Chapter 6: Fight or die

The hag clutched her bleeding eye, and managed to get away from Lucius, her black mist going back around her and disappearing. She snarled at him, baring her teeth.

"You are a traitor," the hag screamed, preparing something worse than the black mist.

"I am a survivor," Lucius told her calmly. His skin, what little was left of it, hurt. His open wounds bled freely. Yet, the only thing he needed to do to sever the hag's mana connection to her mana was to destroy her other eye.

He clutched the dagger, and charged again. Only to slam into a wall. His eyes narrowed.

"You won't have any time to regenerate," Lucius snapped, as the hag gave him a mocking smile.

"You won't be the last to say that to me," she promised him. As if she had told others these words before. Lucius touched the barrier, and began to flood it in his mana. Searching for a weak spot somewhere.

The barrier was a simple nature one, which was to be expected, considering that the maker of the barrier was a hag. She had mixed water and earth mana in the barrier. Lucius smiled, and began to pour mana into the water aspect of the rune.

The barrier began to weep water out of itself. The hag's eyes narrowed, and she pressed her hand to the barrier as well, strengthening the earth aspect.

It was a battle of endurance. A battle against time. If the hag managed to pull through, and drain the vampire of his mana, then she would only need to be up against his physical prowess. Yet, the rogue had been in such battles before. This hag was not getting the best of him.

With a roar, Lucius used half his mana in one go, and forced the barrier to crack. Water going up to his ankles. Then, he slammed the dagger into one of the cracks.

The barrier broke, and the hag backed away, until her back was to the vault's door. For the first time since she had become a creature of darkness, she felt fear.

Lucius was not the type to toy with his prey. He rushed to her, and slammed his dagger into her one remaining eye. Then, he tore it out, and slammed into the other one. Just in case.

The hag screamed, as Lucius forced her on the ground. With sure hands, Lucius brought the dagger down at her chest, intent on carving the heart out.

Only to feel a pain in his chest. He looked down, and saw a dagger in his flesh. There was something green dripping out of it, and he slummed down on the ground. His dagger falling by his side, his body twitching uncontrollably.

"This won't kill you," the hag spat out some blood from her mouth, and got to her feet. "Few things will. But it will buy me time."

"I doubt it," a voice called from the end of the tunnel. The hag turned her sightless eyes in the direction of the voice.

"And, who might you be?" She snapped. She was in no shape to fight, yet, she knew that she must.

"Guild master Yima, at your service," Yima did a bow, even though he knew that the hag wouldn't be able to see him. "You caused quite the stir in my guild. I am here to put an end to that."

The hag began to back away. She didn't have mana as long as her eyes were regenerating. Her poison dagger was inside the vampire's chest, keeping him down. Her back to the vault's wall, the only thing she could do was snarl.

Yima approached her calmly and dodged her clumsy kick, which was followed by an equally clumsy punch.

"You hags are strong only as long as you have tricks up your sleeves," Yima commented, as he slammed her to the floor, and took out a dagger. "But you don't seem to have any left. Good job, Lucius."

Lucius tried to nod, then another surge of pain ran from his stabbed chest and down his body. He groaned, and forced his hands to listen to him, as he heard the sound of a dagger go inside flesh, and the screams of the hag.

Lucius took a hold of the dagger, and small blades appeared around the handle.

"Darn hag," he managed to get out, as the sounds of someone being force-fed filled the tunnel.

Despite the pain, Lucius got the dagger out, and his twitching stopped. He managed to catch the last moments of the hag, as she was forced to gulp down the last of her heart. Her reflexes betraying her and killing her.

Their eyes met, and he saw that hers had regenerated. They were pleading, and Lucius decided to place the final nail in her coffin.

"We are not alike. We never were," he told her, and the hag finally gave up the fight. Yima closed her eyes, and then severed her head. Just in case.

"Well, that would be that," the guild master said, cleaning the blood off his hands on his cloak. "Lucius, can you stand?"

"Sure, just give me a second," Lucius got up on shaky legs, but stumbled. Yima caught him, and slung the vampire's arm around his shoulders.

"How did she know about the vault?" Yima asked, more to himself than Lucius.

"We might have a mole," Lucius confirmed the elf's fears.

"It could be any of the adventurers. Or, the personal," Yima mused. In the coming days, he would need to screen them all.

"Or, it could have spied on us. Normally, hags are not given to a three-man party," the two made their way out of the tunnel, the traps not activating anymore.

"I have to call in the cleaning staff to fix this mess," the reception room was covered in blood and the furniture was upturned. "You and Andrew did well to stall her."

"He will get the full regeneration treatment, right?" They both turned to see Harold and Beth waiting by the door. Clearly having returned to shield their teammate in case the hag returned.

"Must you ask? He is one of our own. We leave no one behind. That is the Orestria adventurer's guild motto," Yima told them with a grin. He saw that Harold had stopped Andrew's bleeding. "Harold, take care of Lucius here. After that, make sure that he and Andrew end up in the hospital wing."

The two conscious members of Golden Leaf party gave their guild master bright grins, and got to work. All the while, Yima wondered how the secrecy rune on all the personal, adventurers and civilians included, of the guild had been broken. And, why.