Chương 64: The Spare

The team instantly moved into a battle formation, with Oliver and Evan in the front and Luca and Catriona in the back. Evan did a quick check of his teammates' health and mana bars. Health looked good, but all of them had used more than half of their mana pools already. Evan had no idea who this man was or what skills he had, but he hoped he could be defeated with swords and arrows because their magical options were somewhat limited. Their enemy stepped out from the shadows.

His face was illuminated by the colorful glow that the many runes surrounding them gave off. He wore light black leather armor and black clothes underneath. His face, however, looked surprisingly… ordinary. He was young. Evan would've guessed he was around the same age as him, neither especially ugly nor especially handsome. In fact, if he'd encountered the man anywhere else but in the Vason estate's magical control room, Evan would've thought he had a kind face, maybe with a touch of nerdiness.

Evan trusted his instincts and tried his luck.

"We're just here to take the villagers home. We don't want to harm anyone. Leave us alone and we'll leave you alone." A wistful smile played on the man's lips.

"I wish it were that easy…" Evan felt Oliver's boring into him, but he continued with his diplomatic approach. The man hadn't attacked them yet, and Evan thought that was a good sign. A chance to get out of this fight without bloodshed.

"You're a Vason, aren't you? The last heir of the family? This... This used to be your home?" The man bowed his head slightly.

"Benedict Vason, pleasure to meet you. You're correct, I used to live here as a small child, but I'm not the heir. Just the spare." Another smile tugged at his lips, but his eyes looked full of sorrow, and his body language seemed more timid than aggressive. Evan stood close enough to sense his mana and get a general idea of his rank. He wasn't weak by any means, but he didn't seem eager for a fight.

"Listen, Benedict, I don't know how you ended up in this mess, but you don't have to do this. You look like a decent guy. I bet you're not really a fan of this Professor guy and what he's doing to the people in your dungeon."

"No, I am not a fan of him," Benedict Vason admitted, nervously glancing around. Evan wondered if this room was under surveillance too and, if yes, who was watching the conversation right now. Benedict took a deep breath and sighed.

"But it's not my choice to make. As I said, I'm not the heir, and I owe loyalty to the head of my family."

"And who is he? Can I talk to him directly?"

"To my cousin?" Benedict asked, eyebrows raised. He shook his head.

"You don't want that, believe me."

"Why not? Is your cousin the Professor? Are they the same person?" Benedict laughed a joyless laugh.

"They are most definitely not, but I've already said too much. Victor always says I talk too much, and I guess he's right. So enough talking. We need to fight now." Before Evan had the chance to say anything else, Benedict vanished into the shadows again.

"Shit, where did he go?" Oliver cursed.

"We should've attacked him when we had the chance." Catriona had an arrow ready and was aiming at the spot Benedict had last stood.

"He must have some kind of camouflage power. Be careful. He could be anyw—" Benedict reappeared from the darkness behind them, just for a split second, but it was enough to lash out at Luca with a purple-glowing dagger.

"Argh!" Luca whirled around, but Benedict had already disappeared again. The back of Luca's right arm was bleeding. A shallow cut, but a high-pitched ping alerted Evan to a status change. [Luca Kamanao has been afflicted with Septic Blood Curse]"That doesn't sound good at all. Luca, try to cleanse yourself," Evan said before he flung a [Comet Shot] into the shadows. The darkness lit up for a short moment, but Benedict was already gone.

Luca was able to remove the [Septic Blood Curse] from himself, but while he was busy, Benedict landed another hit. This time he nicked Oliver with his dagger. Luca cleansed Oliver as soon as he was done with himself, but just moments later, Benedict shot out from seemingly nowhere again. Evan tried to counter his dagger with his [Starlight Shield], but his opponent was maddeningly quick. His dagger sliced into his upper thigh.

Just a superficial cut, barely enough to draw blood, but Evan could immediately feel the [Septic Blood Curse] take hold. Not only did his health bar start to drop slowly but at a steady rate, he also felt… wrong. By the time Luca got to him to remove the curse, Evan was feeling clammy and wobbly-legged.

"We can't keep doing this for much longer," Luca said, keeping his voice low.

"I'm burning through my mana at record speed."

"Everyone stay together, guard each other's backs," Evan called out. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. His teammates quickly gathered around him, backs toward each other. They stared into the shadows nervously, hoping to catch a glimpse of their attacker. Even then, with everyone on high alert, Benedict shot out from the shadows and cut Luca with his knife again, forcing him to use another chunk of his mana pool to remove the curse from himself.

"Damn, he's fast," Luca cursed.

"The problem isn't speed. I could take him out if we could see him coming," Oliver said.

"His camouflage is shadow-based," Evan mumbled to himself.

"Guys, we need to light up the room." Catriona produced a magical torchlight, while Oliver and Evan pulled their glow orbs from their inventories. Oliver inserted a mana stone right away, but Evan tried something he'd never attempted before. Instead of using a mana stone, he channeled some of his own mana into the glass ball, using the same technique he'd used to activate his sword's runes. It worked. The ball started glowing and rose from his palm, taking position over his shoulder.

Unfortunately, the different light sources, combined with the dim light coming from the mana battery in the middle of the room, just made the interplay of light and shadows even more visually confusing. If anything, it made Benedict Vason even harder to spot. Evan threw around a couple more [Comet Shots], aiming in random directions, hoping for a lucky hit, but Benedict was too fast. Once or twice, Evan got close and caught a glimpse of his enemy, but he was gone as soon as he spotted him.

It was Oliver who landed the first hit. It was more luck than timing, but he managed to strike Benedict with his sword when he attempted another dagger hit-and-run attack on Oliver. It was only a glancing blow, but it was enough to draw a cry of pain from Benedict. He quickly retreated back into the shadows. Evan used the pause Benedict took to nurse his wound to formulate a plan. His eyes wandered around the control room and came to rest on the lamp-like installations on the ceiling.

They were inactive, but maybe they could be activated.

"Catriona, these pillars control everything, including the lights, right?" he whispered.

"Yes, theoretically." Her eyes followed his gaze and a tiny crease appeared between her eyebrows.

"You want to try to turn the lights back on."

"Exactly."

"You'd have to find exactly the right crystal, gem, and rune to activate." Evan glanced at the glow ball hovering over his right shoulder and studied the rune etched into its surface. He looked around and spotted dozens of similar runes spread throughout the room.

"What color is a Light affinity crystal? Have you ever seen one before?" he asked. He had only a very vague idea about how crafting or arrays or magic in general worked, but from what little knowledge he had, he assumed a Light affinity crystal shard would be involved in a system controlling the lights. Catriona seemed to be in agreement.

"I have. It's light yellow." That narrowed it down. Evan searched the room again and spotted about a dozen light yellow crystal shards with the right rune etched into them. The only problem that remained was figuring out which of those controlled the lights in the control room specifically. He ruled out all the ones that were currently glowing, assuming that meant they were active. That left him with three. One of them was in the pillar closest to them, two more were in a pillar at the opposite end of the room.

"Cover me," he said before he started dashing toward the first pillar. If he wanted to activate all three switches before Benedict figured out what he was trying to do, he needed to be fast. He reached the pillar before any of his friends had time to react. By the time Catriona had loosed her first arrow, aiming close to him to deter Benedict from attacking, he had already pressed down on the button made from light yellow crystal material.

The rune started glowing, so at least that part of the process was simple enough, but the control room lights stayed dark. Evan quietly cursed and continued to the next pillar. He was sprinting as fast as his legs could carry him, but it wasn't fast enough to escape Benedict. All he saw was a dark violet flash, and then he felt a terrible pain in his right leg. It started as a dull ache but escalated with every step until Evan was groaning in pain. [You have been afflicted with Necrosis].

Evan silently cursed the past leader of the Vason family, who thought it was a splendid idea to equip every member of his house with a goddamn plague affinity. He kept hobbling forward with gritted teeth, but he was losing function in his leg rapidly. By the time he finally reached the pillar, he had to stand on one leg and bite down on his lip hard enough to draw blood to keep himself from screaming in pain. His eyes teared up against his will, making finding the right buttons to press a struggle.

In the end, he just slapped buttons randomly, trying to stay upright. Behind him, he heard yelling and the sound of a sword hitting against stone. After half a dozen desperate attempts, one hand holding onto the stone pillar to keep himself upright, he finally found the right button. The overhead lights turned on and flooded the entire control room with warm light. Evan collapsed to the ground. All his self-control was used up, and he screamed in pain, clutching his leg.

His vision was starting to go black at the edges. He was in too much agony to check his health bar, but he could feel the effects of the curse well enough to be able to tell it was dwindling fast. And then Luca was by his side, crouching down next to him. He ripped open his pant leg, revealing the rotting black flesh underneath. It was a disgusting sight, and the smell was even worse.

Evan was sure he would either faint or throw up, or possibly both, until Luca held his hand over the spot where the curse had entered his body. Cool water ran along his tormented leg, and slowly but surely the pain subsided. Evan managed to prop himself up on his elbows while Luca worked on him, lips pressed together in concentration. The room looked smaller now that the lights were on and somehow also less magical and more like some IT department's server room.

Oliver and Catriona stood a few feet away, and at their feet, Benedict Vason cowered on the ground. His shoulder was bleeding where Oliver had struck the first time, but he also pressed his hand against a stomach wound. Catriona had an arrow ready and was aiming at Benedict, while Oliver held his sword to the man's throat.

"How is he doing, Luca?" Oliver asked without taking his eyes off Benedict.

"Can you heal him?"

"I'm okay," Evan croaked. He still felt shaky, but his leg almost felt normal again, and he could watch the black areas of necrosis shrink smaller and smaller.

"Took me four tries to get rid of the curse, but I did it," Luca said with pride.

"He'll be as good as new in a few minutes, but my mana pool is almost completely depleted." Evan summoned his spare set of clothes from his inventory. Luca pulled him back to his feet and helped him change out of his ripped pants. The inside of the fabric was soaked with a dark, smelly goo, so Evan just tossed them aside. With all that valuable loot they'd already collected, he could buy more pants than he could wear in a year, so there was no point in holding on to the stained, damaged garment.

He pulled on the new pants and carefully tested putting weight on his leg. It still felt sore, but nowhere near as bad as before Luca had worked his healing magic. A bit wobbly, he walked over to Oliver and Catriona, who still stared daggers at Benedict. Evan looked down at the man.

"Now what shall we do with you?"