Chapter 48: Murphy’s Law

It didn’t take them long to find the throne room. All they had to do was follow the red carpet as it twisted and turned through the castle until it led them to a gigantic door guarded by two goblins, both of whom Axel swiftly dispatched.

Zayn’s mind couldn’t stop racing as he stared at the door.

’This is it, right? That beast’s in there, isn’t he? My unwilling, willing accomplice...’

A part of Zayn — no, almost all of him — wanted to lie down and cry. He wasn’t a murderer; he didn’t have the aptitude for it.

Why the hell was this task given to him? Why the hell had he been chosen as this heinous world’s heroic villain?

Zayn didn’t know, and it was possible he never would. However, he did know one thing: if Axel lived beyond today, then the impossible task given to him would become that much more insurmountable.

Not only would he have to ’hunt’ sixteen people... but one of them possessed monstrous strength?

’Not ideal.’

So Zayn knew that once they walked into that room... Axel could not walk out.

Zayn paused and stared at Axel’s back as the man planted his hand against the door, preparing to shove it open. Then something dawned on him.

The difference between ’kill’ and ’hunt.’

Zayn finally understood what it meant.

’I... I have no chance of killing sixteen people. Most of them are probably going to be strong — maybe stronger than me.’

Zayn clicked his tongue at the realization.

’Hunt... Whatever thing up there gave me these tasks didn’t expect me to become some berserker capable of slaughtering the disasters at will. It expects me to stalk them, hide in the shadows, and strike when they least expect it. By that logic...’

As Axel heaved the damn door open, Zayn looked at the others steeling themselves to enter, and the thought that had been plaguing his mind resurfaced.

’My best chance to complete the task is to remain undetected. If I want to murder him and get away with it, there can’t be any witnesses. In this room, I might not only have to kill Axel... but everyone else as well.’

The doors swung wide open.

At the far end of the cavernous chamber, the massive Goblin King rose from its throne and descended the dais onto the smooth, blue, marble-like floor.

Zayn locked eyes with his accomplice — the creature he’d been pleading with in his mind to do his dirty work for him.

Axel charged, and the fight began.

The others weren’t far behind... except for Zayn.

He hung back, using those precious few seconds to gauge the relative strength of Axel and the King.

After a brief delay, Zayn charged forward and, without even engaging his Aether Core, hurled out a wild swing that came nowhere near landing.

From that first exchange, hope and despair made passionate love in his mind.

The King instantly demonstrated that it had the power to kill Axel... but it also possessed enough strength to kill them all. It moved with a grace and finesse unbecoming of its size while still striking with monstrous force, and it had already dealt Axel a devastating wound.

It was Zayn’s worst fear.

Zayn couldn’t afford to let Axel die yet. They needed him alive to win the fight in the first place. What good would killing Axel do if Zayn died alongside him?

The next engagement unfolded in an instant.

While the beast focused on Axel near the base of the dais, the other four swept around behind it, aiming to carve into its back. Before the nearest of them, Connor, could strike, the King whipped an arm backward.

Connor ducked beneath the blow, but the King’s leg was already scything around toward his face.

With inhuman reflexes — or perhaps having predicted the attack — Maks shoved Connor out of the way, sacrificing his own body. The kick caught Maks instead and launched him halfway across the room.

The violent pivot threw the King off balance.

An opening was born.

As the monster stumbled and fell to one knee, Zayn reinforced himself with Aether and, with all his might, drove a terrifying blow into its wrist.

With another roar, the beast thrashed, lashing out in every direction and forcing the group to break apart. Axel backpedaled onto the dais, with Zayn and Ryon retreating up the steps behind him, while Connor remained on the chamber floor and Maks struggled to recover farther away near the opposite side of the room.

The King rose, staggering beneath its wounds.

Then, in a single moment, it steadied itself and charged toward the two isolated members of their cohort.

’It tricked us?!’

Or had it?

Zayn noticed the streams of green blood pouring from the goblin’s neck and wrist. They’d inflicted terrible wounds upon the bastard.

To Zayn, this wasn’t a well-thought-out stratagem. It was a cornered beast doing everything it could to survive.

The beast ferociously lunged at Connor, the closer of the two. Connor turned and fled across the open floor, the King barreling after him. With every step, more blood poured from its wounds, its once-lustrous skin gradually paling.

Seeing this...

’It’s now or never.’

Zayn pulled a pebble from his pocket and used a vast amount of Aether to reinforce his arms and eyes.

He locked onto his target: the patch of floor where Axel’s next step would land as he sprinted in pursuit of the King.

Then he sent the pebble hurtling forward with enough speed to put a professional baseball pitcher to shame.

If Axel tripped and fell in front of the Goblin King now, he’d surely die...

’Shit!’

Somehow, Axel sensed the incoming rock and deflected it with his sword.

But that wasn’t even the worst part.

In a twist of fate, the pebble ricocheted off Axel’s blade, clattered once against the marble-like floor, and skittered directly beneath Connor’s foot.

Connor slipped.

The Goblin King didn’t waste the opportunity.

It was upon him before he could rise.

Even worse...

At the exact moment Zayn threw the pebble, Ryon had glanced back at him, probably wondering why he wasn’t charging alongside them.

’He saw...’

Ryon had seen Zayn throw the pebble.

A whirlwind of emotions twisted across Ryon’s face before he spun around and charged back up the dais toward Zayn with his sword raised.

"You!"

Zayn froze.

He’d just needlessly gotten one of his comrades killed...

’That didn’t have to happen! Why is Connor dead?!’

’Why? Why? Why?! It wasn’t supposed to be like this!’

Was this what he got for trying to make someone else do his dirty work? For having weak resolve?

Zayn had hoped — prayed — that everything would work out.

He’d get Axel killed without anyone noticing. He wouldn’t have to kill Axel himself. He wouldn’t have to worry about silencing any witnesses...

But now...

Now his damned actions had indirectly killed one of his comrades, and another had seen everything.

Ryon swung at Zayn, who snapped out of his daze just in time to deflect the blow. The impact ripped both swords from their hands, sending the weapons bouncing and clattering down the stone steps, but Ryon’s hate-filled assault didn’t stop.

Connor had been at Ryon’s side since the beginning. They hadn’t known each other for long, but in this uncertain, macabre forest, the three weeks they’d spent together had felt like a lifetime. Not only that, but the friends Ryon kept making had died one after another.

Connor was the rock Ryon had believed would never leave him, and yet... yet...

Zayn had just gotten that friend killed right before his eyes.

’Ack!’

Ryon tackled Zayn backward onto the upper steps of the dais and began hammering fists into his face. Zayn was in so much mental anguish that he didn’t even try to fight back.

Then Zayn saw it...

Beyond Ryon’s shoulder, the Goblin King was lumbering back toward the dais, its body surging with renewed vitality.

Zayn screamed:

"We’ll both die! Stop it!"

Tears fell from Ryon’s face and landed on Zayn’s cheek. Ryon refused to relent.

"You killed him! You killed him, you murderer!"

Zayn tried to open his mouth, but Ryon punched it shut before shouting again:

"You bastard! I trusted you! I trusted you!"

Ryon’s onslaught was suddenly stopped by Zayn’s monstrous accomplice.

The beast reached the foot of the dais, climbed close enough to loom over them, then bent down and plucked Ryon off Zayn, dragging the crying man against its body.

Zayn averted his eyes.

However, he knew he couldn’t waste the opportunity. He could despair and dwell on his terrible actions once he survived.

In the split second he’d glimpsed the Goblin King, its wounds appeared to have miraculously healed.

But they hadn’t.

The gashes were slowly reopening, green blood beginning to seep from them once more.

This was the bastard’s last stand.

Zayn rolled onto the step below him, grabbed his sword, and surged to his feet. He lunged forward and plunged the blade into the beast’s chest.

The blow wouldn’t kill it, but combined with its returning wounds, the injury would ensure it eventually bled out.

The King swiped at Zayn using Ryon’s body.

Zayn had no way to deflect such an unexpected blow.

Ryon’s bloody corpse crashed into Zayn’s side, sending him spinning down the dais and skidding across the floor.

He slid to a stop beside Axel, as if fate itself were screaming at him to finish his damned job.