Chapter 23 - Careless

The woman in the crowd's hateful stare cracked. She turned, to flee through them, but a blood soaked Argo followed her through. He felt several more hateful looks around him.

His hand reached her, and he threw her back, onto the sword that was about to pierce him from behind, before he himself swung around, and cut down the offender, before he could retrieve his sword from his compatriots body, cutting open his cheeks, he had missed his temple, aiming too low.

His jaw came undone, and a horrific beastial scream echoed. The crowd started panicking and fleeing. But Argo alone didn't move. 

He crouched in front of the woman, who had been ran through by her ally, and reached past her, as she watched, and put a violet finger into the mans eye socket, his screams growing silent, and his brain was turned into mush.

"Where is your base?" Argo's face was a few inches from hers. 

Her lips moved somewhat, and she spat on his face, "...fuck you." 

"I see," He reached up, and wiped the spit from his face, he reached forward, and grabbed her head, his aura slowly began leaking into her body, "Again." 

A non-lethal injection of aura acted as poison to a weaker soul, which created the unbreakable difference between a Knight and a Citizen. Those who could wield the disciplines, and those that couldn't.

A pain that couldn't be described ran through her. 

It was crude, but it would yield the results he wanted, so long as he didn't fry her mind. If he had his medicines with him, it would be even faster. But he didn't have time to torture her properly.

The Root guards would be here soon. Of that, he was certain.

"Where is your base?" Her brain had started melting from the pain, and she could barely hear him, she was willing to die, but to have to endure this pain… she was not.

Her eyes rolled over, in a particular direction. He slightly frowned. 

"May the Goddess save your soul." He stood up, leaving her to bleed out. He retrieved his aura, and turned to the east. 

From here, there were several football fields worth of distance, before the center point, where the Giant Road led down to the earth and the bridge over it, lead to the Eastern Section.

Everyone had already aired the area out. Only himself, and the corpses were there. At least, until he heard a bow string behind and above him.

"What do you think you're doing?" Marce had her arrow trained on him. He could feel the air of magic about her. Another mage archer? 

Argo used the clothes of the dead, to clean off his sword, before standing up, and sheathing it at his hip. During that time, he had considered dozens of possibilities, and only a few things were left in his bucket of tricks.

"The hero and your beloved will die." He began forward, his body was aching, but time was of the essence.

A dagger could kill the girl in under a second, and it had already been hundreds of seconds since she was taken, meaning she could have been killed hundreds of times by now.

Marce's pupils shrank. He was the companion of the Hero who had come, and he appeared to be highly capable, not to mention Lunston had given him his sign of approval, which lent great weight to his words. 

"What do we need to do?" Marce looked up at the root guards, making a few signs that only they would be able to understand.

Something began to change above, as guards started gliding. The air had changed. 

"Someone ran with a girl through here. She is small and frail. Had a dagger in her clothes. Freshly showered and fed. Short brown hair and hazel eyes that don't blink. Find her, and you find the Rebels that are seeking to bring down the Hero and Awick." 

If someone were to try and kill the Hero, in the Giant Roads, was their best chance, even if Awick was there, the ability to send waves and waves of monsters as well as cutting off escape routes through collapses, would eventually catch even a Master.

They had been down there for five days, which likely meant the attack had already begun. But, Lunston didn't appear to be too worried, which meant they had enough food to last far more than the five days.

If they took the girl, after so long, it was because they needed her, to try and get to the Hero, but they couldn't take him, because he fought back, and root guards would immediately notice.

In a way, that meant that the girl was still alive, to be used as bait, and she would be alive until she had served her purpose. It also meant that Constance and Awick, were winning against the rebels schemes and monsters, enough to force them to out themselves in Avancia to take the girl as a desperate ploy for an advantage below even if it meant the giants would take notice of them.

Everyone had a deadline now. 

He didn't know how Awick would react to seeing the girl captured and under threat of death, but he knew it would be over if Constance had to see it. She would likely also assume that he was dead, if she was taken. 

Her reaction to that, he didn't know, nor need to know or cared to think about.

All he knew, was he had been careless. 

His demeanor began to shift.

…Far too careless.