The Eternal Assassin

"Asher, I can't accept this," Samantha said, staring at the bow in her hands like it was a newborn child. "Brian and I already owe you too much, and now you're trying to give me an enchanted bow? These arrows alone are worth more shards than I make in a year!"

"You can repay me by making sure we get out of this tower alive," Asher said, handing out the maces to the rest of the group. Brian's face lit up as he swung the mace around like a baseball bat, clearly excited by the prospect of having his own weapon, while the grumpy alchemist merely grunted, taking the mace as though he were doing Asher a favor. "Not to mention even if I could get out of the tower on my own, I have no idea how to navigate my way out of the forest. I'd rather not spend the next few months wandering the wilderness."

"Still…" Samantha said, stroking the bow with a frown, clearly unhappy with his answer. Sighing, Asher rolled his eyes.

"Look, I'm going to have a lot of questions for you as we make our way back to your village that I'd prefer you not tell anyone about. If it helps, consider this a down payment for your assistance and your discretion."

"Fine," she said, finally slinging the quiver across her back and testing the bowstring. Satisfied with whatever it was she was checking, she rushed over to her brother, stopping him just before he could start smashing his mace into the cell bars. While she tried her best to instill some weapon safety into the boy, Asher turned to the final member of their party.

"Do you know how to fight?"

"Hardly," Mr. Sonth spat, looking at his mace with disdain. "I'm an alchemist, not some bloodthirsty brawler. I spend my days in a workshop working to advance society, not bludgeoning monsters with a heavy stick."

"Of course you do," Asher muttered, clapping his hands to get everyone's attention. "Alright everyone, listen up. The plan is rather simple. We're going to melt our way through the door leading to the stairwell, sneak as silently as humanly possible down to the first floor while praying to the gods that be the big demon isn't waiting for us, and then use whatever's left of the acid to melt our way through the front door and escape into the forest. Once there, Samantha will take the lead and bring us back to her village. Any questions?"

"Are you insane?" Mr. Sonth asked, staring at him like he'd just proposed they all return to their cells and wait patiently for the wizard to return. "Based on those potions you found and the enchanted weapons you brought back, this tower is a treasure trove! At the very least I demand you take me to the alchemy workstation so I can recoup at least some of my losses from this trip."

"Mr. Sonth… The alchemy workstation is above us. The same direction I last saw the demon," Asher explained slowly. "Even if we were willing to risk running into the demon, we're getting low on acid. We'd have to use some of it to get you into the room, and then we might not have enough left to actually escape the tower."

"I'm an alchemist, boy, I can make us more acid," Mr. Sonth scoffed, crossing his arms. "And is this demon really as dangerous as you say? We haven't seen it after all. Perhaps if you were a bit braver, this wouldn't be such an issue, now would it?"

"Mr. Sonth," Samantha tried, wringing her hands as she pleaded with the man. "We've already lost your wife… We shouldn't take any more risks than absolutely necessary. Once we make it back to the village, I can help you find more herbs in the forest."

"You think anything growing around your pathetic little village is worth more than whatever was used to create that Restoration potion that this oaf wasted on you?" Mr. Sonth hissed, the sheer vitriol in his gaze causing Samantha to take a step back. "And how dare you mention my wife, you sorry excuse for a-"

"Enough!" Asher shouted as loudly as he dared, stepping between the two of them before things got ugly. "Mr. Sonth, it's too dangerous, end of discussion. I'm the only one here who knows which floor holds the alchemy workstation, and I'm not telling you which one it is. Now, you can come with us and escape this tower with your life, or you can stay here and wait for the demon or wizard to find you. What's it going to be?"

If looks could kill, Asher would have been dead ten times over based on the utter hatred in Mr. Sonth's eyes as the alchemist glared back at him. But Asher refused to back down, and after a few tense seconds, Mr. Sonth slowly nodded.

"Fine. Lead the way, assassin," he practically spat.

Shaking his head, Asher turned and made sure Brian and Samantha were ready before heading to the door. While he could certainly slip away if needed, there was no going back for his new companions if the demon discovered them after this. Careful not to use any more than necessary, Asher poured another fraction of their dwindling acid onto the door's lock, melting through it in seconds. Quickly poking his head through the door to ensure the demon wasn't waiting on the other side, Asher took a deep breath and pushed it open.

Wincing at the loud creaking of the door hinges, he stepped into the stairwell and motioned for them to follow him as he began heading down. Exiting the room with an arrow nocked and ready to fly, Samantha checked up and down the stairs before declaring it safe enough for her brother and joining Asher a few steps down, hissing for Brian to join them. Asher waited to see Brian sneak out the door, his mace at the ready to bop any unsuspecting imps across the head.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Instead, Mr. Sonth stepped out. Holding what looked like a severed imp's claw directly against a terrified Brian's throat.

"You bastard!" Samantha hissed, barely keeping herself from screaming as she trained her bow on the grinning alchemist.

"Oh hush now, no need for that," Mr. Sonth said, making no effort to whisper as his words echoed through the narrow stairwell. "You know as well as I do you won't shoot me. My last act would be to slash your brother across the throat after all, and I doubt our savior here has a second Recovery potion just lying around."

"Mr. Sonth, what are you doing?" Asher whispered, trying to keep his voice steady as his heart began racing at the thought of the demon discovering them. "I told you, it's too dangerous to stay here any longer than necessary!"

"And I told you, I need to recoup some of my losses," the alchemist said, clicking his tongue. "It's bad enough that this expedition ended up being a bust, but with my wife's passing, I need something to show from all this effort or I'll become the laughing stock of the alchemical community when I return home."

"That's what you're worried about?" Asher hissed. "Are you serious? You're willing to risk all our lives because you don't want your friends to make fun of you?"

"They're hardly my friends," Mr. Sonth scoffed, shaking his head. "And once I recover the ingredients hidden within this tower, I won't need to associate with those idiots ever again! This tower is my one-way ticket to the capital, maybe even a teaching position at the Academy, and I refuse to pass that up just because you're afraid of an oversized imp!"

While they spoke, Mr. Sonth's voice grew louder and louder, until the man was practically screaming. Desperate to come up with a way to calm the man down before the demon heard them, Asher thought his heart couldn't beat any faster.

He was wrong.

Asher's blood froze as a large red hand appeared around the bend in the stairwell, quickly followed by a pair of horns and the demon's furious expression. Somehow the demon had moved silently enough that Asher hadn't even heard it coming, and based on Samantha's pale face and the trembling of her bow, she hadn't either. Mr. Sonth must have noticed their horrified expressions, as he finally paused in his ranting, raising an eyebrow at the two of them.

"And what's gotten you both so-"

That was as much as he got out before the demon fully stepped around the edge of the stairwell and swung a fist sideways into Mr. Sonth's head, cutting the alchemist off and smashing his head into the stone wall like it was an overripe watermelon. The man's body was ripped away from Brian from the force of the attack, and Brian immediately ran screaming down the stairs to his sister.

Crap, crap, crap! Asher though, staring at the seething demon as it inspected the brain matter coating its massive fist. To Asher's surprise, a brilliant, glowing violet orb about the size of a tennis ball suddenly appeared, hovering over Mr. Sonth's corpse. The glowing orb seemed to be made from a million tiny glass fragments, and he heard Samantha's breath catch as her attention was inexplicably pulled away from the giant demon about to kill them all.

"So many shards," she muttered, her eyes wide as she stared at the glowing orb. After a moment she seemed to snap out of her trance, her eyes quickly returned to the demon before them. Without hesitation she grabbed Brian, shoving him down the stairs ahead of her and placing herself between him and the demon.

"Run!" she shouted. Brian clearly needed no more encouragement than that, because after a brief look behind him at what had caused Mr. Sonth to suddenly disappear, the boy's eyes widened in primal terror before he practically flung himself down the stairwell to escape the demon.

While Samantha ran after her brother, Asher remained frozen in place, locked in a staring contest with the demon as it curiously licked the blood from its fist. He somehow knew that if he slipped away without buying his companions enough time, the demon would turn them into mincemeat just like it had done to Mr. Sonth.

"Finally found you," the demon grinned, its voice crackling like a fire with fresh logs thrown on top. "The master would torture me for centuries if I let someone sneak into the top of the tower and get away. Seeing as you haven't been disintegrated or turned into a quivering pile of flesh, at least you had the sense not to touch anything in there."

Asher wasn't sure if the demon had some sort of mind reading ability, or if he had just let something show on his face, but the moment the words left the demon's mouth it frowned, staring at him in disbelief.

"You did touch something in there? But that's impossible, those items are warded to the realms and back. There's nothing that…" The demon's black eyes went wide, and to Asher's shock it even took a hesitant step back as it stared at Asher like he'd just threatened to blow the entire tower sky high.

"It finally formed, didn't it?" The demon whispered, its voice quiet like a dying fire. "After all these centuries it actually happened… and you took it?" It paused, a horrified expression like nothing Asher had ever seen crossing its face. "…and I let you take it. Oh nine hells, what are they going to do to me?"

At this point, Asher wasn't sure if he should finally say something or just remain silent. The demon seemed to be buying them time all on its own, and every second Samantha and Brian had to put distance between them and the demon was a win in his book. Before he could come to a decision, the demon's expression suddenly changed to relief, as if it had just remembered something.

"Wait… the council has the extraction ritual it developed," it said, smiling as if a massive weight had been lifted off its back. "I just have to capture you alive, and I'll probably only face punishment for a few decades at most. The council will be so excited about their successful experiment that they'll forget all about punishing me for your intrusion."

Cracking its knuckles, the demon took a tower rumbling step toward him, its eyes gleaming. Asher briefly wondered if he'd bought enough time for Samantha and Brian to get to the bottom floor and melt through the final lock as he stared at his impending death. Groaning, Asher pulled two daggers out of his bandolier, preparing himself for what he was about to do.

Time to power level Eternal Regeneration, I guess.