For a brief moment, neither of them moved.
Even as the ground shook violently... the distant result of the intense battle raging outside.
The dim torchlight flickered against the stone walls, casting long, distorted shadows across the corridor as Gareth's grip tightened... firm and unyielding, like iron closing around steel.
Slowly, the intruder turned her head just enough for one eye of the mask to face him.
Gareth caught sight of the blue-colored eye beneath it... cold, emotionless... while a faint purple haze seeped around her figure, giving off the unmistakable impression of a deathly aura.
"This is as far as you can go."
Gareth said, his grip tightening further.
"Either you do this the easy way and comply peacefully... or we do this the hard way. And trust me, that'll end with me beating the living hell out of you if you decide to be stubborn."
His voice grew more threatening with every word.
If it had been anyone else, they would've been sweating bullets from the sheer pressure Gareth radiated with his presence alone.
But the woman behind the mask remained calm... utterly unfazed, as though she were brushing off his threat entirely.
"..."
With a sudden twist of her wrist, her arm went slack... then flowed... slipping from Gareth's grasp like smoke through clenched fingers.
At the same time, her other hand flashed up, a thin blade of darkened metal aimed straight for his throat.
CLANG!
Gareth reacted instantly.
His axe haft came up in a blur, knocking the strike aside with brute force.
The impact echoed through the basement, sparks skittering across the stone floor as both of them slid back a step.
"I see you've chosen the hard way."
Gareth said as he cracked his neck.
The woman straightened her posture, unfazed.
"What's wrong? Can't speak?"
Gareth planted his feet, rolling one shoulder as he leveled his axe toward her.
The masked woman didn't answer.
Instead, the purple haze surrounding her thickened.
Then she moved.
Her foot brushed the ground... and she vanished.
Gareth's eyes narrowed slightly.
The air behind him screamed.
He twisted on instinct, axe swinging in a brutal arc just as a shadow reformed at his flank.
Steel met steel with a deafening CRASH, the force of the collision blasting loose dust from the ceiling.
The woman skidded backward, boots scraping against stone, before springing off the wall itself... launching straight at his head.
'She's fast. At least Level 5, huh?'
Gareth stepped forward instead of back.
Her blade plunged toward his skull, but Gareth drove his shoulder into her midsection like a charging bull.
"Argh!"
The impact crushed the air from her lungs and sent her flying across the corridor, slamming hard into the opposite wall.
A spider web of cracks spread across the stone where she crashed.
Before she could recover, Gareth was already there.
His axe came down like a guillotine.
The woman rolled just in time, the blade biting deep into the floor where her head had been a heartbeat earlier.
She kicked off the ground, flipping backward as Gareth ripped the axe free and swung again, forcing her into a relentless retreat.
She dodged, weaved, and twisted her body at impossible angles, her form blurring as she narrowly avoided being clipped by Gareth's axe.
It wasn't until Gareth abruptly increased the tempo of his attacks that the masked woman failed to react in time.
The axe flashed.
Her sword arm was severed in a single, brutal stroke.
Black-colored blood sprayed across the corridor as the arm spun through the air, the fallen blade clattering against the stone floor beside it.
'Black blood? Not red... Is she not human?'
Gareth raised an eyebrow, sparing a brief glance at the severed limb on the ground.
'Is she something like that Revis fellow?'
The thought lingered only for a moment before he dismissed it with a frown.
'No... she feels different.'
He had sensed it even before the fight began—a deathly aura clinging to her presence, one that made even his skin crawl.
'Aye... what am I doin' overthinkin'? That's the pallum's job... not mine.'
Casting the thoughts aside, the dwarf raised his axe once more, ready to finish it.
But before he could swing...
The severed arm moved.
It twitched, fingers closing around the fallen sword before launching itself through the air toward Gareth's head.
"!?"
His eyes widened in disbelief as he snapped his axe up, parrying the strike.
The dismembered arm ricocheted off the wall and flew back, reattaching itself seamlessly to the masked woman's shoulder.
Gareth watched as she set it back into place as casually as one would adjust a prosthetic limb.
'Definitely not human.'
He charged.
But before he could close the distance, the woman's hand slipped into her robe.
With a flick of her wrist, several red, ball-shaped objects sailed toward him.
Gareth's brows shot up in recognition.
"Blazerocks?"
Explosive items... makeshift bombs commonly used by adventurers.
The moment they left her hand, the blazerocks flared to life, sparks igniting as the space between them erupted in a violent explosion.
The entire basement shook.
Gareth crossed his arms and dug his boots into the stone floor.
The blast slammed into him head-on, flames washing over his body as debris rained down like shrapnel.
Even so—
He held his ground.
CRRRRAAASH!
The ceiling finally gave way.
A massive section collapsed, stone blocks the size of wagons crashing down between Gareth and the masked woman.
The floor quaked violently as rubble piled high, completely sealing off the hallway.
For several seconds, there was nothing but the groan of settling stone and the hiss of falling dust.
Silence followed.
On Gareth's side of the collapse, he slowly lowered his arms.
The tips of his beard smoldered faintly, scorch marks etched across his armor... yet his eyes remained sharp and unshaken.
"A crafty one."
He spat to the side.
Stepping forward, the dwarf placed a heavy hand against the newly formed barricade.
The stones were still hot... cracked and fused together by the blast.
He had more than enough strength to break through it.
But if he did, the rest of the basement would come down on his head... and the floor above wouldn't survive it either and collapse.
"On the other side's the cell where we kept Revis, too..."
Gareth exhaled slowly through his nose, tightening his grip on the axe.
"Looks like she planned this from the start."
A low grunt escaped his lips.
"I've been had."
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