I can’t even see him… this dust is blinding me. Is that his intention? To use it to attack me? No… he’s weird… he always announces himself and starts a fight head on. Which is a very poor quality in an assassin.

  Kin’Ayesha: “This time you die by my hand.”

  Dwynfel: “I am in no mood for your shit right now!”

  It felt like I fell quite far. This room must have a very high ceiling. If this prick is down here then he either jumped down after me or there is another way down here that he knows about.

  Dwynfel: “How did you get down here? Do you know of some stairs?”

  Kin’Ayesha: “Irrelevant. Now face me!”

  As the dust settled, he sprung forward. He has changed tactics since last time. He normally opens with a strong smash from above. This time he is going low. The change in tactic caught me a little off guard and he clipped my ankle as I attempted to dodge. Instantly he went for a backhanded second strike. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to dodge immediately after he clipped my ankle so I opted to deflect it with my parrying dagger.

  After parrying him, I attempted to cut under his armpit with my attacking dagger, but I missed and simply clinked off his armour. I hate this guy’s armour. There are so few points of vulnerability and my daggers just aren’t strong enough to harm him through the metal. Times like this I truly understand those that choose weapons like clubs, maces, morning stars, etc. Blunt force trauma is way more effective against armoured opponents than knives.

  After my failed attempt to cut him, I jumped back.

  Dwynfel: “Would you please just stop? I need to get back up there.”

  Kin’Ayesha: “You need to die.”

  Dwynfel: “For fuck’s sake. You’ve been doing this for over four years. You never win. Just stop! You are the world’s shittest assassin and I do not have time for this!”

  He advanced on me again. I will admit… he did hurt my ankle before, so my mobility isn’t great… but I can still defend against him quite easily. This shit has been going on for four years. Every now and then he tries something different but then just falls back on his normal attack patterns. I can parry and defend against him while I look for another way out of this room.

  He attacked with another powerful overhead smash, which I dodged… followed by a side swipe… which I parried…. And so on and so on. Urgh… I wish I was better at being offensive against armoured opponents… if I could just kill this guy, then I could move on. Instead, we end up in this tedious stalemate every time… he attacks me, I defend myself… rinse and repeat until somebody interrupts and he disappears.

  I mean… I have to hand it to him… he is pretty good at the disappearing. Stealth is genuinely his strong suit. I have no idea how he keeps tracking me and keeping his presence concealed from everyone. If he just opted to stealth kill me, then this would have been over a long time ago. But he has this weird desire to destroy me in a fair fight… which just makes him a terrible assassin.

  I was right about the ceiling of this room being high. No way I can get back out that way without magic or a ladder. This room is filled with shattered grey rubble from when the ceiling collapsed. There are three doors, but they are all closed, so I have no idea what lies on the other side of any of them. There must be stairs up to the top level somewhere… I just need to find them. Easier said than done with this little twat constantly on the offensive.

  Oh… leg sweep… he doesn’t try one of those very often. Shit… I think he’s realised that my leg is my weak point since he clipped my ankle before. He keeps going for my legs… specifically the right one. I need a way to incapacitate him or something. I can’t do that with my current fighting style. Is there anything in the room that I can use… it’s mostly empty apart from the rubble. Hang on… rubble… maybe some of the ceiling is still loose.

  Cracks… cracks… I can look for cracks around the opening in the ceiling as soon as I get a chance… he backs off every now and then to catch his breath… that’s my chance to check the ceiling… fuck, I hope there is some loose stone or something up there. If there isn’t then I’m fucked.

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  Fuck, he has a lot of energy… maybe distract him with talking…

  Dwynfel: “Look, we don’t have to keep doing this. You go your way… I’ll go mine… we can live our own lives. You don’t need to keep going with this.”

  Kin’Ayesha: “I am honour-bound to finish this.”

  Dwynfel: “Why? What does honour have to do with any of this?”

  He stepped back and looked at me… hard to tell due to his armour… but given the way he tilted his head… I’m guessing he is giving me a look of either disgust or confusion.

  Now is my chance… there are some cracks… but only one looks like it could potentially fall if hit. If I can lure him under it and throw a rock at it or something then that should work.

  Kin’Ayesha: “You know nothing of honour. You know nothing of service. You would not understand.”

  Dwynfel: “Then explain it. Just give me something here… after four years of this shit you at least owe me that.”

  Kin’Ayesha: “I will explain it to your corpse.”

  He resumed his assault. A constant barrage of blows from his mace… but lower than his normal blows. He’s definitely targeting my right leg.

  If I can just turn him a bit… we’re almost under the dodgy bit of ceiling. I need to pick up a stone or something… there is loads of rubble lying around… I need something heavy enough to knock it loose, but it needs to be light enough for me to throw it… hmm… bit to the right… bit further… I can reach a good stone now… I just need the opportunity… if he just… ah… there we go… leg sweep… hop over that, pretend to lose balance… drop the attacking dagger and pick up the rock… got it… now I just need him to move forwards a few more steps.

  Kin’Ayesha: “You think you can beat me with that pathetic stone?”

  To be fair… that’s an idea… I could use the stone for blunt force… but that would take too long… the big slab from the ceiling should be much quicker… if I can just get him to move a few steps forward.

  I attempted to hit his head with the stone, he dodged… as I assumed he would. After the failed attempt to hit him, I shuffled back several steps… good… it worked… he’s advancing again… closer… closer… now!

  I threw the stone up at the weak point in the ceiling… the crack grew in size and a cloud of dust fell… shit… it didn’t work. Shit… I need another stone. Then part of the floor dropped slightly and more dust fell. We both started to cough. He flung his mace to the ground and jumped forwards… the force pushed me back. Then he stopped and flung himself backwards and to the ground whilst still holding my arms. As he connected with the floor he kicked into my stomach and I felt myself lift off my feet. After I slammed off the ground, I looked up at the cracked ceiling… shit… I’m right under it.

  In that moment the loosened slab finally gave way and dropped. I swiftly rolled to the side and narrowly avoided being crushed for the second time today. As I did, I felt pressure on my back then suddenly a hand pressing my face against the ground. Shit… he’s on top of me.

  Kin’Ayesha: “Your attempt to end this quickly was your undoing.”

  Dwynfel: “Wait… no!”

  He lifted my head and smashed it off the ground… I felt my nose crack and the blood flow. He did it again and I lost the vision in my left eye… not sure if it is because there is so much blood in it or whether the eye itself is damaged… all I feel right now is immense pain.

  Suddenly the room became much brighter and the weight left my back. I was in too much pain to lift my head.

  Kin’Ayesha: “How dare you intervene!”

  Carter: “You’re not undead. Who the fuck are you?”

  I heard a two separate crashes on the ground. One significantly heavier than the other.

  Carter: “Hey… where’d the rabbit go?”

  Clive: “Elsewhere.”

  Carter: “Asmodeus won’t be happy that you saved the goblin.”

  Clive: “I care not what he thinks. I came here to aid Lady V’Rel. Asmodeus was a means to an end.”

  Carter: “He’ll be even more pissed if he finds out you used him like that.”

  Clive: “He can be as angry as he likes. The important thing is that she lives.”

  Carter: “And the goblin?”

  Clive: “He must live. His role is of great importance.”

  I tried to speak… but I couldn’t… I think I’m missing some teeth. I moved my tongue to check the left side of my mouth and yup… three teeth from the top and two from the bottom… guess I’m gonna be eating with my right side from now on.

  Clive: “Do not try to speak child… let the magic heal you.”

  I could feel warmth on the side of my face… I could vaguely make out a white glow. He’s healing me… good… good. I need to get up there… I need to get back to Kiyui… I need to know that he’s okay.