[Faceless Hunter 2] Chapter 45: Hostage (Patreon)

"Nobody move," Xen demanded, hauling the elf further away from the edge. "Or I'll crush her throat."

All three of the Hunters down in the belly of the crumbling Guardian froze at his words.

"Ghostwire!" Cassius yelled, pointing his bent halberd at them. "That is Lyra from the Sunstone family! Unhand her this instant."

Xen had no idea who the Sunstone family was, but by how angered Cassius was, it seemed he had picked a good target to take hostage. Now all he had to do was plan his next move.

Is the Abyssal Rift still open?

Glancing to the side, he confirmed the Abyssal Rift was fading out of existence now that the Guardian was dead. Using Appraisal on it returned nothing.

As expected, that's a no. That means the only way out of here is the stairs to the 10th floor, which should be unblocked now.

Xen frowned behind his mask and abyssal stone armor.

But if the stairs are unblocked, I bet dozens of powerful Hunters are flooding in to retrieve survivors and kill the abyssal monsters. I'm a wanted man with a bounty on my head, and if that wasn't bad enough, I've angered Cassius von Stormbringer. Once they arrive, I'm as good as dead.

Xen's mind raced for a solution. The vampire was already a major threat he couldn't think of a way to surpass, but if more like him arrived soon, then his life was forfeit.

There has to be a way. Xen clenched his jaw. Even with my biomass reserves at an all-time low and my back against the wall, I've not come so far for this to be the end. I just need to think—

"Garrick, you fucking idiot," Lyra yelled at the tower shield-bearing elf. "Why would you jump down before me, leaving me exposed to this psycho?" She twisted in his grip to glare at Xen. "You. Unhand me."

Xen tightened his grip in response, squeezing the air out of her lungs. Lyra grabbed his arm, and that's when he noticed one of the many artifacts on her hand light up. Her strength surged, but it wasn't enough to break Xen's hold.

"Stop it," Xen hissed. "Or I really will have to kill you."

"If you kill me, you lose your leverage," she hissed back. "So I know you won't."

Xen grabbed her throat with his other hand, making her gag and her eyes bulge.

"Is that a theory you want to bet your pitiful life on?" Xen whispered. "Because the way I see it, I'm a dead man, and I'll happily take you down with me."

For the first time, Xen saw genuine fear in the elf's eyes.

The artifacts on her hand powered down, and the strength left her body. Thankfully, Lyra was surprisingly light as a slender elf, so he didn't have to spend much effort to keep her restrained so long as the artifacts stayed dormant.

"Good. Now stay quiet."

He needed silence to think straight, but that's when he saw something in the distance he really didn't want to see. Four people were cresting a ridge—it was his party. Hina, Daisuke, Kenji, and Alex noticed him at the same time, with Hina pointing a finger his way and saying something he couldn't hear.

Shit. The Abyssal Rift is closed, yet they still managed to catch up and cause me trouble.

Everything was going wrong at once.

Let's think of how I can win. Xen pondered as he ran through his skills in his head. They are close together, so chaining lightning would be good, but Stormcall needs seconds to grow, and I won't get them. Cataclysm would bring this whole Guardian down, but they can escape with ease. Chains of the Damned might hold Cassius and Garrick, but the vampire would tear through them. Amber Sheath conceals me from detection skills below S-grade, but Jeokhon is S-grade. Ghoststep is spent. My stamina is gone. Even if I had my 1,866 Strength back and a full reserve of biomass, that vampire would still be faster, tougher, and would still have two A-ranks and a healer to back him up. My curses and debuff skills might be able to kill Jeokhon with time, but the others will intervene.

"Cassius," Jeokhon said quietly, drawing Xen's attention. "I may be mistaken due to the abyssal stone armor muddying my senses, but it seems Ghostwire's strength has weakened in exchange for forming that armor."

"How sure are you of that, Jeokhon?" Cassius whispered back. "I can't stake the life of a Sunstone on a mere hunch."

Jeokhon licked his lips. "My blood-reading skill has rarely failed me. If I were to fight him now, I'm assured of my victory."

Cassius glanced between Xen and Lyra with a calculating gaze. He was considering it.

"Jeokhon is right!" Lyra rasped. "I can feel him dying with Healer's Instinct. Come up and kill this psycho already!"

Healer's Instinct—that was the same passive that Xen possessed, and she was right. His biomass reserves were so low that he might as well be dead.

Wait, I might as well be dead...

A sudden realization struck him.

I cannot win this fight. Even at peak condition, the situation is too dire.

It was a strange thing to admit. He had never considered victory impossible before, not against the Charstone Basilisk, not against Marcus, not against the Guardian itself. There had always been some angle, some way to stack debuffs or bide his time or eat his way out of a problem.

But this time the angle wasn't victory.

I don't need to win, he concluded, and the thought was so simple it was almost funny. I need them to think Ghostwire is dead.

The rest of the plan fell into place with terrible clarity. He glanced at his party of humans rushing gallantly toward him across the porous rock.

I need to end this before they get hurt trying to save a dead man.

He sighed. This was going to suck.

"Jeokhon is right," Xen said, drawing everyone's surprise. "I traded my strength for this armor. But I'd say it's worth it, because I can snap Lyra's throat long before you can kill me through my armor."

Cassius burst into laughter. "Ghostwire, you really are a fool. What could your goal possibly be in admitting that?" He shook his head in disbelief. "Do you think we will let you walk out of here with her now knowing you're not a threat?" He pointed in the direction of the tenth-floor entrance. "Even if you keep us here, my father will be here soon. Do you truly think he will let you walk out of here with a Sunstone hostage?"

"No."

"Then why—"

"Because Lyra is also right," Xen said coldly. "I'm a psychopath."

Xen released Lyra. The elf stumbled forward, and Xen followed up by kicking her with all the force he could muster. Her defensive artifacts flared to tank the hit, saving her spine from shattering, but she still fell forward, smacking her head on the rim and falling limply into the belly of the Guardian.

There was no kill notification, so she was still alive, if barely.

Xen jumped down after her. The world slowed down to a crawl, and Xen would remember the shock on Cassius's face for as long as he lived.

Jeokhon blurred as he made use of his immense stats to catch Lyra midair exactly as Xen had intended. With the vampire's hands busy, it gave Xen a clear shot to use a skill he had refrained from using earlier.

"Cataclysm."

Mana poured into his foot, and the moment he hit the ground, a mana-filled shockwave erupted, sending the airborne vampire and Lyra flying. Cassius and Garrick managed to hold their ground by bracing behind the level 81 Storm Bulwark's tower shield.

A web of cracks spread from where he landed throughout the Guardian's body, and rubble the size of boulders began falling as the dead Guardian's body lost all structural integrity.

If he had been planning to survive, he would have taken advantage of the brief lapse in the enemy's formation to run or kill one of the A-rank elves. But for them to think he was dead, he was going to have to take some hits.

Garrick and Cassius didn't need to exchange a word as they both charged at him.

"Bulwark Charge!" Garrick roared.

The Storm Bulwark took the lead, tower shield raised and wreathed in crackling storm mana, moving far faster than a man carrying a shield that big ever should. Cassius ran a step behind and to the left, using the bigger elf as cover.

They're expecting me to fight back, Xen smirked. I better not disappoint them.

He raised his hand and pointed at them.

"Chains of the Damned."

Cursed chains erupted from the web of cracks his Cataclysm had left in the floor, lashing around Garrick's ankles and shins. The Storm Bulwark grunted and kept coming, dragging the chains with him as the momentum of his charge fought their pull, but the skill did what Xen needed it to do. It slowed him. Cassius, who had been counting on his tank to lead, was suddenly the one in front.

But to Cassius's credit, he didn't falter.

"Stormlance!"

Cassius vaulted over the chains, and the bent halberd in his hands straightened with a screech of protesting metal as storm mana flooded it, the whole weapon becoming a spear of white lightning that he drove at Xen's chest with both hands.

Xen blocked it with his forearm.

The spear bounced off the hard abyssal rock but successfully delivered its payload of lightning. Despite the abyssal nature of Xen's armor, it failed to protect him as the lightning struck deep and his muscles seized. His teeth clenched so hard that he tasted blood, and for an agonizing second, he couldn't move at all.

Cassius's eyes lit up with triumph, and had Xen been human, it might have been his victory.

But Xen was no human.

He cast Cleansing Light on himself beneath the armor.

[Stunned status effect successfully cleansed]

Before Cassius realized what had happened, Xen punched him square in the chest and felt Cassius's ribs crack beneath his knuckles.

The A-rank elf grunted in pain and was launched backward across the crater, skidding through rubble until he crashed against a fallen obsidian rib.

Not enough to kill him, Xen thought, shaking out his hand. But that should put him out for a bit.

"Master Cassius!" Garrick shouted as his leader soared over his head. Enraged, he looked back at Xen.

"Grounding Break!"

Garrick slammed the rim of his shield into the floor, and a pulse of earth mana rippled outward through the stone. The cursed chains around his legs crumbled into dust as the terrain they were made from was forcibly stilled, and the tank tore free with a roar and slammed into Xen shield-first.

"Thunder Bash!"

Xen had never been hit by a tower shield swung by a Level 81 tank before, and he didn't recommend the experience. The bash detonated on contact with a clap of thunder that threw him off his feet and hurled him against the floor, causing him to bounce three times.

That hurt way more than I expected.

Xen quickly rolled to his feet and immediately had to raise both arms to defend against a second bash, then a third, each one dished out by the same Thunder Bash skill.

Does this elf never tire or run out of mana?! Xen grunted as his arms went numb. Just because the armor protected him from being stabbed, it didn't do much to dull the shockwaves from the tank's shield.

Xen bided his time and finally felt Garrick slow, so he launched himself upwards and tackled the elf to the ground.

"Get off of me!" Garrick yelled.

"Keep him still, Garrick," Cassius grunted as he peeled himself off the obsidian rib, clutching his chest with one hand, and raised his halberd with the other.

Xen got off Garrick despite his attempts to grab his leg before Cassius has finished casting his skill.

"Tempest Cleave!"

A crescent of storm mana tore off the halberd's edge and screamed across the crater.

"Bulwark Stance," Xen said, and felt his body fuse with the ground. He turned his shoulder, and he ate the attack without faltering.

"Is that all the Stormbringer heir has?" Xen laughed. "Your sister hit harder—"

A figure blurred before him, and Xen's world spun as the figure hit him with such force that it shattered his Bulwark Stance, and he heard his abyssal armor crack. The far wall of the Guardian came rushing toward him like a slammed door. Xen hit the wall hard and slid down it into a pile of rubble, half buried by the obsidian raining from above. As planned, hitting the wall had sent the dead Guardian into a final state of collapse.

He didn't get up.

[Warning: Human (Spellblade) form has sustained catastrophic damage]

There was no option to repair his broken body with biomass. This was it.

A slow clap echoed through the cavern as Jeokhon strode toward him. Cassius was helping Garrick to his feet behind the vampire, and Lyra was nowhere to be seen.

"It was a valiant attempt, Ghostwire," Jeokhon said. "But too bad, Lyra is alive, and now I'll be taking you in."

Cassius pushed past Jeokhon. "No. He's mine."

Xen ignored their quarrel. It was time for him to fake his death as the world crumbled around him.

System, make me undead using Chimeric Forms.

Fully transforming would take too long. All he needed was the undead body of his Undead Mage form, not its magical capabilities. He wanted to become a corpse.

[Grafting specified aspects of the [Undead Mage] onto the current form...]

Beneath the abyssal stone armor, his body changed. His blood drained away, leaving his flesh cold and gray. His heart stopped beating—his lungs went still. He became something halfway between a human and undead.

A corpse.

"Not going to say anything? Huh?" Cassius planted his foot on Xen's helmet. It took everything Xen had not to twitch at Cassius's disrespect.

His time would come, but not with that vampire at his side.

"Cassius," Jeokhon said. "He's not answering because he's dead."

"Dead?" Cassius's face twisted in anger. "He was mine to kill—"

A crack like a gunshot split the cavern, silencing Cassius. One of the obsidian ribs above them gave way, and then another, and the lattice that had held the Guardian's hollow interior together began to fall in on itself.

"Garrick!" Cassius yelled.

"Earthed Stance!"

A dome bloomed over the group as the first rib came down. Xen felt the impact through the stone, several tons of black rock crashing down upon him, and for one terrible moment he thought he was going to die for real. But the armor crafted from the fallen Guardian held, exactly as the system had promised, with the durability of an S-grade.

"Ghostwire's body!" Xen heard Cassius scream over the roar of the collapse. "I need his head! The bounty—"

"The bounty is not worth your life," Jeokhon snapped. "Move."

"Two hundred and fifty thousand credits, Jeokhon—"

"Buried. As you will be, if you stay." There was the sound of someone being bodily dragged. Xen traced them leaving through Geomantic Perception and waited until the rumbling stopped before allowing himself to smile.

Ghostwire died so that I could live another day.

Xen ejected himself from his ruined body and left it for Cassius to find should he return. Next, he slipped out of the thin visor in the rocky armor's helmet and emerged in a tiny space under the collapsed Guardian.

This is going to take a while, Xen thought as he began eating away at his tomb and felt the lingering abyssal mana corrupt him. But once I get through all this, I can use Cinderburrow to escape through the porous rock.

It was time for Yuki to make his grand return.