Kim couldn't say that she enjoyed this development. Especially since she was confident that she'd be the one in the end to actually be the one to do the coup de grace to Harold. That is if they didn't care to have him coming for them later on. However long that might be. Especially since they couldn't say just how fast he'd be able to recover. Not to mention that if they did spare him, he'd likely put it off as his 'plot armor' protecting him rather than him being granted a second chance. Since that would make it more likely for him to come after them again without reservation or regards for his own life.
Not that they'd be likely to get as lucky as they had this time. Even though they hadn't expected to have come out uninjured, it was clear that they might not have been able to come out of it at all with how fast he'd been moving. That if Heather hadn't been holding her dagger in the manner she was or at the angle she had been, even though Kim certainly hadn't noticed it, they'd likely be mourning Heather's death, if any of them had survived.
"Let me check him," Elin said, pulling Kim out of her thoughts and inner turmoil of what she felt needed to be done.
"Might as well," Jonas said. "Maybe Kim won't have to do anything if he's already dying on us. Harold still being alive could be some side benefit from his system rather than whatever it was that he thought would keep him from getting killed."
"His 'plot armor,'" Elwin offered, his derisive tone showing just what he thought of that idea.
"Whatever it's called," Jonas continued, sounding like he'd rather have had Elwin remain quiet rather than chiming in like that, "If Heather got lucky enough, he might be in the process of dying rather than just severely injured."
"So, what? We'd just leave him like that until he dies just so we can recover Heather's dagger?" Kim asked, a little surprised at her complaint. She certainly didn't care about Harold, and yet she couldn't find it in herself to be happy with the idea of letting him die in such a manner. Or at least with them standing over him while it happens.
Now, if he died while they were discussing this, that would be one thing, but Kim had a feeling that they weren't going to get that lucky. Not with how things had been going for them since Frank showed up and forced Jonas to give him 'the book.' The fact that Harold had been taken down was almost on the level of a miracle that Kim could scarcely believe herself. Even with the evidence in front of her.
Though, a sudden thought occurred to her that made her glance at Heather. Kim didn't know much about Heather's system, which made her wonder if maybe there was something in her system that allowed her to have had that lucky break in order to survive Harold's attack on her. If there was something in her system, would that mean they weren't using up their luck just to take down Harold, assuming luck was a consumable resource.
"Actually, that might be our best course of action," Owen replied soberly. "If that's a problem for you, I can watch over him until he dies and then catch up with the rest of you."
Jonas was already shaking his head. "Actually, that's a terrible idea," he said bluntly. "If any of Stanley's group comes to collect Harold, low as the chance might be, they could take you down before you could do anything about it, especially if it's Frank, since I think he's the one with the archer system, and then they could help save Harold. Although, that's assuming Harold is dying as he is rather than unconscious."
"That's what I've been trying to tell you!" Elin cried suddenly, startling everyone, including Kim. Kim hadn't even noticed Elin trying to say anything. "I'm not sure how long he has, but the blade has paralyzed his heart. I'm surprised he's still alive even now, but I'm sure that's because of his system."
"So, it looks like he could die at any time, right?" Kim asked, hoping that Elin would give them something that she could work with to resolve the moral conundrum that she found herself facing, since she hadn't even remotely experienced this situation before. Not even in a peripheral sense. After all, it wasn't like she ever had joined the military or had been in that line of work before.
Although, because she couldn't imagine the situation before, she didn't want to assume that the others had experienced something similar themselves. As such, she was willing to bear the weight of killing someone who couldn't defend themselves all in the name of what she was confident would happen down the road if she'd let him live. At least in the even that Harold wasn't going to die if they left him alone.
"I guess," Elin said, sounding like she was hedging her bets. "I mean, I have no idea what is keeping him alive in the first place. I can only say for certain that it's not his 'plot armor' but rather some ability that he has from his system that keeps him going."
"Should we kill him ourselves?" Elwin asked. "Sometimes it's necessary in a battle, so if we're going to do it, we should do it quickly. That way we're not wasting our time here debating about it when we'll be doing it anyway.
Elin looked like she didn't care for any of those options. With the way she looked like she was starting to get nauseas, Kim was certain that she wasn't prepared for that kind of question. Although, it did let her know that Elwin had experienced this situation before. Which in turn meant that if she could bring herself to allow it, Elwin could take care of Harold, himself, and she wouldn't need to deal with the moral dilemma about killing Harold while he was unable to do anything in his defense.
Yet, at the same time, she didn't feel good about asking another person to do that. Plush, she didn't really want Elin to witness it, regardless of what she'd herself already decided on doing about it. It wasn't something she wanted Elin to have a memory of Kim doing. No matter how necessary it was for at least Elin's survival. After all, Harold had said that he'd go for the healers first, and Elin was one of their healers.
Elin sighed, blissfully unaware of the inner turmoil that Kim was dealing with. Something Kim couldn't begrudge her. "I don't really know if he'll die at some point on his own," she said, sounding rather annoyed by something and Kim had a feeling it was her lack of knowledge that was the problem here. "Maybe he will, but if he doesn't, we can't really know until we wait and see. Plus, I think he'd start healing if we took Heather's dagger out of him, so we have to leave that there if we want to see if his paralyzed heart will eventually kill him." Elin looked at Harold before sighing again. "I wouldn't recommend doing that. Not with how fast he was before."
"Well, if he's paralyzed now, he probably would still need some time to heal before he could move that quickly again, right?" Owen suggested. "We really don't need to kill him outright like that, right?"
"Whether or not we need to, we're going to have to fight him if we don't," Elmo replied. "I have a feeling whatever's keeping him alive will have him on his feet in no time at all and on our trail if we don't deal with him now."
"But he's defenseless right now," Owen protested.
"Yes he's defenseless now, but if we don't kill him now, he's going to kill all of us," Patricia pointed out. "He made it clear that even if we go back to the village, he's going to hunt us down and kill us and I doubt we'll get as lucky as then about getting him in this position again. Or anywhere close to it."
"So, what're we supposed to do about it?" Owen asked, looking like he was ready to grasp at any kind of straw. That he was looking for any sort of 'out' aside from dealing the final blow to Harold.
Kim looked at Elwin and was a little surprised at him looking back with a resigned expression. It was clear what needed to be done with Owen, if not Harold. Kim felt like they were able to communicate that clearly between them in that brief moment. A moment that disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared.
"Owen, how about we go on ahead?" Elwin said, putting his arm around Owen's shoulders as he started to lead him away, not really giving Owen a choice in the matter. Jonas, Patrick, and Patricia following without saying anything more about the subject.
"Elin, would you go with them?" Kim asked softly, already bracing herself for what she'd need to do. "I'll be along shortly with Heather's dagger."
Elin looked at Kim for a moment, confusion etched on her face before her expression lit up with what Kim could only assume was a realization on the matter. Which seemed to help Elin decide to not argue. Instead, she nodded and turned to catch up with Elwin, grabbing Elmo and Bart as she went, motioning with her head for Sonya to accompany them.
"What about Heather?" Sonya asked, hesitating
"I'll bring her along," Kim assured the shape changer. "She's unconscious still, so she shouldn't be able to see what I'm about to do."
Sonya sighed. "I'll wait. I'm adult enough to know that we really don't have any good options here. I can handle knowing, no matter what you're going to do."
Kim sighed. She'd prefer not to have any witnesses, but she wasn't going to argue. Sonya was in fact an adult, so she should be able to get a say in if she actually wants to see what Kim's about to do or not. So long as she doesn't get in the way, that is.
Kim took a deep breath as she saw the others walk out of sight. Then she waited a few more minutes to be sure that they wouldn't come back through the trees at the worst possible time before she took her sword and used the edge to cut into Harold's carotid artery. The spray shooting out farther than Kim had expected.
This was the first time she'd killed anything that couldn't even try to run away if it chose. A decision she knew would affect her for the rest of her life, no matter what else happened.