Kai followed Desmond as they traced the moonlight, walking with buried steps along the walls. "So the danger I picked up from Arlen was because of Perception?"
Arlen had sent Shae with Sonia, but the Side Missions they had gotten were the same.
Desmond nodded, his head shifting left and right. "Perception reflects all your senses," he told Kai. "It allows you to sense other's presence, their intentions, and dangers. The higher the danger, the quicker Perception will pick it up.
"But it's also a double-edged sword. The higher the gap between you and the other Contestant, the higher will be the chances for Perception to fail. If your attacker has an overwhelming advantage over you in Perception Attribute alone, he, or she, can easily trick you."
Kai hunched in Desmond's shadow, pondering over the consequences of having an advantage in Perception.
"It took us an entire day to figure out where to get the broomsticks," Desmond said under his breath. "If it weren't for Mr. Beedle, we wouldn't have even gotten one."
Kai had yet to even see Mr. Beedle. Arlen had forbidden anyone even stepping towards the basement. Arlen's mission differed from even Desmond and Sonia's, Kai had presumed.
"Why can't Mr. Beedle just Apparate to Dufftown?" Kai asked. Desmond had told him it was some kind of teleportation magic.
"The man's a Wizard," Desmond replied, using the nickname they had given him, "but I have never seen such a coward in my entire life. He fears getting splinched, and worse, he fears leaving that book of his behind. Let me not think of what dangers will be awaiting him in Dufftown. Arlen said there will be Contestants from the 4th to 6th floor there."
Kai had felt the strength behind Sonia's kick. He still remembered the pain, even after the Pain Factor had reduced it in half. And she's from the 2nd floor, Kai reflected. How much stronger a Contestant from the 4th floor would be?
"Where did you get the knife anyway?" Desmond asked. "I swear I had my eyes on you. You didn't steal anything."
Kai kept quiet, but smirked inwardly. Desmond might have advantage over him as an experienced Contestant, but if someone like him could catch him thieving, then he wouldn't have been survived even a day in his previous life.
Desmond shook his head. "Here," he pointed, taking a sharp turn into a dark alley. The walls on both sides successfully hid the moonlight, darkening whatever lay ahead. "Stand back."
Kai put his back against the wall and took out the knife he had stolen from the inn. None had an Item to spare for him.
Desmond looked around a bit before halting against an ordinary metal pipe jutting out of the ground. It was so small and dark that if one wasn't looking for it, then it was almost impossible to notice it. Desmond gave Kai a look, and then, using all his strength, he pushed the pipe down.
Click!
A door opened right by Kai's side, and a ray of light escaped out. Kai could have sworn there were real bricks by his side, but seeing the wooden door, he doubted himself. Kai peered inside and saw many miscellaneous things placed in an orderly and disorderly fashion. There were skeletons, animals' organs, strange instruments, and colored potions in glass vials.
"You heard something?" Desmond whispered.
Kai shook his head.
Desmond enlarged the opening with deft hands, stopping whenever the door showed signs of creaking. Soon they were inside the room, the wooden door vanishing behind them, turning into a wall.
"It's on the second floor," Desmond said, his head moving from one side to another. "It's Rickon Piery's Shop of Hundred Wonders. Don't ask. I don't know about the name either. The entrance is there, ten steps ahead on the first right turn. The entire shop is empty for 2 hours. If…"
Desmond looked directly at Kai, a golden hue already surrounding his pupils.
"If anyone comes, dash to the second floor and find me. DON'T ATTACK!" he said the last words, not whispering anymore, and then he walked away, as nimble as a cat.
For a man of his size, he sure is swift, Kai thought, seeing Desmond's disappearing figure.
The right turn Desmond had spoken of was behind the stairs leading up the second floor.
Left alone, Kai jumped to his feet. The sound left him as if he was just a wind's sigh. He walked, picking up things, turning them over, and then putting them back, just as they were.
Desmond was swift; Kai was swifter.
Those who kill in the dark shouldn't be friends with sound, Kai had learned.
Kai looked at the shelves of potions. A dangerous but mysterious feeling hit him as he thought of approaching them. His eyes shined. If not all, then at least one of these potions was an Item, Kai was sure of it.
Kai stepped towards the shelf, his heart throbbing with expectation.
Click!
The danger shot through the roof out of nowhere. The sound was so loud to Kai's ears that it felt like a bomb.
Kai snapped his head and saw the metal door materializing. Unlike him, whoever was out didn't need to peer inside before charging through the door.
Kai remembered Desmond's warning and dashed towards the stairs.
A hooded figure was already standing there. One more person appeared from behind it.
"Kill him," the hooded figure said and dashed up the stairs.
"DESMOND!" Kai shouted, and took the left turn with the two other Contestants almost on his back.
It was an ambush.
I did not hear them coming, the thought shot through Kai's mind involuntarily.
A fist came hurtling at his back, but Kai dodged it easily, sliding his feet on the floor as if there was oil on the ground. It was a long corridor in front of him. Rows of doors were on either side and a single door at the end, blocking the path. In only 20 steps of distance, he would be cornered.
They were already here when we had entered, Kai concluded.
The man shouted behind him, frustrated by the missed punch. Kai could hear the second man walking leisurely towards their racing figures as if he had all the time in the world.
"Just die, idiot," the man said, catching his breath. He was in his twenties, gaunt, but tall. His hands were long, his reach longer. There were greed and anger in his eyes, gleaming like two distinct lamps in a dark alley.
A newbie. Kai didn't take long to guess. Only a newbie would run at him with such greed and without weapons. Kai had noticed a hammer dangling by his waist, but the prospects of completing the Main Mission must have made him lose his rationality. And that made another fact pass by Kai's mind. He knows I am a newbie too.
So what if circumstances had forced Kai to become a killer instead of scientist; a demon instead of a messiah. The cold, calculative reasoning skills were as much a part of him as the muscle memories.
"Calm down, Robin," a heavy voice reached Kai and his attacker from afar. "The kid has nowhere to go."
Kai had reached the door at the end. He turned and put his back against it, touching the dry wood scratching his skin through the clothes.
Robin stopped, too.
The second one isn't a newbie, Kai thought with dismay.
A loud noise of something breaking hard against a wall came down from the upper floors through the stairs.
The man laughed. His teeth were yellow and his eyes were brown and sharp. There was a thick mustache and a thin beard on his face. His hair was all but gone, his scalp reflecting the little light lingering in the corridor.
A longsword appeared in his hand. An Item.
"Kyle," Robin said, glancing at the man's sword. "This is my kill. Don't interfere."
"Haha!" Kyle showed his yellow teeth again, his left hand tracing the sword length. "Don't worry, I am just here to watch the show."
Robin took out his hammer, shaking it fiercely left and right.
Kai had no visible weapon on him. He had already hidden the knife the moment he had heard the click.
Robin stepped forward. Kai was faster.
The hammer wasn't big, just a little less than the size of a fist, but solid metal. When Robin brought it down, it didn't look like Kai would survive even a single blow.
It touched Kai's hair, then it passed down effortlessly, almost kissing his neck. The power behind the hammer was so great that it threw Robin off balance and hunched him forward.
When the knife appeared in Kai's hand, it felt nothing short of magic.
He threw his legs up, wrapping them around Robin's waist, making both of them fell on top of each other.
Mind-numbing shrieks came out from the dark end of the corridor. A wet sound of something being ripped off, chewed, and spit out.
Kyle stood there with his longsword, stunned. Whatever was happening in the dark, whatever he was seeing, must have frightened him to dare not approach.
Kai stood up. Blood was on his lips, his clothes, and his knife. There was a body between his legs. Of a man? None could tell, at least by not looking at its face.
There was a finger-sized hole in the corpse's ears as if someone had nailed screws from one end to another. A thick slimy juice mixed with blood was coming out of them. The body didn't have any lips, its tongue was gone, and its eyes were wide open. Horror, terror, and helplessness, nothing could describe that expression.
Kai charged toward Kyle like a bloody wraith.
The sight of the corpse must have awakened Kyle's strength, for he brought the longsword up in defense.
Saber, Kai whispered. His knife struck the longsword on its flat as Kyle skillfully parried Kai's attack.
A broken saber, Kai told himself, thinking of his knife.
He glided on the floor, his feet making no sound, and his eyes never leaving the sword. The longsword kept coming at him from left, right, top, and straight, trying to pierce a hole in him. Kai was just too slippery.
Like a snake, Kai remembered.
The sword eyed his shoulder. Kai gave up defending against it, and his leg went for Kyle's thick leg. Steel entered, cutting everything in its path, but not deep enough. Kai had already tripped the swordsman.
Then Kai was upon him. The prey struggled. Kai took his time, the knife doing its work, creating holes all over his prey.
One time. Two times… A hundred times, it went in and out.
At some point, an eye appeared in Kai's hand, and his knife was bent beyond repair.
The pain hit, then.
Kai's left hand fell, unable to lift itself. He was just too tired. The eye rolled away towards the stairs.
Kai saw it stopping beside a pair of feet. It was the same hooded figure, just without the hood. Sunken eyes, long black hairs, and pale skin. Too pale, as if someone had sucked out her life.
Kai gave the sword's hilt a quick pull, blood showering off his shoulder. He pointed it at her, his feet already moving.
She pointed a wooden stick at him in reply.
A Wand!
When her voice entered his ears, it felt magical. "Confringo!"