by Jamie Davis
“You’ve got only one musket left,” Cari said, pointing to the one on the ground next to him. He must’ve used that one to shoot the Duke. “How are you going to kill both of us? You’re no match for me in a duel with blades.”
Cari had to keep him talking. Stefan couldn’t be far behind her. Once he got here, they’d have the advantage. She just had to stall.
“Look, I get it,” she continued, “the Prince is a pain in the ass. But think about it. Whatever the Duke of Charon is paying you, Timron’s grandmother will match it and more. Consider that before you pull the trigger.”
“The Empress is not long for this world. She’s ill and won’t last out the year, according to the Duke. He seemed pretty certain of it. Killing the Prince is the final part of the plan to put the Duke on the Crystal Throne. With the last heir dead, killed on the estate of Charon’s biggest rival at court, there’ll be nothing and no one to stand in his way. Once there, he’ll have all the riches in the Empire at his disposal.”
“That bastard double-crossed me?” Prince Timron muttered.
Cari shot a startled glance at Timron. What a curious thing to say.
She didn’t think he knew she’d overheard him, and Quint was still the main threat. She had to focus on him first. She’d figure out what was happening with the Prince later.
Quint raised the musket again and took a few steps toward Timron. The Prince flinched back from the killer.
“Quint, don’t,” Cari called and moved forward herself. She knew she’d never make it in time. All she could do was try to distract the thug.
Spotting her out of the corner of his eye, Quint closed the gap with the Prince and jabbed him in the gut with the musket’s barrel.
Timron doubled over, and Quint met him with the rising gun butt.
The wooden stock smashed into the Prince’s face, sending him flying backward. His limp body fell into the pool at the base of the falls.
Just as quickly, Quint pivoted, brought the musket up to his shoulder, and snapped off a quick shot at Cari.
She only got a split second’s notice from her prescience skill to warn her the attack was coming. It was enough, though. Barely.
A cloud of gray smoke obscured Quint as he fired at her. She dove to the right, in a desperate attempt to dodge away from the point-blank shot. The bullet missed killing her by only a few inches.
Red-hot pain lanced through her left shoulder. The bullet struck the bone, shattering the socket and exiting in a spray of blood out the back.
Critical hit sustained.
Health damage: Health -22
The sword flew from her suddenly numb left hand, clattering on the rocky ground a few feet away from her.
Despite the pain racking her body, Cari scrabbled on the ground with her good arm, trying to reach her sword.
A booted foot kicked her in the side, breaking more ribs and flipping her onto her back.
Health damage: Health -6
Assuming a follow-up attack was imminent, Cari used the momentum of the kick to propel herself over twice and rolled away just in time.
The smashing buttstock of the musket thudded into the earth an inch away from her head as she flipped over.
Quint followed her rolling form across the ground towards the pool, raising the musket for another attempt at a killing blow.
Cari knew she had only one chance as she neared the edge of a small, rocky outcrop over the water.
Digging the toe of her boot into the ground as she rolled one last time, she pushed with all her might and propelled herself forward rather than to the side.
This time, the butt of the musket delivered a glancing blow to her hip as she shot forward and somersaulted into the water.
Health damage: Health -8
Another warning popped up this time as she plunged into the icy water that had likely come from the mountain snowmelt in the north. It showed her health bar, a flashing red mark indicating she was just below half her available health.
She reached upward with her right hand while she kicked with her feet. Her injured left arm dangled useless beside her as she struggled to make it back to the surface.
Cari surfaced at last, gasping for air, bumping into something as she did. It was the Prince. Timron floated facedown beside her.
Kicking with all her might while she grabbed at him with her one good arm, Cari managed to flip the Prince over onto his back so his face was out of the water. The instant she did, she was rewarded with a spluttering cough from him as he gasped for a rattling breath. He remained unconscious otherwise.
Quint was nowhere to be seen on shore, so Cari grasped the semiconscious Timron by the hair and dragged him through the water behind her while she kicked for the bank of the pool. It was hard work when fully clothed on a good day. Injured and with only one arm, it was nearly impossible. Somehow, though, she made it to the water’s edge out of sheer stubbornness.
Cari pushed the Prince up on shore and rose to her feet. Clutching him by the collar, she towed him farther up onto the bank so he wouldn’t slip back into the water. She turned him on his side to help drain the water from his mouth and lungs in case any had gotten in there. She didn’t want him choking on anything he coughed up before he awakened.
Standing upright after tending to the Prince, she scanned the trees for Quint. A flash of movement caught her attention out of the corner of her eye then disappeared. She stared through the trees and got another glimpse of the assassin. He darted through the trees, not too far away.
She bent down and scooped up her rapier in her right hand. It felt strange to hold the longer blade in this hand rather than her dagger, but she had no choice. She had to chase after Quint. If he got the chance to reload, he could return and kill both her and the Prince. Worse, still, if he managed to escape, he’d be able to set up another attempt in the future when they weren’t expecting it.
As she headed into the tree line, Cari listened for any sign of Stefan and the others coming. Where were they? Hopefully, they’d arrive and find the bedraggled Prince and the wounded Duke and tend to them both.
With no sign of Stefan, it was obvious no one was coming to help her with what she had to do. Cari had to finish this, now, before Quint regained his nerve and returned.
Gritting her teeth against the pain in her left shoulder and the grinding of the broken ribs on the right, Cari half-jogged, half-stumbled into the forest after her quarry.
She started off blind for the first hundred yards into the woods. She couldn’t see him anymore and tried to approximate the bearing Quint had taken when she last saw him running away.
Cari stopped, trying to gasp past the fire in her chest with each breath while she listened for any sound that might indicate Quint’s position.
She checked her health status again.
Health: 44/90
Cari winced. She was hurt worse than she thought. If Quint got in one or two good hits, she’d be finished. She wondered what would happen to her if she died here? Would she just wake up at home, or was death here in Fantasma as permanent as back on Earth?
She continued her search while she pondered the question of life and death in this world.
The crack of a breaking branch behind her was the only warning she got.
Despite the pain, Cari activated her acrobatic dodge skill and dropped and rolled to the side in what had to be the ugliest somersault of all time.
It worked, though.
The blade whistled through the air, cleaving the space her head had just occupied.
Cari rolled through the dodge and struggled back to her feet, holding her sword in front of her.
“You are one lucky girl, I’ll give you that, but you’re already dead. You just don’t know it yet.”
“You have no idea, Quint. You are right on one point. I am luckier than you. If you run now, I might just be too tired to chase after you.”
“If I run now, I won’t get paid. I have to kill you so I can get away clean. You already
know too much.”
“You fool, the Prince is alive. I saved him. You’ve failed all the way around in this thing.”
“Well, after I kill you, girlie, I’ll have to go back and finish His Highness off.”
“Killing me isn’t going to be easy.” Cari decided to try taunting him. Hopefully, she could force the man to lose his temper. “You must be the dumb brother. I guess I killed the smart one back in the capital.”
Quint laughed. “What are you trying to do? Make me mad? I’m already pissed at you, but I’m looking forward to savoring this moment too much to let you goad me into something foolish. Look at you. You can barely stand. You’re down to one hand and I know you’re left-handed. That’s not even your good arm.”
“People have underestimated me before,” Cari sneered. “They’re all dead. Why don’t you come over here so you can join them?”
“Gladly, girlie.”
Quint darted at her in a feint to the right and then jumped to her injured left side with a slashing overhand cut. His heavier blade came down, and it was all Cari could do, even with her quicker sword, to bring it around and push aside the blow so it missed her.
It was an awkward parry, but she managed the task.
Taking advantage of his overbalanced strike, Cari whipped her sword back across his chest, cutting open a large flap of skin. Blood flowed, staining his dirty brown huntsman’s jerkin with a spreading wetness across the embroidered Duke’s crest.
Quint stumbled backward, cursing at her. He brought his sword up, ready for any more attacks she might launch.
Cari knew she had to keep the initiative and tried a stomping lunge, using the movement of her foot and leg to try distracting Quint from her actual attack. It was far clumsier using her right hand than her left, and he easily batted the blade aside.
She then utilized the momentum his parry had imparted to her sword’s tip to swing it in a narrow arc orbiting Quint’s sword arm so she ended with her point inside his guard. Extending a little more rewarded her with an inch or so of her blade sinking into his leading thigh.
Quint shouted in pain and swung at her with his free hand.
Cari was a little slow pulling back. Her ribs protested the motion enough that it allowed Quint to bring his hand around, smashing his fist into the side of her face.
The strike twisted her head to the side, and her vision doubled. She heard a clamor of ringing in her ears.
Health damage: Health -8
Cari stumbled backwards, trying to evade Quint’s reach while she shook off the effects of the jarring blow. The punch had split the skin over her left eye, and blood dripped down her face on that side, partially blinding her.
It was hard to wipe at her eye while holding on to her sword. She managed a swipe with the back of her hand and cleared some of the blood.
Cari knew she had to land some consecutive shots to power up her burst of speed. It was her only chance.
With her off-hand wielding the sword, she couldn’t put the right combinations together to beat Quint in a straight-up duel.
She was losing this fight.
Cari blinked again to try clearing blood from her eye and dodged backward just in time to avoid Quint’s next swipe at her head with his saber.
He pivoted and continued the swing all the way around, bringing the sword in again at waist level this time.
Half-blind the way she was, Cari barely caught the direction of his attack in time and swung a desperate parry towards his blade a split second too late.
Quint’s blade bit deep into her hip, buckling her left leg.
Health damage: Health -12
Cari cried out in pain as she toppled to the ground. She dragged herself backward until she neared a downed tree trunk.
After levering herself back to her feet, Cari held the sword in front of her and tried to force Quint to stay back with wild, unpredictable swings. It was all she could do to stay on her feet.
Quint laughed at her. “Girlie, you’re about finished. Give up and I’ll make it quick. You won’t feel a thing and it’ll be over.”
“Never,” Cari growled. “If you want to kill me, come over here and earn it. You might be used to other women giving in to your bullying. I won’t be one of them.”
Taunt engaged.
Quint snarled, his face turning red. He charged toward her, his sword held aloft over his head for a two-handed downward blow.
Surprised her taunts worked where his brother’s death hadn’t, Cari brought up her blade in one of the first moves she’d ever learned in her HEMA fencing classes, a simple disarming twist with her rapier.
She’d never tried it with her right hand before. Hopefully, it worked the same. She could use a break in her favor.
Cari caught the descending blade high up near the hilt of her sword. She slid her blade down his while she twisted her wrist in an intricate motion that moved her blade around his and used her greater leverage in this position against him.
Quint called out in surprise when his sword spun away from the battle to land in the brush a few feet away.
He didn’t give up, though. Instead, he brought his other arm down, hammering at her wrist just above the pommel of her sword.
He struck downward, once, twice, and again. The third hit broke her grip on the sword, and it fell to the ground.
Health damage: Health -6
Cari worked her hand open and closed to dispel the tingling numbness caused by the heavy blows from Quint’s fist .
She tried to twist and back away from him, but he reached out and gripped her shirt, pulling her close and punching his other hand down twice into the open wound on her hip.
“Unngh,” Cari gasped.
Health damage: Health -5
Health damage: Health -4
A red warning flashed in her vision.
Health: 9/90
She was down to only nine health points. Cari knew she couldn’t hold out much longer. There was one desperate ploy to try. It shouldn’t work, but what else could she do?
She refused to surrender. But, Quint didn’t know that.
“Stop,” Cari gasped, backing away from him. “I’m done. No more. Please.” She sank to her knees, looking up at Quint as he limped towards her.
“I told you there was no way you could win, girlie. Maybe I’ll gut you and leave you here to die slowly while the forest animals feed on your entrails.”
“You promised me a quick death,” Cari croaked, staring upward, holding his gaze locked with hers.
He shrugged. “I lied.”
Quint drew back his sword, preparing a thrust to run her through.
Cari waited until she caught the forward motion of his blade out of the corner of her eye.
This was her last chance.
Cari lifted up her hand, revealing the dagger she’d held hidden with the flat of the blade against her forearm until this moment.
She flicked her wrist, timing the parry with perfect precision even using her off-hand.
Skill learned — Ambidexterity.
Quint’s blade swung wide as her dagger batted it aside, missing her torso by a hair’s breadth.
In a continuation of the same motion, Cari drove her dagger upward, lunged forward with all her remaining strength, and dug her heels into the dirt of the forest floor to gain leverage.
Quint’s own forward motion did the rest of the work for her, though.
The point of her dagger took him in the chest. She felt the scraping of the edge sliding between the ribs before sinking home to the hilt.
A sighing groan escaped Quint’s lips as he fell forward atop her. With his life draining away, he pinned her to the ground.
Trapped by his body’s weight, Cari stared up into his face, unable to look away.
Quint’s lips moved, as if he was trying to say something, but no sound emerged.
The light dimmed in his eyes, and his head sagged forward to rest against her shoulder. She felt the faint warmth of his last breath o
n her neck as he went limp.
4,500 experience points awarded.
Quest completed: Stop the assassin.
6,000 experience points awarded.
The emotion of the fight for her life swept over her, and tears welled in her eyes.
She’d done it.
She’d survived.
Chapter 35
Cari gathered what little strength she had remaining in her one good arm and pushed at the bulk atop her again.
It was no use. Between her injured arm and her near-total exhaustion, she couldn’t budge Quint’s body from where it lay pressing down on her.
She was going to die here, bleeding out while trapped beneath this disgusting, smelly pig of a man. Cari closed her eyes. Exhaustion overcame her and she drifted into unconsciousness.
Cari didn’t know how long she’d been out when she opened her eyes again. Quint still pinned her against the ground, where she lay helpless to move or save herself.
All she could do was stare upward, past the dead man’s head.
A puffy, white wisp of a cloud drifted through the narrow gap of blue in the green leaves of the trees above her. It looked a little like an upside-down turtle to her, rocking on his back to try and turn over.
“How appropriate, you’re trapped just like me,” Cari said as the cloud drifted by.
“Who is?” Timron asked.
Cari craned her neck, twisting to locate the Prince. She couldn’t see him. What an annoying man. “Where are you?”
“Here.” The Prince’s face popped into view, staring down at her with a smile. “Do you need help?”
“What do you think?” Cari snapped.
“You have to ask. Nicely.” Timron donned a sickly-sweet smile and waited for her response.
“You’d leave me here, just to prove a point. Wouldn’t you?”