Chapter 79: Anything to win

"How disappointing... After everything I've heard about your strength, I didn't expect you to be such a coward. Are you seriously going to use hostages to avoid fighting an elf girl?"

I look at Kalroth while trying my best to make a disgusted expression. He seems to be a prideful man, so I'm hoping that by taunting him like this he will try to fight me fairly, even if it's clear that he cannot win.

But it seems like my taunt has had a bigger effect on his subordinates than on him, or rather, it seems to have scared them. Kalroth, on the other hand, doesn't seem impressed, or if he is, he's not letting it show on his face.

"You see, strength is something that can come in many forms."

"Are you about to argue that you are stronger than me because you have hostages?"

"That depends, how much do you care about these people? If even half the rumors about you are true, this should not give me any power over you. But something is telling me that you might actually be a fraud."

He gestures to the demons that are holding Karin's father to get closer. Then, one of them gives him a black bracelet, and he tosses it to me.

"That bracelet is a piece of equipment that will prevent you from using magic and will decrease your strength, you won't be able to take it off on your own, at least not easily. Now, we will cut off one of Adrian's legs for attempting to escape, unless you put that bracelet on your wrist."

There are too many hostages... I don't think that I'll be able to save them all, at least not safely. And the feeling I'm getting from this bracelet is that it will only decrease my magic stat by around 1200 or so, that's not enough to stop me from using magic. I think that I would be able to take it off whenever I want, so for now, I'll do as he says.

Uh, the strength reduction is more effective than I thought, I almost can't even move... Wait a minute, did he just say the name of Karin's father? Did he know him from before? I didn't know his name.

"So it was true." When Kalroth sees me put the bracelet on my wrist as he asked, a smirk appears on his face. But I think that I heard some relief in his voice. "Ever since you arrived at the demon wasteland, you have been fighting against many of my soldiers, and yet, nobody ever ended up dead. I knew that something didn't add up, you sure do a great job at pretending to be some terrifying villain, but it seems like you're really nothing more than a fraud."

"I don't really do that on purpose..."

Why did this guy of all people have to be the one who manages to see right through me from the start?

Karin's father... Adrian, speaks up with a nervous voice. "Look, I'm sorry about what happened back then. If it's me that you want-"

"I was not talking to you. And why would I care about something that happened so long ago?"

So they do know each other. But more importantly, Kalroth just turned his back on me! It seems like he's lowered his guard because he thinks that I cannot use magic. This is my chance.

Curses are not very usable in battle. They take a long time to cast, tend to require some form of physical contact with the target, and are too noticeable to be used as sneak attacks. That's why I can normally only use them on an enemy that I've already subdued.

But at this moment I'm right behind a distracted target, if I cast the spell quickly while concealing my magic I should be able to...

"UAAAAAGH!"

I attempted to place a curse of weakness on Kalroth, but something is wrong. He's screaming and seems to be in a lot of pain, that's not supposed to happen. And something is pushing back against my curse, it's not working... I'll try to use more power to force it through.

"AAAAH!!!"

What's going on? My attempt to cast a curse is doing nothing more than hurt him. Wait, don't tell me...

"You... What is wrong with your body? Is this... 'equipment'?"

I stop my curse, if I had continued, he would have died...

"Ugh... what do you think you're doing? You could have finished me off just now."

"There was some kind of equipment protecting you against my curse, but it was... merged with your body. Perhaps that orc that used 'flesh shaping' did it without your knowledge."

"Yes, Garerg was the one who did this. He did it because I told him to."

"WHAT!? Are you insane!? Do you even know how much damage that is doing to your health? That equipment was draining your life to fight against my curse!"

"So what? If it helps me win a fight, I don't care about the rest."

That doesn't make any sense.

"Uh? But what's the point of winning a fight if you end up dead? Your life is more important than being able to say that you won."

"Hahaha! Don't tell me that you stopped your spell to avoid killing me. If you're not even willing to kill your enemies then you're even more naive than I imagined. You remind me of someone..."

"Really? Of Whom?"

"Perhaps if I tell you that story you will understand... Have you heard about how I was born in the 'infernal caverns'? I spent a long time there... I could not find an exit, or rather, I didn't even know that there was an exit. As far as I knew, the entire world was nothing more than rocks, lava, and powerful monsters."

"I see... but why are you telling me this now?"

"I was strong from the start, but not as strong as I'm now. It would have been impossible for me to survive in that place alone, however, there was someone else. A girl that looked similar to me, and was just as strong as I was. The two of us were able to survive together, but she didn't get to live long enough to get a name."

"What happened to her?"

"One day, we found a group of beastkin explorers in the caverns. We had never seen other people before, so we followed them for a bit. However, they clearly didn't know how to avoid danger in that place and ended up surrounded by a large group of powerful monsters. We should have stayed hidden, those monsters were too much even for us, but that girl didn't want to let them die, so we went to help. And what do you think happened next? When the beastkin saw that the fight was not going our way, they used her to bait the monsters and ran away. I did manage to kill the monsters in the end, but she did not survive."

"..."

I notice Adrian lowering his head in shame, so they really did know each other...

"At first, I was angry, I wanted to find those beastkin and get revenge. But after thinking about it more, I understood... When she decided to put herself in danger to save someone else, she let go of her 'strength' and gave it to them. Those who were willing to do whatever was necessary to 'win' were the strongest there, and the strongest can get away with anything they want. She chose to be weak, that's why she lost... Do you understand why I'm telling you this?"

"Because you think that I'm the same as her?"

"You do not need to suffer the same fate she did. If you are willing to do whatever it takes to win, I can join you and teach you how to truly become the strongest."

"I don't... wait, join me? Don't you mean that you want ME to join you?"

"It's obvious that, if you get rid of those useless morals you have, you will be stronger than me. I will do anything to be on the winning side, even if it means being second to someone else. But that's only if you're willing to do the same."

That's... not an offer I was expecting to get.

"Alright, I accept."

"Hahaha. I almost expected you to be too naive to even be able to lie, I guess that you're not THAT far gone. But if you want me to believe that you are going to change your ways, you're going to need to show me proof."

Kalroth grabs one of Adrian's arms and twists it until the bone breaks. Then, he pushes him at me while he's screaming in pain. "Kill him, and I will follow your orders from now on."

Adrian looks into my eyes with fear as I place a hand on his shoulder, and my 'flesh shaping' heals his broken arm.

"W-why? Everything that's happening is my fault. Just kill me and save the others, save Karin..."

"No, I cannot do that."

"So that's how it is." Kalroth looks at me with a sneer, then signals to his minions. "Everyone, from now on, if you see her move or try to use magic, kill two or three of the captives."

He walks to me slowly and readies a punch. Wait, if I cannot move or use magic, how am I supposed to-

"Oof."

He punched me on the stomach, that hurt... and I cannot heal if I cannot use magic.

"Do you get it now?"

Next, he punches me in the face, breaking my nose and causing me to fall on the ground.

What do I do? The other demons seem to be more scared than anything else, and they do not seem to be enjoying this situation at all. Maybe if I take down Kalroth, I can intimidate them and make them surrender... But there's no way to know if that would work. If any of them gets the idea to kill one of the captives I might not be able to save them. And with the equipment using his very life to protect him from my magic, I cannot think of a way to defeat him without killing him. Any spell I could use would break him before breaking his defenses; it's almost as if he's using even himself as a hostage...

"That's right. Even with all of your levels and magic, if you are not willing to take any risks, if you're not willing to do what's necessary to win, you are weak."

He's going to hit me again. Is there nothing I can do?

At that moment, suddenly, sweat covers all of Kalroth's face, and he drops to one knee.

What's going on? That looks... like he has been poisoned. But how?

Longleg jumps from me and runs to the doorway behind me, when I turn around, I see a familiar face.

"I cannot believe the load of nonsense that you just said."

"Ara..."

Arana is talking to Kalroth. Earlier I felt traces of her magic on him, that was... one of her spiders, of course! That's what poisoned him just now. She must have somehow placed it on his body earlier without him noticing.

"You know, if a decent person went through the experience you had, the conclusion they would have taken is that being taken advantage of is awful, and would try to avoid doing something similar themselves. They probably would have trouble trusting others in the future and might try to get revenge on the ones who screwed them over, but that's as bad as it would get."

"Ara, thank you, but what are you..."

She doesn't even look in my direction and keeps talking to Kalroth.

"You really went out of your way to learn the wrong lesson. And now you're trying to pass it as some great truth you've discovered?"

She saved me, but why is she ignoring me?

For a short moment, I see her taking a brief, worried glance at me. That makes me think... is she planning to have him die like this?

forli

We're now at a part of the story that focuses more on drama, but this is something I was planning from the start so I cannot skip it. I hope that you can enjoy this anyway :S.