Chapter 14 - Steve's fireball (IAF)

“You stupid bastard,” Arleesa cussed, “And there I was taking you seriously, up until a moment ago. You're not a threat to me, you just want gold to spend on mead and prostitutes, yes, it's all clear to me now!”

“Prostitutes!?” Steve exclaimed, “I would never hire a single one of them, ever, don't confuse your demented sexual urges with mine! I want gold, because gold will give me all the power that I need, and in this world, a man needs power if he's to live well, or to just survive; Prostitutes are a luxury that only a fool would pay for!”

“Bla bla bla, spare me the poem.” She bit back.

Those were perhaps not the best words to say, because Steve was already angry. He was steaming mad, and within the lines of this occasion, he was reminded of just how much he missed his lovely wife, so his rage then doubled within mere seconds! He was almost manic now, so he shot that fireball against the other right away, without feeling even the slightest bit of guilt. This was the first murder that he wanted to commit wholeheartedly!

However, after the fireball hit the other, something really strange happened, it baffled him. Arleesa was alive, and she didn't have even the slightest burnmark on her person, regardless of how aggressively Steve had charged up the fireball prior to the attack! She was fine, even her clothes were unscathed.

“What the fuck!” Steve panicked.

Then, he shot her with another, smaller fireball, but that one was ineffective as well. Arleesa only giggled in the meantime, and in a sense, she felt immortal, just like anyone would feel if they were able to resist fireballs come to think of it, she was happy!

Afterwards, without much of a warning, she leaped up and double-kicked Steve right against the chest. Her legs were really powerful, so he was sent flying across the room, and had also heard a crack before he became airborne, so he feared that his ribs had cracked!

Steve then crashed through the room's wall, and he went through it easily, because it was made out of wood planks. He didn’t get stabbed by any piece of wood, thankfully, but all of the tiny splinters that he got, didn't really make him feel any better!

In the heat of the moment, he managed to stand up, and walk for a few feet, he felt quite a bit of adrenaline. He wanted to flee, since this was his best option at the time being, but seconds later, his legs gave up on him and he crashed on the barely covered, wooden floor. The adrenaline rush that he felt passed quickly, so now he had no choice but to succumb to the damage that he suffered, he was very close to falling asleep. If he dozed off now, then he may never wake up again, and this was an aspect that could not be ignored!

What happened so far was the worst case scenario in Steve’s eyes. He knew that Arleesa was dangerous, but he had been confident that she would never gain the upper advantage ever again, and yet he was proven wrong today within seconds! She won, efficiently, and afterwards she even started taunting Steve while he was in this barely-conscious state.

Arleesa tugged on a necklace of sorts that was on her, and then placed it outside her shirt just to reveal the necklace more properly. The necklace featured these several hard, dried out, peanut-shaped organs, and although that seemed extremely weird, she wasn't being psychotic here, no, these tiny organs had a grand purpose!

This was the best time to reveal their purpose too, so she squatted near Steve, jiggled her necklace around a little bit, and then she started harassing the other. Harassment was the tiniest damage she did so far.

“You know, I put this necklace on the moment I woke up… you know, after you slapped the shit out of me? You worthless bastard, did you really think that you'd get the best of me with a flaming slap? Or a fireball, now? I killed a lot of mages before, powerful mages, I have their mana chambers here to prove it, so there isn't a spell in the world that can hurt me right now, especially yours. You are an insect compared to them, and I should've worn this necklace sooner!” She said, and squeezed his jaw with her hand, just to keep him awake.

Steve didn’t care about most of what the other said, because all he cared for was survival itself. He understood that these ‘mana chambers’ on her necklace had somehow absorbed his attacks, it didn’t take much effort to figure that out now, and he didn’t really care for the necklace itself either, he just knew that he was in big trouble! Internally, he begged the system for any kind of help, but she was fresh out of options too so she couldn't do anything to help him get out of this.

Arleesa had taken Steve's dagger in the meantime, the same dagger that he had bought with the merchandise that he had stolen from her, and it seemed like she was getting ready to stab him. Her motives weren't a surprise, she had plenty of reasons to be angry, and murderous!

“Do you really know where the crown is? Tell me, and I might spare your life!” She then threatened, and pushed the tip of the dagger in his throat.

The sharp pain on his throat gave Steve a bit of his energy back, but it nearly didn't give him enough strength to fight back, he couldn’t. Instead, in that sour state, he racked through his brain for every lie in the world, and tried to find the most believable one to use here!

“I…” He tried to speak, but his words were cut short.

At that moment, the unthinkable happened! Two large men broke into his room, with swords on their hands, and demanded what every non-invited guest in this room was after; Steve.

“Is that Steve!? Our boss, Andrew, sent us here, and we were ordered to capture Steve alive!” One of them said.

“This isn't Steve, she's Sarah.” Arleesa answered, and kicked a few more broken boards over Steve, to hide his face.

“That's no woman, I can see his broad shoulders. Well, they're not broad, he’s a skinny bastard, but a man nonetheless!” The other, uninvited guest argued.

Arleesa felt incredibly threatened afterwards, well, her plans were threatened. She wanted to dig a few answers out of Steve, and she realized that it wouldn’t be possible now, because these couple of guys weren’t going to let up, they weren’t so patient. The swords on their hands signified that they meant business, they were dangerous, so she couldn’t fight the both of them.

“Fucking hell… I paid all that gold to catch this bastard alone, specifically because I didn’t want to deal with guys who had swords. I can’t fight these bastards, my necklace won’t keep my guts in place!” She thought to herself.

However, since her ego didn’t allow her to let go of Steve either, she thought of a blunt, alternative option. She made an offer to these couple of guys.

She asked, “How much gold can I give you to walk away? I can give each of you a couple of one-pounders, you can be rich by just pretending to be dumb for a single minute. You can tell Andrew that Steve escaped, I’m sure he’d believe you.”

One of the men smirked, and then walked forwards, calmly, which hinted that he was willing to take the deal. Things seemed to be going well for her for a few seconds, but this guy didn't want to cooperate, that was not the case.

The rough, rounded handle of his sword was a handy tool, almost a hammer of sorts. He spontaneously used the same handle to bash Arleesa right against the forehead, and in return she was knocked out cold, and she may even suffer a concussion soon because of that nasty blow!

“A pound of gold,” The attacker sneered, “She thinks that we’re as stupid as the city guards, haha! Cow.”

Anyway, Arleesa had a bag with her, where she kept a bunch of her things, including gold. When she fell, a couple of potions rolled out of her bag, and one of the guys saw it. Then, they saw that Steve was a bit too close to death, due to the prior wounds that he had received, so they put two-and-two together, and grabbed one of the potions in order to help him.

“Let’s hope that this is a health potion,” The man said, and took a tiny sip of it. “Hmm… it doesn’t have the best taste, but my knees are feeling surprisingly better all of a sudden. Here goes nothing then, we’ll try it on this idiot, it’s our best shot, because it’s unlikely that this is poison, since I’m still standing.”

Steve was knocked out cold by now, but they still made him drink the potion, they forced all of it down his throat. A minute later, Steve subconsciously took a deep breath, and they could feel that his heartbeat became a bit more regulated afterwards, so by all means, it was likely that he was doing fine now. That had been a health potion.

If Steve figured out that his enemies had tried to keep him alive, he’d be irritated to death by the thought of it. Regardless of how he started to like this world a little bit, he understood that death would’ve been a quick escape from the numerous and surely overwhelming, nightmarish aspects that this world had. He’d be free, but unfortunately he was saved, and worst yet captured, so this was the worst thing that could happen to him, by many means! No one could help him now either.

“Remember to take all the gold we can find,” One of the attackers said.