Shade looked down and saw the goblin and orc slave pair. Both felt heavy. The orc sniffed the air. The both of them were just outside his radius due to it being a sphere and he was a good 30 feet up a tree which allowed them to get close without Shade noticing.

  Neither of them were looking up, they seemed to be following an animal rather than having been alerted to his presence. Shade opened his mouth slightly to exhale silently when a large bird landed heavily in a tree behind him. As the debris of dried bark and dead leaves filtered to the ground, the orc and goblin pair both looked up. Two pairs of glowing yellow eyes locked with his faded blue ones. He immediately fed time and space into his perception and body.

  To his rising horror even in this time dilated perception, the goblin moved at normal unhindered speed reaching up to activate a pendant which snapped a chromatic orb around itself, and the orcs legs bunched as it crouched to leap, all in real time despite everything being slowed.

  Reacting quickly Shade summoned his chakram and chucked it into the trunk of another tree across the clearing after infusing it with time energy to bring it into his current space time. With a kachunk it stuck and he teleported to where it stuck just above a branch thick enough to hold his weight.

  Behind him a thunderous crack and a roar sounded as the orc landed and punched where shade had been shattering the upper trunk of the tree to rain debris all over the clearing.

  To continue the rising horror several more orcs and goblins ran out at seeming normal speeds; and Shade knew he could maybe take one of them if he had the advantage. But he did not and this enhanced state was taxing and short lived.

  Thinking quickly he used his talent to climb to the bow of the tree he was in where he stripped a few branches to create a Y shape at the top. He secured his chakram in the cleft of the Y and leaned out away from the fort causing the bow to sway. Which got the attention of several orcs who began to shimmy up the tree after him. Now that the tree was truly leaning with the added weight he used caloric completion to imagine dropping to the ground and rolling. But since they were still in slowed time perception the tree stayed bowed.

  Shade put two fingers in his mouth and gave a whistle which gained the attention of the climbing orcs who dropped from the tree. And that's when the truth kicked in. Once they were not moving under their own power but the pull of gravity they just hung in the air, their eyes tracked him though.

  Seeing the tree primed to snap back and launch his chakram over the fort and out of the valley he envisioned walking back to where he started. He triggered his talent, moving him to the safety of the glade. He then ended his Technique. He counted to thirty, should have well and truly enough time to clear the fort blocking the mouth of the valley.

  He triggered his Weapon’s ability and teleported to the chakram. Unfortunately for him it was rolling down the not gentle incline of the slope descending from the fort at the valley mouth, and so was he. His body hurt as he bounced and rolled down the incline that some might roughly refer to as a road. Until he caught sight of a destroyed bridge crossing a ravine and that he was sliding and tumbling towards it.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Shade tried to take control of his tumble, but he learned today that when he teleported to his weapon he did so at its momentum. Which was making this difficult. He started by summoning the weapon to his hand, and his lapse in concentration caused him to lose track of his tumble before he hit the log where the bridge would have been moored and up and over the lip of the ravine. For a moment he hung flailing in the air for purchase. But then he let time flow only into his perception; everything slowed and froze, including himself. Even this was causing noticeable mental fatigue. But he saw that the ravine wasn't very wide at this point so he steeled himself and with a push that left him feeling like he pulled a metaphysical muscle He thrust himself and his weapon into a higher space and threw his chakram across to the other side. And teleport to it before dropping his technique. He had just enough presence of mind to store his weapon in his spatial storage before that effort of will pushed him into unconsciousness with a similar sensation to what he felt that last time he pushed his space time technique.

  When Shade awoke he was alerted to an insect landing on his face and then an Ascending cascade of red alerts. He was stripped down to bare skin\. He was laying on hay or grass and something hefty and metallic was around his neck. He could sense movement and hear the squeak of a wooden axle, and smell of unwashed bodies. Before he opened his eyes he gave himself a quick mental diagnosis. His body still hurt, he knew he was unable to pull himself into a higher space time at the moment. He tried to reach into his spatial inventory but he stopped when that metaphysical pain threatened to overwhelm him. He was however able to burn calories to ease his muscular fatigue without healing himself in case he was actively being observed, which he was grateful for once the alert appeared in his field of vision behind his eyes.

  *****

  You have unlocked the skills Acting and Deception. Deception raised to level 9

  *****

  Shade immediately felt suspicious about his other self. This meant he was already so accomplished at Deceiving that it hit the max threshold after a passive use. He braced himself and groggily sat up and promptly had the wind knocked out of him. A foot connected with his chest and forced him back down. “ If you fucking struggle this spear is going into your eye, Meat.”

  Shade stared cooly at the messy unkempt man in piecemeal leather and cloth armor.

  “Ohhh… we got a hard one here. not a bit of fear in his eyes, even collared and hobbled. No access to his mana and naked as the day he was born. Still looks like is gonna take this spear and shove it up my arse…”

  In a move that Shade saw coming but could do nothing about, the butt of the spear swung around and clipped him on the side of the head. His head barely turned but his eyes watered slightly and he could feel blood trickling down his cheek.

  The man grinned showing blackened teeth. Shade also noticed his left eye was glossy and didn’t focus properly. “Good good, keep that spirit, the ludus will pay good coin for a strong Null like you. How'd you even survive to your age without getting the blessing? I didn't see any criminal or caste marks on your body that would deny you the blessing. But survive long enough and do well enough and you might even make it to one of the god’s coliseum, then you could ask. Sometimes the grant boons…”

  “Oi, Charley shut the fuck up and make sure that he isn't wanted cursed or a Heretic.”

  Charley kicked Shade’s hip. “You heard em. You any of them?” He pulled a white stone from a pouch at his waist and tossed it down. “Pick that up it'l glow if you lie.”

  Shade reached for the stone.” I'm none of those to the best of my knowledge." The stone stayed dull in his hand.