Chapter #27: Unwanted Partnerships

It pisses me off having to work with Alexander. Besides Zoe, most of his team are low-level wizards who act like they have been born blessed. Half of them couldn't cast a Fire Bolt to save their lives. All in all, their Threat Levels are between 3 and 4 while the toughest of their group who looks like a tank masquerading as a wizard, has a Threat Level 5. I am pretty sure he too can't cast a Fire Bolt, given he is carrying around a cursed battle axe and a large wooden shield. I have to give a few of them credit though. Underneath their wizard robes, I notice a few of them have been holding what looks like powder bombs. Alchemic in origin, but I have the feeling they could do some heavy damage against the horde.

"Take this," Zoe insists, handing one of the bombs over to me.

"Won't this bring down the tunnels?" I say slightly worrying what ten, twenty, maybe even one hundred minor explosions would do to the old tunnels. It was bad enough the wizards were slinging Fire Bolts around like confetti.

"The walls here have been enchanted, it would take more power than both our teams together to make them crumble," she answers reassuring me.

"That's fair," I say, taking the bomb and clipping it to my belt. I am not exactly comfortable with it but I know that with the first sign of the horde they will come handy.

"Thanks," Zoe replies, leaning toward me. I feel her hand on my knee as I sit in front of her, "I wish there was more I could do."

"Pet, we must be ready," Ambrosia's voice calls out from behind me. She walks over and hands me a vile of purple liquid. "Drink," she commands. I lift the glass vile to my lips and down it in one shot. I feel the room spin as the back of my throat burns.

"What the hell was that?" I ask.

"A healing potion with a bit of a kick, what do you think?" She laughs.

"What kind of kick was that?"

"About 100 proof. Our new allies brought some shine down with them. I think it was the big one with the cursed axe. Guess he likes me," she giggles.

It figures even though we are on opposing sides, they were still treating Ambrosia to gifts, bewitched by her beauty even without being Charmed or Dominated. I feel my blood boiling as my stamina and strength buff. My NCI informs me I have a 10% buff to my defense.

"Here," Zoe says, handing me a piece of bread. "Eat this, it will help."

"No, I'm fine," I say insisting that Zoe should save her food.

"Take the girl's gift, you don't want to be rude," Ambrosia says snatching the bread from Zoe.

Ambrosia takes a bite out of it. Gulps and spits it out. "What is this? Three days too old," she says mocking Zoe. Ambrosia throws the bread to the ground.

"Thank you for the gift Zoe," I say taking the bread from the ground and taking a bite. It was actually pretty delicious. It reminded me of the fresh-oven baked bread I had eaten when I first arrived here, the variation Markos had made especially for me.

"Thank you," Zoe says smiling at me again. I can't wait till this is all over. Not only is she drop-dead gorgeous, a fighter, and a wizard, but she is a chef as well. A girl like her doesn't need Charm to make men do things. Her eyes are like fire.

"Zoe, one more thing." I want to tell her it will be ok. That once this is over I will steal her away and all of us will live happily ever after. But there is something in the back of my mind. A looming darkness that tells me to stop, to make no promises I can't keep. "When this is over..." I start.

"Yes," she begins smiling.

"Nah, it's nothing… Just tell Alexander to be ready."

She nods, her head bowing slightly forward. I know just as she does that there is more to say. Dammit, I was regretting so many decisions today.

I stand up and prepare myself for the journey ahead. The tunnels we need to advance into are behind two large wooden doors. It takes five men to open them.

"How could anything escape from there?" I ask my vampire companion.

"There are many paths through the underground," Ambrosia answers.

"I still don't get why we are forced to cooperate as a team. That's unexpected, strange even," my lips press together into a thin line. We begin advancing, pretending to use torches just like we had before.

"You should have refused the artificer's offer," Ambrosia tells me, vitriol on her face. "How will this benefit us? Have you forgotten that there's a wager taking place between us? And I'm sure he knows what happened between our teams back at The Commander's Inn."

My sexy blackmailer is making a lot of rhetorical questions and I can't say I disagree with her. It is a mystery to me why he decided to force us to work together. Yeah, we are the two best raiding teams in this motley collection of adventurers, but it will be impossible to cooperate.

"There's no other to take the lead," Elektra says plainly, her fists unclenching as she takes her wizard's book and places it into her bag. "Trust me, I'm the last person who wants to cooperate with this idiot, but if we want for this raid to succeed, then we will be forced to partner with them. Cadmus must have noticed that, and despite the fact he knows what happened, all that matters is for the quest to succeed."

I can't deny her rational thinking. Out of this motley collection of lost souls, only the three of us and Alexander's team can pull this off. Ambrosia seems fine with the explanation Elektra provided, so I hope she will cooperate with our rivals. For her, the wager is more important than the quest itself, but at times she can be rational.

According to our leader's plan, we will have to tank at the front, while Alexander's team will support us from behind. Despite the fact we saved his ass, I'm not sure if he'll actually assist us and won't abandon us in a dire situation. It goes without question that he would never help me the way I did. At least, I should be honest with myself: I would let the fool perish if it wasn't for Zoe.