The start of the desperate struggle, and The truth behind the blade

The plan was easy, we ran back to Mitch’s lab. Luckily he’s not here, sorry Mitch but time is of the essence. I gave Steve an iron lid and a pipe, his mission was to find the guy and lead him here with the sound of the gong. Once he managed to get him to the room, ditch the gong and run for it. He won’t survive a confrontation with this guy, no matter how strong he is, that’s just how annoying that prick’s sword is. After that, it’s all up to chance.

“Hey Thief, you sure this is gonna work?”

“Well that’s unlike you Rat, you’d usually be taking bets at this moment.”

I gave a light chuckle, but when I saw Rat’s face for the first time he looked scared. Not for himself, but for me. This little bastard, why is he getting emotional on me. Just then we heard the gong sound.

“Duty call time to get in position.”

“...Right.”

“And Rat-”

“What?”

“I’m gonna kick this guy’s ass to Hell and back, make sure you have some chilled ale waiting for our celebration!”

“...Heh, of course I will!”

Rat went back to his usual self and quickly climbed up the wall and hung up in the corner like a spider. I killed the lights in the room and waited, that’s when I heard slow footsteps coming towards the doorway. There he was, the bloke in all his glory. He looked at me like he saw a ghost, but then gave me this weird smile like he was insane. He then spoke to me, his voice filled with joy.

“So you finally gave up the chase. You bloody thief!”

“Funny, I never told you what my name was.”

Just then, Rat leaped down and slammed the door shut. The prick stared at the door, I could hear Steve rushing back with the supplies needed to lock the handle in place.

“What the hell?”

“Don’t worry, I just wanted to make sure our battle wouldn’t be disturbed.”

“Oh, why aren’t you charming? Although, flea bags like you aren’t my type.”

“Funny, Sociopaths aren’t my type either.”

The guy began to chuckle, that chuckle soon turned into a full on laugh. It was like a Hyena, maybe this guy really was on drugs. Then the laughter stopped, and the smile on the man across from me was replaced by a scowl.

“How could you do this to me?”

“Do what to you?”

“Don’t be a smart ass, my eye you cocky little s***! My right eye is gone, my perfect face has been marred because of you. Did you really think you were just going to get away with this and share drinks with your friends like nothing happened.”

“Funny, I actually did that already.”

“...That’s not funny, that’s not funny at all. Do you enjoy laughing at the expense of others, actually of course you do! You’re a lousy thief, OF COURSE YOU DO!”

He caught me off guard with his change in tone, then he began to lose it again.

“YOU MOTHERF***ER! HAVE YOU ANY IDEA THE HUMILIATION I ENDURED BECAUSE OF YOU! WELL GUESS WHAT, YOU AREN’T LEAVING HERE ALIVE TODAY! I’M GOING TO KILL YOU, BUT NOT BEFORE CRIPPLING YOU AND LEAVING YOU IN A STATE FAR WORSE THAN MY OWN! YOU SHALL RUE THE DAY YOU CROSSED MY PATH! YOU FILTHY THIEF!”

He says all this while pointing at me, it’s like a child telling the kid who beat him in a game that he’d be back for revenge. I try not to laugh, meanwhile this comedian takes a deep breath and fixes his disheveled appearance.

“Apologies, you must understand. I hate you.”

“No worries, I feel the same way.”

“Excellent, that said I take back what I said before.”

“That being?”

“Tell me your name.”

My name, why would he-Oh right, I never told him back in the forest did I. However, before that-

“Sure I’ll tell you, but first you gotta tell me. Who are you again?”

Immediately the guy looked like a switch flipped inside him. He immediately breathed in hard and then stared at me with determined eyes.

“Conrad, my name is Conrad Bu’Cannon. We’ve been over this thief.”

“Oh yeah, also looks like I don’t need to introduce myself.”

“Why’s that?”

“You said my name.”

“No I didn’t.”

“Yes you did.”

“When was that?”

“A moment ago.”

“Then I didn’t.”

“But you did.”

“So then what is it?”

“Thief.”

“What about you being a thief? I asked for your name.”

“Yeah Thief.”

“Not your occupation, you oaf, you name.”

“Thief.”

“Gods, what is there not to understand.”

“I mean it’s pretty straight forward.”

“What’s your name?”

“Thief”

“What’s your name?”

“Thief”

“What’s your name?”

“Thief”

“What’s your name?”

“Thief”

“What’s your name?”

“Thief”

“What’s your name?”

“Thief”

“What’s your name?”

“Thief”

“...We’ve been at this for four minutes, are you going to keep messing with me.”

“What’s so hard to understand, my name is Thief.”

“...So your actual name is Thief?”

“Yep, I’m Thief the thief!”

“...Gods, do I even need to ask what you’re parents were thinking.”

“I don’t know myself.”

“...hahahahaha, I’m about to fight to the death with someone insane.”

“Funny, because I feel the same way.”

“That’s the fifth time you gave a response like that”

“It’s actually the fourth.”

Conrad paused before responding again, of course during this pause he took a long sigh.

“Well Thief, it appears we’ve reached the end of our conversation.”

“Not quite, I still have one last question.”

“What?”

“How many bitches did you get with that eyepatch?”

“...”

Conrad stood frozen for a moment, and I grabbed what I needed for the first step of my plan. Then like a bomb went off-

“TTTTTHHHHHHHHIIIIEEEEEEFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Conrad lunged at me, signaling the start of our duel

****

I jumped back as Conrad darted across the room towards me, I threw what I had in my hand at him. It was a full bag of pocket sand, immediately Conrad sliced into the bag exploding the contents and spreading them through the dark room.

“You bastard, enough tricks show yourself!”

“Come now, I’m a Thief! Parlor tricks are my specialty.”

He slashed towards where he thought I was, upon his failure I tossed a pellet at him. He quickly countered, so I had to escape back into the mist. He followed, only for me to aim another pellet at his blind spot. Causing him to once again counter, I followed this same formula about three more times.

“This is ridiculous, you aren’t getting anywhere with this!”

“Funny you mentioned that, hey now makes five times.”

“DON’T MOCK ME!”

Conrad came rushing at me, I aimed a pellet at his left eye. He sliced away and prepared to impale me, that’s when I pulled on the piece of string I set up beforehand. Before you ask, yes I set up things beforehand. It should’ve been obvious by now, especially since Rule #33 of being a thief is to make full use of your prep time. It goes hand in hand with Rule #38 which is to make use of your environment.

Now enough of that, I’m in a life or death battle for gods sake! I pull my string, sending the unlodged brick in the wall flying towards the back of Conrad’s head. However, despite it being the perfect surprise, Conrad spun around and cut the brick down. Still, everything’s going according to plan, I rush towards Conrad and he preps his sword again. Suddenly, right before he could lunge at me, the stone I threw a second ago breaks through the mist and flies towards his head. He managed to block it with his sword, however he couldn’t block the second stone I threw when he was busy blocking the first one. It hit him right in his right eye, which was still healing. He began to growl with pain, that’s when I jumped into the air and got my knife out. Time for an aerial stab, that was the plan until Conrad started crouching his body and prepared to impale me from underneath. However before he crouched completely, the bottom part of my left leg connected with his head. As his body tilted over, I began to rotate. Right before he could counter, I delivered a right backleg kick to the right of his head. The impact sent him rolling on the floor, his right eye wound must’ve reopened because it was bleeding.

“*huff huff* F***, F*** F*** F*** F*** F*** F*** F*** F*** F*** F*** F*** F*** F*** F*** F*** F***! Why is this happening? I'm supposed to be winning!”

“Well, I guess you didn’t learn your lesson?”

“SHUT UP!”

Conrad froze for a moment, he then began to hold his head with both hands and cry out in agony.

“Wh-WHY! WHY DOES IT HURT SO MUCH!”

“You still haven’t noticed yet?”

“What are you babbling about!?!”

“Your stamina is practically shot from the battles you’ve had up until now, add the fact that your wound isn’t healed, tell me were you really taking this seriously?”

“SHUT THE HELL UP!”

“Oh yeah, another thing! Your cognition can’t deal with the sensory overload.”

“...What?”

Conrad couldn’t help but look scared when I said that. Well it makes sense, he didn’t think anyone would be smart enough to notice. That and he didn’t know he chose the wrong opponent.

“I must say, considering your track record, your choice of weapon wasn’t all that bad. However, taking you head damage as well as your recklessness, you were bound to fail. Sorry to tell you this Conrad, but you never should’ve come here in the condition you're in. Especially with Forecianna, the sacred sword of foresight.”