“Well, either we kill each other…Or I slice your head off, too.”
Her eyebrows furrow as she keeps her ice claw steady to the male’s bleeding neck. Arch Extent adjusts his gun in response to her threatening words, keeping the pressure up from his position. If this Winterlance is talking, then that means he could at least try to communicate with her while they’re both in vulnerable positions.
“I had no intentions of harming you, but you managed to wipe out my staff.” He moves the plasma-based pistol further against her forehead. Winter doesn’t appreciate it, and her words are like venom once she speaks again.
“Listen, Fancy Hat…You strapped me down and did who knows what. Consent’s a thing.”
In her perspective of this scenario, she was simply kidnapped.
“You busted open a four-tier layered door, causing contamination! You’re dangerous!” Arch Extent tries to get the point across.
“Says the ass with a magical weapon to my head!” She had no idea what a gun was, never heard of the term in her life. Everything here was considered magic for the Winterlance huntress, including the weapon that shot out bolts of light.
“...It’s called a gun.”
“Sorry. With a GUN to my head.”
This wasn’t going to be an easy feat since the scientist knows that any word, any phrase, any movement that he’d choose in the next few seconds could cost his life. His painstaking research for the cure to Cosmos Plague depended on it. If he perishes from this Winterlance, then his progress would have been all for nothing. The most important thing is that he needs to appease the woman, not just for his life, but for the lives of many affected by Cosmos Plague. He needs to negotiate. Now.
“Let’s try to find some common ground then. So we can both benefit ourselves and get out of this without murdering each other.”
“So you can go back to trading more princesses?! You’re dead meat!” Winter is ready to slice right into the man’s warm neck. Yet, there’s a restraint in her, preventing the huntress from pursuing the action.
“I had nothing to do with her getting killed. Not directly.” Arch Extent pleads. It’s true. It’s not entirely his fault, but he did put Princess Aress into a position of potentially getting killed by Cosmos Plague; whether by his hands or unforeseen forces. Disastrously, she fell into the hands of Prayers who must have done terrible things to her. She didn’t deserve to perish. The Prayers were relentless, a pesky non-tribe folk who suffered from radiation poisoning that altered their way of thinking.
“You’re fucked up! Taking in some princess so King Uthar could get supplies? What were you gonna do once you had her, huh?!”
Winter feels her arm move whilst lashing out with poisonous words, cutting into the white wire that protruded from the device in the scientist’s ear. Her teeth bare at the man, boiling up a hidden grief over that child’s life, the same child she had in her arms merely over half an hour ago. Winter huffs and puffs, awaiting for whatever the scientist had to say about the manner. To her surprise, she felt disgusted upon his answer.
“Study her.”
“You’re a pervert.”
“Scientist.”
“Whatever…”
Winter lifts her head up, causing the end of the gun’s barrel to press further into her forehead. She should kill this man already, but her instincts tell her not to. Not when she has her head graciously filled with so many questions about the magic around them, the devices they used, how things were glowing. Despite her wrath rising to the surface, she knows it’s also possible he’d just simply take her out with him, Winter grits her teeth to keep focus. Arch Extent is just as tense as her.
“Let me make this as simple as I can for your primitive brain: I needed her body to study for a cure to something that’s beyond your understanding. I know it doesn’t make sense to–” Arch Extent was immediately cut off.
“You hired some delusional folks to go and kidnap her!” Winter roars out at him.
“No. Her getting here was all on King Uthar. I’ve been studying her lineage, and it had shown promise.”
“Some promise that was, huh?” Winter scoffs at him.
He needs to keep the conversation going to win over the Winterlance's calmer nature, if she had such a nature to begin with. With the way Winter had kept interacting with him, giving small chances to hear him out, Arch Extent had already seized his means of continued survival despite the fates of his employees.
“Doesn’t matter. I’d rather we not end this in any more bloodshed. How about we make a deal?” There’s a confidence that protrudes out from him when he says this, certain of himself that he can succeed in not only getting himself out of this pressing scenario, but also to have a method of keeping the Winterlance by his side.
“I should really be taking you to King’s Court since you ‘indirectly’ got the princess killed. What could you possibly offer me?”
“Whatever it is that you want, really…” Realistically, the scientist already knows what he could give her. What hunters of the Hunter’s Code want most: Gems. Gems are a thing he has a surplus of here in Division 5 due to his relationship with the Cloaks. Whatever King’s Court is paying her, he could easily triple it.
“Sounds generic.” She’s not convinced.
“You were paid to come here, right? Let me hire you. I’ll pay you three times more than what the King’s Court of Lyke would be willing to pay you. Especially since I’m expecting repercussions from this.”
Three times?! Winter mulls over.
This mystery Demi-God seems like someone to her who has resources, and her stance as a huntress remains neutral when it comes to payments. Her contract is a failure due to the princess’s passing, which means she’ll have to be compensated for coming all the way out here. Could this man really try to pay her more than one hundred and fifty thousand gems?
“You’re totally messing around with me, aren’t you?” Her voice relaxes a bit, more surprised than anything. Except, the man before her does something she doesn’t expect at the current moment–the one thing he chose his words carefully enough to get to.
“Am I?” Arch Extent lowers the gun from Winter’s forehead, relief pouring through him as he watches her face fill with bewilderment at his actions. Just like that, Winter feels the tightness wither away in her ice clattered arm. Bloodied ice removes itself from his neck, revealing a superficial cut. It’s not deep enough to where he’d have to worry about exsanguination, thankfully. A quick slap of medical gel and a wash should solve it.
“You have five seconds until I change my mind.” She threatens five seconds, but he knows he has far more time than that. How could desperate huntresses refuse that amount anyways?
“Consider all the gems in there as your first payment.” The scientist points to the backpack he brought with him to the lab. In it was a box of golden gems, originally meant to pay for any Division 5 fees incurred by the delivery of Princess Aress. In this case, they’d now be for whatever the Winterlance wants and their own travel expenses. “Clearly you’re capable, and I want you to accompany me to Lyke as a bodyguard instead. I already intended to head towards Lyke, but since this is Uthar’s mess, both of us will be returning to him empty-handed. Also knowing the royal Cloaks families…Uthar will try to cover this up and pin it on anyone involved with Aress’s death. Unfortunately, this now includes you, huntress.”
Arch Extent isn’t quite done with the details of his offer. He places the plasma-based pistol back down to the black countertop, raising a gloved digit to where the sliced white wire is on his neck. This huntress certainly made a clean cut, her skills would be useful on this journey. However–
“There’s another reason why I want you to accompany me.”
“What’s the catch, Fancy Hat?”
“I want to know why you weren’t affected by Cosmos Plague.”
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