Chapter 46 – Honor Among Thieves

I gulp in fear as I watch the Prowler slump together on the ground, his lifeless eyes glazing over. Shit. This is bad. What the hell is up with that skill? It’s way too powerful. How the hell am I supposed to fight that? If he targets me with it, I’m dead.

I take a careful step backwards, trying to create some distance between us. Alzahr forcefully yanks his rapier back, locking his rage-filled eyes on me. “Cut off the head of the snake and the body will wither.” He says coldly through clenched teeth as he takes a step towards me. Shit! I grab hold of my lute and swing it towards him. He takes a casual step backwards, dodging the wooden makeshift club with ease. Panicked, I jump another three steps backwards, lifting the lute to use as an impromptu shield with one hand while the other is blindly rummaging through my inventory. My hand finds a random vial, and I quickly throw it towards the approaching boss.

Alzahr deflects the vial with his rapier, shattering the glass so that the liquid scatters everywhere. A few drops land on his body, and I can see his wounds starting to knit themselves together. “A health potion?” Alzahr chuckles as he eyes the red liquid that is dripping from his arm. “If this is your way of apologizing, then I’m afraid you are far too late.” He smirks.

Before he can advance any further, another vial flies towards his face. “Enough of this!” He shouts, forcefully shattering the vial with his rapier. The white substance within sticks to his sword and torso, causing the Dark Elf to grimace in disgust. “What is this!?” He sneers as he tries to brush the substance off his arm which only causes it to further grab a hold of his limbs. I’m a little surprised myself, and it takes me a few seconds to realise I just threw a bottle of glue at him. I have to say, I didn’t expect it to be this efficient.

“Come back here you little twat!” Cobra roars as he rejoins the fight, charging towards Alzahr. Spotting him, Alzahr tries to spin to his side, but some of the glue landed on his legs, slowing him down. Alzahr’s eyes widen in fear as he is unable to escape my charging Lieutenant, and Cobra soon tackles the pair to the ground. I quickly react to the situation, wasting no time in creating some distance between us.

As the two start a deadly wrestling match on the ground, I quickly locate the second enemy elite Thug. He is currently pressuring my regular Thugs, forcing one of my half-orc twins into a desperate defence. I try to intervene by starting to channel another ‘Calm’ spell. The spell is ludicrously inefficient against elite mobs, only able to slow them down for maybe a second or two. Amidst the combat though, those seconds can be the difference between life or death for my underlings or me. Just as my spell takes effect, a long-awaited notification appears.

[You have slain Human Elite Thug(11). Gain 65 experience.]

“Quickly, bring the second one down!” I shout, switching my attention back over towards the struggling pair on the ground near me. The dwarven Thug joins the fray, cutting her sword deeply into Alzahr’s back. Fighting close-ranged is apparently not Alzahr’s forte, and his health bar is dropping like a rock. His rapier is a light sword meant to perform quick piercing attacks against an enemy which means the weapon is essentially useless when fighting an enemy who is less than an arm-length away. This means he can hardly even scratch Cobra in this situation, where my Lieutenant is really laying on the hurt. For a second, hope swells in my chest until gaming reality comes crashing down around me. Just when his health bar is nearing the sixty percent mark, the boss screams in outrage. “Enough!” He bellows, his voice carrying around the stone hall.

What happens next is almost unbelievable. Alzahr’s body starts to glow ominously red and his muscles are contorting and twisting in unnatural directions, growing larger by the second. What the hell? Is he mutating? The whole process only takes a couple of seconds, and the result is terrifying. Alzahr seems to have grown a head taller and his muscles must have at least doubled in density. A thick vein is pulsing on his neck, and his eyes glint with savage ferocity. With a brute show of force, he manages to lift Cobra off him, throwing the Lieutenant across the room. Cobra impacts one of the stone pillars near the center of the room, and his health bar is dipping uncomfortably low.

“Oh, fuck! He is enraging! Everyone! Pin him down! Fight Smart!” I shout, activating my last skill and scampering backwards and out of harm's way. My underlings all react immediately, abandoning the fight with the second Thug and run over to surround the boss. Enrage is a common feature among boss fights, where at certain stages of the fight, the boss gets a short power boost for a limited amount of time. During the enragement phase, the only thing we can do is go on the defensive and try to buy ourselves as much time as possible. Hopefully, my underlings can manage to keep him occupied long enough for me to get Cobra back into the fight. I can only pray my ‘Fight Smart’ skill is enough to save their lives.

Alzahr appears to have increased his speed even further, racing around the room and putting the hurt on my scurrying underlings. By the time I’ve reached Cobra’s prone body, Alzahr claims his second victim of the fight.

[Your underling (Half-Orc Thug(10)) has been slain by Syndicate Leader - Alzahr Farq’Mel(13).]

Gritting my teeth, I can only keep running towards Cobra while simultaneously fishing out one of my few remaining health potions. Reaching Cobra, I force the health potion down his throat while cursing softly. Shit. I can’t believe I ended up being a combat medic. I’m freaking useless.

Cobra coughs twice as the potion starts to take effect, and my heart leaps in joy as I watch his health bar rise. Blinking, Cobra looks towards me with a confused expression. Before I can order him to get back in the fight, his eyes widen in fear as he pushes me to the side. Rolling over, I can hear the sound of metal striking stone from somewhere around the area I was just sitting. Coming to a stop, I catch a glimpse of the remaining elite Thug as he withdraws his blade for another strike.

“Not on my watch, asshole!” Cobra shouts as he kicks the feet from under him, bringing the High Elf Thug to the ground. Cobra rolls on top of him, pinning the high elf between his legs. Sitting on top of the Thug, Cobra Cuts his sword deeply into the throat of the high elf’s prone form. The blade cuts deep, and Cobra starts sawing his blade back and forth. “You. Worthless. Piece. Of. Shit.” Cobra curses through gritted teeth as he keeps ruthlessly sawing at the Thug’s throat. The Thug’s arms are flailing helplessly around, futilely trying to stop the blade from sawing deeper into his flesh. With a final brutal cut, a spray of blood marks the final moment of the dying elf.

Panting, Cobra shakily gets back onto his feet. Glaring, he switches his gaze over towards Alzahr who is wreaking havoc on the rest of my underlings. The dwarven Thug seems to have also fallen, and the rest are hanging on by a thin thread. “This ends now.”

With a roar, Cobra charges towards the rampaging boss. Almost as if on cue, the boss’ enragement phase seems to end as the soft red glow recedes and his body returns to normal. The transformation seems to have done a number on his body, as Alzahr is gasping for breath and his body is soaked in sweat. He stumbles, and that is all the opportunity my underlings need as they all lunge as one. Blades pierce his body from several angles, and his health bar is dropping fast. Cobra soon joins the fight as he violently tackles the boss to the ground, bringing both my Cutthroats with him in his overwhelming display of power. My remaining half-orc Thug is quick to react, and he wastes no time piling onto the ball of death on the ground.

I release a deep breath of relief as we seem to have regained control of the fight. I throw a quick glance at both the side doors, happy to notice the still shouting enemy reinforcements have not yet managed to break through our barricades. Are we winning? I sure as hell hope so. I just hope the boss doesn’t have any more enragement phases in him…

From my mouth to whatever game entity that masquerades as a god’s ears, as soon as Alzahr’s health bar is dropping into the single digits, the Dark Elf boss roars in anger. “I. Will. Not. Succumb!” With another, more violent show of force, my underlings are thrown off Alzahr’s prone form. Enraged, Alzahr jumps to his feet, his eyes locking onto me.

Shit.

With all my underlings still struggling to get back onto their feet, there is little standing between me and the very pissed off noble. He starts walking towards me, his body glowing red. With my mind racing, I try to come up with a way out. With a quick glance at my mana bar, I notice I have enough mana for another spell. I quickly raise my hands, gathering the all too familiar translucent mist around me and launch it towards Alzahr. The spell impacts him straight in the face, and my heart almost leaps in joy until I see his still scowling face staring daggers at me.

Oh, crap. I turn around and try to run. I make it all but two feet when two of the scariest words I’ve ever heard is uttered behind me. “Shadow Pierce.”

I let my body drop low into a roll, my sheer desperation hoping it’s enough to save me from his deadly skill. Pain runs up my arm as it slams into the ground, pulling my body with it. My body completes the roll in a very ungraceful manner, but I’m still alive. How? I should be dead. Throwing my head backwards, my eyes widen in terror as I see Alzahr’s rapier embedded deeply into the chest of my last Prowler, his limp body already falling to the ground. Did… did the Prowler just sacrifice himself for me?

“Filth.” Alzahr spits, kicking the corpse of my Prowler out of the way.

“You fucker!” I shout, feeling the rage build within me. I want this guy dead, and I want it to hurt. I can see my underlings rushing towards him, but they are still too far away. If I don’t do anything, I’ll die. There is only one thing left I can do. “I’ll fucking kill you myself.” I sneer, taking a threatening step towards the Syndicate Leader.

“Oh? Will the little halfling finally dirty his own hands?” The Dark Elf smirks, raising his rapier threateningly. “Ludicrous. Your little rats can’t help you now, you know.”

“Wanna bet!?” I shout, throwing myself towards him. A flicker of surprise crosses his eyes, but not for long. With a snort, Alzahr raises his rapier to meet my assault. He stabs forwards, his rapier aiming for my heart.

Finally, it’s my turn to smirk. “Doppelganger!” The world goes dark for a split second as my body is teleported two and a half meters to the side, which happens to be the exact place Cobra occupied just moments before. The sound of the rapier piercing flesh reaches my ears, and I turn around just in time to watch Cobra being impaled through the stomach.

Wincing in pain, Cobra immediately reaches down and grabs hold of Alzahr’s extended hand. “Fancy meeting you here.” He grins before slamming his fist into the gaping boss’ jaw. Alzahr’s head is flung to the side as he loses his grip on his rapier. With a sickening crunch, his body impacts the ground hard. Before he has time to reorient himself, my Cutthroats are upon him, piercing his back with their daggers. He cries in pain, and I smile as I see his health bar disappearing before my eyes. Before it can fully disappear though, I order my underlings to stop.

Walking over, I glare at Alzahr’s damaged body as he is pinned to the ground by all my remaining underlings. The former dark elf noble is wheezing in pain, and he directs a bloodied eye in my direction. With a pained grunt, he coughs up a mouthful of blood. “Looks like the little rat king decided to run after all…”

Meeting his eye, I glare at him with contempt. Without a word, I grab my lute and slam it mercilessly into his head. A sickening crunch and an A-flat is all I hear as my lute caves his skull in. Releasing a tired sigh, I let the lute fall out of my exhausted hands.

[You have slain Syndicate Leader - Alzahr Farq’Mel(13). Gain 520 experience.]

[Fight Smart has leveled up to Novice 2.]

[Doppelganger has leveled up to Novice 8.]

“You talk too much.”

I turn around and start to walk away. This fight was really intense and I could really use a break. My eyes wander around the now almost empty hall and I take in the results of the battle. There are bodies littered everywhere, and it pains me to see that several of them belong to my own underlings. This battle was costly, and I only pulled through by the skin of my teeth. I have no idea how I could have been able to beat this quest without the gear advantage that I have, and I find it hard to believe that many other Thief Lords would survive that encounter. Perhaps I should have gone for a combat build myself? Maybe the game developers expected me to? It might have made things easier, especially in these early levels.

I sigh. My game style may be unorthodox, but on paper, it’s viable. I know I will grow in power as I keep leveling, and my true power will only prosper when I finalize my skill development path. In the meantime though, I probably need to get used to struggling and losing underlings. I hate to see them die, but I know it will pay off in the end.

My eyes stop upon the Prowler who sacrificed his life to save me at the end, and a short pain of guilt shoots through my chest as I recall his final act. Shit. This game feels too real sometimes. It’s hard not to get attached to my underlings. We have been through a lot, and I know that I am ultimately responsible for anything that happens to them. A small part of me is actually glad my underlings can’t talk, or I’m afraid it would tear at my soul every time I had to see them die. They are good underlings, loyal to the bitter end.

It appears there is honor among thieves after all.