Chapter 198 - Rescue (Patreon)

Talia knelt atop the roof, entirely still and barely visible in the moonlight. The guards atop the wall across the street were completely unaware of her presence, which was precisely how she liked it.

After spending most of the previous day eavesdropping on various Spiders throughout the Nest, she had learned her friends’ fate. When the pair, along with the refugees, had entered Jariq, they’d been stopped near the gate, where they were quickly surrounded by evolved Spiders. That’s when they were given an ultimatum – surrender, or the refugees would be killed. Predictably, Abby and Carlos had done so, and they were then shackled and escorted into the heart of the Nest, where they were imprisoned within the assassins’ guild’s dungeon.

More, when Talia had followed a pair of higher-ranked spiders who were engaged in some kind of illicit affair, she’d discovered that they’d set a trap for Zeke. She didn’t know any details – neither did they – but Talia suspected that it would be an effective counter to Zeke’s abilities.

Of course, she didn’t expect it to actually work. Zeke was practically a force of nature. When he was pushed to his limit, nothing in the Radiant Isles would stop him. Talia was certain in her faith in the man.

But that didn’t mean she wanted him to chance it. Not when she was so close. Not when she was fully capable of solving the problem herself.

Her plan was simple, if brutal. But in her opinion, the Spiders had earned that brutality the moment they’d taken her friends into custody. If they would do that to people who’d done nothing but good for their city, then they forfeited any right to the benefit of the doubt. They had damned themselves.

So, without further consideration, she slipped from the roof and into the adjacent alley. Once there, Talia padded forward, keeping low to the ground, until she found her way to the street. She looked up to see the tall walls of the Spider’s compound; they were at least twenty feet high, but with her high stats, they were little more than an annoyance.

But she didn’t want to repeat her “infiltration” on the keep atop the obsidian caves. Back then, she had been perfectly content with an open attack. In fact, she’d welcomed it. Part of it was because of her faith in her own abilities, but there was also a bit of suicidal recklessness in there as well. She hadn’t cared much about whether she lived or died. Some of that was still present in her psyche, but its hold on her was much weaker. Besides, if she was discovered, there was every chance that her rescue attempt would fail. Even if she survived capture – which, given her undead nature, was unlikely – she would once again be dependent on Zeke to save her.

And that just wasn’t acceptable. Talia wanted to be like him, not be saved by him.

When she saw the coast was clear, she sprinted across the street and vaulted to the top of the wall. Her claws dug into the sandstone, and she hung there, waiting for a few seconds until she was sure that she hadn’t alerted any of the guards. When she’d satisfied her caution, Talia pulled herself up and onto the wallwalk. Once there, she crouched so her profile wouldn’t be visible in the darkness.

Glancing left, then right, she darted toward her first victim. The woman held a sizable crossbow, and was dressed in black, leather armor with a spider logo emblazoned on the left side of her chest. Talia activated [Alacrity of Undeath], enhancing her speed. She was a blur as she covered the forty feet in less than a second.

Lowering her shoulder, Talia tackled the woman to the ground. She struggled, but by the time the guardswoman had recovered enough of her wits to scream, Talia had already ripped out her throat. Once the woman was dead, Talia looked around to make sure that she hadn’t been seen. The other six guards along the top of the wall were completely unaware of her assault, so she took a second to dump the guard on the other side of the wall. The sound of it landing was louder than Talia’s attack had been. Luckily, none of the other guards heard it.

Like that, she killed the men and women unlucky enough to have drawn guard duty for the night. It helped that, being in the heart of their own territory, they were less than attentive. That combined with Talia’s inhuman agility to put them at an insurmountable disadvantage that Talia was more than willing to exploit.

It was all too easy. The act itself. The decision to snuff out so many lives. The human version of Talia would have blanched at such a callous disregard for life. Back then, she had been a healer, after all. She’d spent quite a bit of time curing diseases and healing minor wounds alongside the clergy of the Church of Purity. Now, though? She saw an obstacle, and she removed it. That the obstacle was a living, breathing human being, complete with hopes and dreams and loved ones who cared about them, was largely irrelevant.

And in her more human moments, that terrified Talia. She was already a monster, and she feared that she was drifting further and further away from whatever made someone a person.

She couldn’t think about that right now, though. She had friends to save.

Once the wall was clear, Talia scouted the rest of the compound. It consisted of a handful of buildings, most of which were used for storage or housed the guards. She all but ignored those; her instincts told her that she would find Abby and Carlos in the main building. It was at least two-hundred feet tall, made of the same sandstone as the rest of the city, and at least as wide as it was tall. The walls were carved with a recurring spider motif that even Talia found a little creepy.

From her previous reconnaissance, she knew that there were only two exits and no windows. If she wanted inside, she would have to continue her butchery. However, Talia felt certain that she wouldn’t do so without alerting some of the guild’s higher-leveled guardians. Her only hope was that she could reach Carlos and Abby and free them before it came to a real fight.

It would have been so much easier if Zeke was around. He and Pudge could have simply charged in the front door, taking on all comers until all the Spiders were dead. Meanwhile, she could have done what she did best, attacking from the back and sides with a hit-and-run style that took advantage of her monstrous agility and dexterity. Until that moment, she hadn’t realized how much everyone’s fighting style had depended on Zeke dominating the attention of their enemies.

But he wasn’t there, so she had little choice but to do things a little differently. Unsurprisingly, she slipped through the courtyard and headed to the service entrance. Along the way, she was able to avoid becoming entangled in any other fights, and she reached the backside of the building without difficulty.

If Talia had had her way, she would have settled down to wait for the pair of guards at the entrance to separate. Eventually, one of them would be forced to heed the call of nature. And when they did, she would strike. But the moment she’d killed that first guard, she had been put on a timer. Soon, someone would notice that the guards were missing, and they would raise the alarm. That meant she couldn’t afford to wait.

Hugging the wall, she crept forward until she was just around the corner from the entrance. With a burst of speed, Talia shot towards the pair of guards, covering the intervening fifteen feet in an instant. Her claws flashed, and one went down, but the other was evolved and more prepared to put up a fight.

With a growl, he brought a truncheon to bear, swinging it at Talia in a wide arc. She avoided it with ease, ducking out of the way and spinning. Her leg whipped out, colliding with his knee with a sickening crunch. He howled in agony as his leg gave out. Talia pounced on the falling man, ripping his throat out with practiced precision.

But the damage was done. Doubtless, his scream had alerted others, evidenced by the door to one of the barracks flying open. It was a hundred yards away, but Talia knew from experience just how quickly someone could cover that ground. She needed to move. So, without further hesitation, she kicked the door open and sprinted into the hallway. All attempts at stealth discarded, her booted feet thudded against the polished sandstone floor as she navigated the twisting and turning maze of corridors.

Along the way, she encountered a half-dozen men and women. None of them were guards. Only one was evolved. She killed them easily and without remorse, barely slowing her pace until she finally reached a set of stairs leading into the bowels of the building. Reasoning that most people kept dungeons underground, Talia quickly descended three sub-levels until she finally found something promising.

And dangerous.

Seven guards were in the room, four of which were sitting around a table playing cards. Two others were up and about, but the last was asleep on a nearby cot. On the far side of the room from where Talia had just burst in, a gate stood. Constructed of black iron and studded with strengthening runes, it was clear to her that it led to the dungeon she sought.

Talia sprang through the doorway, knocking the door off its hinges. The guards reacted quickly, but only one of them was evolved. And he was only level seventeen. The rest were either level fourteen or fifteen, and none were extraordinary. She activated both [Chill of Undeath] and [Plague Strike].

It took nineteen seconds for Talia to finish them off, and by the time she did, most of them had become little more than rotting piles of meat. The level seventeen guard had been made of stronger stuff, but he’d fallen all the same.

Talia knelt beside him, grabbing a keyring at his belt. As she did so, she couldn’t help but think that the Spiders were lucky that she had come instead of Zeke. He wouldn’t have just killed a few people that got in his way. He’d have torn the building apart to rescue Abby.

And Carlos, she supposed. But mostly, he would care about Abby.

Pushing those thoughts from her mind, Talia approached the gate. It took her a few tries to find the right key, but eventually, she managed to unlock it and head inside, finding a long hallway populated by dozens of cells.

The smell was the first thing that hit her. Rot. Human waste. Disease. Even with her muted sense of smell, it was overpowering. The sights were nearly as bad; each cell she passed had an occupant. Some shifted slightly at her presence, moaning in weakness and pain, but most remained still. In a few cases, she recognized death.

Stalking forward, Talia spent a few minutes going from cell to cell as she looked for her companions. And finally, her search bore fruit when she found them shackled to a wall in a too-small cell that she quickly opened.

“Talia?” Abby asked. “How did you get in here?”

“Stupid question,” Carlos muttered.

Talia couldn’t bring herself to disagree. The answer was obvious. “I killed the guards and infiltrated the building,” she said, her monotone but scratchy voice filling the air. “But we must move quickly.”

She knelt beside Abby, unlocking her shackles before doing the same for Carlos. When the two were free, she led them out of the cell.

“My equipment is gone,” Abby said. Then, to Carlos, she asked, “Where would they have put it?”

He shrugged. “You act like I’m an authority here,” he said. “I barely spent any time in the Nest. The whole place is too political. Other than the bare minimum, I don’t know my way around this compound.”

Abby groaned. “Shit,” she muttered. “I loved that bow.”

Talia asked, “Can you still fight?”

“A little,” the older woman answered. Her captors had even taken the band she used to tie her hair into a ponytail, so her blonde locks were uncharacteristically loose. “Be better if I had some kind of weapon.”

“Some of the guards had swords,” Talia said.

“It’ll have to do,” Abby said.

With that, the trio ran back towards the guardroom, where Abby armed herself with a shortsword and a dagger. Neither were high quality, but they were probably better than nothing. Talia and Carlos needed no weapons; their skills made the pair lethal without them.

They were halfway up the stairs when the steady clomp of boots against sandstone announced the arrival of another group of guards. Talia darted up the steps killing one of them before they even knew what had hit them. Carlos’s shadowy spear took care of another. Even Abby, using her comparatively higher stats, killed one with a vicious thrust of her shortsword.

Only a few seconds, and three more people were dead. Human life really was cheap.

Talia led her companions to the top of the stairs, and, thankfully, they weren’t accosted before making their way out of the building. They saw a few unarmored men and women, but none of them were eager to attack the high-leveled group. Instead, they all ran as soon as they saw Talia and her two friends.

Finally, they reached the exit, but when Talia stepped outside, she felt an arrow slam into her chest. It hit with such force that she was thrown backwards, where she collided with Abby and Carlos, knocking them to the polished floor.

“What the hell?” Abby asked, untangling herself.

“Someone is out there,” Talia grunted, yanking the arrow from her chest. It came away with a spurt of green blood. “Archer. High level. Maybe twenty-five.”

“Shit,” said Carlos.

“Who is it?” Abby asked.

“Mykaela.”

Abby made a motion for him to say more, and he went on.

“Level twenty-five. She’s one of the top assassins in the guild,” he explained. “She’s a sniper. I don’t know what her skills are, but I’ve heard that she can hit someone from miles away.”

“Great,” Abby said, shaking her head. “How do we want to do this, then?”

“I can scout it,” Carlos offered. “She won’t be able to see me. I think. Once I know what’s waiting out there for us, we can make a plan. But we can’t let her pin us down for long. There are other strong people in the guild, and they’re not going to take this lying down.”

“Okay, go,” Abby said.

And with that, Carlos stepped into a shadow and faded away. That left Abby and Talia alone.

“Thank you for coming,” Abby said.

“You are welcome,” was Talia’s response.

After that, they sank into silence as they waited for Carlos to complete his reconnaissance.