Cyrus and Collin were fleet footed as they ran through the back alleys of the town, their target was a tall man who wore a similar cloak to Reagan as he led them through the network of buildings. The man looked behind him every few turns of a corner to see if he had lost the pair only to be disappointed in how persistent they were, he wasn’t too concerned over the young knight as he looked winded after their long chase. The spear fighter was a different issue, the chase had been going on for quite some time but the tanned man wasn’t even looking winded.

“You know we can stop running at any time now right?” Cyrus called out as he did his best to close the distance between him and his target, Collin tried to call out too but he was sounding winded and could only let out some gasps.

“Yeah, sure!” The hooded man called back as he took another corner down another alley. “All you have to do is stop chasing me!” The man gave a sly smile to himself as he saw his new path had several new turns, all he needed was a good enough distraction to lose the adventurer and knight.

Cyrus pulled his spear from his back as he and the young knight rounded the corner, determined to make his target stop running one way or another. The adventurer quickly poised himself and primed his weapon for a solid throw, hoping the strike from his weighty weapon would stun the fleeing man long enough for him and Collin to catch him. But just as Cyrus went to throw his pole arm, his instincts shouted at him as he felt a sudden sense of danger.

But not towards himself.

The spearman deftly changed positions and swung his weapon around, sending a sweeping strike towards the young knight behind him. Collin was about to cry out when the familiar sound of metal clashing against metal was heard and another young man swearing under his breath was heard after.

“No offense, kid.” Cyrus said towards Collin with a steely look. “But that’s the second time I helped you keep your head, keep your guard up!” The knight gave a shaky breath as he nodded in understanding before they both turned to see a familiar face, the spear fighter kept his pole arm between the two young men as he locked eyes with the assailant.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” The young assassin, Reagan, looked furious at the outcome. Though it wasn’t the look of the boy’s face that caught the eyes of the travelers.

No, it was how ragged the once confident assassin looked. Aside from his missing coat, the young man was covered in cuts and bruises. His clothes had rips and tears into it and one cut above his eye was still bleeding and left a trail of crimson blood down to his chin. Reagan was covered in sweat as he breathed heavily, he’d clearly been running for some time.

“What does it take to kill one knight?!” Reagan fumed before his eyes went wide with surprise, hearing a feverish skittering. “Not again!” The young assassin ran off in another direction, before a flood of small, red creatures came erupting out of an abandoned building and gave chase to the fleeing assailant.

Collin stood shocked at what just happened as Cyrus shrugged off the incident, looking down the opposite alley to see their original target had disappeared.

“Come on, we need to move, Doran has that one covered!” Cyrus commanded before running after the first man, only adding to more of Collin’s questions

One hour earlier…

Reagan had just finished off the knight of Velina when he came to a new rooftop, aiming to rendezvous with his allies before anything else went wrong. Though when he saw a large flock of strange red birds, he could tell his day just became all the more difficult. The creatures held the shape of swallows but that was it, otherwise they were featureless and gave the assassin a sense of unease. Just as Reagan was about to move to a new rooftop, the flock all took flight at once and swarmed the young man.

Reagan wasn’t one to hurt animals, but he wasn’t about to be done in by an odd looking bird. He took his kukri and gave a swift slash at the first birth that entered his range, only for the flying creature to shift unnaturally in the air and fly around and past his strike. The young man saw how the wings receded into the main body before flying past his blade and quickly felt a sharp slash cut into his cheek, the assassin grew surprised as he felt both the pain and warm blood emanate from his cheek. He wondered what these birds were as he realized that the rest of them would be cutting into him just as quickly if he didn’t move.

Reagan danced around each attack of the dozens of birds, failing to get away unscathed from their repeated attacks and receiving cuts and scratches along his arms and legs, his cut clothes were only to be reminders how close he came to a serious hit. The assassin knew he was at a disadvantage if he remained still and out in the open, he looked to the distance and knew the back of the city was close. It was full of abandoned buildings and back alleys, if he was lucky he could get there and hide out until the flock lost their interest.

Deciding that it was his best plan, Reagan found a split second opportunity to leap from the surrounding flock and flee to the edge of the current roof as he planned to leap from building to building still. Though when he saw how one of the birds unnaturally turned in the air to strike at him, he realized he’d be in for more of a fight than he thought. The lone bird was just about to strike the roof tile as the assassin dodged, only for it to stop for a solid second before shooting straight up towards Reagan’s eye. He barely had the time to bring his blade to the creature and finally manage to cut the attacking animal in two. But the cut felt off, he felt as though he just cut through pudding and the bird lost its shape before splattering on his face and clothes in a familiar red colored stain.

Deciding now wasn’t the best time to wonder just what these creatures were, Reagan channeled his aura into his legs and lept to the next building across the street. The young man continued to do this over and over again as the flock continued their pursuit, them still trying to attack the young man repeatedly. It didn’t take long for Reagan to feel the strain of his aura crackle his body with exhaustion and pain but he had to keep moving, he made it to the back of the town just as the flock began to speed up their attacks. He must have been running for a good fifteen minutes as he saw his one chance to get away from these killer sparrows.

He looked to one of the abandoned buildings and saw a boarded up window, he also heard the frantic flapping of dozens of birds… they were coming at him all at once! The assassin angled his feet to the edge of the rooftop before giving his aura one last surge to his legs and shot himself downward and the window, barely avoiding the flock of animals as they flew overhead. The young man crossed his arms and closed his eyes as he crashed through the boards, broke the glass window, and tumbled to the dusty floor of the dark room in a gasping heap.

He heard the flock of birds fly around outside as they must have been searching for him, Reagan lay on his back and chuckled. He just killed a church knight, there was no one some freaky birds would do him in. He slowly stood up, his legs felt shaky and his whole body ached. There was no way he would be getting his aura out any time soon, Reagan made a note to train better from now on, otherwise his boss would yell at him for having a weak aura.

It didn’t take him long to find the stairs leading to the lower level of the old building and he quickly made his way there… until he heard the scittering of clawed feet. Reagan looked beyond him at the broken window and saw one of the birds was perched on the windowsill, what he saw next shook him to his core.

He saw several red rats on the floor of his safe haven, they looked like the birds! The shape of a rodent with no features and a deep red color, he also saw each of the birds from before fly into the room before their shape changed to match the rates in the room. Even the perched bird shifted to the shape, it was as if these creatures were made of liquid rather than anything solid.

“You have got to be kidding me! What are you things?!” Reagan cried out in frustration before looking around for an escape, there had to be some way to shake these amorphous animals!

The next few hours involved the young assassin dashing his way through the abandoned building, breaking through crumbing walls and dashing through halls as he feels the sharp sting of rat teeth biting into his flesh. The man felt nothing but fear as he spotted another window before jumping through it, crashing onto the floor of an adjoining building and continuing his escape. No matter how hard he ran though, Reagan couldn’t escape the pursuit of the odd creatures. The young man must have ran through dozens of hallways before he finally found a room which was barely being held up by a rotting support beam, the assassin instantly charged towards the pillar before tackling it with all his weight and causing an audible crack.

The support beam quickly bucked under the weight of the crumbling ceiling and Reagan wasted no time in picking up his pace to escape the collapsing room, the red rodents that were once pursuing the young man were either crushed by the falling debris or were quickly falling back to avoid a similar fate. Reagan just barely escaped the room by slamming into an old door, he was sweating and breathing hard as he fell on the floor and tried to catch his breath once again. This time he was sure he had shaken off whatever creatures were chasing him. The assassin was exhausted, he had been running for so long and his energy had nearly tapped out, he had no idea how he’d be able to stand back up. That is until he heard the voice of a man outside, shouting about how easy it would be if someone would surrender.

Reagan recognized the voice as the spear wielding man from earlier, he must have been chasing one of the assassin’s allies. The young man mustered up the strength to stand and look out the window to see three men running through the back roads, Reagan had to go and help his comrade. Especially now that he was free from the rodents…

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” Reagan screamed as he ran, the sounds of scurrying rats and bird wing beats all around him as he continued to flee. “What do I have to do to get away from you things?!”

So much time had passed, that the sun was beginning to set and the sky was quickly becoming dark. Reagan had lost track of how long he had been running and dodging, all he knew is that every moment he paused was another moment he was bitten or cut. The only silice he found was that every time he stopped to fight back, he was able to use his kukri to slice a couple to the odd creatures. With a combination of his earlier move of collapsing a room and his new tactic, the entire flock of creatures had either fallen back or have died down to a reasonable ten.

Though he failed to notice how every few turns down the street, the rats and birds stopped chasing him bit by bit. Almost as though they had achieved the goal of whatever sent them.

It wasn’t until Reagan had reached the back wall of the town, surrounded by old buildings and walking on cracked cobblestone, that he found himself alone. The young assassin leaned against the wall in exhaustion as he walked, he had been running for literal hours and the once blue sky had become a deep orange. Reagan hoped his allies had managed to avoid the other travelers as he was only a few feet away from their rendezvous point. The man felt every little sting from his bites, cuts, and aching muscles, he doubted he could even muster up any aura after all his physical energy had been drained. But none of that mattered, when he and his comrades reunited, they’d be able to finish their mission with ease! All he had to do was round one last corner…

“You’re quite the slippery one, but I suppose you would be given your clear line of work.”

Reagan froze in his steps just as he was about to turn into another ally, the voice he heard from behind him was stern and precise. He had heard this voice only recently… but he was sure he had silenced it. The young man turned his his in wide eyed shock as a familiar looking Fioran Knight watched the would be assassin tremble in fear and confusion.

“No…” Reagan spoke through gritted teeth, his tone was that mixed with anger, confusion, frustration, and even some fear as he looked at Doran. “No, no, no no! You should be dead! I practically cut your head off!” The assassin tried to quickly turn his body and ready his bloodstained knife only to stumble and lean against the town wall once again, Doran almost chuckled at the sweating man who was pushing himself more than expected.

“Careful young man, my shades have been chasing you non stop.” Doran said callously as he looked around the deserted area, so even smaller towns like Moran had abandoned areas like this? The Fioran Knight rubbed his throat as he spoke to the assassin. “If you aren’t careful, you’ll collapse. Though, I suppose if you were a hair older and more skilled, my rats and birds wouldn’t have been much of an issue.”

Reagan gave a scornful glare to Doran, his once white shirt now had faint blood stains and the clear gash he had left in the knight’s throat had closed and showed no signs of ever being there. From behind the brown haired man, came a few of the same rat and bird creatures from earlier and Reagan grew even more enraged. He didn’t know what was worse, Doran still being alive or learning the animals that caused him so much trouble that day were FROM him!

“How are you still alive?!” Reagan spat.

“You’re bad at your job?” Doran said as he casually drew his short sword. The pale skinned man was ready to apprehend the assassin now that the chase had finally ended, only to be interrupted by the harsh cackle of a woman.

“I mean, he’s not wrong!” Doran looked behind the young man to see a new pair of individuals coming from the same ally Reagan was heading towards.

These two were notably older than Reagan and Doran could tell just by looking at them that they were also more experienced than the young man. The pair were dressed in the same cloak that Reagan once wore, before using it as part of his underhanded attack on Doran’s throat. Though the rest of their equipment was different from their young ally’s.

The woman’s hair was cut short, her trousers were cut short to reveal nearly the entirety of her legs while her feet were adorned with a pair of sandals with thick leather straps. On her hip was a sword and dagger while her thighs had several throwing knives strapped to them, she certainly needed the cloak more than her friends with how lethal she appeared to be. Though the sneer she wore on her face was far more threatening than her assortment of blades, her blue eyes seemed to burn a hole right through the religious knight’s head. Her face would actually be rather lovely, if it weren’t for the ugly scar that ran up from the corner of her mouth.

Her male counterpart looked to Reagan as they stepped in front of the young man, not saying a word as he looked at the assassin’s injuries. The man’s left eye was covered with a leather strap as a makeshift eye patch, four claw mark scars could be seen as they trailed under the strap. The look of concern could be seen through his uncovered eye, the man slipped a ruby he was holding into his pocket before turning his attention to the Fioran Knight. His look was much less excited than his female counterpart, but that only made him look more focused in his well worn traveler’s attire. The man spoke to Reagan as he kept his eyes locked on the swordsman.

“We’ll talk about your failure later, for now we need to eliminate at least one of the targets.”

“Sorry Roy… Susan..” Reagan held his head low in shame as he looked on at the stand off. The young assassin couldn’t help but feel shaken, maybe it was just the setting sun but Doran seemed to be holding himself differently than before.

Susan and Roy paid little attention to their comrade, both knew they had very little time before their opponent’s friends arrived to capture them all. Susan had managed to lose the elf and beast woman back at the market, but some strange orange bird chased her all the way here. She assumed that the bird was a pet of theirs. Roy had succeeded in losing the spearfighter and knight three separate times, only for the spearman to somehow find him all over again. That man was more like a bloodhound than a person. Seeing as how their mission had become more complicated, Roy saw fit to make contact with another ally before Reagan appeared. The two older assassins both knew that if they were tracked, then Doran’s friends would be too far behind…

“But I’m telling you, I killed this guy!” Reagan continued to shout as he pointed at the pale man. “I don’t know how, but he got back up and chased me here like nothing happened!”

“Oh, of course you did sweetie.” Susan replied, patronizingly as her sneer was still clear on her face. “I’m sure he’s on his last legs as we speak.” She slowly drew her sword and dagger before taking a low stance, the woman was already prepared to finish the job her young friend started.

“Don’t make excuses Reagan, Garren will speak with you later.” Roy said sternfully as he kept his distance from Doran, the man seemed to be waiting for the woman to make her own move first.

As the two new fighters looked at Doran, they both knew they had very little time. Their other ally would be at their location as well as Doran’s own companions, if they had to guess how much time they had…

It would be five minutes.

As Doran took his own stance and the red birds and rats looked ahead of their master, the sun slowly disappeared from the sky. The next instant led to the nightlife coming alive, with the sounds of crickets and the hoot of a single owl.

And that single hoot was like the starting whistle to a race as Susan darted forward and swung her sword, only for a loud clang of steel on steel to be heard.