Chapter 41
Zeth stood in the middle of the roped-off medical area, staring down Erza, Rosalie, and Alfon. His muscles tensed, ready to spring into action the moment they moved against him.
His mind went to the three ritual circles stowed within his pockets. A second to withdraw them, and a couple seconds to arm them, then a couple more seconds to reach his enemies…He wasn’t sure if he could do all that in less time than it’d take for them to kill him.
They hadn’t attacked yet, though. That was a good sign.
“Come with us,” Erza said. “We’d like to talk.”
“About what?” Zeth asked, not bothering to hide the caution in his voice. From the looks on Rosalie and Alfon’s faces, Erza had informed them of his theory, after all.
“It’s not a conversation to have around others,” Erza said.
For once, Zeth found himself agreeing with the man’s words. If it really was gonna come down to a fight to the death, he certainly didn’t want a couple dozen witnesses to his blood magic. There was at least a possibility, if nobody directly saw him do it, that he’d be able to pass this off as some sort of accident unrelated to him.
“Zeth?” Turin called over to him from behind.
He didn’t dare take his eyes off of his opponents to look at his friend.