by V. A. Lewis
I stepped over the dead bodies of a few Goblins, and paused for a moment.
They were all dead. The Dark Crusaders were dead, and so were the members of the Elise. I stared down at the corpses of the Goblins hesitatingly. I thought I would have seen the face of Karna or Ihsan overlaid on top of them, but I did not.
And I felt the same thing about the Dog Beastkin. I did not one think of Shang or the other Beastkin slaves when I fought him. They were just… people.
People who were trying to kill me, just as I was trying to kill them. It was a terrible situation I found myself in, but I could not just allow them to do what they were doing. Or perhaps I could.
However, would I want to live knowing I allowed such atrocities to happen when I could prevent it? And it was not like I had nothing to gain from doing this— I was getting myself a free boat ride straight to the Taw Kingdom. I was in no rush, and I saved my money this way. It was for the best… if I thought lives were worth less than gold.
Shaking my head, I stepped away from the bodies. My biggest concern right now should not be the morality of my actions, but it should be whether or not the Dark Crusaders would somehow know that I did this. I knew not of one, but there probably was a spell that could link this all back to me. And if they did...
I felt my lips drawing into a thin line. Suffice to say, they probably want me as dead as the Church does now.
I glanced around the room, letting those feelings of dread sink to the back of my mind. I searched around behind broken crates and barrels for a minute, before I found what I was looking for.
"Guys," I called out once they had finished their discussion. "There’s a trapdoor here."
They came quickly towards me, with Braz carrying the dead Vinnie around his shoulders. "This the entrance to their enuim production lab?" he asked.
"I don’t know. Maybe?" I shrugged.
"Only one way to find out," Kai said, pulling the door open.
He was the first one to enter, followed by myself and the others. We walked down a short stairway, before finding ourselves in a large room
It was a laboratory; there were beakers, vials, test tubes— all full of liquid— spread throughout the room. It was even more massive and colorful than the Alchemist shop I broke into back in the Free Lands. I had never seen anything like it in my life.
Kai ignored all the vibrant substances, and approached a stack of wooden crates in the corner of the room. He used his rifle to open the lip, revealing hundreds of gray packets tied together by a stringle. He untied it, and spoke to us.
"This is it."
"So, this is the enuim," I said, looking down at the blue-white power. It was not like the small dust-like particles that I had expected it to be when I first learned it was a powdered drug. They were large clumps of powder, that didn’t break into smaller parts even when I poked at it. "How do people even use these things?" I asked curiously. "Do you eat them or something?"
"You don’t consume them in this state," Kai explained. "You mix it with a liquid— any liquid, but preferably water— and you boil it. Then you inhale it."
"And it was prescribed as a medicine for the Noxeus?"
"Yes," he said, turning away from the drugs in disgust. "They told them it would cure the body from the inside, starting from the lungs. And people believed it because it muted your pain receptors— it’d make you think you were feeling better. I don’t understand why anyone would bring it over to this continent, let alone our country. It’s just so…"
"Terrible?" I suggested.
He snorted. "That’s one word for it.
Shrugging, I looked back at the boxes of enuim, lining the sides of the room. "Well, that’s not going to be a problem anymore since"— I pointed a finger, and a sphere of flames slowly came into existence— "we’re destroying it all."
And the Fireball exploded.
It took us almost two hours before we returned to the docks. Lisa was there waiting for us, and ran to us.
"What happened? Did you guys manage to do it?" she asked, showing genuine worry in her voice as she inspected Jack. "You’re hurt! You were—"
"I’m fine," he said, then gestured behind him. "And we succeeded. Just look."
The young woman raised an eyebrow. "I don’t see anything." She narrowed her eyes, looking in the direction we came from.
I piped up from the side. "That’s because it’s dark and cloudy. You can’t see the smoke billowing up in the distance."
"But shouldn’t there at least be a fire?" She gave me a confused look.
"No," I said, shaking my head. "We only destroyed the enuim. Nothing else. We want to leave the Elise a message."
"And the message is clear," Kai added, stepping onto the boat. "They’re not getting any more allies, and they aren't going to be ruining peoples’ lives anymore."
"What does that mean?" Lisa asked, frowning.
"It means exactly that— we’ll be doing a lot more of these raids in the next few weeks."
Chapter 32: Thoughts and Actions
For the next few weeks, I continued to aid Ginah’s Crew in carrying out systematic strikes against the Elise; we specifically targeted only their enuim depots. Or at least, I only took part in those attacks.
I was pretty sure Ginah’s Crew did other such strikes against them, but I took no part in those. I was concerned with one thing and one thing only— as per my deal with them.
Unlike our initial strike however, we did not carry out similar scorched earth tactics where we left no one alive; that would simply be cruel. That was done to sever the potential for alliance between the Dark Crusaders and the Elise before anything substantive came from it. And so far, it appeared to have worked.
Our attacks now were short, and much less bloody. Without any spellcasters to combat, I did not have to use my magic either. We often let those who wanted to flee, flee. And we even spared most of those who stayed to fight.
"You—"
The thug swung his axe at me, and I barely ducked under the swing. I brought my dagger low, slicing at his feet as I pivoted to his back. He jerked, but even that did not elicit a scream. He turned back to face me, his face burning red, and the veins in his pupil bulging… blue?
That was right. It was one of the side effects of the enuim; that was how you knew someone was taking them. Another indication that someone was high on the drug was their incredible pain tolerance. Which was why he was still standing even after I had cut his legs open.
"Listen," I said, trying to project my voice as assertively as possible. "Put down your weapon—"
"Give it back!" he screamed, charging at me once more.
I rolled out of the way of his attack. I was exasperated; the enuim supposedly also put you in a state of mind where you were more likely to agree with others. So why wasn’t it working?
He whirled around, bringing his axe down wildly at me. I stepped into his attack, slashing at his arms. He could not feel pain, but his body— his muscles— were unchanged.
The thug dropped his axe as I went to knee him down below. He barely even registered the hit, and grabbed for me with his remaining good arm. I pushed at him— trying to get him off me. And I managed to do that, just in time for Braz to reach him.
"I got you!" The pirate grabbed the thug by the neck, and pinned him to the ground, choking him out. Sighing, I watched as the thug finally passed out after squirming on the ground for a good five minutes.
I cleaned my dagger of the blood on it, before sheathing at my waist. "Thanks Braz," I said, nodding gratefully at him as he shot me a thumbs up. "I was worried I’d have no choice but to kill him for a moment."
"Well, we wouldn’t want that would we? Good thing I was here to save the day!"
I rolled my eyes, but he just chuckled. He picked up the unconscious thug, and began bringing him out of the room. I headed for another already-open door, and paused just outside of it to assess the situation inside. It was empty, save for Kai with his face mask.
&
nbsp; "Where are the others?" I asked, stepping in. "And where’s all the fighting?"
"Taken care of," he said, glancing at me briefly. "I sent Elda to escort them out, as well as drag their unconscious friends away."
"And you only sent Braz to help me?"
"No." He shook his head. "He went to help you of his own volition."
I frowned. So he still doesn’t trust me, huh? Not that it mattered to me— beyond possibly endangering my life. It was something I probably had to bring up to Ginah later, but for now, I focused on the task at hand.
"And this is the last of the enuim in this area?"
"That we know of." He stopped pouring the oil over the crates of drugs. It wasn’t just the enuim, but a mixture of it— or at least, that was what I saw earlier. Now, it was just the enuim.
"You know," I said, deciding not to comment on that. "I was told the enuim made you listen to others. Think less clearly, and more like a child following their parents’ words."
He took out a lighter, producing a small flame. "That is correct."
"So why did that thug keep coming at me even when I kept telling him to stop and leave with his life?" I folded my arms.
Without warning, Kai casually tossed the lighter into the oil, and fire plumed out. Then it started burning the wooden crates and barrels, quickly spreading across the room. He started walking off, as I followed behind him.
"As a member of the Elise, he probably had been warned there might be an attack in this area. He would not want you to take away his free supply of it, and the enuim is addictive. It makes you want more of it. Whereas it simply makes you more open to suggestions by others. So your suggestions lost out to his wants— or what he views as needs."
The fire continued to spread at our backs, slowly engulfing the rest of the room. The walls, however, were made of stone and concrete. It was not nearly a large enough fire to destroy the entire factory, or even a section of it.
We were an hour outside of Luke. The amount of time it would have taken any city guards or reinforcements from the Elise was far too long. And it was not like we were trying to burn the entire building down.
It was in hopes that the Elise would have the factory resume its daily business to maintain an air of normalcy, so the workers would not be out of jobs. After all, an entire factory shutting down after a minor arson in only three of their rooms would arouse suspicion. Sure, they had the underground of the city mostly under their control, but this was the Capital city of Laxis. Even if the King fled years ago, law enforcement officials still existed. They were not fully corrupt just yet.
We returned to the cove a few hours later; there were very few complications besides treating the people we injured too grievously. We did not bring back any captives— Ginah’s Crew could barely sustain itself, let alone dozens of additional prisoners. Plus, they did not want to torture anyone for information.
It was… odd.
I would have expected them to do that, but they didn’t do it out of their own choice and not any objections I raised. In fact, I was not too sure whether I’d have raised any objections in the first place. I would be vehemently opposed any form of unnecessary torture, but if it was absolutely necessary, I began to feel more uncertain.
Perhaps I’d have opposed it, or perhaps I would not.
Luckily for me, it was not a bridge I had to cross since these were noble pirates. It was relieving knowing that I wasn’t working with evil people. Morally ambiguous? Sure. But I had been thorough, and I was certain none of the pirates were secretly evil like Victor was.
Key word being ‘pirates’, I thought, as I caught a glimpse of Lisa in the crowd.
Jack had not come with us, and instead accompanied his partner who had also just returned from a separate mission; we had come back after midnight, so there were very few people around.
The duo had not been exactly acting suspicious, and they were in fact helping out where they could. Lisa was always in charge of the intel and the logistics of the two, so she would gather information in the city to help us plan our attacks like she did today while we were out. In fact, our recent attack at the textile factory was based on Lisa’s help.
I was not sure how I felt about that fact since I wasn’t able to follow her on many of those information gathering trips; I could not tell if she was scheming against us, or actually aiding us. But still, if she wanted to betray us to the Elise, she could’ve done it many times by laying a trap— like when Ginah, myself, Kai, and Braz all coordinated a hit on one of the Elise’s smuggling ships for the enuim. Yet she did not.
Actions spoke louder than words: Lisa was a liar, but so far she did not seem to be a traitor. And why should she betray Ginah’s Crew or Jack? Ginah’s Crew had been one of her allies for years, while Jack was her partner from the very beginning— and that was not mentioning her own personal relationship with him.
However, all those were reasons for Jack or Ginah to trust her. I had no reason to trust Lisa. And that was why I still held my reservations about her.
I ignored her for now though, and turned my attention to the Dwarf and the young man approaching me.
"Yer back, lass," Gennady said, holding up a mug of beer. He burped loudly, before wiping the foam off his beard. "Glad to see ya fine." He tried to reach in for a hug, but I pushed him back.
"You smell." I pressed my mask against my face to ease the stench, and spoke in a muffled voice. "How much have you been drinking?"
"Far too much," Sevin piped up from beside him. "I’ve been trying to get Master Gennady to stop, but he doesn’t listen."
"Oh come on, this ain’t half as much as what I can drink." The Dwarf smacked me across the back. He took a large gulp from the mug, before lowering it and grinning. "And we're celebrating! Sevin has just made his first original mana tool! He’s been working on it for weeks now, y’know? So come on, drink!"
He tried offering it to Sevin who politely declined, before turning to me and stopping himself as I indicated at my mask.
"Fine, if no one wants it, more for me!"
Gennady downed the last of his beer, as I looked over at Sevin.
"You’re finished with your pistol?" I asked, cocking my head.
He nodded excitedly. "Yes— although it’s not just a pistol. I designed it so you can fire two kinds of bolts. The first is nonlethal. It’s supposed to stun you. The second fires mana bullets. It’s slightly stronger than regular ones, but nothing too impressive. It probably pierces as well as or slightly better than a crossbow bolt."
"That’s… amazing!" I said, staring at the young man.
I felt rather embarrassed about not having produced anything notable just yet. Sure, Sevin had been tinkering for far longer than me, but I should have been able to make more than just a simple lighter— which was my greatest creation so far.
And yet, I still felt a flush of pride for his achievement. Because it was an achievement. He had made something he could call his own, and that was something to be praised.
Sevin eagerly reached for his belt. "It really is! Although some people"— he glanced over at the drunk Gennady— "think it’s mediocre."
"And that’s because it is," the Dwarf said simply. I glared at him as Sevin sighed, but he just shrugged. "Listen lad, I think it’s good that you’ve made your own mana tool, but it’s nothing groundbreaking. Maybe if you designed it so you can just flip a switch to alternate between lethal and nonlethal, I’d say it’s good. But the fact that you have to manually change mana crystals to do that makes it too inefficient for me to say it’s anything beyond ‘alright’."
"Manually switch mana crystals?" I looked between the two in confusion.
Sevin shuffled his feet uncomfortably. "You have to, uh, swap out mana crystals to use the different types of bolts." He held up the pistol, and gestured at the small recess where the mana crystal was supposed to go. "If you put an Inferior mana crystal here, the pistol will shoot out stunning bolts. But if you put a Lesser mana crystal in there
, it will fire a regular bolt."
"Wait, you can do that?" I frowned.
"‘Course," Gennady snorted. "Why wouldn’t you be able to do that? A Lesser mana crystal would be able to provide more mana for the bolt, making it more deadly since that’s how this gun in specific is designed."
"And that works too if you put a Superior mana crystal in it?"
"I wouldn’t do that, but you can. It’d be a waste of a Superior mana crystal. As far as this pistol goes, the power of the bolts increase at a decreasing rate. It’d be more deadly, sure, but it wouldn’t be worth it."
Sevin scratched the back of his head as he added, "Yeah, it isn’t too… good. But it’s something I made, at least." I pursed my lips as I noticed his face fall a little bit.
I reached for the pistol, and he let me take it. I inspected it for a moment, before turning back to him. "I think it’s great," I said. "And ignore Gennady, he’s drunk so he’s being more insensitive than usual."
"Huh? I’m not drunk!" the Dwarf sputtered, but I ignored him.
"So I can just use any Lesser or Inferior mana crystal, and it works?"
"No," Sevin said. He fumbled for his belt pouched, holding out a handful of shards of mana crystals. "You have to use these ones. If they run out, I’ll have to make more. But it only works because the runes on the mana crystals connect with the runs in the hole here, see?"
I carefully listened to the young man as he explained. When he was finished, I looked back up to him and nodded.
"Alright. I’ll buy this from you?"
"You— what?"
He stared at me in shock, but I just reassured him.
"Look, I was thinking about this earlier today. I need a way to fight in a way that doesn’t kill someone. And this gun’s stun bolts are perfect for me."
"No— but…" he protested. I simply waved a hand nonchalantly.
"Whatever price you name, I’ll pay for it. And I’ll pay for the mana crystals as well."