Oren’s eyes suddenly snap open, coming awake quite abruptly. For a moment, he just stares up at the ceiling of their room on the tavern’s second floor, not entirely sure what woke him up. Then… he hears it again and curses under his breath.

  Sitting up in bed, he looks to the window. It’s the early morning hours, the twilight between light and dark. The pitch black of true night is being steadily chased away by the early morning sun, but the sun itself has not yet begun to rise over the distant horizon. It gives an almost eerie feeling to the bits of light that herald the sun’s inevitable arrival. Certainly, most of the town of Oakvale is not awake yet. They’re all still asleep in their beds. And yet…

  “Sophia, wake up.”

  To her credit, the Minor Goddess is a light sleeper. Her blue eyes open and she looks to him, even as she sits up in her own bed. Her brow furrows in confusion when she sees how early it still is.

  “What… what is it?”

  Letting out an explosive sigh, Oren shakes his head and swings his legs out of bed.

  “We’re surrounded.”

  Sophia’s eyes widen at that, even as Oren rises to his feet and tilts his head to the side, considering all that he’s hearing. It’s nothing within the tavern itself. They’re smart enough to avoid that, which is half the reason he didn’t hear them earlier. But Oren’s hearing extends far past just this building.

  Just like he did back in Amberwell, Oren can hear the men slowly moving into position to surround the inn. There’s a great deal many more than there were back in Amberwell though, and the kicker is the men on the roofs of the buildings closest to the tavern. They’re not taking any chances.

  “Who… the God Hunters?”

  Sophia pales as the realization hits her. Oren grimaces and nods, because he can’t think of anyone else who could field these numbers. Not to mention, that encounter in the marketplace from the day before is still fresh in his mind. The God Hunters were practically running Oakvale at this point. Who else could it be?

  Perhaps he should have listened to Sophia when she said they needed to keep moving, but he’d been confident that they could remain undetected. Unfortunately, that did not seem to be the case. How had they found out about them though? Did they have some way of sensing divinity or something? Surely not, or they would have been caught out in the market. And besides, Sophia was running on fumes anyways.

  Moving over to the wall next to the window, Oren very carefully tries to get a visual on exactly what they’re dealing with. He can hear them moving around out there, can even make out distinct heartbeats if he really focuses, but he’s still reliant on his eyes to differentiate. Only, he must not be careful enough, because a voice suddenly rings out from down below.

  “Ho up there! At the window!”

  Oren’s jaw clenches at being called out. At the same time, he hears everyone else in the area beginning to stir. The God Hunters hadn’t bothered evacuating the tavern nor the surrounding area. People start to wake up in their beds at the shouting voice. Oren doesn’t think this was a mistake or anything like that though. Rather, he gets the impression that they don’t care if any innocents get in harm’s way.

  Finally deciding to bite the bullet, Oren steps out into full view of the window, standing silhouetted in the frame. He’s practically daring them to attack him… and at the same time, using the opportunity to get a good look at what he and Sophia are up against.

  The tavern is surrounded on all sides of course, eerily mimicking the situation they found themselves in back in Amberwell. This time around however, there are God Hunters positioned on each rooftop, armed with bows and quivers of arrows. Oren doesn’t think they’re there to necessarily stop him from pulling the same maneuver he did last time, but rather to provide overwatch support from above if a fight breaks out on the street.

  Speaking of the street… there’s a dozen men on the road outside of the tavern and another two dozen surrounding each side. Among the dozen men in the front… is the cruel one from yesterday in the market. He’s also the one who spoke up now, a wide grin spreading across his face when he sees Oren standing there. He takes a step forward.

  “There you are! Why don’t you and your friend come out here so we can chat, hm?”

  His voice carries, causing more of the inhabitants of the buildings around them to stir and move to the windows to find out what’s going on. When Oren just stands there silently, the God Hunter’s smile turns slightly… brittle.

  “Heh, big strong silent type, eh? Or maybe you just don’t trust me. Fair enough. The name’s Elric. Elric Steelwater. I’m the Lieutenant of these sorry excuses for men you see around me.”

  There’s some shifting of feet from the other God Hunters at that. Some seem to take Elric’s insult personally, while others grin at his words, treating them like a joke. When Oren continues to stand there silently, Elric’s smile finally drops.

  “Don’t make this harder than it has to be. We know you’re traveling with a goddess. Her divine stench permeates through this town like a plague.”

  A lie. Has to be. But what if it isn’t? What if they actually have a method for detecting divinity? If that is the case… Oren might have a way out of this that doesn’t require bloodshed. A slim chance admittedly, but better than nothing.

  Stepping up to the window, Oren finally pushes it open. Elric’s eyes light up in interest, even as Oren hears the archers on the rooftops all drawing back their bowstrings, aiming arrows right at him. Not that they would do anything even if they fired.

  “My companion is not a goddess. What you’re sensing is the Hill Giant I had to slay a few days back. The demigod’s blood got all over me… I wasn’t able to properly clean it off until last night’s bath.”

  There’s a brief pause as Elric and his men take that in. Oren has spoken plainly and concisely. His words were a pack of lies, but he knew for a fact that he’d given no tells, showed none of the usual signs of deceit. His tone was matter of fact in the extreme and anyone who was looking for deception would hear nothing but honesty in his voice, or so he hoped.

  … Unfortunately, there are two components to being believed when telling a lie. There’s you and there’s the lie itself. Even if you’re the best liar in the world, even if you give away no tells whatsoever… if your story is too outlandish to be believed despite the most outlandish parts being the most honest, then it won’t matter how good you’ve lied.

  After a moment, Elric throws back his head and laughs and all of his fellow God Hunters do the same, chuckling and snickering and even guffawing at Oren’s expense. They all seem to think what he’s just said is the height of hilarity. And obviously, they don’t believe him in the slightest. With a low sigh, Oren turns and steps away from the window, causing Elric down below to snap out a response.

  “Oi! Where the fuck do you think you’re going?”

  But Oren is already out of sight, both of the ground below and the archers on the rooftops surrounding the tavern. He steps over to Sophia, who has hurriedly gathered up their supplies and is looking rather unsure of what they’re supposed to do next. Fortunately, the situation isn’t as dire as it looks where they’re concerned. Unfortunately…

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “I’m going to have to kill them all.”

  Sophia jolts at his words, but he can see as she eventually reaches where he’s already at. This isn’t like Amberwell, after all. Those were just small time thugs in a small town. The reach of Gentleman Grays cannot even hold a candle to what the God Hunters are capable of. Even if they successfully flee Oakvale like they did back in Amberwell, the God Hunters will just report on them and bring in more of their kind, hunting them to the ends of the world. And since Sophia’s refuge is far too close… they won’t even have to look far.

  No, his and Sophia’s only hope, in the end, is to silence these God Hunters here and hope they haven’t already sent off a message to their superiors. Even if they have, at least there won’t be any God Hunters left to talk about them when reinforcements finally arrive.

  Finally, Sophia nods.

  “I… I understand. They won’t let us go. They… they’ve brought this on themselves.”

  That they have. Oren can hear them outside even now, with one of the other God Hunters asking Elric if they should storm the tavern already. So far, the self-proclaimed Lieutenant is hemming and hawing, but Oren knows he won’t wait forever. And if the God Hunters do storm the tavern, they’re not likely to discriminate between him and Sophia and the other innocent people in the building.

  There should have been one silver lining to all of this though. As Sophia had explained to him, the only way to kill a divine being was with Celestial Metal or something infused with Celestial Blood, like the Hill Giant’s club. It was why his mundane blade had done so little damage to the Hill Giant.

  Supposedly, Celestial Metal was very, very rare. So Elric and his God Hunters shouldn’t have any on them because this was some backwater town, right? And yet…

  “How did they kill the God of the Forest? How did they kill Bormus?”

  Elric had boasted about it the day before in the market. He’d made it quite clear that they’d slain the region’s local forest god. Sophia blanches at Oren’s question, having clearly not considered such a thing until now. She thinks quietly for a few long, tense moments before shaking her head.

  “I… I don’t know. Maybe they have some other way of harming the divine? Or maybe the God Hunters know some source of Celestial Metal I do not and are equipping all of their men with it after all… but those who were chasing me back when we first met definitely didn’t have any…”

  Oren clenches his jaw and nods. The uncertainty made things more difficult. If he was absolutely certain there was no Celestial Metal or other threat to Sophia in this town, then he could just jump out that window right now and start killing people. If he didn’t have to worry about her safety… tch. It is what it is. He’ll just have to mix offense and defense. And… he knew just how to start things off.

  After a long moment of planning, Oren holds out a hand in Sophia’s direction.

  “Give me our coin bag.”

  The Minor Goddess looks confused for a moment, before hesitantly handing over the pouch of copper, silver, and gold that they’d won all the way back in Amberwell.

  “I don’t understand. Are… are you going to try to bribe them or something after all?”

  Oren shakes his head, even as he opens the bag and pulls out one of the metal coins inside, rolling it between his fingers for a moment.

  “… No. They all still have to die. But I can’t just leave you defenseless. That means improvising.”

  -x-X-x-

  “Boss? Should we go in now, do you think?”

  Elric Steelwater clenches his jaw and resists the urge to backhand his subordinate across the face. While indulging in his crueler, more sadistic tendencies with the townsfolk of this shithole was fine, he couldn’t be a tyrant to his men. Not if he didn’t want to wake up to a dagger in his throat while he slept. No, his subordinates needed to think of him as the best superior they’d ever had. That was just good sense.

  Still, sometimes he really wished he could indulge. Especially when one of his men made such a stupid question. And especially when Elric… didn’t quite know what to do.

  The information they’d received said that there was a goddess in the tavern in front of him, but that she was accompanied by a very dangerous man who was acting as her protector. He’d been advised to move with extreme caution, and yet even though he’d had his men surround the tavern in the early morning as silently as possible, they’d still been caught.

  Just what-

  Elric’s head twitches as a whistling noise suddenly pierces the silent air.

  “The fuck was that?”

  His men look around uselessly, just as confused as he is. Another whistling noise sounds out a second later. Elric looks up towards the window of the tavern, but he doesn’t see anyone there. And yet, as he peers up at it… he thinks he sees something small flash out of the open window, even as a third whistling noise echoes out.

  The fourth time it happens, Elric sees the end result, mostly because the angle means he can see the archer he stationed on a rooftop to his right as insurance. And since he can see the archer, he gets to watch as the whistling noise is directly proceeded by the man’s head exploding.

  Elric’s eyes widen and one hand falls to his sword while the other goes elsewhere, grasping onto something he has hidden away in his armor. This… this was divine power. It had to be.

  “WE’RE UNDER ATTACK! SPREAD OUT, THE GODDESS IS TRYING TO STRIKE US DOWN!”

  On pure instinct, Elric throws himself to the side, specifically behind one of his men… a moment before a whistling noise sounds out and a splatter of blood and brain matter strikes him as the man’s head explodes. Elric finds himself using the headless corpse for cover, even as he stares uncomprehendingly for a moment at the blood-coated golden coin resting on the ground next to it.

  Then, he’s scrambling. More whistling sounds ring out as his men, slow to react and standing still like the morons they are, make for more appealing targets than Elric himself. Meanwhile, the men surrounding the buildings on the other sides begin to move in all at once upon hearing his words.

  Elric finds cover quickly, hiding behind some barrels and panting for breath with his eyes wide as he watches his men rush into the tavern and up the stairs… and then hears their screams moments later.

  What were they dealing with here, exactly? What had they been tricked into facing off against? This was supposed to be a Minor Goddess, but she… she was dropping his men like flies!

  Only, Elric’s whole world is turned on his head when his quarry finally exits the tavern on the ground floor. He watches from his hiding place as the man from the window steps out and the woman said to be a goddess moves behind him. A dozen of his men come around the corner from the back of the tavern at the same time, and upon seeing the two they draw their weapons with a roar and charge forward.

  Elric expects to see the goddess drop them all… instead, he watches as the man puts his hand in a bag she’s carrying, pulls out half a dozen coins… and begins flicking them, one after another in the direction of the advancing God Hunters. Heads explode and bodies are flung back as the coins kill Elric’s men one after another, sending a thrill of terror down his spine.

  … But to their credit, his men do not falter in the face of what probably looks to them like divinity. Elric knows better, but they just see a god fighting them and in their zealotry, continue rushing in even as some of them die. This in turn forces the man to finally draw his sword and fight them, though that doesn’t go much better for the surviving God Hunters. Only the arrival of even MORE reinforcements keeps the battle going as men lose their limbs and their lives faster than Elric can blink.

  This… he’d thought himself so smart when he’d taken his orders and expanded upon them. The advice had been to take the majority of his forces to apprehend this goddess and her protector. But Elric had taken every God Hunter in the town, an entire fifty of them, and brought them with him. It had only seemed like good sense at the time. Now… well, now it was obvious that even fifty wasn’t enough.

  … Or maybe it was. On the one hand, Elric wanted badly to run, to flee, to turn tail and never look back. But on the other hand, he knew what the price for desertion was. And there was still a way he could accomplish his mission.

  The goddess and her protector are a few feet apart now. The man has stepped into his advancing subordinates to more readily butcher them as they senselessly throw themselves at his blade. The goddess, meanwhile, has wound up positioned with her back to Elric’s hiding place. Just his luck.

  Slowly, carefully, Elric pulls his secret weapon out of his armor. He drags the dagger from its sheath, the metal shimmering oddly. This Celestial Dagger… he wasn’t supposed to have it, but Elric was nobody’s fool. He hadn’t risen to the rank of Lieutenant by being nothing more than another drone among the thousands that populated the ranks of God Hunters.

  Fast as he dares, and almost still not fast enough, Elric darts out of his hiding place, grabs the goddess from behind, and places the Celestial Blade against her delicate little neck. He still almost dies for it, as the man whips around at the same time that Elric moves. Had he been tracking Elric the entire time?

  Maybe he had, but he’d made a critical mistake in letting his bitch get between the two of them, because Elric was able to use her body as cover and now… well, now he has all the power.

  “HOLD! Move another inch and I’ll kill her dead!”

  Even as the words are leaving his lips, the last of his men is charging at the butcher’s back. Without even looking, the goddess’ protector lashes out backwards with his sword, skewering the final God Hunter through the throat and sending him to the ground choking and gurgling on his own blood.

  Elric winces. From what he can tell, all of his men are dead now. It’s just him left. But he can still salvage this. He can still make this work.

  “… Move another inch starting NOW and I will end this bitch’s life.”

  The man glares at him impotently, blood drenched blade at his side. But it’s obvious he recognizes the dagger in Elric’s hands for what it is. A feeling of power wells up in Lieutenant’s chest. He would not die here. He could do still do this. He, Elric Steelwater, held all the cards in this moment. Now it was time to use them.

  A/N: Taking bets for Elric's survival. Not gonna lie, the odds are great because the chances of him living through the next five minutes are REAL slim lol.

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