“So, rumor is there was a raid down south, and one player killed the boss by themselves.”

“Don’t be stupid,” one of the group members said. “There’s no way in hell that one person alone beat a raid boss. We can’t even beat a dungeon with less than five people.”

“How do you know what one person could do in a raid?” His companion said, his voice rising in anger at once. “You’ve never even been on a raid before!”

“I’ve been on plenty of raids, idiot!”

“In this game, dumbass! There’s only been one raid near us, and we were nowhere near it. Don’t talk like you know what you’re talking about.”

The second figure fell silent, lowering his eyes to the ground and muttering something under his breath. He couldn’t refute that point, of course. He and his compatriots had only gotten to Dawnbreak City a little over 2 weeks ago, several days after that raid had ended. Apparently, it had been done by a large collection of players who hadn’t formed a guild, so there were only individual player names listed on the achievement stone.

“How much longer do we have to stay on this dirty street?” The second man asked, changing the topic so he could throw away his awkward silence. “I thought we’d be doing fun work today.”

“Grunts don’t get fun work,” the first man said. “All the good territory is taken up by the higher-ups. We just have to hope that some dolt walks past our post. Be patient, Martin.”

Martin grumbled quietly under his breath but didn’t offer any verbal complaint. Certainly, he would have, given enough time. But before long, the sound of footsteps came from around the corner, and the three thieves perked up at once. The footsteps were light, which likely meant that they belonged to a smaller person. Or maybe someone who wasn’t wearing much armor. Either option was good news for them, it meant that they were easier to take down.

Martin was the first to jump out of the shadows and onto the street, his two compatriots hot on his heels. They didn’t bother with the typical banter scene from stories, but rushed their target, intent on killing them quickly. It was a tall and thin cat-man avatar, they saw, the black ears and tail sporting white spots. He was lightly clothed in a simple dress shirt and slacks, and the only weapons they could see were a few knives on his belt. Easy prey. They lunged at the man.

Somehow, by the time they reached the spot where he stood, he was no longer there. They slid to a stop, very nearly crashing into each other, then looked around. Where had the stranger gone? They listened intently for the sound of running footsteps. If he’d dodged their attacks, they could catch up to him. But they heard nothing.

Suddenly, Martin let out a grunt of pain as something hit him in the small of his back. He tried to whirl around as if to confront their hidden attacker, but again, he couldn’t see anything. The other members of the group, however, saw the black knife sticking out of his back, just an inch to the side of his spine. Without warning, Martin’s legs appeared to give out from under him, and he fell prone to the cobbled street.

His friend, the one who’d called him a dumbass mere moments ago, quickly spun around in the direction from which the knife had come, his weapon raised and ready to defend himself. He couldn’t shake the sudden suspicion that the tables had just been turned on his group, and that now, they were the ones being hunted. Curse the guild leaders for putting them in this area, he thought. He should have been given better territory.

“Where is he, Killer?” the other standing member asked, his crossbow raised and ready to shoot. Smart man, Killer thought. He’d recognized that his melee weapon wouldn’t be of much use here. “Can you see him?”

He opened his mouth to reply, but before the words could come out, he was distracted by something. A faint silvery line of thread had drifted down from the air, like a hair. He glanced up, but couldn’t see anything above. Then his companion let out a strangled gasp, and was yanked back. The silvery thread, no thicker than fishing line, was somehow choking him and pulling him back at the same time.

“You know, I thought it would be more challenging to sniff you folks out,” a female voice sounded out of the late-night fog that covered the street. There was no sound of the companion that had just vanished into that same fog. A second later, a figure appeared. “But you were surprisingly easy to bait.”

It was a kitsune avatar, Killer thought. Not the original target of their attack. But at least now he had a target that he could attack. He slashed with the weapon, but the woman swayed to the side, avoiding the tip of his blade with almost contemptuous ease, a smirk growing on her face. Then from behind her, from the opposite direction that the knife had been thrown, the cat-man appeared once again. He stepped forward in one smooth, swift lunge, getting right in Killer’s face before he’d even completed the movement of his attack. He flicked a knife from his belt, and rammed it into Killer’s chest. He fell back, the world going dark around him.

“Almost too easy,” Asami said, pushing some strands of hair out of her eyes. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say they weren’t actually strong enough to pull off that raid.”

Tsubasa’s tail merely flicked to one side, and he scowled lightly. Strangely, the fox-woman was able to draw all the information she needed out of that subtle gesture, and she let out a high, tinkling laugh. “Oh don’t worry, I know they only did it because they had overwhelming numbers. Still, this game has been out for nearly a month. You’d think they’d have learned the secret by now.”

To that, Tsubasa had no response, either verbal or otherwise. So Asami turned her attention to the bandit that her brother had paralyzed. That toxin was really effective, she thought. The poor ruffian could barely move his body at all, though he was looking fearfully up at the siblings as they stepped toward him. She rather liked the effect she and Tsubasa had on other players, she thought.

“So,” she said with a sigh, crouching to bring her face closer to the paralyzed player. With one hand, she delicately pulled the knife out of his back, handing it back to her brother. “It will take a few minutes for you to be able to move again, but you should be able to speak. I’ve got a few questions for you, Martin. Okay?”

Martin’s nod was barely noticeable, but he managed to utter a quaky, “Y-yes.”

“Excellent,” she said, the smirk widening a little. “Now, we hear your guild, the Shadow Bandits, has been causing quite a lot of trouble in this city since you arrived. In fact, there are so many people complaining about you, there’s even a real-life forum post about you!”

Martin couldn’t think of anything to say to that, even if he could speak properly. She didn’t seem to be expecting a reply, however, and went on. “Well, we’ve been hired by another guild to find out where you went, you know. Turns out that when you raided their property, you took a very valuable material. We’ve been hired to reclaim that and to kill your guild leader. You wouldn’t happen to be holding it, would you? Or any of your little friends here?”

She gestured to the two players that she and Tsubasa had killed, her eyes never leaving Martin’s. “I don’t know what happened to it. We tried to sell it, but no merchant had enough. I- I think the boss has it.”

“You think?” Asami asked, the smirk curving down to form a frown. Somehow, that was even more terrifying to Martin than the little sadistic smirk had been. “I’m not asking what you think, Martin. I’m asking what you know.”

“I meant to say I know!” Martin exclaimed. He could feel some of the feeling returning to his limbs. His right arm wasn’t numb as it had been before, he thought. Maybe there was a way to get out of this situation… “The guildmaster has it, I’m sure!”

“Well, I suppose I’ll believe you for now,” Asami said. She still didn’t look away from him. Those blue eyes were almost ice-cold, with no hint of emotion to them. Even the smirk, as it returned, couldn’t reach them. “Just one more question then, and we’ll be on our way. Tell me the truth, and I might even let you live. But if you lie to me, I’ll track you down and keep killing you until you leave the game.”

He swallowed nervously, any thought of retaliating leaving him instantly. Somehow, deep down, he knew he wouldn’t be able to even scratch this woman. “What else do you want to know?”

“Where is your guild property located?” The fox-woman asked. “And if he doesn’t spend most of his time there, where does your Guildmaster spend most of his time?”

Martin’s heart sank with the hopelessness of his situation. He knew that the guild hideout was barely ten minute’s walk from where they were, which meant that if he died, the woman and her companion could get there before he could respawn and warn the others. And with their skill, he somehow had no doubt that they could kill everyone in there. He could lie, of course, but he couldn’t shake the suspicion that she’d be able to tell, no matter how good of a liar he thought he was.

“It’s in the sewers below the Crafter’s Wing,” he said, his entire body slumping as the rest of his desire to fight left him. “There’s a secret entrance behind the tavern on that block. Our boss never leaves unless we plan to raid someone.”

He closed his eyes in shame, realizing that it would now be his fault that his guild fell. They might even lose the property they’d spent two weeks building, he thought, and all because he was too much of a coward to fight back. He should have refused to answer, he thought, and take the death like a man. The guildmaster probably would have appreciated the loyalty.

When he opened his eyes, he gave a small start of surprise to see that the two strangers had gone. There was no evidence that they’d existed in the first place, save for the bodies of Killer and their companion. Who the hell were those two? He was sure he’d heard of people like that existing within the city. They were players, he knew, based on the names that floated above their heads. But they were like ghosts, appearing out of nowhere, striking their prey down, then vanishing.

C_P_Tuck

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