Chapter 52

My left hand automatically grabs a handful of dirt when I hit the ground and I instantly toss it the next second. I’ve gotten incredibly good at tossing dirt, especially when I’m on the ground, and it shows when both Reed and his guard cry out in pain when they both get dirt in their eyes. I immediately swing my right foot at Reed’s crotch while stabbing my sword into the guard’s nether regions. Reed cries out in pain and trips over the other guard’s corpse as he tries to back away blindly, falling to the ground.

The still living guard howls in pain, dropping his sword and dropping to his knees as his hands futilely try to stop the bleeding. That was a mistake. As I’m standing back up, I plant the bottom of my right foot into the guard’s chest, sending him sprawling on top of Reed. Before either of them can get their bearings back, I circle my way over to Reed and plunge my blade into his chest, piercing his heart. His bloodshot eyes staring at me in shock as he takes his last, shuddering breath. Warm tears spill from his eyes and roll down his cheeks before wetting the dirt beneath his head. One more.

The last remaining guard tried crawling away from me as I watched Reed breathe his last breath, his mutilated groin leaving a grisly trail of blood underneath him. However, he’s not allowed to leave my range without my permission and I pull my blade from Reed’s body before severing the tendon in his left ankle. His agonizing screams as he stops crawling and turns over to look up at me are music to my ears. His pale lips silently mouth his pleas for mercy but when he sees me smiling down at him, he sobs even harder and tries to crawl away again but like I said before, he’s not allowed to leave.

After I reverse my grip on the sword, I bring it down on his right leg, piercing the blade all the way through his thigh, and stabbing the sword’s tip into the ground underneath. I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone screaming this loudly before in my life and I’ll be sure to commemorate his memory in my dreams. I shut up his screaming by bashing the edge of my shield into his teeth. His head whips backwards and bounces on the ground twice before coming to a stop. His muffled groans are much easier on my ears as I straddle his chest.

When he realizes what’s happening to him, he opens his eyes and pleads for me to stop with his jumbled words and groans. I suppose it is difficult to speak while missing half of your front teeth. I shush him and gently caress the right side of his face with the back of my right hand. When it looks like he’s calmed down and thinks I’m going to let him go, I bring down my shield’s edge on his face again.

Once, twice, thrice, I lose count after the 20th blow. The entire time the left side of my body was hurting terribly but I just treated it as muscle pain as if I was working out my left arm. That helped a little, I think. Looking at the remains of what used to be a person's face, a smile blossoms on my own face. I gently caress the right side of the pile of flesh in front of me with the back of my right hand as I get back on my feet.

Once I’m on my feet, I pull out my sword and check on my wound. It’s a deep cut right under my ribs that’s still bleeding but I should be alright. When I look around, the battle’s still raging on although it’s much more one sided now than ever before. Most of Reed’s men are trying to get their valuables and leave while Derriv’s men are cleaning up the ones still fighting.

Looking off to the side, the mage in the brown robe is on the ground, exhausted and terrified. He flinches when I look at him which earns a laugh from me. What a long night. My bloodlust is pretty much sated from handling the guard and the mage doesn’t look like he’ll be fighting back anytime soon. I hang my sword over my right shoulder as I walk over to the mage and every step I take towards him, his terror intensifies to the point that he’s shivering in fear before me. When I reach him, I squat down while staring into his eyes, “Magic boy, magic boy, magic boy. What have you gotten yourself into?”

His voice is higher than I expected but it actually matches his face pretty well and the fear in his voice matches the dread on his face too, “Please. Reed just hired me last night to make a hole in the walls. I didn’t know whose walls they belonged to. You have to believe me. I’m sorry I used Roots on you, but he would’ve killed me if I didn’t. Please, just let me go. I’ll leave and never show my face around here ever again.”

I don’t respond but just stare at him with a smile on my face. I thought about killing him but what’s the point? I guess I sort of wore myself out with the guard and with the catharsis I’m feeling right now, I’m content with both killing him or letting him live. Both choices are about the same in my mind.

What do I get from killing him? He did try to kill me albeit somewhat indirectly. I could say I killed a mage which is pretty cool, not everyone can say that. I can have whatever he’s carrying on his body but it doesn’t look like he has much on him.

What do I get from letting him live? I guess a clearer conscience? It does seem like Reed hired an outside party just for the assault on the compound and it doesn’t seem like he’s with Midriver’s Finest judging by how nervous he seemed the entire time I saw him. I don’t know, both options seem fine to me. Maybe I’ll ask Bertrand about what I should do with him. Oh yeah, Bertrand. “Can you heal with your magic?” I don’t fucking know how magic works.

His eyes seem to beam when he hears me asking this and nods his head rapidly, “Yesyesyesyesyes. Are you hurt? I can cast the unrestrained nature attributed healing spell Rejuvenation once before I completely exhaust myself.”

What the fuck did he just say? “What the fuck did you just say?”

He winces at me cursing at him. C’mon, I’m not that scary alright? Though he probably did see me fucking around with the guard a few minutes ago. That’s just me blowing off steam and enjoying myself a little bit, alright? “I apologize, I’ve spent the last few months studying magic alone in my room and those terms are embedded in my head right now. Rejuvenation is a healing spell from the nature category of magic. It’s only a rudimentary rank spell which means I can only cast it in an unrestrained manner. This means I can heal minor cuts or wounds but anything too severe or complex will require a healing array along with a restrained casting of a moderate rank spell or higher.”

I think I understood half of those words he just said. I’m going to ask for Wraine’s book on magic when we’re done here. “So you can heal a wound to the leg right?”

He seems to be floundering with his answer, not because he’s trying to lie to me but because he’s trying to be as technically correct as possible, “Yes, if the wound isn’t too deep then I should be able to heal it.”

Alright, that makes that decision. I’ll keep him alive, for now. I have him stand up and pat down his robes for any weapons but he doesn’t have anything on him. I have him walk in front of me heading towards the building Quinn and the others are in. I don’t lower my sword from my shoulder as I saunter behind him and if he does anything, and I mean anything, slightly out of the ordinary then I’m sinking this blade halfway through his torso.

When we get to the building, I don’t see Quinn at the window before we get inside and head upstairs. When we’re at the door, I knock twice before Quinn opens it with a questioning gaze, his axes ready to take the mage’s head off, “He’s a healer and Bertrand needs a healer.”

Quinn takes a moment to look over the blond mage and when he sees him shivering like a leaf in the wind, he steps aside and says with his gruff voice, “One wrong move and your head’s gone.”

The mage steps past Quinn, his entire body trembling. I follow right behind him, enjoying myself quite a bit at this whole farce. When I walk by Quinn, he looks into my eyes and pats me on the back hard, causing me to stumble a step, before saying, “Incredibly dumb of you to risk yourself like that but you did a hell of a fucking job out there. Wouldn’t have ever thought about using coins to throw Reed’s men into disarray like that but always knew you had a good head on your shoulders. Glad you’re a part of Candle and glad I took a chance on you boys a month ago.”

This is probably the most emotional I’ve ever heard Quinn and I don’t want to ruin the moment with anything excessive so I only say four words back to him, “Thanks Quinn, for everything.” He blows air through his nose before slamming his hand on my back, making me wince in pain. I’m fucking injured over here, guy.

The mage walks over to the bed Bertrand’s on and he looks much worse than when I left. When Ilya sees me, she runs over and latches herself onto my leg, whimpering quietly. I’m a bit caught off guard by her affection because she’s only known me for around two weeks now but nevertheless, I reach down with my left hand and pat her on the head. Mary comes forward too but stops a foot away from me, a bit more meek since she only met me last night. I pat her on the head too to show her everything’s fine. I’m alright. They’re alright. Everything’s alright.

The mage gets to work and turns Bertrand onto his side with Quinn’s help as he squirms under Quinn’s close supervision. He points his open palm at Bertrand’s wounded leg and chants that strange language once again. Hmm, if we keep this guy alive, maybe I can get him to teach me magic. I’ve always wanted to learn magic and Wraine found out there’s still a mages’ guild in Midriver but their costs are insane and to just check on someone’s potential and aptitude for magic costs one whole gold coin.

It feels like the more money we make, the more expensive things are. Or maybe it’s the same with Nestor’s smithy and we tend to ignore the expensive things and pretend they don’t exist. Either way, we do have a bit of money now especially with my wages for the night in my pockets.

The mage finishes his chant and turns Bertrand onto his back. I don’t know what I expected. I think I expected something instead of nothing. If not for Bertrand’s more relaxed face and the mage’s tired expression, I wouldn’t think he did anything. What was the spell called again? Rejuvenation? Rejuvenation of the natural branch of magic? Maybe the other branches of magic are flashier with their spells. If they are, I’d like to learn them instead. I mean, to me, magic’s all about flashiness right?

All of a sudden, I hear creaking right outside the bedroom door and my senses overload themselves as my body bursts into action. My body darts at the door as my hand reaches for the handle before turning it and then flinging it open as I swing down with my sword. The moment I opened the door and started my swing, I could hear Quinn shouting from behind me, “Isaac, wai-!”

He doesn’t get to finish when my sword clangs against another sword, the handsome middle aged man with dirty blond hair and matching beard wielding it widens his blue eyes in surprise at the sudden attack. The both of us look at each other in confusion as I slightly glance back towards Quinn for an explanation. But he doesn’t need to explain anything when Ilya runs up to the middle aged man and wraps herself around his leg, shouting, “Daddy!” Oh. Oh. That’s not good.

A gruff voice that sounds like it’s coming from someone who hasn't had any water to drink for an entire day speaks up from the bed, but at least Bertrand sounds lively, “Well, looks like you two have already gotten yourselves acquainted. Derriv, meet Isaac, one of our two newest members in Candle in the Dark. Isaac, meet Derriv, the founder and leader of Candle in the Dark.” That’s really not good.