I spun about to face the attacker closing in from rear and used a precious second to attempt analyzing him. This time, the ability succeeded.

The target is Wengulax, a level 162 human blade dancer.

My fear ratcheted upwards at my foe’s rank. I could assume his partner was of the same level—or higher. I couldn't win this fight. In fact, I was likely as good as dead already.

No!

Damnit, think Michael!

There had to be a way out of my predicament. But whatever it was, I wasn’t going to find it, standing out in the open under the noonday sun. Fighting off the dread threatening to immobilize me, I acted.

Racing towards Wengulax, I closed the distance between us rapidly. While I did, I summoned psi.

I took one step. Two more. Then my spell was ready, and without hesitation, I cast.

You have teleported behind Wengulax.

I blurred through the aether, one moment trapped betwixt my enemies, the next in the shadow of the one ahead. But I didn't turn around or make any attempt to strike at my green-clad foe from behind. Instead, head down, I kept running for the safety of the shadows.

Behind me, I heard the blade dancer’s swords clatter on the cobblestones as he spun about. Suspecting what he was about, I jigged left, and one-stepped through the air for good measure.

You have evaded Wengulax’ attack.

The anticipated projectile whooshed passed me, well wide of its mark. I smiled grimly. As good as my two assailants were, I was beginning to gain their measure. A few heart-pounding steps more and I reached the safety of the building’s shadows. Skittering to a halt, I hit the stud on my belt and cloaked myself in darkness.

You have activated the stealth mode enchantment of the belt of the chameleon. Your sneaking skill has increased by +2 ranks.

Two hostile entities have failed to detect you! You are hidden.

I heaved a sigh of relief. I’d escaped the ambush unscathed. Now, perhaps these two will wander off and seek easier prey.

Bracing my back against the outer wall of the building, I sidled away, opening the distance between myself and my last known location, all the while keeping a wary eye on Wengulax and Gintalush. Since the encounter had begun, I’d barely time to think. Now all the questions I’d been suppressing came boiling out.

Who were my two attackers? Where had they come from? And why, in bloody hell, were they dressed so outlandishly?

Then an even more dastardly thought occurred: are there more of them?

God, I hope not.

The pair, on their own, were proving more than I could handle.

My gaze slid back to my two masked attackers. Unfortunately, neither was making any attempt to leave.

Well, that’s just great.

That fact that the two were hanging around could only mean one thing: this was not some random encounter, and I was not a chance-met mark.

No, I decided. They are hunting me specifically.

What I didn’t know yet, was why. Or who had sent them. But none of that mattered. Right now, my only priority was escaping.

Gintalush and Wengulax, meanwhile, had drawn to a halt at the spot I’d disappeared from. Like hunting cats, the pair held themselves still and motionless. Only their eyes moved, slowly scanning the darkness.

If they caught the least whiff of me, I was sure they would pounce.

Renewed fear surged through me at the thought, but I didn’t let it overwhelm me. My surest protection against the two was opening the distance between us. I continued my deliberate retreat along the wall. So long as I kept my movements slow and sure, I would be fine.

At least, I hoped so.

Two hostile entities have failed to detect you.

Two hostile entities have failed to detect you.

The Game messages helped assuage my doubts. The increased stealth provided by the chameleon belt was proving enough to defeat the pair’s Perception.

With a calmer pulse, I took more careful stock of the situation. The two green clothed fighters stood brazenly in the street, markedly unconcerned about anyone else interfering. Wengulax hadn’t even bothered picking up his dropped swords either.

The pair’s confidence seemed justified too. To my right, the streets were empty. All the bystanders had long since fled. To my left, streets were similarly deserted.

No, that wasn't quite true. The four that I had spied trailing me earlier, still watched me from around the corner of a building. Were they working with the Wengulax and Gintalush?

I didn't think so. The four seemed rather inept in comparison.

At a slip of motion, my gaze darted back to my hunters. Both were reaching into their shirts. Moving with eerie synchrony, Wengulax and Gintalush pulled out a pair of spheres from concealed pockets.

The orbs were made of a lime-tinged metal and each rested easily on the palms of their bearer. Both my foes stared at the spheres in their hands, and after a moment, the devices lifted into the air to hover.

Uneasily, I cast analyze on one of the spheres.

The target is a hunter eye, a rank 3 enchanted item. It is a physical tracking device designed to find and follow a target by a variety of means, including scent, sight or sound.

This is a single use item and must be keyed to its designated subject before use.

Urgh, I thought, realizing what the two intended.

Before the hunter eyes could find me, I needed to act to disrupt them. A glimmer of an idea forming, I wove stamina and prepared a casting.

~~~

Reading my voice, I cast ventro.

“Don't just stand there, you fools! Help me kill them!” I growled, projecting my voice back down the street.

The four low-level players who had been tracking me jumped back in alarm. My voice had emanated from an empty spot of air less than two yards from them. Good sense finally overcoming their morbid curiosity, they jerked back out of sight.

But it was too late.

My assailants had spotted them.

More importantly the hunter eyes reacted to the timbre of my voice and, buzzing to life, zipped down the street to find me.

Wengulax and Gintalush were not so easily fooled, though. Making no move to follow their enchanted devices, the pair stared at each other for a drawn-out moment, and I got the feeling they were communicating silently.

Finally, Gintalush hurried away to trail after the green orbs, while Wengulax returned to scanning the shadows near me.

I ground my teeth in frustration. I'd hoped both would leave, letting me flee without fear of detection. Still, my gambit had improved my situation, and now I had only the one enemy to contend with. I continued my careful retreat. Only a little further, and I would be able to risk moving faster.

Then Wengulax did something unexpected.

His head swiveling left and right, he picked a direction—seemingly at random—and jogged along the wall of the building.

Worse yet, he picked the right direction—or rather the wrong one from my perspective.

Cursing my luck, I eyed the approaching hunter. Wengulax was moving too fast for me to avoid. If he kept at his current pace, he would stumble across me sooner rather than later, and that was assuming he didn’t sense me as he closed the distance.

I had no choice but to act again.

My gaze darted back down the street. Gintalush had disappeared from sight. At least I won't have him to worry about. Drawing on my will, I readied a casting.

Weaves of psi rippled out from me towards my target, attempting to warp his sight and blind him to my presence.

Wengulax has passed a mental resistance check! You have failed to hide your presence from your target. Your mental intrusion has been detected!

Damnation! My situation had just gone from bad to worse.

My foe had jerked to a halt, his head whipping around to stare unerringly at the spot I occupied. Even though I remain cloaked, I knew for certain that somehow my failed casting had revealed my location.

Wengulax raised his blowpipe to his lips.

I didn’t wait for him to complete his attack. Jabbing the stud on my belt, I summoned psi and shadow blinked.

You have activated combat mode. You have teleported behind Wengulax.

I materialized in my foe’s shadow and cast whirlwind. In an instant, stamina flooded my arms, invigorating them with extraordinary speed. In the same motion, my swords flashed forward, two times quicker than normal.

But my enemy was faster.

Before I was halfway complete with my attacks, Wengulax dropped his blowpipe, spun about, and swayed under both my blades.

Impossible! I thought. But I wasn’t done yet. Whirlwind buffed me for three seconds and I had time yet to score a hit. My eyes narrowing in determination, I pressed my foe hard, unleashing a flurry of blows—even going as far as to empower some further.

Wengulax has evaded your attack.

Wengulax has evaded a crippling blow.

Wengulax has evaded your attack.

Wengulax has evaded a piercing strike.

…

But no matter how well-timed my maneuvers were, no matter how flawlessly I executed my attacks, Wengulax avoided everything I threw at him with laughable ease.

I cut left. He slipped right.

I slashed downwards. He bobbed beneath.

I lunged forward and he darted backwards.

Then whirlwind dissipated, and the surge of energy empowering my limbs abandoned me.

In that instant, I was vulnerable. Wengulax didn’t have his swords, but that didn’t mean he was unarmed. The moment my frenzied assault died, Wengulax went on the offensive.

Slipping two punching daggers out of concealed sheathes, the hunter lunged forward, slashing simultaneously from both up high and low.

I scrambled to defend myself, flinging spider’s bite upward to parry the first attack and ebonheart downward to block the second. I stopped both–barely.

But Wengulax was not done. He flowed forward to beset me once more. I backstepped, trying to open the distance between us again.

It was like trying to fend off a storm.

My foe was relentless. At every opportunity, he nipped at me with his tiny daggers. I held him at bay, just about. I suspected that all that was saving me was that the daggers were not Wengulax’s weapons of choice. If he had his swords…

Still, even with the advantage in reach my longer blades gave me, I was not winning. In fact, I was most-decidedly losing.

Repeatedly, the blade dancer’s weapons slipped through my guard and soon a network of fine slashes and shallow gouges riddled my torso. The entire time, I fought defensively, unable to even contemplate counterattacking.

This is useless.

Attempting to engage Wengulax in combat had been a mistake. And soon Gintalush would return. Then my fate would be truly sealed.

Taking a desperate gamble, I parried aside Wengulax’s latest attack and spun about, leaving my back exposed for a heart-stopping split second.

Whether my maneuver caught my foe off-guard, or he was too slow to react, I don’t know. Whatever the case, my disengagement was successful, and I wasted no time fleeing up the street.