114: Knives in the Dark, Part Three

Knives in the Dark, Part Three

Neve fell back. 

As she hit the ground, Lia calmly sat down next to her seeming content to just watch her bleed out rather than finish her off. 

She was, quite frankly, surprised. Up until now, the only time an "NPC" had been genuinely hostile to her was when Alexander tried to shoot her when they first met. Ministress Jia and the old man back at Rorvan had both put on some slightly dangerous displays, but neither of them had been actually trying to hurt her. 

Alexander, the one NPC so far who had tried to kill her, put up little to no damage. She'd theorized before that this might have been because NPCs couldn't harm players, as she figured such a thing would be too boring for the Forces That Be. Apparently, she'd been wrong in that assessment. 

{The Undying Coward} slowly kicked in. 

Neve tried as hard as she could to piece together a plan. The first thing that came to her mind was to ask: 

"... Why?" 

Not that she cared much about the answer. All that mattered was that she'd just been stabbed and needed to do something about it. She just wanted to get Lia talking. 

"Why?" Lia asked back, giggling. "So I could watch you die, of course. Getting a taste of your sweet blood all the while as well. Ahh..." She ran a hand down Neve's hair, "perhaps you do not have people like myself in your world. In that case, I apologize for catching you off-guard like this. Allow me to introduce myself to you formally, then."

The smile on her face, previously warm and kind, turned into a grin of hedonistic satisfaction. 

"My name is Lia, the Kinslayer, and I am someone who enjoys watching life fade from the eyes of others." 

[... A serial killer? That blood part too... A vampire, maybe?] 

"When the Unity Trials first began here, my people did a decent job of doing as the test wanted. An era of peace and tranquility amidst the monstrous invasion began, and... it was awful," Lia giggled. "I took it upon myself to spice things up."

As she elaborated on her world's history, Neve slowly reached for her staff, as she felt her own blood soak the Angel Set she'd spent so many WST on and hadn't even used properly yet. 

"I created chaos. I caused conflict. I played with the hearts of others. And, when that proved to not be enough anymore, I began to kill." Her voice took on a joyous tone. "I killed, and I killed, and I killed, until... Until there was no one left to kill anymore." 

She sounded sad now. 

"It was awful. I walked around this place for years, looking for someone whose life I could end. At a point, I even started killing monsters in hopes that it would provide me with some satisfaction, but... Killing mindless creatures who cannot feel just does not quite scratch the itch for me." Lia smiled down at Neve. "But, then, you came along. And, although it pains me that I will not get to experience this again anytime soon..." She bent over, leaning in close, "I will treasure this moment as best as I can." 

Neve had no intention of allowing that. 

She summoned Erin, first.

Lia backed off, instantly raising up the blade she'd used to stab Neve and producing a second one she'd still had tucked away, defending herself from Erin's claws. 

Neve then cast {Great Healing Dart} over her own body five times, but it only took three to heal herself fully. The other two were just instinctive. 

Dashing back and creating some space between herself and Erin, the woman grinned. 

"You were a healer? Why didn't you say anything? If I'd known that, I wouldn't have tried to kill you. I'd just have you heal yourself and I'd stab you again. We could have had so much fun together!" 

"For the record, this is what you looked like when you told me to stab myself back in Ahlakan's home. Rather unnerving, to say the least." 

As Neve stood up and got into a fighting position, Lia's grin grew wider. 

"... Though, I suppose battle presents its own exhilarating opportunities. This is a fine outcome too, then." 

She threw something into the ground, then, that Neve did not get a good look at. It filled the room with smoke in the blink of an eye. 

Erin moved in front of Neve, trying to shield her from any potential attacks. 

Lia, however, had something else in mind, as she just fled the area. 

She spoke at the same time, though, her sweet voice reaching Neve's ears all the same. 

"I will watch you, Neve. Prepare yourself. Go and fight, show me what I have to look forward to." Her voice echoed in the bell tower, making it feel as though she was speaking in Neve's mind. "Then, when you feel you are ready, come to the square in the middle of town. I will face you there." 

As her voice finally left Neve's skull, she looked down at herself, at the spot where she'd been stabbed. Though the wound had been healed away, blood still stained her gold-white robes. 

[I... didn't see that coming. But, given what she said, I'm guessing...] 

She went and looked at her map. 

Indeed, it was as she suspected. 

The boss marker, which had previously been elsewhere, had moved and was now located at the very center of the floor. 

[Then, she's the boss of this floor. Alright, I'll get to pay her back for stabbing me later.] 

"Seems like I missed out on something while I was away," Erin commented. "Tell me, were your attempts at flirting with that woman so disastrous that she decided to try to kill you? Because that would be impressive in its own way." 

"Ugh, come on. I got stabbed, cut me some slack." 

"Oh, no, the horror! I cannot imagine how that must have felt." 

"Let's just leave, already." 

Erin laughed quite heartily. 

''Hehe, certainly, my dear." 

---

{Charlotte}

Charlotte rushed to the hospital as quickly as she could. 

The news she'd just heard had to have been overly exaggerated. It made no sense why someone would attack a man who couldn't hurt a fly. It had to have been somewhat false, to some extent. Charlotte was just confirming that. 

Alas, as she arrived, running through the halls and ignoring the shouting from guards and nurses, she saw that what she had heard was completely and utterly true. 

Jack, one of her closest friends, was in critical condition. 

Finding his family outside of his room in the hospital, she approached them with a mix of confusion and anger going through her veins. 

"Charlotte?" 

The pink-haired woman didn't bother exchanging any greetings, though. She was coming in with a head full of steam. 

"What happened?" 

"I-I'm not too sure," his mother, an older woman who was just a little bit shorter than Charlotte and carried a sad, worried look on her face, told her. 

"Were there any witnesses?" 

"They said that someone just- just randomly shot him with an arrow." 

"What? For no reason?" Charlotte asked, baffled. 

It wasn't like Jack was some high-level fighter. Even with the player-kill bonus as a factor, the EXP one would gain from killing him had to be minimal. And, sure, he bantered sometimes with his friends, but Charlotte had never known him to be the type to actively gain enemies. 

"The people there said it was completely random. L-Like a drive-by or something," Jack's mother reiterated. 

"He hasn't been healed, either?" 

"The arrow was carrying poison," she then said. "The healers went to go get a curing potion. Hopefully, they'll be back soon."2

Looking in from the window, she saw Jack unconscious on the bed. The arrow responsible for his current state was on a table next to him. 

[... I need to take a look at this thing.] 

She opened the door just as those same guards she'd ignored earlier caught up. 

"You can't go in there!" 

"No, no, it's fine," Jack's mom told them. "She's a friend!" 

Ignoring the bickering that started, Charlotte walked straight to that arrow and picked it up. 

What she found made even more questions pop up. 

Yesenia's Touch

{Unique}

{Arrow} 

{Val: 100 WST}

{Effect: Apply {Dire Poison} on-hit}

[Yesenia? Isn't that...] 

A quick look through her notes told her that indeed, she was right. It was the same name as the "girlfriend" of the guy who'd been killed at the unmarked dungeon. 

[What the hell is going on? Why...?] She stopped, pacing around the room as she breathed in slowly. [No, no. Calm down. Think about it logically.] 

As her breathing became more steady, she pondered the information she'd been given. 

[Why would Jack be targeted? It can't be personal unless there's some side of himself that he's managed to sneak by me throughout all these years. No, it's because... Because he's a merchant, maybe? In that case...] 

She took her phone out and scrolled through as many of the other recent, random attacks as she could find. 

[Business owners, healers, engineers, blacksmiths, alchemists... All non-players. Is that the pattern? But, again, why?] 

She wasn't too sure what to make of all of this, but one thing was certain. 

Now that one of her friends had been hurt by someone who possibly was either involved with or had a connection to the Hidden Blade Guild, Charlotte's curiosity toward them had gone from being journalistic to personal. 

[... I need to find out more about these people. If they're murdering people at random, people who aren't even proper players, then they're a threat to everyone. Myself, my friends, my family, all of us are in danger.] 

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