Killer among us

They spent the whole day training. At noon the imp would appear and dump several barrels of gruel on the ground. People would scramble around to get their share.

“I hate this thing.” Said Hamon as he ate with disgust.

“Better eat it, or I will beat your ass even harder today when you are hungry,” Theo smirked.

Three days passed like that. They ate and sparred. Theo didn’t know much about Hamon’s ‘Unwavering Defiance’ blessing, but being beaten black and blue every day should trigger something in it. When Hamon passed out or was too beaten to get up, Theo practiced his rituals and tested out the effects of ‘Artificer of Maladum’. There was only so much he could try with only two blessings: ‘Persona incognita’ and ‘Enhanced strength’.

At the current level, the artificer’s powers only allowed him to change one property of the ritual, activation phase. Previously, when he made a ritual, it would take effect as soon as it was finished. With the artificer’s powers, he found out he could delay its activation and control the trigger at will. Further tests proved he could also apply the ritual on the target and only later trigger the effects on it, which proved invaluable for him. Most rituals he had worked with were weapons of mass destruction. However, they were costly, needed lots of time to prepare and immobile. You couldn’t just barge in enemy grounds, set up your ritual, and explode them all. That could change things.

Those three days were not so relaxing for the others in the village. Many assassinations have been occurring every day. Thirty others have died already, and people were getting anxious. No one who saw the killer was left alive to tell the story.

At noon on the fourth day during the gruel, people assembled together. “We have to stay as close as possible. There are only four killers left, we are more than a hundred.” Said a woman in leather armor at the center.

“They are stronger than us.” A man said, afraid.

“More the reason to stay together. Haven’t you seen what happened to the first five? We defeated them.” She continued.

“At what cost? Fifty people died to bring the five of them down.” Another man smirked.

“Yet, here we lost thirty people and don’t even know the face of one of the killers.” She eyed everyone surrounding her. “If we do nothing, I wouldn’t be surprised if we get wiped out by four people.”

There were some heavy faces in the crowd after that statement. They didn’t think they would be the ones targeted, much less having everyone die. “What do we do?” Said someone in the crowd.

“Stay together, start sleeping together in groups of ten. Let’s see if they can take out ten people without causing even a commotion.” She swept the group with her eyes. “Pass the message. No one leaves their houses in the middle of the night. If they do so, we will assume the worst.”

“What about during the day?” Someone asked.

“I don’t know, try to scream or something.” She shrugged.

“Do you think it’s going to work?” Hamon whispered.

“No idea, we will see.” Theo turned back. “Now let’s spar,” Theo smirked as a shiver went down Hamon’s spine.

Two people died that afternoon. They were together in an alley seeking privacy, the killer didn’t lose his opportunity even by daylight. It made the others worried when they found the couple’s body stabbed strewn around the floor. At night, the plan was followed, but even so, a house was invaded. This time, however, a scream pierced the night, prompting those around to come looking. In the house, only dead bodies were found, with various signs of fighting.

“So that’s how you did it.” At the first sign of screams, Theo came out of the house along with the others. He climbed the rooftop looking for the dull red light that signaled the killer somewhere. Seconds later, he saw it jumping out of a window and disappearing. Most important of all was the ritual he saw when he activated his blessing. “I need to test this out.”

Theo went back to his home while the others were discussing what to do. Three people were found to have broken the code. The villagers decided to execute them and lost two others in the fight.

“What do we do?” Whispered a man by her side. “People are getting too anxious, and neither of those were the killers.”

“I don’t know, I don’t know. Why don’t you ask those stupid people why they broke the rules.” She punched a nearby wall.

The next day Theo spent practicing the new ritual. “What do you think? Two Theo’s to kick your ass twice as much.” Hamon slumped down on the ground and resigned himself to his fate as Theo started laughing. “The only drawback is that my original body loses consciousness while I’m on the clone, but don’t worry, only one of me is more than enough to beat your ass.”

“Then what is it for?” Hamon asked, looking at the other magic circle shining on the ground.

Theo stepped on the second circle with his clone, activating it. The circle’s outer layers started spinning and shining as a veil of magic surrounded Theo’s face.

“Well, that is neat,” Hamon said. “Who’s that?”

“Our second inactive killer.” Theo smiled. The artificer’s powers were much better than expected, even at low levels, being able to delay the ritual’s effects would prove invaluable now. Compounding rituals was never this easy, the first one would always fade away before the second took effect.

Theo had chosen the weakest person in the killer’s house, made sure he would be able to see his fake face before knocking him out cold. “Sorry about that, buddy.” The man, just level one, was left bound and gagged in an empty house below a bed, but not before Theo made sure to steal his face to the clone.

At night, Theo went to sleep much earlier than usual. “Stay safe today, Hamon, and don’t leave the house.” He whispered just before moving his consciousness to the clone.

The killer’s house had an awful smell of sweat. “Hey, Johann, haven’t seen you all day. What have you been up to.”

“Just found some lady friend.” Johann, or better Theo, smirked. “I’m really tired, will sleep for a bit right now.”

The men around started laughing. “The body waits for no one, not even during the apocalypse.”

Theo chuckled as he lay down. After a few hours, a scream was heard again, and Theo jolted himself awake. There the delayed activation came into play. He changed his face once again and went straight for the body of the killer. While the killer’s consciousness was elsewhere, killing him with a knife was easy. When the killer was attacking was the moment he became most vulnerable, he wouldn’t imagine himself turning into prey.

The others around the room watched it all and quickly jumped into Theo. However, they were too late as there were no signs of him in the house anymore.

A few minutes later, outside. “Shut up, Hanna! It was him! I saw it with my eyes. Everyone in the room saw it!”

“Calm down, Kyle.” Hanna, the leader and the one who devised the lockdown plan, tried to appease the situation. “He was in our house the whole time, there was no way he killed him.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake Hanna. There are magical creatures everywhere, people are shitting golden strawberries, and you think it is impossible?” The man mocked her. “I don’t know how but that man killed him. He is the assassin.”

“Let’s take it easy and not commit another mistake, okay?” Hanna said.

“You stupid-” The man began shouting, however, three others appeared from behind the group. “Justin! We thought you were dead, what happened to you.”

“We found him beaten and bound in a house next to ours,” Theo answered.

Justin quickly cut everyone in front as he saw the man beside Hanna. “It was you! You!” Justin jumped on the man, trying to suffocate him but was quickly swatted aside since he was much weaker.

Kyle, however, didn’t wait much longer for Hanna to have his way. He grinned as he advanced after the man, having gotten proof enough. Kyle was one of the strongest left in the village, and others quickly ran up to support him.

The accused man, even if he fought, was killed by Kyle in the end, which promptly started laughing. “I told you all!” The others saw how he managed to absorb experience from the corpse and soon calmed down. “I told you.” He turned to Hanna with a serious face as she cowered and walked away. “That’s how we deal with those fuckers!” Kyle screamed as the others from his group started cheering.

The next night no one else had to die, and the spirits among the group were high. The imp came back to announce the event’s end and remove the barrier from the village. No extra rewards were given, the imp was bored since no faction wiped the other out. Kyle’s reputation had risen as the others commemorated together near the fire with many roasted creatures they hunted that day.

“Why did they think it was that guy? It was you, wasn’t it?” Hamon whispered by Theo’s side as he bit the succulent ribs he had been saving.

“That’s the advantage of being a killer,” Theo smirked. “I knew both of them. Remember Suri’s power? ‘Persona incognita’, I showed you.”

“Ohhh…” Hamon scratched the back of his head as he laughed. “I guess I’m kinda slow.”

Theo laughed. “I just had to choose the face of one to kill the other and shift the whole blame. The guy’s clones really helped, though.”

“I see…” Hamon chewed some more, pensive. His stomach unexpectedly churned at the revelation. People definitely didn’t fight fair or care about others, that he already knew. He wanted to help, to fight those that oppressed others. In the heat of the moment, he thought about just charging in. However, he didn’t know anymore if he would be capable of acting through. He eyed Theo and gulped. Hamon took another bite as he pondered over upgrading his controls or senses next.