Chapter 101: Gaines And Losses (2)

“Ugh. I’m tired…” Agni groaned as she made her way back to her shared sleeping quarters. She didn’t even remember how the sparring session turned out, but she assumed that she lost miserably. She awoke to a teenage version of Vivian who was keen to give her the following advice.

“In a life or death battle you’d be toast. Never fight to exhaustion when you’re alone otherwise you’re done for. Also, you should practice ending the fusion forcibly.” Vivian seemed…strange as she counseled Agni on her final batch of suggestions before parting ways with the succubus. Shula was now asleep, resting within the crimson core in order to regain her energy. Agni could “feel” her presence and at the moment envied Shula.

“Why did I agree to go adventuring later?” Agni released another sigh as she pushed the door of her room open. Inside Katrin was doing her usual, practicing with her Scribe Script. Agni took note of several dozen folded cloaks piled on the table. Katrin sat nearby as she used her fingers to trace magical runes in the air. With each symbol created the magic flowed into her current focus, one of the many cloaks.

“You’re on to cloaks now?” Agni asked, in reference to the fact that Katrin had upgraded from scrolls to equippable gear. Katrin’s eyes shone with a magical glow of light blue energy as she simply nodded, her focus was working diligently on her own training.

*Well, at least I can rest.* Agni thought as a yawn escaped her lips. She stretched as she wandered over to her bed and plopped onto it, the soft and silky sheets welcoming her in the process. Within moments a serenity found Agni as she cuddled up to her pillow, her tail twitching occasionally as she fell asleep.

——————–

The sounds of manic screaming filled the dimly lit torture chamber as Zipher Enrei also diligently went about his work. The work of inflicting pain. He’d been at it for several days now and his only regret was that he couldn’t work on each of the six men at once. His normally white hair was stained with blood that was not his own as was his cheek currently. This didn’t bother him at all, in fact his philosophy was “the more blood the better”. Still Zipher had to be careful, he didn’t want to accidentally second death his little pets.

He glanced along the row of nude, shackled men. All of them hung limp, having been worked over dozens of times. Zipher simply couldn’t get enough of the adventurer’s unique constitution. No matter how many times he depleted their health it would eventually rise once more. The men before him were under his thumb on the best of days but with “second death” status affecting them they were weaker than kittens beneath Zipher’s heel.

He pounded their rib cages mercilessly, at times pretending to be a boxer. Thirty minutes later they were practically healed. This was one of Zipher’s many experiments to see just how far he could push the body of an adventurer.

“Don’t kill them all. Maybe one or two will be a proper lesson.” These were Gaines’ words after obtaining the information he wanted to know. Zipher felt giddy at the thought that he might have two new special toys to break — a succubus and a scribe.

*I’ve never had either before. I wonder how they would cringe for me.* Zipher traced his finger tip along the nearest man’s body as this thought occurred to him.

*And they are women. Even better, I’ll definitely spoil their little fuck holes.* A demented smile formed on Zipher’s bronzed face causing Glint, the dark skinned man of the group to grimace in disgust.

“He. He he he.” Zipher chuckled as the thought of defiling more bodies caused him such elation while Glint felt sickened. It was apparent that the “freak” was imagining something disturbing.

*If I ever escape this place, you’ll be the second person I kill. Right after that fat fuck.* Glint could only clench his fists, he wasn’t strong enough for much else.

“Let’s see. I haven’t tried…..amputation yet.” Zipher remarked aloud as he pressed his finger against his bottom lip to feign a bit of innocence. The men before him tried not to show fear, at least the ones who weren’t broken mentally at having been tortured for days straight. Of the six, three simply stopped moving or reacting.

*It’s no fun when they don’t react.* Zipher thought as he eyed one such man on the end. He decided to do the experiment on that man. Zipher wiped the blood from his hands, staining his white mage’s coat bloody in the process. He then lifted his right hand and focused his mana to activate a spell.

“Blight : Severe Poison.” He said, making little effort to hide his malicious intent. A black and blue tendril snaked through the air and traveled nearly two meters away before piercing the chest of the man furthest away from Zipher. Glint, Fargo and the rest of the men shuddered for they’d seen Zipher’s magic far too many times before.

The magic vein throbbed the second it pierced flesh as if something was being transferred directly into the main’s body. His veins turned black, visible through his skin as Zipher’s mana poured into the man’s body and infected him with poison.

With a loud, whooping cough the infected man coughed up thick, black gunk — a mixture of blood and poison which was now overflowing from within. The once motionless man felt his body shudder uncontrollably as it fought to overcome the venom which burned through his bloodstream.

Zipher knew this would not be enough to kill him, in fact he’d learned that status ailments weren’t enough to truly kill any adventurer — no matter how severe. Only direct damage could do so, or more specifically fatal damage. But would limb removal classify as fatal damage? Well, that would be Zipher’s test for today. The black and blue magic tendril was retracted as Zipher stepped forward to take a closer look.

Soon the man stopped moving, black fluid dripping from his nostrils and mouth as Zipher examined his hanging body. Zipher used the poison to quickly damage the man’s health, that and he simply enjoyed being sadistic.

“Hmm. Not being able to wield a blade is annoying.” Zipher remarked but luckily he had a helper.

“You. Cut off his right arm. Start at the shoulder and cut it clean or else you’ll be sorry.” Zipher ordered, speaking to a young woman who seemed incredibly uncomfortable. Nevertheless, she picked up a shortsword from the dirty, scat and grime covered ground and shivered while forming her own resolve.

“YAHHH!” She screamed as she raised the blade, bringing it down with all of her strength. The blow was indeed enough to rend the man’s arm clean off. However, the angle was awkward and she sliced off a bit more than she intended. The poisoned man shouted weakly, only because his voice was practically spent from shouting in pain, as blood splattered against the wall and floor. Several spurts of blood issued outwards before his adventurer’s body began to stem the flow.

“Wait.. I-I’m sorry!” The woman said as she backed away, dropping the shortsword as a crippling fear overtook her. Zipher simply lifted his right hand once more and fired the blight tendril, the woman turned to run out of terror and was knocked to the ground as the tendril roughly dug into the back of her head.

Moments later she was pumped full of paralytic, so much that she could only cry silently — the remainder of her body was numb. Zipher recalled his tendril as he watched the poisoned man convulse and shake from blood loss. He was waiting for the particular moment when his health zeroed out.

*Unconscious? No..he’s…* Whenever an adventurer’s health reached 0 while in second death status, unless they sustained a moral blow they would still be able to hang on by a thread. The combination of poison, as well as a severed arm was apparently enough to keep regeneration from preserving life. Zipher watched as the man’s eyes went blank.

“Hmm. I see. So severed limbs count as life threatening even for an adventurer.” He remarked. He turned away from the now hanging corpse for it held no interest anymore. Zipher knew what would happen next.

He directed his attention to the paralyzed woman on the floor as he began to think about which combination of ailments he could best use to punish her. Behind him the man’s corpse burst into black flames as the flesh began to melt away, revealing a skeleton which quickly turned into ash within the flames.