An Anti-Hero's Origin

Ridiculous

^^ young Naga ^^

Even as I approached the handrail, I could see a trail of smoke beginning to spew from the wall about two kilometers to the east, and the small crowd of Militia running to surround the smoking area. "Where is it?" I frowned, unable to find the source of the attack, which was never a good sign; too many monsters were invisible, or capable of using Illusion Magic to disguise themselves, and they were all irritating. "I'll have to go directly there, then... rest assured, lady Regalia, this conversation isn't over, and I do in fact have an answer to your question which I believe will put your worries to rest; your grand presence may have tied my tongue at a bad time, but it is no less true that I am not an Evil Mage. I will return shortly, and we can continue the conversation where we left off."

"Which part? Me standing over you, or you squeaking like a mouse when I did so?" She smirked a little, sufficiently distracted by the scenario to have dropped the murderous aura from moments ago.

"I would actually appreciate you not teasing me going forward, to be perfectly honest; I'm twenty-seven, and I'm going through the beginnings of the Lust Phase of Puberty, so I can't be sure any attraction or reaction to you is real or a false-positive created by the interference of High-Elven procreational hormones. Also, I'm quite positive a beautiful woman such as yourself is already surrounded by suitors of every rank in society, and a Conjuration Mage is the lowest on that totem pole. Now, I'll be returning shortly, as I said." I nodded and stepped through a portal, aimed at the air above the disturbance, to get a better view of the situation while I drew my bow and quiver from my room through a Familiar Cage portal; it was a unique take on the spell, according to Kip, and very, very useful to not have to carry anything during a hunt.

As I fell, I watched a burst of green mist fill an area suddenly, and out of the resulting cloud came the militia, coughing and puking from the irritant inside; at least, half of them came out. The other half screamed in agony, and then were silenced abruptly, apparently killed by whatever was inside that cloud.

"Well this just won't do..." I frowned, activating the enchantment in my boots, the same Conjuration Rune as from the Lifts in Rockwell Tower, and slowing my descent to nil until I was standing in the air ten meters or so above the mist. A portal opened at my command, and a burst of salt-water came out, colliding with and then dispersing the mist while dousing the creatures that had been hiding within it; I recognized Naga's immediately, their massive serpentine lower halves and cobra-hooded snake heads attached to a humanoid torso with four arms, all covered in green and yellow scales and standing about four meters tall, without stretching their lengthy twenty-meter-long tails. These were adolescents, meaning they were thankfully only half as big as the fully-grown ones, but they were also much more aggressive, and several times faster because of them being much lighter weight; lastly, while Mature Naga would only ever attack you if you entered their territory, Adolescents were actively attempting to build new territory, and thusly were trying to kill everything in sight. "How Troublesome..." I sighed, catching their attention.

They took offense at my having dispersed the cloud they used to hide from their prey in and rip them apart stealthily, and began chucking humongous simple spears made of sharpened trees, it seemed; unfortunately for them, opening portals to block incoming attacks by simply redirecting them was one of the three tricks I knew, so their spears simply flew harmlessly into the open grassy area of the Paean Floor.

"Nicely done! Where'd you send them?" Kip arrived on her Storm Owl, who was already eying the snakes below with greed; owls eat snakes, after all.

"My Tower; Wood is too expensive to destroy." I explained calmly, and then opened a portal underneath each of the three Naga's Coils, so their own weight dragged them into the portals and into the grass of the Paean Floor next to their spears. "And while their Hides and Meat are worth quite a lot, it's worth more when they're fully grown."