Chapter 23: Assassins Use Poison
Both dwarves fought with remarkably similar styles. Whether that was due to their dwarven origins, or some other reason, Bandit didn’t know. Both held two daggers with a forward grip in their left hand and a reverse grip in their right. They exchanged a flurry of slashes, many catching only air, some deflecting off the enemy’s dagger, and the occasional strike drawing blood.
They’d been fighting all the while Bandit dealt with the group of five young men. Thaw and her opponent were both covered in slashes and scratches, although to Bandit’s eyes it looked like the male dwarf was worse off. Bandit assumed both were using poison on their blades, just as she was.
As far as Bandit was aware, non-magical poison was extremely rare outside of assassin circles. She kept her blades poisoned while fighting monsters alongside the other girls, but a normal adventuring party from the Guild would never bother to use that method. The Guild might employ enchanted weapons or spells to magically afflict an opponent with poison as DM often attempted, but that was entirely different.
Real poison was best suited for fights between people, just like this one. The Guild normally wouldn’t train its members to prepare for person on person combat. Of course, Bandit was an exception. She assumed this male dwarf, whoever he was, had a similar mission and skillset to Thaw. However, he was clearly working for a shadier group than the Guild.
Then again, Bandit didn’t know much about the Union. Her only real exposure was that party of nasty adventurers she and the other girls had to defend themselves from when exiting the Upper Gordu Dungeon. It was possible the Union’s Guild actually supported kidnapping girls from the Holy State and forcing them into slavery or other such tragedies. Hopefully not, considering Bandit was working for a sister organization here in the Holy State. Also, DM was on friendly terms with them.
Turning her attention back to the battle, now she was sure Thaw had the upper hand, at least when measuring by the amount of cuts and blood drawn. By now, both had to be weakening from the poison as well. Bandit’s fear was that perhaps the male dwarf would succumb more slowly and thus would overcome his disadvantage in overall knife fighting.
At this moment, Thaw had her back to Bandit as well as the five incapacitated attackers. The male dwarf, whoever he was, momentarily turned his gaze towards the state of the rest of the battlefield. Making eye contact with Bandit, his lips curled up into the slightest smile.
Bandit figured the dwarf was either glad his men were defeated or was planning to use her to distract Thaw somehow. The former seemed unlikely. She wasn’t going to let him take advantage of her, either. Trusting that the poison would keep her victims immobile for now, Bandit turned and sprinted away from the battle. At a glance, an observer might argue that Bandit was abandoning her ally when she should have been searching for a way to help and further tilt the scales in her group’s favor. That argument was naïve.
Even before the two dwarves started fighting, Bandit knew she had nothing to offer in a battle at such a high level. Her duty at this point was to not become a hindrance for Thaw. She’d watch from afar, ready to move in and help when needed. The pause would also give her a chance to recover. Although it might seem like Bandit had an easy time of her battle, she was quite exhausted, both physically and mentally, from all the close calls with death. Had she not fallen back on her training so completely, she would have at least taken some serious damage in that fight.
Unlike her, DM could probably find a good way to intervene if needed. Bandit was pretty sure DM did not want to reveal himself if he could at all avoid it. Still, if she somehow screwed up and got hurt or captured despite her best efforts, she figured DM would come to her rescue, even if it meant showing something unwanted to Thaw or the other dwarf, not to mention the other combatants who were at least partially conscious.
Just as Bandit could feel the wind against her face, she heard a separate wooshing sound behind her. Looking over her shoulder, she received a death glare from the dwarf. He must have hurled a poisoned blade at her. Now convinced her actions were correct, she continued to flee and then took cover behind some trees.
Peering around the trunk, she saw that the male dwarf was definitely on the back foot now. Both dwarfs actually looked more sluggish, but Thaw’s opponent seemed like he’d be pretty weakened at this point even without any poison involved. Bandit and Thaw both carried non-magical antidotes to counteract most types of poison, including their own. Most likely, the male dwarf did too. Connecting the dots on what Thaw had told her in training, Bandit figured that Thaw was waiting for her opponent to get too weakened to move, and then she would immediately neutralize the poison in her own body and then take a healing potion or something like that.
That’s assuming Thaw wanted to take this guy alive. It’s possible Thaw would determine it’s too dangerous or unnecessary to keep this guy among the living. If so, she’d likely deal lethal damage as soon as his guard dropped. The moment for her to decide was soon approaching.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
She may have been getting ahead of herself, but Bandit couldn’t help but wonder what she and Thaw would need to do with the five guys that were currently writhing on the ground. None of them experienced lethal wounds as far as Bandit was aware. The poison wasn’t intended to be fatal by itself. Eventually, Thaw would need to decide whether to eliminate them or to capture them. Bandit thought it was much less likely Thaw would elect to kill these five the way she might actually kill the enemy assassin. That meant the two of them would need to figure out how to capture and deal with five people. At least, Bandit was glad she wouldn’t need to deal with this issue all alone.
After one frantic combo with his daggers, the male dwarf collapsed backwards. Under normal circumstances, such an action would signal the end of the match, but with combatants like these, dropping your guard was lunacy.
“I yield!” The male dwarf placed his daggers down on the ground next to him and held his hands in front of him palms forward.
Thaw did not lower her blades as she gazed down at him. “You seem quite well trained. Any chance I could get you to talk?”
The male dwarf kept quiet.
“That’s what I thought.”
From where Bandit hid, she couldn’t see Thaw’s expression, but she could see the male dwarf glaring upward, as though he perceived something important from Thaw’s words. Bandit wasn’t sure. Torture and interrogation were Thaw’s department, after all. Bandit was not expected, or at least not yet, to think about such things.
After a few silent moments, the dwarf seemed to lose his ability to maintain his posture and collapsed fully on to his back. He tilted his head down to look at Thaw and asked, “Aren’t ye going to deal with yer poison?” with slightly slurred words.
Thaw wordlessly circled her opponent, stopping only when she was behind his head. Time slowed as Bandit watched the two remain motionless. She wasn’t sure if only a few seconds or much more had passed when Thaw finally made a move. She feinted with one of her daggers, pretending to attack the dwarf but pulling back.
Responding to the feint, with what appeared to be the last of his strength, the male dwarf grabbed one of his daggers with his right hand and thrusted it upward into the space Thaw had just retreated from.
Thaw jabbed a dagger into the other dwarf’s wrist, entirely impaling his arm. Yanking on it, she pulled him toward her as she plunged her other dagger into the side of his neck. Bandit suspected she was targeting the carotid artery, as she had learned about, but she couldn’t tell due to the distance.
Thaw twisted around, launching the defeated opponent into the air, spinning his body around several times before he landed in the heap that became his place of death.
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“I’m so glad I decided not to fight that dwarf woman…” DM kept private as he thanked the heavens. He didn’t normally thank a higher order because they somehow saw it fit to plunge his soul into the body of a tentacle monster, but in this case he’d make an exception. That woman was terrifying. And strong. DM imagined a hypothetical battle between him and her, and he could see her spinning around, cutting down all his spawned tentacles before they could touch her. Yeah, no thanks. He’d do everything he could not to fatally piss off people at her skill and combat level or higher, at least for now.
DM was also really glad that Bandit had decided to back away from the fight between the dwarves. Had she been just a bit slower, she would have most likely been struck by that thrown blade and poisoned. The male dwarf may not have realized that Bandit too carried materials that served as an antidote, but surely such medicinal methods carried risk. DM couldn’t believe a single assassin could carry everything they need to fully neutralize every possible poisonous agent used on the continent.
Of course, if the battle somehow tilted in the other direction, DM wouldn’t hesitate to involve himself if necessary to save Bandit. With the element of surprise, he could probably defeat the male dwarf, especially given that he was weakened for much of the battle.
DM was most curious about what Thaw planned to do with those five idiots who Bandit defeated…
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While Bandit was fighting over in the Union, Lupy was beginning her first patrol in her new role. She didn’t really understand what her role was, but she’d at least try to do a good job at it. Apparently, if she traveled around collecting and eating snacks, that was half the job.
Based on Anne’s guidance, Lupy would actually be patrolling a good third of the city, or so. After being told there was no way she could remember her employer’s relationship with every shop, tavern, inn, and home on such short notice, Lupy was instructed to focus on just a few problematic establishments for now.
These establishments were not problematic because they were poorly behaved. Rather, they were being targeted themselves for one reason or another. In one case, an employee of a shop had angered another man after spending time with that man’s wife, or something like that. For this, Lupy was only to scare off anyone attacking the shop or harassing the employee while he was within the territory Lupy patrolled. If the man went to a different part of the city, Lupy was under no obligation to escort him or protect him. Lupy didn’t really get why, but that was fine.
Elsewhere, an inn had gained a reputation as a place for the less reputable to gather. So long as they behaved and paid their tab, there wasn’t a problem. However, the risk of violence or other problems went up when the wrong types of people spent too much time together. Lupy was to visit that spot frequently and report to the innkeeper.
Just the snacks alone combined with finally having something to do made this arrangement worth Lupy’s time. In addition, she’d get paid, although it wasn’t much to start. Anne told her after she proved herself capable her pay and responsibility would quickly go up. That seemed fair to Lupy. Lupy knew her own limitations. She was young and didn’t know how to do much other than fight with axes and summon a minotaur. Oh, she should probably avoid summoning the minotaur for now.