The Eternal Assassin

"Rosh!" Asher cried, ignoring Loratta and rushing over to his friend. Grabbing his limp wrist, he quickly checked for a pulse. After a few seconds, he let out a sigh of relief as he finally felt the man's heartbeat. It was weak, but still there. Ignoring the fact that he was standing in the center of her compound and completely unable to harm her, Asher turned to glare at the monster in human guise sitting on her throne, smiling warmly at the two of them. "Why do this to him? I'm the one that killed your elites."

"Well for starters, I had no idea how to find you. But I have a little bit of history with your instructor friend here, who was stupid enough to think I wouldn't hear about him asking questions. I mean really, asking about the location of The Spider's workshop right before she gets herself killed?" Loratta snorted, rolling her eyes. "I assume he told you about how I graciously agreed to waive all the debt he owed me, even holding up my side of the bargain when he failed to deliver?"

"He told me you all but forced him to absorb a forbidden element," Asher countered, remembering Rosh's emotional breakdown. "You made him decide between a life on the run or a life of slavery for crying out loud!"

"Maybe he shouldn't have borrowed more money than he could pay back," she shrugged. "It's just business. I'm running a rather delicate operation here you see, and you going around killing some of my best men and women doesn't exactly make my life any easier for the record."

"That's what they get for turning down my offers to spar," Moxy added from the side, crossing her arms. "They got rusty."

"Moxy, your idea of sparring makes some of my dedicated torturers queasy," Loratta sighed, shaking her head. "Anyway, my point stands. You and Rosh here decided to meddle in my operation for no good reason, so I meddled right back. You forced my hand here, you know. Did you really just expect me to take you killing my people sitting down?"

Asher remained silent, refusing to admit out loud that their original plan had gone horribly awry. He'd begun hunting down her elites because he wanted to try and get an audience with the gang leader, with the intention of obtaining an enchanted item capable of hiding his unique elements from the truthseekers. He'd been hoping she would be willing to trade him one in exchange for him leaving the rest of her gang alone, or more likely, he'd just kill her and take hers.

Only now did he realize he and Rosh had been in far over their heads this entire time. He didn't have any experience with this sort of thing. Of course Loratta wasn't just going to let him get away with killing her people. And now that he didn't seem to have any actual way of killing her and she'd gotten her hands on one of his only friends, he was trapped.

"At least you know when to stop talking, unlike little Rosh here," Loratta said, giving Rosh's unconscious body a look of disdain. "Now, a quick demonstration for you before we get to the meat of the matter." Snapping her fingers once more, Asher stared in horror as a sudden gash ripped itself open across Rosh's chest, spraying blood all over the floor. The unconscious man didn't make so much as a sound at the sudden injury, continuing to hang limply from the two men supporting him.

"What did you just do?" Asher demanded, staring at the blood dripping from the fresh wound on his friend.

"I made my leverage very clear," Loratta said, as simply as if she was discussing the weather. "Losing Slicer was a rather unfortunate blow, but she wasn't the only one with the Blood element I have working for me. One of my men has a rather interesting skill. Now that he's gotten his hands on enough of Rosh's blood, he can injure or even kill the man any time he wishes, regardless of how far he runs. It's a shame the kingdom decided to make all the most interesting elements forbidden, don't you think?"

Grinding his teeth, Asher stared at the woman holding his friend hostage, trying to come up with some way out of this situation. Even if he could kill her, he'd still have to deal with Moxy and dozens of other criminals with unknown skills, all while protecting Rosh's unconscious form. And even if he could do all that, he'd have to hunt down and kill the person with the Blood element before they could kill Rosh. Finally realizing the extent of the hole he'd dug himself into by killing Loratta's elites, he frowned.

"What do you want then?" he demanded, trying not to look at Rosh's limp form as he addressed the smirking gang leader. "Clearly you want something from me, seeing as you've gone through all this trouble. Moxy would have happily fought me to the death if you'd let her, so it's not my head you're after. You keep talking about not wasting time, why not just come out with it?"

"Shrewd and to the point. I do appreciate that," Loratta said, nodding toward him. "What I want is rather simple, really. And you're right, it's not your head I want. It's you."

The large room was silent. Loratta's words echoed through the chamber as Asher blinked, wondering if he'd misheard her for a moment.

"What do you mean, you want me?"

"Come now, I just complimented you on your intelligence, don't make me rescind my words," Loratta scoffed, throwing up her hands in exasperation. "You just murdered a good chunk of my elites, effectively kneecapping me and stripping me of a large amount of my power until I can replace them. And where better to start than with the very man capable of taking them all out within a single week?"

Asher felt like his brain was struggling to comprehend everything that was going on as he stared at the woman he'd just tried to brutally murder less than five minutes ago.

"Why would I ever work for somebody like you?"

Rather than answer him, Loratta frowned, snapping her fingers again. This time the gash that ripped across Rosh's chest was even deeper, eliciting a weak moan from the unconscious man as blood gushed out of his chest in rivers.

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"The only thing I hate more than an idiotic subordinate is a smart one that refuses to actually think," Loratta said, staring at him with her fingers already set to snap a third time. "You'll work for me because if you don't, I'll torture your friend here until he's begging me to kill him. You already know you can't beat Moxy, and you can't kill me, which means your only two choices are to abandon your friend and run away, or accept my offer and in time possibly become my right hand second only to Moxy herself.

"Now, just because I'm threatening your friend's life, that's not to say I'm not reasonable," Loratta continued, giving him a smile that could have curdled milk. "If you don't cause me any more grief, maybe I can treat you similar to how I treat Moxy here."

Asher stared at the woman demanding he join her gang as he carefully chose his next words so as to not inflict any more undue pain upon his friend. Rosh had been in a pretty rough state before the mysterious gashes, he was afraid any more might actually kill the man.

"And how exactly do you treat Moxy?" he asked, almost afraid of her answer.

"Allow me to answer your question with one of my own," Loratta said, clearly pleased that he wasn't asking any more stupid questions. "What do you think the most important thing is when running the largest gang in all of Whikoga?"

Not even giving him a chance to answer, she held up a finger and continued.

"The answer, is a division of labor. So long as people are doing what they enjoy, and are paid well for it, just about all of them will turn a blind eye to the greater picture. I can't tell you how many alchemists I have creating drugs and illegal potions, or hunters poaching endangered animals in the nearby forests. Take Moxy here for example. Most likely, despite everything I've done for her, she'd end up leaving or trying to turn on me if I demanded she go beat up a defenseless old man that owed me money, solely because she wouldn't get any enjoyment out of the task. Because of that, I would never ask her to do such a thing. Instead, I make sure I have people on my payroll that do enjoy doing such a terrible deed. Which brings me to you.

"At first, when you started killing my elites I thought I was dealing with an entirely different kind of person. I've had to take care of hero wannabes in the past, you see, who went around targeting my people because they wanted to 'do the right thing' or 'protect the people.' No, it wasn't until I saw you with my own eyes and watched you try to ram your dagger into my brain that I realized what I was actually dealing with." Leaning forward, Loratta grinned, her teeth seeming unnaturally sharp.

"You're just like Moxy."

Asher flinched at the sheer sureness in her voice, but Loratta didn't pause and give him time to recover.

"And because you're just like Moxy, I know exactly how to pitch this to you. I won't hurt your friend here," she said, finally lowering her fingers and gesturing for the two people supporting Rosh to begin treating his wounds. "In exchange, I'll offer you the same terms I did her. You fight when I need you to fight. You cooperate with me, and I'll only send you after strong, capable people that will get your blood boiling. Unlike Moxy however, your skill set sounds like it leans more toward assassination than outright brawling, so I'll probably send you deep into enemy gang territory to take out specific targets. Hell, I'll even throw in an element if you impress me, seeing as I did the same for Moxy. I doubt you need it, but I am a woman who rewards her underlings after all."

Asher could do nothing but stare at the insane woman offering him a job as some sort of professional assassin for an underground gang of criminals. Loratta spoke with such confidence, as though his acceptance of her offer was more of a formality than anything, that Asher couldn't help but actually imagine going along with this craziness for a moment.

Fighting bad people on Loratta's orders is still fighting bad people… So long as she stays true to her word, it's not such a bad deal. Especially seeing as I can say no and leave whenever I want thanks to Astral Dip.

Asher glanced at Rosh, his friend's blood already seeping deep into the bandages placed over his fresh wounds by the two men holding him up. Rosh was one of the very few friends he'd managed to make in this strange new world, a man who he'd spent hours learning about and chatting with during their meals together over the past week of sharing a tavern room, not to mention their late night debates that often seemed to crop up whenever he returned from one of his hunts. After Samantha, Rosh was the only person in the entire world who really knew him, and Asher couldn't just abandon him without at least trying to rescue him from Loratta's clutches.

Regardless of anything else, if I say no, Rosh is a dead man. Temporarily working with Loratta and pretending like I'm going along with her idea will buy me the time I need to find the Blood element user and take them out. Then, when he can't be killed by a stray whim at any time, I can help Rosh escape. Who knows, maybe I can even find a way to kill Loratta for good at the same time. Either way, despite how much I want to help Rosh, I still have my limits. I'll have to work fast and find a way to save him within the next few days, because the moment Loratta orders me to do something I disagree with, I'm taking my leave. I wouldn't be able to look Samantha in the eye if I hurt an innocent person.

The thought of what Samantha would say to him if she ever learned he'd hurt someone who didn't deserve it was like a stab to the heart. While he was pretty certain she'd forgive him for pretending to work for Loratta for a couple of days in order to save his friend from a slow and agonizing death, he didn't have a shadow of a doubt that she'd never forgive him if he put his desire to help Rosh over doing what was right.

Barely believing the words about to come out of his mouth, Asher stared defiantly at the gang leader as he took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

"Alright. I'll join your little organization… But only if you honor your end of the deal. Rosh doesn't take any more punishment while I'm following your orders, and you only ask me to fight or kill truly bad people. Murderers, arsonists, monsters walking around masquerading as regular men and women and the like. You do that, and I'll agree to work for you. For now at least."

"As I already said, that won't be a problem. So long as you follow my orders."

At a single gesture from Loratta, Moxy calmly walked over to Rosh and laid a hand on the man's chest. The warrior's hand began glowing a soft violet once more, and Asher watched Rosh's severe wounds quickly begin to heal before his very eyes. As Rosh was treated, Loratta gave him one last wicked grin, and he focused on containing his visible shudder as he got to work on his plan to both rescue Rosh and kill Loratta at the same time.

He didn't trust Loratta in the slightest to uphold her end of the bargain, which meant he only had a couple of days to figure out and execute his plan. But even if she went back on her agreement, forcing him to slip into the astral and tactically retreat as she killed Rosh, one thing was certain. By torturing one of his friends and attempting to extort him, the gang leader had sealed her own fate.

One way or another, it wouldn't be long before Whikoga's criminal underside was finally free of Loratta's rule.