Melissa slowly stood up from her kneeling position next to Liam.
“Gentlemen, would you be so kind as to leave?”
Her smile radiated the same false warmth she had always shown Liam, though perhaps more unsettling, given the lack of familiarity between her and the group of adventurers who had now interrupted her fun.
The adventurers laughed as they kept their pace of approach.
“And what’ll you do if we don’t, little healer? Cry?”
The tall, brown-haired adventurer spoke, his sword now fully drawn.
“Tell you what, you show us a good time, and we’ll let him off the hook. The entire altercation was your fault, after all; he’d never have overstepped, and we wouldn’t have been there if you weren’t there.”
The group followed the lead of the man, the very same one who’d tried to crowd her in the guild. They slowly fanned around the smaller party of two.
“It’s five-on-one. We’re higher ranked than you and the trash down there. You’re a healer all on your own. There’s nothing for you to do but step aside or give us what we want. It’s either you or him, sweetheart”
His buddies chuckled. The hunger in their eyes was very easy to see. Her smile faded away completely. The temperature in the boss-room dropped. They were not going to leave.
Perfect!
She had gotten slightly bored over the past few weeks. It was entertaining to watch others struggle against the odds, to witness the violence from the best seat available by being a healer. However, nothing beat trying to break them herself.
“Oh, I do believe we will have a splendid time, gentlemen. I hope you will keep your enthusiasm throughout the entire ordeal, little ants.”
The group came to a stop out of instinct. They had all felt the shiver, the same one all adventurers knew very well. It was the one that people got when they were stuck in a room full of danger. It did not make sense; they were in here with just a healer and a knocked-out trash adventurer. That was until she moved.
There was a horrible, wet shrrrip and then a crack that echoed through the room as the left arm of the leftmost man in the party got torn away from his shoulder. It was now firmly in her hand. Her smile was one of utter glee. The limb in her grasp melted into blood and was absorbed into her skin. None of them had managed to react at all; everything was far too quick. The man started screaming in agony as his mind finally processed what had happened. He fell to his knees, then started rolling on the ground, howling.
“I have not partaken in fun personally in a while; make this last a while. Do not give up, and I may let you pathetic ants remain as living failures instead of dead ones.”
The silent shock that settled over the men, except the one screaming in agony, was a veil of the heaviest kind. They tried to move, to form their ranks again. The adventurer instincts inside them were screaming for them to get back into their usual stances. They had faced monsters before, and won. This would not be any different. Follow the newest chapters on novelping(.)com.
Her eyes shone with complete predatory hunger. She willed the next action: no movement, no chanting, just a command in her mind meant to make the body of the blonde adventurer obey. His body started to bend and twist. His bones were cracking, as if being pulled forcefully into the unnatural shape by invisible strings. The sound that escaped his mouth was bone-chilling for the rest. For her, it was music.
“YES, break, scream.”
She was genuinely laughing, more than pleased with her handiwork on the two men. She started to walk towards the remaining trio.
“Show me what you got. Entertain me.”
She did not use her magic, did not go as fast as she had been with the other men. She wanted to savour this, wanted to see if the rest would fight until the bitter end and entertain her. She desired to see if they were as fragile as the one she had left to die a couple of days ago, or if they were like Liam: stubborn and unwavering, worthy of calling a toy.
The three quickly realised that there was no escape. If they wanted out, they would have to get through her. They attacked, as coordinated as they could have been given the circumstances. The largest of the three, heavily armoured and holding a shield, took the lead. The man whose arm she had broken in the guild for bothering her took an opening his larger companion created, thanks to his sheer frame blocking her vision. At least that was the plan. The sword halted as if it had struck solid iron. Her pinky had stopped it.
She pushed the sword and, by extension, the unpleasant man with a flick of her wrist. Dodging the mace swing from the shielded man and then caught the arrow fired by the furthest. She broke the fragile thing in her hand.
“That is it, fight back! Struggle!”
They did their best, kept pressing. She dodged, parried, and kept toying with them while their two comrades kept screaming in hoarse voices. It was clear that she was not trying to kill them, at least yet. She really was just playing with them as if they were toys, and she was trying to gauge how fun they were.
The armoured man threw a punch; she caught the arm. The steel surrounding the flesh caved in; soon the flesh followed suit. Metal, skin, and bone all shattered in her grip. Before he could even cry out in pain, she pulled back with a wicked smile, and his arm recovered; it was perfectly healed in just a moment.
“We are not done yet.”
The sword wing from the leader missed entirely; it was nowhere near her, even though it was supposed to have been aimed at her head. She was there one moment and then by the archer in the next. The man with the bow didn’t even try to fight back; his eyes showed no desire to fight back; there was only defeat. Her smile shifted into a look of disgust, and with a swipe she separated his head from his shoulders.
“Boring, useless. Just like the last one.”
Liam stirred by the dead boss, a telltale sign of his consciousness beginning to return. She could not have that. Her attention shifted to him for a fleeting moment, forcing his consciousness to remain gone for now, until it would not be inconvenient.
She turned towards the remaining two.
“You’re a monster.”
The large man blurted out. His voice betrayed his disbelief at what he was seeing and was perilously close to sounding defeated, like he had given up.
“Now that is just plain rude. Would you call yourself a monster just for stepping on ants? For watching them go about their routines and struggle? I think not. You did come in here to kill Liam after all; I am merely making sure he remains intact. I would not want him to break before he has given me every bit of fun he can. I want to see exactly how much he can take before his stubborn eyes change into your pathetic, defeated ones.”
She disappeared from the duo’s sight for a flicker of a moment. By the time she came into view again, her hand was thoroughly through the chest of the man who had just called her a monster. His heart was still beating in her grasp when he left the land of the living. The body dissolved into blood and was absorbed into her skin like that arm she had torn off earlier.
“You are no longer of use to me; you have no will to fight inside you anymore. You are boring.”
She turned towards the only man left standing; the apparent leader of the party. His eyes were those of defeated prey as well. He was no good either.
They all break so easily; they have no grit. They see a challenge and just roll over. How utterly disappointing.
She did not bother to finish him off with her hands. She just ordered his body to stop functioning, and it obeyed. She did the same with the men she had crippled earlier, dissolving every body except Liam’s and the boss’s into blood and willing every drop of crimson into herself. She made sure there were no signs of anything happening beyond the boss fight for when she would allow Liam to wake.
“Now, just to make sure you do not remember them entering.”
She slowly approached his unconscious body, kneeling by his side she lightly touched his forehead.
There you are.
She found the memory of the men entering and simply erased it. Her healing magic flowed into him soon after.
I will make you even stronger. I want to see you fight stronger things, harder challenges. Show me, little toy, exactly how strong your will is.
She let out a breath. Her face returned to the same false warmth she had always shown Liam. Her robes and everything else about her were yet again the perfection she had ensured he would see her as. Liam started to stir again. This time she would let him wake.