“His limbs,” Jessen repeated when Arwin gave no response. “Would that be sufficient?” “Why are you even offering that?” Arwin asked, taken aback despite himself. “I thought you were going to–” “Protect him?” Jessen’s smile twisted into the sneer of a snake. “I said I needed him, but I don’t need him moving. You seem like a competent man, and it would be a shame to kill you when we could work together instead. After all, if our grievances are settled, there is no reason for us to fight.” “Guild Leader, I–” Erik started, his face as pale as a sheet. “Be silent, lest we decide your tongue a more appropriate payment,” Jessen snapped. “The limbs or not, Smith?” He said he needed this cowardly asshole. Why would Jessen offer me his limbs in payment? There’s a trick. Rodrick warned us that Jessen liked playing with the people he killed, and I know how people work. I’ve seen it before. He’s going to try to use one of his rules to turn this against me without going against his fake moral code. So what is – “No,” Arwin said with a shake of his head. “I don’t believe it would.” “I will not let you kill him,” Jessen said flatly, but there was a spark of acknowledgement in his eyes. “If you seek Erik’s head, then I will be forced to kill you no matter how beneficial our future partnership could ever hope to be.” The only reason that worked is because he doesn’t see us as a proper threat and his ego is so big that he can’t admit to actually losing a verbal fight by killing me here and now. “How strong is he if he managed to knock your hammer out of your hand?” Lillia asked. “That’s terrifying. Definitely above what a Journeyman should be doing. He must be close to Adept tier.” “I wasn’t using [Scourge] at the time,” Arwin replied, shaking his head. “But it doesn’t change the fact that he’s powerful. That’s the first real Journeyman adventurer we’ve run into, and I agree that he’s probably toward the top of it. If anything, that just makes me wonder why the hell the rest of his guild is so shit.” “Something tells me we’ll find out,” Lillia said. “I’m not done with him.” “Neither am I,” Arwin said. “But we got Erik. Now the only one left is Jessen. I wish we could have gotten him too, but if we drew weapons on him tonight, we were dead.” “Almost certainly. Doesn’t make me happy about it,” Lillia said. “But I’ll sleep better knowing that Erik is rotting in the bottom of the Underlands.” “As will I. Jessen is going to be a dangerous enemy, but his time will come.” Lillia let out an explosive breath. “You’re right. I just can’t help but wonder what Zeke would think.” “I don’t want to put words in his mouth, but I suspect he’d be happier that none of us had died than he would be if we avenged him and lost half the group.” The last of the tension left Lillia’s body and she slumped. “Yeah. I don’t think any of us would want anything else. I suppose we did buy ourselves some time, and I think I’ll always remember the look on that smug bastard’s face when he picked up the dagger.” A small grin twisted Arwin’s lips. “Yes. As will I. Let’s go find the others. I need to tell them about what happened.” Guards meandered past Arwin as he headed down the street alongside Lillia, who kept to the shadows alongside him. Even though the guards were moving toward the Iron Hounds’ guild house, none of them looked all that concerned. If anything, it seemed like they were dragging their feet to avoid getting there too soon. Sad. They’re hoping the guild will handle the fighting for them. The guards here really are all talk and no show, but I suppose that worked to our advantage this time around. It’s still pathetic. Arwin turned a corner, then came to a stop. Rodrick, Reya, and Anna all stood at the exit of an alley. “How did things go?” Rodrick asked as Arwin approached them. “You weren’t in the area where you were supposed to be. Did Erik deviate from his trip home?” “Yeah,” Arwin said. He glanced toward where Lillia hid in the darkness, but he couldn’t make any of her features out. “It’s… well, I’ll tell you all when we get back to the tavern.” “That doesn’t sound good,” Reya said. She wiped some dirt from her cheek with the back of a hand. “Where’s Lillia?” “She’s right over there, in the darkness. She’s just keeping out of sight,” Arwin said, nodding to the patch of shadows at the edge of the alley. “Don’t worry. Neither of us were hurt. I assume you’re all fine as well?” “Nothing but a minor injury,” Reya replied. They all set off. The city was strangely silent despite all the chaos that had swallowed it just a few minutes ago. Arwin wasn’t sure if it was because nobody cared or if it was because they just all assumed the problem had been handled. Either way, he appreciated it. He didn’t quite feel like speaking anymore yet. They arrived at the tavern and headed inside. Lillia emerged from her patch of darkness, still barely visible as she made her way over to the lantern near the counter and lit it. Everyone other than Lillia lowered themselves into the mismatched stools lined up before the counter. “It’s done, then?” Reya asked. “All that’s left is Jessen?” Arwin wasn’t so sure he knew the answer to that question himself. He used [Arsenal], summoning his helmet and lifting it off his head. Arwin set it on the counter, running his thumb along the curling horns jutting out of its top. “Yes, but we can’t go after Jessen now. He’s much stronger than I thought.” “What?” Reya exclaimed. “How do you know? I thought–” “Jessen showed up to save Erik. He was powerful. If we’d fought him, we’d have died. Rodrick’s info on him was right. Jessen was trying to play games with us,” Lillia said, walking to stand beside Arwin and Reya. “He tried to bait Arwin into agreeing to let the rest of us get tortured.” “How’d he know we were going to go after Erik?” Rodrick asked, his brow furrowing. “Nobody should have been able to figure out what we were planning. I wasn’t spotted, was I?” “I don’t think it was you,” Arwin said with a shake of his head. “Relax. Everyone did their jobs perfectly. We were just up against an opponent who we aren’t prepared to face. I didn’t think Jessen would be as dangerous as he was.” “So… what now?” Reya asked, her voice quavering as her hands balled at her sides. “If you survived, did Jessen figure out who you are? Do we have to leave the street? And how did you kill Erik if this guy was so strong?” “Jessen knows, but he’ll stay away from us,” Arwin said. “And technically, I didn’t kill Erik. He killed himself. I just threw him a dagger.” Reya’s brow creased in confusion. Realization set in and her frown turned to a cold smile. “The bone dagger?” “Only has two charges left, unfortunately,” Arwin confirmed. “It was gifted to the Iron Hounds. It’s just unfortunate that they lost a man in the process.” “What about Jessen, then? When can we kill him? I bet we could take him if all of us–” “No. Relax, Reya. There’s something more important than throwing our lives away in revenge.” Arwin shook his head. “And that’s surviving to see it through. Zeke was murdered, but do you really think he wants us to follow him into the afterlife?” Reya’s face crumpled. “But…” “I know it’s painful,” Arwin said, softening his voice. “But you need to remember something. You can’t win every fight in the same way. There are times when your opponent is too powerful to just fling yourself against. A just cause does not win a battle.” “How do you know Jessen isn’t lying?” Anna asked. “He has no honor.” “Because he doesn’t just want to kill us,” Arwin replied, a vision of Jessen’s hungry eyes flashing through his mind. “He wants to win, and we can use that against him. He's pissed that we outplayed him, but I don't think his ego will let him just send someone after us. That's the same as admitting we actually beat him. He knows we'll come after him, so he'll just wait." “Why?” Reya asked. “That doesn’t make sense. He could just come after us now and we’d all die, wouldn’t we?” “He could. But he won’t because he’s an arrogant bastard,” Arwin replied. “And we’ll use that against him. He doesn’t see us as a real threat, and we’ll kill him one day because of it. Until then, he’s going to suffer knowing that he got outplayed by a mere Apprentice Tier.” “I understand. It really doesn’t feel fair that he gets to keep living while Zeke doesn’t, but I understand,” Reya muttered, staring down at her hands. “The only fairness in life is what our strength allows us to create,” Arwin said. “We won this round, Reya. Tix, Yul, and Erik are dead. They’re the ones that had a direct hand in Zeke’s death. And, more importantly, we’re alive. And, as long as we’re alive, we can grow stronger. Jessen’s guild is larger and more powerful than ours, and yet his men lost to us. His arrogance won’t let that stand. That’s why he didn’t kill us. It would be cementing his defeat in stone.” “We can’t leave town to find somewhere safer to train, can we?” Anna asked. “We could come back to deal with the Hounds later.”