Chapter 121: A Good Strategy is a Predictable one

“How goes it?” Caddock asked as Orev took a deep swig of a healing potion while Maybin kept his ankle straight. A little time-out to catch his breath.

“He’s burning through Charge fast,” Orev gasped as he unsealed his mouth from the bottle. “But sir, I’m not sure if we’ll be able to pin him down in one place long enough to-“ Orev made a hammering motion.

“Don’t worry about that. As long as miss Thuy has parts of his Set, that’s about the second-best bait we could possibly have.”

“That’s the thing!” Orev said, raising a finger. “She’s claiming the set for herself, saying she’s gonna be some kind of Blood Lord, I don’ fuckin’ know. I do know that if she gets the rest of it, she’s gonna stab us in the back.”

“I know.” Caddock said with a shrug.

“Then why did you add her to the Party?” Orev asked. “She’s not even Graneshian.”

“Don’t worry about it. Just make him use up as much Charge as you can before miss Thuy’s Downswing. Which has…” Caddock glanced at the sand pouring through the narrow opening in his five-minute-glass. “About three minutes ‘till.”

“Three minutes? That kid fights like the devil. He stabbed me with my own arrow. With his foot! in midair! He’s level thirty, right? It feels like fighting another Advanced Class. I got him on the arm with some poison but it’s not doing much and Imtithal hasn’t done a damn thing to him…” Orev started muttering bitterly.

“Try not to die. I want you back here in three minutes.”

Orev scoffed.

“That’s one hundred and eighty seconds.”

“I know, I know,” Orev grumbled, testing his weight on his newly healed leg.

“You can do it.” Caddock said, giving his subordinate a stiff smile and a thumbs-up.

Orev rolled his eyes and disappeared in an explosion of feathers.

Once Orev was gone, Caddock straightened, all signs of levity vanishing.

“Once that timer runs out, Miss Thuy has outlived her usefulness. When it runs out, I want you to vaporize everything in the valley.” Caddock commanded. “Start with Miss Thuy and the Set items she’s wearing, then move on to Mr. Oh.”

“Yessir,” Miss Glasswind said, giving him a salute.

“I’m looking forward to seeing if your namesake is accurate.” Caddock said, clasping his hands behind his back as he observed the battle, picturing the valley filled with shards of rapidly cooling glass where once was earth and stone.

“My namesake is an understatement.” Maybin Glasswind said, picking up her mutated Staff of the Warmage in preparation for her task.

***William Oh***

“What now?” Loth asked as Will rose to his feet, watching himself from above for any sneaky behind-the-back attacks.

“Now we kill or scatter them and make our way back to the Fifth Floor. How’s Jason?”

“He’s on his way to the Hole.”

Will nodded, scanning the horizon for the next attack.

This whole battle felt off to Will, like all those times Lord Bakton had deliberately put him off balance in order to thump him on whatever unguarded body part he deemed necessary to teach Will the lesson.

The broad strokes of it were obvious:

The berserker had his gear, and Will wouldn’t leave without it. The ranger was keeping pressure on him in order to drain his Charge and tenderize him for the finishing blow.

Will just had no idea what the finishing blow would look like, but he could feel it looming over them.

Will also didn’t know who was running the show.

Is this a continuation of the battle against the paladin at Basalt, or did the church send someone else after me? Or is it someone else entirely who detected the set and is trying to steal it?

Unfortunately, Will hadn’t seen anyone he recognized yet. For the first time in his life, Will wished that he paid more attention to celebrities.

The people trying to kill him right now were powerful enough that they had to be some level of famous, and if Will knew who they were, he might be able to figure out who they were associated with and by extension, what their goal was.

How can I mess up their finishing blow? Will mused.

He could leave: just pick himself and Loth up and fly faster than they could match. That would infuriate whoever was orchestrating this farce, but it would also give them the opportunity to claim and/or destroy the remaining three pieces of Will’s Set.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

And that would infuriate Will.

I could counter the killing blow. That would infuriate the puppetmaster.

The problem with that was that he didn’t know what form it would take, where it was coming from, and the timing of the attack.

A guttural bellow of rage emerged from underground as the berserker burst out of Loth’s stone containment trap, seemingly unharmed and flinging chunks of rock everywhere.

That damned rage is making the blood scales impenetrable. When the Downswing happens, I’ll-

Will considered as he retreated from her maddened swings.

There’s the timing. I’m on the defensive until her Rage expires. When it does, I’ll immediately go on the offensive and aim to retrieve my set, my focus on that goal blinding me to what might be happening around me.

That’s when I’ll be vulnerable to being blindsided. They’ll swoop in and switch out the berserker with something much more dangerous.

Now I still need to answer where and how.

“Hold STILL!” the berserker shouted.

Will turned his attention over to the berserker and two of his snakes wrapped themselves around her legs and flung her straight up into the air, letting go before she had the opportunity to reach down and remove them.

The snakes weren’t stronger than she was, but she only weighed two hundred and fifty pounds, at most. Even if she was stronger than them all he had to do was grab her in a place she couldn’t easily reach and give her a little toss.