Reflections on the Warpath - [An Isekai Progression Fantasy]

Hundreds of sweaty, cramped bodies shoved into Jay as he weaved his way through the dense crowd lining the parade route. Nelly elbowed an old man's ribs while squeezing past him. He spun around and looked ready to slap her until Jay clasped his hand on the man's shoulder and shoved him away.

Jay followed the spy through a sea of red cloaks, listening to the snippets of conversation within the crowd. Most people seemed excited about the parade, at least outwardly. But there was an undercurrent of aggression throughout the crowd. A silent anger that Jay couldn't see or hear but he could certainly feel.

"Let's get to the front!" said Nelly, feigning excitement as she dragged Jay forward. She tugged on Jay's patterned red moko, jerking him along. Nelly had given Kestrel traditional Mirandan clothing so they'd blend in with the festival going masses during the mission. The flowing cloak also gave her an easy way to forcefully steer Jay through the crowd, much to his annoyance.

They wouldn't go right up to the barriers, Jay couldn't afford to be that blatant. Even if the Smothering Grasp Alliance didn't know he was fighting against them, there was a chance one of the gladiators would recognise him from the advancement tournament and connect the dots.

To combat that, Jay and Nelly decided to head straight to the densest section of the crowd and wait for their target there. Jay wanted to electrocute every single one of the people pushing into him, barging their shoulders as he walked past. Unfortunately he wanted to stay unnoticed too. That meant keeping his head down and only elbowing the people who really deserved it.

He ended up beside another tall, bulky man; they formed an unspoken alliance to intimidate anyone nearby who got too aggressive.

A line of Directorate guards pushed the crowd back every time they neared the cordons that kept them from the boulevard, although none of them looked like gladiators. The paved road behind them was perfectly clean and Jay saw a similarly guarded and similarly boisterous crowd on the other side of it.

Terraced, stone buildings in the island's signature burnt red flanked both halves of the crowd, people sat outside them on their balconies, overlooking the crowd.

Probably laughing at us, grateful they're not stuck here too.

Jay saw past the observer's disguises however. Using Eye of the Storm to hyper-focus on their expressions, he picked out the onlookers enjoying the parade from the ones scanning the crowd for threats.

Above even them, a flock of seagulls encircled the crowd opportunistically. Jay spotted one of them looking more closely at him than the others and frowned.

You better not try and shit on me Corinne…

Jay's teammate hated crowds far more than he did. Luckily for her, she had an ability that made her useful outside them.

Nelly pulled Jay closer to her before pointing to her left.

The parade would arrive soon.

Jay heard the parade long before he saw it. Although he could see above most of the crowd, they'd intentionally positioned themselves near a bend and wouldn't be in sight of the parade for long. Beating drums and blaring trumpets heralded the Directorate's arrival, followed by a polite applause and several muted cheers from the crowd.

Nelly began clapping and Jay followed her lead.

The marching band were the first ones around the bend, led by an illusory griffin that flew above them while twirling and looping in time with their drums. Red and gold streamers shot into the air above them, dissolving into nothingness before they fell and reached the crowd.

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The performance drew some more legitimate cheers from the crowd. The band members were probably just residents of Red Sands rather than members of the Directorate.

The applause didn't fade when the Directorate appeared, although Jay could tell the crowd lacked the fervour it had before. A greying but not yet old man was the first one around the bend, standing alone atop a small float that rolled behind the band.

He wore all black, the first person Jay had seen all day not wearing a red moko.

"Don Mariano!" cried Nelly, playing her part well. If people just saw her as excited, they hopefully wouldn't realise that she was actually informing Jay about his targets.

Don Mariano was the head of the directorate, he knew that from his meetings with Samira, but Nelly helped him put a face to the name. Jay studied the face of the man he fought against, finding him radically different to his counterpart.

While Don Enzo had wrinkles of stress criss-crossing his face and a grimace that rarely abated, Don Mariano's face was locked into a scowl, his head tilted back as he looked down on the people pretending to cheer for him. His squinted brown eyes rolled over the crowd, even passing over Jay for an instant before swiftly moving on.

Jay turned to the oncoming parade as don Mariano left his line of sight, trying to spot the next set of people in the parade.

He recognised them.

Jay immediately stepped behind the tall man beside him.

They were gladiators.

Sneaking glances around the burly man's shoulder, Jay spotted four gladiators he recognised. Three were excitedly waving while the fourth scanned the crowd like a hawk.

Jay recognised the three as Smothering Grasp D graders. More importantly, he recognised the fourth as their alliance leader, the Swamp Fox. The captain wore his signature orange cloak, refusing to blend in with the crowd just like his employer don Mariano. Jay cheered as the gladiators rolled by, refusing to stare at the gladiators for too long and hiding his face behind his clapping arms. He didn't relax until they'd completely passed him, and held in a sigh of relief as they rounded the bend.

He slotted back to his old position just as Nelly nudged his arm and pointed to the next batch of Directorate members.

"It's the archaeology team!"

Jay refocused. He scratched the top of his head with his left hand, signalling the airborne Corinne that Caruso was near.

Six people stood on a large platform full of plinths and glass display cases. Most were filled with jewellery, although Jay spotted several ornate weapons on display. Front and centre of the display was a winged metal suit of armour with a helmet that looked almost like a lion's mane.

Jay nudged Nelly, silently prompting her to tell him more.

"Wow, they've opened the vault! Is that the Griffin armour?" she exclaimed.

"Don't be so stupid!" said a bitter-looking man in front of them, turning around almost as if to chastise Nelly.

"They can't open the vault, it knows that they'll harm Whispertide if they crack it open. That stuff's all fake, I bet they don't even know what the Griffin armour looks like."

The man's statement earned him a kick in the shin from his neighbour, as well as several glares from the crowd. He glanced around nervously before facing the parade and giving a halfhearted cheer.

The vault eh…

Jay made a note to speak to both Nelly and Samira about the vault before turning his attention onto Caruso and his associates. Jay had only been told the basics about his target's appearance, but didn't think he'd be too hard to spot.

After all, the five other archaeologists all had hair while Carlo Caruso was completely bald.

Jay held in a smirk as another illusory griffin flew over the archaeologists and its golden light reflected off his target's shiny head. The man looked up at the illusion with an irritated scowl and his thick, black eyebrows furrowed as it flew past. One of the other archaeologists walked across their platform before Caruso clutched her arm and pulled her towards him. He whispered something in her ear. She nodded several times before he pushed her away and returned to scowling at the crowd.

Jay kept his eyes locked on Caruso as the procession passed by.

Well, until something more important caught his eye.

Jay flared Eye of the Storm, silencing the crowd as his perception narrowed to a single point. He forgot about Caruso, ignoring him to look at his target.

A flashing white crystal inside a display case beside him.

How the hell did that get there?

Bursts of light flickered within the cloudy crystal, each one confirming what he already knew.

Jay knew exactly who had placed the familiar soul crystal inside the vault.

But how the hell did he do it?

Jay couldn't hold back a grimace as he imagined the storm sage laughing at him from inside Tranquillity Tower.

And if it's trapped inside the vault, how the hell am I supposed to retrieve it?