Chapter 15

As I walked out of Benny’s building and then started toward home, I noticed that not a single troll got anywhere near me. Looking at the many, about to kill their selves to get out of my way actually made me feel a hell of a lot better. I just had to get my levels higher. I mean, five levels was damn good. I’d say I was three past the most powerful on the council, but knowing Cedrick, he’d upped at least 20 levels in 200 years. I was one higher than him then, so he was 19. Then I did 5, so I had 14 more to go and not a lot of time to do it in.

I’d finished my exercises, and they are now 6 3/4 more than when I started a few days ago. Now, at least I could stop him a bit, maybe even hurt him enough for him to have to lay low and heal, but I needed to go higher if I even wanted a slim chance of survival. Sighing, I knew that I’d have to put more on the shield again. Maybe gain a few more days, but I couldn’t keep it going up, or he’d catch on and break free sooner; then, I was dead for sure, as most of the world was. The hard thing right now was the fact that even with the bounties removed from my head, there were still a lot of hot-shot young beings and creatures out there, thinking I was an easy mark.

I guess I was going to have to make an example of someone to get them all off my neck ‘til I had dealt with Cedric. Though I wasn’t really in a killing mood, I knew it was going to take something like that to get these idiots to back off. Oh, sure, the death of the trolls had helped quite a bit, but the stronger ones were going to get a lot more brazen if I didn’t nip it in the bud real quick. I was headed to a really bad part of town. I guess I’d better get this over with. The toughest I knew of was down here in this cesspool somewhere. All I really had to do was..., diving out of the way of a fireball, I smiled. Well, that was quick. Standing, I put up a shield and started to walk toward my target. I could see his eyes grow larger as his fireballs bounced off me.

I had to time this right, “heard you were after me, pisshead.” I shouted, gaining quite a lot of attention.

“Yeah, I heard you took the bounty off yourself, but HE is still offering a bigger one. I aim to collect it.” He hissed at me.

“You obviously haven’t looked at my power,” I smiled as he stared at me, and then his lips started to quiver.

“Six almost seven levels higher?! It’s a lie!” He shouted. Waving my hand, I didn’t even try, and I disintegrated him to dust with just a wave of my hand. There was a massive screaming and running away from me. Good, I thought this ought to get around really quickly. It always did down here.

I waited I knew the council would be there soon I’d have to explain what I had done and why. Sure enough the council was there within 3 minutes hmmm, record time for them. Looking around I saw the council leader and my friend were conferring.

“Tyrome Greenstick, what is the meaning of this?”

The younger members started to demand. Taking a breath, I just hoped this worked the way that I hoped it would. “I had four bounties on my head; those, fortunately for their claimers, have been negated. It was then that I found out that Ced had put one out on me. I came here to talk to that pisshead; he thought he could kill me and get the bounty.” I told them.

“He put a bounty on you? Is he that confident that he can break the barrier?” Many of them asked.

“Yes, not only that, but he has far surpassed the level the council was at when it was erected. I’d estimate he is 20 levels higher now than he was then. I have no doubt he will be free soon.” I told them all, shaking a bit to emphasize just how strong he’d gotten.

They all talked for a minute, and then the leader spoke. “Tyrome, you are hereby authorized to go up as far as necessary to combat this evil that is almost upon us.”

Bowing I said, “I will do the best I can as I always have for the council, even though some members are more stubborn than most,” here I looked at Cloe her lips drawn back in an almost feral growl.

Chuckling a moment, I continued to stare at her ‘til the council thanked me for the warning and left. Shaking my head, I decided I had to find out just what in the hell Cloe had against men, me in particular. I had a little time before I had to go back home, so I decided to walk around a bit. It had been a while since I’d been to the poor end of the main magic dimension. I’d gone maybe a block when several young mages stepped out, blocking my path.

“Hey, asshole!” The apparent leader of the group said. “That was my father, and though he was a piece of crap, he was still my father.” Nodding, I looked a little harder, and yeah, I could see the complete ugliness of the father in him.