Stealing a Kiss

Roaring water separated Yahime and Louis as I ran between them. Yahime's health bar had been slowly shaving away and it had fallen to a quarter of its max.

"Are you okay?" I yelled over the water. I made a wide arc around Yahime to create a wall of water to defend us. As long as I kept running, [WHIRLPOOL] was at most an inconvenience.

"boy… strong."

"He's not the youngest swordmaster in the empire for nothing. How's your arm?"

She raised it up and made a fist. It wasn't completely healed, but it was attached and usable.

"dropped… sword…"

I scanned the ground hoping to find it and snatched it up as I ran past the spot it had fallen.

"Here," I said, tossing it to Yahime. "Now listen up. I've got a plan."

***

"What are you doing, Gredig?!"

Louis stalked over to the mage, cutting down any of the Seele dumb enough to attack him. What mage summoned creatures that attacked indiscriminately? What if they attacked the soldiers?

He blinked. Where were the soldiers? He'd been so focused on his duel with the Dusk that he'd forgotten about them. Shouldn't they have taken the village already?

"Answer me, Gredig! What is happening?"

The bespectacled man finally gave Louis his attention and rose to his feet. As he did, the portal summoning the Seele closed, though the ones prowling the forest remained.

"I'm doing what I have to," Richard answered. He ran his fingers through his teal hair and pulled a glass vial from his jacket. He drained the mana potion in a single swig and it clinked against a dozen other empty vials at his feet.

"You're being reckless. You'll poison yourself drinking that many potions."

"What else do you want me to do?!"

Louis stepped back in surprise. The stress of the campaign was wearing on the merchant. He'd never been one to let his emotions control him. Yet in the north he was volatile and frantic, making mistake after mistake as he rushed to accomplish his goal. Were the Essence Stones really that important? They must have been if Prince Stolz had asked Gredig to go personally.

"Calm down," Louis said. He tried to soften the scowl ever present on his face and put his hands on Richard's shoulders. "Sarah will be devastated if something happens to you."

Richard grit his teeth. "I know! I know. But you don't understand how important this is. If we don't get those stones, the empire is doomed."

"Doomed?" Louis hadn't heard anything about this.

"I don't know much either. His Highness wasn't very forthcoming. All I know is that he tasked me with securing the stones and I'll die before I go back empty handed."

THAT Louis could understand, and he squeezed Richard's shoulders to acknowledge the man's resolve.

"Then let's do this together. I've let my pride and ambition get in the way of your mission, and I apologize."

"I don't blame you," Richard sighed. His hand shook as he tried to open another potion vial. It slipped from his hand, but Louis caught it before it shattered on the ground. "It's that bitch, Aurelie. If she'd just died like she was supposed to…"

"Then let's finish her now. You've been holding back."

Richard avoided Louis's gaze. He couldn't tell him why he'd been trying to take her alive.

"Whatever your reason, let it go," Louis said sternly. "If this drags out longer, you'll die of potion sickness."

"Together then."

The men shook on it.

"Together."

***

"This isn't doing anything."

The glow around my hands faded as I released [HEALING TOUCH]. Yahime just had too much HP for me to heal. I was just throwing a water bottle on a burning house. The only grace was that Richard's spell had ended, though he and Louis were nowhere to be seen.

"…plan work?"

"It will have to. I'm almost out of mana and Louis will just continue to whittle you down. They're probably devising their own final attack as we speak."

"scared?"

I wasn't going to lie and say I wasn't. I had no idea if things would play out like I wanted. If they didn't, we would die. It was as simple as that.

Or maybe Hanabi will suddenly appear and save the day. I haven't seen any soldiers, though, so she's probably still dealing with them.

"AURELIE SCELERAT!"

I stood up at my name and prepared myself.

"Richard. Louis. Are you two ready to end this?"

"More than ready," Louis said. His body was glowing gold and I couldn't even guess what buff Richard had placed on him.

"This is your last chance to surrender, Aurelie. Don't make us kill you!"

My blood froze.

"Make you kill me? MAKE YOU KILL ME?! You have a lot of nerve saying that, Richard. You and the rest of Sarah's sycophants."

"Don't act blameless, Aurelie. We all saw what you did! How you bullied her out of jealousy, tried to destroy her character with baseless rumors. You tried to poison her!"

"BECAUSE I DIDN'T HAVE A CHOICE!"

"You always had a choice," Louis interjected. "And you paid the price for the one you made."

Of course that's how they thought. They didn't know the truth and I had a feeling knowing it wouldn't change their minds. It was easier to defend the status quo than admit its failings, and Aurelie Scelerat was one of those failings. To them, she needed to be erased, scrubbed from the empire's pristine history, demonized like the Exiled had been. If that's what they wanted.

"Let's go, Yahime!"

At my command, she flickered from sight and appeared in front of Richard. Louis blocked her sword from cutting through the mage and tried to draw her away again, but I wasn't about to let that happen.

"[ROCK PRISON]!"

I didn't expect or need the spell to catch Louis, I only needed it to distract him while I joined Yahime. Together we overwhelmed him until his back was pressed against a petrified tree.

"[SPIRIT CANON]!"

A beam of blinding light singed my hair as it shot past my head and I glanced at Yahime's health bar to make sure she was alright. Judging by the small dip, it must have grazed her, but she was still in the green.

"Now!"

Giant black fingers clamped around Louis and the tree pinning him. At the same time I leaned in and grabbed his shaggy black hair. It was as soft as I'd imagined when he was still a character on my phone screen and it made what I had to do easier.

[KISS OF THE VOID]

His lips were as soft as his hair and I let the kiss linger longer than I'd meant to. He tasted of sweat and lemon. I can't say I liked it, but it was my first kiss. Too bad it was with someone half my age and trying to kill me.

"What—"

"[SPIRIT BLADE]!"

I swung my naginata in Richard's direction, unleashing a series of swings so fast they looked like they were part of the initial one. Arcs of glowing energy hit Richard before he could dodge and the ground exploded around him. Several trees fell between us and by the time everything settled I couldn't see him anywhere.

"How?! That's impossible!"

"You don't need to know."

[KISS OF THE VOID]

TEMPORARILY STEAL ONE OF THE TARGETS SKILLS. STOLEN SKILLS CAN ONLY BE USED ONCE.

I wasn't sure if "once" meant ever or before I had to steal it again and I considered kissing Louis again to find out. My middle-aged soul stopped me, though. I'd test it on someone else.

"This is goodbye, Louis."

I stored my naginata in my void and summoned one of Shiro's daggers against his neck. "Don't worry. Sarah and Stolz will be joining you soon."

The world suddenly spun around me and I felt myself fly through the air. I bounced off the ground a moment later and tried to see what had happened.

ALERT

PACT WITH [YAHIME] HAS BEEN BROKEN