I snarl the instant I see the all too familiar weapon.

  The Rogue is here.

  Punish.

  Fae Ferocity and All For One flare to life, supercharged thanks to my Wisdom milestone, consuming 75% of my total mana regen. I send another 20% into keeping Arcane Regulation active on me to handle any poisons they might use. I’m left with only 5% of my regeneration, but even that is over 170,000 mana per second.

  More than enough to keep me topped off, but not enough to spam my more explosive skills as I had in the dungeon.

  Even though I started moving the instant I saw the blade, I’m too late to save Morvane. The dagger buries itself to the hilt in the back of his skull, killing him instantly. Still, by the time the weapon's momentum is spent, I’m at his side, hand outstretched to snatch it.

  I’d imagined this fight going down hundreds of times since our first encounter, and I came up with a few ideas on how to catch the fucker. Grabbing them the instant they appear with their strange teleportation technique is one of them.

  I just hope it works.

  The Rogue appears behind Morvane, their right hand already wrapped around the hilt of the dagger. I grab their hand in the same moment, before they even attempt to remove it from its bloody sheath.

  I blink.

  Wait, that actually worked?

  Human Rogue

  Level 83

  They take my momentary pause to whip out another dagger with their left hand, their leather armor creaking from the sudden movement as they immediately try to stab me with it. That snaps me out of my surprise, and I quickly grab their left wrist.

  My body jerks back from the force, but the attack is stopped dead in its tracks. With my stats as absurdly boosted as they are, that’s all I feel. Not impressive, not scary, just… noticeable.

  A grin splits my features at the realization.

  It doesn’t even take me any real effort to hold both of their arms in place despite their struggles. I catch the moment their eyes widen with surprise behind the black mask on their face, but they never stop moving.

  A kick lances out towards me, and I catch the glint of metal. At the same time, I see one of Cari’s summoned tentacles tear its way into reality before grabbing the Rogue’s leg, stopping it midair.

  Several more come into existence at weird angles before wrapping around their other leg and reinforcing their hold on the one she’d already caught.

  Looking back, I find her face darkened with pure hatred. Both of her hands are outstretched, fingers curled into claws as she controls her magic. They shake violently, but she maintains control through sheer force of will.

  Gods, her magic is so cool.

  I feel a twinge of pain against the back of my right hand, and I reflexively tighten my grip on the Rogue’s left wrist until I feel the bones in their arm grinding painfully as they struggle to resist my empowered Strength.

  With my focus returned, I see what happened. They’d flipped their dagger into a reverse grip and used it to nick the back of my hand. Not a significant wound in any way, but enough to introduce their absurd poison to my system.

  It almost instantly numbed the area before a deeply uncomfortable burning sensation tries to spread through my hand.

  I wasn’t worried, though.

  The first time we’d fought, my level was in the 40’s. The most healing I could do was about thirty or forty-thousand health regen per second. A lot for anyone not built around the Constitution stat, to be certain.

  After my evolutions though?

  As I am, with only 20% of my mana regen set to the task, I can hypothetically go from zero health to full in less than three seconds.

  So, I grin at the fucker trapped in my grasp and ignore the burning in my hand as it wars with my healing.

  “You’re not getting away this time,” I growl out.

  As if summoned, Scruffy finally reaches us, enchanted manacles in hand. The Rogue’s eyes harden the instant they see them, and their jaw moves.

  Thankfully, both Cari and Scruffy told me enough to understand that the fanatics in this organization would rather kill themselves than be caught, so I was ready.

  I barely hear a light crunch through all of the shouting, but it’s enough. I switch Arcane Regulation onto them, and as expected, they’re taking a ton of damage from their mouth and throat.

  A look of shock flashes across their features the moment I start healing them, but it becomes one of triumph as the poison continues to win out against my efforts. Even with my healing, it slowly spreads, fighting to make its way into their brain.

  The hand he’d nicked burns furiously, but I expected it. With conscious effort and Total Suppression backing me up, I ignore it even as it spreads through my hand. It doesn’t feel like it’s spreading fast enough to change the situation, either.

  Instead, I make sure to stare them in the eyes as I stop supercharging All For One.

  It’s overkill at this point anyway, given they hadn’t been able to so much as twitch their right hand since I’d grabbed it.

  I dump both my unreserved 5% mana regen and the newly recouped 25% from All For One into Arcane Regulation. In total, over 1.7 million mana regen is now focused on healing this fucker, and I feel it beating back whatever poison the Rogue dosed themselves with easily.

  Even with Arcane Regulation reducing its effectiveness on other people by 95%, that’s still over 80,000 health regen per minute.

  More than enough to heal someone not focused on Constitution through a poisoning. I’d be surprised if they even had 10,000 health total.

  The victorious look in their eyes dies, replaced by one of utter disbelief, and my grin widens.

  Scruffy claps one of the manacles around their left arm, just above where I hold their wrist, and he motions for me to pull their arms into position behind their back. I do it slowly, ignoring their struggling and forcing the dagger to almost gracefully slide out of the dead Councilor's skull.

  Under normal circumstances, I’d just do it and be done with it. I’m not going to just let them go, though.

  I want to get the point across. To show the Rogue just how powerless they really are, now that I have them. As I do, I press in close to the assassin. A surprisingly alluring feminine voice comes from the mask.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Kerrash ven tualin shorrek, thali varra! Fen vossa tem alrekh! Fen vossa tem ikekh!”

  The words tumble from her in a torrent, with sharp, rolling consonants and clipped vowels, the syllables spit out like curses. I don’t understand them, but the venom in her tone says enough.

  I ignore it, and it only takes a moment for her right arm to be restrained by Scruffy as well. When he has her, I let her go and take her main dagger from her hand as I do, its metal still slick with blood.

  She thrashes against Scruffy’s grip even harder now, her voice exploding into a raw, furious scream. “Tarrakh ven, vorresh tal a’drin! A’drin vash’a, kha ruel!” The words grind against one another, spit-laced and guttural, as if she’s hurling every insult and threat she knows in one breath.

  She even tries to bite me through her mask, but I grab her jaw with my right hand and force her to turn away.

  Then I drive the blade forward.

  It punches through her leather armor, burying itself deep into her stomach with barely any resistance.

  She jerks against the restraints and my grip around her jaw, her breath hitching in shallow, panicked bursts.

  “Va… sha?” she says through a wheeze, her tone dripping with disbelief as she looks down, eyes filled with confusion and shock.

  For a heartbeat, we just stand there, her eyes downcast and staring at the blade stuck in her belly.

  “Your turn,” I growl.

  Her gaze snaps back to me, the fear clear as day now. This time she speaks Tyrannian, her voice raspy and short of breath. “Wait, don’t—”

  I don’t wait. With a quick twist and a jerk, I rip the dagger out of the side of her belly, opening her up to the air.

  Just like she did to Cari.

  At the same time, I stop healing her. The poison she’d tried to consume had already stopped working, its effects apparently meant to be fast and short lived. Probably in an effort to leave behind as little evidence as possible.

  It didn’t really matter. All I cared about was making her suffer as Cari had.

  She stares wide-eyed and breathless at her new, gaping wound with sheer horror.

  Scruffy glares at me, but I ignore it to focus on the Rogue. I want to catch the moment she almost fades away so I can start healing her again. While I want her dead, I know that Scruffy and the Councilors want her alive for interrogation.

  So I watch. Cruel or no, she didn’t care when she did it to Cari.

  I wouldn’t care now, either.

  The room around us is a chaotic mess as the Councilor’s guards rush the table, heavy boots thudding on the stony floor as they hustle the Councilors out through a back door. No doubt they’re trying to get them to a safe room or something.

  The tiered seats around the room creak ominously as the crowd flees as quickly as they can, rushing towards the main doors and fighting one another to be the first ones out. Their voices clattering against the walls as they shout at one another.

  Or maybe they are just shouting in panic. I can’t really tell. I can practically smell the fear in the air though.

  Even if the fight ended in a handful of seconds, most Tier Zeros wouldn’t care, even if they had the stats to notice. Nobody wants to be involved in fights above their own Tier.

  Well… unless they’re suicidally vengeful, like me.

  The Rogue’s eyes start to glaze over then, and I renew my Arcane Regulation, pumping her full of health regen. Her stomach closes up quickly, though the scar it leaves behind is brutal and doesn’t look properly healed at all.

  Meh. Not my problem. She’s alive, so Scruffy won’t chew me out.

  The Rogue refocuses on me, her eyes filled with a mix of pain and terror. I tap her new scar with the side of the dagger I’d liberated, and she flinches.

  “Now we’re even,” I say, then turn away to rejoin Cari’s side.

  Cari and I had made our stance on all this clear to Scruffy yesterday. We want nothing to do with what comes after this mess.

  Some people might call that cowardly, or maybe selfish. Honestly, though, what could we do? We’re just some low class orphan girls with a grudge. Sure, I’m strong, and sure, we were in the right place at the right time to expose this conspiracy… but that’s it.

  Scruffy, while unhappy with our decision to steer clear of this mess, understood. So when I rejoin Cari and look back at him, he gives me a nod. Both he and the Fighter Councilor are holding the Rogue around their upper arms.

  At some point on my way to Cari, Scruffy managed to get some cuffs around the Rogue’s ankles as well. Even so, I can see Cari’s hesitation to release them.

  I gently grab one of her outstretched hands, and her eyes snap to me. They’re tainted by unshed tears and bloodshot with rage, but the moment her glare is turned to me, it softens. I apply just a little pressure to her hand, pushing it down, and she lets me.

  As her magic fades, I turn her hand over and place the dagger in her empty palm. At the same time, I use Relic Whisperer to check it out.

  Severance

  Legendary, Blood Binding

  Tetherstep

  When thrown, Severance draws its wielder to its side after a short delay.

  Note: You may teleport instantly by infusing mana into the blade once thrown.

  Infuse Poison

  The wielder may infuse the weapon with poisons they themselves have ingested and survived.

  Greater Piercing

  This item has significantly enhanced piercing power, making it significantly more effective against barriers and armor.

  Greater Self Repair

  This item can repair itself even when totally destroyed, so long as the wielder has mana.

  My eyes widen in shock, and I quickly force Cari to close her hands around the hilt.

  “Hide this,” I whisper, pushing her hand into her chest.

  She still seems out of it, but she does as I command, tucking into the satchel at her side. Then I take her hand again and start leading her away. We join the crowd fleeing the building, quickly making our way out.

  Surprisingly, Guildmaster Folly and the other Delvers all join us, falling into something akin to a guard formation around us as we push through the crowd.

  I give Folly a glance, and when our eyes meet, I can see the intent within.

  He’s got questions, and it’s pretty clear he’s not going to let me go without some answers.

  I heave a mental sigh.