“[I will admit, that plan was very clever. But your chances of winning are still slim. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t be holding back any longer.]”

Hel was rambling on and on about not holding back this or that, but Kayden didn’t care. Now that the buffs on Ryan were gone, he stood a much better chance than he did before. He could do this!

He drew six throwing knives, three in each hand, and threw them wildly in Ryan’s direction. Ryan, noticing what Kayden was about to do, quickly reached out to grab him.

But it was too late.

In a flurry of motion, Kayden lifted himself off the ground and activated his invisibility spell. Drawing more knives from his belt, he began charging toward Ryan with reckless abandon.

His legs were too injured to do any maneuvers, and his stamina had completely run out. The only thing that pushed him forward was sheer willpower and a faint hope that he might just be able to do this. Now that Ryan couldn’t see through his illusions, his arsenal of spells just got that much better.

Gritting his teeth and bearing the pain, Kayden thrust forward with the knife using his entire body weight. The knife was jammed straight into Ryan’s side and punctured his kidney, causing him to yelp in pain. But before Kayden could twist the knife or do anything else, he was forcefully shoved off.

Even in his weakened state, Ryan was still physically stronger than Kayden.

Frustrated, Ryan leaped onto a tree and dug his claws into the trunk, allowing him to stay out of Kayden’s reach. He then reached into another pouch of his and pulled out a spell orb…

[-18!]

Ryan felt a sharp pain as a knife sliced through his hand, pinning it firmly into the tree trunk.

“Argh! You’re annoying!” Ryan spat. He quickly wrenched the knife out to free his hand, but almost immediately after, three invisible knives stabbed themselves into his other limbs, causing him to lose his grip on the tree and fall.

As he fell, even more knives embedded themselves into his body from many angles, and Ryan couldn’t tell which direction they all came from. Before he even reached the ground, he already looked like a pin cushion.

Just like that, one small, simple mistake, and the tables were turned on him quite drastically. Ryan nearly despaired as he thought of all his hard work going to waste. Placing so much effort into catching a runt only for him to slip away again and again left a particularly bitter taste in his mouth.

‘Crap! And I was talking so much shit earlier!’

He even began having second thoughts. Why on Eden did he need to go this far? For petty revenge? Since when was he like Brandon, chasing after vengeance so recklessly? He wasn’t even in it for the loot, or the fame, like Zhang, so what could possibly spur him on to do something like this?

And just as he was having these doubts, he heard a whooshing sound that snapped him out of his reverie.

A red spear came zooming by his head, and the sound of flesh being struck could be heard, followed by a loud, splattering of blood.

Ryan crashed heavily into the ground. It hurt, bad, yet he was still relieved…

Zhang’s party had arrived.

“Oi Ryan! Having trouble with this little pipsqueak?” A familiar voice called out.

Ryan opened one eye and chuckled.

“You’re one to talk. You had your shit kicked in last time.”

Brandon stepped up and offered a hand to Ryan, which he gladly took. After managing to stand on his own two feet, mostly thanks to his naturally enhanced regeneration, he was pleasantly surprised by the scene that unfolded before him.

None of his teammates were badly injured. In fact, they were relatively unharmed. The only unnatural thing about them was how weirdly muscular most of them were, an effect that everyone had used their spell orbs to obtain.

Ryan walked up to the bald, muscular man. It was all thanks to this guy that they obtained such obscene power from mere spell orbs.

“Sir Ronald! Your powers were a blast to use!  Never have I felt so liberated while fighting in hand-to-hand combat!”

He received a dumb grin in reply.

“Don’t talk to him right now.” Zhang warned, “His ability is far more potent than what we got with the spell orbs. Naturally, that means that his rationality’s not all there.”

Hearing that, Ryan cautiously stepped away, reminding himself to leave the berserker alone for a while. He could have gone to rest, but instead, he made his way to his incapacitated opponent, pulling out the knives embedded all over his body. He made nothing more than a slight grunt as he pulled each of them out, his wounds closing very rapidly.

Surrounded by enemies on all sides with no allies in sight, Ryan couldn’t help but think that it was all over for the thief. If Zhang’s whole party was here, that could only mean a one-sided beat down for the opposing party. As for the thief’s current state…

Blood stained the entirety of his body, dripping down from his soaked shirt and cloak as bloody tears formed at the corner of his tightly-shut eyes. A trembling hand clutched his damaged shoulder where even more blood was pouring out, forming a small puddle as it flowed freely. The puddle of blood wasn’t completely Kayden’s, in fact, most of it came from Xue Hai’s blood magic, though that knowledge didn’t make him look any less pitiful. With such severe injuries, there was no longer any hope for him to escape.

“So you’re the Kayden-fellow everyone is talking about… Not looking too good, huh?”

Zhang spoke to him directly, yet the only response he got was the sounds of teeth grinding against each other. A man with bandages wrapped around his face, Xue Hai, giggled at the side.

He was the one that dealt the wound on Kayden’s shoulder.

“Too shocked to respond? Or perhaps you’re just in too much pain. No matter, just know that if you’re waiting for help to arrive, you’re going to be sorely disappointed.” He patted Kayden’s head, as if comforting him, and continued,

“We took care of all of them already!”

Again they waited for the thief’s response, yet were only met with disappointment.

Zhang sighed.

“Well, since you’re not going to entertain us, guess we’ll just have to kill—”

“W-why…?”

At last, Kayden spoke. Zhang’s eyes glazed over as if he was thinking deeply about this question, then quickly responded,

“Why? Because… you…” Zhang blinked for a bit, as if confused. Though as quickly as it came, the confusion faded from his face. “You have been a huge pain in the ass during the recent events. Oh, that reminds me… hand over the true map! We didn’t find it on any of your allies’ bodies.”

“W-why?”

Kayden merely repeated his question.

“…What?”

“What… must I… sacrifice?”

“Huh…? Err…” Zhang scratched his head. “The map. You need to sacrifice your map. Your allies’ aren’t dead if you’re wondering. So there’s no point taking this secret to the grave unless you want us to have them join you.”

“I… won’t… I won’t do it…”

“You won’t do it? Really?”

“I won’t…”

“Well then, guess you don’t care about your friends’ lives as much as I thought!” Zhang raised his crossbow and aimed it at the thief’s head, but before he could fire it, Kayden opened his eyes. Strangely, even when basked under the crimson glow of the moon, his eyes shined a bright blue.

Those glowing shifted over to Zhang, though not without visible struggle. His lips parted slowly as he spoke his first coherent sentence.

“Will… you let us go…?”

“Hmm? Well…” Zhang trailed off as he looked at Brandon. He wasn’t sure if the barbarian still wanted a duel with the thief. But since their collaboration was founded upon a deal to catch him, Zhang would first honor their agreement before he could make any promises to Kayden.

“No no no, the others can go, but the thief stays! I still need to teach him a lesson, after all!” Brandon declared threateningly.

Zhang looked back at Kayden.

“Well, you heard the man. We’ll spare your allies, but your fate rests on Brandon’s shoulders. Now tell us where the map is!”

“Will I… die…?”

Zhang clicked his tongue in annoyance.

“How many questions do you want to f#cking ask? I’m starting to think that you’re not going to comply.”

Ryan sighed. Things were getting nowhere, and he too was getting fed up with Kayden. He had sustained some injuries during the battle and was eager to get some rest already, yet now that same runt who gave him those injuries prevented him from doing just that.

“Look, just give up already, all right? Your fate isn’t yours to choose anymore. Whether or not you die shouldn’t be of concern to you,” Ryan bared his teeth and leaned in closer, his voice now just a barely audible whisper.

“You get to save your friends, so shouldn’t you be grateful? No need to be so greedy, just settle for less, and we’ll make your death painless!”

“… I see.”

Their surroundings suddenly turned cold, and the glow in Kayden’s eyes only shone brighter. He drew a long, deep breath and exhaled a mouthful of cold air, a bone-chilling whisper escaping from his lips.

“Then die.”

***

Kayden wasn’t going to use it, or at least, he wasn’t planning to.

“[You don’t have a choice! Use your full power and you’ll be able to make it out alive.]”

Hel’s voice sounded distant and muffled as he struggled to move even a single inch of his body. He was experiencing a throbbing headache, and the wound on his shoulder hurt so much that he wanted to let out a scream. But even still, he gritted his teeth and kept silent.

Good things came to those who wait. As long as he stalled for time, an opportunity was sure to arrive for him to take advantage of. And when that time comes, he would have the last laugh. Indeed, patience was one of the only virtues he had.

“[Sigh, you’re not listening, are you? I’ve already thought of a way for you to get out of this situation. You’ll need to kill a few people, but you don’t have any other choice now that things have gotten this bad. So are you with me or not?]”

Kayden laughed internally.

‘No other choice? There’s always a choice. I simply have to wait until my teammates come to rescue me.’

Well, that was assuming they were all alive…

“We took care of all of them already!”

His worst fears were confirmed by Zhang, and it shook him to his very core.

‘But that’s impossible! Our party’s so powerful! They won’t lose so easily!’

“[I’ve already told you this. Your party was wiped out. If you want to save them all, you’re gonna have to listen to my advice!]”

Kayden ignored Hel’s words. He still couldn’t wrap his mind around how his party was defeated. Even if the opposing party was beefed up thanks to some spell orbs, Cathy could dispel those effects in an instant. Not only that, but there were also the traps they had set up, and both Ezekiel and Aisha were outstanding leaders. If anything went wrong, those two should have been able to think of a solution.

‘So…'

“W-why?”

“[I’m not Ezekiel, I can’t see exactly what happened so far away, but I can give you my best guess. Cathy was the first one to get knocked out, and seeing as how Louis isn’t tied to a tree like the rest of your group, I’m 90% sure he has betrayed the party.]”

‘Louis? Betray the party?”

“W-why?”

“[No idea, but you should have seen this coming. He’s a pirate, and pirates aren’t the most trustworthy of people. Judging from how Brandon joined in the battle soon after, even when he was supposed to have been bound by Alice’s fire magic, it is very likely that Louis cut Brandon free, contributing to your party’s downfall.]”

Hearing this, Kayden got mad. He gritted his teeth so hard that they nearly cracked from the amount of force he was exerting. He wanted nothing more than to strangle Louis by his neck and gouge out his eyes. To think that he trusted that damn pirate!

“[…Are you mad? …Do you want vengeance? Then stop holding back already! Didn’t you say it yourself? You won’t use this ability unless times are desperate, and only as a last resort… Looks like the perfect time to me.]”

‘…It really seems that I have no other choice…'

He struggled to get his voice out of his throat.

“What… must I… sacrifice?”

“[Heh, it seems that you’re warming up to the idea. You won’t have to sacrifice any of your allies’ lives, since they are quite far away. The only lives you will take are that of your enemies…]” There was a hint of amusement in Hel’s voice as she then proceeded to ask a question that she already knew the answer to.

“[Unless you’re worried about the act of killing itself?]”

Kayden chuckled internally. His mind was made up. Since when did he ever care about his enemies? Like the goblins he had slayed, they had family too! But just for chump change he slaughtered them all.

‘This power that he had sealed away for so long… I am going to unleash it. Consequences be damned!’

He was going to kill every last person who wronged him.

No. His mind received just a brief moment of clarity.

“I… won’t… I won’t do it…”

‘What the hell am I thinking? Human lives aren’t anything like that of a goblin. What gives me the right to steal it?”

“I won’t…”

He had to confirm it. Confirm that what he was doing was truly justified. Only then could he have peace of mind.

“Will… you let us go…?”

He didn’t like the response he received. Brandon had made it clear that he wouldn’t be able to leave.

“Will I… die…?”

“[Oh you almost certainly will. If you are to fall into their hands, even if you aren’t dead, they would make you wish you were.]”

“… I see.”

Kayden could see Ryan’s face directly in front of him, his atrocious breath breathing down on his face. He was not going to show mercy.

“Then die.”

[User is using tier 3 spell: Sub-Zero Dominion]