"I'm talking to you," Vargas growled. "That's some fancy jewelry on your hip. Weird shape. Never seen anything like it"
Jace circled to the side, twirling a dagger.
"Must be heavy. Why don't you let us take a look? We can appraise it for you"
Lysander finally turned his head.
"I am working," his voice came out distorted and robotic. "Walk away"
Vargas laughed. He took it as a sign of weakness.
"Working? At a Goblin cave?" Vargas scoffed. "Listen, pal. Hand over the artifacts. Someone as weak as you shouldn't be carrying such expensive things. You might hurt yourself"
He reached out his hand, expecting the lone sentry to cower and surrender the mysterious treasures.
"Give them to me. Now"
The forest clearing smelled of gunpowder and fresh blood.
Vargas was curled into a ball, clutching the stump of his shoulder, wailing like a dying animal. Jace was sobbing, trying to stem the bleeding from his shattered knee.
Mara, the Mage, stared at Lysander with wide, trembling eyes. She had seen high-ranking adventurers before. She had seen Knights. But she had never seen violence this efficient. He hadn't used a chant. He hadn't used a stance. He had simply... erased them.
"Who... who are you?" Mara whispered, her voice barely audible over the screams. She took a shaky step forward, clutching her staff for support. "With that kind of power... and that weapon... you can't be a nobody. Are you a Rank-A Adventurer? Is this a secret Guild mission?"
She looked at him desperately. If he was a high-ranking official, maybe they could beg for mercy formally.
Lysander didn't even look at her. He wiped a speck of dust from his revolver.
"You have no right to question me,"
Lysander said cold. "And you certainly don't have the rank to know my business."
He turned his gaze toward Elise, the Healer, who was hiding behind Torr.
"You. Healer"
Elise squeaked, freezing in place. "Y-Yes?"
Lysander pointed a gloved finger at the two men writhing on the ground.
"Fix them"
Elise blinked, confused. "What?"
"I said, fix them," Lysander commanded, his voice sharp with irritation. "Their screaming is annoying. It hurts my ears. If they don't stop making noise in the next ten seconds, I will finish what I started"
"H-Heal me!" Vargas screamed, his face pale from blood loss. "Elise! Don't just stand there! My arm! Stop the bleeding!"
"My leg!" Jace sobbed, gritting his teeth. "Oh god, it burns! Elise, hurry up!"
Elise snapped out of her fear. She realized that the masked monster wasn't asking her out of kindness; he was ordering her to shut them up.
"I-I'm coming!"
Elise rushed forward, dropping to her knees beside Vargas. She placed her glowing hands over his severed shoulder.
"[High Heal]!"
Golden light poured from her hands. The skin over Vargas's stump began to knit together, closing the wound. It wouldn't grow the arm back—that required S-Rank magic—but it stopped the bleeding and dulled the pain.
She then scrambled over to Jace, casting another spell on his knee and arm.
The screaming slowly died down to whimpering moans.
Lysander watched them with zero empathy. To him, they were just insects that had buzzed too loudly.
"Good," Lysander said, crossing his arms. "Now drag them out of my sight before I change my mind"
Torr and Mara rushed to help, grabbing their fallen comrades. They looked at Lysander one last time—not with greed, but with pure, unadulterated terror—before dragging the crippled men into the bushes, fleeing as fast as they could.
The group didn't stop running until their lungs burned and the ominous aura of the Goblin Hollow was far behind them.
They collapsed in a small clearing near a river stream, about a mile away from where they had met the devil in the iron mask.
Torr, the spearman, dropped Jace onto the grass with a heavy thud. Jace let out a strangled cry, clutching the stump of his leg. Vargas slid down against a rock, his face grey, sweat pouring down his forehead as he cradled his missing arm.
The silence of the forest was heavy, broken only by the ragged breathing of the survivors and the soft sobbing of Jace.
Mara, the Mage, stood apart from them. She wasn't injured, but she was shaking with a mixture of adrenaline and pure, white-hot rage. She looked at Vargas—their leader, the man they had trusted with their lives.
"Are you happy now, Vargas?" Mara's voice was ice-cold, cutting through the groans of pain.
Vargas looked up, his eyes hazy. "Mara... water..."
"Water?" Mara scoffed, kicking a pebble at him. "You want water? You almost got us all killed! I told you! I begged you not to provoke him!"
She paced back and forth, gesturing wildly.
"He was standing there, minding his own business. But no. You had to have the shiny toy. Your greed... your stupid, blind greed blinded you to the fact that you were poking a dragon"
"Shut up..." Vargas rasped, wincing as a fresh wave of pain hit his shoulder. "I didn't know... I didn't know he was a monster..."
"That is why you are a bad leader!" Mara shouted. "A leader is supposed to know! A leader is supposed to listen to his Mage when she says 'stop'!"
Elise, the Healer, knelt beside Vargas. Her hands were glowing with soft golden light as she stabilized the wound, sealing the flesh over the bone.
Vargas looked at her, desperation filling his eyes. He grabbed her wrist with his remaining hand.
"Elise," Vargas choked out. "Elise, tell me. Tell me you can fix this"
Elise looked away, unable to meet his eyes.
"Elise!" Vargas squeezed harder. "You are the best healer in the guild. Just... use more mana. Grow it back. I have savings. I can buy mana potions"
Elise gently peeled his fingers off her wrist. Her face was full of pity, but it was the pity one has for a dying dog.
"Vargas, listen to me," Elise said softly. "I am a Rank-C Healer. My magic accelerates natural healing. I can close wounds. I can mend broken bones. I can cure poisons."
She pointed to the empty space where his arm used to be.
"But I cannot create flesh from nothing. That arm is gone"
Vargas's eyes widened. "No... there has to be a way"
"There is a way," Elise admitted. "But you can't afford it"
"Tell me!"
"You would need a Rank-A Elixir of Regeneration," Elise explained, her voice grim. "Or a High-Priest from the Holy Capital. Those Elixirs cost thousands of Gold Coins. They are reserved for Generals and Royalty. Even if we sold all our equipment... even if we sold everything we own... we couldn't buy a single drop."
Vargas slumped back against the rock. The reality crushed him harder than Lysander's grip had.
A warrior without an arm. A vanguard who couldn't hold a shield.
His career was over. He was a cripple.
"I'm done," Mara said abruptly.
She walked over to her pack and hoisted it onto her shoulders.
"Torr, are you coming?" she asked the spearman.
Torr looked at his fallen leader, then at Jace, then at Mara. He looked conflicted. "Mara, we can't just leave them here..."
"We aren't leaving them to die," Mara said sharply. "We will signal the Guild rescue team once we reach the outpost. But as for this party? The 'Iron Vipers'? I quit"
"I can't work with a leader who treats my life like a gambling chip," Mara spat, looking at Vargas. "Today it was an arm. Tomorrow, if I stayed, it would be my life"
Vargas looked up, betrayed. "Mara... we are a team..."
"We were a team," Mara corrected. "Until you turned into a bandit"
Vargas panicked. He looked at Elise, who was wiping the blood from her hands. She was packing her medical kit with a finality that terrified him.
"Elise?" Vargas whispered. "You... you aren't leaving too, right?"
Elise stood up. She looked down at him, her expression sad but distant.
"I'm sorry, Vargas. I'm going with Mara"
"No!" Vargas tried to sit up but collapsed back down. tears welled up in his eyes—tears of pain, but also of a pathetic desperation. "Elise, wait! I... I forgot to tell you"
He reached out his remaining hand toward her.
"I love you, Elise"
The clearing went silent. Even Jace stopped moaning to listen.
"I've loved you for two years," Vargas confessed, the words spilling out in a messy rush. "I wanted to get that weapon... to sell it... to buy a house. For us. I wanted to retire with you. Don't leave me now. I need you."
It was the ultimate guilt trip. He was playing the victim, trying to use her heart to keep her bound to him.
Elise stared at him. She didn't blush. She didn't cry.
She felt... disappointed.
"Vargas," Elise sighed, shaking her head.
"You claim you did this for 'us'? To buy a house?"