Edited by: Flubbykin
Blanka looked at the man resting his backs on the stone wall. He had his knees bend upward as if he was merely relaxing after a hard journey, for the hood over his face completely covered his expression. As soon as warrioress got closer and lifted it a little she noticed that his not handsome nor ugly face was twisted with a small grimace of pain, he was bit pale and - what's most important - unconscious. He wasn't even sleeping, no! If she would poke him with a finger he would definitely not wake up just like that.
- "You are a moron yourself, you know that?" she said to the man that couldn't partake in the conversation for obvious reasons.
Wolf beast laying on his master's side growled with anger.
- "And you can repeat it to him once he wakes up!" she addressed devil as if he could comprehend what she was talking about
- "Seriously, not informing your party member about your condition and hitting the deck just like that!? That's not even arrogant.”
At this point, hood completely fell off his head. He was sweating quite a lot, as if in fever. Well - it was a fever that struck him - mana fever to be precise. Common "sickness" of mages that uses spells that require more mana than they can store in their own bodies. To cast such a spell mage absorbs mana from surroundings - raw mana that should never be simply injected into the body, not to mention that for this short duration of time the mana vessels in one's body becomes swollen and thus damaged.
What does it cause? From obvious difficulties in regenerating and properly casting magic off your body to headaches and depending on the nature of spell - many, many more. Sometimes they are vomiting, sometimes they are hallucinating, sometimes something entirely different.
- "Though I must admit... I am quite... grateful... I mean you saved my life! Don't get the wrong idea! I owe you! Once I would pay you off I would turn around and walk my own way! Because it's simply exhausting to spend time with such an arrogant, overconfident narcissistic bastard!... You could be such a respect-worthy wonderful person if not for your attitude."
She walked back and forth a few times before she eventually sat one meter away from a white-haired magician, much to the devil’s dissatisfaction which he vocalized with a low growl.
- "...You and I aren't that much different in this particular aspect. Are we?..." she said with quieter tone "...it's not even about the fact that we are stronger and faster than our colleagues. It's the way they treat us. On the one hand, we are expected to be always perfect and thus error-free. Yet, we are only mortals, after all, we feel the pressure of other people's’ expectations and try to avoid any failure... on the other hand, we are afraid of being used - attractive to people that see us only through the prism of the fulfillment of their goals... Yet that's not all that important, right? We both want to serve the people that we are trying to avoid. I am doing that by risking my life by completing three times as many quests as the team of five people would do in half the time... You are, as I can tell, a potion maker, philanthropist, adventurer..."
She shifted her body on cold stones.
- "I am tired, you know? Sometimes it gets just too difficult. The burden becomes too heavy. Sometimes I wonder if the sins I committed in the past are already redeemed. Will they ever be? Sometimes, I just want to take everything I own and leave. Somewhere far away. Maybe to the forest? By lake? Close enough to some village to have an easy way of resupplying, but far enough so I wouldn't be bothered.... but, every night, when I am staring into the flames I see their faces... Faces of people I failed. People that I indirectly killed. With my arrogance. With my strive for perfection. By breaking the law thinking that I am above it..."
How many times she had this conversation? In her mind? hundreds and thousands of times. Aloud? Never. Bah! With aloud and having someone listen to it! So what he was unconscious! His very presence helped Blanka get rid off the weight she has been carrying on her chest.
- "I can't stop. I can't give up. For, if I would give in to hesitation, everything I did would be pointless. Their deaths would be pointless. And my life would be pointless. But, I must say that seeing someone just as broken as me has brought me some comfort. Like - knowing that I am not the only freak out there." she smiled weakly, got up from the ground and slapped her cheeks.
- "Ok. Rest well for now so we can continue our journey so I could pay you off..." then, she smiled and said with a provocative smirk "...rest there, shorty, big sis gonna protect you while you sleep."
A grunt of discomfort escaped man's lips as if he reacted to that particular offense.
Well, at least Blanka will be able to tease him about it a little bit more. He is actually quite cute as he is angry...
A rustle could be heard from one of the corridor. In the darkness, Blanka could see the shapes crawling and twisting, soon the eyes shined in blackness as if proclaiming the monster that was about to come. New pair of eyes kept appearing making it easier for the executioner to count her enemies. 5 were approaching - nothing serious, she could handle them easily even with party member behind her back needing protection.
The white-haired magician wasn't the only one that wasn't fighting at his full strength. She was once taught by an elvish war dancer, back then he promised her that he would let her become his apprentice if she would promise him few things, one of those was - do not use these moves unless you absolutely have to... or unless every spectator you show would die.
Dance and war are so very similar. To dance means to fight, to fight means to dance, by taking a stance Blanka entered a lethargic-like state, her mind became like water and wind. Uncatchable, shapeless, formless. She stopped planning, paying attention to balance and other nonsenses - it all came naturally.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Her right foot to the front, her left foot to the back and slightly to the side, she twisted her body so now she faced her enemies at a strange angle, not with front nor with back. She rested one of her blades on her chest while she hid the other behind her back.
And then she danced her dance of death, she painted grey walls with rose-like red, and despite it was only an illusion caused by her mind, she could have believed that the patterns of blood took shapes of flowers.
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- "Aaaand? How are you doing, my little morsels?" Aiele asked opening door to the training room with a light kick.
- "LET US GOOO! LET US GOOOO!" Rus yelled from the chair that was positioned in the middle of the room.
Oh, she was chained to it not being able to move anything but her head here and there she had a light bruise, nothing serious but definitely painful.
- "You monster! You beast!" little magician girl kept crying
- "Now! Stop that! You are making me blush! I bet you are telling those words to every person that ever trained you!"
- "ONLY TO THE SADISTIC ONE!"
- "Welp! I am guilty of that! Take off your blindfold, Elly!"
A cute blonde girl who was standing with a wooden sword all sweaty and panting did as she was instructed.
- "Aww! Come on! Elly! What was that! Look at your friend! She is all bruised!"
- "AND WHOSE FAULT IS THAT!" little fire caster shouted one more time
- "M-m-mine?" Ellana asked with a sad expression.
- "Yes, indeed!" Ay' said with a serious expression
- "NO! Not hers! Yours! What kind of sick training is that! I am not even questioning the method, but effects! Is this even helping her develop at all!?"
- "Exactly same training did help me!" Ay smirked.
For a moment Rus became speechless. For she didn't even consider how hard Aiele's life was. Still..
- "You are out of your mind!..."
- ".. now, that was clever..." assassin burst in laughter "... how much time did it take you to figure this out?!"
- "... what kind of person would chain someone to the chair on which bullets are being shot from random locations!?"
For that indeed was Russiwel's task - she was a target. Dozens of pipes were placed all around the room each facing the chair in the middle, every now and then, without any regular pattern one of the pipes would throw a baseball-sized ball in her direction.
Elanna's job was to predict from which direction the attack would come and try to defend her friend... with a wooden sword. And cover over her eyes.
- "I told you I would train both of you. I know it may be painful, especially for you, Rus, your friend decided to be a rogue. And do you know what is most important in the duty of the rouge?..." she waited for seconds waiting for girls to answer, yet such answer never came.
She stopped, faced them, lowered her upper body bending toward them making her bosom almost pop out from her indecent looking "armor.”
- "... THESE BEASTS!" she said while fondling mentioned above body part
Rus hicked, El collapsed.
- "... or was that intuition and reaction time? One of these two... Oh, it had to be the other one, I mean, I can train your instincts and agility, but I doubt there can be anything done regarding your non-existing chests..." the last part was said with real pity.
El, while lowering her head, put her hands over her chest massaging it a little. And just like upon her previous inspection, she found "nothing" there.
- "WE ARE STILL DEVELOPING!" Rus roared.
- "Suuuure. Back to the topic. Sound, the impact of wind and muscle memory - that's what a good rouge needs to predict an attack, or maybe not even predict but to react, I once met an old murd... thief..." she quickly changed her tale.
- "You wanted to say
- "And that thief was attacked from distance - someone shoot at him from a bow. He managed to grab an arrow without even looking at it, bah! He didn't even realize he actually caught it for good two or three seconds, he just stood there holding an arrow five centimeters off his face, finished a sentence, and then realized he was actually attacked!"
- "And then? And then? What happened?!" Elana's eyes were sparkling.
- "DON'T TELL ME YOU ACTUALLY GOT HOOKED UP ON THE STORY!" Rus just couldn't believe what was happening
- "Then... I stabbed him between his ribs. Damn, he was good. He was my target too. He was close to killing me, fortunately, he made himself many more enemies than good ol' me. That attacked drew his attention away from me and I used that to finish the job. Oh, and then I killed the other assassin too. Don't wanna some pesky amateurs using bows telling a tale. Right?... Crap, I already forgot I wanted to make this story less bloody... Tsk, tsk, tsk. Silly me."
- "Why is using a bow a sign of being an amateur?" This time Rus asked.
- "Just the credo of the job. This is how you tell a rookie apart from advanced and an expert. Rookie uses a bow - shoots from afar too afraid of getting close, pro uses a knife, looking his victim in the eyes... and then there are veterans, that you can't even tell what and when he used... and legends, that he either shift the blame at somebody else or you would even question if that was even a murder."
- "How can you not know that?!"
- "Being creative. Using exotic poisons that make the death look natural. Or happy little accidents. Boulder rolling off the cliff, chandelier falling on someone's head, falling off the balcony in windy-snowy weather... You have no idea how much planning and preparation is needed to align it all perfectly."
- "Very well, very well... So that's what you are teaching El... But riddle me this... WHAT THE HECK AM I LEARNING WHILE BEING CHAINED FOR WHOLE BLOODY DAY!"
- "On one part - to hold your needs, hunger, thirst... and learn to withstand pain. Yesss, that is indeed very... very... important... thing... to learn..." somehow, while saying that Ay blushed and licked her lips in a veeeery suggestive way.
- "Speaking of needs... I need to toilet..." Rus said after a moment shifting her gaze away.
- "Oh? Is that so? Splendid, I was about to tell you it's enough for today... But maybe one more hour will do you good?"
- "Stop fooling around! Tis ain't funny!"
- "Depends for who... Because you see.. I FIND IT HILARIOUS!" Aiele yelled while running toward the door "... El! Blindfold on! One hour more! Start!"
And she shut the door behind her
- "I WILL KILL THAT OLD SAGGY-TITTED SOW!" Rus yelled.
- "I HEARD THAT! TWO HOURS!" could be heard from behind a door.
- "Aruu...." Rus almost cried.
And then a pipe blew a ball. And Ellana swings at it... and missed. The ball hit Magician directly in the middle of the forehead leaving a red mark.
- "Great. Makes this day even better." Pouty girl groaned once again.