Chapter 99
Friendly but Deadly
What Erin and her friends witnessed was something that they couldn’t believe after seeing how the battle had gone. Gotzmeyer had been such a powerful and dominating force of destruction that the battle seemed to have been over before it even began. Coupled with the warlord’s reputation as a warrior who had never bled in any of his battles, the image of an invincible monster had been built inside their minds. Yet despite all of this, they now saw something that defied that idea completely.
They saw Gotzmeyer get hurt and fall to his knees.
It all happened so fast that they almost missed it. There was only one opponent left, a boy that seemed to be around the same age as Arkay. He was holding a sword similar to a Japanese katana by his side. The boy had stood still and simply waited as the warlord came towards him, which Erin and the others had assumed was due to being frozen from fear.
However, he had simply been waiting for Gotzmeyer to come close enough, upon when in one move that was almost too fast for them to see, he unsheathed his sword and struck the warlord, who was brought down from the blow. After striking down his opponent, the boy stood there for a moment, before putting away his sword and walking away.
While Erin couldn’t understand why the boy didn’t simply finish off Gotzmeyer, that was not the thing she was thinking about at the moment. The seemingly invincible warlord could be harmed, which meant he could be defeated. That was all that mattered right now.
“Holy shit… Did you guys see that!?” Ryle asked in shock. “Whoever that kid was, he just stopped that monster like it was nothing! He made the warlord his bitch!”
“T-The attack he unleashed was so fast I almost missed it,” Arkay said as he kept staring at the screen with wide eyes. “If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it to be real.”
“I’m glad to see that the information we’ve provided you is to your liking. But there is one detail that I think you are all missing right now,” Grix said, earning confused looks from his customers. “Take a closer look at Gotzmeyer’s injury.”
At first, no one seemed to get what the goblin was trying to hint at, but soon Erin and others realized it. The cut from the attack had to be deep, yet despite this there was no blood at all.
“He’s not bleeding!” Erin exclaimed in surprise. “But how is that possible!? That must have been a deep wound!”
“Huh? What are you guys getting at?” Ryle asked, being the only one in the group who didn’t get it. “Why is it such a big deal that he’s not bleeding? I mean, weren’t we already aware of that?”
Erin, Lexton and Arkay all looked at their blonde companion with different emotions behind their eyes. The redhead was simply frustrated, the kobold was angry and the cat boy was a bit disappointed.
“...Arnie, can you be a dear and explain it to her?” Erin asked with a sigh. “I’m just too tired to do it right now.”
“Explain what to me?” Ryle asked. “What do I need to have explained?”
“Ryle, do you remember what we were told about Gotzmeyer?” Arkay asked. “How he never bled in any of the battles he took part in?”
“Well, yeah! I though that had been made very clear to us already!” the blonde said. “That’s why I don’t understand why this is such a big deal! If we know he never bled, why are we so surprised when he isn’t bleeding!?”
“The thing is that an injury like the one he received should be something that causes at least some level of bleeding, yet there doesn’t seem to be even a drop of blood,” the cat boy explained. “In other words, his fearsome reputation isn’t because he is such a strong warrior that no one has been able to injure him, but it’s something else.”
“Wait… If it’s something else, then what is it?” Ryle asked with widened eyes, as she started to understand what the others had realized. “What could possibly make it so that he doesn’t bleed?”
“That’s something that we have to find out, as it could be the key to defeating him,” Erin said, before turning back to Grix. “Do you have any idea what the explanation to this could be?”
“I’m afraid that still remains a mystery to us. We have tried sending people to find out this secret, but they have all ended up getting caught and executed,” the goblin answered. “The most likely theory is that Gotzmeyer’s actual body is much smaller than his armor and he simply manipulates it from the inside, like an advanced battle suit of sorts.”
“That could be it… If Gotzmeyer is actually a dwarf or something even smaller, he could easily fit in that suit and not get injured by such an attack,” the redhead said thoughtfully. “Anyways, thank you for your services. We’ll be taking our leave now, since we got what we came for.”
“It was a pleasure doing business with you,” Grix said, as all the screens and even his goggles switched to show a text that simply said “THANK YOU.”
After concluding their business at the information store, Erin and the others began to head back to where they had first arrived at the Black Market. Everyone in the group was glad that they didn’t need to spend anymore time at the store, as they weren’t exactly keen on their security measure, the gigantic spider hanging on the ceiling. As they had passed underneath it, Lexton had once again frozen in fear from seeing the arachnid monster.
“Lex, are you alright?” Erin asked, concerned over the kobold’s well-being. “You practically went into shock, when you saw that spider.”
“I’m fine… It’s just that I can’t handle spiders all that well,” Lexton said. “While there have been times that I’ve been required to go near such horrible things, most of the time I’ve been able to do so from a safe distance or with a plan that allowed me to stay far enough from them. To be put close to one like that without any warning… It just doesn’t sit well with me, okay?”
The redhead was about to offer comfort to the kobold by saying that she understood his fear, as she herself had been quite terrified of the monstrous spider as well. However, the sound of snickering stopped her from doing so.
“And here I thought you were all tough, yet you’re afraid of spiders, like a little girl?” Ryle said as she was holding back her laughter. “Oh man! That’s precious! Do you need me to come and kill the evil eight-legged beasts, if they make web in a corner of your room or something to catch flies?”
Erin wasn’t too happy with the way the blonde was laughing at Lexton’s fear and was about to reprimand her, only for the kobold to do it for her.
“First of all, I am NOT afraid of all spiders, okay? Your regular spiders that sneak into your home? I simply squash them with a rolled up newspaper and move on. What I am afraid of are those GIGANTIC MONSTERS that should terrify any sane person!” Lexton explained angrily. “Second, I think I have pretty good natural reason to be afraid of such things!”
“What natural reason?” Ryle asked.
The kobold didn’t respond with any words. He instead pointed at a lizard moving on the ground nearby that was suddenly attacked and killed by a large spider.
“...Okay, so spiders eat lizards, which makes them a natural enemy of sorts for you. Got it,” the blonde said. “But don’t you think you’re exaggerating your fear a bit too much? I mean, should you really be that afraid of them?”
“Oh, you’re right! What possible reason could there be for me to fear giant spiders!?” Lexton said sarcastically. “Except that we are talking about monsters that can make webs strong enough to catch trucks and have venom strong enough to kill small dragons! And the way they kill you is by biting down on you with their giant fangs, paralyzing you with venom and then sucking your internal organs out of your body, while all you can do is lay down hopelessly waiting to die! Some even lay their eggs in you while you’re alive, so the babies can eat you from the inside!”
“...I take back everything I just said. You have plenty of reasons to fear them,” Ryle said with her face pale.
After the argument between Lexton and Ryle, the group continued in their way through the town, looking around at all the stores surrounding them. There was a lot that the Black Market could offer, as long as you had enough money.
“Lex, should we go and see what some of these other places can offer us?” Erin asked. “It kind of feels like a wasted opportunity to simply walk out of here without visiting at least a couple other places.”
“I can understand what you mean, but I’d say it’s best for us to just get our guide and get out,” Lexton answered. “Not only did we get what we came here for, but we’ve already spent quite a bit of money, even before we have met the possible guides that we can hire. We need to think of things on a more long-term scale, as well, and not go on a spending spree. The way I see it, we got what we need, so let’s just move on. Besides, I can make a bunch of stuff for us that we might want anyways, so no real loss skipping these other places.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“True… Not to mention, we still have a time limit to worry about,” the redhead said. “I just hope that we’ll have enough time to hire the guide we need.”
“Trust me on this. They’ll make sure we’ll have plenty of time, once they hear that we want to hire someone,” the kobold said. “The reason the warden of the prison allows the Black Market to operate here is because he gets a portion of the profits they make. However, if he gets a chance to make a direct deal where all the profits go him, he’ll be more than happy to have us as his customers.”
“Good to know,” Erin said. “Guess we’re off to see Keenan again then.”
“Wait a second, guys!” Ryle suddenly called out, causing the redhead to stop and turn towards her. “Where’s Arnie?”
Erin and Lexton looked around and saw that the cat boy had gone missing yet again. Fortunately, it didn’t take them long to find him in a pinch similar to the one he had gotten into earlier, as a rather attractive female elf had taken an interest in him, leaving Arkay himself quite flustered.
“Hey there, cutie,” the elf woman said with a smile. “Wanna go have some fun with me? I’m sure you’d enjoy it!”
“A-Ah! I-I’m sorry, miss, but I c-can’t!” the cat boy said nervously with a bright blush on his face. “I-I’m actually here with some friends and I need to join up with them, so-!”
“Oh, I’m sure they won’t mind!” the elf said with a grin. “If nothing else, maybe I can introduce some of my friends to them, so they can have their own fun, while we have ours?”
Erin and Lexton couldn’t help but sigh. They could see how this was going to go.
“And here we go again,” Erin said as she shook her head lightly. “Think we should step in?”
“Don’t bother. It’s not worth it,” Lexton said. “Besides, a certain moronic mutant is about to get this over and done with.”
Just like the kobold had said, Ryle was already stomping over to were Arkay and the elf woman were with a furious look on her face. Erin only hoped that this wouldn’t end in violence.
“HEY! GET YOUR DAMN HANDS OFF HIM!” the blonde shouted as she pulled Arkay away from the elf. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, preying on people like Arnie!? Creeps like you should be locked away for life!”
“Like you’re one to talk!” Erin shouted from behind.
“SHUT UP, ERIN! WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON ANYWAYS!?” Ryle shouted back at the redhead, before turning back to the elf before her. “Listen here, bitch. I’ve already seen people like you try to pull this stuff once today and I only held back because I didn’t want to cause trouble. But I swear, if I see you or any of your slimy co-workers so much as touch a hair on Arnie’s head, I will wipe you and whatever craphole you work at off the face of the map! Got it!?”
“Oh my! How terrifying! You could almost make me shiver a bit!” the elf said mockingly, before smirking. “You don’t need to be so aggressive, you know? After all, I did tell your little friend that I could introduce you to some of my own friends. I’m sure you’ll find them very interesting.”
The blonde was about to tell the elf where she could shove her offer, when she felt a gentle tug at the back of her jacket. She turned around to see a young elf boy looking up at her.
“Are you a friend of my sister, miss?” the elf boy asked with a smile. “If you’d like, we can take you to our shop, so we can get to know each other better.”
“May I introduce you to my younger brother, Denzer,” the elf woman said with a smirk. “How about it? Care to get to know us a bit better?”
“...You know, that sounds like a great idea,” Ryle said with a mesmerized look on her face. “After all, you can’t have too many friends in this world, can you?”
The sound of someone letting out a small cough broke the blonde out of her daze. She turned to look at Arkay, who had a somewhat upset look on his face.
“Ryle, what do you think you’re doing?” the cat boy asked. “You know that we don’t have all that much time. We need to get back with Erin and Lex, so we can leave this place. Isn’t that why you got angry at me breaking up from the group and lagging behind?”
“T-That’s not-! I wasn’t-! I mean-!” Ryle tried to come up with an excuse, but couldn’t. The pure innocence and naivety of Arkay had left her practically speechless. “I’m sorry… Let’s go back to the others…”
As the two were about to join up with the others in their group, the elf boy managed to walk up to the blonde to give her one last thing.
“Miss, before you leave, I’d like you to have this,” Denzer said as he gave Ryle a small flower. While the flower itself was made of plastic, the design was very detailed and quite beautiful. “We give these to our special customers. I was hoping to give you one as well. Hope you can come back another time and visit us. I’m sure we both would enjoy it!”
“Uh… Ge he he he… I’m sure we would,” the blonde said with a blush and a goofy smile on her face. “I’ll keep that in mind. And thanks for the gift. I appreciate it.”
image [https://i.ibb.co/yWtF4cZ/Ch-99-Pic-1.jpg]
After finally waving goodbye to the elf siblings, the group could continue on their way back to where they had come from. As they were doing this, Ryle kept staring at the flower she had received with a dreamy look on her face.
“Ryle, would you mind and stop staring at that damn flower of yours already? You’re freaking me out!” Erin complained to the blonde. “Besides, it’s just a cheap plastic trinket they probably give out to every customer in order to make them feel special! Why are you holding onto it like it’s a treasure of some kind!?”
“Because it is a treasure to me!” Ryle shouted back. “Do you have any idea how much this means to me!? This is the first time I’ve ever received a gift like this! While I did get gifts from my family, I’ve never had anything like this happen to me, so let me enjoy it!”
“I’m not surprised that this is your first time,” Lexton said. “For anybody to give you any kind of a gift out of love, they’d have to be either blind or insane. And even then I’m sure most people wouldn’t go through with it.”
“You’re so lucky you’re a baby right now!” the blonde threatened the kobold. “Otherwise, I’d be kicking your ass around like a football!”
“I don’t see what the big issue is. I mean, if Ryle likes that flower, she should be allowed to enjoy it. There’s no harm in what she’s doing,” Arkay said with a kind smile. “As her friends, we should hope that she finds things that make her happy. And if that flower does that, it’s all good in my books.”
The others turned to look at the cat boy with wide eyes, amazed at how pure and innocent he could be. A couple of tears even escaped from Ryle’s eyes.
“...Arnie,” the blonde said.
“Ummm… Yes?” the cat boy said in response, a bit taken aback by the tears in Ryle’s eyes.
“YOU’RE STILL MY FAVORITE!” the blonde yelled happily as she pulled Arkay in a powerful hug.
Erin and Lexton could only sigh at Ryle’s antics, as the cat boy was struggling to breathe due to the hug he was now trapped in.
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Meanwhile, back at the information store Erin and her companions had just visited, the ratfolk man behind the counter was surprised to see new customers come in. While their services were valued, not that many people would come to purchase them within one day, as they were quite expensive. Not only that, but there were also a lot of people who didn’t understand the true value of information.
Still, surprising or not, the receptionist was ready to do his job, so he immediately put on his best smile in order to welcome the two elves, a young woman and a young boy, that had just walked in.
“Welcome to the information store!” the rat man said. “How can we be of service?”
“Hello there. We saw some people that we know just recently come out of here,” one of the two elves, a young woman said with a smile. “I was wondering if you would be so kind as to tell us what sort of information they came here to buy?”
Upon hearing the request, the receptionist tensed up somewhat. While it wasn’t unheard of for people to come in and request to find out what someone else had just bought from them, it wasn’t exactly a favorable position for their business. Even if information shops prided themselves in being able to sell whatever information their customer wanted, selling out their own direct customers wasn’t something they liked to do. This was due to the fact that it made their stores seem dangerous, as one could immediately have whatever plans they were making ruined simply because one of their enemies decided to purchase what they had purchased. Not only did this drive away customers, but it also made them seem far less trustworthy, as people would fear that whatever happened within the store could be sold off as soon as they walked out.
Still, the information stores had to do business and they prided themselves in selling their customers whatever they desired to know. So as long as these two were wiling to pay the price their store gave them, it would all be fine in the end.
“Well, that is something we can certainly provide. However, I do have to warn you that it will be quite expensive,” the rat man explained. “May I ask how much you are willing to pay?”
Upon hearing the receptionist’s question, the elf woman began to chuckle, which confused the rat man.
“I think you might have misunderstood me a bit. I’m not here to buy anything from you. I expect you to tell me what I want to know,” the elf woman explained. “Now, I recommend you do that, while I’m still asking nicely.”
“...I think you’re the one who has misunderstood something. This is a store. We run a business here and you need to pay in order to earn our services,” the rat man said in stern tone. “Unless you have the money we want, you’re not getting anything from us. Understood? So cough up some credits or leave.”
“Oh my… And here I was hoping that this wouldn’t have to come to barbarism,” the elf woman said with a sigh.
Before the receptionist could react, something thin suddenly wrapped around his neck, pulling him down on the counter. After he managed to recover from the blow, he saw that there was a thin wire that went from the elf woman’s wrist all the way up to him.
“Are you willing to talk now?” the elf woman asked with a smirk. “Or do I have to do this in a more enjoyable way? While you’re not my type, I will get as much enjoyment out of you as I can, so I think carefully before you answer. Whatever you choose, you are going to talk.”
Despite being pinned down in such a manner, the rat man was still willing to fight back. Without either of the elves noticing, he reached underneath the counter to a switch that cut off the incense that kept the giant spider hanging on the ceiling docile. As soon as this happened, the predatory instincts of the arachnid were immediately turned on, like a switch had been flipped inside its head. The monster immediately began to scan its surroundings with its eyes for prey, soon finding the two elves right beneath it. With its fangs ready to strike, the massive spider dropped down from the ceiling, hoping to devour the prey beneath it.
However, the elves had been aware of the monster guarding the store and were not worried about it in the slightest. They had hoped to get what they wanted through simple intimidation, but since that had failed they had decided to switch into more violent methods to get what they wanted.
Since the elf woman was occupied with holding down the rat man, the elf boy was left to handle the spider. In the short time it took for the spider to regain its senses and jump down on them, he had managed to pull out his weapon that looked like a knife, position it in such a way that the blade was pointing at the attacking arachnid and the flick a switch on his weapon’s handle. As soon as he used this switch, the handle of his weapon extended massively, turning his knife into a spear that pierced the spider’s body and pinned it on the ceiling. The creature struggled for a while to break free, but soon ceased to move as its life ended.
The receptionist was shocked to see their prized guardian get slain so easily. He had been certain that it would have been able to save him, yet that ended up being a false hope. Now he could only hope that the two elves wouldn’t be too angered by his resistance.
“Now, that was a bad idea,” the elf woman said with a sadistic grin. “Guess I get to enjoy myself today.”
While this was all going on in the entrance of the store, Grix was still upstairs, waiting for new customers to come in. He had heard some commotion come from downstairs, but figured that the receptionist would be able to handle it with their security measures. Even when he heard the most bone-chilling screaming come from there, he wasn’t too bothered. The goblin simply assumed that it was some fool who had just been acquainted to their guardian.
“Lydd, is that you?” Grix called out, as he heard footsteps walking up the stairs. “What happened over there? Did we get a troublesome customer?”
“I’m afraid your colleague can’t answer now,” a female voice called out, as the head of the rat man was thrown over to the goblin. “He wasn’t very cooperative with us, so we had to take some extreme measures with him. Hope he learned his lesson and that you won’t repeat his mistake.”
Grix looked up from Lydd’s head and saw the two elves walk up to him. Both had smiles on their faces as they entered the room.
“...Do you have any idea what you’re doing? Once the people running the Black Markets learn about this, there won’t be a place where you’ll be safe from their wrath,” the goblin said, managing to keep his composure despite the obvious fear he was in. “If you value your lives, you better try your best to make amends for this. Even if that is very unlikely.”
“Well, aren’t you a cocky bunch! First your ratty colleague refuses to give us what we want and now you’re trying to threaten us!” the elf woman said with a laugh. “Do you really think we’re afraid of a bunch of petty crooks? You might think you’re powerful with your little secret club and all, but it’s nothing compared to the people we work. They would like nothing more than to find out about this place and bury it along with you trash, but the only reason I haven’t told them is because I see it to be more useful for me to have your services available. I advise you to not make me rethink my position on that.”
Upon hearing this, Grix felt cold sweat run down his face. Judging by what the elf had just told him, these two weren’t just some random criminals that had gotten too full of themselves. These were assassins working for the forces of the Five Overlords themselves.
“Now, how about you tell us what we want to know?” the elf woman asked with a grin. “Or do you wish to end up like your friend?”