Alex was only growing more nervous as the day neared its end. This truly was his last chance, whatever the healer’s plan was he couldn’t allow her to see it through. He’d spent a few hours after Dora left considering her cryptic conversation with Greyson, and comparing it to everything else he knew.
It all seemed connected, Alex just didn’t have enough information to put it all together. He knew that Janet and Anise, had history with the King, had just learned Dora was meant to be a princess, so potentially his daughter. The King was like the boogeyman of the zone, people not willing to even utter his title on a regular basis. The wayward royal daughter also had connections to the underground through Ralph; who Anise hated; and this Eric fellow, an underground that the King, by the way everyone talked about him, allowed to exist. Eric was likely one of those four owners of the arena, so obviously powerful, especially if he was willing to team up with Dora, who, maybe, wanted to oust her father.
Having stretched his bits of knowledge as far as it could go and still unsure of where that left him in all the mess, Alex resumed connecting his pathways to his mana pool. Doing so had the added effect of raising his mana recovery rate, which in turn allowed for slightly longer information gathering trips topside with Soul Sight. At around four in the afternoon, Alex gave up on even that, the stress getting so bad he found himself needing to drop into Meditationto calm his nerves. At one point he tried duplicating the event with Pain Resistance from a few days prior, but eventually just sat waiting as the clock ticked ever onward, only exiting once per hour to check on the others’ positions. He’d done what he could to prepare, all that was left was to wait.
It was just past eight when Alex noticed the first big change in compound activity. The healer had woken up two hours prior, but remained in her room until recently. Now she was headed towards Greyson’s office, it seemed their operation would be starting soon. Dismissing his skill, Alex waited the time it would take the woman to arrive before he reactivating it and flying over to catch their conversation.
“I’ll update you after if you’d like,” Greyson said as the woman entered, “but I already sent word to the boss, no deal currently.”
“That’s what we expected, the crazy little bitch is too proud. We’ll see how long that lasts after she loses one of her toys.” Greyson frowned at her word choice, but the healer didn’t catch it as she continued speaking. “I’m assuming he didn’t tell you where the coins were?”
“No, we didn’t touch him either, just asked the questions.”
“And he is still broken?” she asked, her voice growing husky towards the end.
“Yes, ma’am,” Greyson affirmed, his expression once again a mask of indifference. “Though I believe the days of constant agony has raised his tolerance for pain.”
“Worry not about that. What about the locks?”
Out of his inventory, the fighter pulled a ring of ten or so old-fashioned skeleton keys, and handed them over. “I had an entire set made, since you didn’t explain the plan to me.”
“We’ll be ready in an hour, just get in position and the rest will fall into place.” She had a predatory smile on her face, all teeth and no eyes, but Alex didn’t focus on it as he deactivated Soul Sight.
He had what he needed, no reason to beckon a headache right before the party started. Standing, Alex extended Sixth Sense’s range and began to stretch, imagining a world where his counter went up in smoke because he wanted to get a bit more limber before the fights. Periodically he checked on everyone’s positions, the healer had returned to her room for a while before meeting up with Trevor, while Greyson had gone all the way up to the surface. Their most powerful fighter being that far away could be both beneficial and potentially detrimental, though that would depend on how the night went.
Alex listened to the healer and dwarf duo's conversation in spurts, collecting bits of relevant information until they began heading in his direction. Getting into position, Alex laid flat on his stomach, the pose making it feel like his heart was readying to explode in his rib cage. From what he’d gathered, the plan was for the healer to enter the cell alone while Trevor waited in one nearby. She’d claim to have managed to stab Trevor a few times when he tried to rape her, before grabbing his keys and gear, then heading over to Alex.
Her “plan” was all levels of fucked up, and he felt much better about his own to take her life the moment he’d heard it. The crazy woman treated the whole thing like a game, growing visually excited at the thought of manipulating Alex into thinking she was helping him escape, only to turn on him later. He supposed he was lucky, if not for her many mental issues, he wouldn’t have been gifted such a perfect opportunity to escape.
Sixth Sense showed him the moment the pair entered the nearby cell, and Alex used Soul Sight sparingly as to not waste all his mana. Unlocking the cell, the woman sent Trevor to sit up against the wall, where the pair went through effort to cover him in bruises, and both of themselves in liberal amounts of fake blood. At least he hoped it was fake, as he remembered the mutilated animal from the night before. Next, they made a show of muffled grunting, Trevor hacking in what was probably meant to be death throes before the space went silent once more. Rolling his eyes at the theatrics, he had to appreciate their unknown irony as he watched the woman leave “her” cell and head over towards his.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Alex remained stock still as she approached. He had positioned himself just about as far from the door as possible, and shifted his rags to make his body harder to see in the dim light. As a healer, even a non-traditional one, she probably had plenty of experience examining injured people, making her uniquely qualified to tell he was quite a bit more healed than he should be. The further into the room he could get her before that happened, the more likely his ambush was to succeed. The door unlocked with an audible click and the woman entered, her whispers loud in the silence.
“Hello. Can you hear me?”
Alex groaned at the sound of her voice, hoping his play at sleeping would keep her less on edge. She repeated her greeting rather than immediately approach, and Alex turned his head slightly, making a show of wincing at the motion.
“Hello,” he replied weakly, the word coming out more like a forced groan. Just when he thought he might be laying it on to thick, the woman walked a bit further in, and Alex kept his eyes low, blinking a few times as he caught sight of her.
“Oh, thank the gods you’re still alive,” she praised, and Alex acknowledged the level of innocence her voice seemed to contain.
Unlike during the questioning earlier, if not for his bit of espionage Alex would have been none the wiser to her game. He’d considered for a while the best way to take her down, but now he knew it needed to be as soon as possible. Alex wasn’t sure if she had a skill or the like that improved her believability, but with abilities and attributes like his own Acting and Charisma floating around, he saw no reason to risk it.
The healer spent the next minute spinning the tale Alex had known was coming, and he found himself getting enraptured, even with the foreknowledge that everything she said was a lie. She didn’t move as she spoke, which worried him, but whatever ability she possessed wasn’t so powerful it could rewrite what he already knew, so he didn’t rush the situation.
“But with him so close, his guard was down, and I managed to catch him with a knife my mentor suggested I keep in my boot in case of emergencies. I- I-” she broke off into choked sobs before gathering herself and continuing, “I didn’t want to hurt him, but I didn’t know what else to do. Anyway,” she sighed, as if coming to terms with the reality. “I think that other man is busy somewhere, since they normally come get me together, so I figured this was our chance.”
Seeing an opportunity of his own, Alex mumbled something under his breath, the sound so low the woman was forced to get closer if she wanted to hear it.
“What was that?” she asked, still not moving.
Nervously, he said it again, coughing before the statement was fully out. Finally, she approached and Alex was so tense, every muscle in his body felt like a coiled spring. He knew it was the worst way to get into a fight, but he couldn’t help it; his future would be worse than torture if he failed.
“Oh silly me, let me heal you first. I’m sorry, my head is all over the place sometimes.”
With those words, Alex watched as she entered striking distance, his body exploding into motion as the sphere of her knee hit the ground. Making a fist as if he was already holding the blade, Alex lashed out, summoning the weapon mid-movement, and attempting to transfer all the potential energy in his body into a single strike. The healer seemed to move as he did, her body reacting on instinct to the attack, but Alex was faster, a short lunge pushing him the remaining distance and allowing his blade to skewer the woman's throat.
She scrambled back in turn, the weapon dislodging with a spray of blood thanks to Thorn’s Touch. Alex tried to chase, he needed to finish her off while he had the advantage, but he couldn’t reach, his chains going taut as he ran out of slack.
‘No, No, No,’ he thought, mind in a panic as Sixth Sense showed him the familiar color of healing mana entering the woman’s wound. All she had to do was fix her vocal cords then it was over, Trevor would be in the room within seconds. Spotting the dropped ring of keys in reach, Alex squatted down to grab them. His improved Dexterity allowed his fingers to dance along the loose pieces of metal, but there were too many for him to try and brute force the process. His first guess would need to be right, or she’d heal herself before he got free. Catching a glimpse of her smug grin, even with the half healed hole in his inventory, Alex activated Battle Trance to squeeze himself out a bit extra time. Initiating the skill without proper access to stamina felt weird, but Alex barely noticed it as he readied to throw his blade.
The action was truly a last ditch effort, but failing to think of anything better, he committed. Cocking back his arm, he launched it, the blade piercing both of the woman’s hands before lodging itself in her throat. Her eyes had widened as he’d readied to send the weapon, but she failed to move in time letting out a muffled scream as the strike landed true. Alex didn’t linger on his small victory. Popping the ring of keys back into his hands after their momentary storage, he began to look over the set, doing his best not to focus on his very limited time. Instead of trying them at random, he compared the individual key size to his cuffs, reasoning out the two most likely options in a matter of seconds.
A quick glance at the woman showed she was still alive and healing. She’d managed to push one of her hands across the blade to the hilt of the sword, and was using that leverage to slowly pull it out, presumably while the other worked on her throat. Getting a single cuff off as his first key proved to be correct, Alex let it hit the ground as he hastily began working on the next. That was when they both realized she was now the one running out of time. Alex lunged once more as the second restraint fell, the healer trying to scramble further back, but unable to get any leverage with her hands occupied.
Alex watched as Battle Trance dragged out the moment the confidence in her eyes was replaced by fear and rage, his hand moving over her mouth to further muffle any resistance. Slamming her head into the ground with every ounce of power he could muster, he felt around for the nearest weapon, the blade she’d claimed to have used to kill Trevor. With a swift motion, he flipped it, driving the dagger through the soft part of her jaw and up into her brain. Alex held it as he waited for her to stop struggling, the woman’s abilities prolonging her life for another minute even after such a fatal blow. He knew the moment she finally died, the notifications announcing that he’d leveled pinging in his periphery. Not a second after, Alex vomited directly onto the woman’s fresh corpse.