V2Ch51-Night Work
When Dero came back out, Tybalt was covered in rats. She could see them much more clearly now. Gray and pink-tailed with beady little eyes. The sight almost made the dark elf want to vomit.
“Ready to go,” he said. His face was one of the only parts of him left exposed.
“You know what baths are, right?” Dero asked. “Make sure you take one after this.”
The dark elf stepped closer to him and placed a hand gingerly on a small, rat-free patch of cloth over his shoulder, trying to block out the fact that Tybalt was wearing a living fur suit. She wasn’t a prissy sort of girl, but this was in the top twenty most disgusting things she had ever seen. Maybe the top ten.
But I guess if that’s your skill, you make the most of it. She still couldn’t understand how the man who had conjured mist and killed monsters behind it had now tamed and infected a bunch of rats with disease. The best she had figured it, in the back of her mind where she was thinking about this, the mist must have been from the foxgirl or Kistana, and Tybalt’s actual skills were all related to disease and beasts. Some sort of rare class. Maybe he had a fast-acting disease that ate the scorpions’ flesh. That could also explain why the bodies of the dead ones had disappeared earlier. The disease kept spreading even after Tybalt and Dero were no longer in combat.
She locked onto the location she wanted with her mind, and she focused on transporting herself, Tybalt, and every life form he was in physical contact with. After so many years, it was easy, but she still tried to be careful about it when she had the time.
Then they were gone.
“Who are these people?”
“Call for backup!”
Shit.
Dero had slightly miscalculated, or the map wasn’t perfectly calibrated for distance, or she had a bad lock on their starting location. They had appeared almost within the town, and this was a walled settlement, with a set of professional guards to keep bandits out.
Now those same guards were alarmed to see a dark elf and a human suddenly teleport in. It seemed that Tybalt and Dero had appeared right in the middle of their patrol route around the outer walls.
Two men, wearing padded clothing like Tybalt’s, moved to run away, back into the town.
Dero conjured a void dagger in each hand, uncertain whether she actually ought to do anything. Did these men need to die? Then her companion stepped forward, a green aura glowing around his hands. The elf paused.
Maybe this will solve the mystery of what exactly he did in the mist.
Tybalt punched the closest man in the throat. It was too quick for the guardsman to react, though slow relative to Dero. There was a sickening crunch, and the guard crumpled to the ground instantly.
He must be stronger than I thought. His class skews toward strength?
The mage lunged after the other man, who had only gotten a few feet away, and Tybalt grabbed the back of his shirt. The two tumbled to the ground, Tybalt on top.
“No! Let me go, bandit!” the man cried. “Guards! Hel- ”
Tybalt closed a hand around the side of the man’s neck, and Dero heard a squelching sound of flesh ripping. The mage’s body blocked exactly what he’d done from view. She could only see that blood gushed out of the hole. Then Tybalt opened his hand, and a lump of the dead man’s neck dropped into the sand.
What the fuck? Did he just rip him apart like he was made of clay?
Dero wondered if her fingers were strong enough to do that. She could certainly break bone with her punches and kicks, but just tearing pieces of another person off without even a grunt of effort? A guardsman who presumably had some training?
There’s no way Tybalt is stronger than me physically, even if my strength is lower than most of my other stats. No, this is related to his class somehow. It must be something revolving around manipulating the body.
As she watched, Tybalt did something else, pushing some of his green energy into the man’s body. The man made a few more dying twitches, then stopped moving.
Tybalt rose, and the rats - which had mostly fallen away from him during the few seconds of action - scurried back to their master.
“What did you just do to the body?” Dero asked instantly.
“Infected it with my disease, so whoever discovers it will get sick,” Tybalt said.
Dero couldn’t be certain of why, but she felt as if he was lying. He bent and did the same thing to the other body, then rose again and cracked his neck.
“You decided on a course of action very quickly just now,” Dero said.
“It seems like you were about to do the same thing.” He nodded to her void daggers.
“Yeah,” she said curtly. “I hesitated. I wasn’t sure it was actually necessary.”
“It was. If people see us dropping off dozens of rats, and a disease starts spreading, they’ll remember the odd-looking pair who the guards spotted. The dark elf and the human. As for me, I’ve never seen a dark elf in my whole life, despite having traveled up and down this country. Until I met you. These people are meant to die anyway. Let the information they witness die with them.”
“Are you saying you did it to spare me from suspicion?”
Tybalt shrugged. That was all she was going to get, apparently.
“Let’s move on,” Dero said, sighing. “Quickly, please.”
Tybalt whistled and pointed, and two dozen rats dropped from the human fur coat.
Dero grabbed his shoulder again, and this time, it was easier, or perhaps she was just more eager to be away. They popped from one spot in the Salt Waste to another.
This time, the transition left a couple of beads of sweat on her forehead.
Fortunately, the other mage didn’t seem to notice.
“Is that the town over there?” He pointed.
She nodded at the shapes on the horizon. The town was a couple of miles away this time.
“A much safer distance.”
“I don’t actually go out of my way to kill people,” Dero said. “That might seem strange to you. Violence is not, in fact, always the best path. Sometimes talking is nice.”
“You really are amusing,” he said. He pointed, and half of the remaining rats started running toward the town. He looked down at Dero with something like warmth. “Thank you for helping me.” He placed a hand on her shoulder.
“You’re a fucking piece of work, Tybalt. Hands off, or you lose the hand.”
He gingerly lifted his palm, and Dero grabbed his waist before teleporting them to their next destination.
The final town was as uneventful as the one before it had been, just a distant set of buildings. This one was the most populated of all, though.
Gods, I hope there’s some meaning to this, and he’s not just a madman drunk on his powers.
As the rats scampered away from Tybalt’s body, Dero gathered her energy to teleport them to their point of origin. She had thought about whether to kill Tybalt instead of bringing him back. But it wasn’t a good idea, even if it appealed to a part of her as a way to regain control of the situation. The catgirl would correctly assume that he was dead and go on a rampage, and though Dero could kill her, too, she didn’t seem like she deserved that. This was not to mention how it would look to whoever knew where Tybalt had gone. The beastfolk tribes might all be up in arms overnight.
Not worth it.
“You understand that you have to leave the caravan alone after this, right?” Dero asked, looking up at her passenger’s green eyes.
“I won’t trouble you again,” he agreed. “Though, as I think I said before, I really wish you’d stay.”
I have to admire the confidence, at least. Even after I curse him out and threaten to chop his hand off, he’s still persistent.
“I have places to be,” she muttered.
He simply nodded. “You’re a free person. Even if the beastfolk could really use you.”
The beastfolk are a non-factor in my decision, either way, Dero thought. But she said nothing, just transported them back to where they had begun.
“I’ll see you later,” Tybalt said.
“Not if I see you first.”
He grabbed her hand and squeezed it gently before she could pull it away or create her daggers. “Thank you again. You made a big difference.”
Stop trying to pretend that I had a choice.
“That’s exactly what I’m worried about,” Dero replied.
The dark elf watched as the human rejoined the catgirl and the two of them walked away. She sighed.
That had been the most interesting evening she’d spent in a while. Now that they were gone, she considered again whether she actually did want to stick around. Not to help Tybalt but just to see the fireworks. If Carlos and the others were gone, she could just leave whenever things got too hot.
Dero wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about seeing the beastfolk get slaughtered, but she might enjoy the look on Tybalt’s face when all the mage’s plans went up in smoke.
***
“Well, you certainly waited a little longer than I expected, making her aware of your presence,” Tybalt said once they were far enough away he was confident they were out of earshot.
“You seemed to have the situation under control, my lord,” Kistana said politely. “I wouldn’t have wanted to ruin your careful plans- or, gods forbid, cause the elf to slip with that dagger. When you mentioned me, of course, I made her aware of my presence.”
“That looked under control to you?”
“If it were someone else, no. But, say whatever else I might about you, you are good at talking, Lord Tybalt.”
“I can’t even tell if you’re trying to compliment or insult me…”
“Neither. I am just giving you my honest opinions, which is something you commanded of me on the day we met. If you would prefer for me to praise you, I could easily do that instead.”
“Kistana, that makes it sound like you would only be praising me if you’re lying…”
“I don’t think I said that,” the catgirl replied with a carefully blank expression.
Why does it feel like she’s trying not to smile?
“Let’s go home,” Tybalt said.
“Of course. Back to Lady Mariella.”
“Actually, we’ll stop to see Vidalia first.”
Kistana’s eyes widened, and she muttered something.
“What was that?” Tybalt asked.
“Um, nothing, sorry,” she said quietly.
It had sounded like, “Twice in one evening?”
“I have work to do with Vidalia,” the necromancer said. “I want to use her dream powers to get inside our enemies’ heads and try to influence the direction of the fighting to come.”
Not that what I’m doing is any of your business.
“Of- Of course, my lord,” Kistana said, her tail tucking between her legs. “My apologies for any unintentional implications.”
Necromancer and bodyguard walked back up the mountainside, returning to where Vidalia waited for Tybalt.