Their blades sang as they exchanged a rapid set of blows. The lizard was sending out double the attacks she was. Three heavy hits carved her body in less than twenty seconds. She backed off. Her chest was already heaving. Her heart had been injected with maximum adrenaline.
"Good exchange. As you can see you're outmatched. What were you doing with the statues?" The lizard asked.
Cutlery spat out a bit of blood that had flown into her mouth at some point during the fight.
"Shining 'em." Cutlery said. The lizard smirked and said,
"Good."
They jumped forward and Cutlery threw a now empty bottle at them. The poison in it was now on her blade. The stuff she put on would easily slide off it in only a few swings and it was strong.
Cutlery recklessly swung. She received a long deep cut to her thigh, but her rapier buried point first into the lizard's green chest.
He smirked and pulled away.
"Gambling won't work hurk!" The lizard man coughed. He grabbed at his chest. "What have you doneeeeyyy!" His words turned to a scream. The poison seemed to be stronger and more painful than she remembered.
It dawned on her it was just a strong acid. The reason it didn't stay on her sword long was the damage it did. Some of her fingers tingled painfully from the little that had splattered onto them.
The lizard man fell and convulsed on the ground. He started spewing up a rainbow of bile that included red. Cutlery went through his bag while he convulsed. A cherished memory of stealing from an adult man while he puked in an alleyway came back to her. Just like the good old days. This time she poisoned her foe instead of them poisoning themself with alcohol beforehand.
The lizard had a yellow potion on him she pocketed. Probably for healing, not that it would help with acid melting his organs. A long sigh escaped the lizard and he felt still.
Cutlery was safe, no one had seen her. At least more than one high-level spy would be a lot for little old her.
She stowed the lizard's body in a nearby pile of sludge and walked back to her watch tower roof. Before she exited the alleyway she folded her clothes, leathers, and bags to hide her wounds. Bandages were only necessary for her thigh cut, everything else clotted quickly due to her sliver. Cutlery hadn't once heard of a slivered person bleeding out.
Back at the roof, Lutae had arced over the city. Traffic started to pick up as well. Many factories, nonessential shops, and the like were closed during the Temples' arrival. A few rare shops were open even longer as they tried to milk the festivities of every piece of copper they could.
A crate thumped into position and Cutlery let out a sigh. She had found it on the floor below her down a ladder. She kicked up her feet on it and watched over the street. Perfect, now if only no one could mess up the rebel plans. Cutlery could get back to identifying every pickpocket on this street and rating their skills throughout the day.
She saw a group huddling in the sludge alleyway eyeing the street. They were very young like her body had been when she had started getting good at work. There's a certain age that mixes skill and ignoreability well.
They seemed to be at that age. A gang would try and recruit them soon. Which would consist of beating children or a couple of snacks with a tour of a room that had at least three walls with a vague roof. If they were lucky two or more gangs might approach them and they could choose the less scary one.
They scattered from the alleyway and out into the festive street. Cutlery looked about for what could have scared them. Nothing was apparent. Then a green hand clasped the corner of the alley wall. The lizard man stumbled out.
His body was bloated to a huge size. His breath steamed out of his mouth, Dripping green fluid falling onto the ground. Then Cutlery realized she had been racist.
This wasn't a fucking lizard, it was a green dragon person. Whatever those were called. Cutlery slowly shifted to a crouch behind her crate. The last thing she saw was the half-dragon, haggen for short, looking around. Had they been immune to acid? Why had they reacted so violently?
She pulled out a compact short bow from her bag and notched an arrow. Peeking out she didn't see the haggen anymore. Cutlery slowly stood to survey more. Then she heard a noise below her. The building she was on was a quiet quilting guild headquarters owned by some old noblesse. So noise was worrying.
The sound slowly became clear. Banging doors and thudding stairs. Cutlery turned around and eyed the roof hatch. The only entrance up here. A ladder inside led up but it had a lock on it. The lock was sadly inside the building. That was an oversight. Cutlery quickly grabbed her crate and skated it across the roof. The thudding below got louder. As she heaved and slammed the crate onto the hatch she heard the ladder below creaking.
Cutlery stood on the crate and stored her bow. Pulling her trusty rapier she saw it was near snapping due to the acid. A strike from the haggen would split it in half. Fuck. She threw that down and pulled out two daggers. Checking her poisons she only had ones that would work on unsilvered people.
The haggen was presumably highly resistant to the acid. Perhaps they had simply fallen unconscious from the pain. Slivers often sort of revived from near-death experiences from what she knew. That mixed with the usual pain reduction meant they fought till their body literally couldn't move. Acid hurt a lot though so it might have overwhelmed the haggens sliver.
Whatever theory was true, didn't matter. The crate shook below Cutlery.
-
Steam issued from the hatch and up around the crate. The crate began to descend slowly. Cutlery looked down at the uncovered edge of the trapdoor and saw it was bending. A tiny bit of some green fluid boiled through the wood.
Cutlery stepped off the crate. The descent of the box stopped at first, then the trapdoor groaned and it began to accelerate once more. Cutlery stepped up to the edge and readied her dagger. The trapdoor finally sloughed off its hinges and the crate fell.
"Woah Mama!" The Haggen said from below. The crate smashing sounded like it had hit the floor below. Cutlery peaked down. The Haggen was looked back at her. They made quick eye contact and then the Haggengrabbed the ladder. It shook as the Haggen jumped on. They climbed with one hand. Their other pulled out a short buckler shield..
She leapt over the ledge onto the shield. The impact cracked the haggens arm and they both fell onto the floor below. Cutlery landed feet first. The haggen slammed onto their back. Cutlery loosend her knees and dropped down with a dagger in each hand. One dagger clipped the shield, the other pierced the haggens throat. They gurgled and clutched at the thin blade.
Cutlery dug it in deeper and forced them to the floor. Blood and bile slowly filled their throat again and their breathing turned to gurgles that faded away slowly. Cutlery shivered at the slow death and pulled her blade out. This time she felt for a pulse. Nothing.
Cutlery stuffed the lizard into the smashed crate's remains. Ten minutes later the whole mess was buried in the alleyway garbage far below her roof. As she slapped her hands together to clean the splinters and blood from them a voice sounded from behind her.
"Ah, there he is. Looks like you two had a squabble." A crackle and zap accompanied the masculine voice's sound. Light filled the alleyway. Cutlery turned and saw two more of the fifth slivers she has seen earler.
"He was quite straightforward, didn't kill where it didn't need to happen. So that must mean you're a criminal of some kind. A slivered one at that. In the name of the tower," The wide male said. He wore huge plate armor. He held a mace plus a shield. The mace was glowing with yellow light. A thin elf behind them spread their hands and lighting arced between their palms. The man continued saying, "I smite thee."
Cutlery cursed. "Temples toilet this looks like shit." As she said, Temple, a small spark seemed to go off in her chest. She had no time for that odd sensation though, she had to run.
