Chapter 118

“Before the tower.” Part 2

A gasp escaped her lips as pain spread through her body and a pair of notification windows opened to her left.

[Warning: The user has been poisoned!]

[The passive skill Pain Resistance has been activated.]

[Warning! The passive skill Mental Defense has been deactivated!]

A coughing fit seized her, and she ended up coughing blood on the dark cloak of Ans, who grimaced in disgust. However, Kalysto’s gaze immediately went to her right, to her still open inventory where an uncorked bottle of high quality holy water her boss had given her was ready to be consumed.

The problem was getting far enough away from the crazed warrior in front of her and having enough time to drink the amount needed to fully heal herself. As much as she hoped the holy water would cure the poisoning.

I have to get out of here as soon as possible. She thought.

Kalysto took a step back, noticing her senses were numb, her body moved much slower than normal and it was twice as hard for her to concentrate.

“As I said before, I’m very good at getting information out of my enemies, and you’ll be much easier to transport away from here with your senses nullified. But don’t worry, even if you die, I can find a way to get information out of you too," she whispered to her with a devilish grin.

What the hell is this crazy woman talking about?

A strong dizziness seized her, and it was by sheer luck that her body lurched to one side, inadvertently dodging Ans’ next attack, but not the second one.

Come on Kalysto, concentrate! I have to find a way to escape from this madwoman! she thought forcefully.

[The passive ability Mental Defense has been activated.]

And as Ans buried her poisoned dagger again against her side, Kalysto grabbed her wrist and whispered:

“Perfect aim! Lightning!” An electric discharge was expelled from her hand, transforming into several bolts of lightning that struck her enemy’s body, attacking the warrior who immediately tried to move away, only to stumble backwards.

[Warning! The passive ability Mental Defense has been deactivated!]

Immediately, the coolness and mental clarity that had helped her attack Ans disappeared in an instant and her hands began to tremble again as she tore out the dagger buried in her body and stored it in her blue inventory. Not wanting to give her enemy a chance to retrieve her weapon.

But before Kalysto could escape, a voice she wasn’t expecting echoed in her mind as she tried to stumble out of the tent.

<>

“Shut up! Nobody asked for your opinion, Persephone!“ She growled, not realizing she had done so out loud, and with trembling hands she pulled out the bottle of holy water and took two long gulps. Noting with dread that it was about to run out.

<>

<<...You know I can be trusted...>>

That voice added, sounding hurt and indignant.

But Kalysto wasn’t sure her words were true, and she didn’t have the time to stick around to find out either.

Not when Ans had just turned into shadows and she had not yet finished leaving the tent. Feeling her whole body itch and the surrounding areas two wounds seemed to be burning from the inside, Kalysto walked out of the tent.

Blessing! She thought, pointing to herself with her other hand. Why do I always get to fight those with inhumanly high stamina? She complained as she put the bottle of holy water back in her inventory.

But a hand appeared out of nowhere and grabbed her wrist, preventing her from finishing.

“I’ve got you, you sneaky little wizard," Ans snarled, her body taking shape again amidst a whirlwind of shadows right in front of the stupefied Kalysto. “We are full of surprises, aren’t we?” she whispered as she admired the faint golden glow still shining on the supposed ice mage’s body.

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“Yes, well, I’m not the only one. Weren’t you supposed to be a knight?” She immediately pulled out with her opposite hand the same dagger with which she had been poisoned and stabbed her arm. But Ans was ready for her attack and her arm went up in smoke.

What the warrior and shadow mage didn’t expect was that Kalysto immediately finished putting the bottle of holy water in her inventory and pulled out another dagger, one of the ones she had stolen from goblins that attacked her and with which she had been infected with the black plague.

“An assassin indeed," she whispered with pleasure against her ear again, manifesting her body from the shadows. “Now be a good girl and give me that bottle. It’s too precious for an uneducated brat like you to play with," she commanded with her body imprisoning Kalysto from behind and her sword against her neck.

“An assassin, a shadow mage and a female knight, an amazing mix," she admitted conversationally, as if they were talking about the weather.

“Stop playing games, girl! And give me what I want at once! And do it the easy way, because you sure as hell don’t want me to make you do it the hard way!” she growled.

Kalysto let out a sigh dramatically as she still felt the power of the holy water healing her body.

Ice creation! She conjured, pushing her mana to the tips of her toes, underneath the soles of her shoes.

“What can I say...” She muttered as she buried the plague-infected dagger in the shadow mage’s wrist while with the other dagger she blocked the sword’s advance against her neck and continued injecting mana into the ground, freezing her new enemy’s lower body. “I really hate it when others think they have the authority to order me around for no reason and without giving me any benefit in return.”

“What the hell?” Ans growled in surprise and as Kalysto escaped from the tent and into the forest surrounding the makeshift camp, Ans turned into shadows with the intention of following her, escaping the attempted prison the ice mage had created for her.

Kalysto’s figure was lost among the trees and as the unnerving silence of the thick forest flooded her ears being interrupted by the sound of her agitated breathing, she stumbled against a stone and her body ended up crashing against the thick trunk of a tree.

Shit, it’s too dark to see where I’m going! She complained, seeing that the deeper she went into the thick forest, the more the leaves and thick tree branches covered the light of the two moons. If only I could use ‘Ezhil Purification’ without giving away my location!

Everything around her was too dark to make out clearly whether Ans was nearby or not, so she decided to put both daggers away and thus avoid hurting herself by mistake.

She was lucky the first time she was infected by the plague, but she didn’t plan to risk a second one.

I’ll heal later. She thought, thankful that since her passive skills were active. She couldn’t even feel the pain of the blow she had just given herself as she slowly regained full mobility in her body.

Out of the massive amount of shadows surrounding her, Ans leapt at Kalysto, taking advantage of her small moment of distraction. The warrior’s hands closed over the throat of the saintess as her fetid breath crashed over the saintess’s face.

“Did you really think you could escape me, little wizard?” A dark smile crept across her face as the soft glow from the collection of windows Kalysto had not yet closed, including the one in her inventory, allowed her to see the unhinged face of the woman in front of her. “But no matter what you do, you won’t make it. Even if I have to take your corpse and hire a necromancer so I can interrogate your remains.”

Fire breath! She thought, opening her mouth as she struggled for breath and fire erupted from deep in her throat, burning the unsuspecting warrior’s face.

And as she tried to shake it off, she accidentally ended up pushing it against the open window of her violet inventory.

What the fuck is wrong with this crazy woman? She thought as she coughed and struggled to get some air back into her lungs.

And as she lay on the floor in a fetal position, a violet window appeared in front of her.

[Kalysto, why the hell is there a dirty human in your inventory?]

Shit, now what do I do to stop her from taking my inventory and everything I have in it? She thought, while a panic attack overtook her.

“... She attacked me...” she defended herself. “.... In fact, I think she tried to kidnap me," she muttered, frowning as she remembered the last thing that crazy woman had said.

[Why are they all trying to kidnap you, girl?]

“I don’t know...” she answered with complete honesty. “But in my defense I will say that I think that woman is completely crazy” for some reason her boss made her feel like a little girl who had been caught in a mischief.

[Return at once to my kingdom, and stop wasting time in the human kingdom!]

Kalysto’s face lost what little color it had, as she desperately searched for a way to convince her boss otherwise.

I can’t abandon the boys now that we are finally so close to the so-called tower! Not when I know that the prince and his army will be gone for a few weeks and the boys will die inside the tower! Fear settled in her gut at the thought and the memory of Koden’s frightened look when he made her promise not to abandon them to their fate and help them escape flashed in her mind and a heavy burden settled in her heart.

“Two days! Give me two days so that I can help my friends escape and I will definitely move to your kingdom until our contract is up!” The prolonged silence that followed did not bode well and Kalysto’s heart pounded like mad against her chest as she thought of a way for the queen not to interfere with her plans.

But nothing came to mind.

And just as the violet window began to pop up with a new message, it was at that moment that she came up with a plan to convince her.

“The kings of the kingdom of Bhallys and Balsahty summoned heroes from my world to kill the demon king," she blurted out quickly.

And again, the eerie silence lasted for what seemed like years. But it only lasted a few seconds.

[...What did you say?]