With each flicker of faint light, I could hear the soft beating of dragonfly wings, causing me to eventually give up on trying to follow them and look down at the ground with my body completely loose and ready to explode forward when the opportunity presented itself.
"Human,"
"Human no belong,"
"Blasphemer,"
"Heretic,"
"Stained our holy land with blood,"
"Criminal,"
The voices seemed to circle around me, and each one was different, which told me that even if these Fae were using some type of After Image technique, there were, at the minimum, six other individuals present, and as time went on, more began showing up.
"Human Reaks of blood,"
"Child, human child,"
"Not right, young but evil,"
"Human Tainted,"
"Foul being,"
Having enough of the annoying prattling of the Fae, I snapped my head up and glared at the swirling micro-tornado of shimmering light, cutting me off from the rest of the island like a barrier.
"Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard it all before; you see, I have quite a propensity toward prancing around in Fae territory. Now, are you all gonna stop taunting me? It’s not like your little act is scaring me. I can promise you lot that I have seen and fought things a million times more horrifying than a few genderfluid insect people."
"He knows of us,"
"Called us insect,"
"Kill him,"
"Kill, KILL,"
My words, or more so, my calling them insects, seemed to piss off the prissy little shits as they became more agitated in their speech than before, yet even still, I didn’t yield and only rolled my eyes in annoyance.
The Fae weren’t known to be a strong race; even in the Origin Timeline, the strongest one on record only reached Gamma Rank, and that was long into the descent; however, what they lacked in strength, they made up for with elemental control and numbers.
Population-wise, the Fae only lost out to Goblins, as their growth and reproduction rates were off the charts.
"Oh, for crying out loud," Glaring directly ahead, my eyes lit up icy blue, and I activated my Talent.
’Psy-Kinesis,’
"HALT!"
Thud X 27
Funny enough, my command won out over the booming thunder above and dragonfly wing beats and was subsequently followed by over twenty distinct thud sounds as all of the Fae circling me fell onto their butts, with both confusion and fear painting their faces.
"Dumb, all of you are too stupid to realize what kind of person you are dealing with. I am not one of those Humans you so clearly think me to be. I am MUCH more than that, and you will stay silent until I…
FWOOOSHH FWOOSH
New n𝙤vel chapters are published on freeweɓnøvel.com.
Mid-sentence, a faint whistling sound reached my ears, causing me to break off my command, drop to the ground, and roll to the left as multiple arrows flew by, their initial target, my head.
Scarily enough, my perception had missed the projectiles completely, and if it hadn’t been for my increased hearing, I would have been stuck like a dog who caught a porcupine with its face.
’What the fuck are Elder Fae doing here?’ sucking my teeth, I drew my dagger in time to deflect another few arrows before sliding behind one of the confused Fae I had hit with my Talent and holding the blade to his throat.
"You should probably stop playing games and come out. Elder Fae such as yourselves don’t normally show up unannounced, and I am quite surprised at how shameless you guys are acting."
Unlike regular Fae, who were the bottom of the barrel and easily subjectable to my Coersion, Elder Fae were different. As one would expect by their title, they were…well old, with ages ranging in the hundreds if not thousands of years.
As such, the few I had come across in the Origin Timeline were all sly foxes who could twist your words and make you indebted to them before you ever realized what happened.
They were known to be masters of sophistry and had strange abilities that could lock a person into a lifetime contract that, if broken, would result in death.
Basically, all the worst stories about fairies and Fae came from the Elder Fae, as they were the only powerhouses the race had in their ranks.
"Human Boy, unhand that child this instant." Magically appearing from nowhere, a sign of having used a stealth technique to hide from my eyes, an old man bearing the same striking features as the other Fae stepped forward with gleaming purple eyes.
If I didn’t know any better, I would have assumed this Elder Fae to be a teenager; however, wrinkle-free skin, high cheekbones, and bright purple hair aside, the way he carried himself and his flawless speech were more than enough for me to know he was no average Fae.
"Look at that, do my eyes deceive me, an Elder Fae here before me in the flesh. Usually, I’d ask what I owe the pleasure to, but we both know what is really going on here." Pressing my dagger against my hostage’s throat with enough pressure to draw blood, I was EXTREMELY careful not to lock eyes with the Purple-haired Elder Fae, instead focusing on his forehead.
Even if I had a high resistance to any form of Mental Attacks due to my Talent, that didn’t mean I was impervious to them. Since this Elder Fae appeared extremely young, I knew it was the exact opposite, and he had begun reverse aging, a sign of being over 2000 years old.
Fae were weird creatures; instead of dying old and decrepit, they would go through a strange reverse cycle. At the beginning of their Life Cycle, they would age normally, becoming physically frail and old as you’d expect, but at a certain point, the process would stop. They would then begin living through their "golden years" in reverse until eventually dying as infants again.
Regardless of that, eye contact with Elder Fae was a big no-no because 90% of their techniques and post-descent skills were similar to my Coersion, requiring eye contact with the target.