242: Mercy Killing
Uma and Ethel both stood frozen in place, processing the irreversible damage that was done to their team by the ruthless action of one of their own.
“No… Why? George…” Uma muttered.
“Well, you were the one who wanted to die that badly, right!” Ethel shouted at George’s body after recovering first from her shock as she rationalized her new position on the team. “Who gave you the right to command us to our death!? You felt like you had the right to choose in our place who lives and who dies!? Only makes sense then that someone decided for you as well!”
“What have you done, Aldrich?” Uma asked quietly without even looking at Aldrich as she slowly walked with unsteady steps toward her fallen dead teammate.
“Woah there!” Aldrich grabbed the fallen crossbow before Uma was close enough to take it, despite the fact that the distraught leader did not so much as glance at the crossbow even once since George’s death. Aldrich then took aim at Uma’s head and with a smirk from underneath his handlebar mustache said, “George said that it's fine to attack others without killing, right?”
Uma did not react to the threat in the slightest as she walked toward George’s corpse. Aldrich scoffed, lowered his aim, and shot an arrow through Uma’s left naked thigh.
“Ah!” Uma grimaced and fell to her knees, right at George’s lifeless face. She caressed her loyal teammate’s beard and moved a few locks of his red hair off his face.
“Well, looks like George was right,” Aldrich smirked as he loaded another arrow. “No rains of fire, no lightning bolts to strike me down. Don’t worry, though—I won’t kill you!”
Aldrich pulled the trigger and shot the second arrow through Uma’s other thigh. The arrow went through her right leg and impaled her lower leg that was under it, completely crippling the grieving girl. Uma did not even give Aldrich the satisfaction of a pained scream. And even though tears rolled down her face, those tears were not from the physical pain that the traitor inflicted.
“Hey, Ethel! What are you waiting for?” Aldrich called out to the other girl on his team while he loaded the third and last arrow into his crossbow. “Now’s your chance!”
“So that you can shoot me as soon as I kill Uma!?”
“To be honest, I don’t even need the crossbow to deal with you,” Aldrich chuckled. “I’ll cover you so that Uma doesn’t try anything funny. She’s only good at sword-fighting. With her legs crippled, even you can’t lose!”
“Everyone… Always… Underestimating me…” Ethel muttered with shaking fists at her side. “I’ve always been a disposable tool in all your eyes, haven’t I?”
“A tool? Hardly!” Aldrich shrugged. “More like a disposable cum-dumpster!”
“Don’t take me lightly!” Ethel screamed. “I’ll kill you both! First the arrogant bitch and then you! I’ll shove that arrow up your ass before I throw you over the edge!”
“You only ever were good at working your mouth,” Aldrich laughed.
“Work this!” Ethel screamed and dashed at Uma, only to change direction at the last moment and jump at Aldrich.
“AHHH!?”
“WHOAH!?”
Aldrich fired and missed the shot he fired at Ethel’s shoulder at near point-blank range. He screwed up so bad that he nearly shot Ethel right in the face. The arrow just nearly missed, nicking Ethel’s left cheek. But Aldrich did not miss it because he was surprised by Ethel’s sudden attack. He expected it. What neither he nor Ethel expected was for blinding bright light to beam out of Uma’s back, disorienting them both.
Aldrich and Ethel covered their eyes and averted their gaze from Uma who was still on her knees, with arrows embedded into her thighs. But out of a large, pure-white circle on her back, along with the light, a pair of majestic brown feathered wings emerged. A sudden, high-pitched cry followed and a glorious bald eagle flew out of the light and circled the arena.
“Well, well, well, ladies and gentlemen, it looks like our games have attracted a summoner!” the announcer’s voice echoed through the mines as the eagle made another lap around the arena. “And that birdie does look delicious if I do say so myself! Unfortunately, don’t bother salivating as summoned animals cannot be eaten even if you tried to take a bite out of a live one. That summoner is just a cruel tease!”
“A-a-a summoner!?” Ethel screamed in disbelief as she tried to follow the eagle with her half-blinded eyes. “That’s impossibl—WHAAAAARGLH!!”
When Ethel finally located the bald eagle, it already descended onto her and sunk its claws into her thin neck, snapping it like a twig.
“That was a mercy killing,” Uma said as she finally lifted her head and glared at Aldrich with the eyes of a killer. “Do not expect to be gifted such a quick death!”
“FUCK YOUUUU!” Aldrich swung the crossbow like a bat to kill the immobile summoner while he still had a chance. But the crossbow was easily ripped out of his hands by Uma’s eagle.
“Ghah!” Aldrich fell on the ground from the sheer force of the impact while the eagle flew over the edge of the arena and threw the accursed weapon into the abyss.
Meanwhile, Number Fifty grabbed the arrow that went through her thigh and pierced her lower leg and pulled on it just enough to pull it out of her lower leg. She then slowly rose to her feet, with arrows still in her bleeding thighs. As Uma rose to her feet she looked at Aldrich and declared, “I, Uma Sophia Anderson, do solemnly swear that your unforgivable treachery against one of your own will be repaid tenfold in indescribable agony! Repent and beg for mercy! For you shall receive none!”
“If you think that your little—GRAH!”
The eagle knocked Aldrich back on the ground before he could rise up, sunk its hooked beak into his back, and pulled a piece of muscle, tearing it out with a loud snap.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!” Aldrich screamed in pain, unable to imagine that the true torture had not even begun.