The Legendary Fool

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Zeth reappeared at the periphery of his shadowy domain, his visage pale as he pressed his free hand against the deep gash that Zirel’s blade had left upon his neck, the wound rapidly necrotizing due to the effect of his Blade of Necrosis.

His intention to adjust the pool of shadows he stood upon was revealed as they shifted towards the tunnel that led back to his residence. A few moments of uninterrupted focus was all he needed and considering that Tom was injured and Zirel had already tipped his hand, it was not an unrealistic expectation.

Unfortunately for Zeth, Aleph, who had been on the backfoot for the entire fight so far and had already been effectively killed by the master of the Shadow Guild once, had no intention to let the status quo remain.

Her blade had only missed Zeth by an inch. If she had been a second faster, she would’ve landed a serious blow.

Still, she was fine with the outcome because it shattered Zeth’s focus as he teleported away from Aleph and more into the interior of the cavern. It was clear that Zeth could not truly hide in the shadows for more than a few seconds at a stretch, otherwise he would simply do so and recuperate by waiting them out until reinforcements arrived.

Zirel, who had given up on cloaking, likely because too much of his SP had been depleted, charged after Zeth even as he summoned his trusty old Phantom Blade.

But Tom, who had taken a moment to chug down a healing potion that had stymied the bleeding for now, fought through the pain and charged after the injured Zeth. He ended up being faster than Zirel, but even then, the master of the Shadow Guild could just teleport too quickly.

The chase continued as Tom, Aleph and Zirel did everything in their power to disrupt Zeth from either pulling out a healing potion from his inventory, which would need a few uninterrupted moments, or expanding his shadowy domain so he could teleport deeper, towards his residence and where Tom knew the treasury to be.

A wound that should’ve killed any other human enemy Tom had encountered was something Zeth fought through as he viciously clawed back against their attempts. Even when Zeth fought against three of them as one, he almost managed to kill Zirel for good as he employed a strategy that none of them saw coming.

Shaping a talon at the edge of his shadowy domain, Zeth targeted himself with it’s obsidian metal form that was sent hurling forth,

He teleported out almost immediately after shaping the attack, but it left Zirel, who had been seeking to corner him, right in it’s strike zone.

If Tom hadn’t willed Mirror World before the former prince, he would have been a dead one.

Their stalemate lasted for twenty long minutes before Aleph finally found the breakthrough she had been searching for.

The slash she had landed on Zeth could not have left anything beyond a surface-level scratch, but that was enough for her to leave a mark on him. She used the speed buff she had been granted with a vengeance that suited one who had fallen prey to a vicious sneak attack as she doggedly pursued the master of the Shadow Guild.

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There were times when she drew near, only to stay her blade as Zeth blinked away out of the sheer threat she posed. But when Aleph struck, her sword always connected. It might’ve been scrapes and cuts, her blade connected and that meant that she left another mark on her opponent each time.

By the fifth mark, the limit of what her rare artefact was capable of, Zeth and Aleph were locked into a battle of blinking and blurring movements. Zeth teleported and a moment later, Aleph was there, swinging her blade.

Had he not been so injured, Zeth would’ve simply parried one of Aleph’s blows and retaliated with an arc of scything frost. But unfortunately for him, he was injured and the open wound on his neck was getting worse with the rapid movements he was being forced into, as infected blood— deep red polluted with flecks of black, leaked out into his hand before dripping onto the floor.

Finally, as more than half of the time Aleph could maintain the speed provided by five marks had elapsed, she found the opening she was searching for as there was a delay in Zeth’s reaction time after he teleported. Finally, the necrotizing effect of Zirel’s blade had caught on.

Aleph swung her rare artefact, aiming for the neck— and this time, Tom’s party member did not miss.

Zeth’s dismembered head flew across the air and the shadows he had been controlling finally collapsed.

Tom came to a grounding halt and Zirel almost stumbled as he tried to calm his momentum. Aleph stared at her own blade, blinking as if she could not believe that the strike she had gone for had actually landed.

A minute passed in silence and for a minute longer they kept their guards up, almost as if they expected Zeth’s dismembered form to rise from the ashes and take them down.

Fortunately, as terrifyingly powerful as the master of the Shadow Guild had been, he seemed to still have been a mortal.

Tom collapsed to the ground in an exhausted heap while Zirel slowly walked over to Aleph’s side as notifications flooded all three of them.

Even after they defeated Zeth, Tom did not believe them to have truly won. If the master of the Shadow Guild had planned for a fight and not an execution, he would’ve come equipped with healing potions, poisons and perhaps even small-scale explosives.

In the end though, they were alive and Zeth… wasn’t.

All three of them had somehow survived that nightmarish encounter.

“We need to leave,” Tom croaked out, his tone heavy.

“There has to be a place where they’re stashing all their loot,” Aleph replied. “This guy’s inventory can only be so large.”

”There is,” Tom replied, his tone raspy. “But it’s trapped and I don’t exactly know how to get in. Even if I did though, I’m spent. You’re out of your only recall. Zirel’s SP reserves are probably near bottomed out. If we leave now, they’re going to think us monsters and fall into disarray as they fight each other for a way into the treasury. But if we stay and they come back faster than we expect, they’re going to chase us to the end of the world.”

“I agree with Synrak,” Zirel offered. “This person… he was too strong. Not as strong as my father, but I suspect that he would’ve given most of our nobles a run for their coin. I don’t want to deal with his traps when I barely have any SP and I certainly don’t want to fight the remnants of his guild.”

“But the loot,” Aleph protested, even though her tone was weak. “But the loot,” She repeated, before sighing and shaking her head.

“Loot what we’ve got here,” Tom replied. “And then, let’s get out of dodge.”