Novel Full Chapter 2112 A Rotten Moment
Chapter 2112: Chapter 2112 A Rotten Moment
— Kat —
Kat and Lily continued down the tunnel even after it expanded and started to branch off a bit more. The place was dripping and the scent of rot had actually decreased, which was an interesting thing to note. In certain spots Lily could even pick up the faint traces of someone else. Not the monster sadly, they were still in the dark about that, but hints that they were traveling the correct way were nice.
This was double confirmed when they made it to a larger then average cavern. It was about the size of a church, with a high ceiling like one as well and not all that wide. It had multiple exits leading out of it, and perhaps Kat and Lily could’ve struggled to work out the way forward under different circumstances. However, it seemed that the monster and the person they were following, or people, got into a fight.
Nobody had died, but scraps of the weird cloth the suits were made from littered the area along with a slightly worrying amount of blood. Even with Lily confirming that the blood belonged to multiple people, it was still a bit of a worry. If they didn’t have any help, or equipment for patching wounds they might die just from the blood loss.
Lily was able to find one small pool of blood belonging to the monster. This meant it could be injured and that it had blood. She was also interested to note that the blood smelt like rot. Even with the animal presumably being alive. It wasn’t quite the same, but it blended exceptionally well, clueing them into the fact that smell was intentional even more.
The annoying part, was that the blood trail belonging to the people and the blood of the monster branched off in two separate directions. Worse, the monster clearly managed to halt the bleeding faster then the people had. There was a temptation to follow the monster and clear it out, but they ensuring the people here survived was a higher priority.
Following the blood through one of the larger passages, Kat was expecting to see someone just around the next corner. Instead, it took them moving at a jog for close to ten minutes to find someone, and it wasn’t exactly good. In the corner was a human woman with brown hair. She had a suit on that had been ripped and torn, with her arm in the worst condition. It was mangled with blood continually dripping down from it.
She had a dagger held in her hand, but her head was lolled forward and her eyes looked dazed. She was alive… for the moment. Kat moved in closer and decided to make some deliberate noise. Knocking a rock over it clattered downwards into a small crack. The woman jerked up. Her arm holding the dagger was jittering around as her eyes tried to focus on the source of the sound.
When she noticed Kat, she asked, “Who… who’s there?”
“My name is Kat and I’m with the city guard. I was sent down here to investigate what was going on and potentially take action… are you ok?” asked Kat.
The woman let out a broken laugh as the arm holding the dagger fell back to her side. “Ha, you can’t arrest me. I’ll be dead soon anyway,”
“I wasn’t really planning on it, at least not right now. Can you tell us what happened? Who hired you? Actually, first, is there anything that can be done for you?” Kat was especially worried about that last one because she seemed like a real person and not like someone Thyme was playing. The fact that she was actually at risk of losing an arm was a worry.
The woman shook her head, “I doubt it. We have- HAD some medical supplies but the leader had them… and he was grabbed by that beast first. The smaller stuff I have isn’t enough for… all of this,” The woman gestured at the mess that her arm had become with a shudder. “It’s why they left me here. Dead weight.”
Kat glanced at Lily. *So… do we offer to go after the others swiftly? Try and get them back here so we can guard the as many of them as possible? Or do we keep talking for a bit?*
[I… I don’t know? I also don’t know if we can do anything for her…]
*We can definitely stop her from bleeding to death by cutting off her arm and then freezing the stump shut with demonic fire… but that’s got to be REALLY painful and I’m not sure if this is easier to heal for Thyme then chopping her arm off. Like… if this was real I’d totally do it. Best not to die… but do I really want to put her through that sort of pain when Thyme is going to fix her up after she ’dies’?*
[Could ask her I suppose?]
Kat slowly began to explain. “So… we might be able to stop you bleeding out… but cutting off your arm and then freezing the stump so the blood loss doesn’t get to you. It would-”
“Do it,” the woman cut in.
“Um… it’s really going to hurt,” Kat started to explain.
“That’s fine do it,” insisted the woman.
Kat glanced at Lily again and shrugged her shoulders before bringing out her fan, then glancing at Lily again. After a moments hesitation, Kat moved over to pull the woman’s arm away slightly for a better angle… and then sliced. Kat wasn’t really paying attention as the woman screamed, quickly shoving demonic fire against the wound. Kat tried to make sure it would work, nothing with too much demonic fire that would start to corrupt her… and hopefully not something that hurt too much.
When Kat stepped away to examine her handiwork, Kat noticed something… a slightly weird smell in the air that cut through the rot. *Wait a second…* “Marigold?”
[Oh no.] The woman didn’t seem to hear Kat’s question but even still, the look on her face made it obvious that… even with her arm missing and a large chunk of ice sealing the stump of said missing arm she was having a ’good time’.
*I don’t know if this makes things better or worse…*
[Better? Probably? It means we didn’t just subject a woman to torture for no reason and we also know why she signed up for this… ’role’. She also probably has regeneration affinity… considering just how… powerful her feelings are.] Lily was deliberately not sniffing the air after Kat’s realisation.
*Then just fucking heal yourself! Is she meant to be someone without magic?*
[I think so?]
*Do we ask her for info when she… ’recovers’ from this?*
[Well we have to at this point.]
Kat sighed and patiently waited for the woman on the floor to return to the present. As her eyes cleared up she didn’t even have the decency to look embarrassed. Kat sighed and asked, “Now that you’re not in danger of dying can you give us some more information?”
“What… um… err… what were your questions from earlier? I sort of lost them,” explained the woman.
Kat rolled her eyes. “Your name would be nice, and we would also really like to know why you’re doing here, who hired you, and what the monster is. Perhaps other things but we can start with those,”
“Well, my names Tanisha,” admitted the woman. “And as for what we’re doing? I can’t give you too much. I’m mostly here because my brother, Herman, is an idiot that works for Drem, the boss of this whole operation. When I found out he was coming into the poison here I decided to tag along. I’m probably one of the better combatants in the group, certainly better than Herman is.” The woman winced. “Was perhaps…”
Kat kept quiet as Tanish continued to speak, “Anyway, our job was to come down here and look for something. I didn’t ask what specifically, but I know it’s SOMETHING. Not like, some random treasury there’s something we’re being paid to find. Anything else we find we were allowed to sell for even more money. That’s why…” Tanisha glanced at Kat. “Eh, that’s why we went to the greenhouse. A few stayed back to grab as many plants as possible.
“I dunno if we had those special storage devices for plants because we know the big families like those, or if we’re looking for a plant instead of… like a sword or something. I wasn’t the most trusted because well… I’m just here to get my brother safe. Not the first time though, so they trust me to keep my mouth shut.” Kat raised an eyebrow. “Well I’m pretty sure my brother’s fucking dead alright? Hard to care what happens to the rest of the group after that. If they have a problem with it they can fucking fight me over it later. Assuming we don’t just all end up in the jail.”
*I suppose that explains some things. Like why they were so keen to come down here. Though… did Tanisha here lead the way? Or was that someone else?*