The silence in the stone room felt suffocating.
Garrick swallowed hard. His eyes darted back and forth between Kanos and the shadow wolf monster kneeling obediently beside him.
The serrated blade in Garrick's hand started to tremble slightly.
"Nos... you're still alive?" Garrick's voice cracked. But within seconds, his panicked expression was forced to change.
Garrick pulled the corners of his lips, forming a relieved smile that looked incredibly fake.
"Oh man, Nos! Thank God!" Garrick took a step forward, sheathing his blade. He opened his arms wide like welcoming an old friend.
"I thought you two were dead! When that boss monster crashed into the rubble, I got thrown out. I tried to go back to find you guys, but the path was blocked!"
Kanos didn't answer. He just stayed silent, letting the tip of his left index finger continuously drip shadow ink onto the floor.
"I came down here to find another way to save you guys," Garrick kept spinning his lie, his tone made as dramatic as possible. He pointed at Belida who was lying covered in blood.
"I was just about to heal Belida using my potion. We are partners, right? I wouldn't just leave you guys like that."
"Garrick," Kanos cut in. His voice was incredibly calm.
Garrick instantly shut up.
"You talk way too much for a guy who is about to die."
The smile on Garrick's face instantly washed away. His eyes sharpened again, radiating the aura of a true hitman.
He knew Kanos wasn't going to buy his lies.
"Dammit," Garrick cursed under his breath. His hand reached into his belt pouch at lightning speed.
Three small glass balls shot out of Garrick's hand, flying fast right at Kanos's face. They were mid tier toxic smoke bombs.
But Kanos didn't even bother to dodge.
His left index finger moved at lightning speed in the air. Blue neon flared up, forming a one by one meter square pattern right in front of his face.
Crash! The three glass balls slammed into the wall of air that suddenly hardened like bulletproof glass.
Toxic green smoke exploded, but it was completely blocked by Kanos's handmade transparent canvas.
Garrick's eyes went wide. He had never seen magic like this. Before, Kanos needed blood and paper to make one ugly nail. Now the guy was creating solid shields out of thin air.
Kanos lowered his hand. The air shield vanished.
"Kill him," Kanos commanded simply.
The Shadow Wolf next to him instantly roared. The shadow monster leaped forward, crossing the ten meter empty space in just the blink of an eye.
Its massive jaws opened, ready to tear Garrick's neck apart.
But Garrick was a Yomalvara veteran. He didn't survive on the sixth floor just by using a sweet mouth.
"Gale Step!" Garrick shouted.
Garrick's body was suddenly enveloped by a pale green wind aura. His speed increased drastically. He threw his body to the side, dodging the shadow wolf's bite by just a few centimeters.
Rolling on the floor, Garrick drew his serrated blade. He kicked off the stone wall near him and shot toward Kanos at insane speed.
"You might have a strong monster, but your physical stats are still level three trash!" Garrick yelled triumphantly.
He aimed for Kanos's heart.
Kanos stood perfectly still. His blue eyes glowed brightly, activating Structural Analysis.
In Kanos's vision, this room turned into a sea of blue grid lines. He could see Garrick's running trajectory perfectly, complete with the exact foothold where the man was going to jump.
Kanos raised his left hand again. He didn't draw a shield. He drew something far more deadly.
His fingertips pulled four crossing lines right in the empty air to his left.
Garrick leaped, getting ready to plunge his blade. But right before his knife touched Kanos's chest, Garrick's right foot slammed into something invisible in the air.
SNAP!
The lines of air Kanos drew suddenly hardened into super thin steel wires. The wire tightly wrapped around Garrick's ankle while he was sprinting at full speed.
"ARGH!" Garrick screamed loudly. His running momentum was completely shattered.
The invisible steel wire tore through his leather boot, slicing deep into his calf muscle until it hit the bone.
Garrick's body slammed hard onto the stone floor, rolling a few times before stopping near Kanos's feet. His blade was thrown far from his grip.
Kanos walked slowly toward Garrick, who was groaning in pain while clutching his heavily bleeding calf.
Garrick looked up. His face was deathly pale. Pure fear was finally plastered clearly in his eyes. The guy in front of him was no longer the naive artist he could use as monster bait.
This was a predator.
"Wait, Nos! Wait!" Garrick raised both his hands, begging for mercy in a panic. "I will give you all the treasure in that sack! All of it is yours! You need money to survive in the city, right?!"
Kanos stepped on Garrick's right wrist with his boot. Hard.
Garrick winced in pain, but he didn't dare pull his hand away.
"I have heard people negotiate prices way too often in my past life," Kanos said quietly. His voice sounded like scraping ice.
Kanos bent down. His left hand picked up Garrick's serrated blade lying on the floor.
The blade was dirty with blood. The exact same blade that destroyed Kanos's right palm a few days ago.
"But sorry, Garrick. Your price just dropped drastically."
Garrick's eyes widened in horror seeing Kanos raise the blade high.
"NO, NOS! I BEG..."
SHCK.
The sound of tearing flesh and pierced bone sounded incredibly loud. Kanos drove the serrated blade right into the center of Garrick's right palm.
The rusted iron blade pierced through flesh, split muscle, and lodged deep into the stone floor beneath it.
"AAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"
Garrick howled at the top of his lungs. His scream echoed and bounced off the cave walls. The man thrashed around like crazy, his body convulsing in agony. Fresh blood spurted heavily from his palm, pooling on the stone floor.
He tried to pull his hand, but the blade was stuck too deep. Garrick was now nailed to the floor, exactly like what he did to Kanos in front of the Goliath boss.
Kanos crouched right next to Garrick's face, which was flooded with tears and cold sweat.
"Hurts, doesn't it?" Kanos whispered flatly.
Garrick couldn't answer. He just sobbed violently while gritting his teeth to endure the pain burning his entire nervous system.
"When you stabbed my hand... I needed this hand to draw. To find food. To live." Kanos stared at Garrick's face without a shred of emotion.
"But you? You only used this hand to steal and stab people in the back. It has no use being kept attached."
Kanos stood up. He took a step back, looking in disgust at the man still sobbing violently on the floor.
His revenge was fully paid off. Executing Garrick now just felt like throwing out trash that smelled way too bad.
Kanos snapped his fingers softly.
The Shadow Wolf stepped forward from the darkness. Its shadow jaws opened wide, dripping saliva in the form of black smoke that froze the floor.
"Finish him," Kanos said quietly. "And do not leave his head intact."
The wolf monster pounced. One loud, disgusting cracking sound was heard, followed by the sound of crunching bones.
Garrick's screams stopped instantly.
The room went silent again, leaving only the sound of the shadow wolf chewing and the creaking of the weight plate beneath Belida's body.
Kanos took a deep breath. The metallic smell of blood felt incredibly thick, but strangely, his lungs felt much more relieved.
He turned toward Belida. The giant knight was still lying on the floor, but his blue eyes were open, staring straight at Kanos this whole time.
Kanos walked closer. He kicked the stone pillar pinning Belida's legs until it shifted.
Without saying much, Kanos pulled out a thick red healing potion bottle from Garrick's remaining belt pouch. A high tier potion.
Kanos popped the cork with his teeth, then knelt beside Belida's head. He poured half the bottle's contents straight onto Belida's badly torn chest wound, and fed the rest into the knight's mouth.
The effect was instant. The destroyed flesh began to knit back together. Belida's previously ragged breathing slowly started to steady.
A few minutes passed in silence. Belida finally forced himself to sit up. His giant body leaned against the stone wall.
The gray haired knight looked Kanos up and down. Seeing his ragged clothes, the scar on his hand, and the shadow wolf monster licking the remaining blood in the corner of the room.
"You took way too long to come down," Belida said quietly. His voice was still hoarse, but there was clearly no hint of fear in it.
Kanos snorted softly. The corners of his lips finally pulled up, forming a genuine tired smile.
"Got stuck in traffic down there," Kanos replied casually. "Too many stray dogs asking to be fed."
Belida laughed softly, even though the laugh made him cough a bit. He glanced at Garrick's giant burlap sack left by the door. A sack full of pure iron ores, gold coins, and rare crystals.
"Looks like the two of us just became new rich men, Illustrator."
"Not us," Kanos corrected him as he stood up and offered his hand to help Belida up. "I am rich. You still owe me your life, old knight."
Belida grabbed Kanos's hand with a faint smile. His grip was still incredibly strong.
The two of them stood tall in the middle of the room filled with blood and treasure. For the first time since being thrown into Yomalvara, Kanos felt he was no longer walking on thin ice.
He had power. He had money. He had a partner he could trust.
Kanos stared at the dark corridor leading up to the surface.
"Let's go home to Marrath," Kanos said. "I need a shower and a real bed."