Dungeon Sniper

"You really think killing me will make things better?"

Oren spat the blood out of his cut lips as he stared between my eyes and the crossbow pointed at his face. He already had a bolt piercing through his t.h.i.g.h underneath the fancy robe.

The detonation had started. Castle Deltaris shook, and then the entire Delatris Complex began to crumble. Janon did his job well.

The rubble rained from the ceiling, the rocky debris narrowly missing the only two persons left in the hall.

"The Humans do not stand a chance in this world. We took them in to protect them, and they provide manual service for us in return. What's so wrong about that?"

"Last chance, Oren. You either admit your crime in front of the city or get shot in the face right here, right now."

More rubble fell, this time hitting Oren on the shoulder. He let out a curse and pounded the floor in angst.

"What you are, you are just food to the other races. The ones who don't see you as food, you're worth less than food. That's what you are, the bottom feeders of this world!"

"I'll take that as a no."

The building was shaking more violently now.

"The strong feed on the weak. That's nature. That's how power works. The Humans deserve extinction, and it's my pity that's kept you for so long—"

The bolt shot past through Oren's open mouth. Oren collapsed, just as the floor before him gave in and he disappeared through the crack, four-story down.

I jumped and ran to the open balcony, only to have an arrow land at my feet. It was the grapple arrow from Worra. In the distance, on a tilted building across, the silhouette of a svelte Elfina beckoned for me to jump.

I grabbed the lifeline and dove, with Castle Deltaris crumbling into dust behind me.

.

.

.

Thirty minutes earlier, my eyes had met Worra's as we faced one vengeful, resentful Elysia. I nodded, and Worra took out her tranquilizer arrow—just as Elysia turned to Worra with her compound bow raised, nocked, and threatening.

"I said think twice before trying," growled Elysia.

"We know you're mad, Elysia—"

"Mad? No, I'm not mad. I'm calm as ever, Lapines. Look into my eyes and say otherwise."

Lapines closed her mouth tactfully. Because Elysia did seem mad, not as in angry mad, but crazy mad.

"You really want to kill Ramsis with your own hands?" asked Worra coolly.

"Yes."

"Let her do it then," said Worra.

I blinked at Worra, and then at Elysia.

"I can do it, if that's what you're worried about," hissed Elysia.

"I know you can do it."

Not really. No.

"But I am really worried about is after."

Both Lapines and Worra seemed to agree with me, but the prudent Elfinas did not say anything more.

"The last thing I'll do is running into your arms in tears."

"I know that. It's just..." and then I swallowed my words and gave a reluctant jerk, "You're right. It's not really my place to tell you what or what not to do. Of all people involved, it should be you. I see that I was crossing the line on this one. My bad."

Elysia's expression softened a little at my apology.

"I appreciate your concern, Beta. I really do."

Then her face returned to that of the deadly, cold avenger again.

"But this is my call. My right."

It made every sense that Ramsis died in the hands of his former lover. But I did not like it, and I could not stop it.

"Go. I got your back," said Worra, and Elysia sprinted to the castle entrance.

"I'll watch over her," said Lapines as she dashed after Elysia, catching up with her in a second.

"So, you still didn't tell me what you were going to do with Oren and the Council," said Worra as she casually shot down a surprised guard who had found Elysia and Lapines on his way.

"I'm going to let the Council escape. If Oren gives in to 'our' demands, he will be walking out with me."

"If not?"

"He won't be walking out, for good."

"And the Boom-Booms? Do they go off before or after you get out of there?"

"Hopefully after."

Worra frowned, while shooting down another guard who turned the corner and fell before finding the two infiltrating Elfinas.

"The castle goes down no matter what. I guess I just have to time the detonation correctly before I'm done with Oren, either way."

"Hopefully before you crush to death underneath the rubble."

"Wow, Worra. And to think you actually wanted me arrested for frying the Dwarves. I'm touched."

"You'll have to be alive to be arrested."

"Yeah, that's true."

"You've stalled long enough. Go, and don't tempt me to turn you over to the Dwarves by messing up."

"Hey. All I heard was 'tempt me.' I'm pretty irresistible, aren't I?"

Worra pointed her longbow at me, and off I went, with ten Boom-Booms stringed and dangling all over my body.

Elysia and Lapines did their jobs thoroughly, and the few guards who were sprawled on the floor were just getting up from the unexpected blows behind their heads, the Lapines special.

I clicked my tongue using Reflect Voice and spotted a few cracked tiles in the corners of the first floor. I slid and threw four for each corner, and then I went for the stairs.

"Explosion in five. If you can't walk, crawl out of here," I said as I passed one of the guards stirring and shaking his head as he slowly got up. I could feel his dumb stare at my back as I climbed the stairs.

I did the same thing for the second floor and the third floor, flinging two for each floor this time.

At the staircase to the fourth and topmost floor, I came across Lapines, her face pale and panicked.

"Ramsis ran. Elysia chased after him out the window," Lapines pointed to the balcony, thirty feet off the ground.

"At this height? Was she okay?"

"Ramsis was limping. Elysia seemed fine."

"Good. Damn." I sighed in relief, and then in amazement.

"You think I should've gone after them?"

"No. I actually could use your help here."

I ran up the stairs, with Lapines hopping along next to me. She eyed me curiously as I dutifully clicked the tongue and found other construction errors as we reached the fourth floor.

"I'm not dressed like a Runnel. I know. My mistake. But you have to admit black looks better on me than gray—"

"I'm sure when you said 'help,' you didn't mean just fashion advice," cut in Lapines impatiently.

"Right. You know any Councilor over that door?"

"I passed a few of them by."

"And they know you're a Runnel?"

Lapines pointed to her gray Runnel outfit with a shrug. I shrugged back in agreement.

"Let's see if you're cute enough to convince nine megalomaniacs to come to their senses."

I opened the door, pointed Ross II at the bewildered Councilors' faces, ordered them to get out except Oren, and watched Lapines nodding at the door with her adorably stern face.

Meanwhile, the Boom-Booms inside the castle were slowly being ignited, using the delay mechanic I had tweaked with them beforehand. The ten Boom-Booms designated for blowing up Castle Deltaris each had a built-in, quasi-timer in the form of extra layers of fodder in varying amounts between the flint and the powder chamber and was set to explode at roughly the same time from the moment I pulled the ignition string and placed them at various corners and cracks of the building. The Dwarf from whom I siphoned the Explosive Expertise Skill really knew his thing, and even he had used the chain detonation only a couple of times in his living days. I would not be able to precisely synchronize the detonation, as the Dwarf miner had never been either, but it would have to do.

Lapines led the rest of the Councilors out of the hall and I had just asked Oren to confess his crime in front of the city. He cursed at me, so I shot him in the leg to prevent him from running. Oh, and I also punched him in the face. I could not help it.

It was then the detonation began. Yup. I timed it wrong, and now I was stuck in a collapsing castle with a crippled, clammy Elf.

Hopefully, Worra had foreseen this and planned a way to get me out before—

"You really think killing me will make things better?"

Shouted the irritating voice.

.

.

.

"Where's Elysia?" I asked as soon as I climbed the rope over the building across the castle. Worra pulled me up to the tilted roof and pointed to the bridge that connected to the former South Deltan districts.

Deltaris always had lights lit up even at night, but it seemed as if the lights were moving and shaking lively, as if everyone were awake—and everyone 'was' awake, thanks to the massive explosions that turned the luxurious Deltaris Complex into what it really was in the beginning: a heap of dirt.

Lapines was leading the Councilors through the maze of fallen buildings. Janon was probably drenched wet and swimming out of his way from the detonation site. The Runnels creating the 'distraction' were riding and running through the North Deltan alleys. Worra and I exchanged glances. We were probably thinking the same thing.

"Help Lapines. I'll go after Elysia," I said first, running to the lower end of the tilted roof and ready to jump off to the fissured, rutted ground. Worra did not even try to stop me.

I ran and jumped over the debris and remains of Deltaris Complex and reached the southern bridge—destroyed on my end while left pretty intact half-way from the other, mainland side. There was a large gap between me and the bridge. I considered jumping, but even with the Horizontal Leaper Skill, it seemed iffy.

I stared ahead, imagining Elysia and Ramsis chasing each other to the end of the city by now.

I was wrong.

They were standing on the bridge, facing each other. Elysia was standing with her back turned against me, while Ramsis's face was too far away to make it out.

I looked around my surroundings for anything to get me across the gap. I wished I had borrowed a grapple arrow from Worra, but it was too late to go back.

So I switched on the Falcon Eye and tuned in my ear through Echolocation.

Ramsis's face was a mixture of many emotions: shock, sadness, disbelief, and self-righteousness. The shock stemmed from having witnessed Delatris Complex crumble before his eyes. Was I detecting some satisfaction in there too? But I was no face reader, let alone mind reader. Perhaps I was projecting and reading too much into Ramsis's usually stoic face, but it was certain that it pained him to see his lover, Elysia, standing before him with a raised bow.

Ramsis's mouth moved shakily.

"Alstair's dead?"

So he did not know until now. That explained the complicated face.

"Dead? You killed him, Ramsis. He died because of you."

Ramsis blinked, his face back to stoic resolution again.

"You kill a few to save a—"

"Don't you dare use Alstair's words back to me!"

Elysia's arm shook a little, and if she were to loose the arrow right now, she would have missed the target by a few feet even at the close range between then.

Ramsis shut his mouth, looked over Elysia's shoulder and at the fallen symbol of Human slavery. I half-expected him to find me, staring at them at the end of the bridge, but my black outfit camouflaged me in the dark well.

"What now?" said Ramsis airly, vacantly.

"You will die, before you get to see your people being freed."

I could not see Elysia's face, and her voice sounded calm as ever, but I knew she was crying.

"So it's really happening? The 'replacement' Runnel was the hero after all," smiled Ramsis.

"Didn't you hear me? You will die right now. I'll kill you."

"Then do it. Please. I want nothing more."

"Wipe off your smirk! You don't think I can do it? Like everyone else?"

"I know you can do it, El. And it hurts me that you will be hurt for a long time, after."

Basically what I said before. He copied me, the cheeky bastard.

"Don't talk as if you know me," Elysia shook her head violently.

Ramsis closed his eyes, still smiling.

"But I do know you, and not just from the last two years we've been lovers."

Ramsis's closed eyes fluttered a little.

"But those two years, El, that was the best time of my life. It was simply... magical. The world around me was turning into a nightmare, and people around me were either dying or being enslaved, but me, I was happy. Because of you. Do you know how guilty and shameless I felt at times, for being too happy, for loving you?"

I saw Elysia's bow dropping a little. I feared then she was not going to be able to pull it off. I took out my longbow, TJ, and aimed at its original owner. About two hundred feet lay between me and Ramsis. My Falcon Eye was locked on the smooth-tongued traitor as I reached for the arrow from the quiver on my back.

Ramsis opened his eyes—and he was looking at me. He knew I was here.

And he mouthed the word, a confusing set of words that made me hesitate a little as I nocked the arrow onto the longbow.

He said, "Thank you," to me. It was not the words themselves that stopped me for a second. It was the look on his face, the apologetic, mischievous wink asking me to be an accomplice of a prank of some sort, a surprise incoming.

"I would embrace your touch even if it meant my death, Elysia," said Ramsis, "but that would be too selfish for me."

"You never talked like this," stuttered Elysia, "You were always—"

"Withdrawn, and guilty, like I said. I pity the moments that I was not able to express my love to you, tell you my feelings, show you how much I care about you."

Ramsis inhaled sharply.

"That's why I'm doing this right now."

He took out a dagger and stabbed himself in the heart.

Elysia started and stepped forward, but Ramsis stopped her with one hand while pulling the dagger out with the other. Blood spurt and dripped, turning his gray Runnel outfit darker in the c.h.e.s.t area. Yes, the traitor had kept his gray light armor set, for whatever reasons no one would get to hear anymore.

But I could guess why. Ramsis loved being a Runnel, despite his betrayal.

Perhaps the privilege of being a member of a respected organization added to his guilt. It seemed unfair and definitely felt unfair. The inner conflict went on until a twisted perspective possessed him, that Human slavery was the right way and he was the anomaly. No one was supposed to be so happy and so guilty at the same time. Something was wrong. He was wrong...

Elysia, after the first involuntary steps toward her dying lover, stood in her place, frozen and unmoving. Ramsis had stabbed himself deep into the heart, and well. A dark, bloody hole was smudged across Ramsis's c.h.e.s.t, and Ramsis coughed up blood that spilled across the intestines and found its way reflux through the throat.

He faltered and swayed to the edge of the bridge, placed his hand over the ledge, and leaned over precariously.

"I'm glad I was wrong," wheezed Ramsis before disappearing.

Elysia ran a second too late, looking down at the dark, quiet Divis River. And I could finally see her face, sideways.

I wished I had not.