Author's Note:

****

The next day Ace finally saw some movement from his underlings. Very carefully, in groups of four, they looked for goblin parties no bigger than three. 'Seriously?' Ace though and jumped into another group of ten alone.

There was no point to waste time piercing everyone's hearts as poison would do that anyway and he didn't need to risk for that. All he needed to do was make sure that each goblin received at least a small cut from his long daggers.

He had run out of new poisons to try out and returned to his good old Rat Poison. It wasn't exactly that, but he liked to call it that as it was deadly to almost all humanoid creatures that weren't real humans like cavemen, goblins, trolls and etc.

The moment he was finished he jumped out with [Shadow Dash] and disappeared into a random corner. There he rested for a moment and checked his bars. Health was almost full, mana too, satiety close by while stamina was only halfway full. A lot of pop up bars indicated all ten goblins getting poisoned.

'That's perfect but I should probably eliminate all the small groups first. They shouldn't have the easy way out.'

With that though in mind Ace rose up and went to look for a suitable target. That was before he heard the sounds of a skirmish. Interested he sneaked there and looked over the side of a building. Four rogues were fighting a group of seven goblins with everything they had.

"Idiots where is your scout?" he quietly asked the rogues but they couldn't hear him over the fight. Sighing Ace circled them and intercepted the approaching goblins. "That's as far as you go my friends" he said as if he was some kind of an action hero and charged in.

Goblins prepared for a mad dash raising their poorly made shields to protect their chests and necks but Ace didn't go for there. All his talk was simply to distract them as he waltzed in slashing at their raised hands. He was half-way done when they noticed that something was wrong. Until they figured it out, he was done and out.

[Instincts of a Predator] warned him of another group coming this way. 'Can't they finish it off faster? You can't stay long in the same place!' he screamed inside but had no intention of saying it to them. They would only ridicule him and purposely do otherwise; kids can never be smarter than adults.

He met the other group of goblins in the same fashion and poisoned them all before escaping. Finally then the sounds of battle from other rogues quieted down. “Phew” Ace murmured and left to find his own prey.

The four rogues were breathing heavily from their fight. Somehow it happened that all the lowest levels got put into a single unit and by accident they angered a very large crowd of mobs. At first there were only two goblins but when they attacked suddenly more than five more came from the corner! But now it was over, they were safe.

That was before two groups from different sides made way towards them. Now did they understand why the kid told to make one a scout. 'We're so dead...' they all thought with disappointment, and they had just won such a glorious fight!

But the goblins were walking strangely, some even swaying openly. 'Wha...?' Sooner or later they fell down one by one. Unsure of what was going on, the rogues took a few steps closer and inspected the no longer breathing goblins. Their faces were purplish, eyes popping out and foam coming out of their mouths. There was no guessing how they got this way.

The rogues were unsure of who's poison that could be. Who could have saved them? Other two groups were quite far away as they made sure not to get in each others' faces. That only left the kid but was he able to deal with so many goblins this fast? That sounded as improbable as the sight before them, although it gave them an idea of how to proceed next. They adapted Ace's strategy of only poisoning their enemies and made sure to always have someone scouting. No more ambushes were welcomed.

Ace preferred his battles next to the second wall. It made him think of new ways to come in and slaughter all the watchmen as they were now ordered by a human. Ace saw the guy a few times but it wasn't the one who almost found him in the house he first fell.

There he also heard loud booms signalling the rocks hitting gates or the first wall. Everyone knew it was going to fall in an upcoming hours and most goblins were to fall back to the second wall, although not many wanted that after hearing of a mysterious killers running rampant there. A few scouting groups led by humans were sent to find them but Ace took out goblins one by one from the back until a single human was left. Then when he turned back surprised with the sudden silence lacking goblin movement, Ace struck. Both leaders' had blocked his attack from doing fatal damage but it was of no use. Ace made sure to occupy them while the poison did its work and went to look for another target. He had long lost the number of how many enemies he'd killed on this adventure.

'What if we struck the moment the first wall fell?' Ace wondered circling back to tower where the mechanism was. 'Their defence here for now is quite lax and shouldn't be much of an obstacle?' To test his theory once again he sneaked inside and saw five goblins almost falling asleep.

He was about to leave when loud footsteps came from the first floor, he was on a second. Ace decided to stay still in case the guy was a rogue and looked to see what was to happen.

"Goblins!" he said in a bellowing voice, waking the half-asleep guards. "From now on we'll be taking watch with you! And there will be no slacking off!"

Ace's brow furrowed. 'Why did they suddenly decide to strengthen the watch? Is there a traitor among us? But only I and Monthu were on the details… Wait does that mean my group of rogues... I can’t believe it! There probably had been a trap on the first wall for us too and now that we backed off they believe we'll attack here. I suppose antagonizing my subordinates wasn't such a good idea in the end. But how was I supposed to know they'd go as far as joining the other side!'

That of course didn't mean Ace was going to abandon the plan. If he decided to open the enemy gates, he was going to do it and this was the last wall. All this meant was that he needed a way to tell his subordinates that they wouldn’t understand what was going on until it was too late. And it wasn't that hard to do if you thought about it better.

***

Vascas castle, Strategy room

"How long will the first wall last?"

"No more than four hours but everyone has already been evacuated from the danger zone" the other member in a dark cloak answered.

"Good. Has the second walls defences been set up?"

"Yeah. The goblins are prepared too. We shall make them pay" another man said, tightening his arm around the hilt of his sword. He couldn't wait for it all to begin.

The first man nodded and looked over the map occupying most of the room. He pointed at the gate landmark. "Has Galvin secured it?"

A third man nodded with disgust. He had wanted that post himself but was reduced to scouting duty and ordered to catch the invisible killers. It would have been an easy task if he had only been given someone who had brains. Those goblins would sooner impale themselves on the rogue’s dagger than see one even if he was standing right before their eyes.

"You can start then, Roy" the leader said and the swordsman rushed out of the room.

"What about me?" the scout boy asked inquiringly.

"Find the idiots. We're losing lots of morale because of them but we'd gain double if you managed to catch them. So do it and with haste."

The man turned around and left. What fun to be given an impossible mission just before your promotion. Now he'll always stay a rookie. Maybe he should go and look for another profession.

***

The guards were changing each hour while the human guy stayed up, Ace noted. For the last three hours he'd been staying near the gates to get a good grasp of a schedule. But it was just that simple; goblins were probably unable to get anything more complicated.

That taken care of, Ace sneaked out. On a first corner he stopped and looked around. Everything was clear so he removed the shadow and set up a bunch of traps. He wasted whole ten minutes to hide them away with [Phantasm], otherwise they could have been clearly seen by naked eye as the walls were bare and made of hard rock. It'd take hours to dig through them. Finally finished he got out to look for his wandering rogues.

While he was going through a deserted street he contacted Monthu.

"When are you going to be through?"

"An hour. Two at most. What are you planning now?" Monthu asked among the sounds of a trebuchet going loose. Loud cracking sound rolled over the castle.

"I'm going to open the second gates at the same time too so rush through. I have a traitor inside, so it’s now or never" Ace said, reaching the end of his street.

"You know it’s not real life and they can rat you out any moment they feel like?" Monthu asked sceptically.

"No one said they'll know what they're doing" Ace replied cryptically. "I'll tell you when we're in."

He turned the chat off with that and found his first group. They were quite loud by fighting openly instead of using poison and just running away. Ace killed a few to help them out and said.

"We have to go somewhere, follow me."

Rogues, tired and bloody, didn't argue. As long as their killing duty was removed they were up to anything, besides jumping from heights that is. Ace led them to second group who was ruled by Fenek.

"Come with me. We have to take cover in a certain room" Ace said and turned around. As always Fenek couldn't just follow without asking questions.

"What do you mean take cover? Isn't our mission to distract the goblins?"

"It was. Now they're terrified so Monthu told us to lay quiet for a bit so he could launch an attack while they’re retreating from the first wall. If we accidentally get caught, goblins' morality would rise and his gamble might not pay off" Ace said telling whatever came to his mind first. 'Go and report that you traitor' he thought smiling inwardly and sneaked away, eight rogues after him.

The last four were the hardest to find as they used hit and run tactic. Once goblins started screaming, they were miles away figuratively speaking. 'Where's a tracking ferret, when you need one...'

After ten more minutes of searching he saw their trail and managed to block their path. Noticing him they nodded and went to the back of the line. Ace shrugged at such a strange behaviour but had bigger things to worry about.

Around thirty minutes were left till watch change so walking in circles he got closer to the wall. To not arise suspicion among his subordinates, he went back among the houses and cast his largest illusion yet.

"Beloved dreams, feared nightmares, different worlds, same horrors combine into one and come crashing onto the mortal souls, Phantasm!" Ace said a chant under his breath and closed his eyes for a moment to check the image for the last time. He could see everything around him clearly as if he had his eyes open. 'Perfect'

Sneaking ahead he threw a glance over his shoulder but none seemed to be alarmed. It was working for now. Not wanting to push his luck Ace made a few twists and sudden turns to confuse his followers and came to the tower entrance through which you could reach the gate opening mechanism.

It was an interesting experience for Ace to see differently through his eyes. The right one saw as usually but through the left he saw a small shack with wooden doors barely holding on its hinges. Slipping in he saw a dark tunnel and used [Flare] to light up the way. The right eye said it was already light and the small flame could hardly be seen flickering ahead.

Ace continued on and with his left eye saw pathetic looking traps in the open he could easily walk around or over. After another bend there was a strong looking door. Ace turned to his followers and nodded at them. Fenek was the first to grasp the meaning and after a bit of fumbling opened the door without actually making a sound.

Inside there were eleven goblins sitting around in different positions and rogues took care of them. Ace seeing through his right eye a single human among them chose it and killed it with [Heart-seeker]. None were surprised he fell in seconds and disappeared as a bloody goblin corpse lay there for a minute or so before disappearing.

The middle of the room contained a puzzle with lots and lots of wheels put over each other and gears between them.

"What is that?" some rogue asked quietly.

"No idea" Ace said and started to move it around. The thing grumbled and protested a lot but after enough pushing moved slightly. Smiling Ace started to move them all in a seemingly random pattern but with his right eye he saw a much more simple mechanism to open the gates which he was doing right now.

In real life it was a much harder thing, needing immense strength and many people but here it was powered by magic. It was done so mages could be reduced to such a duty if they shamed themselves. So now Ace had no problem moving it with his mana.

Of course he made sure he was moving the puzzle correctly with his left eye too. Once the gates were opened, he concentrated only on to it until he finished and a shower of sparks indicated his success.

Ace smiled brightly but soon his face fell. He was done and had nothing to do now. Rogues were trying to make themselves more comfortable but a screeching sound interrupted them.

"What is that?" one asked while everyone else started sneaking to the door. They remembered the stupid visible traps and knew who could wander into them.

It was a group of thirty goblins, more than they had ever seen in one place. In the confusion Ace sent Monthu a single word /Open/. There was no time to add more actually as an axe flew his way. It was aimed at Fenek nearby as Ace was still hidden but goblins' aim was in par with Par’s.

Ace was about to cast ice field when he remembered [Phantasm] was in action. If he tried using more magic, his mana would run out in few minutes and the illusion will fall. That left him with basic dagger attacks so he picked the daggers coated in paralysis and critical hit his enemies as much as possible.

After the goblins a human showed up. He ordered them to fight in small groups of four to not get slaughtered from behind and jumped into the fight himself. He was a skilled dagger user and defended well against two of Ace's rogues at once. It would have been nice to wait and force the traitor out but Ace didn't have the time. The guy was already attracting too much attention from his subordinates, soon enough they might even start wondering why this particular goblin chief was so strong.

Ace threw a dagger to distract him and while he was defending from the attacks of the two rogues jumped on his back using [Backstab] and [Heart-seeker]. The body fell without a sound but goblins noticed and fell in disarray half of them fighting, the other half trying to get out. This helped the rogues and they were done soon enough.

"How did they find us?" someone asked but none answered him as they heard more coming.

/Can you last ten-fifteen more minutes?/

/Yes/ Ace wrote back with a grave expression and drank three potions in succession. One expanded the mana pool, the other gave 1000 mana flat while the last doubled mana regeneration for the next twenty minutes.

***

On the other side of the wall Monthu was having his own problems. The goblins had set up a trap for them and even though it hadn't worked out as expected it still put him in a dangerous situation.

They were supposed to enter carefully looking for an ambush but not find one. Only when they were around middle way would goblins emerge from secret tunnels from all sides and surround them. This way they could be slaughtered by sheer numbers without casters being able to help them out.

But Monthu had ordered his troops to rush to the second wall and most of them had managed to pass the middle grounds before goblins' leaders understood that their prey was escaping and launched the attack. It still caught them unprepared and Monthu lost around forty people. A huge loss but the others were able to escape the surrounding and were steadily backing behind the gates.

"Eayah!" a war shout came from behind and Monthu saw a bunch of goblins approaching them from the castle. He looked over those who were free and sent two divisions to deal with them.

"Five and ten take care" he said motioning towards the back of their formation.

Forty people separated and after fist pumping in the air dashed towards the goblins who had numbered as much as them. They attacked with smiles going for revenge. Those creatures had been throwing things on their heads for days and it hurt. Also they killed their comrades. That was unforgivable.

Monthu deciding he needed to see how the vanguard was doing found the stairs and run up to the top of the wall. There he saw it wasn't that bad. His men were taking careful steps to move back while keeping goblins at bay with their spears.

"Put everyone on the walls!" Monthu said to Hawk over the chat in a shout. There were lots of noises on his side so he made sure he understood what was needed.

"Got it" the guy said ordering his archers to move quickly and sending the same message to Aurora. In a way it was great to have your friends as officers. They listened to all commands without asking questions and wasting valuable time.

More than half of his surviving soldiers were past the gates but it'll still take some time for them to get out. 'I really hope the kid can hold on for a just a little bit longer' he prayed and watched on. They needed just a little more time for it all to work.

The enemy general was shouting at his fighters but goblins seemed half-hearted. They were often looking over their backs and whispering something to each other. This absent-mindedness of theirs and lack of courage to brave the spears allowed the last soldiers to get past.

"Close the gates now!" he shouted to Ace hoping the kid could do it. 'Hurry up!' he prayed over the silence that lasted for a very long minute. The answer was the gates starting to move quietly and caring about no resistance. Monthu had ordered his troops to get back over the range of the door and keep the goblins there.

The giant doors moved unwavering crushing everything that got in their way until they closed up. More than thirty goblins died only from that.

"Fire!" he yelled over the confused battlefield. Goblins turned left and right, not understanding how they got cut off from their own city but soon they had different things to worry about as fire and arrows rained on them.

Mages casted storms of all elementals, clerics for the first time used their offensive spells with great enjoyment while archers released arrows faster than eye could see. The raging lasted for around ten minutes until everyone ran out of mana.

"Open the gates" Monthu ordered Ace and after a long four minutes they did. "Go!" he said a single word with his scythe raised high in the air and jumping in the middle of enemies.

He used a goblin's body to soften the fall and landed safely. There he finally put his scythe to use. Soon others joined him and they all descended on the exhausted and scared goblins like evil spirits. They had suffered days of humiliation being taunted and laughed at but now was the time to get back at them. There was no mercy.

"Take the leader out!" Monthu shouted once again thinking of ways to put enemies in even more confusion.

*Stand united activated*

Morale rises by 200%

All fear and confusion effects are removed

Attack power and defense is increased by 10%

Attack speed is increased by 15%

The range is fifteen meters.

'What? Wasn't this skill only triggered by being in a death situation? And why does it have range?' Deciding to look into it more lately Monthu continued with his attacks, pushing forward to the enemy leader.

He ordered his closest division to make an arrowhead with him at centre and go in. They met little to no resistance and soon came to the place where the leader stood ready for battle. He had seen them approaching and even though knew he was doomed was waiting for a good fight.

Monthu raised his weapon in a challenge and the guy jumped from his makeshift stand. Monthu's division cleared the space around and allowed them to have a safe circle where no goblins would intrude.

They started with the usual stare down that was supposedly meant to determine the opponent’s strength. But after a minute they got tired of it and clashed for real. Monthu used his [Reaper's Eyes] to weaken the swordsman’s attack speed and kept him at bay. Using his modified scythe's longer range he prevented the guy from reaching him and dealing any damage. From there he went for an offensive.

"Black Flight! Doom Claw!" he said the skill names executing them with precision. The first one was a graceful leap into the air which added strength to the attack and the other was three quick jabs in midair, done so fast that you only saw an afterimage of three claws passing. These skills also helped to confuse the opponent as nobody expected you to start suddenly jumping around.

The attacks took a good chunk of the enemy’s health and the guy spit some blood.

"That wasn't what I expected from you" he said and smiled cruelly, preparing his own skills. "Dash! Staggering Blow! Flurry!"

He was in Monthu's face the next moment with his sword held high. Monthu was in a disadvantage now so he used [Dash Attack] to sprint forward and escape the attack that would have stunned him. But that left him open for an attack from behind that the other guy didn't miss.

Monthu suffered five hundred damage before able to turn around and block the attacks. He was about to fight back when his enemy fell before him. 'Whaa?' Then he noticed five arrows sticking from the guys back. 'Who would..?' Yet the culprit was impossible to track as all archers were rapidly firing arrows. It could have been either one of them.

Monthu picked up the cloak and still wondering why anyone would do that returned to the battle with goblins. Those poor creatures were trying to run away but had no place where to. The first wall had a single breach and lots of rumble they had to climb over with their short legs while being shot at by mages and archers, if they tried to go for the second one - the army kept them from reuniting with their brothers who were retreating to the castle. Yet unlike humans they didn't put a last fight. They better looked in vain for a way out.

In the meantime Ace was fighting for his life protecting the gate mechanism. The rogues had long ago figured it out that this was no hiding place and for some reason they were constantly being attacked by goblins. They would have liked getting the information from Ace even by force but there was not enough time and he provided good damage to their utter annoyance.

Somehow Ace had managed to keep the illusion till now and they were still thinking there was no way out of this place but the one goblins were coming in. To survive that they had created a strategy of fighting by 6 while the others rested. Ace was the wild card appearing and staying for more than others before coming back to regain his stamina.

'My mana potions are running out... I can't last much longer' Ace thought fighting without using any skills. He had been doing so for quite some time already and his stamina was on the low side once again. Keeping dozens of goblins from advancing while trying to kill as many of them as possible ate stamina like a hungry beast. You could stay no more than fifteen minutes after such an onslaught as it was a narrow hallway where you couldn't utilize much movement, although, it prevented goblins from overwhelming the rogues with their numbers.

Tired Ace returned to the room and lay down on the floor breathing heavily. After a moment he sat down, took out some bread and ate it with water. Full satiety helped stamina rise faster.

/We're being invaded!/

/What?/ Ace wrote back jumping up and looking in all directions as if he could see through the walls.

/They're breaking the doors and I don't know what to do!/

'Wait... What?'

Only then did Ace thought about looking at the senders name. It was Romeo. 'What can he possibly mean? Didn't he stay in Lasran to take care of the guild?'

/What's going on?/

"They're coming in! Help me!"

"Can you calm down and explain it from the beginning?"

"We have many members and I even bought us a guild house. Everything was great until a female named Perry joined! She created a faction inside set on making this a guild whose sole reason of existence is killing Wing! Now they started a revolt! And are trying to break inside and force me to give the leadership to her! But I don't have the power! What am I supposed to do?" the man asked with desperation.

'It must be really bad if he's looking for advice from a kid.'

"Let them all in"

"Have you gone mad? I don't want them to kill me!"

"They won't. Neither of them has enough resources to survive being hunted by players present in the city and earn the hatred of every single noble of Lasran"

"But what am I supposed to tell them? They won't calm down just like that" Romeo said with a whine.

/This guild was established to help the victims of Silver Wing survive. It wasn't done to gain money or anything; you could even call it a charity organization. So no, it won't be becoming anyone's tool of revenge. If you want that, leave. This is a place to regain your strength and prepare for future battles.

Repeat this to them. If they threaten to leave, wish them good luck. If they call you coward, ask what would they be if you hadn't taken them under your wing. If they ask to create a regiment for Wing's capture, agree. Just don't go too low/ Ace wrote back preparing for battle. He made sure his daggers were well coated in poison and stood up to return to the fight.

"T..Tha...That's a genius idea!" Romeo said with a happy shout after finishing reading the message.

Ace smiled and went to face the goblins. He was about to stab the goblin when a familiar female voice entered his ears.

"So you finally decided to step down?" she said.

*Smack*

"Why you little..." Ace hissed stabbing the goblin who just punched him in the face. 'Never get distracted again' he promised himself, already knowing it wasn't going to last long.

There was the sound of chairs moving and a confident voice of Romeo saying for them to get lost in Ace’s polite words. At first there was nothing beside battle sounds and cries of dying but soon enough the commotion picked up on the other side too.

"What do you think you're saying? Do you think we care about your petty excuses? If you don't leave, we'll do that. Don't have any doubts about that" the female voice said with indignation and even disgust. Her followers made some practised agreement sounds so everyone could know on whose side they were.

Slash here, slash there and a dodge. It was so much easier for him to fight goblins when any other humanoids. They were his size!

Romeo laughed and wished them good luck just as he had been told to.

That shut them up for a quite a long time. "You would let us all go? Just like that?" she asked and Ace finally remembered where he had heard her. She was the spellsword he met in the mages' guild! It was no surprise then that she wanted revenge so badly!

"Yep, go with the wind" Romeo said. "But don't expect me to pick you up once again" he finished with a thinly veiled threat and left them sitting with stunned faces.

He climbed the stairs to the second room and happily sat down in his study. Somehow he avoided the crisis and even managed to turn it in his favour. 'I'm a born leader' he thought with a smile taking out a large cigar.

*Wooosh*

Air left his mouth with an audible sound as he enjoyed his victory. Only then did he notice the clashing sounds coming from somewhere. After a few check ups he found its source to be an open chat room.

"Sorry about that Ace! You didn't need to hear all that. I'm sorry" he said apologizing for letting the kid hear grown-ups arguing.

"...." was Ace's reply as he turned the chat off with a stab.

He was fighting two goblins at the moment who were desperately trying to hit him. Yet Ace's high [Evasion] prevented it from happening. His high level, which was almost double theirs, helped too.

'I should probably get out of here fast' he thought finishing one of them off.

Ace's mana that he had kept alive by dozens of potions was getting low and he no longer had any of those to back it up. He stabbed the second goblin through the heart and decided to take a rest. After that he could make his escape. It would be tragic if he failed simply because he fell on the ground from exhaustion.

Inside the room he laid down to take a breath. They had all resorted to that after discovering that although it left you vulnerable in case the goblins pushed through, it doubled stamina recovery rate.

Ace studied the ceiling with his different seeing eyes and smiled absent mindedly. He never hoped they would fall so fully. Even now they thought they were fighting for survival while in reality they were fighting to protect the gates. 'It would be great to see the traitor's face when he finds out what he has done but I don't think he'd appreciate it very much. In case he's got supporters, I better get out of here before it all falls down.'

He waited a few more minutes until his stamina became a bit over the half mark and stood up. Then he activated [Shadow Veil] and used it to sneak through the battlefield. Under normal circumstances everyone would have noticed him but here, in the heat of all the fighting, it was impossible. All Ace had to do was make sure he didn't hit anyone accidentally and become visible.

He was about to pass through then a goblin jabbed his arm into his side. It pushed him aside bumping into another one and a chain reaction started. Ace thought for a second and activated [Flame Step] plus [Shadow Dash] before regaining his balance and sprinting away.

He left a trail of fire that stayed for a few seconds burning goblins and dissuading them from following. Their primary mission was to retake the gate room, anyway, so they left it at that and continued on their push forward.

Ace happily accepted their decision and turning off the ability sneaked ahead. He passed two more large groups of goblins before coming out into the fresh air. Outside he walked onto the wall and looked over the battlefield. There he could see humans slaughtering the smaller humanoids in every direction with swords, arrows and magic. In the middle was an open circle where a scythe wielder fought against a swordsman.

Their skills seemed to be on an equal level until they used the abilities. Although Monthu dealt good damage and evaded the first attack he suffered great loss. Without thinking much Ace took out his throwing daggers and enhancing them with [Magma Blade] threw. Strengthened by gust they flew straight and hit true. After a moment Ace put an illusion to hide them as arrows. It ate the last bits of his mana and returned his sight back to normal.

A loud scream of horror came from somewhere nearby and Ace smiled. 'They thought to use me as a scape goat, fool me into falling into their trap. Heh. What naivety. They should have better surrendered instead'

Laughing he jumped down from the wall and ran towards the castle.