Hell to Pay (Ascend Online Book 2)

by Luke Chmilenko

  “This guy is a Hunter’s wet dream, Lazarus.” Sawyer took my jab in stride without flinching. “Request is a little different on this one, though—they’re offering eighty gold pieces to take the target off the board for two days. Doesn’t even need to get violent, just a snatch and grab.”

  Despite the by-play that Sawyer and I were exchanging, I couldn’t help but raise my eyebrows in surprise.

  “Eighty gold just to put him on the sidelines for a few days?” I exclaimed incredulously. “Who the hell is the client? If they’re tossing that amount of money around like idiots, might be a better idea to roll them for everything they have.”

  “Oh, you know how clients are, Lazarus.” Sawyer shook his head sadly, causing his thick black hair to sway side to side. “They like to keep things close to their chest, their identity especially. If a target ever found out who the client was, well, I’d imagine they’d do something rash.”

  “Of course,” I acknowledged while nodding my head in disappointment.

  “But with that being said, I’m still interested in offering you half,” Sawyer offered, a slight flash of nervousness passing over his companion’s face beside him.

  “Half?” Molly finally spoke up, causing Sawyer’s gaze to shift over to her. “And what exactly would be we doing for that half?”

  “Relaxing, sleeping, whatever you want really, so long as it’s in a secure place I can verify,” Sawyer stated before shifting his glance over to me. “Seems like a pretty good opportunity to make some serious cash without having to work too hard.”

  “It almost sounds too good to be true,” I replied, letting a scowl cross my face. “And two days is a really long commitment. With the military gone now, I was planning on doing a bit of shopping and maybe poking my head into places normally a little too risky.”

  “Aw, come on, man.” A worried expression crossed Sawyer’s face. “I’m a big enough man to say that I really don’t think I’d be able to pull it off without your help. I’d still have to try, you see, but that just introduces too much risk I’d rather not have to deal with.”

  “I appreciate your candor, Sawyer, I really do.” I nodded at the man, knowing how much it must have pained him to admit what he’d just said. “But we kinda have a timed quest on the go, and I have a sneaking suspicion that it won’t be around in two days.”

  Sawyer’s face fell as understanding crept across his face. “Aw, fuck, you and the client are competing over something, aren’t you?”

  “Competing implies that there are rules,” I replied as I lifted my hands in the air and mimed hitting someone. “This is more of a bare-fisted back-alley brawl, where the winner takes all.”

  “Perfect,” Sawyer spat, anger crossing his face. “I really hate getting involved in personal problems.”

  “You don’t have to, Sawyer,” I told the man slowly. “Just walk away, pretend you never saw us, and once this all settles down, I’ll buy you a brew and tell you the entire shitstorm that caused all this.”

  “I really want to do that, Lazarus, I really do,” Sawyer replied with resignation. “But at the same time, eighty gold will go a long way to getting me to where I want to be, and I really can’t pass that chance up.”

  “That’s a real shame,” I told the man, subtly tensing my muscles for what was about to happen. “You sure I can’t convince you otherwise?”

  “Sorry, Lazarus, but—” Sawyer’s reply was cut off as I leaped towards him.

  Crossing the distance in a heartbeat, I drew my new sword in one smooth motion and sent it chopping downward in a sweeping arc, hoping to catch both Sawyer and his companion.

  Reacting on pure instinct, Sawyer barely managed to leap backward as he evaded my attack, his eyes shooting wide open as my glass-steel blade swept through the air. Cleaving through the space just vacated by the red-armored man, my blade continued downward towards the other Adventurer, who had been caught completely flatfooted, biting deep into the side of the man’s knee.

  And slicing straight through it.

  Barely feeling any resistance as my new sword sliced through flesh and bone, I was just as surprised as the Adventurer when he toppled to the ground, his severed leg flopping sickeningly to the side.

  “What the hell, Lazarus?!” Sawyer shouted as he drew his sword from his waist and pulled his golden shield from behind his cloak in one smooth motion, a second before the fallen Adventurer screamed in pain.

  “Sorry, man,” I grunted, sidestepping the growing puddle of blood gushing from the screaming man and rushing Sawyer. “New sword, still getting used to it. Apparently, it’s super sharp.”

  “Where did you even get that?!” Sawyer visibly winced as my blade slammed into his and bit deep into the metal as he parried my attack.

  “Bought it on the Auction House for a small fortune today,” I told the man as a thundering crack of magic echoed behind me, signaling that Molly and Quinn had entered battle with the rest of Sawyer’s entourage.

  Shaking his head at me with a frustrated growl, Sawyer braced his shield against his shoulder as he lunged towards me, attempting to get inside my reach where it would be more difficult for me to bring my sword to bear. “Damn it, Lazarus! You’re making this more difficult than it needs to be!”

  “How is that my problem?” I called back, moving to meet the Bounty Hunter’s assault as I crashed into his shield with my shoulder and stopped his charge before he could build momentum.

  Like two dance partners familiar with one another’s habits, I knew with firsthand experience what kind of warrior Sawyer was, having killed him and been killed by him at least twice in the past. So, I wasn’t surprised that the moment that my shoulder connected with his shield, he pulled back and sent a vicious knee towards my groin.

  Shifting to take the blow on an armored part of my leg, I swept my other foot forward, looking to sweep Sawyer off his feet. Unfortunately, as much as I knew his tricks, Sawyer knew mine, and he easily hopped over my ankle-high kick, a grin crossing his face as he did so.

  “We’ve done this too many times for the same moves to work, Lazarus!” Sawyer shouted as he continued his attack, using both his sword and shield to drive me backwards towards his fallen comrade. “We’re just wasting our time here! Come on, put up your fancy sharp sword and take a couple days off!”

  “You’re free to stop at any time!” I called back as I hammered a powerful blow into Sawyer’s shield, causing an ominous cracking sound to fill the air. “The stakes are too damn high on this to bail on out.”

  “Come on, man!” Sawyer’s face winced at the sound of the shield cracking and he withdrew a step as he quickly scanned it for damage. “I just got this thing! Don’t fucking break it!”

  “I’m being serious, Sawyer!” I yelled back at the man as I seized the opportunity to check behind me, seeing that the wounded Adventurer had yet to overcome the shock of losing a limb and was busy trying to stanch his bleeding stump. “The client that hired you, her name was Edith, wasn’t it?”

  “I was being serious too, Lazarus!” Sawyer spat back at me, as he finished inspecting his shield and rushed forward once more. “I can’t tell you anything about the client! The system doesn’t work that way!”

  “What if I told you that the guild just put a bounty on her head?!” I barked as Sawyer and I collided into one another again, grinding our blades together as we exchanged blows. “We’re offering a hundred gold for her capture!”

  Before Sawyer could reply, a sudden flash of magic flashed behind me, causing a look of panic to appear in his eyes as he looked past me.

  “Lazarus, look out!” Molly’s desperate cry echoed out, as I felt a sudden wave of heat descend upon me.

  Reacting instinctively, I threw myself to the side while shoving Sawyer away from me as I tried to evade whatever was happening behind me. Staggering from my push, Sawyer’s sword flailed through the air, slicing a thin line across my forearm as I fell to the ground, dropping my sword in the process.

 
; With a heavy thump, I fell on top of the legless Adventurer, the same instant a ball of fire flew past me and slammed directly into the Bounty Hunter. Catching the fireball on his shield, Sawyer avoided the worst of the blast as it exploded and threw him backwards down the street.

  Closing my eyes, I felt the flames wash over me, singing my face and eyebrows. A helpful message appeared in the corner of my vision, alerting me of what had happened.

  An [Unknown Player]’s [Fireball] hits you for 73 points of damage!

  Blinking the message away, I felt the Adventurer under me thrash as he twisted his body, followed by a stabbing pain in my ribs. Scrambling in distress, I felt a second thrust pierce into my side before I was able bring my hands to bear and grab hold of the Adventurer’s hand, which held a bloody shortsword. Slapping the blade away, I knocked it out of the Adventurer’s grip, causing it to skitter across the ground at the same instant a fist appeared out of nowhere and caught me in the jaw.

  As I staggered from the unexpected blow, the Adventurer landed a second hit as he struck me in the face again, his free hand grabbing me by the throat. Feeling his hand tighten around my neck, I hit the man back, slamming my fist heavily into the side of his head as I fought to dislodge his arm, but no to avail.

  Shit, this guy found his stones. I thought as the Adventurer stubbornly maintained his grip, not even flinching as I pummeled his face. Reaching out with my free hand, I groped around blindly, desperately looking for the shortsword that I had just knocked out of the Adventurer’s hand.

  After a few seconds of panicked searching, I felt my hand come down on something hard and reflexively grabbed hold of it, raising it over my head. Looking past me and at what I had in my hand, I saw the Adventurer’s hate-filled expression shift to one of revulsion and panic, his hand squeezing my throat even harder.

  Unable to see whatever I had grabbed, I swung it downwards at the Adventurer’s head, seeing a booted leg smash into the man’s face.

  I just grabbed his leg, a distant part of my brain acknowledged as I desperately swung my improvised weapon at the Adventurer’s head again and again, watching blood spray through the air with every hit. After my fifth swing, I heard a wicked crack fill the air and felt the Adventurer’s hands go limp, his arms falling from around my neck as his spirit fled his broken body.

  Gasping for air, I sucked in a deep breath as I looked towards my impromptu weapon, seeing that my powerful blows had broken the foot’s ankle and it was now lolling awkwardly to one side. Feeling my stomach roil at the sight of the leg and the Adventurer’s face, I instinctively threw the leg away from me, pushing myself off of the body.

  “Lazarus,” I heard Sawyer call my name, his voice filled with both disgust and awe. “What the fuck, man?!”

  Staggering to my feet, I glanced upwards and spotted a badly singed Sawyer staring at me in horror.

  “Sorry, Sawyer,” I told the man, stooping to pick up my fallen sword, already trying to forget what I had just done. “What Edith and I have going on is personal, I can’t afford for anyone to get in my way. I’d really rather not do what I just did ever again, but if you force me to…I will.”

  Sawyer’s eyes shifted from me to the Adventurer I had just killed, then finally behind me, his expression falling as he absorbed what he saw.

  “The risk I took was calculated,” the dark-haired man sighed as he threw his weapon on the ground in front of him and held his hands above his waist. “But man…am I bad at math. Even with you all outnumbered, we never had a chance, did we?”

  Trusting that Sawyer wouldn’t do anything, I turned around to look how Molly and Quinn had fared with the other three Bounty Hunters that Sawyer had brought with him. My eyebrows rose in surprise as I saw the street behind me completely covered in burns and magical scars, making it readily evident that Molly and Quinn had just finished a close-range duel with a trio of magic users.

  Despite being singed, burnt, and covered in blood, my two companions turned towards me, seeing the disarmed Sawyer holding his hands up high, and slowly began to move towards us.

  “That went well,” Quinn greeted me once he came into range, moving with a slight limp. I saw him take a look at the bloody Adventurer on the ground, then give me a slight nod of approval. “Seems like everything is in order here.”

  “That was pointless, Sawyer,” Molly scolded the red-armored man, scowling as she spoke. “I’m not one to turn down a bit of experience or a fight, but we didn’t have time for this.”

  Sighing loudly, Sawyer nodded apologetically. “I can see that now…but I wouldn’t have been able to live myself if I hadn’t tried, though. Eighty gold is…a hell of a lot of money.”

  “It is,” I agreed, knowing Sawyer’s motivation all too well. “And any other day, I might have taken you up on your offer…”

  “But not today,” Sawyer stated, a frustrated expression passing over his face. “Can you even tell me what the hell is going on? What the hell did this…Edith, do that has you all so worked up?”

  “She or someone she’s working for killed Fairfax Grimm,” I whispered, seeing understanding dawn across Sawyer’s face.

  “Oh,” he said, looking towards the body of the Adventurer that I had just killed as it dissipated into nothingness. “Fuck.”

  “Do you understand now?” I asked Sawyer softly as I too watched the game world clean up after itself.

  “Yeah.” The man ran a hand through his singed hair. “Is what she’s doing related to the military leaving the city?”

  “I don’t know,” I told the man honestly. “That’s part of what we’re trying to piece together. There’s a hell of a lot of things going on that we haven’t been able to figure out.”

  Sawyer was quiet for a while as he absorbed my statement, still staring at the spot his comrade had just vanished from. “I like our rivalry Lazarus. It’s fun. It keeps me on my toes and has me learning new things. But what happened here, this wasn’t fun, not today…” He trailed off shaking his head. “This is really important to you, isn’t it?”

  “It is,” I stated simply, watching the Bounty Hunter carefully.

  “Okay.” Sawyer fixed with me an intense stare. “If it’s not too late, what can I do to help?”

  “Y-You want to help?” Sawyer’s reply had caught me completely off guard.

  “I do now,” Sawyer told me, an understanding look crossing his face. “I know what it means to want revenge on someone.”

  “Well, for one thing, you can keep fucking Hunters like yourself off our tail,” Molly told Sawyer bluntly as she mimed a cutting motion with her sabre. “We have enough shit on our plate to deal with and don’t need people making our lives any harder.”

  “I know what you’re getting at,” Sawyer replied with a wince. “But this is a business, and Hunters aren’t exactly known for listening to one another; they go where the money is.”

  “Then spread the word of Edith’s bounty,” I grunted. “I wasn’t lying to you when I told you the guild put a hundred-gold reward on her. For that amount of cash, you should be willing to get nearly every Hunter left in the city looking for her.”

  “The cut will suck,” Sawyer began, before seeing all of our unhappy expressions and adjusting his response. “But I’m pretty sure we can drown her in numbers, if nothing else. I can’t cancel the bounty on you, though; that’s not how the system works.”

  “That’s fine,” I replied with a shrug. “The more people that are busy specifically looking for her, the fewer people will be out looking for us.”

  “And if we do find her?” Sawyer asked. “You want us to kill her?”

  “Captured,” Molly answered, glancing between Quinn and me. “In fact, send us a private message if you find her and we’ll come running.”

  “That may be a bad idea with the bounty still on Lazarus,” Sawyer warned. “Being greedy as hell is a prerequisite to be a Hunter, and seeing two huge bounties side by side could cause everything to go to shit.”

  “W
e’ll cross that bridge if we get there,” I said, holding up a hand, indicating that I still had more to say. “One thing you should know about Edith, though, she’s been…twisted by magic and doesn’t entirely look all that normal anymore…”

  “Of course she wouldn’t be,” Sawyer deadpanned, looking at me with an unreadable expression. “Why would anything be simple?”

  “Don’t underestimate her,” I told the man.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” Sawyer said confidently, before a worried expression crossed his face as he looked at my sword. “So, what happens now? You going give me a free ride across the city? Or do I get to walk away from this in one piece?”

  “You may be a persistent pain in my ass, Sawyer,” I said, letting a small smile creep across my face as I lowered my sword and stepped to the side, giving the man plenty of room to pass. “But I think we’re done fighting each other, at least for the next little while.”

  “Until this is all sorted out,” Sawyer stated, returning my smile.

  “Until this is all sorted out,” I acknowledged.

  Chapter 14

  “Are you sure it was a good idea to tell Sawyer about Fairfax?” Molly asked nearly a half hour later, once we were off the street and descending down into the guild headquarters. “Isabella hasn’t decided to make that public yet.”

  “Sawyer might be a greedy Hunter,” I replied with a confident nod, “but over the last couple weeks, we’ve developed an understanding between one another, and I felt it was something I could trust him with.”

  “How do you even know Sawyer that well?” Quinn questioned. “I’ve run across Hunters a handful of times, and they’re only interested in the bounty. Not whatever you two have going on.”

  “I first met him during Fairfax’s initiation trials,” I told the mage. “Fairfax had me doing a quick break-and-enter into a merchant’s office, and I had the bad luck to crawl out of a window the same moment that Sawyer was watching.