Pandora Unchained B1C30 - Clue

Last chapter of the week. I've attached a PDF for the last 10 chapters. Enjoy ^^.

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It took the better part of an hour for Sorin to convince Henry not to ban him for life. “I’m really sorry about this Henry,” Sorin reiterated as he added 20 more gold coins onto the counter. “It won’t happen again. I promise.”

“You’re lucky there was no earth flame in the room, and that all the spell circles were intact,” said Henry with a growl. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to pay for these damages even if you sold yourself!”

In the end, Sorin was left with less than thirty gold coins in his pocket. Most of that were needed to fix his slashed-up leather armor and to purchase rations. On the bright side, Lorimer was somewhat satiated from eating the expensive glassware. He expressed that it wouldn’t need to eat for the next 24 hours or so.

“What am I going to do with you,” muttered Sorin as he petted the rat on his shoulder. “You’re not just glutton – you’re a worse troublemaker than I am.”

“Rats,” said Henry, shuddering. “Well, it’s not the first rat familiar I’ve seen. Tell me, did you end up finding anything that works?”

“Unfortunately not,” answered Sorin. “I might specialize in poison, but its just as difficult a field as alchemy in some respects.”

“Especially without an earth flame,” said Henry with a nod. “It’s just not possible to infuse enough mana into reagents without one, or to catalyse many of the reactions.” Sorin grimaced but said nothing to contradict him.

Having spent so long in seclusion, Sorin paid a quick visit to the Kepler Manor and assured Percival and Clarice that he was alright. He also popped by the Adventurers Guild and was told he should come by the next morning for news on a potentially lucrative mission.

That didn’t leave much time for repairing his armor, so Sorin was forced to cough up 18 of his gold coins for a rush job and to replace the belt loops with more durable mithril ones. His funds shrank down to a pitiable 10 gold coins, two of which he used to buy rations.

It was just after sundown when Sorin’s armor was completed. After inspecting the leatherworker’s craftsmanship and confirming that everything was fine, he packed up the armor and made his way towards the outskirts of the outpost where the Kepler Manor was located.

It was dark out, and the air was getting chillier. Winter would be coming earlier this year, or so the weather mages said.

Sorin was only a dozen blocks away from the manor when he felt a flash of killing intent. He looked around with his peripheral vision and saw that there were five other people in the street aside form himself. Most of the storefronts had already closed for the day.

Yet despite the lack of traffic, these five slowly got up and walked up beside him. A streetlamp fizzled and dimmed overhead, followed closely by a second, then a third.

Sorin bolted the moment the hooded figure closest to him swung his arm. He barely avoided the man’s dagger only to come face to face with another assailant’s sword. Sorin used adder rush and his unblocked yin and yang heel vessels to avoid the blade, then grabbed the cultivator’s wrist and slammed a palm into his chest, infusing it with poison.

He then threw the cultivator over his head at the other four attacking him with bladed weapons. They caught their companion and quickly encircled Sorin once again. Their auras were tightly concealed, and their faces were masked, but Sorin knew exactly who had sent them.

“How much does it cost to pay a bunch of rogue cultivators like you to kill physicians anyway?” said Sorin, hoping to stall for time. “Fifty gold apiece? A hundred? Three hundred? Bad deal if you ask me. Your life is much more precious.”

“If you think help is coming, you’re dead wrong,” said what appeared to be the leader of the group with a garbled voice. “Throw down your dagger and come with us, and I promise that you will not be harmed.”

Sorin laughed. “Sorry, I’ve already fallen for that once too many. Never again, I swore back then, so I’m afraid the answer is no.”

“Then you can die,” said the speaker calmly. Shadows stretched out from around the man and covered his four black-cloaked accomplices. They covered the street in darkness and blotted out all sources of lamplight or moonlight.

Suddenly, Sorin was fighting blind. The only way he had to track their movements was their padded footsteps and the whistles of air that accompanied their swords and daggers. Sorin used Adder Rush to evade their attacks, but their blades still caught his flesh. It wasn’t long before his clothing was soaked in blood.

I need to keep moving, thought Sorin as he dashed about and twisted, only to take a dagger cut to the rib cage. He struck back with a poisoned dagger, only to discover that his foe was long-gone.

I need to wait, thought Sorin as damage continued to pile up. I’ll only get one chance at surprising them with this. His posture gradually deteriorated, until finally, his spiritual senses picked up a murderous intent from behind him. Now!

Sorin fell to the ground and used his powerful legs to launch himself in that same direction. His body collided with a surprised assassin, and his lightning-fast hands stabbed a mithril dagger in his torso and infused it with poison.

Flesh melted around the wound. The man’s internal organs seized up. His body twitched three times before he fell to the ground, dead.

Sorin put his hand to his side as he readied himself for their follow-up. He’d taken out his opponent, but another assassin had knifed him in the process. He slowly pulled a dagger out of his intestines and used a dose of fleshmelt poison to glue the wound closed and staple the cut on his torso shut.

He’d just staunched the bleeding when three more sources of killing intent fired off from three different directions. Sorin bolted between these sources and threw out a mithril string with paralytic poison at one of them. One of the assassins yelled as he fell to the ground, but the two remaining signatures were joined by a third, much slower opponent. It would be impossible to evade them.

“Lorimer! Light!” Sorin yelled. A glowing rat appeared on his shoulder and illuminated the nearest 10 feet. He quickly located the originator of the shadow technique and launched himself at him using Adder Rush.

The man reacted interposing his sword between himself and Sorin. Yet to his horror, Sorin only slightly adjusted his trajectory and took a sword through his liver. In exchange, he stuck a dagger into the man’s heart and took his life.

“Lorimer, get them!” shouted Sorin as he pulled away from the man. The rat shot out at the nearest assassin without hesitation, and to the assassin’s horror, he bit his throat.

The last assassin, seeing that he was clearly outmatched, tried to make a run for it. But Lorimer was fast and took a bite out of his leg. The assassin tripped, and Lorimer took a bite out of his throat, slaying the fourth assassin in three seconds flat.

“Keep him alive,” Sorin said when Lorimer went to finish off the paralyzed assassin tangled up in mithril thread. “No wait. It’s too late.” The assassin, realizing that the situation was bad for him, had somehow taken a dose of poison despite his paralyzed state. Blood was leaking out of his eyes and nose.

They were dead. Five humans, who had tried to kill him, had died. It was only when the moment was past that Sorin realized he’d fully crossed the line between physician and adventurer. To slay demons was understandable, even commendable. But to slay humans, even if they weretrying to kill you… it was something you couldn’t just forget.

Sorin felt both loathsome and indignant. He hadn’t been going out of his way to take the lives of people, but people had thrown themselves at him. Whoever had sent them was extremely sinister. Even failing would affect Sorin’s disposition and reputation as a physician.

“Lorimer, stand guard,” Sorin instructed. Life preservation came first. He gritted his teeth and pulled out the sword in his liver. He groaned as the sword inevitably cut through extra flesh on its way out, but relied on his powerful spirit to remain conscious as the sword came free and clattered to the ground.

Sorin’s vision swam from the blood loss. He reached his fingers inside his body and found the major blood vessels that had been severed and once again melted them together.

Several minutes passed as he carefully sewed the remaining wounds back together. A healing potion would have greatly helped, but Sorin didn’t have one.

It was only when he finished the last of his stitching that he heard the sound of armored footsteps. “Lorimer, return,” croaked Sorin. He then stood up and looked at the group of guards who’d just arrived. His expression fell when he saw that these guards had their weapons draw, and their eyes were filled with vicious intentions.

“Sorin Kepler, you are under arrest for the murder of these five people!” yelled their captain.

“Are you insane?” said Sorin coldly. “I was attacked by five cloaked people with masks in broad daylight, and you’re saying I murdered them?”

“What you say doesn’t matter,” said the leader of the guards. “You will come with us, and we will perform our own investigation. If you are guilt free as you claim, we will naturally free you.”

He moved to arrest Sorin, but Sorin held up his poisoned dagger and glared at the guard. “I’m afraid I won’t be going with you. In fact, I suspect you’ve been paid to collaborate with these assassins.”

“You dare accuse us of something so treacherous?” yelled the guard. “Kill him! That’s poison! He’s resisting arrest with lethal force!”

Sorin sent a mental message to Lorimer and told him to prepare for battle. His instincts told him that should he land in their hands, he’d be as good as dead.

The guards spread around him and then tightened their encirclement. They were much better armed than the assassins and were actually armored. Killing them all would in his wounded state would be impossible.

“You guys keep him busy, and I’ll go in for the kill,” instructed the captain. “He raised his sword and was about to charge when when suddenly, a dagger flew through the air and stabbed him in the hand.

The guard captain screamed. His sword dropped to the floor as he fell to his knees, clutching his bloody hand. “What are you all waiting for?!” He yelled. “Kill him!”

The guards prepared to attack Sorin, but it was then that footsteps sounded out from a nearby alley. Every step was filled with an unfathomable pressure that froze the guards in their tracks. “By all means, try and kill him. Don’t let little old me stop you.” It was the most wonderful voice Sorin had ever heard in his life. “Anyone who wants a dagger to the hand can go ahead and attack him. I won’t discriminate.”

Assessor Haley made her way out of the shadows and stood by Sorin. “You look dreadful, Sorin. Why in Hope’s name would you take a sword to the gut with your speed?”

“To kill my enemies faster and hedge against variables,” answered Sorin, still clutching his gut. “Like these guys.” He looked around worriedly. “Is this going to escalate?”

“Most definitely,” said Haley. “But the Adventurers Guild doesn’t let its people get pushed around. By the way, drink this.”

Sorin accepted a healing potion from Haley and drank it without hesitation. It was a high-grade potion that immediately got to work healing the damage to his internal organs. Normally, potions wouldn’t be able to heal such injuries, but Sorin was more python than human in that regard. By the time the potion was fully spent, all but the shallowest cuts on his body were fully healed over.

They didn’t need to wait long before a group of twenty guards came pouring down the street. They circled around Sorin and Haley with weapons drawn and parted for their commander. A dreadful pressure weighed down on Sorin, but it only lasted a split second before a similar pressure came oozing out of Haley and pushed it back.

“Haley York,” said the tall and imposing guard commander. “You’ve got a lot of guts.”

“It seems my guts are lacking compared to yours,” said Haley. “Now tell me how you want to die, or I’ll pick for you.”