Chapter V (5)

  “Shit!” Mitsuko yelled as she dove to the side to avoid the burning wad of centipede saliva. It splattered on the floorboards, leaving a black smear. “Bugs aren’t supposed to breathe fire!”

  If the massive insect cared, it showed no sign as it continued its charge at her. She slid to the side and dropped low, ice blade at the ready... Wait for it… The centipede lunged at her. She slashed at the monster’s mouth. One strong slice should end it.

  And the centipede dodged. Smoke blasted from its side, knocking it away from her blade. It landed to her left, chittering angrily at her.

  “You’re not supposed to do that either,” Mitsuko complained as she retreated a few steps. The stairs were behind her now. She could make a run for it, but with her luck, the thing could probably bound ten times its length at a propelled speed.

  She shifted her grip on her sword and widened her stance. She coughed from the smoke billowing from the creature, but she forced her watering eyes to focus on it. The creature’s legs quivered as its beady eyes looked at her, uncertain. Something, whether it was her stance or her confidence, marked her now as a predator, not prey. Its head tilted, eyeing a door.

  “Oh no you don’t,” she growled at the centipede.

  It turned. Mitsuko threw her sword. It sliced through the air, narrowly missing the walls as it spun before shearing through the back third of the centipede’s body, then smashed pommel first into the wall.

  Mitsuko was already moving. She dashed forward, a new sword already forming as she closed the distance. As the monster reeled in pain, she slashed at the joints of the centipede’s chitin. It yowled and arched its back to smash her between its mandibles, but Mitsuko was no longer there. She curved her new blade up. It wasn’t her cleanest strike, but she still buried the sword between its head and body.

  The centipede thrashed as she kicked it back. The sword sticking out of it hissed and melted from the heat. Beads of water dripped from the blade’s edge and sizzled on contact with its smoking flesh.

  Mitsuko created yet another blade with a flick of her wrist, prepared to continue the fight. She didn’t need it. The creature’s death throes lasted only a minute before it stilled on the wooden floor, smoking but unmoving with its legs curled up.

  “That sucked,” she muttered. She kept her newest sword out and eyed the creature as she very carefully stepped over its corpse.

  Fighting unknown magical creatures was an absolute gamble with fate. She was a simple human who relied solely on her skill with a blade. No back-up spells to cast if things got hairy. Some monsters were simply unkillable for her. She’d rather fight a dozen more trolls than an unpredictable unknown.

  Following Wan’s instructions, she found the room. His things were neatly arranged throughout. Nothing was packed up. That made sense, given he would have already grabbed everything already if it was readily available when he evacuated.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  She got started, tossing objects in a sack. While her method lacked the order of Wan’s usual packing, she did have a system. Small breakable things like ink pots in the small sack, larger less breakable things like books and blankets in the big sack.

  It took a half hour before she purged the room of all Wan’s possessions. She hefted the sacks over a shoulder and returned to the hallway.

  Her eyes narrowed. All that remained of that dead centipede from earlier was a smoldering patch of dark wood on the floorboards. Her grip tightened on her sword and she shifted the weight of the sacks in preparation to swing them. She carefully skirted around the spot of charred floor. Her eyes flickered from the ceiling to the floor. No more creatures attacked. She let out a breath of relief. Still, she remained wary as she descended the stairs.

  A glass rod swung at her.

  Mitsuko got her sword up with just enough time to deflect the attack’s momentum. Instead of connecting with her stomach, it smashed into the banister, splintering wood. The glass remained solid though, not even cracked from the impact.

  She whirled, blade rising.

  “Woah, a human?”

  A surprised beetle-man stared at her, his bottom two arms empty while his top two each held a long pipe formed from glass. She hesitated, but leveled her blade at him.

  “You attacked me,” she stated.

  “You’re not supposed to be here!” he shot back. “I’m exterminating bugs!”

  “Do I look like a bug?”

  “No, but it's better to swing at the sign of any movement. That’s how you stay alive in this line of work.”

  “Fine.” Mitsuko lowered her sword. “I was just leaving. My friend wanted me to fetch some of his things.”

  She stepped past him, down the stairs towards the exit.

  The creak of the stairs as the beetle-man shifted his weight was her only warning.

  Her face met the wooden steps with a crack and she tumbled over herself again and again until she sprawled out at the foot of the stairs. Her vision swam as she tried to focus. Everything hurt. But especially the back of her head. It rang with pain.

  Mitsuko blinked rapidly to clear the black spots covering her vision. The beetle-man lifted one of his lower hands. With a spell, he created a stream of sand. His back wings opened and buzzed in a rapid flutter. Sand exploded outwards in her direction.

  She tried to stand but her legs betrayed her. The sand pulled her down. She swung an arm at it, blind and desperate but it poured over her face, filling her mouth, gagging and choking her.

  “Looting?” She heard him grumble. “Ugh. I should have known. Of course something like this happens when I’m on the clock. I go down to the basement for a single hour to try to eradicate the eggs and find an opportunist thief skulking about up here. I don’t get paid enough for this.”

  He stepped down the stairs and she dimly processed him pulling the sand back, out of her throat, and wrapping it around her hands instead, securing them behind her back. She wanted to glare up at him, but instead felt her consciousness slip away.

  Fighting mages was so unfair.