Vesthia stood rooted in place. Understandably so, the poison, as Mark learned from a local Brewer, was a fast-acting paralytic, capable of paralyzing victims of up to 30 Constitution.
As he learned it meant, the full effect of a complete dosage would paralyze the target for a minute, if they had 30 Constitution, the time lengthened the lower your Constitution, but it would still work on targets with the stat higher than that, though not a full paralysis and for a shorter period, depending of how high the stat.
Also if Vesthia started moving now, the poison would act quicker and harder. He could see she still had a degree of freedom in her movements, but not much.
Seeing their leader’s plight the three women jumped into action intending to kill Mark, or at least delay him enough for their boss to recover. They were extremely coordinated, their movements completely closing Mark into an encirclement, with no way to escape. As one six daggers and swords attacked Mark from all directions, but before they landed a scream broke out from one of the women.
Behind her Mark retreated, evading further attacks, the woman now cradling her limp arm, wanting to lunge at him but strength left her body, she could only stare at him, and nothing more. With only two women left, Mark had an easier time, but they were much more careful now. He had to hurry up, Vesthia could recover any time.
Appearing at one of the women's sides he put her between himself and the other assassin. Dancing around her when she tried to return to the fight, making it technically a one-on-one. When the assassin at the front tried attacking him, he once again used Bolster and caught her hand, his other hand parried another attack, and he sent a knee into her stomach, making her bend down in pain.
Using the opportunity, he plunged his dagger into her back and quickly kicked her away, using the momentum to roll back and avoid the sword coming for his head. While rolling, he unslung the crossbow he had hidden under his cloak and shot it point black in her face, dropping her to the ground, dead.
The last woman’s wound was deep, and she took practically the full dose of the poison he smeared on his dagger, she would not be a danger for a while, deciding on his priorities, he lunged for Vesthia.
When he was about to eviscerate her, she again disappeared and appeared two meters away.
This was getting annoying, he couldn’t give her any more time but if she kept teleporting, he couldn't do much about it. For now, he could only hope that the ability used a lot of energy, there was no way the cost of teleporting was small, so he kept attacking her, she teleported three more times, and when he attacked her the fifth time, she didn’t blink away.
Instead, at the last moment, she intercepted the attack with her dagger, the movement was sudden, more a jerk of her whole body to place it between herself and Mark’s weapon than a proper parry, but she seemed to have finally regained control of her body.
Mark kept at it, increasing Bolster’s output to increase his attack speed, trying to overwhelm Vesthia, soon he was running short on Stamina but he could only keep at it, as long as it took to take her down.
They continued like this for another fifteen seconds, it would seem like a short time, but with three blows landing every second, it was the longest fifteen seconds in Vesthia’s life, even her late master never pushed her this far.
Her hands throbbed with pain under Mark’s assault, and even though she gradually regained control over her body, he seemed to be going faster and faster, making it almost impossible to defend, soon, she started to receive wounds. At first, small scratches, but as the remaining poison from Mark’s second dagger seeped in, the wounds grew more and more dangerous.
Suddenly, Vesthia threw herself at Mark, uttering the first sound since he had seen her. With a visceral scream, she threw herself at his daggers, both plunging hilt deep into her body, with a wild look in her eyes, akin to a predatory animal, she attacked with whatever was left in her, two tears escaping her eyes, at the inability to live on, to take her vengeance. To make those who wronged her family pay for what they had done.
All the emotions poured out in one last scream, as she plunged her daggers, now glowing with a golden-red light, into Mark's chest. That was not something Mark expected, the daggers flew at a speed he hadn't yet seen, his eyes incapable of tracking the trajectory, his premonition blaring at him to do something, but his body was just too slow even with his enhancements.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
But he didn’t waver, normally probably even he would be distressed in this situation, but the situation was different now, when the daggers were about to plunge into him, a huge axe-head intercepted them, the points striking steel.
A loud ring reverberated through the air, but the halberd standing in between him and Vesthia didn’t falter one bit, didn’t move an inch. Stalwart like a mountain, Torrento who was now standing next to him, was grinning widely, not even looking at Vesthia, with a cocky grin he raised his bushy eyebrow while looking directly into Mark’s eyes. Next to him Vesthia slowly fell to the ground, all her strength spent.
Looking at Carrey, Mark saw a couple of wounds on him, but he appeared to be fine. He was currently sipping on something from a small matte metal flask, and around him lay three lacerated bodies. During his fight, Mark noticed he was doing just fine surrounded by the three assailants, he was clearly much better at combat than sneaking around.
At this moment Mark noticed the last girl regaining her strength, she was trying to ambush Torrento, while he was looking at Mark, when out of nowhere a metal key was lodged in her skull. Behind her stood the redheaded girl. When he attacked Vesthia, she left the key to the cage inside the lock, letting the girl free herself.
Now breathing heavily, she yanked out the key she used as a weapon, and kept striking the girl, who was now most definitely dead, her head splattered in chunks over the floor.
“Lady Maria, that’s enough. We have to get you and your companions to a medic, they don’t look good, especially Randal.” Torrento quickly restrained the girl with just one hand, leading her out of the cave, while other men that arrived with him, started opening the other cages.
There was no sign of a key for the other cages, so they had to be a little forceful, first letting out the visibly more wounded Randal, seeing that rescue came, even with the wounds on his body, he started slowly crawling towards salvation. They quickly carried him out on an improvised stretcher made of two spears and some material. Then they set about unlocking the cage of the girl.
Breaking the lock, and opening the cage, the girl didn’t move an inch, still laying in the same place she did since the start of the fight, staring into the light. When the soldiers walked in and were about to carry her out, she started trembling, tears leaking from her eyes, but still, she didn’t move.
The men looked at each other a little lost, once again reaching out to try to pick her up.
“The fuck you doing morons, just leave her alone.”
At that moment when the girl was trembling more and more violently Sergeant Sarah walked into the cage and slightly pushed the guards out. She put down her bow and took off her metal breastplate, slowly kneeling, she delicately hugged the girl, all the time whispering something to her.
The guards looked a little confused, but just shrugged their shoulders and went out, there was still a lot to do, tracking remaining bandits, there were even some that barricaded themselves in some rooms in the underground complex and refused to give up. All the bodies had to be gathered to be burned, and loot had to be gathered, the bandits operated here for months, surely there was a lot of loot to be had.
In all this Mark was focused on Vesthia’s body, she was a walking treasure trove in this place. There was a pouch filled with gold, the mechanisms on her wrists, shooting out needles, and while looking more carefully he realized another thing. The mask was not normal, at least he thought so.
The golden filigree was not just ornaments, it was woven into some patterns, that once again, when looking at it a little longer, the patterns seemed to emanate some type of power, he had seen such markings before. Similar markings decorated the doors to Torrento’s office.
Taking the mask off, Vesthia’s face was revealed, she was a beautiful woman. Sharp features, high cheekbones, her eyes a little canted, in his world he would say she was of Asian descent, though he didn’t know who she would be considered here. But there was a flaw in this beauty. A patch of burned skin covered her lower jaw, going down to her throat, which would explain her not talking once ever since he saw her.
Looking further, he noticed her cloak had the same markings on the inner lining. Finally, he looked at the daggers, they were made of the same matte black metal Sarah’s bow was made of, the hilts finished with exquisite red leather, the small crossguards looking like little licks of flames. Along the whole bloody grove of the black blade, microscopical red lines created even more mysterious patterns.
They were very pretty, almost decorative, but he saw testament to their practicality and strength. Looking down at his daggers, he saw the many nicks and cracks that appeared every time they clashed with Vesthias weapons. A couple more blocks, and they would be useless. Deciding to just throw them aside, he took the daggers Vesthia was wielding.
Double checking, to see if he missed anything, sure enough, he found a hidden compartment in the lining of the jacket, there he found a small medallion, a small booklet, and a little pouch with some jewelry.
Standing up he looked around, watching the guards mill about searching through the remaining spaces. He looked for Torrento, in the end, he still had to thank him.