Rise of the Living Forge

Chapter 87: Do it

The thief on Jin’s left – a tall, thin man with a pair of daggers at his side – clapped his hands together. Glistening blue light gathered around his fingertips and pooled at his palms. It swirled into a vortex, starting to form into a jagged bolt.

Arwin didn’t wait for him to finish casting the spell. He sprinted forward, his steps thundering against the ground as he propelled himself forward. He leapt into the air with a roar. The thieves would be less likely to direct attacks toward the others as long as their attention was on him.

The mage’s eyes widened and he flung his spell at Arwin while trying to scramble to safety. He was a decent shot, but it was hard to aim whilst retreating. The bolt of ice scraped past Arwin’s shoulder. The gem in the center of his armor let out a dim hum and turned a faint icy blue and a resonant hum rose up from it.

Arwin slammed down on the ground before Jin and swung Verdant Blaze. He aimed the weapon at the man’s shoulder. He needed answers, not corpses. Not yet, at least.

Jin dropped to the ground to avoid the attack and whipped his leg out in an attempt to sweep Arwin off his feet. [Scourge] pumped through Arwin’s legs a moment before the blow connected. The thief let out a grunt of pain as his leg failed to so much as budge his target.

The third thief ran for Arwin, but his whole body shimmered blue mid-step. He locked in place and a rock flew through the air. It arced perfectly down before striking him square between the eyes.

Frosty air bit at Arwin’s skin. He jumped to the side instinctively as a rain of jagged ice plummeted from a dull blue sphere of energy that had formed in the air above him. The ice pounded into the ground where he’d been standing. A few shards scraped against his armor and one cut a thin furrow down his arm, but none managed to inflict significant damage. More energy shimmered in the gem at the center of his armor and a second note joined the first.

The mage’s face paled as Arwin’s gaze snapped over to him. Jin tried to lunge at Arwin, but Arwin thrust a foot forward, planting it square in the center of his chest and throwing the thief back across the ground.

With the same move, Arwin reared back, activated [Scourge], and hurled his hammer. Verdant Blaze was far from an aerodynamic weapon. It really wasn’t meant for throwing. Unfortunately for the mage, aerodynamics weren’t all that relevant when someone was only just a little bit out of striking distance.

Verdant Blaze screamed through the air and slammed into the man. Dozens of loud cracks merged together into a single sound as the man’s body was crushed. He ragdolled across the ground, dead before he hit it.

Energy ignited around Arwin’s head and the eyes of his helm lit with a whoomp as it activated from the kill. A wave of energy rolled off his body and made his hair stand on end.

“Only an idiot throws their weapon,” Jin snarled. He leapt at Arwin and drove a spike toward an unarmored spot near his armpit.

Arwin didn’t grace him with a response. Verdant Blaze did the speaking for him. The weapon reformed in his hands and Jin practically threw himself straight into it. It drove into his stomach, knocking the air from his lungs in a pained cough.

He turned to meet the other thief, but there was no need. The man laid dead at Rodrick and Lillia’s feet in a growing pool of blood spreading from a large sword wound across his chest.

Jin drew several metal needles and held them in a loose grip. His eyes darted from Arwin to the others and he swallowed heavily. Even an idiot could have told that the fight was hopeless.

“What are you hiding?” Arwin asked. His words warped as they left the helm, twisted by the vibrating energy pouring off it. “I have absolutely no reservations in killing all of you right here, Jin. Answer my damn question.”

“Why should I?” Jin demanded. His teeth gritted as he looked back to the body of his dead comrade. “You’ve already killed Yegin.”

“I assume that was the mage – but to be honest, I don’t care. You attacked first. And something tells me that you aren’t doing it at random. Give me the information I want or I’ll get it from someone else.”

“Fuck you,” Jin spat. His hand blurred – and the wave of blue energy slammed down on top of him, locking him in place before the needle could fly from his fingertips. It wasn’t directed at Arwin, but at someone behind him.

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Arwin didn’t wait to see who. He stepped forward, his hammer blurring even as Jin shot back into motion. His needle rang off Arwin’s shoulder plate harmlessly. Jin’s eyes only had an instant to widen in shock before Verdant Blaze slammed into him.

Jin’s limbs flailed as his body tumbled across the ground. He skidded to a stop and laid still in a growing pool of blood as Arwin’s eyes flared with even more energy. Verdant Blaze hummed in his hands, sending a deep hunger worming into his head. It wanted more. Arwin wasn’t so sure that was a good thing.

He released the weapon, letting the hammer dissipate and spilling the gore covering its head to the ground at his feet. The only people left in the area were his own. He hadn’t seen any other thieves in the area, so he was quite certain there weren’t any witnesses. Arwin let his armor fade away.

“Wouldn’t it have been best if we could have kept one to question?” Anna asked. She approached Jin’s body and grimaced. “I can’t heal this. There needs to be enough left to put back together.”

“It would have been nice,” Arwin said. He walked up beside Anna and knelt to root through Jin’s pockets. “But mercy is for the strong. I’ve been reminded more than enough that I can’t afford it. I’m not going to risk one of you getting injured just to make things easier. Any questioning we did probably wouldn’t have been all that enlightening.”

“Why not?” Reya asked.

“Because it’s unlikely the thieves’ guild had anything to do with the attack. Not directly, at least,” Lillia said. “They would have tried something before. They probably sold our location to Tix or the guild. That would explain why Jin thought Arwin should be dead.”

“I bet they thought Reya’s key was destroyed in the explosion,” Rodrick said. “Dungeons want people to enter them, so they were probably checking to see if a new way in had appeared.”

“Maybe we should pay them another visit,” Arwin mused. “Even if they didn’t do anything directly, they might know more. At the very least, I want to keep them off our street. If they think I’m dead, they might try something again.”

“Are you going to show them… well, this?” Anna nodded vaguely to the scene around them. “It might start a huge fight. I doubt any guild is going to overlook us killing three of their men.”

“Us?” Arwin blinked at Anna in wide-eyed disbelief. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Anna. I’m just a smith accompanied by a tavern keeper with no patrons, a weak thief, a healer, and a warrior who seems to be better at spying than fighting. How could we have possibly dealt with three trained members of a guild?”

“You can’t seriously be planning to play that card,” Rodrick said. “Wait, did you say I sucked at fighting?”

“No, just that you’re better at spying. You said the sucking part yourself,” Arwin replied with a snort. He failed to find anything of interest on Jin’s body other than a pouch of twenty gold. He tucked it into his pocket and stood. “We’ll deal with the thieves later. I agree with Lillia. I don’t think they acted directly against us. We’ll need to confirm, of course, but I don’t want to overplay our hands again.”

“The dungeon, then?” Reya raised a hand to her neck and ran her thumb along the key that hung suspended from it. “It’s not like those guys put up that much of a fight.”

“I think it might be more that Arwin put up too much of a fight,” Anna said under her breath. “Apprentice Tier my ass. I don’t understand how you’re supposed to have a crafting class when you hit harder than a runaway horse.”

“Turns out, when you’ve got good gear, you can start punching a bit above your weight class,” Arwin said. He sent a nod to Reya. “And it helps to have someone that can freeze people so they can’t dodge my attacks.”

“Just remember it isn’t going to work as well on anyone stronger,” Reya warned. “There’s only so much I can do until I get stronger.”

“Then we’re fortunate to be doing just that,” Arwin said. “We’ve got a very convenient disposal system for these corpses, though. Dungeons are always hungry. Let’s just move them quickly so nobody shows up while we’re dragging bodies around.”

“I highly doubt the thieves’ guild will send anyone looking for them too soon anyway,” Rodrick said as he knelt to grab one of the thieves by their ankles. “Any big guild is usually remarkably slow on acting on missing people – especially ones that aren’t all that important. We should be fine.”

“None of them were important, were they?” Lillia asked, picking up another one.

Reya shook her head. “Jin was an enforcer, and I don’t recognize the others. Enforcers are maybe halfway up the guild in standing from what I recall. He was basically just a guard that got paid extra to handle things discreetly.”

“Good. Then we’ve got more than enough time to head into the dungeon and get out before anyone even thinks to come looking for us.” Arwin picked up Jin and walked over to the entrance of the dungeon, dragging the thief’s body along the ground behind him.

“Do you think we’ll be able to get all the way to the bottom this time around?” Rodrick asked.

Arwin let out a bark of laughter. “I think that might be a little bit optimistic. It’s still a Journeyman level dungeon. We’re a group of Apprentice Tiers. I think we can get pretty deep in. Maybe halfway, maybe more. I don’t think we should think about it as trying to get as deep as possible. It should be how far we can get without getting killed in the process. We want a challenge, not to get killed.”

“Fair enough,” Rodrick said. “Let’s do it, then.”

Reya sent a questioning look to Arwin. His armor shimmered back on around his body and he gave her a curt nod.

“Take us in, Reya.”

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