“We are talking about an entire region of Thalian!” Rufian raged. “The curses will spread beyond your control and poison the other nations! If control is what you’re after, this is a poor way of exercising it! This world is already dying. The only thing you will do is accelerate the process!”
Clave scoffed, standing up on his feet. “You’re so dramatic, Rufian. Just like the rest of those old farts who have been sitting on the throne for far too long. Now, I don’t know if this is a serious gripe you have against me, or if you’re with the HQ, but I’ll do away with you just the same.” His eyes went sinister on Rufian. “Let’s end this once and for all. Clave vs. Rufian. Winner takes all! But first, I’d like to see how well you handle yourself. How worthy are you to get in the ring with the best?”
Rufian was above Clave’s antics. He charged at him, but Clave insisted he fight his shadow curses. They swarmed us, Rufian answering back by summoning his familiar. He’d need the flame bird to help clear our path, Rufian also resorting to his own flames to sweep the nave of curses.
As for me, I wasn’t entirely useless. These shadow freaks weren’t ghosts, which meant that they could feel every punch, elbow jab, and kick I dished at them. Our spectators watched on as we did away with them one by one, these curses leaving nothing to loot when they went down. They were non-leveled but their strength and skill set remained the same throughout—they each had the power of a level 30 cyber monster, and the ability to morph and shape their stretchy limbs into any toolset they wanted. Drills, cranes, jackhammers—it was a regular construction site nightmare.
Rufian and I worked as a team clearing the floor as more piled on in waves. Back to back we dealt intervals of damage, fending off the shadow curses with our combined strength. Rufian's flame bird scorched away HP, and my hook shots and jabs proved to be useful in immobilizing the curses, too.
Though as we fought, I couldn’t help but glance over to the expression on Clover’s face, which was a mix of sympathy and guilt.
Where did that come from? Did she feel sorry for us?
That face caught me off guard, leaving me with a sunken feeling in the pit of my stomach. When she glanced over to her brother, I had a bad feeling that worse was yet to come. I bet while these shadow curses were proving to be a worthy opponent, Clave was on another level entirely.
Regardless, Rufian and I continued to fight in sync, our movements fluid and calculated. Clave watched from the sidelines, a smirk on his lips as he assessed our abilities. Finally, after what felt like hours of fighting, the last of the shadow curses fell to the ground before dispersing into a cloud of nothingness. Worked up, Rufian and I stood in the center of the nave. I was trying to hide my shortness of breath, while Rufian squared his eyes at Clave, a single sweat drop trickling down his left temple.
Clave applauded, the cocky asshole taunting us. “Well done, well done. I must say, you two make quite the team. But the real test is yet to come. Rufian, Syodas, are you ready for the real warm-up?”
Rufian gritted his teeth, determination burning in his eyes.
“Clover, get in there and tucker them out, would you?” Clave ordered his sister, Clover answering back with a lump in her throat as she turned to him reluctantly.
He sniped her a death glare. “Well, what are you waiting for?! Get over there and beat them into a bloody pulp!”
“What’s the matter, Clave? Can’t fight your own battles?” Rufian hissed. “First you sic your accursed dogs, and now your young sister?”
“Cut that one up nice and dicey for me,” Clave said, pointing at Rufian.
Clover stepped up to the plate, forcing me to take a few steps back.
“The nerve, really,” Clave said as he crossed his arms over his chest confidently. “A level 68 arcane fae and a level 53 societal reject with no magical attributes at all. Combined, you are barely a match for even my sister.”
Clover reached into her inventory and slipped on a dark gray mask over the bottom half of her face. It had grills and vents, the stylistic piece something I’d never seen a Thalian let alone a fae wear before. I could tell Rufian was itching to tell me something about it, but he couldn’t, not with the speed Clover had. She zipped right for me, ignoring Rufian completely, feeding me with a barrage of rib shots.
The speed on her was something else. I didn’t have even a fraction of a second to blink before she popped right in front of me. Her agility was crippling me as well, and I was stuck in defense, paying her little retaliation. As Clover left me with no edge to strike, I activated my Doonie Coin, the girl with the long jet black hair in a ponytail giving me an honest brawler challenge. But then she stepped back, and I swung, Clover dodging me completely. That gave Rufian an opportunity to follow up with a giant ice fist right on her noggin. But he missed. Instead of hitting her, he smashed the makeshift hand into the floor, creating a small crater where she would have been.
To my surprise, she already vapored out, and then reappeared behind me, snatching me in a headlock.
Her grip on me was tight, her breath basking along the shell of my ear. My fingers dug into her arm as I struggled to breathe, but Clover shocked me when she whispered over my neck, “I will screen the room. Use it as an escape…”
W-w-wait, what?
“Quit toying with them and make them bleed!” her brother barked at us, Clover’s comment contradicting her brother’s orders.
Clover kneed me in my spine, the sharp blunt force cracking my back. Opposed to realigning my spinal column, she went easy on me, because she could have easily broken my bones in half. Instead, she released her hold and I stumbled forward, gasping for air. Clover was quick to move, her body moving like a blur as she launched herself at Rufian. In one swift motion, she kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying across the room and crashing into the pews.
His phoenix familiar flickered away, Rufian most likely short on mana. As he lay there buried in chips of wood, Clover turned back to me. In a second she phased out into gas, Clover dispersing into thin trails of vapor rope.
How the hell was I going to fight a girl I couldn’t catch? Moreover, when was she going to give us the chance to run?!
For some reason, I honestly believed that she didn’t want to fight us. The same way she hadn’t killed those assholes back in the bar, she was reluctant to get her hands dirty. For a guild known to terrorize and cause chaos, she was the abnormal variable to their reputation. But with her brother on her back hounding her to do everything he said, she may not get the chance to let us off the hook.
Not like Rufian would take the hint anyway.
The dude was hell-bent on killing Clave. But I couldn’t worry about that right now. Clover was surrounding me, her vapor tendrils circling the air.
A simple brawler was outmatched here, and I expected the same of a swordsman. Regardless, I pulled out my long sword and fought through her strikes, my blade dicing her whips. Despite her precision and her speed, I managed to slice through a third of her tendrils as they ate through my back, my arms, and my legs. Clover was relentless, doing as much damage on me as she could before Rufian came through, packing heat. He summoned a flame-nado, hoping to suck Clover inside the vacuum to wrangle her in. But all he managed to do was provide the fae coverage, the steam from the fumes hiding her next attack.
Vapor blast after vapor blast, Clover pounded Rufian. His shoulder, his hip, his back, his stomach—no area on his body was safe. She picked up speed, forcing me to run to Rufian’s aid. I snuck up behind her but her reaction time was insane, the nimble fae pivoting just in time to award my efforts with a smoke slash across my chest.
“That a girl! There we go! Haha! Show them the true force of the Deo!” her brother cheered as I struggled to get back on my feet, feeling my tier gold armor shatter in my arms.
“Shit…” I panted, trying to reach into my inventory for a healing potion, but a hand of smoke swatted it away. When I looked up, Clover was standing in front of me, ready to finish me off.
“Coming here was a bad idea…” she said softly, reaching her fingers over my face. Suddenly those fingers began to unwrap themselves into strips of steam, reaching into my ears, up my nose, and inside my mouth.
She was sucking the moisture out of my organs. In a minute I’d be beef jerky, the pain so great I could barely register it. I clenched onto my throat, on my knees, and then on all fours. I struggled to lift myself, staggering as my body went through an intense initial shock. My strength was fading, and all I could hear was my own ragged breath choking out. My vision grew dark as I felt myself slip out of consciousness, before I said fuck it, summoning my gears to the fight.
Forget about blowing my cover—survival came first. With my right cyber gear attached, I quickly slammed the ground and triggered my Earthquake ability, taking Clover for one electric shock of her life.
Instantly she went down, the fae tapped out flat. With her mist out of my lungs, I downed a healing potion and scrapped myself up as Clover collapsed, facing Clave next.
“Well that’s unusual,” he said with a deep frown. “You cheated, no fair. You’re no regular fae...”
“No, I’m not,” I grunted. “And I’m about to show you who I really am.”
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
