“You’re The Slayer, aren’t you? Shouldn’t you, y’know, be off slaying or something?” Creti finally broke the silence. Neither she nor Drim had said anything or moved at all really for the past several minutes since the start of the competition.
“Oh, I didn’t want to be rude,” Drim insisted. “I figured you were mentally preparing yourself or something, so I was waiting for you to be ready.”
“Well, I won’t be participating, so have at it,” she gestured down towards their quadrant of writhing Starbits.
“That’d make it four against three. Awfully unfair, don’t you think? Especially since you were so keen on boasting your superiority,” he wasn’t going to let that go so easily.
“Guess we won’t count your quadrant then if you want to be oh so generous and fair.” A reasonable stipulation, but Drim wasn’t swayed.
“Why don’t you want to participate?” he got straight to the point.
“Just look at me. Do I look built for monster killing?!” Creti huffed. “Besides, my Curse only works on some monsters—those with enough intelligence to have a concept of empathy. These are certainly not on that level.”
“Yes, I suppose you won’t be swaying them to move somewhere else or destroy themselves,” Drim conceded. “You could just kill them the ole fashioned way, with stabbing…”
“And risk gaining muscle?! Absolutely not!” she was appalled by the idea. “My Curse works better the more physically incapable I look.”
“So this whole looking like a starved homeless teenager is an active choice, then?” Drim couldn’t help but pry with slightly judgmental eyes.
The weak-looking girl sighed, “Yup. Not exactly something I figured out by choice if you must know. But seeing the benefits, it’s hard to ignore. I am not actually as close to death as I may look. A lot of it is exacerbated with makeup, and the baggy clothes hide my real figure.”
“Well, it works even without your Curse,” Drim admitted. “It’s hard for me to not run out and buy you lunch just by looking at you.”
“Thank you for the compliment,” she took that as praise. “Maintaining this look is harder than you think.”
“Well, I hope you reach a point where you don’t have to rely on manipulation as much,” Drim tacked on. “I get that your Curse is based around it, but it’s no way to build lasting relations with your clients or your employees.”
“Oh, now you’re giving me business advice? Hard pass,” Creti was immediately disinterested.
“Seems like an interesting, albeit eccentric bunch,” Drim moved right on past it. “Lieu tried to kill me, Alk tried to kill Kada, and I’m pretty sure Kalter despises our very existence.”
“You’re one to talk,” Creti gestured to his own band of hooligans who were currently performing insane or atrocious actions.
“Yes, well, as with them, it’s good that you’re providing them a constructive outlet,” she had only strengthened his point. “Some people may not understand, but it can be difficult to get those blessed with power and arrogance to elect to help others, even if it's for their own gain.”
“And how much arrogance are you blessed with?” she spat back.
Drim had to admit that what he’d said may have come off as a bit pretentious. It was also increasingly obvious that he wasn’t going to have any meaningful conversation along these lines, at least not while Creti’s default reaction was to be hostile. That was fairly unsurprising, after he’d heard what his mother did to her, but he hoped he could still reconcile and build a connection between their groups. He just needed to completely change the subject for now.
“Well, since neither of us will be participating, there’s no point in us standing around here and acting tense. I’ll be back in a moment.” Drim hustled over to the Tourist and returned with a few items.
He gestured for Creti to sit in one of the fold-out chairs he’d set down, which she reluctantly accepted. “Been a while since I’ve just sat down and taken a break. While I feel a little guilty just watching my employees work while I do nothing, I guess that’s one of the benefits of being in charge. I can see why a lot of people despise their supervisors.”
“Anyways, would you like some tea?” Drim had already started pouring the cup before she could refuse his offer. But when he started handing it to her, she didn’t move to take it or even attempt to decline.
She just stared for a while, glancing over to him occasionally, as if she couldn’t believe what he was doing. “I don’t trust that. It could be poisoned.”
Drim merely laughed. “If I wanted to kill you, Creti, I’d just kill you. The only time I’d use poison to kill someone is if I wanted them to suffer first.” There was a twinge in his heart in discontent, but he elected to ignore it.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Yeah, well, that doesn’t mean I trust your word,” Creti wouldn’t let her guard down so easily. “Good thing I don’t have to.” The air around her suddenly changed, and Drim couldn’t draw his eyes away. The regular, albeit scrawny-looking girl was gone, and all he saw now was a helpless little girl that he could never bring himself to harm in any way. “You wouldn’t give me anything poisoned, would you?”
“Kuh,” Drim tried to resist the manipulation, but it was no use. “No, of course not,” his mouth forced him to say. Since he hadn’t tried to pull away the cup, or alter his action at all, Creti deemed it trustworthy and gingerly plucked the cup from his hands before taking a sip.
“I thought you promised you weren’t going to use your Curse,” Drim’s strained voice groaned as he tried to shake off the influence, clutching his head and anguish.
“I did, but I’m also not dumb enough to trust the enemy,” Creti sipped her tea more enthusiastically, enjoying the flavor, but she was more pleased with herself.
“I don’t get why you’re so set on thinking of us as enemies,” he debated once his mind had cleared up a bit. “Sure, we may be competing companies, but there’s no real reason to be hostile towards each other.”
“Your mother threatened to kill me.”
“And you tried to manipulate our organization into letting you mooch off of us for the rest of your life,” Drim fired back immediately, not giving her an inch.
“Tchuh, please… that was like… so long ago. You should just get over it at this point,” Creti was trying to act cute again, but at least she wasn’t using her Curse this time. “But fine, I get it. I understand that both of our groups can exist simultaneously and that you all are not actively trying to sabotage our operation. Sending the cease and desist was a jerk move, though.”
“So was trying to slander our name. Have to protect our interests and all that.” Drim tried to play it off. “But enough talk about business. Want some food?” He pulled a bag out of the cooler he’d brought along.
“We always keep some backup food just in case. These are meals and snacks that were flashfrozen thanks to the bags they’re in. Now I just rip the seal,” Drim tore part of the bag. “And it reheats the food to the same temperature it was at when it was first served.” He pulled out a steaming plate of appetizers. “It’s just as good as eating it fresh, well almost anyways. So try some.”
Creti took one without complaint and seemed to enjoy it. “Surprised you didn’t tell me not to poison you again.”
“Ah nah, you couldn’t if you wanted to,” she grabbed a few more and stuffed them into her mouth, “The effects will last for a while, at least until you get some distance from me.”
“Good to know...” Drim accepted his fate. He wasn’t planning to poison her at any point, but being stuck under her spell, no matter how pointless, still bothered him to no end.
Their conversation devolved into small talk for quite a while. Really, nothing of substance was ever said, but it at least seemed to ease the hostility a bit. Eventually, Creti fell asleep in her chair so Drim defaulted to his usual time killer of reading on his tablet.
“Have they even made any progress?” Creti asked groggily once she woke from her nap.
“Uhh, it’s hard to tell, but the fault is definitely less full, from the top at least,” Drim informed her. He then got up and stretched his entire body. “I think I’ll take a lap around the edge so that I can get a better idea of how they’re doing. You’re welcome to join me, if you like.”
“Yeah… you have fun with that,” Creti was now digging through his cooler without asking and pulled out a new bag of food to heat up along with another drink.
Drim took his time, mostly wanting to stop and admire the hard work and efforts from both parties. Everyone involved were using their Curses beautifully, really tapping into their own personal innovation. Sadly, though, their efforts didn’t quite translate to desired outcome given the nature of the enemy they were facing.
“My best guess is they’ve reduced the Starbits numbers by roughly a quarter,” Drim reported upon his return. “Maybe a bit more if we assume some percentage of those are currently decaying corpses.”
“Jeez,” Creti nearly spat out her drink. “And they’ve been at it for so long. This is going to take hours.”
“Days actually, by my estimate,” he corrected. “When the Starbits realize there’s not that many of them left, their urge to reproduce will increase exponentially.”
“Guess I should find a hotel nearby then,” Creti pulled out her phone and genuinely began searching, resigned to her circumstance.
“Want me to just take care of them?” Drim offered abruptly.
“And how long would that take?” she weighed her options.
“Dunno exactly, not long.”
Creit found his confidence a bit dumbfounding. “Go on then, almighty Slayer. Show us what you can do.”
“It will nullify the competition, though.”
“Whatever, I’m over the idea already.” It became increasingly confusing why she ever wanted this competition to begin with.
Drim walked over to the edge of the fault and Creti joined him, likely curious of what he was going to do. He pulled out his phone and opened an app that would amplify his voice. “Everyone out of the fault!” he yelled loudly like a lifeguard directing people out of a pool.
It didn’t take the Fiends For Hire but a moment to obey the order. Phon appeared next to them a second later and Xard flew over in no time. What really surprised Creti and nearly caused her to stumble over the ledge was Kada suddenly popping out of the ground.
“They’re not going to listen to you,” Creti smugly nodded towards her Above members.
Drim simply sighed, but repeated himself. He didn’t bother to use the volume-enhancing app again because he wouldn’t need it. ❝Everyone out of the fault!❞ It was no longer a request, but a Drazah Demand. Perhaps it was only because they’d heard her voice now, but the way it came out of Drim’s mouth was a bit different—closer to the mind invasion that had attacked the world, but not as potent.
Still, it was enough to control all of those nearby. It was obvious that each of the Above members were trying to fight it—their limbs not moving how a limb should actually move as they tried to resist, but their own bodies betrayed them all the same. Once they were out of the fault, each of them begrudgingly marched over to join the rest.