[Alisha’s PoV]
Leaning back on a boulder, I stared into the night sky. It’s been two days since Sally, Elizabeth and Olivia had returned. Between looking after the Hybrids and trying to figure out our next steps, I have had no time to sit here and think.
I’m feeling lost. I knew that from the bottom of my heart, I didn’t truly know what I wanted to do. Ever since we gained our freedom by sheer chance I’ve been feeling like this. Thinking back on what's happened so far and how we’ve reached this point, it felt eerily simple yet dangerous. At this time I just didn’t know what I truly wanted.
Part of me doesn’t want to look after the Hybrids nor save them. As horrible as that was in my mind, I couldn’t help but admit that was how part of me felt. I wanted to travel further beyond and find new cities or towns where I’d be accepted. Now that I know that this place we were in was actually some hole in the ground I felt more and more like getting out.
I still wanted to help the Hybrids, help ensure their safety from now on and provide them with a way for them to stand on their own two feet. Getting them all to level 20 was a part of the plan we discussed before rescuing them but we can’t do that overnight. It took us a dungeon, or for me two, to get to level 20.
From what Olivia said, in her village levelling to 20 was easy and generally very quick, but after that it became harder and more dangerous, and since we couldn’t get experience from anything lower than 20 we were a bit stuck. I didn’t just want to up and leave them all behind without at least giving them the tools to survive in this place.
Sighing, I just wanted to figure myself out. Did I enjoy killing, fighting and the danger of surviving like this? I wanted to explore more of the world, and part of doing so would be killing those who posed a threat to me. Shaking my head I knew I would figure myself out slowly now that I have the chance to do so.
Pulling my legs up and resting my chin on my knees, I think about the last few days. Chloe had met Sally and they were near inseparable now, Olivia was still the same as usual, Gray is helping the Hybrids learn about various tasks like smoking meat and how to gather firewood and Elizabeth had buried herself into the book about construction.
Sitting under the stars like this made me feel relaxed as the energy from them and the moon washed over me. I know the energy wasn’t doing anything to me, it just felt relaxing. Standing up and stretching, I think about various things as I make my way back, one of those was the worry about the upcoming siege on Crater, and what might lie beyond that door.
As I walk back, I see Alice flying towards me. Holding my palm out, she lands and jumps onto my head. I could tell she was tired and letting her snuggle in I decided to walk through the campsites and check in on those we had saved. No longer looking scared or nervous, at least not as much as before, and were more open with talking to each other. Seeing how they ran around talking, eating or sleeping, they did not look any different to humans, yet they were treated like monsters with no hesitation by them.
Seeing how some of them were happier now did make me feel glad we did bring them back here, even without shelter they were happier. Reaching the place where I’d usually sleep, just a spot near a tree, I sit down and keep watching this sight. Sure, part of me wanted to leave and didn’t care for the Hybrids, but even at this moment I couldn’t deny that I was happy that we'd done so. Are you out there watching somewhere, Alice? I wish you were here.
***
Sitting around a campfire were all five of us. It was currently nighttime, five days had passed and we were discussing the situation with Crater and how to approach it.
“We’re in a bind with how to approach Crater now. With the nobles on the move we no longer know truly what kind of strength they have.” Speaking up, Elizabeth is sharing her thoughts. “If we were to launch an attack now they can easily just dispose of the Hybrids in the cave, but if we don’t then come the next full moon they may very well sacrifice all of them to open those doors.”
Olivia: “Those doors are suspicious. Gray said they were talking about “escaping from here” however we still don’t understand what they mean, we can only assume they meant escaping from Crater Hell, but it could be something else.”
“What else could it mean? What could the humans be escaping from?” Asking this while petting Alice, I also thought of what they mean.
Sally: “That isn’t the main concern. We need to focus on getting everyone out before the humans do something stupid.”
We’d been stuck on what to do for a while now. The only thing we had agreed on is that if we do anything it’ll be at night, the main reason being me.
“How about we try talking to them?” Muttering this while frowning, Gray looks around.
Sally: “Why would they care to talk, they’ll likely just try to kill us on sight.”
Olivia: “But it’s true they’re doing this now after you guys rescued some of your people. Maybe they feel that they have no other options, and must do this to escape from here?”
Elizabeth: “It makes sense, the biggest fear they have right now is that we raise everyone here to level 20. If that happened the city would fall, so they feel the only option is to flee.”
Gray: “So they’re running? We can’t just let them escape what they’ve done to us.”
“We don’t have anything to give them to guarantee we won’t attack in the future either…” Thinking about this was a headache, and as I said this I tried to think of how to resolve this in a peaceful manner.
Elizabeth: “It might be possible to speak to them and still be able to escape if anything happened. Who knows, maybe they’ll want a peaceful route as well. Sally, Gray and Alisha, you three are strong enough to lay waste to the city, and they know if we were given time we could have many more level 20s.”
Me: “That’ll make us no better than The Order. I don’t want to massacre an entire city unless we have absolutely no choice.”
Olivia: “Then perhaps it’s best to go and meet them and work out some sort of treaty. I doubt even with the level 20s they have they can contain you. From what Elizabeth has said in the past they are afraid to travel outside of the walls so it's not like they’d follow.”
Gray: “Well it’s either we try our luck with negotiations or we attack them before the next full moon. It won’t be too late to attack them if we can’t negotiate.”
Rubbing my temples, I remember back when we were getting stronger we’d always say we would raze the city and save everyone. Now I was starting to see just how foolish we were in our thinking, the task of rescuing everyone was huge. Even if and when we did save everyone we’d then have to provide help to them here. There were a lot of things to manage.
Elizabeth: “Lets try negotiating first. We could make deals with them for materials in exchange for them to stop breeding Hybrids and to release the ones they have. Of course, they have to survive themselves so we can’t just give them too much.”
Seeing uncertainty on everyone's faces, I knew that they also agreed this was the best idea, but this would be rather difficult.
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Me: “In that case, let's try. We’d need to leave someone here to ensure nothing happens with everyone while we try talking.”
Olivia: Let me go with you guys. I won’t be a part of the meeting but I’ll secure your escape route at the very least. I know I said I wouldn’t be a part of your feud with the city, but I don’t want to see you all hurt either…”
Smiling at Olivia’s words, we started to discuss how we’d approach the city and what we’ll talk about.
Settling on a plan, we decided to go as soon as the next night came and disbanded for the night.
***
In the distance were the walls of Crater. We had not been here in nearly three months, yet nothing had changed. The first set of walls were still in bad repair, the slums were completely dark with light coming from the wall beyond the slums.
Taking a deep breath, Elizabeth who was next to me asked “Are you ready?” Nodding to her question, we started walking. With Olivia set up outside, she’d provide back up in the scenario we’d need to escape. Gray was lurking within the shadows of Crater already, he would counter any ambushes that we may run into when entering the city.
Feeling nervous, Elizabeth and I walk past the walls of the slums. Approaching the walls towards the human residences, it wasn’t long of walking through the now-empty slums for the guards to spot us. Hearing them cry out in surprise, we stopped walking.
“And now we play the waiting game.” Hearing Elizabeth speak, I look around the slums. I haven’t been here in months, and now it was void of life. It was quite depressing. The smell of rot lingered, there was no form of shelter either.
Hearing sounds from the entrance, at least a dozen guards came out, fully armed and armoured, staring at us in fear. Some looked at Elizabeth in surprise which then turned quickly into anger. Looking at their levels none of them were higher than level 17.
As they surrounded us in a circle, Elizabeth turned to me and nodded. Stepping forth, causing them to flinch, I looked at the guard directly in front of me.
“We’ve come to speak to the council. We do not wish to attack and only want to talk.”
Looking around with uncertainty, the guard looks behind him for a second. I could see someone lurking in the shadows, similar to Gray but they had no class. Seeing that figure nod, they quickly moved away in the next second.
Looking at me with a bit of fear in his eyes, the guard simply says “They’ll come soon.” Stepping back and folding my arms, I close my eyes while waiting. Hearing the guards around us shuffle, the noise of the metal from their armour ringing out, I kept my senses high. Remembering my training from Teacher Lee in my head, I felt the bottle of alcohol near my waist. My trump card…and something I really don’t want to use.
Hearing a commotion at the gates, I open my eyes to see two people coming towards the group. Narrowing my eyes, I saw their levels and names.
[Barry
Level 20 Ascended Human
Health: ???/???]
[Harry
Level 20 Ascended Human
Health: ???/???]
“Two nobles…” Muttering this Elizabeth frowned. This wasn’t unexpected, from our discussions Elizabeth had mentioned how unlikely it was for nobles to appear for negotiations. From her understanding the council would have come out. Adapting to this sudden change, I once again sense my surroundings, ready for a fight.
“A monster and a traitor. What can the fine people of Crater do for filth like you?” The noble on the left, Barry, talks first. From the way he spoke we were off to a bad start already.
“We’re here to talk about releasing the rest of the Hybrids to us.” Saying this as I step forward, I hear Harry laughing.
“To think a monster like you wants something from us. It doesn’t matter what you want, we don’t plan to give you the Hybrids. As you can see, they’re all a bit preoccupied.” Waving his hand around the area, Harry laughs once again.
“We only want to secure the release of Hybrids, we do not want to attack or kill any-”
“You think we’ll listen to scum like you monsters?” Cutting me off, Barry stared at me with hatred. “It matters not what you say. Since you’re here already we’ll be glad to get rid of you.”
Sensing two other presences coming from behind I knew we had no chance of negotiating. We never expected to reach any conclusion today, but for them to wall us this hard showed they never intended to consider discussing anything. We’d made a mistake coming here thinking that we could discuss it peacefully.
Next to me Elizabeth sighs. Her own kind was acting like this, even though she had abandoned them for us, at the end of the day she was the one who wanted peace between everyone the most.
“Is there no other way to discuss this? We’re willing to discuss a way for everyone to cooperate, these Hybrids only want a chance to live.” Saying this to the nobles, Elizabeth was trembling. I could tell it’s due to anger within her, rather than sadness.
“We gave them their lives, they owe us their lives. And soon they’ll fulfil their purpose for us. You can’t change that, even if you have a few Hybrids at level 20. Now, come peacefully, you’ll still be of use to us, monster.”
Clenching my fist in anger, I hadn’t thought they would be this decisive. Whatever was behind those doors gave them such a huge sense of confidence, a confidence so unwavering that they thought they could capture me here.
Without another word I kick up the wind around me and use my Lunar Blessing on both myself and Elizabeth, who had drawn her sword. The guards around us stumbled backwards while the nobles stepped forward. At this point we needed to leave. Smelling the unique scent of two others behind me, it was four against two.
At least that’s what they thought. Without a noise one of the two behind us collapses, and using that to our advantage, Elizabeth and I turn on the one behind us. It was a female, level 20 like the other two named Rebekah. Punching upwards, I connect with her jaw while Elizabeth cuts through an arm. Pivoting on my foot, I raise a palm at Barry and Harry and release a wind explosion directly at them, controlling it to only blast in front of me.
Seeing them fly into the distance, Elizabeth, Gray and I run out of the slums. Hearing footsteps behind me, I turn to see the three nobles already chasing us. Running past the walls, I hear the noise of an arrow graze past my head, striking the closest noble in the shoulder. Seeing the other two stop in surprise, we keep running.
***
Sitting in the cave by the river, the first place we had called home, was the four of us who had tried to reach out to negotiate. Anger coursed through me.
“Remind me again why we didn’t just kill those fuckers?” Angrily saying this, I paced back and forth. Elizabeth looked as angry as I did. After we had taken such a risk, we had nothing to show for it. Instead the nobles just decided to attempt to kill us while refusing to even listen.
Hearing the silence around me, I knew Gray at the least didn’t know what to say. Olivia had no part in this, but she too is looking gloomy. I already knew the answer in my mind. If we stayed to fight we’d have likely been surrounded by nobles. To think they had four ready to fight us that quickly. With nothing to vent my anger on, I punched the cave wall, causing a small hole to form, cracks running along the wall.
“We don’t have a choice now.” Muttering this, Gray scratched his head. He had striked one of the nobles behind us, sinking his daggers deeply into their back. However they didn’t die, even from that. He said he knew he aimed for where their hearts had been, but felt resistance when stabbing in. Were level 20s harder to kill?
“What is giving them such confidence? For them to not give any leeway…there has to be more to that door. It can’t just be a way out.” Bringing this up, Olivia makes a point that I had thought about earlier. What on earth could that door lead to?
“We don’t have a way of finding out. No…we do, but we’d have to kidnap a noble and make them talk. A councilman should know as well. This is difficult. It’s likely they have a lot more level 20s among the nobles than we had originally thought…” Muttering again, Gray started thinking aloud.
Trying to calm myself down, and not achieving much, I just keep pacing. At this rate we were on the backfoot. Without an idea of how many level 20s they had in Crater we were now at risk of them invading our little home. Considering everything, it wasn’t likely they would do so before the fall moon, but all the unlikely things have happened recently.
“Well, let's just wait for a night here then head back. I doubt they’re following us, can you smell anything, Alisha?” Shaking my head to Olivia’s question, she nods and stands up.
“I’ll keep watch outside of Crater. While not perfect I can see movement at night so I’ll be able to see if they leave or not.” Pulling up her hood, Olivia left, leaving us behind.
“I’m going to take a bath.” Simply saying this, I left the room to the pond room. Still angry, there was a sense of worry, worry that the nobles would attack our home.