Chương 31: Card Trick

Evel's posture slumped, the sharpness in his eyes draining away like water through a crack. The strategist vanished, replaced by a man trembling with frantic, wide-eyed desperation. He slightly lifted his crossbow, reminding Allen of his threat without being mistaken as attacking.

"Wait! Stop! My weapons!"

"What?!" Allen's biggest worry right now should be if Evel decides to fight him without caring for Bremin's life. After all, that was probably smarter than giving up his weapons and allowing Allen to kill him anyway, regardless. Allen looked extremely nervous. His friends had died, he was outskilled, and Bremin's aura constantly pushed up on his sanity. He likely had expected them to be far more injured from the fight than they were. Evel quickly picked up on this and decided to throw Allen a bone.

"Like my friend there! I can only deactivate it under certain conditions! P-please spare me!" Allen hesitated, and before he could reply, Evel continued.

"I need to throw away my weapons, all my weapons!" Without a weapon and abilities, Evel wouldn't be a threat. At least that's what Evel hoped Allen would think.

"Then do that!" Allen snapped. With a controlled but shaky breath, Evel slowly kneeled down on the ground and gently placed his crossbow beside him. Then, he slowly stood back up and then lightly kicked it away. Yet Eth hadn't been deactivated. Allen's grip on his knife tightened. Evel reassured him.

"Just my cards left! They also count as my weapons!" He began taking his cards out of his pouch. While doing this, he quickly glanced to his side to see the state of Diana and the eagle. The eagle had fully recovered from the crash and was carefully watching Evel closely from atop a branch. And Diana… Diana was on her knees, grasping so tightly onto the earth that it ripped out. Her veins bulged from her forehead as each breath was released as a wheeze. Yet her eyes were not those of someone who had lost.

Her eyes were fully focused on Evel, with an intensity that caused him to involuntarily gulp. She had positioned her arms to prevent Allen from seeing her expression. She remained still as a statue as she drilled into Evel with her vision. She looked furious, but her focused glare made clear the anger was not directed at him. Evel looked back at Allen, pulling the ace of spades out from the top of his deck. He revealed it in a dramatic fashion to Allen.

"This card is my ability."

"Cards?"

"Just this one." Evel slowly brought the card towards his right side, keeping it at shoulder height. Allen's pupils dilated as he watched the card with focus, a knife held at Bremin's neck reminding Evel that any suspicious movement could cause Bremin's death. Evel shifted his eyes to meet Diana's for a brief moment before he raised his hand a bit higher, until he found the back of his hand slightly warming up. He let go of the card, and at the exact same time, dismissed Eth as well. Evel held his breath.

Allen's tense body relaxed. The eagle straightened up. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Allen's eyes remained fixed on the card as it fell from Evel's hand. As the card dropped, the backdrop behind it was revealed. This was a trap he had set for the panther. Mara's polished reflective amulet was placed high on the branch, positioned by Eth to perfectly reflect the sun at the back of the ace of spades.

With the card falling through the air, the reflected light had a new target: Allen's focused eyes. He winced, instinctively raising his forearm up to cover his face from the blinding light. For this singular one moment, Allen had shifted his focus from Evel and Bremin to the sun. Unfortunately for Allen, one moment was all Bremin needed. He slammed his elbow into Allen's stomach and easily ripped the knife from his hands, beginning the counterattack.

Allen, staggering back, attempted to pull out another knife, but before he could reach his belt, Bremin was upon him. Bremin's blade whistled. Allen's arm spun away, leaving behind not a bloody stump, but a bloodless, polished sphere. Allen leaped to his arm and instantly absorbed it back into his body, but Bremin was relentless. Allen's movements were jittery and uncertain. He had still not understood what had happened. How everything had gone so wrong.

Bremin didn't give him the luxury of figuring that out and attacked. Allen's arm flew off. Then a leg. Next, his torso. Allen continuously jumped to his cut body parts, but the speed of the reattachments slowed, Bremin never allowing him a moment of respite. Allen's eyes filled with confusion and desperation as he looked for any opportunity to mount a counterattack. Despite his desperate movements, the hopelessness in his eyes revealed that he understood the reality of the situation.

Bremin was simply stronger than him, and this time, he didn't have an ambush. Death was inevitable. Allen's Energy dwindled as he suffocated in Bremin's oppressive aura. Allen's mouth fell open, but he couldn't produce a sound. The sword let out one more savage whistle. This time, Allen's head flew off, but rather than the smooth balls that were able to be reattached, a wide arc of blood splattered the surroundings.

The head rolled away slowly, and Bremin turned to join the other fight that had been going on, not giving the dead man a second look. The moment Bremin had begun his counter attack, the eagle lunged towards Evel. It soared high above Diana and plunged down with immense speed. Evel didn't have his crossbow, and his Energy reserves were low. Despite this, he wasn't worried. He remembered her intense glare. Diana's intense glare. Mid lunge, a knife slammed into the eagle's wings.

The eagle swerved awkwardly in the air, trying to stabilize its body. Before the eagle could recover, another knife quickly followed up, this time jabbing it in the throat. An explosion of Energy burst out from the eagle, and it plummeted down into the ground. It never reached the earth, fading away into Energy along the fall. At the same time, a small rustle came from the forest, Evel turned to Diana, who was already on one knee, with her bow fully drawn. Her bow was aimed into the forest at the recent rustling.

Her stance was awkward, and her body leaned subtly towards her right side. But her eyes showed absolute focus as she remained deathly still. The forest had gone silent. Evel looked into the forest, looking to spot Allen's accomplice. The silence was broken by a snap of a twig, small enough to have easily been mistaken for a small animal, but Diana didn't show a moment of hesitation as she immediately fired her arrow. The bowstring sang, a sharp, metallic twang that cut through the oppressive silence of the woods.

The arrow streaked through the air, piercing through the leaves, before hitting a body of mass Evel hadn't even seen.

"ARGGGGHH!" A loud male yell resonated in the forest as the mass got pushed forward, but before the body could hit the ground, another arrow pierced it mid-air, pushing it further forward. The first arrow was slowed, and the second was sped up. He never had a chance. The body slammed into the ground with a thud, but before anything else could happen, a third final arrow pierced the body, and all movement was silenced. The battle was decisive. Diana fell forward, flat on her stomach with something akin to a groan.

Evel didn't relax yet and quickly ran over to the body Diana had sniped, crossbow in hand. As he approached, he slowed his pace. He nudged the body lightly. No movement. He rolled the body forward, revealing a pale young man with eyes devoid of life. Evel jerked his body to Bremin, who was walking towards Diana with fresh blood on his shirt. The immediate danger was gone. Evel slowed his breathing as the adrenaline wore off. His mind finally got a chance to think.

Instead of a sense of achievement or gratitude for surviving another day, he only felt a sense of defeat. Was Diana really right? Was he supposed to throw away his morals? Evel didn't know. This could have just been an unlucky situation or a disaster waiting to happen. Bremin and Diana's lives had been in danger because he wanted to spare Allen. On top of that, he had never filled them in on the fact that Allen had been lying. Even if he wasn't sure, he should have at least told them, right?

Even worse was the frustration. The frustration of not knowing what the right thing to do was. Every option he had felt dissatisfying. He just didn't know what to do, and had nobody to guide him through it. He extinguished these emotions. Before anything, he had to apologize. He had made a fatal error, one his allies had almost paid for with their lives. Evel walked back, approaching the entrance of the cave where Diana remained flat on the ground, face down.

He opened his mouth to speak, but before a sound came out, Diana interrupted. She faced away from him, towards Bremin, who was walking back from his fight.

"Did I object?" The words Evel had planned felt stuck in his throat. Diana repeated once again, "Did I object to sparing Allen?"

"No."

"Then fuck off." Evel swallowed, resting in the silence that followed her words. He weakly nodded.

"Ok."