Octavius’s boots pounded into the ground in what almost felt like slow motion. No matter how much he willed himself to go faster, he knew that he wouldn’t make it to the group of guards in time.

He watched as the thrall exploded from cover. It was merely the dark outline of its cloak in the pitch-black night. Its metallic blade flashed in the distant firelight as it swept forward. The first man didn’t even have time to react before the thrall cut him down.

Its blade disappeared into the man’s neck before reappearing on the other side, dripping with dark red blood. Octavius followed the man’s fall in slow motion, already knowing that the man was dead. The man’s brown eyes were filled with a shock that slowly morphed into panic as his blood sprayed across the packed dirt of the ground.

The group of humans that was barely above level ten might’ve been able to take on a few thrall mages, Octavius knew. An elite thrall rogue, however? That was an entirely different ball game. It had weaponry, training, experience, and stats on the humans. They stood no chance. Octavius doubted he could deal with the dangerous opponent well if he were ambushed in such a way.

The human guard behind the dead man was much older. He appeared to be in his early fifties but reacted quickly. The man brought his spear up to ward off the thrall’s blow just in time. The heavy metal dagger bit into the wood of the spear’s haft, and the thrall yanked it out without any noticeable effort.

The dagger leapt forward toward the man, and Octavius thought that he could see a slight glimmer surrounding the blade. The thrall’s four-fingered left hand reached forward and easily yanked the spear haft out of the way of the blade.

It slammed home into the reflective black carapace of the man’s armor. The deadly edge didn’t even seem to meet resistance as it plunged into the man’s chest. The thrall withdrew the blade and lightly leapt over the man’s fallen form, quickly advancing on the final guard.

This guard stood frozen, first in surprise and then in terror, as the thrall closed on him. He looked to be only a teenager, but Octavius couldn’t be sure so far from the fire’s light. What he could be sure of was that the older man’s sacrifice wouldn’t be in vain. The time that it had taken the thrall to recover from the blocked strike had given Octavius enough time to close the final few feet between them.

His spear led him in his charge as it slammed into the thrall’s back. The spear sliced through the black cloak but skipped along something underneath. Whether that thing was the thrall’s exoskeleton or the cuirass it wore, Octavius didn’t know.

As soon as it felt the impact on its back, the thrall spun away from its intended target. It moved with the spear’s momentum, using it to spin and face its attacker. As Octavius met its alien black eyes, he used identify on it.

Lmiszk - Thrall (F) (Lvl 31) (Rogue*)

Even as the thrall’s own eyes widened, his own mouth set into a grim line. The thrall was half again his level, as well as skilled and experienced. He doubted that this would be an easy fight. The thrall’s gray features broke out into a predatory smile as its identify window revealed Octavius’s identity.

“Oh, you!” it exclaimed in delight, “Once I kill you, I’ll parade your head through the Landing for a week. Kzedr will be hum—”

Octavius cut off its monologue with a lightning-fast spear thrust to the face. If the thrall was going to give him an opportunity to attack first, he wouldn’t refuse. Even caught off guard by the instant thrust powered attack, the thrall was able to avoid it. The thrall seemed to take a single step and blur. Suddenly, it was five feet to Octavius’s left.

The young man finally broke from his shock and fell to his knees next to the clearly dead guard. Through the shadows, Octavius could sense the boy fumbling for a health potion on his belt before tuning the guard’s movements out. He needed to focus on the fight at hand.

Combat at high levels was focused on the tiny minutiae that went into every movement. Everything from a twitch of a hand to the most minuscule shifting of weight could herald an attack. Octavius didn’t know how good the thrall’s night vision was, but he did know that it couldn’t be as good as his shadow sense. He closed his eyes, knowing that they would only distract him, and connected to only the shadows in the immediate vicinity.

Everything became sharp and clear to him, from rocks and roots on the ground to the thrall’s slight movements. He tuned out the sounds of the guards in the safety of the firelight. The voices of Marcus practically ordering the others to stay back faded as the thrall took two quick steps forward.

It paused for a moment, and Octavius sensed its leading foot grind into the dirt. Its shoulders twisted slightly, and its wrist rotated half an inch. The soldier knew that he had the advantage of reach, and using that, could guess the thrall’s next move.

It would use the flat of its blade to slap away his spear while advancing at the same time. After that, he guessed that it would likely duck slightly and kick at him, perhaps at his leading knee. He wouldn’t give it the chance to.

Just as the thrall started its attack, he lifted the point of his spear another foot into the air. The thrall instantly aborted its plan and fell into a different unfamiliar stance. Octavius could tell that it was more defensive than the previous one but didn’t know enough about the thrall’s martial technique to determine more.

Deciding to attack, he thrust his spear forward in three quick jabs. The thrall batted the spear away from its face the first two times and took the third on its cuirass. It took a step to the side and was suddenly at his four o’clock position. Incredibly thankful for the fullness of his shadow sight, he whirled to face it.

The thrall was well within his guard, so he gripped his spear with both hands horizontally. He used the polearm to catch the thrall with a shove. The spear slammed the thrall’s wrist into its chest as it stumbled back a step. Not wanting to allow the thrall to recover, Octavius readjusted his grip on the spear and thrust forward.

He rained down warding shots on the thrall to distract it. With such a basic pattern of attacks, his body ran on autopilot as he sured up his control of the shadows around the thrall. For all he knew, the thralls used sound or smell to get around, or even some other sense that humans didn’t have. Still, he guessed that they were at least partially reliant on sight.

He willed the shadow around the thrall to grow more and more opaque, to push back the light from any source. His knowledge of physics wasn’t great, but he did know that light was more than just what the human eye could see.

He willed the shadows to not just block visible light, but all electromagnetic radiation. With such a broad command, he didn’t need to know when each type of light started or ended, or even what they were. Even so, the mana cost nearly stunned him.

Although it didn’t use much mana to start the process, keeping it up was expensive. His mana was ripped from his core to power the spell, and he knew that he couldn’t hold it for a prolonged fight.

Hoping that the thrall was at least impaired by the spell, he launched a series of committed thrust toward the thrall’s face. It stumbled back wildly, barely evading the first thrust. Octavius’s shadow sense locked onto a large root just behind the thrall, and he made no effort to hide his next thrust.

The thrall took a single step back, and its speed multiplied once more, only this time its heels caught on the thick tree root, and it slammed into the hard ground. In an instant, Octavius was upon it, thrusting his spear at the thrall’s face.

It turned its head to the side, turning the blow into a glancing one. A loud scraping sound was heard as the razor-sharp spear blade scratched against the hardened exoskeleton of the thrall. Octavius kicked the knife away from where it fell as the thrall hit the ground and planted a knee on the thrall’s chest.

He knew that he had to hurry. The thrall’s strength stat was entirely unknown to him. For all he knew, the thrall would be able to grapple him into submission as soon as it recovered from the sudden loss of sight followed by finding itself on its back.

Gripping his spear closer to the blade, he slammed it down into the thrall’s closed eye. It forced its way through the extremely thin piece of exoskeleton that made up its eyelid and into its brain. The thrall’s thrashing body fell suddenly limp as Octavius allowed the sight-blocking spell to dissipate.

The shadowed body of the thrall was all but invisible, hidden in the tree’s shadow. Octavius briefly glanced at the window that flashed in his vision before dismissing it.

You have slain Lmiszk - Thrall (F) (Lvl 31) and gained 5813 EXP (1/2)(31)(1)(3)(1.25)(100)

Glancing at his mana counter, he confirmed that it was only slightly above half empty. Standing, he withdrew his spear from the thrall’s corpse and extended his shadow sense to the forest around him. Although this thrall elite was dead, it didn’t mean that there weren’t more.

He doubted that any elites stuck around now that the humans had almost all formed up within the firelight. That is if there even were any more. If there were, he would’ve expected them to come to the dead thrall’s aid.

Just before he gave up on his sensory sweep through the forest, he caught a glimpse of movement. In an instant, it had exited the range of his ability to monitor, but not before he was able to determine its shape. It was definitely humanoid and had a flowing cloak billowing behind it.

The shape had been moving quickly away from the camp and toward the east. Octavius didn’t know what to make of it but was just glad that it hadn’t joined the fight against him.

He seriously doubted that he could hold the sight-blocking spell around two separate opponents and not almost immediately run out of mana. Without that benefit, even with the longer reach provided by the spear, he would have almost definitely at least been injured by a single thrall elite. Two of them together might even have been able to force him to desperately flee back to the camp and to the safety that numbers provided.

Satisfied that there weren’t any immediate threats, he hurried over to the young guard who was weeping silently beside the first guard that went down. An empty vial sat beside the young man, and the red liquid of a health potion mixed with the blood that stained the dead guard. Octavius gently laid a hand on the teenager’s shoulder.

“They’re gone,” he whispered quietly, “There was nothing you could have done.”

The teenager ignored him and continued to stare into the unblinking eyes of the first guard. Octavius shook the shoulder that his hand was gripping.

“Can you help me bring their bodies back to the camp?” he asked, “We can’t just leave them out here.”

That seemed to do the trick, and the young man nodded silently. With his level 11 strength, he was able to easily lift the corpse and carry it toward the light. Octavius grabbed the other body and followed the young man.

The camp itself was filled with lines of guards. The captains and lieutenants were shouting orders, preparing for a full-scale assault. Men and women stood in formation, facing both the forest and the cliff.

As soon as Octavius and the teen stepped into the firelight, Marcus rushed over to him.

“What happened?” the marine asked quietly.

“It was a hit and run attack,” Octavius responded, “A few of the elites. I managed to get one. Can you take this body so I can go haul its body back here?”

The marine nodded and scooped the body from Octavius’s arms. The soldier heard him explaining what had happened to someone, possibly one of the guard captains or his other team members, as he turned and jogged back into the trees.

Once he reached the thrall’s body, he lifted it easily and jogged back into the camp after scooping up its knife. It seemed as if every eye followed him as he carried the thrall’s corpse into the light of the fires. Octavius knew that this was the first time that many of them got a real look at a thrall, so he didn’t begrudge them.

He passed by the formations and set the body down within the defensive lines. Robert and Adom both hurried over to him, and he assumed that his team members were within the formations.

“Marcus said that it was a hit a run attack?” Robert asked hastily.

“That’s what I think,” Octavius replied as he began to strip the dead thrall. The first thing to come off was the cloak. It was soft and much lighter than it looked.

“Are they still here?” The blonde man inquired.

Octavius shook his head, “I doubt it. I killed this one and was able to catch one more running toward the east.”

“Damn,” Adom cursed softly as Octavius deftly ran his fingers over the cuirass, looking for a release of some sort, “They already were able to create an exit. It’s got to be those stone shapers.”

The two other men nodded in agreement. It was the only thing that made much sense. The two guard captains began to discuss what that meant for the siege while Octavius found two small clasps on the chestplate and removed it from the thrall.

Underneath, the thrall wore thick leather padding that would double as softer armor. He didn’t bother to remove it and moved on to the thrall’s belt. There, he found the sheath that was meant to house the long blade, along with half a dozen small pouches. He removed the belt and set it aside.

Finally, he began to pat down the body. He pulled three separate daggers from its person. Each one was small, with a blade of only two or so inches in length. Their length meant that they would not be very useful for kill shots, and so he handled them with extreme care. He guessed that there was a solid chance of them being poisoned.

With all of the thrall’s gear laid out in front of them, he used identify on each piece.

Nightstalker’s Cloak (Rare) - An enchanted cloak given to Nightstalkers upon the completion of their training. It is enchanted to increase the level of the user’s stealth skill by two (2) while worn. If the user does not have the stealth skill, this cloak has no effect.

Nightstalker’s Cuirass (Uncommon) - A metal cuirass worn by thrall Nightstalkers while on mission. It is built to allow for protection beyond that of their exoskeleton.

Long Steel Dagger (Uncommon) - A long steel dagger crafted through magic and skill.

Assassin’s Blade (Uncommon) - A short steel dagger crafted through magic and skill. It has been imbued with Evolved Valerian Extract. Uses Remaining (1/1)

He frowned slightly. None of it might be useful to me besides the assassin’s blades, but at least I know what the elites are called, he decided, Nightstalkers.

After that, he opened each of the pouches that were on the thrall’s belt. The two guard captains had fallen silent as they read the identify screens they had pulled up. The first pouch contained a washed-out yellow powder, the second pouch had two vials of clear liquid, the third pouch held a vial that contained some type of insect, and the final three pouches each contained a single potion of each type.

Saihi Powder (Rare) - A deadly water-soluble poison. A single pinch can kill an (F) rank creature with a constitution below fifty.

Evolved Valerian Extract (Rare) - An extract made from the root of an Evolved Valerian plant. It is a strong depressant that has the power to render those with a lacking constitution unconscious.

Rare Cahimeshi Scorpion (E) (Lvl 7)

He licked his lips as he read. While he might not know what the scorpion was capable of, it was almost certainly dangerous. These things could almost definitely prove useful in the near future.

Adom was the first to speak. “I know that you don’t have the stealth skill. Can I, by chance, give the cloak to one of my lieutenants? It would likely help a lot.”

“Alright,” Octavius said, not seeing a reason for him to keep it, “And you guys can see who can use the cuirass. It’ll be a bit small for a human, but it might fit someone.”

The two guard captains nodded at that. “What about the blades and poisons?” Robert asked.

“I’m going to give the long dagger to one of my team members,” Octavius decided, “As for the assassin’s blades? I’m going to keep one for myself and give the other two to my team. I think that I’ll hold onto the poisons and the scorpion for now.”

The other two nodded at that, clearly not having a problem with the arraignment. Octavius stood and scanned the ready lines of warriors, prepared to meet a counterassault that seemed less likely by the second.

“I think the real question is,” Octavius said, getting the guard captains’ attention, “What are we going to do now?”