“Dolk…what the hell are you doing?” Astrid questioned her former right-hand man, shock and anger plastered on her face.

The dark elf sighed and continued to stare down at his former captain. “What I must do to protect you.”

“You call this protection?!” She glared while pointing at her leg where the arrow was stuck in her. “You shot me, you bastard!”

“I understand you’re angry, but this was the only way to keep you safe. If you continued down this path and returned to the tribe, Kollr would simply kill you when he had the opportunity, and I cannot afford to let him have his way.”

Astrid was in disbelief as she continued to listen to Dolk’s rambling. He had gone insane. Not just for attacking his captain, but also for such a ridiculous reason on top of that. Just what in the world happened to him?

“So, your solution for all of this is wounding me?! Do you realize how insane you sound right now?”

“This is the only way!” Dolk snapped as his voice echoed throughout the forest. “You’re a danger to yourself and need to be stopped! If I didn’t do something, you walk right into Kollr’s trap!”

“Like how I walked into yours?” Astrid spat, her eyes glowering at the dark elf rogue.

Dolk paused for a brief moment before his face fell shamefully. But that only lasted a few seconds before his expression shifted back to a colder and more apathetic one.

“You’re only proving my point by mentioning that. If you fell for my trap, then it would’ve been even more likely that you’d fall into his. That’s why I had to stop you before you reached that point.”

“I only fell for your trap because I didn’t view you as a threat! Kollr, on the other hand? I have always seen as dangerous.”

Even when Astrid’s instincts warned her about Dolk, she didn’t listen because she thought that he could be trusted. She wouldn’t have made that mistake with Kollr. If her brother suddenly called her out of nowhere and brought her deserted from others, she wouldn’t have bothered going to him.

But something told her that Dolk wouldn’t even care about that. It was clear that in his eyes, he was doing the right thing when in reality, he had lost his mind the moment he decided to do all of this.

And now Astrid was paying the price for it.

“Dolk, you should know the others will get suspicious of both of our absences, right? You can’t just hide me here or anywhere else. They will find us sooner or later. What then, huh?”

Although Dolk had the upper hand at the moment, Astrid knew that the other Dark elves would be curious about her disappearance and start looking for her. And much like her, they were excellent trackers and will be able to find their captain sooner or later. Especially if Astrid managed to find a way to bring them to her.

With that in mind, Dolk couldn’t keep her hidden forever. If only she had known the rest of his plan, realizing that he planned this out a lot more carefully than she realized.

“While the other dark elves would get concerned over your absence, I believe they have bigger issues to attend to at the moment.”

When Dolk declared this in such a cold and menacing tone, Astrid’s blood went cold, and immediately feared the worst for her people.

“Dolk, what did you do?” Astrid questioned.

Dolk said nothing at first, calmly staring into the forest, in the direction of the campsite where the other dark elves were. His face was neutral yet gave off a malicious aura. One that sent shivers down Astrid’s spine.

“Astrid, you remember our first time going up against Orcs?” He said ominously. “How we stuck to the trees and spied on them for a while so we could ambush them when they were least expecting it?”

Astrid’s eyes widened as soon as he mentioned the word Orcs. He didn’t…

“Dolk…please tell me you didn’t!”

The dark elf rogue glanced down to look at Astrid. “Back then, we completely overlooked their sense of smell, didn’t we?”

“Dolk…!”

Out in the forest, a chorus of familiar roars could be heard, reaching Astrid and Dolk. The dark elf captain whipped her head around and turned to face the direction where their campsite was, complete horror stricken across her face.

The Orcs…they were attacking the Campsite!

Dolk must’ve somehow lured the Orcs from their nest over to the site. If Astrid didn’t do something, all of her people excluding her and Dolk would die. She had to save them!

She quickly tried to get up and rush back to the other dark elves, only for pain to flare up from her leg again, forcing her to collapse on her knees. Her wound was too severe at the moment to allow her to run back to the camp. And even if she could get there, she’d be too weakened to fight the Orcs anyway.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“You won’t be able to save them, Astrid,” Dolk told her.

Astrid whirled her head to glare at Dolk, his eyes filled with malice and anger. “You sent those Orcs to attack our own? What the hell is wrong with you, Dolk?!”

It was one thing to attack Astrid like this, but it was completely unacceptable to put the lives of their fellow tribe members in danger like this. She couldn’t believe that Dolk would pull this kind of thing in the first place.

Just how far gone was he to resort to harming other dark elves for his goals?

“They’re not my concern here, Astrid. You are. They don’t matter like you do.”

“You crazy bastard!” She snarled. “You’re putting our people’s lives at risk just to keep me from going back home?”

“I’m doing what I can to keep you safe! That is all that matters to me!”

“So you’re going to just let other dark elves get killed in pursuit of this goal? Since when did you start acting like Kollr, huh?!”

Hearing this, Dolk suddenly looked surprised, as if he wasn’t expecting Astrid to say something like this to him. His eyes quivered with fear and shock, as if realizing his actions, but that only lasted a few seconds before they darkened once more, replacing his shock with a calm composure.

“I-I’m not Kollr…” Although Dolk tried to remain calm, his stuttering voice told Astrid that her previous statement struck a nerve, and that was what provided her with an opportunity.

“Oh, really?” Astrid wryly smiled, keeping up the act. “So, you’re not currently putting other people’s lives in danger just so you can accomplish your deranged objective? Because it seems to me that is exactly what you’re doing.”

While talking, Astrid positioned herself in front of Dolk, waiting for the opportunity to catch him off guard and take him down. She just needed to push him further.

“Admit it, Dolk, despite saying that you’re not my brother, you’re taking a page from his book and doing whatever you can to get what you want. In this case, me. And to make sure the other dark elves don’t get in your way, you sent Orcs to our camp so they could kill them. Our tribe members!”

“How many times have I told you that they aren’t our concern anymore?!” Dolk got closer to Astrid in a fit of rage, yelling at her like a child throwing a tantrum. “They’re no different than baggage at this point!”

“Spoken like a Kollr copy!”

“Dammit, Astrid!” He growled. “Why can’t you-?!”

At that moment, Dolk finally got close enough to Astrid which allowed her to proceed with her plan. She hastily grabbed the arrow in her leg and pulled it out before lunging at Dolk and tackling him to the ground.

In the struggle, she used the arrow and drove it into his side, digging the projectile deep into his body. Dolk let out a pained yell. One that reverberated throughout the forest and beyond.

Just before she could do anything else, Dolk grabbed Astrid by the shoulders and pushed her off. She fell to the ground, pain burning around her leg.

Dolk lay on his back, groaning from the arrow lodged into his side. Even when he grabbed the shaft of the projectile, he winced in pain unable to take it out just yet.

“D-dammit, Astrid…!” Dolk swore, still grasping at the arrow, attempting to pull it out.

Meanwhile, Astrid struggled to get on her feet, the pain in her leg only getting worse as she placed some of her weight on it. But, she only had one chance at ending this and used all of her willpower to stand.

Her legs wobbled like noodles in boiling water, but she still managed to stand up. She then glared at Dolk, who was still struggling with the arrow in his body. When she bent down to pick up her dagger from before, her eyes stayed on her former childhood friend.

She knew that Dolk was too dangerous to stay alive, especially after what he did to the other dark elves. The only way to end this before things got even worse than they already were was to kill him.

She then raised her dagger over Dolk, prepared to bring it down and end him before he had the chance to recover. However, her hand froze, unable to move down and plunge the dagger into her former ally.

Even though she knew Dolk was dangerous, she couldn’t bring herself to kill someone she’d known her whole life. Not even him.

And that was her biggest mistake…

“A-aagahh!” Dolk quickly pulled out the arrow in his side, then he grabbed Astrid by the leg and forced her to fall to the ground again.

He tried to pull her close, but the dark elf captain still had some strength in her non-injured leg and proceeded to kick her former childhood friend in the face. After stomping on the dark elf a couple of times, Dolk finally released her leg, allowing her to move away from him.

“A-Astrid…you have to listen to me,” Dolk pleaded as blood dripped down his nose.

Astrid scrambled to get back up, making sure to keep her distance from him. Before she could get another chance to finish him once and for all, the roars of the Orcs got closer to them. Eerily close.

Just then, she saw three to four green figures emerging from the trees nearby, closing in on Astrid and Dolk. Did some of them separate from the rest to find the pair or…was it because they were already done with the other Dark elves?

Fear and panic gripped Astrid’s heart as images of her subordinates flashed before her eyes. A mixture of sadness and grief briefly swelled within her until she took a deep breath and turned around to flee.

Fighting more than one or two Orcs in her current condition was suicide. It was even more dangerous since the Orcs from the nest were around level eight to level eleven. If they were level five or so, Astrid might’ve stood a chance, even with her wounded leg, but that wasn’t the case in this situation.

Which meant she only had one option left to stay alive; run away as fast and as far as she could. Turning her heel, she hastily limped away, leaving Dolk to his fate. The Dark Elf rogue watched her flee before calling out to her.

“A-Astrid…Astrid, don’t leave me here!”

Astrid ignored Dolk’s pleading and proceeded to leave the area, not wanting the Orcs to catch up to her. Before she got too far, something cut her side as she ran. She looked down to see a blade clatter on the ground. It was one of Dolk’s daggers.

He must’ve thrown it in a last-ditch effort to prevent her from escaping. Thankfully, his aim was off and he only grazed her. A sharp pain stabbed her side where the dagger cut her. She clutched onto the wound and continued to hastily limp away, desperate to get away from Dolk and the Orcs.

In the distance, she could still hear Dolk’s voice screaming her name along with the sound of the hulking green monsters' roars coinciding with it.

As she continued to run, tears built up in her eyes and trailed down her cheek. In the back of her mind, she questioned how everything went terribly wrong, only to blame herself for all of this to happen in the first place.

Dolk’s deception and trap, her ignoring the gut feeling she had regarding him, and leaving her fellow dark elves behind because she wouldn’t have been able to save them if she had run back in her current condition.

It was then that the dark elf captain who was once in a group to conquer the dungeon, realized that she was now on her own.