Gleam [Karma Cultivator Isekai] - Chapter 90: Nate a good idea

“Kill them.” Nate’s smile melted from his face like snow in the afternoon sun and he drew his swords. Flame raced down their blades, tongues licking into the air hungrily.

Nadia slammed a second bolt into her crossbow and fired it at Chance. Streamers of wind enveloped and the bolt let out a shrill shriek as it shot through the air, heading a white vortex. Bella yanked Chance out of the way and took the shot on her arm.

Wood shattered and Bella’s hand snapped to the side from the force of the blow, but it failed to penetrate her defenses. Nate roared and sprinted in their direction. His footsteps left smoldering patches in the ground behind him.

Chance adjusted his grip on his urumi and flowed to meet Nate. He swayed in place, sliding past both swords as Nate sent two overhead slashes hurtling past him. The heat coming off the weapons was enough to singe the hairs on Chance’s arms. Chance whipped the hilt of his urumi up into Nate’s chin with a loud crack.

Nate staggered back and snarled, thrusting one of the swords for Chance’s chest while shifting the other to block the urumi as it snapped out toward him. Chance stumbled out of the way, narrowly dodging the blow. His urumi wrapped past Nate’s sword, snapping around the other side to score across the man’s other arm.

Chance planted his foot into Nate’s chest and sent him staggering back, right into Nadia’s path. Nadia swore and darted to the side, unable to get another shot off at them without hitting Nate in the process.

Out of the corner of his eye, Chance spotted Madeline channeling Essence. He wasn’t sure exactly what her aim was, but he doubted it was anything good. Nate’s sword whistled past his nose and Chance cartwheeled back.

“Eyes on me,” Nate said with a cocky smile. “You don’t have the liberty to pay attention to others.”

Chance heard another bolt shatter against Bella’s skin. She was keeping herself between him and Nadia, but the Singing Fox cultivators outnumbered them.

Nate’s entire body erupted in molten flame. The heat pouring off him doubled in intensity and he let out a roar as he leapt at Chance, thrusting his blades down like the fangs of a viper. Chance’s urumi whipped out and shot right past Nate’s neck.

“You missed!” Nate roared. Chance threw himself forward and rolled to the side moments before Nate slammed into the ground where he’d been standing. A wave of fire rose up from the impact zone, scorching his back.

“No, I didn’t,” Chance replied, turning back as golden mist materialized behind Nate’s head. He couldn’t see Nate’s features through the fire engulfing his body. Madeline called out a warning as golden mist materialized behind Nate.

He spun, but wasn’t fast enough to stop the glowing sword that emerged from the air behind him from plunging into his chest. The mist materialized further, forming the hand and body of a weathered old man.

The apparition ripped the glowing weapon free of Nate’s chest and he stumbled. Madeline grabbed a vial from her waist and threw it to Nate. Chance snapped his urumi out and the blade shattered the vial, sending the pills spilling across the ground.

Nate lunged for them – and dove face first into Bella’s knee as she appeared before him. His nose broke with a loud crack and he let out a strangled cry. Behind him, the ghostly old man gave Chance a small nod before his form blew away in the wind.

Madeline screamed in fury and thrust her hands forward, finally unleashing the Essence she’d been gathering. A violent gale of black wind erupted from her palms, scouring the ground in front of her and swirling toward Chance.

Bella threw herself forward, putting herself between Chance and the Spell. Chance’s golden mist enveloped both of them an instant before the churning Essence slammed into Bella. She snarled and Chance braced his hands against her back as she was shoved back into him.

The wind enveloped them both. Chance’s stomach jumped in his chest and he nearly doubled over. Unease bubbled within him violently, forcing its way through his lips. His skin crawled like ants had burrowed into it and were chewing at his muscles and ligaments.

Nate dragged himself to the pills, the fire covering him sputtering out as he grabbed one of them from the ground and shoved it into his mouth. He staggered to his feet, breathing heavily as the deep wound in his chest started to heal.

“Kill the boy first,” he snarled, snatching his discarded swords from the ground.

“I’m doing everything I can,” Madeline said through gritted teeth. “If I drop my Essence, they’ll be able to fight back again.”

“Nadia, shoot them!” Nate ordered. Nothing happened. He frowned, then glanced over his shoulder. Nadia was gone.

“Where’s Nadia?” Nate asked, spinning in attempt to spot the woman.

“Find her yourself.” Madeline’s hands trembled with exertion. Neither Chance nor Bella had collapsed from the onslaught of her Essence, and Bella’s eyes met Madeline’s through the churning darkness, the threat within them clear.

A flicker of motion caught Nate’s attention to his side. He burst into flames, raising his swords defensively as he turned toward it. Nadia’s face stared back at him, and he let out a relieved sigh.

“What are you doing, idiot? Shoot them!”

Nadia’s body pitched forward. Her head remained suspended in the air as the rest of her crumpled to the ground, lifeless. A rocky blade slithered back into the wall as a humanoid form pulled itself out from the stone with jerky movements. It had Nadia’s head speared on two of its fingers.

Several eyes opened up on the stone body – several more than a human should have had, and none of them in the right place. An extra arm jutted out from the center of its chest, hanging limply as the monster reached up to its face and dug a finger into the blank stone and dragged it through, forming a rough mouth.

“Human forms are so clunky,” the Old City complained, pulling itself completely free from the stone wall and throwing Nadia’s head to the side. “So weak and fragile. And why only two eyes? It makes absolutely no sense.”

“Nadia!” Nate screamed. Madeline tore her gaze away from Chance and Bella, and the Essence pouring out of her hands faltered for an instant.

Bella roared, charging forward through the weakened energy. Madeline jerked her eyes back to them, but it was too late. Bella drove her shoulder into Madeline’s chest and knocked her onto her back.

The Essence sputtered and fell away from her hands. Bella’s fist slammed into Madeline’s nose with such force that Madeline’s head bounced off the stone. Her body went limp.

Nate charged the Old City with a wordless scream, rearing back to plunge his swords into it. A soft snick echoed through the mountain pass and he stumbled, slowing to a stop and lifting a disbelieving hand up to his neck.

He pulled it back stained red. Nate took a stumbling step forward, then pitched to the ground, falling over the corpse of his sister and lying still. Chance’s urumi slithered back into his hand with a final, silent click.

Wind howled through the pass, seemingly even louder than it had been before. Chance stood still for several moments. His urumi slipped back around his wrist, returning to a bracelet. Bella put a hand on Chance’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry.”

“It was their choice,” Chance replied softly. “Idiots. Why would they just go around trying to prey on people?”

“Because its easier than getting treasure from powerful monsters,” the Old City said, pulling the improperly placed arm from its chest and tossing it to the side. “You’re welcome, by the way.”

“Thanks,” Chance said, still staring at the dead cultivators at their feet. “I – yeah. Thanks, Ocie.”

“Are you thankful enough to give me a better name than Ocie?”

A tiny smile flickered across Chance’s face. “No.”

Ocie grunted in annoyance. It adjusted the eyes on its face, trying to find the proper spot to put them and failing miserably. After a few failed attempts, it dropped its hands to its sides. “Figures. Just kill them earlier next time and save us all the trouble. I don’t want to waste time I could be cultivating fighting weaklings. Did they have anything useful on them?”

Bella knelt beside Madeline and pulled the pouch off her waist. She opened it and peered inside, then grimaced. “This one didn’t. Just the healing pills she threw to… what was his name?”

“Nate,” Chance said, picking the last few pills off the ground and tucking them into his own bag. The vial had shattered when his urumi had hit it, and he had no desire to mix the pills with his until he knew exactly what they did. Not all healing pills were the same, and it was safer to use the ones he’d grown used to so as to avoid any surprises mid-fight.

Neither Nate nor Nadia had anything of any real interest either. The crossbow and swords all looked like normal weapons, and neither Chance nor Bella had any use for them. Once it was clear that the fight was over, Ocie sank into the ground and vanished without even so much as a goodbye.

“Should we do something about this?” Chance asked. “Like… bury them or the like?”

“Do you think they would have done the same for us?”

“No, probably not.”

“Yeah. It’s all they deserve. It’s not even like we were competing over an artifact or some powerful pill. They were just scum,” Bella said. She wrapped a hand around Chance’s shoulders and gently pulled him toward the mountain path before them. “Let’s just keep moving. Don’t lose sleep over people like this. If anything, we helped other cultivators that they would have preyed on in the future.”

“Yeah, I know. You’re right. Let’s just keep moving,” Chance said, shaking his head as they started up the path toward the top of the mountain once more. “It’s just disappointing that there are people that choose to do that when they have the option to get stronger just through hard work and cultivation. Not everyone has that opportunity. It was wasted on them.”

Bella just nodded silently. The wind roared above them as continued, but they’d both learned their lesson about letting their guard down for even an instant. Chance kept his third eye open, scanning for the slightest traces of Karma. He didn’t plan on getting ambushed three times in one day.