Clashing with them was bad news panda no matter how I saw it. Whether now or later. But now, I had to think of a way to save those two. While I had no idea what level of savagery they were comfortable with, I wasn’t in the mood to find out anytime soon.
“Please, let us go!” Maxi said behind her short sweaty amber hair. She gazed over to her husband, who was knocked out with a black eye and a bloody nose, still passed out behind her. “I swear… we don’t know what you’re talking about. Just let us be. Take what you want and let us go!”
“Oh, we intend on taking everything you got!” the bratty girl huffed as she pinned her hands to her sides and mocked the woman with her swinging hips. “About letting you go, however, that all depends on how cooperative ya are.”
The brawny woman started to make a mess, flipping tables and tossing couches in search of the codex. The poor woman winced, sobbing under her breath, begging the two for mercy. Furniture crashed against the wooden floor, glass shattered, books tumbled along the rug and pots and pans flew across the countertop in the kitchen. There was no place Pixie didn’t search, no corner left unturned as she ransacked the home in her hot pursuit for the book.
This hostage situation was hard to watch, my body begging me to move and step in to help. But I couldn’t break in recklessly. I had to plan this strategically, waiting for the bigger one of the two to leave. She’d said something about a cellar, so I was hoping she’d take the door along the stairway soon. However, Pixie suddenly became fascinated with that bookshelf, probably thinking it had some secret passageway or something.
I patiently waited, and by the sound of it, Pixie was starting to get impatient. “Gah, buggerball!” she grunted. “There is nothing valuable in this nest!”
“Wanna double check the bedroom again?”
“And waste time? I say it’ll be easier to break their faces and beat the answer out of them!”
The little girl giggled. “Well that plan ain’t work before, it sure won’t work this time! Or…” she sang, skipping over to the woman. “Maybe we should wake up hubby here and have him watch us skin you alive! You think he’ll talk then, hmm?” She giggled.
The woman shook her head, her breath heavy and her face torn with exhaustion. Please… free us…” she begged. “We will walk away. We won’t tell a soul.”
“Of course you won’t! The dead don’t talk, silly!”
“I’m going to the cellar,” Pixie said to Lanette. “Holler if you need me.”
“Don’t drag your feet down there, big mama!”
Great, now was my chance…
With Pixie gone, I could take on the little girl and dash off with the hostages.
I gave it a few seconds, pressing my pointed ear against the home and tuning to the sound of floor boards creaking with every heavy step she took. Once the echo faded and I started to hear more bashing and shattering, I poked my head up again, studying Lanette’s level.
She wasn’t too bad, sitting pretty at level 30. Opposed to Pixie, who was level 90.
Boy, for a young girl, she sure had some modest experience. I was pretty sure I could take her on, but right before I sprung up to turn for the front door, I noticed that she disappeared into the hallway.
She hummed a tune all the way to the bathroom, where I could hear the faint sound of faucet water running. I dipped to the front of the home and snuck in, the woman holding her shuddering breath at the sight of me.
“Shh!” I said behind a finger to my lips, the woman nodding cooperatively. “Try to keep quiet. I’m going to try to get the both of you out of here.”
“My husband, please!” she begged quietly as I tugged along the knot, pulling it apart with ease. She looked down to the falling rope along her arms, then immediately got on her knees to pull the rest of it off of her husband. “You must be brave, to touch the Kutra directly,” she said, her eyes looking up to me promisingly. I had no idea what the hell she was referring to, before she continued, “Unless, you’ve never seen a Kutra spell? It absorbs your mana, and makes you lethargic…”
Lethargic?
“Most fae fear it.”
“Well, I’m not most fae.” Literally. I wasn’t so worried that this spell would blow my cover. She was desperate to get the hell out of Dodge and wouldn’t think twice about the authenticity of the man who was rescuing her and her husband. “Can you walk?”
“Barely. The child twisted my knee. She is worse than the beefy one…” she winced.
“You’re bleeding,” I said, noticing a big blotch of blood on her navy blue dress. The fabric was torn, a large slash about six inches long revealing a serious wound inside of it. “You need a healing potion. I have one you can use.”
When I reached in my inventory for one, I was shocked to find out that I couldn’t use it on her. I got a warning in my stats saying that I was wasting the vial by offering it to Maxi.
“It’s fine. I am a healer,” she admitted. “The Kutra… it was inhibiting my magic, and my ability to heal by any means. Once it wears off, I’ll be able to heal myself. All I need is time away from here so I may assist my husband and myself.”
I could use it on myself if I wanted to, but Mr. and Mrs. Rimosser were out of the question thanks to this annoying Kutra effect.
“Then come on. I’ll carry the both of you,” I said, helping her tear the skirt of her dress to use as a temporary tourniquet. I wrapped it around Maxi as she stifled her whimpers and moans, but her efforts made little difference. Before I could say another word, I heard tapping down the hallway, the brat having heard us.
“HEY!” a squeaky voice cried out behind me, and when I turned my head over my shoulder, I saw the loud and insufferable Lanette. “I take one itty bitty potty break, and I walk in to some stranger stealing my trophies?!”
I got up on my feet, squaring to fight… erm, a little girl.
The words pick on someone your own size came to mind, but I had to remember that she was a few levels higher than me.
She narrowed her eyes on me, balling up her fists like she was ready to break out into a tantrum. Until she gasped, her big starry eyes growing wider. “You’re with the High Order, aren’t you? Hunting us all the way here to stop us?!”
Wait, what?
“Wow! The fae council is getting real creative with their undercover operatives! Their special acolytes, their pathetic pushover pansies!” She laughed. “You know, you would have gotten me good too. Trouncing around with your low level, I would have never suspected someone like you being a pawn to the kingpins of Mavriel. But I’m a smart cookie! And I know a snake when I see one!”
“You also talk a whole lot,” I insulted. “Now, I’m not the type to hurt kids, but I’ll gladly make an exception to one so fucking unbearable and evil.”
“Here’s calling the hero a villain! It must be easy for you to point fingers everyday where you sit, high in your throne, where you can’t smell the filth of rotting bodies for us peasants!”
“Do you seriously think you’re doing good here?”
“Open your eyes! While you’re putting the Grimoire on lock down, we are putting real work in helping Mavriel before the dragons devour us all! If you would quit being selfish and obsessed with power, you’d be able to see the simple fix! Crack the ultimate spellbook wide open, and let magic take its course!”
