There was one day left until Luffe Aros.
Someone was pounding on the door.
The were using an incredible amount of force—they must have had a sledgehammer or something. I was bracing myself against the door, and I could feel the shock waves vibrating up my spine. If the door hadn’t been made of iron, it would’ve been in pieces by now.
“Uh… Bro, I was thinking…” Tsav was pushing against the door to my side, a goofy smile on his face. “This thing’s not gonna hold up much longer. I know we didn’t have much of a choice when we ran in here, but we need to hurry up and do something.”
“Yeah.”
I never dreamed there’d come a day when Tsav’s voice wasn’t the most annoying sound I could imagine. But right now, the pounding behind us was a lot worse.
We were in a small space in the lower levels of the underground fortress—probably a room once used to store supplies. Fortunately, the iron door had been open when we reached it, but now we were trapped inside.
“We’re, like, in trouble…aren’t we, Bro?”
“I’d say so.”
I balled my left hand into a fist and rapped my knuckles against the iron door. I could detect a hulking humanoid creature right behind it, with a few more a bit farther away. They’d picked up on the noise and were slowly making their way over. It was clear that we needed to act sooner rather than later.
“Guess we’re on our own, huh? I mean, it’s been a whole day at this point.”
“I can’t get in touch with anyone on the surface. Something’s probably jamming our means of communication, so don’t get your hopes up.”
“Well, great. We’re lost in an underground fortress, surrounded by patrolling faeries, and poorly equipped to boot. It’s been a while since we’ve been driven into a corner like this, eh?”
“…Hold up, Tsav. What do you mean ‘lost’? Just a second ago, you were shouting out directions like you knew exactly where we were going! I thought it was weird we wound up trapped like this!”
“Heh-heh-heh!”
A hollow, mirthless laugh escaped Tsav’s lips as he looked farther back into the room, clearly trying to dodge the question.
“What do you think, Necrus? Are we lost?”
“Mmm…” A muffled voice echoed from the back of the room. “Mmmmmm! Mnn!”
Crammed into the gap between two rusty metal storage containers was a muscular man with a rather striking scar across his face. He was gagged, his wrists were tied, and his left leg was horribly mangled, as if something had tried to bite it off.
Tsav had been calling the man “Necrus.” Apparently, he was Tsav’s former boss and something of a mentor to him. In other words, this was the man behind Tsav’s string of assassinations—or rather, his spree of senseless murders.
“Mmm…!”
Bound and gagged, Necrus writhed violently, his face flushed as he strained to make himself heard.
“Huh? I can’t hear you at all,” Tsav replied. “Think you could speak up a bit?”
“Mmm! Mnn!”
“Come on, one more time! I feel like I’m close to figuring out what you’re tryin’ to say! You can do it! Believe in yourself! Don’t let that gag get the best of you!”
“This is no time to be joking around, idiot!” I kicked Tsav in the leg for wasting my time with his little comedy routine. “You ready for this? We have to kill the faerie behind this door, before reinforcements show up.”
“Guess we’ve got no choice. All right, I’ll count to three.”
Before he even started, the door began to creak. I drew my knife, and Tsav readied his lightning staff—his usual Daisy model. Although the staff was designed for sniping, it was still decently effective at close range.
“One, two…”
I noticed Tsav’s mischievous grin and jumped back as soon as he said “two.” Tsav jumped back right after, confirming my suspicions. Up to his typical tricks, I see.
The door burst open, and the faerie flew inside. It was a new species, but I recognized it immediately. It was a coblyn—a steel doll born from corrupted metal, and this one was huge, easily bigger than a bear. And now it was charging right for us.
“Mmm…!” Necrus was screaming like it was the end of the world.
Though the coblyn had no eyes, I could tell it had locked on to Necrus. The reason was simple—I’d placed our lantern right at his feet. That left Tsav and me perfectly positioned to attack the faerie from either side.
“Heh-heh!”
Tsav laughed carelessly as he activated his sniper staff and aimed a shot right at the creature’s head. A loud pop echoed through the room as a flash of light struck the coblyn, causing it to stumble back. Tsav had shot the thing point-blank in the head, but the damage was minimal.
I knew it was going to be tough, but damn…
I was ready, though. As the coblyn staggered, I drove my blade into its waist joint. If I could damage this critical area, it wouldn’t be able to stand up, much less run.
“Eat this.”
I used my feet to kick the knife even farther into the joint while Tsav dodged out of the way. A loud explosion followed, and the creature’s lower half was blown to pieces as chunks of metal flew through the air.
“Whoa! Nice!”
Tsav clapped, but the truth was, I’d had to hold back. Zatte Finde wasn’t very good in confined spaces like this. That was why I’d had to aim for the joint.
Its lower half shattered, the faerie was left helplessly wriggling in place. There was no need to go any further. The faerie’s shape was so unwieldy, almost comical, that the strategy had worked perfectly.
“All right, then. Let’s get outta here.” Tsav twirled his sniper staff, sending a bolt of lightning right into the crack on the writhing coblyn’s head, reducing its skull to dust. “We’ll just have to keep movin’ until we find a way back to the surface. Necrus, if you know something, you gotta tell us right now! Come on, speak clearly.”
“Get that gag out of his mouth, already. Oh, wait. You think he might bite his own tongue off?”
“Necrus doesn’t have the guts to do that. Do you?” Tsav grabbed Necrus by the scruff of his neck, forced him to stand, then ripped the gag out of his mouth. “So? Ready to help us? The guys who hired you have obviously left you for dead. You were set up, man.”
“Sh-sh-shut your mouth, traitor!” Now free to speak, Necrus shouted at Tsav with all his might. To be honest, I could sort of empathize with the guy. “How dare you show your face here, Tsav?! Because of you, our entire order—!”
“Oof. You’ve got a mouth on you, huh? Back in it goes.”
“Mmm!”
“Heh-heh-heh! He’s hilarious, isn’t he, Bro?” Tsav forced the gag back into Necrus’s mouth and winked at me. “I told you he was funny! Ah, I’m so glad we found him before it was too late.”
He sounded genuinely pleased. I had no idea what was going on in that brain of his. Come to think of it, it was this Necrus guy’s stupidity that had gotten us into this mess in the first place. I thought back to the ambush he and his band of assassins had sprung on us. Everything had been going smoothly right up until then…