Tablet Master Ch. 06

A Game of Cat and Mouse

It was daytime when Mia ran across the busy street. She jumped on the roof of a small house and then on another taller one to look around. Salk's manor wasn't that far, and she recognized it right away. She rushed towards it, Valsheen barely able to follow her until she stopped near the park adjacent to the manor.

Valsheen caught up to her, out of breath. "Damn you're fast," he said. "There... I'll sit here and wait for you." He chuckled. "You're glowing Mia."

Mia grinned briefly and then took off. The thought of doing whatever she wanted to Salks was bliss and she loved Valsheen for allowing her such freedom. She hurried to the manor, jumped over the perimeter wall and peeked through the cracks of a window shutters.

The manor was still empty; after all, it was roughly two days since she left the manor with Aven. She pushed the lock up with her telekinesis and jumped inside before sniffing the air. His scent led her right to him.

Salks was sitting at the dining table, with a document in hand. She read part of the document in his mind as he read it, but it was nothing more than a deed to sell his manor.

She turned invisible, climbed the table from its end and walked slowly towards him. The scent of Valsheen's semen was still very strong and her bikini soaking from it.

Salks wiggled his nose and took a few sniffs. 'What is that smell,' he thought, looking around yet unable to see her.

Mia flicked her wrist and shoved him against the wall brutally. "Not fast enough," she said, flicking one finger towards him.

Salks rotated against the wall at the speed her finger span. She stepped down from the table and closed the gap between them before standing straight on her two legs. She rarely walked straight, preferring to crawl on all four and perch herself whenever she could, preferably at the feet of her Mistress.

She held him upside down, his face leveled with hers for a moment. He was weeping, but few sounds came out of his mouth as she held it shut with her power.

"You are a pathetic human being," she said to him without her usual accent.

She focused her power into a cutting tool again, not unlike the way she carved into his skull to heal him a few days earlier, and began cutting his cheek, from his nose to his ears on both sides at the same time.

Salks chuffed and growled low as she peeled his skin off one layer at a time before she healed him just enough to stop the bleeding. His face red from all the blood accumulating in his head when she finally flipped him around.

She ripped his cloth off and gave his legs the same fate she had given his face. He groaned and cried while his body quaked through every long incision. She healed him just enough to keep him alive and conscious through the process.

Salks had foam coming out of his mouth by the time she was done with his legs. She moved to his arms. His heart was racing, and it was getting harder and harder to keep him conscious, but she enjoyed every moment of it.

"It's time for you to die," she said, slowly digging into his chest with her claws.

She'd have hoped to spend more time torturing him, hell, she'd have wanted to keep him alive for months, so she could torture him every day, but her current predicament with the Tablet wouldn't make this possible. She'd have to find solace in killing him this once, after merely an hour of torture.

After piercing through his ribs, pushing them aside with her power as her claws slowly dug deeper into his flesh, she felt his heart pounding at the tip of her claws. She burrowed her fingers deeper on each side and she was about to crush his heart slowly to rip it out, just as slowly, when she was suddenly yanked upwards and away from him.

"No!" She screamed as the searing pain invaded her system, crippling her almost instantly.

She struggled to crawl back towards Salks, feeling her body peeling from within as if a bunch of rats were eating her from the inside. Her head hurt so much she lost all focus over her powers and the harder she tried to use them, the harsher the pain was. The effect wasn't as sudden as the last time she died because the Tablet was brought out of range, but it was agonizing. She slammed her claws on the floor to try and pull herself closer to Salks, determined to end his life, struggling against in invisible force that tried to pull her away.

She was almost there, less than an arm's length away when everything went black.

*

"Don't do anything to anyone outside the arena, don't leave the battleground, don't display anything supernatural about you or your powers, fight fiercely, and give them a good show," Salks said as the demon materialized before him.

"As you wish Master," Shadyss said, bowing slightly before grabbing the outfit that was already at her feet.

It was two simple band of clothing she wore as loincloth to cover, only to a minimum, her human body, and a dented glaive for weapon.

"Now get in that arena, do that circle thing, and win," Salks said after she had geared up.

She hurried through the gate, entering the huge arena through a series of cartwheels and backflips.

"Shadys! - The! - Beast!" The announcer yelled over the frenzy of a thunderous crowd, cheering and banging on the floor in chorus at her arrival as they started chanting her name to a loud drum beat.

She played along to give them a good show and started jumping, kicking the air, and swinging her sword all the while performing a few more flips before reaching the center of the huge oval arena. She swept the ground to trace a circle with her foot and then traced a second one with her sword, two meters around the first. This was her signature move once every few battles to let the crowd know she intended to kill everyone by staying within the boundaries of her outer circle while trying to stay within the smallest one for as long as possible.

Salks had loved the idea the first time as her move created a huge wave of bets around the time she'd stay within the small circle and whether or not she'd make it through without exiting the larger one; she didn't manage to stay in every time, after all, she had to pull her attacks and give a good show.

Salks had made her fight twice per week for the past year or so, she had lost track of it after so many fights, and she had yet to lose. She couldn't say she hated it; the fame, the crowd cheering her name and the sex after some of her greatest victory, where he fed her the survivors or sometimes even others Salks wanted to get rid of, her new life wasn't this bad, but she had yet to find a way to kill Salks.

His orders were always well formulated to prevent her from doing anything that would hurt him, except it had that one flaw she'd been trying to exploit for a long time. It was a matter of time before one of the gladiators would accept her offer, 'and now is the day,' she thought, hopeful.

The opposite gate opened, and twenty gladiators rushed towards her.

"Come on," Shadyss said with a scoff. "Seriously? Only twenty men?"

The gladiators formed a circle around hers, entering a staring contest as she invaded their minds without their knowledge. Simple minded humanoids had no way to know when someone was reading their minds until she'd speak to them directly in it, but she had to be very careful about talking to them - a gladiator almost told on her once and she had to jump out of her circle to kill him before he'd tell the crowd.

'I have to find the right one,' she thought. "Help me instead of fighting me and I will free you," she said, baiting them to think about what she sought.

The usual gladiator had nothing to live for. They had either lost everything before being forced into slavery and combat, or they were bread into it. Very few still had something to live for, but she knew she'd find one eventually.

All gladiators but one thought about ways to kill her, ignoring her suggestion, but that one gladiator to her left thought about his wife and daughter.

Her face brightened. 'At long last.'

A gladiator took a step forward as two others followed his lead. She deflected his spear into the second one as she arched her body to avoid getting hit by the third. Using the momentum, she swept the first man's legs and sliced both others in the legs with her glaive.

"Don't fear this conversation, I'm Shadyss," she said in that one gladiator's head, "and you probably know what I'm capable of, but I don't want to kill you. I need your help and I will help you in return. Think hard about your answer and I will hear you. Don't speak out loud."

She used one of the gladiators as shield against another as more of them joined the fight. She usually read multiple minds at once and was able to know what their moves was going to be before they even did it but focusing on a conversation was more taxing and she had to rely solely on her fighting skill while having a telepathic conversation.

It took a moment for the chosen gladiator to understand what was going on as some of the others plotted to find a strategy against her and a few continued to attack her wildly. She shoved her glaive through a man's face as another slashed her forearm.

The crowd cheered loudly.

Another gladiator plunged his spear right through the side of her thigh. She growled, grabbed the spear so he wouldn't pull it out to damage her leg even more and snapped it. She pulled the rest out by its tip and rolled outside of her small circle where she began fighting two others that had plenty of time to prepare.

"How can I help you," the chosen gladiator thought hard.

She threw her glaive through one's face and dove at the second one, grabbing his face with both hands before bringing her feet on his chest. The man would have fell under her weight, but she used her flight ability to stick to him instead, causing him to barely take a step back before she pushed herself into a back flip, not letting go of his face and ripping it off in the process.

She landed back in the middle of her small circle. The crowd went silent for a moment and every gladiator froze in place. The smell of fear was enticing as the droplets of blood showered in line with her. She grinned.

Crouched with her head down, bowing to the crowd, Shadyss used that moment of shock to hurl the severed head at another gladiator's face. The two faces splattered like watermelons and the crowd awakened.

"Four down," she thought, sending her thought to the chosen gladiator at the same time. "Fifteen to go... oh, sorry."

She grabbed the tip of the spear she pulled from her leg earlier and threw it at another gladiator's face, but he raised his small shield just in time to deflect it.

"There is a man called Salks on the main nobleman's balcony," she said in her chosen gladiator's mind, diving to avoid getting hit as she rolled over a corpse to retrieve her glaive. "He's wearing a bright purple tunic and a matching kettle hat."

Shadyss back flipped to avoid two gladiators attacking her and landed outside the larger circle.

The crowd thundered, some cheering, others yelling angrily.

"I'll bring the fight closer to that balcony," she said. "Attack me now and I'll hit you mildly. Make it look like it hurt you and stay down for a moment. Once I got rid of all the others, I want you to charge at me."

The chosen gladiator took a swing at her. She dodged and punched him in the face, controlling her blow to push rather than slam. He rolled with it and crashed to the ground.

The attack exposed her, and another gladiator cut her shoulder deeply. She growled and retaliated by cutting his head off.

She danced with the others as she made her way towards the edge, killing ten of them on the way as they continued to attack her relentlessly for the crowd's entertainment.

She had a few cuts and bruises by the time she reached the balcony, but she could endure much more. The balcony was about 10 meters above the ground, overseeing the gate she used to enter. The jump would be impossible for normal people, but not impossible with a combined effort and her impressive strength.

"Now charge at me," she said to her gladiator after killing two of the last three. "Step in my hands and jump. I will boost you up. Trust me, you'll reach the balcony. Kill Salks and jump back in here with him. I'll tell you what to do if we get there."

She opened her defense, allowing the last man to cut her leg deeply as she plunged her glaive through his heart. The chosen gladiator charged at her. She rolled forward to reach the perfect angle, squatted before him with her fingers interlocked and waited for him to step in her hands.

The gladiator dove in just the right angle to reach the balcony where Salks sat along with a bunch of noblemen and their body guards.

The crowd cheered in choir louder than ever as the gladiator landed on one of the noblemen and thrusted his spear right through his target's neck. The guards barely had time to react. The gladiator grabbed Salks and jumped back into the pit, using the man as cushion to soften his fall.

"He must have a Tablet with him," she said in his mind. "Grab it and stay by my side."

The gladiator took the Tablet, but he couldn't get up. "I can't move my leg," he said, out of breath and severely injured.

'It was quite a fall,' she thought, hurrying to his side.

The crowd was ecstatic, chaotic even while the noblemen ran away from the balcony like a bunch of headless chickens. With no other guards jumping in to fight her, she kicked open the gate door and helped him walk to it.

"Quick before the guards arrive," she said, pointing her finger at the wall on the other side of the gate. "Hide the Tablet behind that loose board over there and hurry back in here."

The man used the gate bars to reach the loose board. He slid the Tablet behind it and limped back to her as a bunch of guards rushed from around the corner.

She grabbed the man's arm and carried him back to the center of the arena. The guards followed her as more entered from the other 3 gates. She stopped in her circle and span with her arms towards the sky in victory.

The crowd cheered loudly as the guards formed a circle all around hers, just like the gladiators had done earlier, except this time, they were three times as many and they all wore heavy armors, a shield and a spear.

"I'm not sure this was such a good idea," the gladiator said.

"We'll see," she said. "Whatever happens, I will protect you with my life. If you manage to survive, all you need to do is get your hands on that Tablet and summon me back in ten days."

"I don't really understand."

The sound of the gong boomed through the arena. One of the Nobleman stood on the balcony with the gong's hammer in his hand. "Please calm down everyone," he said.

"You will," she said.

"Shadyss!" The nobleman said. "You and..." he leaned closer to another nobleman who whispered something in his ear. "... gladiator Black Orca..." he lowered his tone to spit something at the other nobleman before he continued. "You two killed Lord Salks and I hereby sentence you to-"

"Wait sir," Shadyss shouted. "May I explain, please, sir?"

The man whispered with the others for a moment.

"Let her explain," the crowd howled in chaos.

The man raised his hand and the crowd went silent. "You may," he said.

"Lord Salks was cheating," she said. "As long as he lived, I would not die."

The crowd booed in choir but went silent again as the nobleman raised his arm.

"He cheated all of you," she said. "But now that he's dead, I can also be killed, and I'd like to fight fairly in a duel against Black Orca as soon as he'll be healed."

"But you no longer have a Master," he said.

"I don't know how your politic works but unless you grant me my freedom today," she said, increasing her tone progressively to put an emphasis on the last few words as she yelled them, "I'm willing to serve Black Orca's master until that fight, for the great... pleasure... of... everyone!!"

The crowd boomed with anticipation.

The nobleman raised his hand after a moment. "You have won the heart of everyone in the past year dear Shadyss," he said. "Let them decide your fate." He placed both his fists before him.

The silent was stunning as everyone held their breath for a moment.

"In favor of her freedom," the nobleman shouted as he opened his left hand.

A large portion of the crowd cheered as they stood up with their left arm held high towards the sky.

He closed his fist and silence ensued.

"In favor of... one... last... fight!!" He said manipulating his tone into what he desired most.

An even larger portion of the crowd cheered noisily for a long moment.

"Shadyss will fight Black Orca in our Hellfire Challenge," he said.

The crowd howled as the guards retreated.

She helped the gladiator towards the gate, where a nobleman and four body guards showed up.

"Your old Master cost me a lot of money for his deception," the nobleman said. "How does that work exactly?"

'How can I get this man to leave me and Orca here for a day?' she thought. 'He'll never let us go free, but how can I explain that I cannot leave this arena without telling him about the Tablet?'

"Salks was using a powerful magical item," she said, looking at the nobleman's feet that were past the line of the gate, putting him in the arena. "I could kill you where you stand, but I will not."

The man's guards readied their weapons, but the nobleman raised his hand and they returned to a standing pose.

"You'd never find this item without my help," she said, "but if you agree to one simple request, I will tell you all about it and you can do whatever you want from that knowledge afterwards."

"It all depends what that request is," the nobleman said.

Shadyss grinned.

*

Mia materialized in a narrow alley during the night. She crouched on the ground as three city guards hurried towards her, carrying lanterns and pointing their swords at her. "Who are you and why are you here?"

"What are your orders, Mistress?" She said, looking for the Tablet.

She couldn't see it, but she felt its presence, and it was very close.

"Why are you here?" The guard said, taking a step closer and poking her throat with the tip of his sword.

"The name is Mia," she said with a charming grin. "Mia does not know why Mia is here. Is Mia in trouble for not knowing?"

"She speaks funny," the second guard said as he looked inside a large barrel nearby.

"She smells funny too and she's covered in blood" The first guard said, still holding his sword to her throat. "Where's the Rat-Girl?"

"Mia does not know."

"We're wasting time," the third guard said after looking around. "Let's go!"

All three guards ran past her and vanished around the corner.

"Mistress can come out now," Mia said.

The barrel moved, and a young Rat-Girl came out of a small hole underneath. "Thank you," she said, offering Mia a handshake. "I'm Lily."

"Mia is pleased to meet you Mistress Lily," she said with a smile, examining the Rat-girl from head to toe.

Lily had all the traits of the usual Rat-People; grey skin, claws at her hands and feet, anthropomorphic legs, a long thin tail, large round ears, and a muzzle half way between a human's nose and mouth and a rat's muzzle with long whiskers. Most of them had dark black or brown hair with dark brown eyes, but Lily had short dark purple hair and eyebrows over her bright purple eyes. Her body was slim and fit underneath nothing but a thin, almost see through, long rectangle black cloth. It had a hole for her head in the middle and folded to cover her front and back with a small rope in the middle to hold it in place. And she wasn't holding the Tablet.