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Chapter 48: Something to Kill

They were watching me right now. There was no escaping them, then. They already knew I was here, and were probably just waiting for us to go to sleep or otherwise fall off-guard before attacking. And once we took out their spy, they chose that as their time to attack. I grit my teeth. What could I even do? We were obviously no match for them, and they apparently had a magic-user with access to Familiars and teleportation magic, so it wasn’t like we could escape, either.

I thought back to my discussion with that woman, Camilla. She didn’t want to kill me. She said so herself, even. And in the end, she didn’t. She ordered the Archer to kill me. She didn’t even hurt me over the course of that entire situation.

I glanced around. Erani was a few paces away, examining a berry bush. I walked over and leaned up to her ear.

“Listen,” I whispered, “we’re being spied on by a bunch of people who want us dead and are way more powerful than us. I can’t take the time to explain or we’ll look suspicious, but I have a plan. Just go along with it, please.”

She paused, then sighed and nodded. I was sure she was getting very tired of having things like this dropped on her. Though, I was getting tired of being the only one truly knowing what was going on, too. It was lonely. And terrifying. I hated my plan, and wanted more than anything to get a second opinion, but there was no time. They were probably already getting suspicious of us, and for all I knew, they could hear what I’d said to her anyway with magically enhanced hearing or something.

I turned around and looked directly into the hawk’s eyes.

“Camilla!” I shouted at it. “I know you’re watching me. Come out here.”

There was a moment where nothing happened. The falcon continued to stare at me, Erani looked at me like I was crazy, and the Nymph sat on the ground to look at an anthill, blissfully unaware of what was to come.

But then, the familiar sounds of the portals ripping into reality echoed around us once again, and the four soldiers stepped out. Before any of them could say anything, I stepped forward. “I am Arlan Nota, the man you’ve been ordered to kill. And Camilla, I request a duel.”

…

There was a moment where nothing happened. Erani still looked at me like I was crazy, but for a completely different reason this time, the Nymph stood up in shock at the sudden appearance of our enemies, and the four soldiers looked at me like I’d just said I was about to kill God. Which, considering our relative strength, I pretty much had just declared my intent to.

“...I won’t pretend to know how, but it seems you’re aware of the order that has been placed on your head,” Camilla eventually said. “Very well. I will grant you your duel, as a final request. To the death, no interference from outsiders.”

One of them, the man with the sword and shield, put a hand on Camilla’s armored shoulder.

“Boss,” his voice echoed from his helmet, “this is obviously a trick. We should just–”

“If it is a trick, I grant him that, too,” she interrupted him. “This man has had a fair legal trial stolen from him. A trial by combat is a fair replacement for that.”

“You know King Koinkar wouldn’t approve–”

“I am in charge of this operation. Perhaps you will not tell King Koinkar. Perhaps the Divination Wizards won’t either,” she glanced up at the falcon that was watching us. “If the Demons are going to bully us into killing him, I don’t see why it would be unfair for me to at least do it in an honorable way.”

“Thank you,” I said to her.

She just stared at me.

I breathed, trying to calm my nerves, then looked back at Erani. “If you wouldn’t mind counting us down?”

“Um, sure, I guess,” she said, obviously still in shock at the entire situation. She took a few steps back, pulling the Nymph along with her. “Three.”

I got into a combat stance, and the other three armored soldiers stepped back away from Camilla.

“Two.”

Camilla drew her spear, taking a step forward and lowering it at me.

“One.”

I mentally prepared myself for what I was about to do. It was maybe the dumbest idea I’d ever come up with, but…

“Go.”

…

Camilla stood, waiting for my attack. Spears were a defensive weapon, so she’d wait for me to approach before attacking. And I was obviously acting suspicious, so she’d want to avoid stepping into a trap. She stood with the spear leveled against me, prepared for me to strike at any second.

But I didn’t.

Instead, I got down on one knee, then on both, then put one hand behind my head, then the other. I knelt before her, completely and utterly defenseless.

“What is this?” Camilla demanded, her battle-ready stance breaking a bit.

“I refuse to fight you.”

“What? Y- you requested the duel.”

“Yes. I did request a duel. One that we’re still in. By your own rules, nobody can kill me except for you.”

The woman scowled. “You think I can\'t kill you? Are you calling me weak? Do you have any idea–”

“I’m not calling you anything. I’m just asking you to kill me.”

“...”

“That’s what you’re here for, isn’t it? You’re here to kill me. That’s okay, I’m sure you’ve made your peace with it, and I won’t hold it against you. So, I’m asking you to do it now. It’s no different from that sham of a duel you agreed to, right? You’re triple my Level. We both know you would’ve killed me before I could blink. I’m just removing the extra parts. You’re here to kill an innocent man, and when you do that, there’s nothing there but the life you’re ending, and you. So I won’t give you the trouble of fighting me. Because you’re innocent too. You’re stuck in a shitty position, and I get it. So I won’t fight. I’ll just kneel here, and wait for you to end it.”

Camilla squeezed the handle of her spear and took a step forward, pointing it at my neck. “If you think I won’t do it, you’re wrong.”

“And I don’t doubt you. I mean, I don’t know everything here, but I have to assume you’re doing this because you truly want to. You really think this is the best thing to do.”

I could hear her breathing inside of her helmet.

“I can’t imagine you’d personally take on the guilt of killing an innocent just because someone else told you to, after all.”

She stood there, motionless, for a second. Then two. Three. In a sudden motion, she whipped her spear back, slamming its butt into the ground. She turned around. “Well, soldiers, it seems we couldn’t find the fugitive, after all. Nothing here.”

“Captain–” the Archer, Asmo, started, but was cut off by Camilla.

“We couldn’t find the fugitive. We’re leaving.” She walked toward the portals, and, after a moment, the three other soldiers followed. She glanced up at the falcon as she walked through the portal. “I don’t suspect we’ll find the fugitive in the future, either. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that we’re incapable of doing so. If the Demons want Arlan Nota dead, perhaps they should do it themselves.”

The portals closed behind them.

The moment they were gone, I let out a breath and collapsed to the ground, my heart pounding in my ears.

“A-are we okay?” Erani asked as she knelt beside me, helping me up. “We’re safe?”

“Yeah,” I breathed.

“Oh thank the gods. What in the hells were you thinking? How’d you find out that she wouldn’t kill you?”

“Well, I didn’t really know, just a feeling I got from the fight beforehand. But we didn’t really have any other options. They had Familiars and teleportation, and their Levels were all in the twenties.”

“Twenties? All of them? What did they want with us, anyway?”

“Seems like the Demons got to the king or something. Said the only way to stop their assault is if I die. So they caved, and now the Kingdom is against us, too.”

Erani scowled. “Really? That bastard King Koinkar. I always thought he was a coward, but not this much.”

“Yeah, well, not much we can do about it now.” I got up and dusted myself off. “We absolutely need to get more powerful. We were lucky she was sympathetic to us, but what happens when they start recruiting adventurers who just want a paycheck? Or threaten peoples’ families?”

“Yes, we do, but we also need to stay safe.”

“Right, sure,” I said. “C’mon. I’m fucking stressed and need something to fight.”

“I don’t think you’re listening to me!” Erani said as I walked away from her.

My heart still felt like it was beating out of my chest, and I just needed a release. That fucking king, siccing his guards on us like we were some kind of monsters. Forcing them to kill an innocent like that… he was the monster. No, no, he wasn’t. He was a useful idiot, manipulated by the Demons. They were my enemy, and I’d make sure they knew it.

After stomping through the woods for another hour, I eventually found something I could kill. An Anacap lay in wait, stalking a Wood Spirit that was happily wandering the forest. Its blue-and-black, chitin-covered body was crouched over, its unnaturally tall form now on all fours as it slowly approached its prey. Normally, we would have avoided something like that, trying to conserve our slow-to-regenerate Health pools for any more serious fights we encountered, but I felt like this would be the perfect thing for me right now.

“Don’t help me,” I said to Erani as I approached the monster. “It’s mine.”

Gods, I just needed to cast something. My mind felt so clouded.

“Arlan, wait,” Erani grabbed my shoulder, “are you sure this is a good–”

I shrugged her off, continuing my march forward. She sighed and grabbed the Nymph by its arm, preventing it from moving forward to help me. Once I got close to the monster, it turned and looked at me, jumping to its feet in alarm and revealing its towering height, head-and-shoulders taller than I was.

I broke into a sprint toward the monster, and it charged at me, in turn. The moment it got in range, I activated Gravity Well and cast Crippling Chill on it at the same time.

You have cursed Level 11 Anacap with Crippling Chill. For the next 15 seconds, it loses 7.76 Health and 6.21 Stamina each second, and its Dexterity score is lowered by 15.5.

56.2 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 504.

The combination of the forces on its back and the sudden loss of Stats forced the monster to the ground, and I immediately pounced on it, landing on its back and holding it down as I activated Noxious Grasp. I felt the Spell’s new Fester Upgrade take effect. While normally only my skin gave off the poison mist while it was active, now I could see the dark smoke coming out of the monster’s skin where I touched it, causing everything to start sapping its Stamina at twice the normal rate.

It sluggishly swung its claws at me, obviously feeling the effects of the many stacking Curses, but I easily dodged. I got to my feet and grabbed it, picking it up off the ground with me. Then I slammed it back down, cracking its exoskeleton on a rock in the dirt.

You have struck Level 11 Anacap for 16 damage using Ground.

It hissed and struck out at me again, and this time I was caught a bit more off guard and forced to let go of the monster to dodge.

You have struck Level 11 Anacap for 125 damage and drained 125 Stamina over the course of 7.7 seconds using Noxious Grasp.

36.2 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 379.

The moment I dropped it, it got to its feet and scurried away, fighting through the Curses and heightened gravity to flee. I held out a hand and shot it with a Ray of Frost.

You have struck Level 11 Anacap for 49 damage using Ray of Frost.

You have cursed Level 11 Anacap with Ray of Frost. For the next 5 seconds, its Dexterity score is lowered by 6.38.

22.6 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 356.

It collapsed to the ground once again, trying its best to struggle back to its feet, but obviously lacking the power to do so. With such low Stamina reserves and such a weakened Dexterity, it could barely move at all. I walked up to it and grabbed it, but before I could even activate Noxious Grasp, the thing died on its own from Crippling Chill.

You have slain Level 11 Anacap.

You have earned 116 XP. Your XP is 325.

I breathed heavily, but not from exertion. My mind was still racing from a combination of the fight from now, the situation from earlier with the soldiers, and the stress from the deprivation from casting I was under. Part of me just wanted to switch back to Noxious Grasp, but it would just take some time and I’d get used to it. It was completely ridiculous that simply not casting Spells as often was affecting me so much, anyway, and I wanted to bust the habit.

But for now, I was stuck dealing with this.

“Are you okay?” Erani touched my arm. “What’s going on?”

“C’mon,” I said. “We need to find something else to kill.”