Chapter 96

“That depends on what you want. It seems like Corbin’s leftovers don’t have any more fight left in them and they just want hostilities to end. It’ll be up to you whether you want to finish them off or not. But keep in mind if you do decide to keep going after them, Slyvia and I will bow ourselves out. I just wanted to lend you a hand seeing how you were outnumbered and on the defensive but if you want to continue, you’re on your own.”

It’s disappointing to hear that but I understand. I’m surprised he even showed up in the first place to help me considering we don’t know each other at all. I know his name but he doesn’t know mine and he still showed up to lend me a helping hand. Even though he might have misinterpreted why I helped the couple from earlier, Hawthorne’s still a good person in my books. 

Thinking it through, I respond to him, “I appreciate the help but I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep too well at night knowing I’ll need to keep an eye open for intruders. It’s better for me to eliminate all of them tonight.”

The boy’s face pales considerably and he takes a step back from us before turning around and running away. Hawthorne watches him run away for a moment as he mulls over my words before saying, “Like I said, it’s up to you. I’m pretty mixed about it myself and if I were in your shoes, I’d probably do the same. But I’m not and I have to keep Sylvia in mind regarding everything I do or I’d be willing to lend a hand. Anyways, good luck and happy hunting.”

Hawthorne starts walking back to his cave with Sylvia in tow waving his hand lazily through the air. I shout after him, “Thanks for showing up. I don’t think I told you my name but it’s Isaac.”

Hawthorne starts to laugh so hard that he has to hold his sides in pain. He turns back slightly and shouts, “I know your name. Everyone knows your name from your little show last night. I’ve been here for a long time and I’ve seen everything there is to see. You’re not even the first person to use a corpse to scare others away. At least you didn’t fuck it.” 

Did someone really fuck a corpse down here? Before I could ask him, he turned back around and kept moving. Sighing, I turn to look at Jonas and Jonathan who are standing at attention like we’re in the army or something. “Alright boys, it’s time to go hunting.”

Seeing them grimace in unison gets a laugh out of me. Jonas is taller than me by a foot or two and Jonathan is shorter than me by a few inches. Despite the height difference, there’s practically no other dissimilarities between the two. I go ahead and reassure them that none of them will be fighting. 

They’ll be helping me by finding the caves of Corbin’s remnants and holding torches outside for me as I finish my business inside. The moment the boy said their group further split up into two parts, I knew I had an opportunity I couldn’t miss. I don’t know whether this is right or not though. Although we did have altercations last night and this morning, none of them tried to take my life and they easily could have. 

I came pretty close to dying two times since I’ve gotten here and both times my enemies took pity on me and left me alive. In this situation, I’m the aggressor and I’m the one who escalated our conflict. But if this means I can eventually get out of here with my grand plan, I’d be willing to kill everyone else down here. Everyone. But I hope it doesn’t get to that point. 

Taking out the knife I stole earlier, the brothers bring me to a cave and tell me they think it belongs to one from Corbin’s crew. None of the caves down here are very big and could at most fit 10 or so fully grown men. Just by standing in front of the entrance with a torch in hand will light up the whole space. I guess the elves in the past didn’t want their slaves too comfortable in their pits. 

There’s only one person inside and he was getting ready for bed before he was bombarded by our torchlight. I guess he wasn’t one of the ones the boy warned before I arrived. Surprised, he reaches into the pile of rags under him and keeps his hand hidden there, watching me closely as I stroll inside. Seeing my lackadaisical intrusion into his cave, he snarls, “You’d best get the fuck out of my cave right this instant. I’ll count to five and if you’re still her- Argh!” 

A handful of dirt being tossed into his eyes interrupts his threat. He pulls his hand out from under him and waves a knife around wildly through the air as he falls backwards against the cave wall. His other hand goes to his eyes, trying desperately to get the dirt out of them to little avail. Waiting for the perfect moment, I dash right up to him and use my left hand to grab onto his wrist, wrenching his hand high up in the air, far away from the both of us. With the knife in my right hand, I stab him in the gut dozens of times until I can feel the strength leaving his arm. 

Taking a step back, I loosen my hold on his wrist and his body falls to the ground, bloody and lifeless. During our previous fight, I had to be satisfied with getting single hits because I had to keep moving and I couldn’t deal the killing blow but now that I have the time, I can make sure I finish my food. Walking over to the body, I rip the knife from its hand that’s still clutching onto it for dear life. Using the back of his shirt, I clean my hands and my knife thoroughly because I can’t have any mishaps as I clear out these caves. 

Walking out, I meet Jonas and Jonathan’s horrified stares and casually say, “Drag the body out and start a pile somewhere. We’ll bury all of them once this is all over to make sure disease doesn’t spread. Should stop them from coming back too in case any of them turn into undead.”

Neither of them say anything and only furiously nod their heads in agreement. Seeing them get to work, I carefully place the dead man’s knife into my pocket before refilling it with dirt, the handle just sticking out of the pocketful of dirt. Even though I still have three uses of Flash right now, I’d rather keep them in case of emergency. Once the brothers have the body by its ankles, we trudge along to the next cave. 

Including Corbin himself, Corbin’s crew had 13 people and by my count, there should be six left with the man I just killed. I’m not sure how the rest of his leftovers split themselves up and I kind of regret not asking the boy when I had the chance. Before long, we arrive at the next cave but we find it empty. Jonas and Jonathan have been here for months now and they should have a good idea of which cave belongs to who. Assuming they aren’t wrong, maybe this cave’s inhabitant received a warning from the boy or maybe he’s one of my victims from earlier. 

The brothers eventually find a spot of soft dirt and lower the body next to it. This is where everyone will be buried after tonight. With the brothers’ help, we search four more caves and only find one person out of all of them. The person we found tried to put up a fight by rushing at me the moment we got there but I was able to sidestep his charge and stick my knife right under his ribs on his left side. 

He howled in pain as he fell down and tried crawling away from me but I ended it all with a stab to his neck. The brothers were visibly paler than before and wouldn’t look into my eyes after that but they still followed my orders and kept bringing me to caves. After checking two more empty caves, a man covered in bruises limped up to us. I couldn’t recognize who it was but judging by how badly hurt he was, I wasn’t expecting a fight from him. The brothers weren’t of a similar mind as me and cowered behind me, sneaking glances over my shoulder. Rolling my eyes, I ask, “What is it?”

The man stares right into my eyes with a calm look and answers, “The last five have grouped up together in one cave, preparing for your arrival. I can bring you to them. I’ll try my best to help you as much as I can, but as you can see, I’m not quite fit for a fight.” Raising my eyebrow at him, I’m about to ask why he wants to help me but he answers my question before I even asked it, saying, “If it weren’t for you… I don’t even want to think about what would have happened to Ursula. You have my sister and I’s eternal gratitude and I’ll do everything I can to help you kill them all.”

Ohh, the couple. Well, I guess not the couple but the siblings. I wasn’t able to get a good look at him earlier and I wasn’t sure whether they were able to get away safely after I ran aw- left. But it seems like they’re alright. Shrugging, I tell him, “Lead the way.”

The brother leading us isn’t very talkative but I can see a deep sense of anger in his eyes. I don’t blame him. Who could? His sister was almost assaulted earlier and he couldn’t do anything because he was getting stomped down by six other people. It has to be frustrating. 

After walking for a couple of minutes, we arrive at a cave and there’s five men standing outside it, holding knives in their hands. There’s also five bodies adjacent to the cave entrance, leaning against the stone wall. There’s solemn expressions on the five men’s faces as they watch us walk up to them. When we’re about 10 yards away from them, my group stops and we stare at each other in silence for what seems like an eternity. 

I guess I’ll be the one to break the silence. Taking a step forward, I smile at them and shout, “It seems like you’ve prepared yourselves. Like I said earlier, tonight, one of us will cease to exist. The Pit isn’t big enough for the two of us. I won’t be able to sleep soundly knowing any of you are still alive and I’m sure every one of you feels the same way. Let’s end this once and for all.”

They don’t respond and instead turn to glance at each other, solemnly nodding their heads as if reaffirming their convictions. Once it looks like they’ve firmed themselves up, all of them start running at me as a group. This might be a tad harder than all of my previous fights but with three casts of Flash in my reserve, I think I’ll be fine. Turning to look back at the brothers and the man who led us here, I say to them, “Stay back, I don’t need your help.”

The man walks up instead and declares, “No, I’ll fight with you. Like I said before, I’ll do everything to repay what you’ve done for us. For better or worse.”

Blowing air through my nose at him, I turn back around and I’m about to start running forward when agonizing pain erupts from my left flank. My knees nearly buckle as I turn my head back to see what happened. The man, who I saved, whose sister I saved, is standing behind me with a blank look on his face and a bloody knife in his hand. Seeing me look back at him and my questioning eyes, he emotionlessly says, “I’m sorry.” 

Fuck me. Again?