Chapter 25: At Last

  Millie’s shoes, which were leathery but somehow silent, danced slowly up to the mountain snake, letting her hand grace the base of the creature. “Repeatedly, you surprise me.” The warlord was creeping towards her, the sword behind him sparking up the ground and making a scratchy noise that made his position painfully obvious. “I wish we could subjugate you.”

  The warlord swiped down with its sword, almost catching her robe as she slanted to the side. “Strong boy.” She did a few little hops, her hands now firmly tucked into her pocket. “A level four… a high level four…” she looked over at Fay, at the blood dripping down off him and decided he was fine. “I’m not suited for combat at the moment.” She took out one hand and slapped the sword away on the blunt end as the warlord tried to cut her down, the grip didn't waver and she received a gash around her stomach region.

  A couple of intestines fell out and hung around like a tightly packed skipping rope along her belly, not falling out, “well…” she hopped back again, dodging another slash as she stuffed the intestines back inside.

  Fay stopped the bleeding along his chest with a passive stop momentum skill, siphoning off whatever mana regenerated passively. He was planning to bolt for it in a certain direction, but now that she was having troubles with the boss Fay wasn’t so sure if it was the smartest idea.

  Millie hopped out the way of another attack, “Fay, dear, shut your eyes.” She waved over, crimson painting her skin colourfully, “for ten seconds.” The sword jammed into her shoulder, digging in halfway and stopping by her ribs.

  Fay did so, seeing the clear silhouettes of her and the warlord through his eyelids as a bright light made it seem like day. The light dimmed down but the heat from the strange spell made Fay’s face feel sunburnt.

  “You may open.” She whispered into his ear, tapping his nose. He followed her instruction and saw her without a single scratch, the fatal wound completely healed and the blood forgotten from her skin.

  All that remained of the warlord was an arrangement of clothes, whatever flesh and bone that was holding it all up was disintegrated and floating in the air as dust motes.

  “Are you here to kill me?”

  [Congratulations]

  “Not at all. Quite the opposite.”

  Rewards:

  [Necklace of the Warlord (UNCOMMON)]

  Made from snake steel and imbued with years of mana, this is the ultimate ending to a fight.

  +2 intelligence.

  +1 wisdom.

  +1 vitality.

  [Special]

  Break this amulet and regenerate your mana to full.

  “Then why follow me?”

  “To save you.”

  Fay took off his wart beast amulet and threw it on the floor. “Okay.” He replaced it with the new necklace. She knelt down and picked the old one up, twirling it on her finger with a nostalgic smile.

  “You tend to drop things.” She reached into her cloak and took out a crown, the one Bark made. “You lost this as well.”

  Fay took a step back and nodded, “I have a better one.”

  She held it up and put it on her head, over the hood so it tucked the fabric, the metal was shabby and the work was amateur. “How else will you remember your dead friend?”

  [Slain Snake Guards (LVL 2) x6]

  +180 xp

  [Slain Ice Vipers (LVL 2) x6]

  +120 xp

  [Slain Mountain Snake (LVL 3)]

  +140 xp

  [Slain The Snake Warlord (LVL 4)]

  +450 xp

  Fay smiled “right. Dead.”, He kindly reached into his pocket, took the quickstep rune into his hand and put all the XP into it.

  [Skill learnt: Quickstep (Uncommon)]

  [Activated quickstep]

  Fay took one step but it felt like four and punched her along the cheek with the speed of fingers snapping. It felt strange, the air around him felt like water, but eased out of the way, guiding his movements purposefully, knocking her jaw slack to one side and tearing a few teeth loose, her face bruised instantly but she did not fall, she just turned and looked at the ground for a moment.

  “As…” She grabbed her jaw and put it back into place with a crunchy sound, “as I said, how else will you remember your dead friend? There’s nothing left of him now, but this.” She removed the crown and held it out delicately towards Fay, her eyes quivering at the piece of metal.

  Fay took it, stuffing it into his pants pocket without another word. He was thinking though, that quickstep only took up 20 of his mana, which might've been a lot at the start of this whole ordeal, but certainly now it was almost nothing. She didn’t seem too upset by him punching her, in fact, she looked quite happy. “Do you want to leave?” She started the walk around the mountain snake, “I’m sure there is a fast track, we went down and then down and then up then up and then up so we are about ground level, you see?”

  “I see.” He was trying to find where her blood was flowing, but just couldn't, the new vision was completely useless. And even if he could stop her heart, she seemed to not care much about the state of her internal organs, figuring she could just put them back and be fine. “Is Lily really alive?”

  “Yes. Quite lively, like an injured animal. She won’t give up and in fact I have a sore spot for scared things, such as Bark, you remember him? He’s dead now.” She nodded.

  Fay couldn’t tell if she was being purposefully volatile, trying to make him lose his cool. “Yeah, thanks to you.”

  “So as Lily says.” She found a door along the opposite end of the wall, walking through and finding steps that lead upwards. “I should get you caught up, we are trying to find new pledges, I think it should be you while Grace thinks it should be Joey. That's about it. Today will be a day of rest while I try to find that Thomas boy, if he wants to join then so be it, if not then he is disqualified.”

  Fay walked up as well, “I don't want to do all this.”

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  “I didn’t either.” They reached the end of the flight of stairs, a door that was hidden as a rock wall was at the end, she pushed it open and saw the forest yet again, the sounds were nonexistent, and to say ‘forest’ was overstating it. It was a wasteland of dead trees and uproots, loose dirt and dead wildlife. “A talent like you only comes so often, and I’ve to admit, some like you have slipped past me.”

  They both stepped out, the sun in the sky made Fay relax almost instantly, it felt nice to get a waft of wind and cool air into his lung. “You’re pretty shit at your job then.” He walked down the small hill the door was placed at, hidden between two rocks. “How do you guys get out?”

  “Hm?”

  “There’s a timer, how do you get back to the island?” Fay swallowed his breath, he twisted his shoulder, feeling it start to heal back into place.

  “You get the choice. The gods are kind in that way. Nobody has chosen to go fight in the war, so I suppose the gods are stupid in that way as well, to not understand human selfishness.”

  —

  Lily chewed down some dried out snake meat while Marx was seeing just how hot he could make the dirt with a small spell. He was apparently trying to optimize it so he could fire a compact beam of heat out, but it was not going well.

  “So Joey…” Grace whispered, “I need you to put these on.” She took some accessories from her robe pocket, decorating his fingers and wrists and neck with jewels that give him extra buffs.

  “That’s not fair.” Lily groaned and took another bite, chewing it twice and then swallowing the leathery meat down. “You’re cheating.”

  Grace didn’t deny this, “he earnt it.” Was all she replied with, as she struggled to concoct more potions in a makeshift hole, she used her blood much like Millie did, but was failing most recipes and had to keep retrying and foraging for more ingredients. “Lily stop chewing so loud.”

  Lily played with the little knife that Bark left her, wondering how easy it would be to cut up Grace while she had her back to her. “Am I loud?” She slowly slid it firmly into her hand.

  “Yes.”

  Lily slowed her chewing, her teeth slapping together just as loudly but at slower intervals. “Sorry.” She motioned the knife upwards, grasping it with both hands. “I guess I’m a loud… eater.”

  “You are.” She used her finger to make the sand pit deeper, “very loud.”

  “Yeah?” She slowly stood and crept forward, “how loud? One to ten.”

  “Ten.”

  Lily raised the knife higher, everyone was looking at her now, including Joey who took no action to prevent what was about to happen. The only one who might have something to say was Jason, but he was off looking at the ground with his teeth constantly grinding. “Sorry.” Lily readied her hands and-

  “Oh hello!” Millie waved through a sticky burnt bush, and right behind her was Fay, looking as pale as a vampire. “I see you have everything under control. Grace?” She glanced at Lily and at her precarious position, watching as she lowered the knife back into her holder.

  “Yes yes, I’m fine.” Grace mixed some more things and looked over, especially at Fay, “the boy is hungry and dehydrated.”

  “And yours is not, I assume he’d make a good sitter. Plenty of places to sit for him.” Millie pranced towards Lily and took her half-eaten dried snake snack. Gifting it to Fay who was definitely dazed and confused and maybe even slightly insane. Lily had no clue.

  “Hey Fay.” Lily said, “Jason, Fay is here.”

  “Ehn…” He groaned and continued to look at the ground, he was clearly still under the grip of that skill of his, the one that made him unconscious, or at least, he was pretending that he was.

  Fay’s eyes squinted at Jason before realising he was who she said he was, he didn’t have any reaction, at least on the outside. “Well…” Fay ate, “you look well Lily.” He smiled and walked over to sit down next to her, taking another bite out of the snakemeat and then drinking a whole jug of water. The hole in the side of her body was now well hidden with cloth, she looked pretty much healthy.

  “Yeah, you too.” She pouted and played with her hands.

  Marx stopped playing with his skill and dusted off his fingers, “she tell you everything?”

  “Uhuh…” Fay fiddled with something in his pocket, “one of us lives, or whatever.”

  Joey nodded, “which means you’re my enemy.” He said in his gloomy way, nobody was really paying attention to Joey, but Fay noticed instantly just how depressed he looked, like he had nothing left in his life.

  “Okay.” Fay responded, finishing his meal and standing up, looking for a place he could go to be alone, overtly ignoring Joey’s statement. “Sure.”

  Grace tapped Joey’s shoulder, whispering into Joey’s ear until he stood up as well “Fight me then.” He looked down at Fay. “Come on.”

  Marx shook his head, “woah woah woah, no let’s not-”

  “Come on.” Joey stood, taller than Fay by at least half a foot, he looked over at Grace, who was smiling at the boy with a charm that he appreciated. “Fight me.”

  Fay groaned, his eyes were finally open and Lily noticed they were a different hue than before, in the light they looked almost bright purple, with streaks of red, “I’m hurt.” He looked over at Millie, who was finishing up Grace’s failed potion.

  “Go for it, you’ll win anyway.” Millie said without looking back, she was quite content with her job, leaving Fay to fend for himself while injured and low on mana.

  Fay took a step back into a more open space, “okay, okay…” He stretched one arm, “I can only use one hand.”

  Joey didn’t care, he collected his scythe and held it in his calloused fingers, he didn’t even seem into the whole fighting thing, much more accustomed to the command of war. But Grace told him last night, between the crackles of fire, exactly what he needed to do to get back home. Those instructions were to get rid of Fay, keep Marx on a close leash and have him fight that blonde boy and die, then leave Jason and Lily to fend for themselves. He just wanted to go back home, and would do anything to achieve that.

  “I don't have weapons.” Fay looked at his gloves, “well I can't use this.”

  “Why not?” Joey began to stretch.

  “Poison. It’ll kill you.”

  “You’ll have to hit me first.” He touched his toes while Fay just stood around, wincing at his shoulder. He was low, tired and definitely close to death already. Even so, Joey felt scared of the boy, something in him had changed from the last time he met him to now, that hint of insanity that festered in everyone here was clearly in Fay’s eyes. “Okay, now.”

  Joey grabbed the scythe and tried to catch Fay off guard, he was hoping to end this quickly and cleanly. Fay’s eyes traced the attack clearly, not surprised in the least.

  “Oh…” Fay began to lean backwards, a mistake in Joey’s eyes as he activated his skill that made any one second attack into half a second. In an instant the scythe sped up and slashed along Fay’s arm, the wound turned purple instantly.

  [You have been poisoned]

  Fay continued his backwards movement, getting out of the way of a lethal attack to his heart with a swift hop backwards, much like how Millie moved against that warlord. “Venom?”

  “Sorry.” Joey wiped at his eyes, smearing dirt on them, “you can sit if you want, to die.”

  [Uncommon venom extracted]

  “I’m okay.” Fay pondered stopping Joey’s heart, his body was painfully open to Fay’s vision, including his brain which he could probably seize and make him braindead. But he didn’t want that, not right now, not ever, killing a human person sounded terrible.

  MP: (11/240)

  He had to wait a bit to use any skills, so he repeatedly took hits and then moved back, making Joey visibly tired and sweaty from all the lunging. “Why’re you…” He swiped again and again, and again, like an animal clawing for food.

  Grace stood up and held her hands out, shining a soft white light that spat towards Joey, giving him a faint glow-like outline that boosted his stats significantly.

  Fay felt the difference, that was around a 50% boost on all stats, something of that sort. Fay couldn’t avoid getting nicked with small cuts along his arm and legs, including a wound that cut along his neck, not deep enough to hit his jugular luckily.

  [You have been poisoned x6]

  “That’s cheating!” Lily shouted and was quickly silenced by Marx putting his hand on her face, he was obviously keeping his cool, his eyes were tightly locked onto Joey’s in anger.

  MP: (16/240)

  Fay kept moving backwards, keeping his gloves sheathed. “You’re taking this seriously…” his back hit an ashy tree that dropped black silt along the air. He ducked under a swipe and kicked the tree to cause a smoke screen, getting the silt into Joey’s face and eyes. “Is this real?”

  [Uncommon venom extracted x6]

  Joey shook his head and tried to kick Fay through the smokey air, the kick collided with Fay’s arms and felt rather weak.

  MP: (20/240)

  “Sorry…”

  [Activated quickstep]

  Agility: 7 + 5 -> 12 (equipment)

  12 x 2.5 -> 30 (quickstep)

  30 (0.1 second)

  Fay kicked Joey right in the lower pelvic region, lifting him off the ground and backwards into the tree. He yelped as he landed and fell onto the floor, rolling around in the burnt grass with his hands gripping his legs. Fay ripped the scythe from his grip. “I win.” He chucked the weapon away and glanced over at the ‘audience.’ Millie was clapping while Grace was most definitely not. Fay kicked Joey again, then again, then again until he stopped moving. On pure instinct; he didn’t want the boy to be able to sneak up on him any time soon, especially after he was genuinely attempting to kill him.

  Fay liked how it only cost 20 mana, meaning he could have it active for a full second at the price of 200, and so on. “Can I sleep?” Fay kept his eyes on Grace as she ran over to Joey to heal him, chanting out some prayer or blessing.