“This is called Light Blink, Note! Though I guess you can’t hear me anymore!”
The light shot straight for the soldiers and then hooked, dropping an entire group of guards on the spot. It continued to zig and zag, felling guards left and right.
“An acceleration art for linear movement, I’m guessing...” I mused.
It wasn’t fluid like Shadow Runner, but it allowed Suiz to advance at a higher speed when traveling in straight lines. By moving faster than the human eye could follow and rapidly changing direction, it was like he was disappearing and reappearing out of nowhere—like a light blinking on and off, fitting for its name.
“Take this! Knock!”
Furthermore, Suiz was using the hilt of his dagger to take out the guards as he went. With the speed of Light Blink behind the blunt force blow, it probably had enough power to shatter their jaws in addition to knocking them out. The fact it didn’t meant he had perfect control over it. His execution in simply knocking them out was like a captivating art.
“Could I do that too?” I wondered.
I took out my dagger and gazed at the hilt, but I knew just how crappy my weapon handling was for a thief. I couldn’t let myself get carried away here and mess this up.
“Palm Shot!”
I rushed at a nearby guard with Shadow Runner and used a familiar art instead. I imitated Suiz and aimed for the jaw, but would it be enough to knock someone out?
“Ugh...” The guard thrust his spear into the ground for support as he stumbled.
Damn. I held back too much. Fortunately, though, my first Palm Shot left him completely open for a second round.
“Here’s another!” This time, the soldier fell down unconscious. “I guess I still have to put some force into it for it to work...”
In the time I’d spent struggling against one guy, Suiz had taken down three.
What tremendous speed... Am I really doing any good here?
That was a worrying thought, but I didn’t have time to stew over it at the moment. We’d already caused enough of a commotion to attract more guards. I could even sense the big guns that Cardinal Fuge had hired heading our way. Suiz was already a fair distance ahead of me—and if we got separated completely, I’d end up surrounded.
“I guess he won’t wait for me...” I muttered, firing another Palm Shot at a nearby soldier.
This time I could feel something crack under the weight of my hand. Maybe I’d overdone it... Well, it wasn’t a fatal injury and there were plenty of priests around. He’d be healed up in no time, so surely it was fine.
“Palm Shot!”
By the third guard, I’d figured out how much strength to use.
So this is how much power you need to knock someone out. I learned something today.
After taking down one, then two more guards with Palm Shots, I checked to make sure they were out cold.
“Hey, we’re here,” called Suiz.
Before I knew it, we were at the door leading to the rear hall where Neme was being held. Just how many guards had Suiz laid out while I was practicing with my Palm Shot? I hurried over to him while he handily used Unlock to open the door.
“That was so anticlimactic that it was practically a snooze,” he commented.
“Personally, I’d be happy if things stay this way,” I replied. Suiz opened the door to reveal more guards, who noticed us and came charging. “Oh, I jinxed it.”
“Nah, we should be able to handle this much.”
Suiz immediately activated Light Blink. His mental reaction time was as impressive as his physical speed. I followed him by activating Shadow Runner, knocking out the soldiers he missed while trailing his steps.
“Turn right at the next intersection,” I called to him.
“Got it.”
Suiz was a thief himself, so he knew how to use detection arts. Instead of calling out enemy positions like I did in the dungeon, I only had to give him directions. Were things really this easy with a top-tier thief on our side? I was nothing but grateful to have Suiz with me.
“The soldiers here aren’t putting up much of a fight,” he remarked.
“You’re just too strong for them, Suiz.”
“You think so?”
“It’d be different in a head-on battle, but thieves excel in ambush tactics like this.”
That was likely why the guards had yet to get the better of me. I’d lose a duel nine out of every ten times, but even I had a fighting chance on my own terms.
“Duck into the second-to-last room on this hallway.”
“Here?”
Suiz and I arrived at a storage room filled with scriptures, books, and documents scattered around the place.
“It should be around here...” I dragged a shelf to the side to reveal a corridor behind it. As I’d expected, this was the hidden passageway we were looking for. “If we take this, we should reach the rear hall, no problem.”
“That so?”
Suiz and I entered the corridor and returned the shelf to its original position before making our way down a dark set of stairs. At the bottom was a long passage leading to an open space under the church’s rear hall. It was filled with support pillars for the building and nothing more apart from a doorway on the other side that led back up into the church.
“This really is anticlimactic.” Suiz hung his light on a nearby pillar. He continued to the next and hung another glowing artifact, and then another. The room was soon illuminated enough that I could see his face. “It wouldn’t be bad to help you get your friend back like this and part ways, but it just isn’t interesting that way.”
“I don’t really need it to be interesting,” I replied with a laugh.
Suiz’s face twitched. “You might not, but I do.” With that, he turned to face me. “I told you from the start, Note Athlon, I only do things I find interesting.”
“What are you getting at?” I asked, realizing that something about him seemed different.
He shrugged and answered, “I accepted your job because I thought something interesting would happen. But you didn’t live up to it.”
“Well, sorry about that.”
“However, Fuge’s a guy who always exceeds my expectations. He brings me jobs beyond my wildest dreams.”
Why was he bringing up Cardinal Fuge now? I had a bad feeling as Suiz kept talking.
“Note, do you know what the best way to gather information is? A thief of your caliber must, right?”
“What...?”
“Don’t play the fool. The easiest way is to get it straight from the horse’s mouth.”
As I struggled to get my head around what was unfolding, Suiz said something that took me by complete surprise.
“I wanted information about the saint, so I went straight to Fuge. He and I go a long way back, see. It wasn’t all that odd for me to go poking around.”
I had never considered that he’d make direct contact with Cardinal Fuge. No wonder he knew so much detail about the saint candidates and Arcia’s skill...
“My only miscalculation was that he already knew I’d met up with you guys thanks to Greater Far Sight. Fuge knew I was working against him, and he laid it all out. Then,” Suiz continued, “he said to me, ‘Come to my side. I’ll make sure you get something interesting out of it.’ He’s just the best, isn’t he? He knows what I want, and he knows how to deliver.”
“Don’t tell me you’re going to betray us.”
“Betrayal, huh? Well, yeah, I suppose that’s what this is,” Suiz said with a smile. “But it’s your fault for trusting me so blindly, you know? At the end of the day, I’m still a thief. Hiding my hostility is a piece of cake.”
I still couldn’t feel any from him with Enemy Search—but of course not. Suiz Myran was the strongest thief around. I was a fool for thinking I could trust him just because I hadn’t sensed any ill intent.
I suppressed my rising anger and replied, “All right, I understand you’re turning on us, but there’s one thing I don’t get. What’s so interesting about ditching us for Cardinal Fuge? In my eyes, buttering up to someone of power is the act of a coward.”
“Don’t be so harsh, Note Athlon. He simply offered me the best reward.”
“What reward? Money? Power?”
“No. This.” Suiz spread his arms wide. “A one-on-one battle against the strongest thief, Note Athlon.”