***

In-game, a couple minutes previously

Kyle and Shirley were crouching on top a roof of one of many safe houses owned by the DuskBlades, they had used a different tunnel in the forest to enter the town unseen. “Remember we can’t return to the safe house once this starts, it would put all the other ones at risk” Shirley explained for what Kyle felt like was the hundredth time.

“Can’t find something you don’t know you’re searching for” he smiled as he watched over the bank three buildings away. The city was your average medieval civilization with some added bonuses, mage guilds rose above the other buildings in the distance looking like mansions surrounded by common homes while unorthodox shops lined the market streets such as enchanters, witches, dwarven blacksmiths and their own weapon & armour shops right by them. Kyle right now had only two buildings within his radar, the private bank owned by one of the mage guilds and the guard station across the street.

He sighed “Didn’t tell me the guards were so close by” he didn’t like his chances if the alarm rang out and he knew it definitely would.

“Should have asked for more details before you accepted the job, any chance of you backing out?” she growled back which only amused Kyle. Ever since entering the city he noticed that most of the population was actually either elves or half-beasts while little humans or dwarves could be seen, Shirley’s white cat tail lay still behind her while her now uncovered white cat ears twitched without pause. “Well? What’s the plan? I already told you everything we know, also I have to ask…Why the mask?” she looked at him with a questioning expression.

Kyle chuckled quietly “What’s a secret identity if they see my face?”. He scanned the street again “We’ll need to take out the station first, or cause a large distraction that will take them a long time to clean up-“ his mouth curved into a grin, “Shirley…” he spoke her name and she glared at him.

“What” she made it sound as hostile as possible but he ignored her tone.

“The street merchants sell all kinds of stuff…do you think we can…plunder some explosives?” he glanced at her stifling a laugh.

Shirley looked at him with wide open eyes “You want to…you’re going to…wh-”

He calmed himself down and shut her up by covering her mouth with his right hand “Answer my question” he said while continuing to survey the street.

She pulled away from his hand and spoke “The mining store has some manafire but that stuff costs” her eyes locked onto the store.

“Can you steal it?” he asked mockingly

“Where do you want it?” (“I’ll save some to shut YOU up!”) she thought to herself.

“Right outside the station, how do we ignite it?” he was now staring intently at her wiggling tail in amusement.

“A fire bolt from my repeater” she raised her left arm where a thick brace was attached with three holes on the front and back while a lever curved into her hand.

He nodded “I’ll leave it to you then, pocket some while you’re at it and don’t ignite it until you’re back here”, she left without saying another word, leaping forwards she grabbed onto the next building’s higher roof and disappeared. He watched the street trying to locate her but he couldn’t until a cloaked figure walked by the guard station with a three-foot-tall carved wood barrel held in both hands, she walked into the alleyway to the left of the station and place the barrel down where Kyle could barely see it from his position. She walked back the way she came from and disappeared into the busy crowd.

He waited a couple moments before he felt a hand tap him on the back “Ready” she said as Kyle glanced back startled at her sudden appearance.

“Alright, what path will we take to the bank? It’s still dark so the roofs sound like a good plan to me” he said as he walked to the back of the roof and examined the alleyway back there.

“Not all the way, we’ll stop by the building behind the bank where I can still target the explosive dust. Then we’ll drop in on the guards at the back door and continue from there on.” She leaped up to the other roof again and glanced back at him, he walked over to the edge between her roof and the safe house’s.

The jump was two meters away while the roof was a whole story higher, he didn’t like his chances “Mind helping me up?” he asked.

She groaned in annoyance and laid down with her right arm stretched out, he took a couple steps back for a running start “Don’t let me fall” he said with a mocking smile. He rushed forward suddenly feeling energy that wasn’t there previously (“What is…”), he leaped as the rush of strength left him. He leaped up half a storey higher than the roof Shirley stood on. She glared at him as he landed behind her, then got up and turned to jump to the next building while Kyle stared at his own feet.

Passive Skill gained [Beast’s agility]

Kyle almost whistled at the skill gain but decided to check the details later, shit was about to go down and he couldn’t wait any longer. He followed Shirley over a couple more jumps until they were crouching while looking down onto the alleyway behind the bank, Kyle could barely see the barrel of manafire from here and realised something “How are you going to shoot it from here?....” the roof they were on was the same height as the bank being two storys and the bank’s roof wasn’t flat but instead a wide hemi-sphere.

“On your knees and sit still, then you will see how” she ordered moving behind him, he frowned but did as told “What are you-Oh..” he felt a pair of leather boots on his back. “Stay still” she said while repositioning her feet, an amused smile on her face. She pulled the lever firing two bolts, an iron bolt first that sped forth faster than the second red bolt. The first bolt hit the side of the barrel making a hole in the wood, teal dust began to flow out of the hole as the red bolt flew inside igniting the whole barrel.

A large green explosion flashed over the street as civilians screamed and ran for cover while guards ran from all over the place to ensure their safety as their station’s bricks covered the street injuring those that weren’t already injured by the flame or blast. The green fire spread quickly over any surface as mages gathered to try and bring it under control, fire bending the flames, water weakening the heat, air taking away their resource and earth stomping it out but the fire continued to spread withstanding their efforts beautifully.

Kyle grunted “Can you get off now?...” he was on his knees and hands as she crouched down, “I don’t know…I kinda like it up here…” she said with a mischievous grin. Kyle chuckled “You can take me for a ride later if you want” he said obviously suggesting something else, she blushed and using that as a distraction he stood up making her fall on her back “Alright, mission is a go” he exclaimed while still talking in a whisper.

She groaned while standing back up at the same time giving his back a death glare, then walked over to the edge. They both stared down at the two guards, both wearing yellow leather armour with a chainmail and a yellow full helm “I’ll take care of the guards, stay back princess” she whispered and walked up to the edge then stepped off. A curved dagger appeared in either hand as she landed between the two armoured guards standing by a metallic door, quickly and without hesitation she sliced open their throats through the gap between full helm and chainmail.

Kyle clicked his tongue “Too much blood” he jumped down and surprisingly to himself he didn’t stumble when he landed, “Can you take them out without dirtying the clothes?” he asked while scavenging their pockets for anything.

“And how do you suggest I do that? Best I can do is bloody their neck with that gear” she sheathed her daggers as Kyle stared at them for a moment.

“Alright but at least bloody the back of their neck only, we need the uniforms to be clean on the front” he walked over to the door “They got no keys, you said you can take care of any door but the actual vault so?” he looked at her expectantly.

She rolled her eyes in annoyance and took out some small tools from somewhere inside her cloak, “You sure there aren’t guards behind this door?” he asked as she made quick work on the lock.

“Our intel is clean, the guard posts remaining are across the corridor from this door, inside a room behind said door and a roaming officer inside. The mage guild doesn’t want anybody to know the artefact is here and they don’t know that we know” she pocketed her tools and unsheathed her daggers again, both of them stood with their back to the door “Ready?” she asked.

He gave her a smile and said “I just blew up a guard post and got dozens killed, I want my reward one way or another” her blue eyes gleamed in the shadow of night as she nodded and he quietly but quickly opened the door. She rushed inside with tremendous speed as her daggers gained a dark gleam which trailed behind her, the guards tried to react but she was behind them facing the door before they could even unsheathe their short swords. With a quick backstab to their necks their bodies went limp and they began to fall, she quickly sheathed her daggers and grabbed them by their chain mail before they hit the ground.

Shirley lowered both guards soundlessly to the floor as Kyle walked in and closed the door behind him. He walked over to her and picked up one of the guards as she heaved the other, he gestured to a side room within the corridor and she picked the lock to it. They carried both corpses inside the room which turned out to be a slightly cramped toilet room, well cramped for two people changing into uniform and armour that is. “Don’t push damnit…” Shirley hissed as she tried to put on the chainmail.

“You’re the one who’s pressing too close…I gotta say though…I don’t disli-” he was abruptly cut off by a quick back kick to the groin. Shirley walked out of the room in full uniform as Kyle crawled out holding his groin with his left hand while grinning, only moments away from laughing while the pain being the only thing keeping him from doing so. He took a deep breath and stood up “Never…hit a man in the-”.

“Shh!” she hissed him quiet and gestured for him to take position quickly. After a couple moments of standing by the door it suddenly opened, another guard walked through it with an oversized sword strapped to his back.

The guard officer walked past the two at attention guards without giving them a second glance, standing a whole foot taller than even Kyle the man looked like a heavyweight lifter. He inspected the corridor then turned around and walked back through the doorway, Kyle let out a sigh of relief as the door closed. “Alright time for phase three…” he took off the helmet and put on the white plain mask that covered his whole face including his eyes, a grey pair of eye patches covered the sockets letting him see through but nothing could be seen from the front.

“Well care to explain what phase 3 even is?!” she hissed back while listening intently to the room behind the door.

Kyle shrugged “Easy, you walk through and get behind them as if you’re in a hurry then I walk in and distract them. Your choice on how to take them out”. Shirley sighed and abandoned herself to his plans, she couldn’t go back to her aunt without the artefact, it would destroy her pride.

“Oh and!” he suddenly walked back to where they hid the corpses and returned with a hand dripping with blood, “Here we’ll cover your shoulders with this faking injury” he splattered the blood on her shoulders as she watched.

“Lend me your dagger” he said as he grabbed the blade without waiting for her permission, he then tore the leather armour where the blood was mostly collected and a couple more areas around the cloth sleeves. “That will be enough, let me grab something else” he handed her back the dagger which she hid as he dragged out a corpse and slashed off an arm.

“What are you…” she was going to ask but “Never mind…not worth the headache!” she rolled her eyes and prepared herself to rush through the door. Kyle walked back up to the door and stood by her in the wide corridor, “Don’t make too much noise alright? Go!” he whispered and she rushed through the door with a limp left arm while the right held it. The guards looked more confused than anything as they watched her reach one of the three doors connecting the room, the door towards the vault.

“What are you waiting for?! We’re under attack!” she said with an overly faked voice, the guards glanced at the door she came from right as the cold hit them. A guard’s severed arm rolled into the middle of the room getting their attention momentarily before they all stared up at Kyle nonchalantly walking into the room.

The three guards took formation in the middle of the room facing Kyle as one of them ordered Shirley “Go tell the captain! We’ll take care of him!”, she was right behind the three of them with a glint in her eyes.

Kyle took a couple steps forward with his sword being dragged on the floor behind him, blood trailing down both the sword and his free left hand. A cold shiver went through each guard as his quiet laughter filled their ears, Kyle rushed forward to slash at the left most guard. The guard held up his sword to parry but Kyle instead simply stopped his attack short, Shirley crouched down between the other two holding them from the collar as she slowly put them down.

The guard took a step back just as she rushed him with a burst of speed, her dagger cut cleanly through his throat as he tried to scream letting only a gargling sound out as he choked on his own blood. Kyle quickly grabbed the guard’s sword and held him up by the arm as the guard held his open neck, Shirley shoved her dagger through the man’s left eye killing him. He lay the corpse down quietly before dragging all three to the other door, using them to slightly block the door and possibly buying them extra time.

“You got the manafire I requested?” he asked while looking at her, she nodded and took out a fist sized black pouch from her cloak (“How many pockets…”). He took the pouch into his hands and gently untied the string to open it, with respect directed at the green dust he momentarily stared at it “How many walls do you reckon this can blow?” he asked her.

Shirley shrugged “Enough to blow up each wall in this room with enough remaining to coat a flash bomb”, Kyle whistled quietly remembering what the blast did to the surrounding buildings and civilians. He walked over to the door taking to the vault room “So no more guards behind here? But there is another corridor to go through?” he studied the door sceptically.

“Yes and why?” she said also concerned at the lack of security.

Kyle ran his hand on the door’s frame “Are these…Hah…this bank is owned by a mage guild correct?” he asked while scratching away at the black paint on the door’s frame.

“It’s owned by the Crying Phoenix guild, what’s wron-” her eyes went wide as Kyle scratched away enough paint to reveal carvings on the wood.

“Are these what I think they are?” he asked as he glanced back at her expression.

“Runes, they trapped the door? No…maybe even the whole corridor…” she said with shock in her voice.

“Why so shocked? Is using runes in security not a norm?” he said while running his palm over the other side of the frame.

“Rune mages are rare, I doubt anybody inside this city can decipher or write them…How do they access the vaults if it’s sealed?...” she looked around the room with paranoia.

“Stop worrying, if there was anything in this room we would have already activated it. Also I doubt the door is actually sealed, the clerks and guards probably have something that lets them through.” Kyle said matter-of-factly as he walked back up to one of the swords and picked it up.

“Okay then know it all, can you decipher runes then?” she asked with annoyance in her voice.

“Nope, but there was something that always bugged me with runes…” he lifted the sword and held it by the flat of the blade “What’s the point if…” he began cutting the door’s frame in a straight line “If you can just ruin them so easily?”.

He sliced and cut through the frame then inspected the door itself “Nothing on the actual door, would have been a pain…” he opened the door but raised the sword through before walking in, he studied the other side of the door “Would have been much smarter if they carved them on this side” he chuckled while cutting the inner doorway inspecting it.

They closed the door behind them and stared down the short corridor taking into another room, the vault door mostly visible from their position. “So…what if the corridor is trapped?” Shirley asked while scanning the walls and roof.

Kyle shrugged “give me one of those fire bolts you used” he said while grabbing a fist full of the green dust from the pouch. He crouched down and sprinkled the dust from one side of the door way to the other, “The door opens inwards so…” he took the red bolt Shirley was holding out to him. He placed it right in front of the door facing up in such a way that when the door opened the tip would fall into the manafire, igniting a hellfire right by the door.

“We don’t have the time or equipment to search the whole corridor so…get ready to unlock the vault quickly…just saying but I might die here” he said right before he rushed forward and through the short path, he stopped right at the beginning of the vault room and sighed in relief. Kyle turned around with open arms “Still alive…”.

Shirley half rolled her eyes as she walked through the corridor and into the vault room. “So how do we open these goliaths?” Kyle asked, there was three vaults in total with large metallic doors, two where dark grey and square looking about three meters tall and about one in width while the third was emerald green, twice the size of the other two and loaded with rune carvings.

Shirley glanced at him with an astonished expression “Why you asking me? I can pick a normal vault but there’s no way I’m touching that thing” she said while pointing at the emerald vault door. “Well then unlock the other two, I’ll take care of this one…” he walked over to the vault door while grabbing another fist full of manafire dust, “Manafire won’t even dent that thing, no point wasting it and getting us caught!” she hissed at him.

“The vault door won’t but what about the walls?” he said while stepping towards the corner of the room, the emerald vault to his left and a normal vault to his right, “Open both vaults and don’t worry, we’ll be out of here before the guards even know what happened” He began neatly lining the room’s corner with the dust not knowing how much he exactly needs. Kyle glanced back at Shirley as she worked on the vault’s lock “Think this is enough for the wall?” he asked, she glanced back and nodded then went back to work. He closed the pouch and walked over to her right as a clicking sounded off from the vault door, she pulled the door open wide revealing the rows of large drawers inside.

Kyle whistled “I’ll collect the good stuff while you work on the other door” he stepped in and examined the wood drawers for runes, each column held three drawers while each row had seven columns. Seeing that the drawers had no carvings he opened his inventory and began going through each drawer, the drawers where somehow much deeper on the inside than the outside showed. About four times as deep along with more space in the sides giving Kyle quiet the shock the first time he looked inside, every two or so drawer he’d shove some coin or equipment into the window along with a comical scene of something too long to fit in the drawer being pulled out and disappearing into the invisible window.

Shirley walked in as he had gone through more than half the drawers, “Other vault is open, you done looting yet?” she watched as Kyle pulled out a long staff with all kinds of runic carvings.

“Almost done” he said. He quickly went through the last of the drawers, in total his weight had been mostly filled (“I’ll switch things out if I find anything more valuable”) “How much longer before that officer walks back into the other room?” he asked as they walked over to the other open vault.

“From the layout we know of he still has about ten minutes until he reaches that end, maybe more from the rooms we don’t know about” Shirley said as she helped him go through the drawers for valuables.

“More than enough time, this is almost too easy” he smirked as he shoved an ornate golden dagger with sheath into his inventory and pulled out an average looking spear. Taking what they found most valuable while leaving many random objects on the ground they were finally finished looting the two vaults, “Alright, which vault wall do you reckon takes us closest to an exit in here?” he knew the other vault walls probably bordered deeper into the bank.

Shirley thought it over for a bit then pointed at the left wall “On the other side of that one is the guard’s office, I don’t suspect anybody will remain inside once the explosion happens”.

Kyle shook his head “How come is there an exit right by there?”

Shirley stared at the wall while her ears twitched “It’s the emergency exit so the staff will be leaving from there while the civilians use the front entrance”.

She walked out of the vault as Kyle set up more manafire by the wall that bordered the corner where he spread it before, he hoped the explosion from the first would ignite the dust behind the wall. When he was done he walked out and closed the vault behind him “Alright so we will use the untouched vault as cover as we blow shit up, once the walls are down you’ll run inside and grab the artefact, after that we just run off through the second hole and confuse the guards there. If there are any alive that is.” He glanced at her already waiting by the other vault and jogged over to take cover, she aimed her wrist-bow at the corner and waited for a signal.

“Well? When?!” she hissed at him.

“Huh? Oh! Right…now!-” the resulting explosion shook the ground beneath them as crashing sounds could be heard from behind them, when the blast and crashing ended they peaked out “I might have used a bit too much manafire?” Kyle stated with a questioning tone. The roof had completely collapsed and the emerald vault door lay half fallen inside the rubble, the fire was nowhere to be seen through the stone and wood but they knew it was somewhere inside and spreading quickly.

“Well at least-” he glanced to his right but Shirley was already gone, she rushed right to the vault sliding underneath the misplaced vault door. He waited for a moment but when she didn’t come out he decided to go in as well (“Did she ditch me?”), he crawled under the large door making sure not to touch it and saw her standing there with something in her hands. “Let’s go we’re running out of time!” he shouted getting her attention.

“Uh..huh? Oh…Yeah!” she turned and ran towards the now open wall to another room.

The guard office was a small room with two desks facing each other, four storage crates in the corners of the room and a single metal door. Kyle ran up to the door and turned the knob “Locked!”.

“Hold it!” she handed him the strange object. The artefact was crystal shard shaped with runic inscriptions covering it’s obsidian surface, it momentarily glowed a white light when he grabbed it and two notifications caught his attention.

Unique Lord classes unlocked! Player can now earn Lord classes once previous progression is completed

“Lord classes? Unique!?” Kyles eyes widened as he stared at the system notifications.

Shirley unlocked the door and pushed it open as she pocketed her tools “Let’s go!”.

He shook away the notifications by unfocusing from them “With ya”, they ran out of the room finding themselves facing a couple employees.

One of them shouted when they saw the artefact “Thieves! Security of-” just as a dagger stuck itself between his eyes, “Run!” Shirley shouted and darted off down the corridor. Kyle ran after her as his passive activated letting him keep up with her long strides, guards came around the corner just as Kyle crashed into the wooden door with all his might. He crashed backwards into the ground as the sound of something cracking filled his ears “Ah…fuck…I think I broke something” he said as he got back up.

Shirley kicked the door open and glanced at him “The artefact!?“they rushed outside. “Good to know you care…no it’s fine” Kyle said as he ran.

“Oh just shut it and run!” she hissed back.

The guards crashed through the door way and immediately began to give chase, slowly but surely catching up the hulking guard officer drew his oversized sword. Kyle glanced back just to see the large beast-man running towards him like a very angry grizzly, “Shoot the pouch!” he shouted as the threw the black pouch of manafire back. Shirley momentarily stopped in an alley crossroad as she shot, the resulting explosion of green fire, giant sword and guard guts covered the alley.