AbadomWriter

Fall of a Criminal

Added 2022-08-25 22:09:46 +0000 UTC

------------------

/A few minutes later…/

/CLANG!/

"ARG!" Dix exclaimed as he was sent rolling down the rocky ground

"Haa… Haa…"

'He breathed deeply, exhausted, his face pale, he had lost too much blood.'

'Even though he had used a potion on his arm by luck, that was only enough to close his wound, stopping his blood loss.'

Is there something... Anything?!

'He raised his head slowly, he didn't have that much strength anymore.'

"Shit! BUNCH OF..."

/Grrr…/

'Dix turned to the side, seeing the muscular Gargoyle looking down on him.'

'The monster raised its claw high, ready to rip him to pieces…'

How disgraceful, to die at the very hands of these beasts I once tore apart as Hazor…

Perhaps this was my fate, I rather die here in the Dungeon then in the hands of this disgusting Curse.

'He closed his eyes, his expression serene.'

'Dix never regretted his actions, he ripped apart both people and monsters alike, all for the sake of his cruel desires.'

'Something that started as a method for him to keep his Curse at bay evolved into a pleasurable activity… That was when Dix lost all Humanity if he ever had any, to begin with.'

'A monster in Human skin. Perhaps this is what all descendants of Daedalus are.'

/BAM!/

"Stop it Gros, we need him alive." Lyd said as he grasped Gros' hand

"LYD! This is what I've been waiting for! The man behind it all, the sneak head, the fucking bastard!"

"Gros…"

"He's right." Silver said as he approached them from the backlines

'He was holding an Amazon, she was unconscious but alive.'

'Behind him were the three weapons he collected, floating behind him.'

/Thud…/

'Silver threw her on the ground without a single shred of care, saying:'

"Gros, does it matter if you enact your revenge now or 2 weeks later?"

"For now, we need to collect information, and he can only do that while he's alive."

"After that is done... It's up to you."

I can't promise anything on the Guild's instead, so I'll stop at that.

"Huh?... I suppose I can… Hold it for a little longer." Gros replied as he calmed down

'After this operation, Gros' perception of Silver took a complete change.'

'He now respects this little Human, enough for him to trust him and listen to him.'

'His revenge had been completed, and no one was lost.'

'When he starts to think about the casualties he would've incurred had him rushed forward… Or if he wasn't here…'

'Simply gazing at the many tools around, he understdood that they would've had a bad time without a doubt.'

"Urg..." Lyd said as he clutched onto his stomach

My injuries aren't healing... What is happening to me?

'Gros approached him concerned, Lyd's injuries weren't serious, but they didn't stop bleeding...'

"You've been cursed." Silver replied

"Cursed?" They asked in unison

"Just like there are magic items, there are Curse items, objects that cause debilitating effects on someone else at a certain cost from the caster, normally being the destruction of said object."

"The most common form of Curse is unhealable wounds and I bet a few of the adventurers here had some sort of Curse object or item, and in the midst of the Chaos, you were probably cursed without noticing it."

'He grabbed Dix's spear and showed it to them.'

"This is a Cursed Spear, I don't know what'll happen if you get stabbed by it, but better if we don't find out no?"

"Dammit... Is there a way for me to heal? Not only me but everyone else?..." Lyd asked

'He was concerned, not only himself but the others around him as well.'

"There are, special items that can cure minor Curses and people that can do the same."

"The problem is that for the first option, I can't guarantee that the Curses will be dispelled, while the second option is unrealistic to be performed..."

"Besides, both options would take a while to..."

'Silver was suddenly interrupted.'

"You all want some tips? I can give it to you… For a penny." Dix replied with a bloody smile

"You think you can negotiate with us?" Gros replied deeply, angry

"Ow there, I know my position very well… But man… I wonder if you know yours?" He mocked the monster

"You…"

"Stop it, don't fall for his weak provocation." Silver replied

"Ahh… The reason why all of this fell apart… One of the recent rising stars… I didn't expect to meet you like this to be honest." Dix said with a sly smile

"Is that so? I would've preferred to never meet with you."

"How cold… But are you sure…"

/THUD!/

'Instead of hearing him spew shit, Silver raised his index right finger and blasted his face with a black dart, sending him to sleep.'

"Did you?..." Lyd asked

"No, I just sent him to sleep because he was starting to annoy me…"

"In fact, we should get ready, we need to move as soon as possible." He said as he looked around

"Move?" Lyd asked as he scratched his head

"Are you satisfied with just these people, when just above us there are another group?"

"!"

'Both Gros and Lyd frowned.'

"We need to be fast, as soon as the other group comes, we'll move."

"Right, there are still more bastards for me to beat up." Gros replied with a nod

"For now, we need to keep these people alive, so start patching them up before they kick the bucket." Silver said as he pointed at the adventurers fallen on the ground

"Not only that... We need to do something about your state, if we leave you all like this you won't last a day." He said as he waved at Lyd and Gros

"Although you're right, how do you plan of fixing us?"

"For now, let's do this..." He said as he pointed at a chest wound

/Freeze!/

'The wound on his chest froze, it wasn't bleeding anymore, but that was but a temporary solution, one that would cause more harm than good on the long run...'

"Ouch!" Lyd exclaimed as the coldness reached his bones

"This will have to do, first, let's clean this place, I'll think of a solution."

It's too dangerous to play around whith these people nearby...

'Everyone nodded, they started to grab the adventurers, healing them with weak potions or with Silver's healing magic.'

'He also used this time to heal all of the Xenos to full power, or at least, the most he could since some of them had been affected by the Curses.'

'After this, as he did with Dix and the Amazon girl, he threw a black dart towards each adventurer, incapacitating them for the next few hours.'

'This black dart was filled with a potent paralyzing toxin he developed, a lethal Plasmid that he normally didn't use as it wasn't very useful in direct combat.'

'In general, he would want to fight his enemy by using his body and maximize his gains, or the fight would end too quickly for the venom to work at all…'

'It wasn't an eficient Plasmid...'

'And albeit doing all of this drained him quite a bit of Mind, he had a few Mind Potions available from the Ikelos adventurer's stash.'

'In total, from the 34 adventurers inside and outside of this cavern, 12 died, 10 suffered heavy/fatal injuries, this included Dix who lost his arm.'

'While the rest received mild amounts of damage, such as Gran that had his leg snapped in half by Silver and the Amazon.'

'The survivors would be taken to the Guild for investigation; what the Guild would discover with this wasn't exactly Silver's concern, although he would try to keep himself informed.'

'Lastly, they recovered quite a lot of Curse items and objects, some of which Silver discreetly kept to himself…'

'Lyd asked Silver about these items, and to it, he further explained what he knew about Curses and the likelihood of the Ikelos Familia having access to a Hexer.'

'A Hexer is like an Item maker, or better put, a Magic Sword Maker.'

'They apply Curses onto objects, like how Blacksmiths create Magic Swords, thus creating a Curse item.'

'Such information is extremely important as Hexers are 1000 times rarer than item makers, perhaps in all of Orario, there are less than 10 if not a single active Hexer.'

'Besides, deeming this quantity and the quality of the Curse items, he was bound to be a very proficient Hexer…'

'With this conclusion, the Xenos revenge could be said to have been closed with a golden key…'

'The plan had been incredibly successful despite the great risk they suffered there.'

'Why? Because if not for Silver's support and intervention, the moment Dix activated his Magic, the tide of the flight would've changed to their favor…'

'Originally, the plan was very simple.'

'Silver would scout ahead and determine their position before they found out theirs.'

'With that, he would teleport a group close by and take out the guards silently and quickly, this was probably the most important part of the plan as if they were discovered early, they would lose a massive chunk of their advantage.'

'In the end, Silver ended up leaving this for later, doing the next step first…'

'According to his plan, after eliminating the guards with the help of the Xenos, he would scout inside and determine the number of enemies, the location of their supplies, and where the hostages were located.'

'With that noted, he would notify the Xenos inside so they could prepare to escape amidst the chaos, but that was changed when he realized they were incapacitated…'

'Still, Silver gave each of the Xenos a potion secretly via teleportation so they could heal and burst out while the chaos was let loose.'

'Following this, he would teleport another ground inside the cavern, causing chaos as the adventurers would try to figure out what was happening, while in the meantime, the outside group would rush inside and pick off on however was on their way.'

'And this was where his plan came to an end… At least the one he told the Xenos.'

'He knew very well that Dix would forcibly use his Curse, and he told the Xenos that it was likely that they would use their hidden cards and that they should be ready…'

'Silver used this chance to attack Dix, but failed as the latter evaded to the side, losing his arm in the princess.'

'He then stopped the Ikelos Familia from using their Curse items while forcing Dix to retrieve his Magic as if he didn't, he would die.'

'There were many holes in this plan, but it was flexible enough.'

'Silver considered being extremely sneak and using his abilities to conceal all of their movements…'

'He considered poisoning everyone.'

'He considered simply teleporting inside and taking the hostages first, basically trapping the Ikelos Familia inside with no cards.'

'There were many ways to approach this scenario as his abilities allowed him to do so, but he is satisfied with how things went.'

'This leads us to the final section of the plan, and that was taking out the reinforcements of the Ikelos Familia on the 18th floor.'

'There was nothing that said to Silver they existed, but he was over 90% sure there was one such group there, considering how cautious and thoughtful Dix was, he was bound to have several plans ready for action.'

"Okay!... It worked." Silver said with a smile as he saw Lyd's wounds heal

"B-But it hurts!" Lyd exclaimed painfully

'After a few tries, Silver found a way to cure the Curse, and that was to completely remove the Cursed area...'

'If it was on the skin, he would remove its suroundings and even a part of the muscles, and heal the rest with potions...'

'Of course, this only worked due to his precise control of his Plamids, otherwise, they would have to stop and wait for a solution from the Guild.'

"... Thank you... Adventurer Silver." Gros said in a slightly gentler tone

"No worries, now, come here, you need to recover too."

"..."

"Ha! Are youa friad Gros? Go on!" Lyd replied with a sly smile

"I'm not afriad! Do it!" Gros asked loudly

'Silver rolled his eyes and started the procedure while the other Xenos retreated in fear...'

"URGGG!" Gros exclaimed in pain

'The only sound in the cavern were the Xenos' cries of pain...'

'When they were done, they sat down and healed, resting their fangs as they waited for the backline group to arrive…'

…

/A few minutes later…/

"They're here." Silver said as he raised his head, stopping his rest

Took then long enough.

'All of the Xenos in the room reacted.'

/Fwoosh!/

'The wind moved, the sound of wings flapping echoed all around.'

'It was Ray, and as soon as she saw everyone, she let out a breath of relief.'

'She opened her mouth to say something, but Gros intervened:'

"Not now, we need to move, there are still some left."

"Wha…?"

'Ray was confused, but to that, Silver gave her a quick debrief:'

"We successfully rescued the hostages and captured the Poachers, but there are still many out there, we were simply waiting for you all to arrive."

'Ray was still slightly confused, but she nodded, she understood the gist of it.'

"Ray, wait for us here, we'll be back soon." Lyd said as he got up from the ground

"Let's go!"

'He exclaimed loudly, rallying the same group as he ran outside of the cavern.'

"What are you doing?" Gros asked as he saw Silver stayed behind

"If you take so long, I'll take them all for myself." He said as he left the cavern

"..."

'Ray smiled slightly, but she didn't say anything.'

'Silver looked at her and shrugged slightly.'

"You heard him, duty calls me."

"Be careful."

"Always been." Silver said with a small smile as he teleported out

'The other Xenos could only watch as their friends left, they didn't know if everyone would come back, but from the bottom of their hearts, they wanted to believe so.'

'For now, they occupied their minds with the unconscious adventurers on the ground.'

…

/In front of one of the many entrances to the 18th floor…/

"It's here." Lyd said as he looked at the dark stairs

"According to the map we reassembled, this is the secret entrance they were planning on using, their reinforcements should be here."

"..."

'He seemed tense.'

"Is something the matter?" Silver asked

"I've never been this close to the surface before." Lyd replied as he crossed his arms

"Really? That's surprising."

"It's too dangerous, the concentration of adventurers keeps increasing the closer we get to the surface, especially here on the 19th floor, we never know when we'll meet with a team descending from the 18th floor."

"Tread lightly everyone, we'll be retreating if anything out of the norm happens…"

'All of the Xenos nodded.'

'They started to carefully walk, Silver right behind them.'

'He offered to go first like before, but Lyd said that they wanted to resolve this themselves.'

'They couldn't rely on him to solve their own problems, especially a matter they started out of their own accord…'

/Shine…/

'As they reached the other side of the stairs, a bright light shone on their face.'

"It's… So big." Lyd said as he looked around

"I've only heard of stories… Ray would've loved this place…"

"No, she would've hated it." Gros replied with a frown

"Seeing all of this open space yet being forced to remain hidden…"

"You're right, Ray would've… Felt really conflicted." Lyd said as he shook his head