Chapter 137: Murder She Wrote

Chapter 137: Murder She Wrote

“Soon,” a voice called ahead. “Fucking creeps, though. Glad we’re leaving this shit hole.” Erec crouched with the rest of the group. The voices weren’t far away. A hatchet in his hand as they pushed aside books to glimpse their targets.

Not that it was hard. Seven-Snakes didn’t have the same level of caution. He couldn’t know there were people tracking him through the maze, either. They’d snatched some of the floating candles from above and used them as a source of light. But Colin’s ‘pathway’ wasn’t as accurate as they hoped.

From what Erec and the rest of the group could tell, Seven-Snakes was three rows over. Close enough to follow and hear, but until the maze intersected, if it did at all, they were out of range.

Climbing through the shelves in Armor was out of the question. And Erec doubted Boldwick wanted them to go into a battle without it against untested targets.

“Hard to tell their numbers...” Rochester mumbled, his voice loud enough for the clustered group to hear, but quiet enough for their enemies not to perceive.

It was hard to make out how many of them there were this far away. Combined with unreliable lighting and two sets of shelves blocking the line of sight...

“Enide, do the thing,” Rochester said.

“What?” Boldwick asked.

“Shhh,” Rochester waved him off.

Erec’s gaze shot over to where Enide last was; shortly behind him. The girl had been looking for different opportunities to mess with him. But she was gone. This was the moment she’d been waiting for the whole time. In an instant, he knew...

“I didn’t authorize anything,” Boldwick argued.

“Yes, yes. You’re also not the ones charged with capturing these snakes. Sir Boldwick, I mean no disrespect, as you’ve gotten us to where we need to be and I hope have made good friends. But I didn’t set out into the wasteland counting on the help of Knights. You’ll have issues with these barriers, no? We will not, and I will not risk Seven-Snakes hearing a wrong step with us tailing him forever, and then escaping us.”This chapter made its debut appearance via N0v3lB1n.

“So you’re taking over?” Boldwick stared the man down, and for once, Rochester didn’t withdraw. The ink all across the Pendragon leader’s skin crawled, twisting as he met the Knight’s gaze.

A smile flashed across Rochester’s face. “I’m saying that for this, we’re fine to work the way we have for years before we’ve met your Knights, and how we shall be once we part ways. Understandable? You will stay here, and we’ll go get our bounty.”

Boldwick went silent. The Pendragons were already shoving aside books and clearing space through the shelves. Erec couldn’t spot Enide at all, which gave him a sinking feeling in his gut. Gone, like a gust of wind on the words of her leader. All of them were reacting to what Rochester told them—it shouldn’t be surprising, since the Pendragons weren’t beholden to the Knights, but the dramatic shift was unwelcome.

“Find her,” Erec whispered to VAL.

[I’ll do my best. You know, I’ve been trying to determine her exact method of doing that. Something about it rings familiar. For now, though, we’ve yet to detect her.]

It was easy when it was him giving his life to slay a horde of machines. Every time it was him on the front lines, there wasn’t a worry in him. But when he thought of Enide fighting—or even when Garin or Colin put themselves at risk, that same bit of him twisted up. If they had to fight, he wanted to be at their sides, to kill the biggest threat out there. There wasn’t any way Boldwick would let this stand. He’d tell off Rochester and get involved, Erec was sure of it.

“Very well.” Boldwick pulled back, setting his hands behind his back. “If you have need of us, we will attempt to reinforce.”

The poor bastard slumped to the ground, half of his face missing, with his brain sloshed out of the hole. Enide wasn’t done with him. She grabbed the body and threw it between her and another bullet, before leaping backward; once more displacing the air and then vanishing.

It wasn’t like Soren’s, her Talent was better. Unlike a misdirection, Enide had some form of teleportation. But not how he expected. The ease with which she did so, and how she had to shift her momentum to vanish, likely meant something.

She twisted, vanished, shot, killed, and only moved faster each time.

With every ‘vanish’ she came back more precise and took more Rifts. Erec watched her leap off the shoulders of one, nick their gun, and then shoot another thug in the gut. Simultaneously, she tossed her sidearm through the air, then reappeared right before it hit the ground, rolling and shooting someone.

Were it not for Q.A.P. Erec wouldn’t have been able to track her rush through the battle as the pace only increased.

And to cope with fighting her, the entire group of thugs focused on taking her down, trying to predict her movements, but... She was only a distraction. They didn’t notice the rest of the Pendragons close in next to them, pushing free books to take aim through the shelf. It wasn’t apparent that Enide wasn’t alone until the Pendragons fired. Suddenly, not only were they dealing with a deadly girl moving too fast to counter, but they had to survive a sudden firing line.

Seven-Snakes was on the tail end of the fight. The girl he’d captured dived to the ground for cover.

Some of the wiser thugs followed suit, throwing themselves low and their weapons away. A sign of defeat as they tried to surrender what had revealed itself to be an outright slaughter of an ambush.

The Pendragons wouldn’t need help. They’d secured victory without the Knights.

But they hadn’t captured their target. Seven-Snakes took a few steps backward, his legs sinking into the ground, until he disappeared, consumed into the shadows.

Erec took off; ignoring Boldwick and asking what he was doing. Seven-Snakes would resurface. And he’d do it somewhere where he could understand the Pendragons. With each step, more of Fury poured through Erec. His instincts pulled him down the tunnel, slamming books free from the case to see.

Until he saw it. A rising body from the darkness. Seven-Snakes had reappeared down the way from the Pendragons and leveled his gun to fire.

Erec shoved more books aside, and flung his hatchet through the space in the shelves, hoping that with enough power, he might stop him from killing someone.

Enide appeared as the hatchet spun through the cases, grabbing the weapon out of the middle of the air, and giving Erec a wink. She vanished.

Seven-Snake’s finger was on the trigger. Yet as the gun discharged, the barrel flew wide. Enide’s foot collided with the weapon, having reappeared with a kick—she turned as she moved, taking Erec’s hatchet and slamming it into Seven-Snakes’ gun arm, causing him to drop the revolver and cry out in shock and pain.

Already his bottom half was merging with the shadows again. This was where he’d run for good.

Enide jerked the hatchet out and then smashed the back of the weapon into his head. With a crack, Seven-Snakes hit the ground, his eyes glazing over. Enide leaped on top of him, pulling out a pair of manacles that glowed with glyph-work and securing them on the man’s wrists.

With that, she’d ended the fight. There was still gunfire as the Pendragons took out the thugs still trying to fight back, but soon enough, they were going through the shelf to secure their targets.

It was over.

Erec let out a sigh of relief, watching Enide toy with his hatchet. She gave it a spin in her hand, tilting her head as she did so. It left Erec wondering. If the two of them were to fight, who would win? Would he even be able to hit her? Not even the Q.A.P. could predict where she appeared.