The Witch

by V. A. Lewis

  The Plague Doctor fired a shot. The bullet parted the smoke where it went. The gray gas flashing yellow for a moment. The gunshot ringing my ears. But in that brief opening, I saw a figure collapse in the distance.

  Then the Plague Doctor took more steps forward, entering the room fully. He flicked his hand to another target— one that I could not see— and pulled the trigger. Again, the same thing happened. A moment of intense light. A small hole forming in the haze. And a thug dropping dead.

  Again, the Plague Doctor fired. And again, another man died.

  He pirouetted around, looking across the room, firing bullet after bullet. People fell everywhere he aimed. Like a sharpshooter, he never missed his targets.

  He fired another shot, and the same thing happened. But this time, instead of a person on the other side, I saw a box.

  It took me a second to register what happened. First, the bullet burrowed through the wooden crate, splintering bits of wood all over the ground. Then blood splattered all over the wall beyond the box, as I heard a shout.

  He shot through their cover!

  Another three shots rang out. The smoke was mostly cleared at that point, having stopped pouring out of the vial, and being dispersed by the powerful gunshots. All that was left were the sounds of the clinks of bullet shells bouncing on the ground, and a… groan?

  I turned to the direction of the noise; a man laid bloodied against the wall. He was shot through the stomach but he was still alive. The only one left alive, for that matter.

  The Plague Doctor sauntered over to the man feebly clutching himself where his stomach used to be. The Plague Doctor bent over, pulling something from under his coat as he did.

  "Do you want this?" he asked, dangling a glowing healing potion in front of the man.

  "Urk…"

  The man could not form any words. He was gasping for breath and barely alive. But he managed to gather enough strength to nod his head slowly.

  "Good."

  The Plague Doctor emptied a quarter of the healing potion over the man. He sat up, inhaling a sharp breath—

  Then began coughing in pain.

  "Most of your wound has healed. Enough for you to survive. Now if you promise to leave and find a proper job, and tell me where the girl is, I will let you live."

  "I— she’s upstairs! In the second room to the right of the stairs!" the man quickly sputtered out.

  "Very good," the Plague Doctor said, satisfied. "And how many more of you are there in this building?"

  "We’re not very big of a gang— I only joined when the country continued raising its taxes even after I lost my job! There’s only a dozen more of us in there. Two dozen maybe. I… I don’t know! Please let me go!" he pleaded desperately.

  "I will. That was part of our agreement, was it not?"

  "Thank you, oh thank you!"

  the man exclaimed. He pulled himself to his feet and after a moment's hesitation, made his way out of the door. "I promise I’ll be good! I promise I won’t do this anymore—"

  The man collapsed as the Plague Doctor struck him on the back of his head. He fell, unconscious. But still alive.

  "What was that for?" I asked, inclining my head to the side. "You’re not going to let him go?"

  "I am. Just not this instant."

  "Why not?"

  "Because I don’t know if he’s telling the truth," the Plague Doctor answered. He gestured at the unconscious man, then towards the outside. "For all we know, Ms Hannah might not even be here right now. They could have taken her somewhere else."

  "I see," I said, realizing what the Plague Doctor meant. A memory flashed in my head, and I added in to his point. "And the gang might actually be big, right? He might have gone to get more gang members if he was lying. Ambush us as we’re about to leave or something."

  "That’d be the worst case scenario. So it’d be safer to just leave him here, for now."

  That made sense to me. I eyed the quickly dissipating gas and the small crater where the first vial exploded. "So, you’re an Alchemist?"

  The Plague Doctor reloaded his weapon as he answered.

  "I am."

  "I see," I said, casting a glance at a glowing vial hidden in his coat pocket. "Was that how you cured the Noxeus?"

  The Plague Doctor paused. He was halfway sliding a bullet into his revolver, but stopped right as the tip entered the chamber. "Does it matter?" he asked, finishing the movement.

  "Mhm?" I made a weird sound. "If you have a cure, or antidote, or whatever for it, why not share it? Don’t you want to help everyone you can?"

  I was making an assumption based on the fact that he was a plague doctor who was apparently going around philanthropically helping everyone. Whether or not that's true— I did not know. But I was going to find out now.

  "No comment."

  Or not.

  I closed and opened my eyes in rapid succession. "Huh?"

  The Plague Doctor raised his shoulders and arms to the side. "I don’t feel like I would give you any answer that would leave you satisfied. It would be like if I asked you— a child— what you were doing out here trying to fight a gang of loan sharks and kidnappers. You would either give a vague response, or tell me an outright lie."

  "What? I— I mean…" I trailed off.

  I could not really deny that since he was telling the truth. Sighing, I stopped pressing him on the matter.

  "Could you at least tell me your name? I’d think calling you ‘the Plague Doctor’ the entire time would get tiring after a while." I put a hand out, and smiled. "I’m Melas, it’s nice to meet you."

  The Plague Doctor hesitated; he stared at my outstretched palm, scrutinizing it for a few moments. Then he slowly took it.

  "I’m—"

  The Plague Doctor

  jerked,

  and pulled me towards him. I lost my balance, almost falling to the floor.

  "What?!"

  I yelped.

  There was a loud bang. A small blast came from the side—

  But it did not reach me. My gaze flung up, as I saw the Plague Doctor holding up his cane: the mana crystal at its tip glowing, and a yellow domed barrier covering us.

  The smoke from the explosion cleared up at the front of the barrier, and through the translucent shield, I could make two dozen figures standing down the hallway. At the very front of them was a gruff man holding a glowing blade in one hand, and a small round bomb in the other.

  He grinned savagely.

  "Since we’re doing introductions, I'll join in: I’m the boss around these parts, and you’re on

  my

  turf."

  Then he threw the bomb, and it exploded.

  Chapter 8: Secrets Exchanged

  The bomb exploded on the shield’s surface, forming a small crack on it. Nothing significant. Not enough to destroy the barrier even if you threw a dozen more of those bombs at the same spot.

  But the thugs were not stupid. They realized this, and began spreading out around us. I turned to the Plague Doctor, as a few bullets deflected harmlessly off the domed shield around us.

  "Do you have any more of those smoke bombs?" I asked hurriedly.

  "Unfortunately not," he said, his gaze sweeping over the thugs around the large room; some of them were positioning themselves behind the wooden crates, tables and chairs, and barrels scattered throughout the lobby area. But the bulk of them were still down the hallway ahead of us. "I have not had access to any alchemical ingredients in a while. And I was… not expecting to use up my stock here."

  "So what do we do then? We’re surrounded!" I pointed out the obvious.

  "Not completely." The Plague Doctor pointed at my behind with his cane, the mana crystal at its tip still glowing and keeping the barrier active. I saw two thugs barring the entrance— no, exit to the warehouse. "Ms Melas—"

  "Just Melas is fine."

  "Melas, then. If we make a break for the outside, we should be able to escape their encirclement and they’ll be force
d to funnel through that doorway. We would be in a more advantageous position than we are now."

  My eyes flickered to the side, as more gunshots, crossbow bolts, and another explosion impacted the barrier protecting us. The thugs were getting more impatient now, and were bolstered by the tiny spiderwebbed lines forming around the translucent shield. "Hurry up and come out, you bastards! We’ll teach you not to mess with us!" the thug boss yelled.

  "And how are we supposed to do that?"

  The Plague Doctor reached for his coat pocket, pulling out a bottle I vaguely recognized. "With this," he answered, sloshing the liquid inside of it. "Can you take on those two men?"

  I looked at the two thugs blocking the exit. Both of them were holding melee weapons— a club and an axe. Neither had a long ranged weapon on them.

  "Yes," I said with confidence.

  "Good." The Plague Doctor nodded, then slowly lowered his cane. "On my mark, you run for it and don’t look back."

  "I got it."

  I held out my dagger in front of me, aiming my pistol at the man with the wooden club. I waited with bated breath for the signal—

  "Mark."

  And I dashed forward, firing multiple shots at the thug waiting for me. The barrier dissipated, and there was a flash of blinding light from behind me. But I stayed focused only on my targets. My vision blinded for only a moment. As if a powerful flash camera snapped a picture of me. But I could see again after a second.

  The man I fired at was down on the ground, clutching at a few wounds on his body, while the other man was still grasping at his eyes. A flash of light followed by a loud bang echoed behind me, as the man looked up just in time to see me reach him.

  He swung his axe at me. He missed. And I slashed at his legs, ducking under the swing. The man screamed, falling to his knees. Before I finished him off with a quick shot to the head.

  It happened so fast. One moment I was ignoring the gunfire ringing off behind me as I finished off the second thug, the next I was outside catching my breath for a moment. The Plague Doctor followed immediately after, rapidly loading more bullets into his revolver.

  "Don’t let up. There’s still dozens of them."

  "Right," I said, aiming through the door and blasting a man holding a crossbow in the head. Bullets whizzed past me as I ducked back behind cover. "Got anything else up your sleeve?"

  "Not unless you have something." The Plague Doctor fired off multiple shots as fast as I could even aim. "Do you?" he asked, stepping from his side of the door to next to me.

  "I—" I bit my tongue. Is he trying to make me use magic? He suspected me of something— I did not know what he thought he knew, but he definitely knew something. I shook my head, exasperated. "This is not the time!"

  "I know," he remarked casually as he fired another round. "That’s why I’m waiting for you. You have a secret, don’t you?"

  I hesitated. Then a round object rolled at our feet. My eyes widened, and I reacted before I could even think. "Bomb—"

  I rolled out of the way as it exploded at my behind; the shockwave scattered some dirt and rocks on me, knocking me back further. But otherwise, I was unharmed. I whirled around in a panic, trying to see what happened to the Plague Doctor. Why didn’t he move out of the way?

  Only to have my question answered when I saw the domed barrier surrounded him.

  Right, forgot about that.

  I wanted to sigh in relief; I was glad the Plague Doctor did not die. However there were more pressing issues at hand I had to focus on. Like the gaping hole in the wall!

  The double doors of the warehouse had already been destroyed from the fighting. But after that bomb went off, the wall next to it was blown apart, tripling the size of the exit for the thugs.

  A few projectiles impacted the Plague Doctor’s translucent shield. There were much fewer flying about now. The Plague Doctor seemed to have mostly targeted those with ranged weapons during the previous engagement.

  I picked myself up as the domed barrier dissipated, and the first thug charged at the Plague Doctor. The masked man simply brought his cane up, aiming the slightly pointed end at the charging enemy. The lower half of the cane glowed, the mana crystal at its top shining a different color. Then the Plague Doctor ran the thug through with it effortlessly.

  More thugs came at him swinging their weapons. The Plague Doctor took a fencer’s stance, and met them all in combat. He blocked. Parried. Stabbed. And the thugs fell one by one at his weaponized cane.

  I managed to fire off a few shots both at the thugs assailing him, and the ones giving them covering fire. Two fell dead, another was wounded. Before finally, some of the thugs turned their attention to me.

  The first man knocked my gun aside, following up with an overhead strike. I sidestepped it easily, stabbing into his guard. The blade plunged into his chest. With a quick twist, I yanked it out and turned to the other two thugs immediately to my right.

  I slashed at the one on the right as he backed up. The other thug swung at me from behind, but I sidestepped around it. They came at me at once from both sides. I took advantage of my smaller size to continuously dodge between the two, focusing on deflecting the incoming strikes, while alternating my counters with every other swing.

  I managed to cut one low. Right at his shins. And he stumbled back for a second. I immediately followed up on him as his friend tried to stab at me with his sword from behind—

  And I ducked out of the way.

  The injured thug was struck on his chest. He barely even registered what happened before he fell, with the blade lodged into his heart. The other thug’s eyes widened in shock as he realized what happened. I took that opening the moment I saw it. With a quick double slash, the other thug fell over.

  I was panting. My breathing was heavy. I had to labor for each breath to come out. If only I could use magic! But I could not.

  I swung my gaze around, looking at the fighting happening right in front of the warehouse; there were still over a dozen thugs circling around the Plague Doctor. But they were keeping their distance. The small pile of bodies at his feet was enough of a deterrent to keep them all charging in at once.

  A part of me wanted to immediately charge in and help him. But another part was screaming at me to get out of here. I was scratched up, and if I had made a single mistake, I would have been dead by now. And more than that…

  "Gah!"

  A scream. And another thug fell dead in an instant.

  "What are you doing, idiots there’s only one of him!"

  "Attack him together—"

  It seemed like he did not need my help; if anything, he seemed to be taking this threat more lightly than not. Whether I was here or not would have made no difference— so why not leave?

  I took a step back, still undecided on what to do. But before I could actually make my decision, someone else made it for me.

  "Trying to leave, are ya? Too bad. A little girl such as ya shouldn’t have come here in the first place."

  The thug boss came up from behind me, swiveling his glowing shortsword. The light formed what appeared to be a second blade around the metallic edge of the weapon, and it almost looked like it was… vibrating?

  "Ya come here, and cause a mess, killing dozens of my men. This gang which I’ve built up for so long. And ya really expect to leave just like that?"

  "Um, yes?" I quirked my head to the side. "Although I wasn’t sure if I was going to leave. I was only thinking about it, you know?"

  It was a quip. A stupid quip. The only thing I could think of saying at the moment, with my heart pounding faster and faster the longer I stared at his chainsaw blade.

  He shook his head. And as he did, I thought I could almost see the Plague Doctor take notice of what was happening from my peripheral vision. Before I could turn my head to confirm, the thug boss snarled.

  "I have some bad news for ya, brat. I’m going to make you pay for this!"

  He lunged forward at me. I brought my dagger up to b
lock his attack. Our blades met midair. The clash was not like any other I have felt before. The rapidly rotating aura of energy forced my hand back upon contact. I did everything in my power to keep by my dagger from flying off.

  The thug boss saw me stagger back. He pressed forward, not letting up his attacks. I tried to parry another swing, but once again I almost lost hold of my weapon. I watched him load up for another strike, and this time, I dodged out of the way.

  He continued his relentless swinging. Not even bothered by my attempts at counterattacking— easily avoiding me with his superior reach. I backed up several feet as the thug boss spat. "Stop running, and just give up!"

  He pulled out a round object. It was a bomb, of course. "Catch," he said, throwing it at me.

  Why would I do that?! I leapt out of the way in time. The shockwave did not knock me back, but it did cause me to stumble a little bit. Oh my God, I’m actually going to die—

  A glowing light cut through the dust and smoke. The chainsaw blade came right at me. Straight at my neck. I barely even registered it. But my instinct kicked in, and my hand went up in a panic. A finger twitched. And a light covered me.

  My magical barrier shot up just in time. The blue shield that was slightly bigger than me formed where my hand was, taking the brunt of the hit. Cracks formed where the enchanted blade struck, but it did not shatter.

  The sudden glow must have attracted more than a few looks, as I heard a few gasps. The thug boss stared at the magic circle right at my palms, slowly registering what he was seeing.

  "H-heretic!"

  He yelled, recoiling from shock. He worked his jaw to say something else, but I did not let him; I saw an opening, and I took it.

  The magic circle disappeared alongside the barrier as I alleviated the spell. Already, another spell was forming on my other hand, as it shot up pointed towards the thug boss. I said its name to cast it faster.

  "Fireball."

  And it shot out at him. He did not even have time to react. The large sphere of flames engulfed him entirely, carrying him to a cluster of trees at the back. There was an agonizing howl as the thug boss was swept up by the spell, but he was quickly silenced by the explosion that followed it. But it was not just him.