‘I'm glad that worked…’
Since Weaver knew all of his patterns, Sol decided to try something completely different. Based on how Weaver treated his feints, he decided to do a feint all the way until the last second where he then switched to [Heavy Blow]. While he could’ve used [Cross Slash], a move that dealt more damage, it didn’t carry the same weight he needed from [Heavy Blow] to bypass the weak defense and still hit just as strongly. [Cross Slash] distributed its attack into two separate ones; while overall it did more damage, the power of each individual swing was less.
Sol held the absolute advantage now, with Weaver on the ground and grievously wounded, the fight was already as good as won. Sol could've had mercy with Weaver, found a way to revert the effects of the brainwashing after capturing him, but he had clearly chosen his side. Weaver was brainwashed to obey but not to enjoy the crimes he committed and even abused Red Sands who was in an arguably worse predicament.
Just as Sol was about to bring down his sword for the finishing blow, he noticed in the corner of his eye Red Sands took a step towards them. Unsure if she planned to save Weaver or attack him the moment he struck, Sol held back his final strike as he eyed Red Sands warily.
Sol backed up a few feet as Red Sands approached the fallen Weaver and stared at him in silence. She was either very confident that Sol wouldn’t strike her or did not care if he did, as she left her back completely open to Sol.
Weaver coughed a mouthful of blood as he looked at Red Sands and commanded her, “Hurry... give me a potion…”
She stared back in silence, her expression always unreadable thanks to the magical cloak, but a small mumble could be heard. She spoke so quietly Sol could only pick up the last two words she said.
“-hate you.”
“Wha-”
SHLICK
The next thing Weaver felt was the cold metallic sensation of a dagger lodged in his heart. He was barely able to process the betrayal before his body stopped functioning and he stopped breathing.
‘Didn’t expect her to kill him…’
Although Sol could understand why Red Sands would kill Weaver, he wanted an answer from her perspective because he knew her emotions were essentially erased by the brainwashing.
“Why did you kill him?”
Red Sands removed the dagger from his chest and stowed it within her cloak. She then looked back to Sol and did not answer immediately, as if trying to figure out the answer herself.
Eventually, she spoke, “Want to.”
For most people, that could be justification enough to end someone's life, but she wasn’t most people. Red Sands, who had lived the past three years only taking action when ordered to, actually decided something for herself. It was a huge step in the right direction of recovery, even if her first desire was to kill someone else.
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It also gave Sol the confirmation he needed to know that with the brainwashing, there was a mistake Cane didn’t realize in the process. Just because one was made loyal after the brainwashing, it didn’t mean they would stay loyal. They had to either continuously reapply the conditioning every so often to maintain the effects at their peak or actually give them a good reason to stay loyal with rewards or good treatment.
Weaver was a case of the latter actually enjoying the benefits of working with them which is why he stuck around for so long. With the way they treated Red Sands, it was plausible she would have eventually been able to break free on her own without Sol’s intervention.
“I assume you want to recover your memories as well?”
She gave a small nod before moving behind Sol and taking position there. Although Sol believed she wouldn’t attack him after killing Weaver, he still kept his guard up. He wasn’t too worried though as he knew Red Sands had few means of actually hurting him.
“What are you doing?”
“Following.”
“Umm, I’m not going anywhere yet. I still have to wait for the raid party to rescue me.”
Red Sands silently stared at Sol as if asking what she was supposed to do with that information but didn’t ask any questions. Feeling the need to elaborate further, Sol explained the plan he came up with with the Guildmaster and how they were about to raid the facility. Once he was done explaining it, he realized another problem.
“What will you do? I may be able to explain that you were forced to follow them because of the brainwashing, but I don’t know if they will still hold you responsible for the kidnappings you committed…”
The assassin offered no input as to what he should do, leaving the decision to Sol.
“Quietly escape this place for now and meet me later at The Rusty Bed inn. There I can explain how we might be able to get your memories back.”
Maybe it was the way Sol worded it that sounded like an order, Red Sands nodded and left the room to gods know where. Hopefully later, she will show up again at the inn, and they could talk further, but it will probably be Sol doing most of the talking.
With all urgent matters settled, Sol looked back at the two bodies and remembered he still had one more thing to do.
Name: Weaver
Race: Human
Talents: [Threads], [Puppets], [Dagger]
Level: 64
Talent Skills:
[Predators Web] Lv 7, [Puppet Repair] Lv 4
Passive:
[Thread Control] Lv Max, [Mana Efficiency] Lv 6, [Intelligence Up] Lv 4, [Wisdom Up] Lv 5, [Precise Coordination] Lv 7, [Increase Mana Regeneration] Lv 3, [Throwing] Lv 9, [Intermediate Dagger Mastery] Lv 4
Active:
[String Enhancement] Lv Max, [Thread Creation] Lv Max, [Thin Slice] Lv 7, [Puppet Enhancement] Lv 6, [Vital Stab] Lv 6, [Backstab] Lv 5
‘I can finally see his true status. Even his name is Weaver, huh.’
The name section of the status page always reflects what they currently believe to be their name. It’s not impossible for someone who had lived under another name for long enough that they treat it as their real name for it to reflect in their status page. In this case being renamed after the brainwashing made the status page change to the new name as such.
Sol had tried [Analysis] multiple times during his training sessions with Weaver but was never able to actually glean anything from it. Weaver’s status page was always changing into the names of the different gods and goddesses, usually making fun of them in some way. For example, with Ragnar, the God of War, he gave himself fake skills in running away, surrendering, and other skills along that line.
Now that Weaver was dead, the item was no longer in effect, and Sol was left with a tough decision. He needed to pick just two skills from this wide spread of rather powerful abilities, which could be incredibly useful.