Kaius stood up, his knife sliding free from the dead guard’s skull with a wet squelch.
The sound cut deeper than any blade, revulsion crawling up his spine as competing thoughts bounced around the inside of his mind.
They had to do it—even if they’d bound the man, taken the time to back track to the cells and lock him up properly, there was no telling what skills the man might have had—nor what the simple delay could mean for their escape. Keeping him alive was a risk they couldn’t afford. A mercy that could have killed them faster than any spell or arrow.
And yet, never in his darkest days, nor in the highest heights of his fury, would he have ever thought he would have been capable of killing an unarmed—defenceless—man who was begging for his life.
Ever.
He hadn’t been a boggart. Wasn’t some monster out of a children's tale, who slavered after brutality and blood. It was a man. Who had begged. Begged with tears in his eyes.
And yet, why did he feel so little?
That was what truly sickened him.
He should have been shaking. Wailing at the world for forcing him to such acts. Instead he felt nauseous and cold—disgusted at his own lack of mind for the cost to his humanity.
A hand clapped him on his shoulder, giving him a firm squeeze he wasn’t sure he deserved.
“It had to be done,” Ianmus whispered. “No matter how black of a deed it might be.”
The mage’s words rolled over him like wind against iron. Even if he had withstood the torturer’s blade, it felt like a part of him died in that operating room—one that cared far more about things like honour, mercy, and righteousness. In its place was only a rousing fury, and a growing disappointment at the rising cost in human life.
“I know. It’s why I did it,” he said slowly, feeling Ianmus give him one last pat on his back before he stepped away.
Tearing his eyes away from the magnetic sight beneath him, Kaius turned and offered Kenva his hand. She clasped it firmly, rising to her feet with her jaw set tight—determination shining bright in her eyes.
Porkchop, at least, said nothing. With their bond, his brother would feel that he wanted to move. To set this day behind him in history—consume himself in the advancement of their escape, to return to the memory later.
When he could better process.
Instead, there was just the low and constant warmth of their bond—an insistence that no matter what, he had made the right choice.
Kaius took a deep breath, emptying his mind. He had no time for rumination. Letting his thoughts consume him would distract him—worsen their chances of success.
Looking back down, his eyes slowed as he took in the corpse’s undamaged chain tunic, and the sheathed shortsword that had fallen to the ground after he had shattered the bunk.
“Help me strip the bodies.”
…
Halls passed by in a haze as they left the site of their ambush behind. New chainmail armour, only slightly bloodstained, lay heavier on Kaius’s shoulders than its physical weight could ever explain.
Oversized as it was, it still fit him well enough—though it didn’t reach anywhere near to his knees like it was supposed to, and the belt he’d used to cinch it to his waist was more than a little uncomfortably tight.
At least he had a proper weapon. That was one small comfort.
He’d taken one shortsword, Kenva the other. They were both shit—middling steel with the barest of durability and honing enchantments to make it serviceable, but he hoped that with a standard issue kit he’d be able to sell his disguise for a few extra moments.
Other than their grizzly ambush and execution, there was little else in the way of trouble that they ran into as they cautiously hurried through the lowest level of the compound.
Once or twice they had heard concerned yelling, and occasionally the patter of running feet from adjacent and adjoining halls, but those guards had moved on quickly.
More interested in rushing to join the ongoing battle above than to investigate. Not that they were stupid enough to give them a reason to do so. Other than that, the floor was totally empty.
As they walked, Kaius peered through the open doorways that lined the walls. After so long of being hauled past their closed frames, it was nice to finally get to look into them to his heart's content. Even if the hanging weight of ever-burning time meant he never spent more than a cursory glance.
Most of the rooms seemed mundane in their function, though more than once they passed by something more interesting. Large sparring halls, with walls adorned with wooden weapons. A large kitchen, with enough equipment to cook for dozens of men—still spotless from the night before.
That one was a pleasant find—letting them scavenge some more food and water to keep their strength up. A few half eaten meals wasn’t enough to fully remove the remnants of their malnourishment, no matter the fortitude their enhanced stats gave them to such mortal maladies.
They didn’t linger. Curiosity wasn’t enough to drown out the hanging knife of urgency that he could feel on his neck, nor the anger that he was struggling to manage.
Thank the gods for his Glass Mind. It was active constantly—always feeding him knowledge of their best course forward. Plotting his way to freedom and victory.
The closer they got to the stairs the more the sounds of battle from above grew audible—still nothing but blunted rumbles and the faint roar of yells melding together.
His senses might have been heightened to over a dozen times his natural baseline by his mental stats and Brotherhood of Ichor and Animus, but the fight above had to be truly calamitous if it was loud enough to reach so deep into the earth. It would have to be a pitched battle for the noise to reach so deep.
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Still, the growing noise heightened his anticipation. If they were drawing closer to the stairs, they were getting closer to their target.
“The vault is growing close—and it will almost certainly still be guarded.” Kaius said softly, before he poked his head around their next corner to make sure the coast was clear.
“Even now? With the fighting so fierce?” Porkchop replied.
Kaius nodded. “I’ve never seen it with less than two guards. Sometimes it was as much as six. If it truly does contain storage artefacts, there is no way that it would ever be left undefended.”
“What’s our plan, then?” Ianmus asked. “Since I assume you’ll want me to be preparing my spell to break the formation while we attack them.
“Our approach will be hidden from them until the final bend, but the last eighty strides will be a straight shot down an open hallway with nowhere to hide.” he replied, picturing the right angled hall with the vault’s door in the corner. The stairs up would be only a couple more bends past it, giving them an easy path onwards.
“So what, we’re just going to charge them like some sort of startled dosteon?” Kenva said, referencing some steppe animal he’d never heard of. Sёarch* The Nôvel(F)ire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
“No,” Kaius shook his head. “I’ll approach alone—I’ll have plenty of reason to be running, and with this red light they won’t be able to see my face easily. I’m confident I can handle them, and I doubt they’ll be able to tell how tall I am until I’m too close for it to matter.”
Ianmus and Porkchop nodded, accepting his plan without question, but Kenva just looked at him with her lips pursed and her brow arched.
“Are you sure? It’s a bit of an unnecessary risk, isn’t it?”
“I’m sure, just trust me.” he replied—she’d see, he didn’t blame her for not fully grasping his strength yet. It was a bit ridiculous.
They ran on, drawing ever closer.
….
Kaius pressed his back deep into the cold stone wall, feeling the heat leach from his back. The vault was just around the corner, and, just like he had expected, it was still guarded.
Three voices drifted to his ears. A better number than he had hoped for.
“What do you think is even going on up there with those monsters?” the first guard said in a soft timbre. “You heard Ulma, they’re acting unnatural. What if it’s beast-masters? Some prelude to soften us up before the guild or the guard attacks? Someone mentioned that those sods we’ve got locked up down here were the guildmaster’s darlings.”
A second guard let out a low grumble. “I don’t know, how would they have found us? We’re in the middle of nowhere, and there hasn’t been any shift changes since everything went to hell in the city. Unless they have some bloody Gold seer, I can’t see how that would happen—and if they do, we’re all fucked anyway.”
“What else could it be? It was the bloody all-hands call!” the first guard hissed.
A third voice sighed. “Could the two of you just shut up and enjoy the fact it's not us up there bleeding? We’ll be fine—Old Yon don’t let people in here unless they’re at least level sixty, and all the real muscle are a fair bit stronger, you know that.”
Kaius paused at their words—there was something happening in Deadacre? What could have possibly happened while they were gone. Could it be related to them? He doubted that Ro or Rieker had taken their kidnapping well.
The thought of those two tearing their way through the criminal underbelly of the city warmed his heart. Hells, even if they hadn’t done quite enough to find them, it was entirely possible that they’d stopped stronger jailors from arriving to guard them.
In the end, it didn't really matter, they would find out soon enough. They were committed now, it was time to make his move.
“I’m going,” Kaius told his brother silently through their bond, giving him a nod.
“Be safe!” Porkchop insisted.
He smiled. “I’ll yell if I need help.”
Pushing off the stone wall, Kaius took a slow breath as he started to bounce up and down on his feet, raising his heart rate as he walked past his team back the way he had come.
He needed enough distance that he could get to speed, without the guards wondering why the sounds of his movement had started so close to them.
Reaching the next bend, he turned back.
And ran.
Letting his jaw grow slack and his breath uneven, he stumbled and slid across the ground like he was in a barely controlled rush—pulling back on the strength of his footfalls to slow to a believable pace.
He gave his team a final nod as he passed, and peeled around the corner.
At the end of the hall was the door he was aiming for. Scraping the ceiling at twelve strides tall, it was a massive slab of oak that had been bound in a cross hatch of steel plates. Every inch of it was covered in finger-width runes, weaving their way in complex loops and circles across the door and its stone frame.
Three guards lounged in front of it, leaning up against the walls. He knew they would be stronger than the common rabble; it was plain in the quality of their gear. No simple chain and short blades for these ones—only hardened splint-mail and gleaming inscriptions on their well crafted weapons.
He made sure to angle his approach slightly away for them—like he was running for the next corner, instead of straight for them.
Two of them jumped as they caught sight of his approach, hands reaching to their waists.
Then they relaxed, seemingly assured that someone dressed in their own standard issue black was on their side. Kaius felt the fire in his chest surge at the realisation. He’d make sure they wouldn’t regret that mistake for too long.
“Woah there, looks like we have a straggler.” the closest guard heckled with a grin. “Better hurry and get on top before they have your hide!”
Kaius shot the guard an embarrassed smile, but kept running. Inwardly, he fizzed with glee. His disguise had worked!
It lasted for a few more steps—the furthest guard narrowing his eyes to peer at him closer as his hand drifted to his sword.
“Do you recognise him?” the guard muttered, Kaius’s senses sharp enough to pick up the soft words. “And where the hell are his boots?”
That was his queue.
Even suspicious as they were, the guards were seemingly unwilling to make a move without aggressive actions on his part.
He could solve that, even if he would have liked to have gotten a bit closer, but such was life.
Taking a final step, Kaius snapped his hand up as a shower of orange sparks burned free of the glyph on the back of his palm.
A trio of Hateful Nails streaked across the air—vibrating with such intensity they blurred even to his sharpened vision.
The guard who’d questioned his identity was already moving—throwing himself to the side as soon as Kaius had so much as flinched. The spell meant for his head shattered the stone wall behind him, drilling deep before it spiralled outwards and sent a shower of stone chips to the ground.
His companions weren’t so lucky. Spikes of iron punched through their faces with a spray of red—an expanding metallic bramble rupturing their skulls from the inside. Wet particulates splattered the walls as they collapsed.
**Ding! level 103 Human - Heavy-handed Enforcer slain - Experience Gained! Reduced Experience for slaying a foe of Insignificant Strength!**
…
**Ding! level 110 Human - Quickblade slain - Experience Gained!**
The final guard scrambled to his feet, a bastard sword already in hand.
Kaius ripped his blade free of the sheath at his hip and kicked off the wall to his left, hurtling straight for him.
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