Kali had been following the assassin thanks to her skill [Unstoppable Justice] and she had felt it break some of the skills he had used to escape. But as she followed him, she felt like the skill could do more, but she didn’t know how. Standing in the street, she saw him above on the roof looking down at her with a fearful expression.
Yet she could only follow him, not necessarily catch him. And it felt wrong somehow. Unstoppable justice shouldn’t be stopped by something as trivial as distance. Because if it could be stalled, was it really unstoppable? No. The issue was that she knew once caught, they would probably kill him, but that wasn’t justice.
Was that why she felt like she was holding herself back? It was also the reason why he was able to distance himself from her. Maybe the right call wasn’t to kill him, but to really interrogate him and see from there. There were other options than to kill. It was the just thing to do in her mind. And even if the others might want to kill them, she would force them to do the right thin.
As she decided it, she felt her skill go into next gear somehow. The assassin could clearly feel it too, she saw him try to jump away, only to turn at the last second, jumping down a few stories. He looked completely bewildered and panicking as he tried to jump away, only to jump down into the street. She walked towards him, and it was like he couldn’t escape. He was stuck, expression full of fear.
“Give up and come with me, or I will kill you.” She told the man as she was a few meters away from him. Some people looked at them funny, but no one seemed to care that much, and hadn’t heard what she had said. To them it just looked like a guy stuck in the middle of the street as someone calmly walked up to them.
In the end, the man nodded as she simply caught his wrist and started walking back to the others. Philip had been useless in the ambush itself, but he had somehow spotted all of the assassins and where they were going to ambush them ahead of time. It had been strange to see him being useful for once. She knew the kind of man he was, and didn’t like him, but she had also had glimpses at his good sides. It clearly didn’t make up for what she knew he had originally planned for her, but it did paint a different picture.
For starter’s she would never have guessed that he, as cowardly as he could be, would willingly throw himself in front of anyone, least of all her. It hadn’t and still didn’t make any sense, and might be the only reason she hadn’t outed him as an abuser to the rest of the group. Not yet, at least. Plus if she was being completely honest, he had useful knowledge that they could all use to make it out of the mess they were currently in. If there was one thing she was sure of, it was that Philip would do anything to survive another day, and right now, that meant making all of them survive.
The assassin she walked with was completely silent and docile as she led him back. She wasn’t sure if it was still her skill working or if he had resigned himself to his fate, but it was nice for once not to have to struggle so much. Turning the final corner to where the ambush had happened, she could see that they had cleaned up most of the blood and bodies.
She spotted Matt vomiting in a trash dump. The kid was too sweet for this world, and always seemed to look up to her. He had lost weight rather fast and was looking fit now rather than a bit floppy. Probably because he kept training as a mage. He looked healthier, that was for sure, and she thought she could almost feel some confidence starting to come from the soon to be man. Good for him she thought, but also, he really had to toughen up to the sight of blood.
“Here’s the last one.” She said as they turned towards her and her captive.
“Alright, so I’m going to make this simple to understand. Your buddy here already spilled the beans. We will ask you some questions, and if they are different, we might have to break a few bones to know which one of you is lying.” Krovukk said as he loomed over the poor guy. He was already terrified out of his mind.
The buddy was one of the assassins that hadn’t had many bruises after the fight, but currently looked very beaten up. Kali wasn’t a fan, but it was also hard to have compassion for cold blooded killers. Still, she hated the concept of torture with a passion. She pushed down the feelings and told herself they hadn’t really tortured anyone, just pummeled them some. Not like pulling nails or scales off someone. She shuddered at the thought.
The assassin nodded vigorously his head at the big Karkaris as he started asking questions. ‘Who paid you’, ‘What were you told’ and so forth. Honestly they clearly didn’t know much and had been paid through a proxy. No one had even brought up the name of the Crystal Emporium so she felt it seemed kind of pointless.
Kali went over to where Matt was and placed her hand on his heaving shoulders.
“Hey Matt, done soon?” She teased as the teen heaved once more.
“Yeah, nothing much coming out anyway.” He said in a deadpan voice.
“You did good during the fight.” She told him, and she
could see him beam with pride despite his body still heaving.
“You bet, I even leveled up.” He told her, clearly proud of himself.
“Congrats.” She almost added ‘kid’, but knew it might not be a good idea. The others treated him too much like one, and not enough as a young adult. Sure he might be a bit naive, but that was also beautiful in its own way. She sometimes wished she could recapture her more naive self, alas it was not to be, jaded as she was now.
“Soon archmage huh?” She teased as he continued to recover from the gruesome sight. He was the only one who hadn’t actually killed anybody. It wasn’t her first time now, but even if they deserved it, it felt weird to her. Now wasn’t the time, she thought to herself. She would dwell on it later.
“Soon archmage.” He confirmed as he smiled at her, almost completely recovered. Only a small hiccup here and there. They walked back to the rest of the group.
“-can’t just kill them all.” Krovukk said as he argued with Philip.
“What, you just want to let them go and let them try again tomorrow?” Philip said sarcastically.
“Of course not.” Krovukk defended himself.
“But we ain’t butchers. We don’t go around killing people left and right.” He argued, to which Xar nodded.
“We aren’t butchers, we are defending ourselves! They attacked us. They knew the risks.” Philip said with finality.
“Look at them Philip, they ain’t going to try anytime soon.” Kali said as she walked into the discussion with Matt. She gestured towards the clearly beaten or dead assassins. The two that were alive were clearly terrified of them anyway.
“Oh, but they might tell people about us, our strengths and weaknesses. Might not be so lucky next time.” Philip made rather good points, but she couldn’t help but want to find a way to let them go. Sure they were assassins out here to kill them, but it wasn’t personal. They had simply been doing their jobs, and most of them had already paid the ultimate price for it. Did they really want to add to their bodycount if they could avoid it?
“Can’t we just make them sign a magical contract or something?” She asked the two more experienced adventurers.
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“Maybe?” Krovukk said as he turned towards Xar.
“Why are you looking at me? I know it’s a possibility, but I also know magical contracts can be broken. It’s not a perfect solution.” He shrugged.
“Plus, I don’t have the skills or knowledge to do one.” He added.
“Why don’t we bring them to the adventurers guild with us? They’ll know what to do, no?” Matt suggested.
“That’s actually a good idea. Let them handle it. Plus, some people saw us kill them, so having the culprits on hand could avoid us getting in trouble for standing around corpses.” Xar said as he looked around. They had cleaned up a bit, but still. The one he had exploded into paste was hard to… scrub clean of the ground and walls.
“Alright, that’s settled then.” Kali said, and Krovukk picked up the beaten one off the ground while Kali took the other one's wrist again. He hadn’t even tried to leave.
“W-What? Just like that? Come on, you can’t be serious.” Philip scoffed.
“Are you really going to listen to the kid?” Philip looked shocked, but what shocked everyone more was the kid’s reply.
“Matt’s the name, asshole.” He said as he glared at Philip, took a moment to process what he had just said and proceeded to become beat red in embarrassment.
Krovukk just laughed as he continued walking, while Xar just added a ‘Well said Matt’ to bolster the teen’s spirit, the merry group on their way with Philip following angrily, while muttering beneath his breath.
************************
They arrived at the adventurer’s guild without any more problems. They had been alert, but it seemed fairly unlikely that another ambush would be possible as they had soon hit the really busy streets. Of course they had stayed vigilant… somewhat, but if there was one thing she knew she could count on, it was Philip’s paranoia to keep them safe.
They entered the building and she felt like a kid looking around in amazement. She had never been in an adventurers guild before, the different groups were as wild and varied as their own. She felt like they actually didn’t stand out as a strange group for once, they were just one in the crowd.
“We’ll first register all of you as part of the team.” Krovukk told them as they waited in line. It was rather boring. They waited in line for a while before being asked to fill in their information, swore on a truth stone that it was all true before they registered their mana signature. After about twenty or thirty minutes the clerk came back to their table where they waited with their identification plates. All three of them were bronze, even hers, despite being above level twenty.
Apparently silver wasn’t about levels that much, but more about what you managed to do. You had to prove you were good enough for silver, and could apparently become silver or even gold at any level, even if it was rare below level twenty and thirty respectively. Still, they were now officially part of Dust In Pieces, who still officially had two missing members, presumed dead.
The two assassins had been taken in earlier and the clerk had clearly said the guild master would see them, as their story was above his pay grade. So they sat there to the side, looking at all the different booths selling things to all the adventurers coming through. A few other teams were waiting in the lobby, doing nothing, but most people were either looking at jobs, or haggling with the different merchants.
Matt sat there looking at his small bronze plate like it was the most precious thing in the world. He was clearly happy, and she kind of was too, but also nervous at being interrogated by someone as prestigious as a guild master. It was scary in a way. Philip looked nervous like her, while the two silver ranks were calm as could be, or were they?
They weren’t always easy to read, she had found out, and hid their nervousness well. Maybe adventurers had to fake confidence sometimes, it would only make sense. They didn’t have to wait for that long before the clerk came back and told them to follow him.
They all got into a small teleporter that brought them up into a higher floor of the building. It was a bit fancy and maybe a waste of mana, but she guessed it might also be for security reasons. She hadn’t seen any stairs to go up or anything like that, and the teleporters were behind the clerks, so it would be incredibly hard to sneak in.
They got led into a room where a naga was sitting behind a large desk with lots of things and papers. It was kind of a mess, as clearly this person was busy.
“Ah yes! Dust In Pieces. Come in come in.” The naga said. There were enough seats for all of them in a sort of relaxed semi circle, with a sofa and a couch instead of more formal chairs. They all took their seats, letting the two more experienced adventurers speak.
“Thank you for having us.” Krovukk began.
“Well, you brought back two attackers that tried to kill you in broad daylight, while having clobbered a few more that you couldn’t bring back, and apparently that is only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak?” The guildmaster said.
“Well, yes. Also they tried to poison us in our hotel, before we decided we might need the guild's protection and tried to make it here, only for the aforementioned ambush to happen.” Xar took hold of the conversation.
“And who are ‘they’ exactly?” The naga’s voice was curious, and far from alarmed, like this was all probably a big misunderstanding.
“We are not exactly sure, yet, and it is also another reason we wanted the guild's assistance. If we could look through the station's local records or something similar, we might confirm our suspicions.” Xar said, and she thought he was doing a great job of presenting the whole ordeal, but Krovukk’s face made her unsure. Xar was doing well, right?
“Now, we do look out for our own, of course, but we can’t exactly protect you from something without knowing what it is. Of course you can look through the stations records, we aren’t the ones keeping them, however, it is the stations, so you’ll have to ask in the local library. They should have what you are looking for.” The naga said neutrally. Kali wasn’t sure this person wanted to help them.
“We aren’t looking for active protection from the guild, maybe simply a safe place to rest while we try to figure out exactly what is happening?” Xar asked with a neutral tone back.
“You are all from Dust no?” The naga asked, and Kali clearly heard her repress a scoff.
“I understand why you ask, but you fail to understand what kind of resources we have at our disposal here. If anyone in a bit of danger were to start asking for rooms, we wouldn’t be running a guild here, you understand? I’m sorry, but we can’t just take you in because you got attacked in the streets by some thugs.” She continued, and before any of them could retort, she continued her tirade.
“You are adventurers, aren’t you supposed to be used to danger? Plus, you are Piece hunters aren’t you? You go where monsters and dungeons exist and danger lurks in every corner, but you come here to ask for a place to sleep? You see how ironic it looks. If you truly are in danger, just treat this like any other dungeon and have a lookout. By the system, you two are silvers, you know how this works.” She had dropped the neutral tone a while ago, and Kali had a hard time believing the gal of the system damned snake. They weren’t in a small danger, or had an outing with some thugs on the streets. But before she could speak her mind, Krovukk spoke.
“We understand, thank you for your time.” Was all he said and he got up. She looked at him for a second, speechless, when she finally regained her senses. She was about to say something when she spotted Xar’s very serious expression telling her in no uncertain terms to shut the hell up. Krovukk had a hand in Philip’s face to ensure the fool couldn’t say anything and was literally carrying him off.
They were soon down in the lobby and Kali simply couldn’t hold herself back anymore.
“What in the flying fuck was that?!” She shout-whispered to the group.
“If she wasn’t going to help us, it was no use insulting her.” Xar said with a sigh.
“But you didn’t even try to correct her? Thugs? Is she stupid?” Kali shot back, and for once Philip was clearly on her side as he nodded furiously.
“She’s right, isn’t the guild supposed to look out for their own? Complete garbage. That snake is a fraud.” He said scoffing.
“I’m not sure guys, Xar didn’t correct her because then we would have to reveal more. Plus, a person like that? Either she is already in on it, or she can easily be bought. She said it herself, they don’t have many resources.” Matt supplied. The teen was socially smarter than she had initially thought. Awkward as he could be, he was good at reading social cues somehow.
“Fine, but we are still in deep shit no? So what do we do now?” Philip asked the group.
“We forgot to ask what they were going to do to the two assassins, and still don’t know how to make a magical contract.” Matt said, and Krovukk shrugged, ignoring Philip’s question.
“You know what? I don’t think it’s going to be a problem, they’ll be in jail and all, it’s probably fine.” He didn’t sound very sure and looked at Xar who just shrugged.
“Not much we can do about it now, with how it went upstairs.” He said.
“Who cares about them, they were weak anyway, but what do we do now?” Philip insisted.
“Now? We look for answers in the library.” Krovukk said, and they all headed out. Kali just hoped this wouldn’t be as boring as she imagined it was going to be, but she felt like she was probably right.