High-Value Target (Cont.)

She struck behind her with a jerk, hitting nothing but air, and jumped away with her guard raised. She was breathing hard already, blind eyes flickering rapidly as if to somehow see, but when I didn't attack, her mouth twisted and she spoke.

"You're lying!" She snarled fiercely—and yet, for all of that, I don't believe even she could believe that. "You really expect me to believe—"

"Take us higher," I ordered Crocea Mors and the airship began to rise again, silencing the heiress. "This ship is under my command now."

I saw her take a breath, swallowing slightly.

"What did you do to the pilot?" She asked. "To Hamelin?"

I considered remaining silent, letting her wonder. There were several ways I could take things from here and that was one, but…

I took a bracing breath and spoke.

"We are the only ones left on this ship," I said truthfully after a moment of silence, giving her imagination fuel and letting her fill in the blanks as she saw fit. Except…I knew what she would see, could guess her react easily. I was aware of exactly what I was doing to her.

It hurt. Nowhere near as much as I was hurting her—I wasn't that presumptuous—but it was hard to do this knowingly, even for a good cause, even knowing why.

"You monster," She said through gritted teeth. I could see the disgust on her face and when I Observed her, I could see deeper still, into the growing fear, the dawning panic. I could see very clearly what I was doing to her and I wanted nothing more to stop, to kick myself, to beg for forgiveness. But I remembered why I was doing this.

I knew the situation that was about to develop, if it hadn't done so already. The conflict outside would come to an end and when it did we, my team, would be put at a disadvantage. Adam would fight and so would Blake, but…it wouldn't be enough. Not nearly. Adam and Blake were strong even for their level, but against the opposition they'd have to face, they'd fail unless I did something.

That was part of why I was doing this. I needed Weiss for what I had in mind next, but I would need other things, too, and it was impossible to truly predict what though I had some guesses. My MP was a valuable resource I had to use carefully, because I had no idea what was coming next but I was sure, absolutely sure, that I probably wasn't going to get a break to meditate for a while. I needed to defeat Weiss, a higher leveled and well trained opponent, but more than that I needed to be able to beat everything that came after her as well.

This was a battle of resources now, of how far I'd be able to get while spending the least amount of energy. And to do that, I had to be efficient before all else—and, more importantly, making Weiss be as inefficient as I could. It was the same as any other fight I'd been in, a matter of twisting the situation to my advantage, to find and exploit weak points to defeat an enemy that might otherwise crush me.

But I didn't see the pain within Grimm. I didn't see the fear within machines. This…this was different.

And the worst part was…it was still easy. However disgusting the idea seemed, it was easy to come up with this plan, it was easy to execute it. I looked at the young woman I was pushing into a corner and calmly considered the ways to fence her in further. I could see her looking for a way out, a way off the ship, but also hesitation.

"Why?" The question came at last, simple and complex at the same time. It was spoken quietly, but it carried in the silence of the room and for a moment I closed my eyes.

"For the ship, of course," I said, building the lie I was preparing on a truth. "No one else suspects a thing, yet. I'm sure you can imagine what we could do with a ship like this. Why, if it were to crash right now…"

I let my voice fade as Levant giggled again, the air in the room carrying a slight, musical tune.

"I'll stop you," Weiss said, lifting her voice and sword alike. A single sentence and all thoughts of escape had fled. If she'd had time to think, she might have tried to find a way out, turning this into a chase through darkened corridors. With my Elementals at my side, it was next to impossible that she'd succeed at losing me, but as her panic grew, she could cause damage to the ship, forcing me to drain my Aura to protect it—and if she figured out I was protecting it, she could attack the ship instead of me. Maybe she'd even escape, unlikely as it was, but whatever the case, it could easily turn this battle into the kind of fight I wished to avoid.

But now, because of what she felt was at risk, she wanted to protect the ship as much as I did. In fact, she wanted to protect it from me, reversing our positions in her mind. And with the threat of what she thought could happen if I succeeded…

I could see was still scared, but she was also resolved now. Determined to stay here, among the monsters in the dark, and face them. The hero fighting my villain.

However, that resolve was rooted in something deeper and it was just another type of fear. Fear was something that I knew from experience, both from games and real life, and there were many different kinds. There are flashing lights and sudden motions, jump scares and screams, and done right they can be terrifying, but there were many kinds of fear. There's the quiet wait at night, wondering if your parents are alive, the quiet expectation and dread outside a hospital for family friends who were wounded in battle, a quiet atmosphere of anticipation, fear of the unknown, and countless others. There was one in particular, though, that I knew better than any other—and I thought, just maybe, that Weiss knew it just as well, if perhaps in a different way.

The fear of failure. The dread that you might not succeed, that you might let others down, the constant wondering if you were good enough and, beneath it, a quiet voice whispering that you weren't. It was a quiet fear that walked into your mind and set up show in the back of your thoughts, growing with each reminder.

I knew what that was like. I knew what that uncertainty could do to you. And with the stakes as high as they were, I thought I knew what it could do to Weiss.

She crouched down after I didn't reply, another Glyph appearing beneath her feet even as her sword was encompassed with dim light. With a momentary shift of color, she was in the air, flipping to crouch upside-down in empty space. A slash of her sword sent half a dozen small blue snowflakes that fell in curving arcs before firing bright blue beams of light. They flew through the air blindly looking for me, but the moment Weiss moved, so had I. I Lunged straight up and landed silently on the ceiling, air swirling around me to literally push me up against the surface. I only stayed there for an instant, aiming, and then was off again.

I slammed feet first into Weiss Glyph, landing in a crouch again my feet almost touching Weiss's own. I saw her look down in sudden shock, seeing me standing there opposite her as if she were walking on some twisted mirror—and then the light faded as I broke through the already cracked Glyph with a fist, sending us both back into gravity's grasp.

Of course, we both had our tricks. After a moment of falling, another Glyph unfurled beneath Weiss' feet and she immediately turned her head to look for me—but Levant had already reached out to me. Air gripped me, spinning me upright and throwing me forward as I reached out for Weiss' throat. I saw her eyes widen before the Glyph's color changed and we were both went flying into the darkness by a rush of force. I don't think it was aimed except with the intent of putting distance between us—but she landed on another Glyph a second later, even as a rush of wind hurled me to the ground, back amongst silhouettes and shadows.

Weiss Glyph remained for a second before she jumped away, shifting position to another spot in the air. I timed another Lunge to cut across her vision in the dim light, a sudden rush of shadow that she sent flashes of light after without any true aim before leaping down to put her back to a wall. Her blade was sheathed in crimson light as she began to edge around the wall, guiding herself with one hand, but the sword only cast enough light to illuminate her immediate surroundings.

And it's amazing how hard it can be to remember to look up.

I hung on the ceiling, pressed up against it by Levant, and crawled after her on all fours. Levant and Crocea Mors made noise, sending doors shuttering open and closed, chairs creaking slightly, a breeze. Weiss reacted to the sounds, twisting this way and that in response, but I waited above her, timed my approach—and struck. I came down upon her with all the force I could muster, striking hard with grasping, curling claws. She went down with a scream, red light fading, and what came next was a scramble. I went for her weapon, her last line of defense, and this time tore it away and hurled it into the darkness.

There was an almost musical chatter as the blade skittered to a halt and Levant sent it echoing strangely so as to not reveal its location. I danced back out of her reach even before another Glyph appeared beneath her and flashed as it flung us both away again. I watched Weiss react, saw Glyphs flash in and out of existence as she moved, searching frantically for her weapon even as I retreated into the shadows and waited.

I didn't even have to do anything now, not really. I could see her MP bar draining swiftly as she wasted it looking, trying to stay a step ahead of a non-existent attacker. She was driven by a need to succeed, weighed down by the growing fear of failure, harried by my actions, and slowly but surely growing exhausted. All I had to do was wait and occasionally let her hear Myrtenaster shifting in the dark, sound directionless but keeping her fighting hard until her strength faded away.

I closed my eyes as she tried to call up another Glyph, tried to reach for light in the darkness, and failed.

She screamed once as I ended the chase and then fell silent.

I looked down at her silently for a moment, feeling horrible. Blue windows appeared before me, Intimidate leveling up rapidly along with a few new skills to remind me I was a horrible person.

"I'm sorry," I said meaninglessly her crumbled, words that changed nothing to a girl who couldn't hear them. It was a good plan, an efficient plan, and it had worked—but none of that justified what I'd done, not even what I was doing it for. I picked her up gently in the dark and carried her as the light returned. "I'll make it up to you someday."

The words tasted bitter as I spoke them, maybe because of how often I seemed to say them. But…no, more than that…I wasn't done with her yet. A glance out the window confirmed my fears.

I guess it was inevitable.

The villain stole away the princess to use her against the king.

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