“I lost a man.” Kim said, her voice panicked across the table to a receptionist. The receptionist looked up, disinterested.

“Which one? We will draft the report to the insurance company.”

“What? Wait— no, he isn’t dead, I just lost him. One second he was with the party, and then he was gone.”

“Right.” The receptionist said, coughing. “We can assembly a search team to check the area, but its going to take at least a day to get one together to work on search wage.”

“A day? We have to check for him now! He is fucking unranked! He will die in there!” Kim shouted over the table.

“Kim.” The receptionist said, her tone of voice switching from annoyed to an almost condescending tone of worry. “You know that an unranked, separated from their team probably didn’t last more than an hour. You said he didn’t get lost in a battle? How many dives had he been on?”

“I— no. He didn’t die in a fight, he just— disappeared. And it was his second dive.”

A second receptionist leaned over, having eavesdropped on the commotion. “What was his name?”

“His name is Rain.” Kim said. “Look, if you aren’t going to send anyone I’m going to get everyone I can and go in myself.”

“Rain… that sounds familiar. I swear we just had a Rain here. What was his last name?” The second receptionist asked.

“Is this really important right now?” Kim said, flipping the app open on her phone. “Here, Rain Gold.” She turned the phone around, showing a picture of him.

The receptionist paled. “Oh fuck.” She whispered. The first receptionist quirked an eyebrow. “That’s fucking Willow Gold’s brother.”

“Willow Gold?” Kim asked.

“Athena.” The second receptionist replied.

“Oh. Shit. Lets get a team together.” The first receptionist said.

“I’ll make some phone calls.” The second replied, standing and walking away.

In a single movement, I crossed the alleyway, moving from one ratty little building to another. At the same time, I reached out with both arms, one driving the spike of a bone knife directly into the skull of a Kobold, the other grabbing its stubby horns and dragging it into the next building.

It didn’t even have time to squeal. It was my third kill since the little city had gone into high alert. I pressed my back against the wall, leaning down and listening to the tapestry of noise. Kobolds ran through the streets, searching for me, as others sat guard outside the gates with wicked looking weapons of bone and crude metal.

The building I was in only had half a roof, and looking up, I could see the scaffolding that they were mining at. The Kobolds had climbed down from it. Every hand available was searching for me.

I moved to lean out of the door, scouting the alleys between the houses for my next move. If I was slow and careful, I could whittle away at their forces enough that I could slaughter them all in a straight fight.

I blinked as I stared directly down the snout of a Kobold.

It squealed.

My knife found purchase in the side of its head, but it was too late.

I was in the alley, on top of the Kobold. To my left, three of them squealed a pathetic battle cry as they charged towards me. On my right were two more.

Shit.

Shit shit shit. The squealing was going to attract a dozen of them. With two jerking motions I ripped my blade out of the Kobolds skull, just in time to dodge backwards from the lunge of a rusted metal spear. I grabbed the blade, pulling the Kobold with me as I ducked back into the entry way and stabbed at its neck.

Blood pooled down it like a river, covering me, and I dropped the knife, keeping hold of the sharpened metal rod that qualified as a spear. I grabbed the Kobold by the back of its head, lifting it to block the door way.

The others stabbed it in their attempts to get to me, and it writhed pathetically in my hand. I smiled.

In the door way, I could fight these stupid monsters two at a time.

The metal rod in my left hand lashed out, finding a Kobold in the eye, and I pulled the bone knife free before dropping the Kobold I was using as a meat shield.

The others outside of the building didn’t hesitate, moving towards me instantly.

My reach was longer.

4, I counted as I stabbed one of the Kobolds on my right. The last two cramped together in the entry way, and I leaned back and sideways, moving out of the way of their strikes. With a simple motion I stabbed into the neck of another Kobold. 5.

My skin tingled. I didn’t know if it was the excitement or the Qi.

I had been slow and methodical. I was so weak here, so frustrated at having to start over, working my way to whittle down enemies like some lowly assassin.

6, another Kobold died.

I wasn’t an assassin. I fought under the moon or sun, but always in the open.

I felt a smile widen on my face as more Kobolds pooled around the doors.

I deflected blows from crude weapons with bone. 7. 8. 9. A pile was building quickly, corpses lining the floor, and the Kobolds stepped back for a moment.

I held the blade out, blocking blows with glances to the side of the dagger, grabbing dull blades and pulling Kobolds in for the kills. 10. 11. Now my skin tingled with Qi, and I was forced to rotate it. I pushed the Moonlight Eyes technique to the maximum, my eyes glowing enough to make the Kobolds in front of me flinch at the sudden change. I laughed at their reaction, dragging my 12th kill into the building and executing it at the same time.

I smelled something burning, but ignored it. There were furnaces here churning material— they likely had no one to remove the food from it, and it cooked.

13. 14. They were sending the skinny, malnourished Kobolds first, likely using them as sacrifices to weaken me. Qi burned in my skin, and— holy shit, they lit the building I was sitting in on fire!

Two Kobolds sat at the outside of, spears pointing in, sitting passively. My eyes flicked back, seeing where smoke creept out of the wall, heat pouring at my back.

I feinted forward, causing the monsters to flinch back, and then scaled the wall. It was probably three Kobolds high, which only made it a little over eight feet, and with a running jump, I mantled the wall, jumping directly to the roof across the small street.

It collapsed instantly. Kobold construction was not the best.

I fell into another storehouse, the exit facing away. There were leather bags filled with the strange, Qi filled fruit from their farms. I grabbed one as I burst out of the door and moved back towards the exit. I stepped out of the little city, directly into a circle of waiting enemies.

But they didn’t charge me.

The larger lizard man I had seen from earlier waited, surrounded by a circle of Kobolds, arms crossed. It stared at me, and I slowed down.

I recognized this. It wanted to duel. Spirit beasts often ruled by right of martial strength and couldn’t allow anything to impede on their domain.

I licked my lips, dropping the bag of fruit and stepped forward. I had lost the knife at some point, probably when I hit the second roof.

I wouldn’t need it.