Chương 89: The Perfect Plan

I slowly pulled Vasil out of my satchel, and whispered, "Sorry." Bogumir shot me an uninterested glance, undoubtedly prompted by my "sorry," then did a double take when I held out Vasil.

"Froggy goes ribbit," I said. Now everyone was looking at me, and Bogumir's face went through about a dozen different expressions in a single second before settling on what can only be described as utter confusion.

"What?" he said.

"Froggy goes ribbit."

"Are you mad?" From the corner of my eye I noticed Kasia slip out the door, which meant I could now move on to part two of the plan.

"Are you feeling froggy?" I asked Bogumir. His confusion turned to anger, and Irena shouted, "Just kill that idiot." Before he could kill me, however, I threw Vasil at him and Bogumir instinctively caught him.

"Ribbit," Vasil said, and a fraction of a second later I activated [Clean Entry] in an attempt to remove Irena's head from her neck. She looked like the most aggressive fighter, and probably the one who'd give me the most trouble. Irena, however, managed to move out of the way just fast enough for the bullet to merely graze her ear.

"That bitch shot my ear off!" she screamed. I shrugged.

"I was aiming for your head. I didn't expect you to be that fast." Irena opened her mouth. Then closed it. Then screamed at the top of her lungs. The next instant something hard and hot hit me in the face and I was thrown through a bunch of tables and into a wall. That wasn't Irena's doing, nor Bogumir. It must have been one of the two chucklers. Thanks to [Mana Shield] the only thing that got hurt was my mana pool… and my ego. Getting ragdolled through a bunch of furniture isn't very dignified.

I got back up and dusted myself off. Interestingly enough I could suddenly see everything a lot clearer.

"That was a bit rude, wasn't it?" I said. All the inquisitors stared at me with their mouths open.

"Is there something on my face?" I asked, moving my hand to check.

"It's the fucking witch!" Jerzy said. The real problem turned out to be that there wasn't anything on my face. The chuckler's attack had shattered my mask, and with it my disguise. Now the frog was out of the proverbial bag, there really was no reason for me not to go all out. I was already going to kill them, of course, but now I was going to…. you guessed it.

"Everyone who doesn't want to die may want to step outside," I said.

"That includes you, Melchior."

"You're not going anywhere," Bogumir said to Melchior, but Melchior was already moving his hands, creating an oval shape with his purple glowing balls. I quickly activated [Clean Entry] again and fired at Bogumir, hoping to catch him off guard. He dodged in time, and Melchior jumped through the portal he just created. As soon as he was through, the portal collapsed. Interesting skill, I thought, and just managed to roll out of the way of another flaming ball of… rock?

It passed me by and crashed through the wall, leaving a smoking hole.

"I don't think she's a curse-witch!" Jerzy said. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"Am too!" I said, sliding on the floor while firing off a couple of regular bullets, trying to gauge their responses. One of the chucklers tried to dodge, but wasn't fast enough and got hit in the barrier. The other didn't even try to move and tanked it with his. Jerzy also dodged it. Shooting people who were actively trying to dodge, while at the same time dodging their attacks, turned out to be not as simple as shooting the wings off a fly.

Where Irena was I learned when her staff came down on my shoulder and drove me into the floor. There were simply too many of them to keep track of, and I was still too inexperienced with [Mēnē's Watchful Eye], especially during chaotic moments like these. Now I'd lost another chunk of mana, and if I didn't start killing people soon I'd be out of mana completely. Obviously that wouldn't be ideal. I blinked out of another staff strike that sent sparks of lightning flying across the floor.

Some type of lightning build, then. Better keep my distance so I don't get stunned. Another flaming boulder came my way, forcing me to [Blink]. I aimed for the guy who had confidently tanked my bullet before, and readied another [Clean Entry]. He laughed as the shot went straight through his heart. His eyes rolled back in his head, but he still had a cocky grin on his face. I felt the mana flow back into me. [You have gained 1 level.] [You have gained 1 skill point.] [You have gained 3 stat points.]"What the fuck was that?" Jerzy asked.

"Curses, duh!" I said as I hopped over a table and fired off more regular shots, just to keep everyone from getting too close, and to keep them guessing. I'm sure they were confused by me taking out their tank with a single shot, and because I kept retracting my pistols they probably weren't too sure about how I was doing all this either. I hoped pretending I was calm and cool had convinced them that I was strong and fearless and maybe make them a bit scared of me. In truth I was terrified.

So terrified that I could have peed my pants. I totally didn't, of course, but I could have. But I didn't. Even four against one, I wasn't completely sure I could win this, but the odds were better than five against one. While that kill had allowed me to regain some mana, I needed a lot more, especially if I kept getting hit. Surprisingly, only about half of the inn's patrons had left at this point. The drunk was no longer on the floor, so maybe he hadn't died after all, or someone had dragged him out.

The ones who hadn't left yet clearly had questionable decision-making skills and a worrying lack of self-preservation instincts. Perhaps they were carpenters.

"Why would this town have so many carpenters?" I wondered out loud as I dodged another flaming boulder. Bogumir still hadn't tried to attack me, which was even more worrying than a town full of carpenters. Jerzy also hadn't done much. Maybe they were just waiting for me to get tired.

"What the hell are you babbling about?" Irena said.

"Don't listen to her," Bogumir said.

"She's trying to confuse you." I gave him a salute.

"Thanks for the warning. I won't." His mouth fell open, then he shook his head.

"I wasn't talking to you!" Oops. Somehow I managed to make even a life-or-death situation awkward. But he was looking at me, so it was his fault, not mine.

"Well, you looked at me when you said it. You can't just throw eye contact around like that, Bogumir. People get the wrong idea." He threw his arms up, still holding Vasil in one hand.

"Why would I be talking to you?!"

"Are you talking to me right now, or are you saying this to Irena?"

"Obviously, yes!"

"To Irena?"

"To you!" Bogumir said, exasperated.

"You just asked me why you'd be talking to me! Now you're just being confusing!"

"How do you know my name?" Irena spat. I rolled my eyes.

"I have ears, Irena." Double oops. That was probably an insensitive thing to say, since I just shot one of hers off. She opened her mouth (probably to scream again), but I held out my hands.

"I didn't mean to! I meant to shoot you in the head!"

"What the FUCK?!" Irena screamed as she slammed her staff into the floor and a burst of electricity arced toward me.

"DIE!" Another bolt shot at me and I narrowly managed to dodge both. That ear comment had clearly angered her further, and the mana around her grew wilder and more erratic.

"Irena, get out of the fucking way!" the chuckler said.

"Shut up! Don't tell me what to do!" she yelled.

"You're in the way of my spells!"

"I don't need your help!"

"Yeah!" I said.

"She doesn't need your stupid help!"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Irena screamed as she blindly charged at me. She was fast with her staff, but she didn't have [Blink], and because she was so angry her strikes were becoming wilder and less coordinated. They were pretty easy to dodge, but she probably had a lot more Stamina than me, and it wouldn't be long before that became a problem. Irena's staff whistled past my ear, the air crackling, my hair immediately turning frizzy.

She was overextending, leaning too far into every swing because at this point all she could think about was caving my skull in. Caving my skull in was one thing, destroying my hair was unforgivable. It was time to end this.

"Stop. Moving!" Irena hissed.

"No, you." I said and blinked behind her. I activated [Clean Entry], summoned my revolver, and tried to raise my hand but I couldn't. I couldn't move anything at all.

"Gotcha!" Jerzy said. Irena spun around.

"No. You."