It's a bit gruesome, I won't lie, but I'm also immune to it.
I've been killing since a young age, and its a responsibility I used to bear, but that doesn't mean I've come to enjoy death.
Nonetheless, they've come to harm this child, and I refuse to allow them to do so.
So... where are the other three?
I couldn't find one, but the other 2 were traveling together.
It seemed by pure luck, the two had managed together.
I am worried about where number three is, but for now its best for me to prioritize the other two. I am somewhere safe, so even if they find me I should be safe.
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Dimitri huffed as he hauled along his fellow scout.
The two had met in these dark tunnels by chance, where Dimitri discovered it had been to his luck that his shoes had very much shielded him from what lay below, row after row of piercing ironwood stakes.
His comrade was not so lucky and thus he was carrying him.
He wasn't sure why, mind you. This mission had become a suicide mission after all, now that death had become assured.
Even if the man died, it didn't matter.
Perhaps he would use him as a meat shield. Perhaps he would require aid to deal with whomever had set up these traps when he finally encountered his foe.
Well, perhaps not aid. The man was already going in and out of consciousness.
Was there any reason to actually keep him?
As Dimitri considered this thought, he soon came to realize he had come to a dead end.
An abrupt one no less, and one he suspected was artificial, given how unstable the wall looked, unlike the rest of the walls.
boom
An explosion occurred, small, but still within his field of hearing.
He immediately dropped the other scout without hesitation, watching as the roof caved in, leaving his fellow scout either buried or trapped inside, and in either case he would be dead.
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Damn. I was planning to trap both, with the hopes of interrogating one if the child's guardians arrived in time to apprehend him.
Oh well.
Considering the direction he's currently traveling in, he's very likely to encounter...
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fwish
Without warning something plunged into Dimitri's side, causing him to arch back and cough out blood.
Don't take it out...
Using the small fire he made, Dimitri looked downward, seeing the arrow that was currently protruding from his stomach.
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A shallow wound that he was stuck debating whether it would be worth pulling out the arrow, or risk the chance of poison.
Eventually choosing to pull it out quickly apply pressure using some of his comrade's ripped clothing to bandage it as best as possible.
Having bandaged it as well as possible, Dimitri slowly walked over to where the arrow had emerged from, to discover...
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...A crossbow
I purchased it and a tripwire from the shop.
It was expensive, being 100 points, but it was also made out of at least semi-decent material and at least pierced the B-ranks gear, so it was worthwhile, though it only left a shallow wound.
Whatever. For a one-time trick to further wear him out, I think it was worth it.
There is the risk of him using it for himself(all the elves seemed to have brought arrows) but it doesn't matter if he bleeds out before he can use it.
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"What in the great goddess' great name."
Dimitri muttered as he looked at the crossbow emerging from the wall.
It seemed to be made of decent material, weird for being all the way out here.
This must've been prepared in advance.
They were played.
Dimitri laughed half heartedly as he picked up the crossbow.
Even so, the crossbow was still salvageable.
This situation was still salvageable.
They'd been disposable from the start, but the high elf wasn't.
If he could kill her, then the pawn could destroy a queen, and that'd be worth it.
With this crossbow...
Carefully, he began disarming the crossbow. There was in fact, a wire attached to it, which he had to treat carefully in order to successfully claim the crossbow, but he did manage to do it as he sighed in relief when nothing followed suit.
Picking it up, he began loading an arrow into it.
click
Something clicks and immediately Dimitri begins to move, dodging backwards, only to stiffen as an arrow plunges into the back of his head.
plop
And thus Dimitri dropped face first into the floor.
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Good thing I loaded multiple crossbows.
When people react they tend to jump backwards, so I placed two or three crossbows at intervals in the side of the wall so that the chances increased for them to land properly.
Of course, I made the crossbow inside a slight dead end that it was more appropriate to call an indent in the hall to encourage a person to move in the opposite direction of the crossbow, into the line of fire of crossbows.
If those hadn't worked, I would have had a potato mine that was under him explode to drop him into a pit.
That was just good luck on my part that one managed to actually hit him in the head with an arrow, meaning he could now serve as bait for that last elf in the tunnels.
The trap? It was a bluff.
Even if he disarmed it, I had it connected to a potato mine made with one point of mana.
That one point mana mine couldn't damage him, but it did allow me to trigger the trap remotely and watch him from behind the crossbow.
Yeah, these mines work great both as mines and trap activations apparently.
So four down, one to go, and three out of my control.
Fingers crossed!
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Earnest began to arm the bomb.
At some point, he realized that he was trapped.
Spikes, traps, mines, suffocation, this whole place was a death zone.
He wasn't even sure if he could get out.
He knew he couldn't get out.
But he did have something.
A bomb.
Secret orders from the family, to use the bomb to erase any evidence of their existence, given to him especially for the high elf mission.
It turned out they needed it after all. The core of the bomb was the core of a young dragon, s+ in quality.
The explosion should be more than enough to take him, these tunnels, the perpetrator, and even the high elf child.
And most of the forest too.
But why would he care? He was already going to die.
Fuck them.
He was supposed to kill them, he was supposed to win and move on.
Fuck them all.
FUCK. THEM. ALL
Earnest began laughing, a maniacal laughter, cackling as his eyes bulged and his heart rate went insane. The elf was unaware of a giant black clawed hand emerging from the shadow underneath him.
The hand lunged forward, grasping the mans hand, crushing it, causing it to drop the bomb.
The man tried to scream, only for another to crush his windpipe.
He reacted immediately pulling his dagger out with his free hand, trying to stab the hand, only for the dagger to crack upon impact.
His other hand was broken mercilessly, before the hands grasped his head.
snap
A quick twist and Earnest is gone, with the hands silently pulling the bomb into the shadow, before pushing the man face forward into a set of stakes, before finally dissipating into the shadows.
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Did the man fall face first into the stakes? What a stupid way to die. The blood loss from his feet must've caused him to collapse face first into the stakes then.
Lucky I guess.
What should I do now then?