The group moved deeper into the winding tunnel and Vex was in his own world.
He had his magnifying glasses pressed to the rock leaning so low that his nose nearly brushed the jagged surfaces.
He moved from the duller Iron Metil shards to the Silver and his voice rose in a feverish high-pitched tune as he marveled at the way the light danced within the stones.
"So bright, so clean... the prettiest thing I've ever seen~" Vex crooned, his eyes darting behind the thick lenses. "From the blue to the grey, then the gold leads the way..."
"Shut it, Vex!" Kahn growled.
The scout stopped in his tracks, prying the glasses from his face and blinking at the leader's broad back.
"What's eating you, Captain? Look at this place. We're walking on a king's ransom."
Kahn didn't turn around but his hammer was a heavy silhouette against the golden glow. "The dungeon isn't over. I want to see the Boss before we start stripping the walls so Keep your head on a swivel."
Vex shrugged, tucked his glasses into his cloak and fell back into step.
"Anything you say, Captain. I'm just thinking about the future." He looked over at Garrick, the orange-haired swordsman who was still walking with that brooding distant stare. "So, Garrick. What are you doing with your cut? Buying a castle? A mountain of booze?"
Garrick didn't look at him.
"My sister…" he said in a flat voice. "I'm putting her in a proper school in the Capital. Somewhere safe and somewhere she can learn a trade that doesn't involve holding a blade."
Vex chuckled which was a sharp annoying sound. "The Capital, huh? Careful. Some high-and-mighty noble might decide to seduce her just for the sport of it."
Garrick's hand snapped to the hilt of his sword with the leather creaking under his grip.
He drew the blade just an inch and the steel reflected the blue diamonds. "No matter the noble, even if it's the Prince himself… if he touches her without her word, I'll cut him down."
Vex burst out laughing while slapping his knee.
"The Prince? Don't flatter yourself, Garrick. The Prince wouldn't have time for your mid-tier sister, not with every princess from the neighboring empires trying to crawl into his bed. He's got better taste than a commoner's brat."
"Shut up," Garrick hissed as his eyes burned.
Satisfied that he'd successfully pissed Garrick off, Vex turned his attention to Serra. The healer was clutching her staff with her gaze fixed on the ceiling.
"How about you, Serra? Crates of holy water? A golden church?"
"Booze…" Serra said immediately. "Crates upon crates of the strongest stuff I can find. I'm going to fill my room with it and I'm donating a hefty share to the Goddess of Light to thank her for this miracle."
Vex raised an eyebrow. "Donating? If you give it to the Goddess, how are you going to use it? You're just handing gold to a statue."
"The Goddess manifests it in blessings," Serra snapped with her eyes twitching. "It's called faith, Vex. You should try it."
"Why have blind faith in something I can't see?" Vex countered with a smirk. "Though, I suppose even a sinner like me wants to believe she'd want you to enjoy the money. After all, she made the gold, right?"
Finally, Vex drifted back to Klaus.
He clapped a hand on the man's shoulder with his grip uncomfortably tight. "And you, Metal-Boy? What's the plan for a man with no contract and a magic nose for diamonds?"
"Nothing," Klaus said.
Vex blinked. "Nothing? Not a single coin spent?"
Klaus nodded. "Nothing… I have no plans but I'm open to suggestions."
He knew Vex's game, the man picked at people's dreams to find their soft spots. If Klaus gave him nothing, Vex had nothing to use against him.
Vex grinned while leaning in close.
"Suggestions? Then listen up. After we cash out, you and I hit the Red Light District. The best wine, the softest beds, and a dozen prostitutes to keep us busy until we can't stand up. What do you say?"
"If you're going to 'do the deed' with half the city," Serra interjected from the side. "you should spend some of that gold on protection before you bring back another infection. I'm tired of wasting mana on your 'sensitive' problems."
Vex's face turned a violent shade of red.
He spun around, pointing a finger at her. "Stop spilling sensitive information! That was one time! One time!"
As Vex ranted, he crept back up toward the front of the line. Kahn had increased the distance between himself and the group, standing near a massive obsidian archway that led to the Boss chamber.
He stood perfectly still with his back to them.
"Hey, Captain," Vex said, his voice lowering as he approached. "What's the word?"
Kahn didn't reply.
He slowly turned around and his face was shadowed but his eyes were wide, darting across the walls of the tunnel.
"Do you know how much all this is?" Kahn asked.
Vex looked around while calculating.
"With the gold, silver, and the volume of iron... maybe fifty thousand gold coins, minimum. It's enough to buy a title, land, a manor... we'd never have to work again."
"Exactly," Kahn whispered.
He took a slow step toward them and suddenly, a violent, crimson aura erupted from his skin, snaking across his body like jagged veins of blood.
The pressure in the air spiked, making Klaus's lungs feel heavy.
"With this wealth…" Kahn said. "I can take my sister and leave this hell, No more dungeons… No more wondering if today is the day I die for a handful of silver, I can buy a name, I can find a beautiful woman and live the life of a king."
He looked at the group with the red aura glowing in his eyes. "If you all agree to leave right now without taking a single iron, I'll let you live."
The silence that followed was deafening.
Vex stared at Kahn as a nervous laugh bubbled up in his throat. "That... that's a good one, Captain. Really. You almost had me. But you remember, right? I have to buy my cousin back. The nobles took her as a slave after my parents died... I promised her so I'm making good on that."
Vex took a step forward with his hands open.
"There's enough to share, Kahn. If we just mine it right… if we torture Klaus here and force him to point out every single vein in the walls, there's more than enough for all of us to be rich."
Klaus sighed internally.
'I knew it.'
This was the inevitable conclusion of human greed. He shifted his weight and his fingers twitched.
He wondered if he could drop Kahn before the leader's aura reached its peak, but Kahn's grip on his hammer was white-knuckled. The man was ready.
"Why would we take Klaus hostage?" Serra shouted as her voice trembled. "He's done everything we asked! He's the reason we're here!"
"Because he's a tool…" Vex snapped, not even looking back at her. "He's too important to let go. He's our golden goose."
Garrick, who had been silent, let out a low, dark chuckle. "I don't mind. Using a useless man as a slave is a small price for my sister's future."
The words had barely left Garrick's mouth when Kahn moved. He didn't walk; he exploded forward in a blur of red light.
"You talk too much, Vex!" Kahn roared.
Vex's eyes widened to the size of saucers. He was a scout, built for speed, and it was the only thing that saved him.
He threw himself to the side with a jagged dagger appearing in his hand. Kahn's hammer whistled through the air where Vex's head had been a millisecond before, slamming into the stone floor with a thunderous CRACK.
The ground heaved and tremors rippled through the path, and several large Metil Diamonds were shaken loose from the ceiling, clattering onto the ground like heavy hail.
Vex scrambled up as his breathing grew ragged.
He looked at the blade in his hand… it had been shattered by the mere wind pressure of the strike. "You sick fuck! That was a kill shot! You would have killed me!"
Kahn turned. "I've always hated your mouth… Always…"
"Serra! Help me!" Vex screamed.
Serra began to chant, her staff glowing with a golden light, but Kahn wasn't a novice. He didn't wait for the buff. He spun on his heel and hurled the massive hammer through the air but it wasn't aimed at Vex, It was aimed at Serra instead.
Klaus flinched as the heavy metal head came shrieking toward them. The speed was incredible… far faster than anything Klaus could achieve with his current Magnetic Field.
"Barrier!" Serra shrieked.
A dome of translucent holy magic snapped into existence just as the hammer struck.
The impact sounded like a bell tolling for the dead. The barrier held, but the force sent Serra skidding backward with her boots carving grooves in the stone and then the hammer clattered harmlessly to the floor.
"Serra!" Vex yelled, but he had made a fatal mistake.
He had taken his eyes off Kahn.
In the second Vex had turned his head, Kahn had closed the gap. His massive, calloused hand shot out like a viper, catching Vex by the throat.
He lifted the scout off the ground as if he weighed nothing.
Vex's feet dangled, kicking uselessly in the air. He clawed at Kahn's forearm, his fingernails digging into the man's skin drawing thin lines of blood. He pulled a backup dagger and stabbed it into Kahn's bicep, but the leader didn't even flinch.
The crimson aura acted like a second skin.
"Wait... Kahn... please..." Vex wheezed with blood beginning to leak from his mouth. "My cousin... she's alone... she'll be alone..."
"Then she can die alone…" Kahn growled.
He shifted his grip. He moved his palm from Vex's throat to the sides of the younger man's head and he squeezed.
The sound was the worst part… it was a wet, sickening crunch like a watermelon being stepped on. Vex's eyes bulged, the pressure behind them becoming too much as the skull beneath began to cave.
His screams died in his throat, replaced by a gurgling, high-pitched whine but Kahn didn't stop. He pushed more mana into his grip.
Vex's head turned a deep, bruised purple, then a violent red.
Crak-thud!
The bone gave way completely and with a final, gruesome burst, Vex's head exploded.
Blood, grey brain matter as well as shards of skull erupted in a wet spray, splashing across Kahn's face and chest.
The scout's body went limp, twitching once before Kahn let it drop into the dirt. The headless corpse slumped over a pile of Iron Metil Diamonds, staining the blue crystals a dark, permanent crimson.
Kahn stood there, dripping with gore with his chest heaving as the red aura flickered like a dying flame.
He wiped a glob of brain matter from his cheek with the back of his hand and turned his gaze toward Serra, Garrick, and Klaus.
"Now," Kahn said, his voice echoing everywhere in the sudden terrifying silence of the cave. "Are you ready to surrender your shares? Or do I have to get my hands dirty again?"