim’s nose flare.
“You’re dead to me.” Tim growled.
He could see a large figure overshadow the park’s light behind him. Tim knew it was the wolf’s head peering down. The wolf demigod huffed at Tim, followed by him not even moving. Tim’s pained breathing slowed. What the hell was this thing trying to do now? Then it hit him. Literally. A drop of liquid laned over his head and ran from Tim’s hair whorl down his forehead, and when the wizard caught a whiff and smelled the distinct smell of metal, he screamed.
“You’re fucking dead to me—!”
“They were slightly older, but still quite delicious.” The wolf demigod promptly stomped Tim. Again. And again. And again.
“Chaining my arm so you could escape was a very clever—albeit cowardly—tactic.”
Tim, looking up, was now facing the humungous deity. The Wolf demigod materialized his weapon and, biting the blade with his mouth, aimed it against Tim's free arm. With a quick swipe, Tim saw his limb fly off himself! It handed clumsily against the stone path.
“Arrrrrgh—!”
“You didn’t defeat him, did you?” He heard the prick’s voice echo as Tim’s consciousness was slipping. “You did something. And this something? I want you to use it, so I can promptly make a mockery of your attempt at trying to play ‘God-slayer.’”
This was the time when a power-up of sorts would suddenly come and rescue Tim from his situation. It happened once when he faced this wolf demigod’s father. He never really gotten to looking up what exactly happened to him, it hasn’t happened again since then so he brushed the whole thing off. The rest of the times he was saved by an otherworldly-slash-divine magic was when Erebus did his thing, tempting Tim to give in to his family’s ‘domain’ and succeed him. It was either that or the former, that was Tim’s life as a wizard. He’d always get a free pass for screwing situations over so long as he had his heart in the right place.
This time, he didn’t hear Erebus.
“That exiled Primordial and his family are out of their depth.” Skǫll’s mocking tone echoed.
Tim’s magic wasn’t swelling, that fluke of a power-up wasn’t coming to rescue him for a second time as well.
Should he call Wolf?
No.
She was already safe.
“A little ward my siblings maintained around this town as I surgically assassinated you was all I needed! They cannot even see unless they materialize into this realm.” His low-growl slowly turned into bellowed laughter. “What a farce!”
Tim felt it for the first time in his life:
This was it.
He was going to die.
“Any last words?”
Tim let out a breath and a frown.
“If an afterlife exists, I’ll find you from there and kill you.”
Hargeon—in its entirety—woke up in the dead break of dawn when an unearthly howl in the corners of the town reverberated instead of the belltower’s distinct chimes! Residents, tourists, vagabonds, tradesmen, and the town guards still in a half-drunken stupor from the celebration all scrambled to make sense of the situation. Two of the guards, per order of their chief, were sent to a particular home in the town’s residential area, where a particular wizard of Silver Wolf apparently stayed frequently.
‘He’s a friend of the Thatch family,’ the chief said with the biggest smile on his face. ‘He really has gotten far up in t’world, that boy. He worked at Miss Rollins’ before switchin to a proper guild wizard, you know? I just knew he had the chops when I found him fighting with them Brimsby boys over a—’
The two were thinking the same thing when they listened to the chief’s stories. The town already knew this guy! He was the one who brought back the lot that was taken and sold off to the Desiertans. It became a not-so-small deal in town, especially after the ones taken told them they were deep in the kingdom’s seedy underbelly, and the man just went in and grabbed the lot of them all the while destroying the trafficking ring from the inside! Before the two guards had gotten bored to death by the mayor’s further ramblings, they gave prompt ‘Yes, Chief’ and went off to the Thatch residence when they found the two-story home quite awake like the rest of the town. The lights indoors were on and people were definitely clattering around when they called from outside the fence.
“Guards?” It was Mr. Thatch who answered. “Is this about what happened in the illusion booth?”
The pair quickly asked for the wizard in question, it was concerning the wolf howl.
“If you’re asking if it was his Wolf who did it, she ain’t here.” Thatch opened the door for them to check inside. “Tim’s out for a while now too, said he’d get some souvenirs for people at his guild.”
“Must’ve gone straight to the pub, if you ask me.” Mr. Thatch’s son, Junior, scoffed with a smile.
“Probably,” His father shook his head, but the smile plastered over his face didn’t disagree.
“Well, that was only one of the reasons we were sent here, sir.” The first guard promptly said. “There were disturbances over third street and the park. And in addition to the howls and reports of wizards fighting. We were sent so he could help out—”
No one else were able to say anything else when both the main doors of the house swung open with a crash!
“Junior! Old Thatch!” A blonde man barged inside; his face completely pale. “I…the church…”
“Hey, deep breaths, man.” Junior helped him. “What is it you’re gonna tell us?”
“It’s Tim—!”
The town ordered the guards to keep a perimeter around the church, keeping people away from the place. The children, especially, were ordered to stay at their homes. Though, the people who first noticed it would never be able to get rid of the scene they saw for the rest of their lives.
The blonde man who guided the Thatch family and the guards to the church didn’t have the heart to tell them what happened, he could only tell them. He insisted for the Missus to stay, but she refused. It proved to be a horrible decision when they finally turned to the streetcorner of the church’s view when the Missus passed out just from the sight of the body on top of the church. Thatch caught his wife in his arms. Junior and Thatch stood in silence; they felt their blood drain from their faces.
They knew who it was.
It was the boy the town came to know as Tim Watt, then admitted to falsifying his name in shame of being son to one of the most prominent Oligarchs in the Neutral Grounds. The people who already knew him didn’t resent him of such a secret. How could they? He was the boy who, after joining a wizard’s guild, still helped the town through thick and thin. The residents knew him as the young man who washed up to their town one day after stowing a ship from the neutral grounds, along with numerous children who went their separate ways. The workers knew him from the times he went out drinking with them, some even saw his fights in the cages. Thatch and his family knew him as the seemingly stoic, who turned out to be very passionate, boy that became their son’s older brother he never had.
That very boy was hanging, his back facing everyone and his single arm wide apart forming half a cross with his body over golden chains with hooked tips that seemingly materialized from nowhere that keeping his cadaver afloat and shining brightly. Yet, no amount of golden glow could wash away the bright red opening of his back. And that was the picture the people of Hargeon would never forget: Tim’s back flesh was completely opened, his ribs cut up from the backbone creating a centipede-like opening of his ribs paving way to let his muscles and lungs hang down while the rest of his opened skin were hooked to sprawl between his spread-out arm and his torso forming wings. One of his legs were being held together with nothing but ripped sinew, and when it finally fell off the people around gasped. The others who were splattered by the leg and its blood scrambled away from below.
The guards were already clamoring with the clergy from the inside of the church to get him down. But by the time they were able to set him down, the sun had already risen.
Fame and being talking about by a lot of people is definitely up there. Regardless of your personal achievements and your actual skill, being recognizable just from either your face or your name alone is a good bar to set. It’s why the term ‘household name’ is a very good measurement threshold. Tim definitely knew people personally who have businesses and personal successes to their name, yet never reached the status of being a household name. Edna and Dr. Schwartz were very influential people in Hargeon, yet the company’s name—with its scope and impact in the region—would turn heads more than them personally. Tim knew they didn’t mind that, but it bothered him slightly when he learned that fact years ago.
That being said, the opposite would also be true. There are people with little to no actual skill nor power, but had a reputation for the most miniscule of things they did. There was an old story of Hargeon town about a slaver wizard who pretended to be a Fairy Tail member, and they did it in front of the one they were supposed to be impersonating to! It would always be the first semi-anecdotal story Tim would remember and tell whenever people would ask about the town. It might have been an old wives’ tale, the story span over a century ago so there wasn’t really a concrete method to prove that it happened. But Tim now had a more recent—more personal—example of fame horribly catching up to someone.
And this example was swinging its blade for the umpteenth time, trying to cut off Tim’s limbs!
This was the first time Tim had someone actively tried to assassinate him outside of an official guild job. He was walking back to Full-Beard’s house carrying souvenirs he bought from the Halloween celebration booth when an honest to goodness assassin yelled ‘DIE!’ and tried to cleave his head. As Tim dodged his assailant’s blades his only thought was it was a good thing he let Heba and the others go back home first. Whoever this guy was, they at least waited to strike at night and over to the street where its street lights had been recently vandalized. Thinking about it, it wouldn’t be entirely inaccurate to blame it on them now and assume they might have sabotaged it so Tim couldn’t rely on its light to use his magic. If that was the case, they took time to research him. Usually when Tim used his magic, it would generally materialize as crystalized light. Any onlooked that had every intention of studying him would’ve gotten the conclusion of him having glass magic, or something close. Then again, Tim was sloppy when it came to keeping ‘his tricks underneath his sleeves’ or so the saying goes.
“Who sent you?” Tim already asked as many times as the attacker swiped their weapon, but on the off chance they might actually be cooperative later was tempting.
But the burly Joyan-looking assassin just huffed, not unlike how Wolf does, and finally took a step back. Speed wise, they were outmatched. Tim wasn’t even using his spells; he was just outclassing them physically. While the wizard wasn’t too worried about his assailant succeeding, he did note the fact they knew he stayed in Hargeon. They already might have an idea of the place he frequented!
Then the assailant smiled.
Tim flinched as he finally noticed their eyes looking over his shoulder. Before he could step aside, he felt a rubbery balloon hovered over his back. And when Tim slid back, dodging another strike, he felt heavy. The damned balloon was stuck over his back! Worse, when he tried to use his magic, the balloon bloated tenfold and became heavier. This wasn’t the assailant’s spell, was it?
“Like a shark making a home in a shoal infested with nothing but smaller fishes, you are easy to pin down.” His mystery assassin finally talked, and their voice sounded like they were swallowing marbles. “But taking your life entirely? Well, father did say ‘twas not an easy task.”
“And your father would be?” Tim summoned a glass ball of light and threw it over his shoulder, when he felt it bounce on top of the bloated balloon Tim detonated it sending shards of crystalized light bursting the bubble.
That was when Tim realized his mistake.
The explosion was big enough to shatter the all windows within the two rows of houses that made up the sides of the street! Tim was thrown across to one side, slamming himself into a large tree by the front yard of a larger looking house. He could hear people screaming from inside the house, it was either that or this was still the ringing in his ear from how loud that damned bubble was when it exploded.
“He will personally tell you after you have perished.”
“Whuzzat—?! G’me a sec, I can’t hear…anything…” Tim groaned, shaking his head as he sat keeping himself from throwing up. His back was seething, and on top of that, another balloon was somehow already stuck over half of his head.
What the hell? Was this some spell? But he didn’t even see the assailant cast anything!
“I said, he will personally tell you after you have perished.”
“Your father, you mean? Who is he again exactly? You didn’t really elaborate.” Tim was still sitting over the side of the house; he could feel the faint magic signature of the people inside. At least they knew not to play hero and try driving them off.
“Are you really that naïve? You have already asked about that, how many times now—yet still expect me to answer?”
“Yes, surprisingly.” Tim sighed. “About your father and this thing.”
He wiggled his head and let the balloon flail around, still completely stuck over the corner of his face.
“I truly wanted to tell you what these ‘bubbles’ are, if for nothing but to boast it.” They growled. “But it has been proven time and time again how so little information can lead to flips of a battle’s tide.”
‘Who the hell is this?’ Tim hissed from the pain. On top of his other eye being covered now, everything was already dark when he was attacked. If he could ride light somehow, he might be able to keep things at a distance while he observes what other tricks this bastard might have. But before that, he needed to stand back up. Unfortunately, his assailant did it for him. The wolf-looking prick stabbed Tim by the gut with a single stroke of his blade and lifted him up using nothing but the lodged horizontal weapon.
“Argh! You f—!” Tim gasped when he felt the blade cut his diaphragm. Each breath hurt!
“Feel it. Every breath you take is mercy from me.” The wolf-human looking hybrid sneered. “Each moment—”
Tim spat in his face, shooting a bloodied and crooked smile at the assailant’s reaction. In response they pulled the sword down, pointing its blade tip above to let Tim slide down the blade like a kebab. For the few seconds Tim slowly slid down his mouth was open, but no sound left it. He could barely breathe, let alone scream. He needed to do something, quick!
“When I was told you were an insolent excuse for a mortal, I did not expect this. You are out of your depth.”
Letting the clueless assassin monologue, Tim quickly concentrated his focus and breathed in as much as he could despite the broken diaphragm and let his magic burn up and get absorbed by the balloon.
“A last attempt of escape?” The hybrid scoffed.
“Something like that.” Tim materialized his chains, quickly wrapping it around the hybrid’s sword wielding arm and hooked it over his attacker’s neck. The chain was strong enough to hold a good grip forcing the wolf hybrid to raise his sword to the sky. Tim grunted as blood dripped down over the sword, but he wasn’t done! He then lowered his head, putting the bubble between him and his assailant, and smiled. “See you.”
Tim pointed a finger gun over the balloon and shot a beam of light causing an even bigger explosion!
Even if Tim’s arms were shielding his face, he felt his body flew up. When Tim finally felt his body stop at the apex of his explosion-aided flight, he materialized a ball of light and—looking at the brightest location he saw—threw it and detonated a beam of light towards him. Tim then rode the beam of light and used the momentum to land over the town park. He landed with a loud thud, ramming through a poor stone bench and into the fountain.
“Holy—! What was that?!”
“Tim?”
He could hear people from a bit further back. Tim didn’t waste his time and stood up despite the seething pain that didn’t seem to alleviate despite his attempts at healing it with his ‘Aid’ spell. If the tissues themselves wouldn’t repair, that meant there was a lingering magical energy from that bubble. Even with the advantage of being able to use the bright park lights, Tim’s recovery was horribly slow!
“Oy, Tim!” He heard one of the people hold him by his shoulders. “What happened?”
“Wolf—”
“Wolf, that large bugger y’always walk round town with?”
“No—” Tim coughed and swallowed his saliva. “Wolfman assassin… It tried to kill me.”
“Wolfman? Like a Joyan?” The man who carried him rested Tim over to one of the other stone benches. Taking a good look of the man, it looked like he was one of the workers who jump shifts around working in a ship and over the docks. Tim saw him a few times, but never really went pub crawling with the man. The other person with him was a woman in a pretty blue-white sundress.
“Bigger.” Tim hissed. “Get away from here, that guy’s still after me.”
“Right, and leave you here?” He scoffed. “We’ll take you to the town guards, they can—”
The woman cut him off. “He’s an S-wizard, right? If he couldn’t take on whoever this guy is, how can a few guards make any difference?”
“It’s a lot better than just doing noth—”
“Get down!” Tim jumped over them and landed on the opposite side, materializing a crystalized wall of light as quickly as he could!
The wall exploded from the shockwave of whatever landed, sending the shards over to all three of them! Tim was completely unharmed by the shards of light, only reabsorbing his spell. But the two behind him had their body lacerated by the broken spell. Their screams echoed as Tim saw his assailant, bloodied and bruised. Tim wanted to prioritize getting the two to safety, but he knew he couldn’t afford it while he was keeping himself from getting gutted any more than he already was by this persistent prick.
“Looks like someone isn’t as durable as they seem, huh.” Tim didn’t dial down his insults, however. At this point, anything that can throw off his attacker’s game was a victory in and of itself.
“You are quite resourceful.” They growled. “I will honor you with my name before I kill you.”
Tim huffed out a laugh, but his smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Let’s hear it.”
“I am the one who chases the Sun. The son of the God whose material form you humiliated and forced back into the halls of Valhalla!” He howled and his already towering body morphed. From his humanoid form, the wolfman went all fours and quite literally molded his flesh into the spitting image of the Wolf God Tim had beaten in the Lycan Woods! “Skǫll! Hear my name! I am mockery incarnate!”
Tim’s face fell, this was the last place he wanted a deity to come and stomp around!
The Wolf demigod then howled, crushing the stone pathways of the park with nothing more than just the force of the sound! Tim was blown away along with the two innocents, but he managed to ride light from the park’s lights and catch them. When he then tried to look for a better place to hide them a large paw swatted Tim like a fly, slamming him into the ground. Tim saw the two also slam alongside him. Tim could survive a fall from a building, if his rough estimate of his progress on his magic was to be believed. The two others who were dragged thanks to his attempt at escaping to a light abundant area, however?
“I don’t hunt for the sake of sport, do not be alarmed.” Skǫll placed his paw over Tim’s body, leaving only the wizard’s head and arm sticking out. “Not unless they have made a mockery of my kin.”
Tim cursed under his breath as he tried to wriggle out of the gigantic wolf’s limb to no avail. He even tried slamming his free arm overhead, but the wolf only applied pressure over Tim and the ground crushed beneath him. Not even a second later Tim felt a pop over his body and he couldn’t breathe properly! Tim gasped evenly, trying to make sense what happened inside him. Then the distinct sound of crushed fresh and bone—not unlike what Tim would hear in slaughterhouses—reached his ears. It continued for a few seconds along with the wolf licking his chops echoing which made Tim’s nose flare.
“You’re dead to me.” Tim growled.
He could see a large figure overshadow the park’s light behind him. Tim knew it was the wolf’s head peering down. The wolf demigod huffed at Tim, followed by him not even moving. Tim’s pained breathing slowed. What the hell was this thing trying to do now? Then it hit him. Literally. A drop of liquid laned over his head and ran from Tim’s hair whorl down his forehead, and when the wizard caught a whiff and smelled the distinct smell of metal, he screamed.
“You’re fucking dead to me—!”
“They were slightly older, but still quite delicious.” The wolf demigod promptly stomped Tim. Again. And again. And again.
“Chaining my arm so you could escape was a very clever—albeit cowardly—tactic.”
Tim, looking up, was now facing the humungous deity. The Wolf demigod materialized his weapon and, biting the blade with his mouth, aimed it against Tim's free arm. With a quick swipe, Tim saw his limb fly off himself! It handed clumsily against the stone path.
“Arrrrrgh—!”
“You didn’t defeat him, did you?” He heard the prick’s voice echo as Tim’s consciousness was slipping. “You did something. And this something? I want you to use it, so I can promptly make a mockery of your attempt at trying to play ‘God-slayer.’”
This was the time when a power-up of sorts would suddenly come and rescue Tim from his situation. It happened once when he faced this wolf demigod’s father. He never really gotten to looking up what exactly happened to him, it hasn’t happened again since then so he brushed the whole thing off. The rest of the times he was saved by an otherworldly-slash-divine magic was when Erebus did his thing, tempting Tim to give in to his family’s ‘domain’ and succeed him. It was either that or the former, that was Tim’s life as a wizard. He’d always get a free pass for screwing situations over so long as he had his heart in the right place.
This time, he didn’t hear Erebus.
“That exiled Primordial and his family are out of their depth.” Skǫll’s mocking tone echoed.
Tim’s magic wasn’t swelling, that fluke of a power-up wasn’t coming to rescue him for a second time as well.
Should he call Wolf?
No.
She was already safe.
“A little ward my siblings maintained around this town as I surgically assassinated you was all I needed! They cannot even see unless they materialize into this realm.” His low-growl slowly turned into bellowed laughter. “What a farce!”
Tim felt it for the first time in his life:
This was it.
He was going to die.
“Any last words?”
Tim let out a breath and a frown.
“If an afterlife exists, I’ll find you from there and kill you.”
Hargeon—in its entirety—woke up in the dead break of dawn when an unearthly howl in the corners of the town reverberated instead of the belltower’s distinct chimes! Residents, tourists, vagabonds, tradesmen, and the town guards still in a half-drunken stupor from the celebration all scrambled to make sense of the situation. Two of the guards, per order of their chief, were sent to a particular home in the town’s residential area, where a particular wizard of Silver Wolf apparently stayed frequently.
‘He’s a friend of the Thatch family,’ the chief said with the biggest smile on his face. ‘He really has gotten far up in t’world, that boy. He worked at Miss Rollins’ before switchin to a proper guild wizard, you know? I just knew he had the chops when I found him fighting with them Brimsby boys over a—’
The two were thinking the same thing when they listened to the chief’s stories. The town already knew this guy! He was the one who brought back the lot that was taken and sold off to the Desiertans. It became a not-so-small deal in town, especially after the ones taken told them they were deep in the kingdom’s seedy underbelly, and the man just went in and grabbed the lot of them all the while destroying the trafficking ring from the inside! Before the two guards had gotten bored to death by the mayor’s further ramblings, they gave prompt ‘Yes, Chief’ and went off to the Thatch residence when they found the two-story home quite awake like the rest of the town. The lights indoors were on and people were definitely clattering around when they called from outside the fence.
“Guards?” It was Mr. Thatch who answered. “Is this about what happened in the illusion booth?”
The pair quickly asked for the wizard in question, it was concerning the wolf howl.
“If you’re asking if it was his Wolf who did it, she ain’t here.” Thatch opened the door for them to check inside. “Tim’s out for a while now too, said he’d get some souvenirs for people at his guild.”
“Must’ve gone straight to the pub, if you ask me.” Mr. Thatch’s son, Junior, scoffed with a smile.
“Probably,” His father shook his head, but the smile plastered over his face didn’t disagree.
“Well, that was only one of the reasons we were sent here, sir.” The first guard promptly said. “There were disturbances over third street and the park. And in addition to the howls and reports of wizards fighting. We were sent so he could help out—”
No one else were able to say anything else when both the main doors of the house swung open with a crash!
“Junior! Old Thatch!” A blonde man barged inside; his face completely pale. “I…the church…”
“Hey, deep breaths, man.” Junior helped him. “What is it you’re gonna tell us?”
“It’s Tim—!”
The town ordered the guards to keep a perimeter around the church, keeping people away from the place. The children, especially, were ordered to stay at their homes. Though, the people who first noticed it would never be able to get rid of the scene they saw for the rest of their lives.
The blonde man who guided the Thatch family and the guards to the church didn’t have the heart to tell them what happened, he could only tell them. He insisted for the Missus to stay, but she refused. It proved to be a horrible decision when they finally turned to the streetcorner of the church’s view when the Missus passed out just from the sight of the body on top of the church. Thatch caught his wife in his arms. Junior and Thatch stood in silence; they felt their blood drain from their faces.
They knew who it was.
It was the boy the town came to know as Tim Watt, then admitted to falsifying his name in shame of being son to one of the most prominent Oligarchs in the Neutral Grounds. The people who already knew him didn’t resent him of such a secret. How could they? He was the boy who, after joining a wizard’s guild, still helped the town through thick and thin. The residents knew him as the young man who washed up to their town one day after stowing a ship from the neutral grounds, along with numerous children who went their separate ways. The workers knew him from the times he went out drinking with them, some even saw his fights in the cages. Thatch and his family knew him as the seemingly stoic, who turned out to be very passionate, boy that became their son’s older brother he never had.
That very boy was hanging, his back facing everyone and his single arm wide apart forming half a cross with his body over golden chains with hooked tips that seemingly materialized from nowhere that keeping his cadaver afloat and shining brightly. Yet, no amount of golden glow could wash away the bright red opening of his back. And that was the picture the people of Hargeon would never forget: Tim’s back flesh was completely opened, his ribs cut up from the backbone creating a centipede-like opening of his ribs paving way to let his muscles and lungs hang down while the rest of his opened skin were hooked to sprawl between his spread-out arm and his torso forming wings. One of his legs were being held together with nothing but ripped sinew, and when it finally fell off the people around gasped. The others who were splattered by the leg and its blood scrambled away from below.
The guards were already clamoring with the clergy from the inside of the church to get him down. But by the time they were able to set him down, the sun had already risen.
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Last edited by Rodadnuf on 2nd November 2022, 1:33 am; edited 2 times in total