PART 2/2
“Oh well,” Xhag’duul shrugged. “I was looking forward to killing them in front of you, but I guess I’ll just have to settle with seeing you scream in agony.”
He raised his hand in a familiar motion—he was about to try and use that Inferno ability on ! Before he could, I dashed forward in a desperate attempt to keep him occupied. One, two, three Rays of Frost shot from my hands, all hitting his body as I sprinted at him.
His hand continued to raise, his fingers closed together to snap, but just before he did, I tackled straight into him, body colliding with his in a rush of Dexterity-enhanced speed.
And it was like hitting a solid stone wall.
You have been slamd into sothing. 23 damage.
Your Health is 457.
My body crumpled up while he stayed completely still, not relenting or moving a single bit despite my best efforts. I heaved out a grunt from the sudden, unexpectedly-solid impact of what could only generously be called a “tackle.”
I stumbled back with a groan.
“You still don’t get it, do you?” Xhag’duul laughed. He took a step forward. “I’m playing with you. You’re a toy to . This is fun. What, you really think you can hurt ? You think you can stop from doing sothing I want to do? You think you can kill ? You’re even more of a complete fucking idiot than I thought.”
Crippling Chill’s tir wore off, and so did Sanguine Bond.
“Well?” he said. “What do you have to say? Got any grand speech? Last words?”
I stood up straight, looking into his eyes. He looked at . Then I rushed back at him again, recasting Crippling Chill right before I reached him in an attempt to catch him off-guard. But, faster than he’d been before, he sidestepped and slamd his fist into my back.
You have been punched. 61 damage.
Your Health is 396.
I stumbled forward from the sudden impact, falling face-first into the dirt.
“Holy shit!” Xhag’duul laughed. “You are trying so hard! It’s pointless, man! Pointless! There’s nothing you can do here. Total waste of effort.”
I got back to my feet, breathing hard. Fuck. Why was I doing this? He was laughing. Laughing! And judging from the damage he’d dealt, I knew he was going easy on . Like he’d said, he was a dog playing with an animal before he killed it.
I knew I was going to die. And I’d promised myself that, if I died, I wouldn’t let this asshole enjoy it. But here he was having the ti of his life.
What’s his Health at? I ntally asked Index.
“Uh…above ninety percent.”
I let out an exhausted sigh. Stamina?
“That one’s below ninety percent, but not by much. Closer to eighty.”
At least I’d made a dent. Still, seeing that his Stamina was still so high while my Mana—the main thod I had of draining his Stamina—was already below half wasn’t exactly encouraging.
He wasn’t immortal, sure, but my efforts to hurt him were clearly not working very well. I just didn’t have the ability to deal any real damage to this guy. And the harder I tried, the more he seed to enjoy it.
Though that did make sense. Every ti he fought in the past, he took joy in my suffering. He killed people in front of just to see how I’d react, he pretended to believe my lies just to see try and then burned alive afterward, and now he was letting fight in this sham of a battle just for the sake of the apparent hilarity of it all.
Or, no, not the hilarity. He was laughing, sure, but I thought back to when he’d first killed . He was upset. He was stressed, and frustrated, and mad at the world, and he wanted to see soone else feel the way he did. He wanted to upset , to hurt , to make feel hopeless, because that was what I’d inadvertently done to him.
So, to make him suffer, to make him look back at this mont and hate the mory instead of love it, wouldn’t I just have to show him it was impossible to make feel that way? Show him that his efforts were wasted?
I took a deep breath and, despite the physical pain and the emotional turmoil of knowing my ti alive was just about up, I laughed. And honestly, it was a pretty genuine laugh. It may have been dark humor, but my situation was still objectively funny. Soone as close as I was to escaping, losing my life now? After everything, all of the enemies I’d slain, and so asshole I’d never even t was coming to end it all. So I laughed.
Instantly, I could see so annoyance flash across Xhag’duul’s face. “What? What’s so funny?”
“No, no, don’t worry about it,” I said. “You wouldn’t get it.”
“What wouldn’t I get? Have you just gone completely insane, or sothing? Fucking dentia-ridden Humans. Maybe putting you out of your misery would be doing you a favor.”
“No,” I laughed so more, settling with a simple smile on my face. “I guess I just made my peace. I can’t control this stuff, so you win. You did well, and you deserve the victory. Good job, man. You’re strong, and you’re a pretty talented fighter to boot. It just makes sense that soone weaker, like , would lose to soone stronger.”
“W-well, yeah, that’s true.” He seed like he was trying to convince himself. “Yeah, it’s true. You’re weak and I’m strong. It’s ridiculous for you to resist. You’re a complete idiot for even trying, actually.”
“That’s fair,” I nodded. “I guess I’m a bit dumb. Maybe I was an idiot, but at least I realize now that I can’t fight fate. And I’m not doing sothing so hubristic as trying to claim my death isn’t fair anymore. I an, saying sothing like I don’t deserve this, when that’s just how strength works? It was pretty idiotic of , I agree. I do deserve it. Every last bit of suffering. So lay it on .”
Xhag’duul furrowed his brow. And I knew why. Whatever his situation was, he felt like we were in similar predicants. And he’d said countless tis how his suffering wasn’t fair, or how he didn’t deserve any of it. This whole ti, he wasn’t just trying to hurt , he was trying to goad into agreeing with him, by having say the sa things about my own life. All he wanted was soone to validate those feelings. And I refused to give it to him.
“Listen,” he said. “I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but it isn’t working.”
“What? What am I trying to do?”
“You’re trying to…get in my head, or sothing. This is just so mind ga to you. I know how you work. You trick people into helping you. That’s how you got those royal guards to spare you, how you got the Faeries to cure you, and probably how you got your two little companions to like you in the first place. You’re a fucking liar and a fraud.”
“I don’t really see how that applies,” I shrugged. “I an, I can’t really convince you to leave alone, can I? I have literally nothing on you. You’re above in every way. To assu that I could ever hope to escape your grasp, get out from under your thumb, take any sort of retaliation, that’d be pretty delusional of , right? Even if you spared , you’d just lord that over my head for the rest of my life. That I owe you everything. I don’t want to live in an existence so pathetic as one where I have to live every day worrying about what soone else wants to do, what soone else thinks of , worrying about if that soone else decides I’ve outlived my usefulness, and they want to kill now. I’d rather just be free.”
He snarled and began walking up to . “You know what? Sure. I think you have outlived your usefulness. Fucking asshole.”
I tensed up as I knew what was coming. But I couldn’t let the fear show. He’d just enjoy it if I did. “Sure. Go ahead.”
He grabbed by my neck and threw into a wall. Hard. Harder than he’d done before, apparently fueled by anger.
You have been slamd against sothing. 2.1k damage.
Dark Plate has triggered. Damage has been reduced to 240.
Your Health is 156.
I coughed out in pain as the Dark Plate crunched and took the blow for . At least, it took most of the blow. I was still left with quite a bit of damage, though.
I fell to the ground in the familiar scene, reminding of the first ti he’d killed . But this ti, I knew not to give him anything to cheer him up.
I looked up at him as I activated Regenerate, healing what I could. If nothing else, just to help relieve the pain. “Nice arm.”
“Shut the fuck up!” He scread as he approached . “Why the fuck aren’t you dead?!”
“Got a Spell. Pretty useful sotis. But feel free to try killing again. Should work eventually.”
“Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up! Shut the fuck up!” The Demon stomped his foot into the ground over and over, causing a localized earthquake in what could only be called a child’s temper tantrum. “You’re going to fucking die! Don’t you get that? Die. You won’t exist anymore. Are you so fucking stupid that you don’t understand that?! How can you not be afraid? How can you not want to avoid it? How do you think it’s fair?! It’s not! It’s not fair! I’m killing you for literally no reason! You did nothing wrong, and yet you’re still being punished for it! Wanna know sothing? It was my mistake that caused all of this. I was the one who didn’t maintain our prisons well enough for Temporus to get loose. And because of that, all of this happened to you. My mistakes led to your suffering. How is that fair?!”
“Well, the powerful get to choose the punishnts for the weak,” I said, trying to hide the fact I was gasping rasps of air through my lungs. I slid up, so I was at least sitting instead of lying on the ground. “I’m just not good enough to be able to defend myself. And it’s my fault for that. Even if you made a mistake, I still mishandled the situation afterward. And if you decide to punish for that, then you get to do so. You’re probably wiser than anyway.”
“You are so fucking stupid! You just don’t get it! How in the fuck do you not understand how fucking horrible this is?! What I’m doing to you is the worst thing a person could ever do to soone else!”
I just shrugged. Let it be over, I thought. The pain from hitting that wall, even with Regenerate, was awful. Maybe it’d get better in thirty seconds or so if I kept activating the Talent, but I didn’t think I’d be able to go that long without another hit. All I hoped for was that the hit would co before Dark Plate ca back. That way I’d at least die instantly.
But there was one source of solace from the pain. From knowing I’d disappear for good soon. From knowing that I wouldn’t, after all, get that kiss back from Erani. From knowing I’d leave Ainash with a dead parental figure a second ti. At least, even if I caused all that suffering to the people I loved, I’d get to cause all this suffering to the person I hated. It certainly wasn’t worth it—not by a long shot—but it was sothing.
“Fuck! You!” Xhag’duul scread and marched toward , fist clenched.
Guess this is it, I nodded to myself. End of the line.
But then, before he could reach , Xhag’duul exploded in a ball of fire.
…What?
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