Shackled Exalted

Kai

"Pour," Kai intoned with a snap of his fingers. Beads of mana hovering above his head coalesced into streams of water. The deluge rained down upon the burning courtyard of the Nacht estate. Water sizzled violently from the hot temperatures. Steam and smoke billowed in turbulent waves before being blown away by the Gift of another House Nacht Exalted.

Kai sighed as he wiped the sweat off his forehead. The firestorm was slowly dissipating, unveiling the hellish state of the courtyard. Mounts of ash were left where verdant gardens used to be. The walkways paved in patterned bricks had all cracked under the scorching heat.

Well, I think it's safe to say that Isen won't be so happy with this.

The head of the House Nacht, and his uncle from his wretched father's side, appeared calm when he had called Kai into his office. One glance around the room, however, painted a different picture. Shards of glass from broken vases littered the floor. Shelves filled with books and documents were overturned. Paper scattered everywhere. Even the water-colored portraits of past distinguished Nacht family members had been ripped into shreds. Isen's butler merely sighed when Kai entered the room to receive his orders.

Although he hadn't been officially inaugurated as one of House Nacht's Exalted, Isen nonetheless put him to work. The situation demanded it. Kai was one of the few Exalted in attendance who possessed a Gift that can douse the flames.

Isen himself had remained inside of the mansion, occupied with placating the noble guests and coordinating the efforts to figure out what was happening. There was a real possibility that this was another terrorist attack.

I really hope it's not Vigil again.

Kai squinted over the bellowing smoke. While the situation in the courtyard was stabilizing, the grove decorating the backyard of the Nacht estate continued to burn. They also haven't heard anything from the Ordinary soldiers patrolling the rear of the estate. Flames on both sides of the wall likely kept them trapped.

I don't sense any lingering mana, but that initial attack was definitely from a Gift. No Ordinary nor Exalted could hurl a boulder of this size with strength alone. The fires also spread too unnaturally. The flaming boulder landed closer to the mansion, but the building remained mostly untouched while the gardens were all set ablaze.

He was confident that this was deliberate, but he didn't understand why. The motives of the perpetrators remained unclear.

This almost feels personal. Like the assailants have a vendetta against House Nacht and wanted to see their estate destroyed.

If that was their goal, then they were successful. The damage to the Nacht estate was extensive. Kai had no idea how much money was needed to repair everything, but it was probably more than what he could imagine. His stomach churned. Suddenly, he was worried about the advance that he had negotiated when he signed to serve House Nacht.

We have a contract. Isen better honor his part of the deal.

He grimaced at the bleak reality. He needed that advance to afford his mother's treatments. Her illness was getting worse by the day and he feared that she was running out of time. With that in mind, he was ready to do whatever it took to resolve this incident as soon as possible. The more of the Nacht estate that he can preserve, the more money he could help Isen save.

A pair of footsteps echoed from the direction of the mansion. Kai turned to find Charlotte accompanied by another one of Nacht's Exalted.

"Sir Isen has ordered us to pursue the assailants camped out in the backyard. The Lionhearts have arrived as well. We can leave the rest of the courtyard to them," Charlotte relayed the message.

For some reason, she was playing the role of a messenger, but Kai didn't question it. The Braun family had their own set of circumstances that required Charlotte's intervention. By helping to resolve this incident, she was likely trying to put House Nacht in her debt.

"Anything from the guards in the rear?" one of the Exalted asked.

"None. The flames are too strong. No one has been able to make contact yet."

"Might be safe to assume they're all dead," the other Exalted said with a grimace, "This flame is scorching hot even for us. I can't imagine how Ordinaries might feel."

"What about our assailants? Any information?"

Charlotte shook her head gravely. "Only that there's likely an Exalted with a fire-based Gift."

No shit. So we're going in blind. Kai let out a heavy sigh to steel his resolve. He grabbed the hems of his gaudy outfit and ripped off the glamor. With just a sweaty undershirt and a pair of ashen trousers, he advanced deeper into the courtyard. "Let's move. Isen's going to chew us out if there's nothing left of the estate."

He led the way as the vanguard. Charlotte and the other two Nacht Exalted followed closely behind. With Kai's Gift to create and manipulate water, they quickly passed through the remaining blaze across the courtyard. When they reached the walls, Kai blasted apart the burning metal gates that blocked the path to the backyard. The Exalted behind him blew away the smoke and steam shrouding the space. The entire grove then suddenly came into view.

Kai held his breath in disbelief.

The skies were bright with an incandescent glow. The hissing crackles of wood burning screeched in the air. Flames were everywhere, serving as a haunting backdrop for the black skeletal remains of trees and its branches. Between the walls of the estate and the first line of trees was an open field about of one hundred meters. There, the Nacht soldiers at the rear were scattered. Most of them appeared to be incapacitated, sprawled on the ground pitifully while coughing from the harsh smoke. The few standing up were busy trying to drag the rest away from the inferno.

But there were no signs of the enemy.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

What's going on?

The Nacht Exalted behind him rushed towards the soldiers. Kai kept his guard up. His subconscious was unsettled. Something was off. As he examined the grove, he realized there was a collection of trees that had been untouched by the flames. Their silhouettes had blended in with the destruction, but it was obvious once he noticed that there were still leaves on the branches.

Before he could convey the incongruity, he caught a metallic glint flash through the air.

"Watch out!"

One of the Nacht Exalted suddenly collapsed. A bolt was sticking out of his shoulder. The attack alone shouldn't have incapacitated him, but for some reason, he didn't move. Instead, he was convulsing. Foam gathered at the edge of his mouth as his body twitched with unsettling frequency.

Poison?

It had to be. And the potency was apparently strong enough to overcome an Exalted's constitution.

"The attacks are coming from those trees!" Kai tried to warn the other Nacht Exalted.

But in the open field, there were nowhere to hide. With the brilliant flames hissing in the distance, it was almost impossible to determine the trajectory of a small metal projectile. Kai only caught the first attack by chance.

"Argh!"

The other Nacht Exalted also dropped.

"Charlotte! Use your Gift on me!" Kai screamed.

"On it!"

Mana engulfed Kai's body. A soothing sensation spread across his skin. A split second later, the blue wisps suddenly separated. The mana then coalesced into four segments. The segments began to morph, taking on a humanoid shape. The result was four spitting images of Kai.

Charlotte's Gift was called Mirror Image. It created mana copies of her target.

"Get them to safety and then call for reinforcements! The enemy is using poison strong enough to incapacitate Exalted!"

"Okay! I'm going to give the mana copies autonomy!"

"No! Keep them tethered to me! Have them mimic my actions!" Kai ordered.

"I know what I'm doing!" Charlotte yelled back.

The mana copies began to sprint towards the unburned section of the grove. Kai quickly followed, blending himself within the group.

He needed to get close enough so that the grove was within his interference range. In an open field without cover, using Charlotte's Gift was his best chance at closing the gap.

Thunk!

He heard the snap of drawstrings over the fires. The glint of a thin bolt entered his line of sight. Kai traced the projectile's trajectory as he fought his instincts to dodge. One of the mana copies beside him took the hit. The bolt pierced through the body—the mirror image immediately dispersed into ethereal motes of light.

Don't react.

He steeled his expression, trying not to respond to the attack. Charlotte's mana copies were more akin to illusions than a tangible vessel. They reacted to orders or mimicked the target's behavior. They were like dolls with no sense of self-preservation or intelligence. To maintain the façade, Kai had to remain stone-faced.

Thunk!

Kai's heart leaped. Another bolt whistled through the air. Another mirror image fell. The sweltering heat was getting progressively hotter with every step he took. Something thundered in the distance. A tree likely collapsed. The forest fire crackled with a wraithlike hiss as if it was indignant at his intrusion. Sweat suddenly dripped over his eye.

Thunk!

His vision shimmered briefly. In his periphery, he caught the bolt soaring directly for him. Kai dove to the ground at the last second. He felt the rush of air brush by his face as the bolt narrowly whizzed by.

He raised his head. A human-like silhouette was perched atop of one of the unburned trees. The jig was up. But the enemy was finally within range.

"Eviscerate!"

Mana surged out of his Azurite earring. Shivs forged by water flew at the interloper. They jumped, escaping to an adjacent tree as the water shivs sliced off the branch where they formerly stood. Kai continued his pressure while advancing. Now that the enemy was occupied with his attacks, the bolts lessened in frequency.

You're running out of places to hide!

Kai increased his barrage, cutting off the areas where the interloper could retreat. As if realizing their dilemma, they suddenly leaped off the trees.

Thunk!

Kai twisted his body at the snap of another crossbow. He heard a faint thud as the enemy landed on the ground. Before he could react, they barreled towards him at an inhuman speed. Blue light flickered from their body as they invoked Mana Arts.

Shit!

The enemy was in front of him within seconds. Kai flung water shivs in desperation. His assailant brushed them away with ease, cutting the water constructs apart with a pair of daggers. Without slowing down, they lunged for his throat.

Kai stomped the ground. "Swell!"

A steaming geyser erupted at his foot as he jumped back. The enemy skidded to a stop in front of the scalding waters before stepping around it undeterred. They were relentless. But the brief second of delay brought Kai enough time.

"Infusion!"

Two rings of water materialized around his body. The interloper lunged. Daggers inbound. Kai retreated as tendrils of water lashed out from the ring like whips. The elastic power deflected the daggers back, but the interloper was unshakeable. Persistent, they continued to cling onto Kai like a parasite, offering no room for him to counterattack. Water crashing against steel echoed over the rampaging flames.

Kai was losing his nerves. Each attack from the enemy was aimed perfectly at his vitals. Even worse, he had no idea if the daggers were still coated with poison. Taking a single hit felt like a death sentence.

The experience was eerily familiar. He had been here before. A similar scenario played out in the preliminaries of the Clash of Dawn against Emil. Back then, he had also been caught on the backfoot in melee and was forced to defend. Eventually, Emil found an opening as he tired.

Not again!

The humiliating memory burned in his head. He refused to let the same outcome unfold. He was different from back then. He learned. He changed. To lose in the same way would mean that all of his efforts over the past month had been wasted.

Kai stepped forward. He twisted his body, offering up his left arm as he abandoned defense. Icy pain shuddered up his shoulder as the dagger tore through flesh. Blood sprayed. The cerulean ring of water enveloping his body turned crimson in an instant. He clenched his teeth.

"Ha!"

The water tendrils lashed out. The whip slammed into the enemy's chest. They were sent reeling, visibly winded by the attack. Kai pressed his advantage. The tendrils surged. One found its way around the interloper's throat. Others latched onto their limbs, pinning them in place.

"Stand down!" Kai demanded. He could feel his enemy's struggling to break free of his hold. It took every ounce of his willpower to keep them immobile. "Or I will snap your neck apart!" He tightened his grasp around their throat as if to prove a point.

Despite his threat, his enemy would not yield. Blue light suddenly radiated from their body. The ambient mana concentration climbed rapidly. Sensing danger, Kai jumped back. Dissonance filled the air. Pockets of mana then detonated around the interloper's body, shattering the watery tendrils that kept them rooted in place.

His enemy was on their knees. Kai realized they had used Mana Arts to break themselves loose from the imprisonment. Still, that didn't mean they were immune to the impact of the mana explosions. The pain must have been excruciating.

But why? I can just—

Another masked figure cladded in black suddenly dropped by the interloper's side. Kai froze. He could see residual mana rising from the newcomer's body.

Another Exalted.

He circulated water to wash away the blood from the wound on his shoulder. A faint buzz echoed down the length of his arm. Likely adrenaline. He could still move. The dagger from the interloper didn't seem to be poisoned.

"Kai!"

It was Charlotte. She was accompanied by Theo, one of the Nacht Exalted that Kai met during his first meeting with Isen.

Good. I'm tired of having fair fights. Kai sneered at the enemies. The interloper that he had been fighting was still kneeled on the floor. They likely wouldn't be able to move for at least a couple of minutes.

As if coming to the same conclusion, the newcomer stepped forth.

Kai heard the rush of air.

Like a demon from hell stirred awake, flames erupted from their body.