Fairy Theft — Oralisa (3)
Thud-thud-thud!
Arrows slammed into the shield. They weren't scattering wild — every last shaft flew straight at the shield itself, which meant this was a ranging volley. She was measuring my combat strength.
"Hup!"
The gap between us was barely four meters. I closed it in a heartbeat and swung.
"Too slow."
The shield carved empty air. Oralisa's voice drifted from the far side of the swing. She'd sprung backward like a cat, slipping past the blow with almost insulting ease.
And that wasn't all. Her hands flickered out of sight for a fraction of a second — then an arrow was screaming straight at my face.
Thuck!
"Kh!"
I got my arm up in the nick of time. A tenth of a second slower and that shaft would have punched clean through my forehead.
Damn it.
I'd kept my life, but the arrow was buried in my palm. When I tried to make a fist, the pain was staggering.
And Oralisa still wasn't finished.
She kept backing away, loosing shaft after shaft. I flipped the sofa she'd been sitting on moments ago and ducked behind it.
She's insane. She fights this well?
Her combat ability was far beyond anything I'd expected. I couldn't help being rattled.
She was level 60. I was 59. A single level's difference — and my main stats sat higher than hers, so I'd figured I had this in the bag.
I learned just how arrogant and stupid that assumption was almost immediately.
The agility gap is huge!
My agility was 44 — 36 plus 8. Oralisa's was 64 — 60 plus 4. A twenty-point gulf.
In a space this cramped, I couldn't just rush her. Close in and the arrows came flying. Push through the arrows and she was already gone, dancing away to the far side of the room.
Running was never an option to begin with.
The moment I'd shown myself to Oralisa, fleeing had ceased to exist as a choice. Escaping a fairy who only grew stronger after dark was impossible.
On top of that, she had a skill that let her see through darkness as if it were broad daylight.
See through darkness as clearly as midday.
Duration: 1 minute per level — 12 minutes
"Nngh! That's cheating!"
Huh?
Oralisa's voice came from the other side of the sofa. Whatever had her so worked up, she was grinding her teeth.
"Master bought Oralisa that sofa! Don't hide behind it!"
Then maybe don't shoot arrows at me, you bratty little fairy.
Even if her master was the one who'd stuffed her in this room, the most precious thing in a fairy's world was still her master. Of course anything he'd bought her would be precious too.
...Wait a second.
There were a lot of things in here that didn't belong in an office. A bed. A wardrobe. That kind of thing.
If she treasures what her master bought her...
I looked around, and my eyes lit up. I'd found a way to take her down.
Thuck!
"Kh..."
First I yanked the arrow out of my palm. Blood welled and poured from the wound. I pulled a healing potion from my inventory and dumped it over the injury. My palm itched and burned.
I clenched my fist. It still hurt, but I could grit through this much and swing a blade.
Let's go.
I drew a deep breath, hoisted the sofa that had been serving as my shield, and stood. Then I charged toward the desk where Oralisa was waiting.
"Nngh! I told you to put that down!"
When I ignored her and kept using the sofa as cover, Oralisa snapped and loosed another volley.
I'd already checked her abilities through the status window. She couldn't curve her arrows. She wasn't a trick-shot archer — she was a power type.
The shafts came at my legs. I blocked every one of them with the sofa.
Crack!
Oh, fuck.
An arrow punched through the sofa and stopped right in front of my face. I swore internally. A little more force and it would have gone through my skull.
"Grrr! You meanie! You wrecked Geppetto that Master bought Oralisa!"
YOU wrecked it! Don't pin this on me!
"Goodbye, Geppetto... I'll never forget the days we spent together. In your next life, I hope you meet a better fairy than me and finally get some rest."
Oralisa, cursing a sofa to be reborn as a sofa. Yeah, this fairy's inner world was definitely not normal. Wait — Geppetto? She named the sofa?
No, fuck, that's not what matters right now.
If she was talking like that, the next volley was going to come in even harder. I needed new cover before the arrows started flying.
"Hup!"
I hurled Geppetto — the sofa that had shielded me until now — straight at Oralisa and rolled sideways.
Thwack-thwack-thwack!
Arrows punched into the floor where I'd been. For the record, the Geppetto I'd thrown took the volley full in the face and exploded into splinters.
"Hrah!"
Next I stood the bed on its side and used it as a shield.
"Antonio! Nooo! That's really not allowed, you meanie!"
Oralisa's horrified voice came from the other side of Antonio — the bed. Apparently Antonio was even more precious than Geppetto.
RAAAAH!
I roared internally and charged her with Antonio as my shield. I kept my voice clamped down as much as I could — if she recognized it, this whole thing was over.
Hup!
Antonio must have been truly precious, because no arrows came. I sucked in a huge breath and hurled the bed at her.
Please come out on the right!
The bed was huge, so her escape routes were limited. I desperately hoped she'd dodge to the right.
"You meanie... huh?"
Lucky!
As if she'd heard my wish, Oralisa sidestepped the flying bed to the right. And I was already there. She clearly hadn't expected me to be right in her face — her eyes went wide.
Connect!
I threw a punch at the stunned Oralisa.
Her agility stat crushed mine. But my strength stat crushed hers.
Which meant if I landed even one clean hit, I could take her out of the fight.
Crunch!
The punch I'd poured every ounce of hope into connected. I felt it land solid in her side. She didn't even scream — she just flew backward and slammed into the wall.
Thuck!
"Kh!"
I couldn't help a grunt of my own. I looked down and found an arrow buried in my right thigh. She'd loosed it in that tiny window.
Still, I could live with it. She'd taken the worse of it.
I limped over to where Oralisa had fallen.
"Ugh... Master... it huuurts..."
She was clutching the side where my fist had landed, tears streaming down her face. It was a pitiful sight. The kind that would stir anyone's sympathy.
But I felt nothing. Because right now, she wasn't my fairy.
Even when Aquaril had still belonged to Hwaryongwang, I'd carved her soul to pieces.
So I didn't hesitate. I climbed on top of Oralisa and wrapped my hands around her throat.
"Ghk— ghhk...!"
Oralisa glared up at me through brimming tears, her hands slapping and clawing at my forearms as she thrashed.
Thud. Thud. Thuuud.
Fairies passed out from lack of air same as anyone else. It didn't take long before Oralisa went limp.
"Haaah... fuck, that was exhausting."
Only then did I let go and collapse beside the unconscious fairy.
Should've just spent the 3,300 gems. All this trouble for a free fairy?
A sigh escaped on its own. Everything hurt. I didn't want to move. Part of me just wanted to fall asleep right there.
But I couldn't.
By now her master and the other fairies would be racing this way. And because Oralisa got stronger at night, this had taken far longer than I'd planned.
I needed to get out of the request office, fast.
I pulled a large sack I'd prepared from my inventory and stuffed the unconscious Oralisa inside. Then I slung it over my shoulder and stood. Time to run.
Superhero landing!
I smashed through the window and launched myself into the night.
I took the deserted alleys toward the rendezvous point with Aquaril.
"Not here yet?"
I scanned the area, but there was no sign of her. Had she been caught? Worry for my fairy started to crawl up my spine.
"Master."
"Ah, you were already here. You startled me."
I'd been about to go looking for her when she stepped out of the dark alley. Thankfully she didn't look hurt. I let out a breath of relief.
"Are you all right?"
"Just a little banged up. She was a rougher fairy than I expected."
Aquaril looked me over with concern — then her eyes went terrifyingly cold as they locked onto the sack holding Oralisa. She clenched her fist so hard I thought she was about to punch the sack.
No, wait, fuck — she wasn't about to punch it. She was actually swinging!
"I'm fine, so calm down, Aquaril. More importantly, we need to get indoors. We've still got to collect the snakes, so we need to hurry."
I twisted out of the way before her fist could land on the sack and talked her down.
Her fist was faster than my dodge. And my words were faster than her fist.
"...Yes. I understand, Master."
Aquaril withdrew her fist, looking distinctly disappointed.
Don't you remember turning my body into shredded meat?
Oralisa had put arrows in me, but Aquaril had carved me up with a sword. If the dungeon we'd been in that day hadn't belonged to Uroboros — if Uroboros hadn't appeared out of nowhere — I would have died on the spot.
But I was a generous man when it came to my own fairies, so I let that day slide without bringing it up.
"She's going to be your junior from now on, so don't give her too hard a time. Got it?"
No answer from Aquaril. The way her lips were pouting, she clearly had a lot she wanted to say.
"Come on, don't be like that. Hmm? Do it for my face, at least."
"...I shall follow Master's orders."
"Aigoo. It's not an order — it's a request."
"...Yes, Master."
I corrected her, nuzzling my face against her shoulder as I spoke, and only then did Aquaril nod.
I handed her the sack with Oralisa in it and headed for the neighborhood where I'd released the vipers. I had Aquaril go ahead and book a room at a nearby hotel.
Ssssss!
"There, there. I missed you guys too. But... there's not many of you?"
I'd released thirteen vipers in this neighborhood. Only four had shown up. The nine that hadn't made it back were probably all dead.
"Snake One, Snake Two, Snake Three... Snake Eight, Snake Niiiiine!"
Just thinking about the dead snakes felt like my chest was being torn open.
"Moment of silence over. Let's go home, kids."
Ssssss!
I took the returning snakes and headed back to the hotel where Aquaril was waiting.