25. Know your enemy

I stood alone again.

How many times is it now? And how long will I have to keep repeating this process?

If I had a bucket list I would have completed everything heck even running away had not worked.

Should I just give up?

And how was I planning to do that by staying here? Not doing anything at all. Either way, they will do what they want and kill me again for god sake.

I have to find a way. I have to defeat my enemies.

Enemies.

Thinking about it there was a quote something like this before engaging in battle Know your enemy.

I hope I did not slay the quote...

Know your enemy, huh? Let's see.

Scott is a Beast Slayer, god knows which stupid people gave him that title. He is a warrior and uses the sword to fight. His motives are killing his friends to fulfill certain bullshit about swords that was why he hired another party.

He visited this dungeon before and also survived alone which means he also swallowed treasure along with the precious sword.

That explains why he managed to hire people like those three, Bandits. I don't think they would have agreed to help for a mere five hundred gold coins per person. At least he would have offered them thousands or more.

Now about the second party. The Bandits.

One is Dan, the warrior, and level near 16. The most powerful among them and the second one was another guy again I don't know his level but he seemed fast and agile.

The last and best Celia the bitch. Yes, she is precious among them, not for me but for them. When I killed her they seemed to have lost all reasoning, and I guess they listened to her commands.

In short, that witch controls them both even if she is a low-level warrior.

Anyway as a bandit what are their motives? Getting money no matter what, the more is better. No morals and no ethics.

Wow, what a bunch of assholes...

Wait I have an idea.

I smiled.

***

"Noah" Amalia called out as Noah's daze broke.

"I am sorry, let's go"

He approached her with a smile, stretching his hand out to say lead the way. Amalia shook her head in reply as they both walked.

Amalia excused herself when she saw Noah had left behind and decided to see where he was and how he was, it was not like she regarded this dungeon as dangerous and they needed to stay together. Nope as long as she understood the situation, this trip was worthless for them and the so-called treasure had already been taken away by someone else.

She went because she believed he might be frightened by the location all around him, broken skulls and bones. He had never seen something like this before and leaving him all by himself could affect him negatively so she decided to be there with him.

That way even if he was feeling down she could cheer him up and teach him one or two things in the process.

After all, fear was not going to put food on their table. They needed to do this kind of job to keep themselves going. She also assumed the same case for him as he was not from a great family or a noble who was born with silver spoons.

Just as when they exited the tunnel, Noah whispered to her.

"Do you trust me?"

His voice was soft and his eyes were searching for something on her face.

His questions felt needless to her but looking at his expressions she decided to answer frankly. The little guy was trying to be a man after all. She chuckled at her thoughts.

"Yes, I do trust you"

"Good, then, please let me handle things if something happens," He said. "I am getting bad feelings about this"

She smiled at him. Her brother would have been like him if he would have survived the bandit attack. Cute and trying to look out for her sister even if he had no strength.

They walked up to the Stone grave where Rex was scanning something, she summoned flames to light the area around to get a better view than before.

"it's empty," Rex said.

Noah frittered his finger in his ear as they kept going back and forth with their dialogues. All the same, thing when Scott boasted about his plans and what he had to do to come back here.

Everyone was tense, especially Rena, Rex, and Amalia. They were terrified and had betrayed expressions on their faces as they heard Scott reveal his plans.

Celia amusingly observed their expressions, they seemed desperate and helpless and according to her shortly they would beg for their very life. It made her excited.

Her gaze veered around to Kid who she teased last night, her face contorted as she saw him Relaxed, unlike others. He gave no heed to them but matched his gaze with her.

The goosebumps formed all over her skin. She felt like her heart skipped a bit, his calm stare was startling to her. It was unexpected.

The so-called fourteen-year-old kid was not afraid of what was going on in front of his eyes, how could this be possible? She thought he would be more frightened and killing him would make her more pleased and joyful but he looked calm as if he did not care.

"You have no idea, kid how much these guys wanted to gut you down" Scott spoke to Noah in a rather enjoyable tone. "I had to keep them in check just like I told you"

Amalia stood in front of Noah but Celia gave no reaction. She was silent, deadly silent.

Noah blew his nose in a rather careless manner to Scott's response.

Scott noticed his odd reaction as a strange feeling rose in his heart. Why was he unbothered?

He ignored Noah as he went to talk to Rex. He was his priority after all.

Rena joined the team betraying them yet he showed no reaction. That made Celia even more worried. Does this guy simply not care about his death? Or does he not know how to show reactions?

That can't be true, last night he was baffled and looked nervous when she was naked with Dan in the inn.

Scott pushed his sword into the girl's abdomen as she stumbled back in surprise.

"Why-"

"Because you are not useful anymore," Scott said Then gave a slight push so she could hit the ground with the sword intact inside her. "I hope you like her blood"

Amalia and Rex were horrified. Their friend got killed in front of their eyes even Celia flinched when she saw how Scott killed her.

Again a smile appeared on her face, after all this was why they were here, to kill. She felt this might have scared him at least after all who won't show reaction when they see a murder happen in front of their eyes. This time he surely will be aware of the reality, he will know what fear is and what will happen to him.

She took a step back unsure and uneasy. The Kid had a most terrifying smile on his face as well, probably more than hers.

He ran his hand through his hair with a smile as if he won some kind of bounty then again made a small gesture only for her as if telling her to look at the dead body.

"What the fuck is wrong with him?" she mumbled to herself, taking another step back.

He seemed delighted after seeing the girl in their group die. What was more scary for her was nobody noticed his joy and that wicked demeanor except her. Who was he? And why did he show that side to her? Even his friends seemed to not know this dark side.

"Two kills remain" Scott laughed as he summoned his other sword, "Shall we continue?"

"Of course, that's why we are here right?" Noah spoke stepping forward. "But first tell me, is it two kills? I mean if I consider this situation there is a possibility you killed more than a hundred people and still say you need two more kills."

Scott balked. "What's that? Who cares how much I need? I will kill as many as I can if I want"

"you fucker" Rex was about to jump on him when Noah stopped him with a wide smile.

"Point to be noted. He will kill as many as he can if he wishes." Noah looked at everyone to make sure they were listening to him. "Good, another thing I would like to ask Lady Celia a question, please answer honestly."

Scott laughed as if it was hard to believe what was going on at the moment.

"How much are you getting paid for this job?" Noah asked.

"Why? Are you trying to make it double? Huh?" Scott mocked.

"Maybe who knows, it will be five times more than that," Noah said as everyone froze including Scott.