Chapter 54
Zeth faced off against his foes, the five of them charging at him at once. It seemed like Garon was determined to keep Zeth from reaching him. But Zeth wasn’t about to turn around and run just because he was outnumbered.
Pulling a ritual cloth out from his pocket, he uncorked a bottle of blood and splashed it across the circle, arming it in an instant as he sprinted forward to meet the group. With the extra Dexterity he’d gotten these past couple days, he felt faster and more maneuverable than ever—enough that he’d even been able to dodge the attacks of a demon, if just barely. He couldn’t underestimate his foes, but he knew he was at least stronger than each of them individually. The issue was just that there were five of them.
As the five people came at Zeth, splitting up to surround him from all angles, he picked one and ran at him—the man that’d asked Garon if he could torture Zeth before killing him. He wore a sadistic grin on his face, eyes wide open like he couldn’t wait to dig through Zeth’s insides. All five of these people must’ve been Wicked thralls, if Garon was controlling them by offering torture in exchange for their services.
The man swung his knife sideways at Zeth, but he ducked underneath the swing, lunging forward to press his Hellfire Ritual into the man’s abdomen. But as he did, another enemy came at Zeth from the side, swinging her knife downward to stab into his back, and he was forced to step out of the way to avoid the strike, coming up behind the man. The woman tried to lunge around her ally to get at Zeth, swinging her blade out in a wide arc, but Zeth grabbed the man in front of him and pulled him over to act as a human shield, and the woman’s knife cut into his chest instead.
The man didn’t seem to register the wound, though, instead just grunting in frustration as he spun around to face off against Zeth once again. The other three people were also slowly circling around him, trying to get behind him to attack while in a blind spot. He had to finish this fast, before they found a moment to exploit their greater numbers.
The bleeding man, seemingly the one most impatient to cut Zeth open, stepped forward to swing at him once again, and this time Zeth reached out and grabbed the man’s wrist before the blade could cut into him. As another two leapt at Zeth to attack him while he was occupied, he yanked the man forward and used his other hand to reach out and press the hellfire circle into his skin.
Instantly, the man burst into flames as Zeth spun around and threw the burning man at his other two enemies, sending them stumbling away from the hazard as the man tumbled to the ground, unmoving. He’d died so quickly, he hadn’t even had the chance to scream in pain.
Zeth used the moment to dig into his pocket for another ritual circle, but the last two individuals came at him while he was defenseless. One stepped forward and stabbed her blade at him, and he managed to sidestep away from the knife, but the other swung downward as Zeth stepped away from the woman’s strike, the second attack coming straight at his head at an angle he couldn’t duck out of the way from. With no time to think, Zeth raised up his arm to block, and the blade sank into his flesh, sending a sharp pain jolting through his entire body.
Zeth at least had a decent sum of Endurance to keep the knife from cutting all the way to the bone, but the man had swung with all his might, and so the cut was still plenty deep enough to leave Zeth with blood spurting out of his forearm. He stumbled away, having drawn the ritual circle from his pocket but not having activated it yet, as the two enemies drew closer, looking to capitalize on his injury and finish him off.