We knew there was an enemy group lurking in the darkness ahead.
Loradd allowed me to pinpoint our enemy’s location with remarkable accuracy in closed spaces like this, making it practically impossible to ambush us. We were actually hoping they’d try something like this, since we needed to capture one of them to complete our mission.
“Fff!”
For that reason, we weren’t exactly surprised when a group of assassins suddenly leaped out at us from the shadows with a hiss. They were inhumanly fast, though. I suspected they had Sakara flight seals engraved into the bottoms of their boots.
“Tsav, three men at twelve o’clock, headed this way.” Two of them were armed with knives, while the third held a lightning staff. “And two more on either side.”
“Roger. Looks like they’re Gwen Mohsa enforcers.”
Tsav spun his sniper staff around in a full circle. Its tip shattered the jaw of the first man, and the impact activated the seal, discharging a bolt of lightning that went straight through the man’s head to strike a second man wielding a knife. This was already an extraordinary feat, but the bolt went on to strike a third man right through the chest. Tsav had killed three men with a single shot!
“Keep pushing forward!” someone shouted from the shadows. “Kill them. Our holy war begins now!”
“Oh! Is that…?” A flicker of recognition crossed Tsav’s face. The knowledge had no visible impact on him, however, and he took out the assassin lunging at him as if nothing had happened.
“Fff!”
A fist came crashing down from above, a knife clenched tightly in its fingers
“Huh? Could you be any slower?”
Tsav twisted his upper half and dodged the attack, then countered with a backhand strike. He grabbed his opponent’s wrist, swept them, then stomped on their head, crushing their skull.
Immediately, two more assassins attacked from either side. It didn’t seem possible for Tsav to dodge them, but he bent backward at an absurd angle, beyond the range of motion of any normal human spine. Not only did he dodge the blade aimed at his neck, he even managed to counter, sending a lightning bolt into one man’s chest and slashing the other’s throat. He must have picked up the knife sometime during the fray. In the blink of an eye, both his attackers had been neutralized.
“Heh-heh! Pathetic!” he shouted. “I feel like I’m being underestimated.”
I managed to dispatch the last attacker with a swift kick, but it was clear Tsav was in a league of his own when it came to this kind of fighting. He was way ahead of me in terms of efficiency.
“That’s enough. We don’t need to keep this up until you’re all dead.” My voice echoed through the darkness. “We’ve got this monster of a serial killer you guys personally raised on our side, and he has no qualms killing every one of you. So don’t think you can beg for mercy.”
“Huh? Hey, now! My heart twists with love and sorrow every time I kill! Heh-heh!” With a fluid motion, Tsav twirled his sniper staff so it pointed straight ahead. “I promise to be gentle if you beg for mercy. Though I guess it’s a little too late for that.”
“Dammit! We’re not done here, you filthy heretics!” Someone was still shouting at us from the darkness. “These ruins will be your graves! We’ll turn you into ash! They’ll never be able to resurrect you again, penal heroes!”
Tsav seemed to find this so hilarious that he couldn’t help bursting into laughter.
“Pffft! Ha-ha-ha! Bro! I can’t…! I just can’t take it anymore!” He doubled over and pointed into the dark. Apparently, he found the situation quite amusing. “That’s my old boss, Necrus. They call him “the Black Rain,” and he’s an instructor for Gwen Mohsa’s enforcers… Guys, come on. You can’t win. Just surrender. It’s over.”
“Silence!” Tsav’s words had clearly angered this Black Rain fellow. “I will never forgive you, traitor! Did you forget who took you in and raised you? You ungrateful, good-for-nothing heretic!”
“You listening to this, Tsav?” I pointed at the angry man in the shadows. “Sounds like you owe him your life. Is he your adoptive father or something?”
“I guess you could say he was, like, my master. He taught me how to kill and all that. I’ve already taken out the people who raised me, so we don’t have to worry about them. Killing them is part of the ritual.”
“Oof. This group sounds even worse than the rumors say. They really did a number on your moral compass.”
“Hmm? What do you mean…? I never had one of those!” It was a refreshingly honest reply. I doubted I’d ever understand this guy. “Anyway…”
An assassin had been lurking at his feet, ready to strike. The guy had taken a kick to the head earlier, but he was still breathing. Tsav stepped on the man’s arm, shattering the bone.
“I’m impressed you’re still alive, Necrus!” Tsav continued. His voice held genuine admiration. “You’ve got excellent killing technique, but you’re a total coward, with no influence in the group, so I figured they’d have gotten rid of you by now. Then again, maybe that’s exactly why they let you live. You weren’t exactly a threat.”
“Don’t you dare underestimate me, Tsav.”
Necrus emerged from the shadows, revealing himself. He was a burly man with an eye-catching scar marring his face. He stood like a seasoned warrior, leaving no openings for his opponent to strike. In his hands were a pair of unusual short swords with matte-black blades.
“Who do you think taught you how to kill?” he asked.
“You did, of course. But…” Tsav kicked away another assassin hard in the face. The man hadn’t even gotten up off the ground. “It only took me ten days to surpass you, so I never really felt like your student!”
“Tsk.” Necrus’s expression twisted with rage. “Then allow me to show you the power of the Black Rain.”
He quickly closed the distance. His movements were extremely fluid, with minimal vertical motion. It all made sense now. His actions belied his earlier demeanor; he was clearly skilled. His twin swords danced as if they were alive as he effortlessly dodged Tsav’s attacks, moving ever closer.
But then, out of nowhere, something latched on to his leg like a bear trap.
“Huh?” Necrus looked bewildered as blood began to squirt out of his left leg.
A quick glance revealed a small winged creature, about the size of a cat, with its fangs sunk into his flesh. It had burst out from the back of the corpse Tsav had just kicked.
“Kah! Kyu! Giiih!” it cried, before tearing off a hunk of Necrus’s leg and taking flight.
“Whoa. Is that a faerie?”
Tsav shot it down with his sniper staff almost on reflex.
I recognized the type at once: It was a wisp. These were insect-like faeries, slightly larger than a human’s palm. They weren’t particularly strong, but they had an annoying ability to lay eggs in other creatures. They’d hide inside their bodies like parasites, just as this one had done to that assassin. I saw the other corpses begin to squirm and unsheathed a knife.
“Guh… Urgh! What is this?! Was this your doing, Tsav?!” Necrus rolled around shouting. But we had bigger problems at the moment: We had to take down these wisps.
“Tsav, we’re in trouble, and it’s not just these guys! We’re surrounded!”
“Sure looks that way.”
I infused my knife with the power of Zatte Finde and blew one of the wisps to pieces as Tsav fired his lightning staff.
“So, like… This was a trap, right? I bet they intended to take us out along with these Gwen Mohsa dudes. And that means…”
“There’s no time for speculation. We’ve gotta run. We’re sitting ducks here.”
I pounded the wall with my fist and detected a group of creatures approaching. One colossal humanoid with metallic-sounding footfalls, followed by some smaller ones with wings, and another group of agile, four-legged beasts. Probably all faeries. They must have been watching us from outside Loradd’s range. They likely had us surrounded already. The question was, who set us up?
“Come on, Necrus.” Tsav grabbed the man by the nape of the neck
I rolled my eyes. “You’re taking him with us?”
“Come on, I promise I’ll take good care of him! He’s funny. Trust me. He’ll make you laugh your butt off!”
“What is wrong with you? He’s not some stray animal.”
“He basically is. What? Do you treat humans better than dogs and cats? That’s discrimination, you know.”
“Well, I’m a human, after all.”
“An interesting take! At least you’re honest! Heh-heh!” Tsav forced Necrus up and then began pushing him along. “All right, Necrus. You don’t wanna die, right?”
Instead of answering, the man spat at Tsav and tried to elbow him in the throat. Tsav dodged easily and laughed. Then he punched Necrus in the face—twice.
“Aiming for the neck is basic stuff. I saw that coming a mile away.”
“Why, you little…!”
“A kindhearted, good-natured man like me would never abandon someone, even an ungrateful scumbag like you. Come on, Bro! Let’s get out of here before we’re surrounded.”
“…You’d better take good care of him.”
“I knew you’d understand!”
What the heck is this guy thinking?