Tina drew back her large cast iron pan, swinging the thing behind her, smashing someone that looked suspiciously like the city guard. She turned back to Perrin and Mazikeen lying in bed. “Ya needs to be gone from here las. There do be a many searching for ya head.”

Perrin scoffed, “You could say that again. I just got the notifications. How could so many things happen at once? The city reputation I can understand. That woman was shit but the guild and assassins?”

“Shut up ya daft man and get your arse moving. There be a servant passage at the end of the hall. Take to it and flee from the city before the guards, and the guild be getting here. Yar las can handle the guards but there be several very powerful high-ranking members of the Guild that will be wantin to curry favor with the new governor. They be at her level at the least and enough in number that it wouldn’t matter.”

“Damn, Maze can you get us out of the city without leaving through the gate.”

She just smirked at him, disappeared from his side, and reappeared, holding her hand out to the pan toting cook. “Thank you, Mistress Tina, for your assistance and warning. We are in your debt.”

The woman waved her pan dismissively and shook to proffered grip. “Ya don’t be owing me anything las. I’m sorry I can’t be doin more for ya. Hurry now. I’ll be crackin some skulls downs stairs while ya be slipping out the back.” Then Tina stomped down the hall.

Mazikeen turned to him as he rolled out of bed, enjoying the view he guessed, and he switched to his armor in the inventory. Fully armored, they made their way down the small stairway as loud dongs of a pan could be heard, and grown men screamed. That woman was pretty damn scary and way more robust than that petite frame of hers implied. She basically tore the door off when she burst in. He felt pity for whoever decided to disrupt this inn.

Slipping out the back door, they ran into two guards who pulled their swords at the site of them. Well, they tried to, but Mazikeen flickered, and the two dropped to the ground, presumably unconscious. Perrin didn’t get a chance to check as his feet left the earth. They shot across the rooftops. Expecting to be heading towards the city wall, Perrin was confused when they moved further into the city they were currently trying to escape from.

“What are you doing Maze? The exit is most assuredly the other way.”

“Trust me lover and say no more.”

He wanted to protest, but he knew that he was really just a liability more than anything for her. He did have to trust his companion. At this point, he couldn’t support himself with his own power.

Fuck I was so close to starting then something ridiculous would happen like this. I need to relax, though. Maze is a monster all her own, and she doesn’t even have that disturbing inky black armor of hers on, so that must be a good sign she isn’t too worried.

Mazikeen dropped him down on a building. He couldn’t see what area they were in as she had been moving too fast for him to get his bearings. She looked at him, made a stay motion with her hands then put one finger over his mouth to let him know to stay silent. It wasn’t like he was going to say anything. She had literally just said to be quiet. Everyone seemed to be wanting him to just shut up for the past ten minutes. It was annoying, but he’d be silent if it was that serious.

The silver-haired woman disappeared, leaving Perrin standing there in the middle of a roof with his thumb up his ass. He wanted to move over to look out into the street to see where he was at but thought better of it. She didn’t want him to move, so she didn’t. Several minutes went by in relative silence as the cool night air blew by him. He looked up to see an enormous orange-red moon hanging in the sky. He wondered if it was the actual color of the thing or something similar to a harvest moon they had back on Earth.

He jumped at the sound of armored marching in the road below. He desperately wanted to look, but he wasn’t a simp. His life may be a bullshit story right now, but that didn’t mean he had to be an idiot. Nope, he would not be moving from this spot. Two figures slowly emerged from the shadows in front of him. A black balaclava hood covering everything aside from red glowing eyes. He assumed that this was the Assassin Guild.

Gods damn you, Murphy, Whelp. It looks like it’s time to go. Not about to fight demon shinobi Bruce Lee superman mother fuckers. No sirree.

He did an about-face and made it one step before an oppressive force fell over him. He stumbled and dropped to one knee. Involuntarily coughing, he could taste blood in his mouth. The oppression kept intensifying on him, and Perrin started to see black stars shooting across his vision as he fell forward, catching himself with his hands. Moments away from pissing himself, the pressure ceased, and he took in a heaving breath. With sweat and blood dripping off his face, Perrin struggled to push himself up and stand. He couldn’t manage it, so he just turned around on his hands and knees to see why the pressure stopped.

Mazikeen was holding two still twitching hearts as the black figures slumped to the ground. She discarded the vital muscles at the sight of him. In less than a half of a second, she was beside him. “Oh, lover I’m so sorry. I didn’t sense their presence at all until they released their intent. Take this.” She said as two pills were pulled out of thin air and thrust into his mouth. They dissolved instantly, and somewhat familiar warmth started spreading throughout his body. He began breathing more comfortably, and his body stopped feeling like it wanted to burst apart. She helped him to his still shaky legs.

“What were those?” He crocked out.

“They will help heal the damage done to your body. I know you might need more time, but we must go now.”

“I’m feeling better. Just do your power thing and let’s go.”

She nodded, and they were off, moving rooftop to rooftop. He could make out men and women in faintly glowing armor moving in groups. Several organized groups that looked like soldiers moving towards the gate they entered the city from. Mazikeen moved at an angle away from the cities entrance, picking the least lit part of the city wall. They bounded the 25-meter distance to the top of the wall in an instant. Mazikeen poised one foot on the walls crenelation, and they shot into the darkness without anyone the wiser.

Landing on the ground outside the wall, she picked up speed, and the land blurred around them. Perrin shut his eyes as the sight of everything flying by was making him feel sick. Whatever she had given him was mending the damage in his body, and by how much his body temperature had risen, he assumed that the injury must have been way worse than he realized. He felt their forward momentum slow to a halt, and he opened his eyes as she sat him down on his now steady legs.

Two men and a woman were standing in front of them. The man on the left looked like a half-breed demon similar to Toggi, but his ears were actually overly long and slanted back like the demon race. Perrin thought he looked like some type of guild paladin by the tabard and glowing silver armor's looks. The woman in the middle was human with brown hair and glowing blue eyes. She wore light armor and held a dark steel rapier with what looked like small lightning bolts racing up and down the blade. He pegged her as some type of blade dancer. The other man wore a dark hooded cloak and seemed to phase in and out of Perrin’s vision. He guessed a rogue or something shadow based.

Well, this isn’t good. I’d have trouble just fighting the crabs at this point, and these guys were able to catch and overtake Maze.

Mazikeen said, “Don’t move from that spot lover. Not a single inch.”

The woman spoke then, “Yeah don’t move from that spot pretty boy. You might be worth more alive than dead by morning. On second thought. I might need to just pay my companions here instead of turning you in. Your just to handsome to waste.” She licked her lips suggestively.

Perrin cringed inside. She was attractive, but he wasn’t confident he would want anything to do with someone like that. He also doubted that Mazikeen would take that…

Mazikeen flickered, and the woman’s head fell off. The woman’s two companions moved away from the headless corpse so the blood fountaining from the neck wouldn’t get on them.

Oomph, well there it is.

“Tsh, Grace always has to run her mouth.” Said the rouge shaking his head at the headless woman.

“Whatever, I’ll revive her afterwards. Look, just give us the criminal and we will let you go. There’s no reason for us to get physical.” Said the paladin.

Well that confirms the paladin guess.

“You aren’t going to come out of it unscathed and we both know it.” Said the rouge.

Maze said nothing but Perrin noticed that her purple eyes started glowing brightly, and then cracks of red started appearing like shattered glass. It was like a purple shell was actually covering the red somehow. She made no movement, but a crimson sword almost the length of Gertha appeared in her now black gauntleted hand. It was thin, like a katana with a slightly curved blade. The moment Perrin saw the sword, he felt sick and disturbed. The smell of blood in the air was almost overwhelming. He thought it should be raining blood from how thick the scent was. He tried not to sick up as he waited to see what happened next.

Mazikeen disappeared, and so did the two men. He put his hands to his ears as explosions of wind and Earth happened all around him. Almost deafening cracks of weapons coming together or sonic movements, he wasn’t sure. Closing his eyes after the first piece of dirt hit his face, he wondered when it would be over. He didn’t like being in the dark with this much apparent violence happening all around him.

I’m so weak I can’t even keep my eyes open to watch.

Frustration boiled inside of him. He couldn’t catch a break or a breath. He knew in his heart that if he just had even a few days that he would be in a much better position to defend himself, but this place was hell-bent on trying to kill him. He didn’t want to bitch about it being unfair, but he’d yet to find a single situation where this place was actually trying to assist him in making it through this trial.

Perrin was so caught up in his pity party that he didn’t realize the fighting had stopped around him at first. Opening his eyes, he saw Mazikeen limping over to him holding her side. His hood didn’t give him color without actual light, but he could make out a little blood running down the hand holding her side. Her unarmored like seem to have a decent horizontal gash a few inches about her left knee. His surroundings were basically a crater with an undisturbed island in the center.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, lover I’ll be fine.” She said while grimacing.

He looked around for the trio but saw no bodies lying anywhere. Even the decapitated woman was missing. “Did you get them?”

“No, unfortunately but I doubt they will be following us.” She said as she limped over to him. “We need to keep moving. My leg will slow us down for a bit, but I should be fine. Those two will certainly tell their friends where we are.”

“Is there no where for us to hide? I know you have your healing thing going on, but wouldn’t it be better to get to somewhere where you can recover first?” Then a thought hit him like a ton of bricks.

“Damn I forgot about the study.”

“That would be beautiful right about now.” She said with a smile.

He made the mental call, and he received a fat headache for his effort and a popup this time.

Warning!

Home entrance can only be accessed outside of cities.

Restricted access:

Active combat zone

During active quest mission

Certain designated areas (user will be notified upon attempt)

Error 411:

The user is still in an active combat zone.

“It’s no use. It says we’re still in an active combat area.”

“Well, it’s not wrong. It was worth the try.” She said as he floated off the ground and did her greyhound thing.

He knew almost immediately when they entered the Wayward forest as everything took on an eerie silence. He opened his eyes but could only see the road speeding below him. The massive black centennials were blocking the moon. The absolute darkness outside his cloak's range unnerved him. Then he felt their pace slow down again, and he knew that something had just gone terribly wrong.

“We aren’t going to make it.” She said softly.

“What do you see? How many?”

“There’s twelve. Six in front and six behind. All at Unity. I’m shielding you from their intent.”

He cursed. This was bad. They had paused in the middle of a bridge that crossed a small river running in between the dark forest. There was no way they were escaping them with both directions covered. Maybe they would bargain. Gods, he hoped they would. Else they were probably dead. Mazikeen moved up beside him and discreetly held out a small sac. She mouthed inventory, and he nodded, making the bag disappear with a touch and mental command. She then turned sideways, and they waited on their pursuers to reveal themselves.

The six in the front slowly walked into Perrin’s limited vision given to him by his cloak. They all wore dark, tight-fitting clothing with shinobi style head coverings like the two Mazikeen had killed in the city. He looked behind him to see the other six identical-looking individuals. None of the twelve wore weapons, but he thought they might have on light armor under their clothing. He thought they looked like ninjas, but he only knew the pop culture versions.

Mazikeen stepped forward, putting her right fist into the open palm of her left before bowing to one of the shinobi in the middle that started stepping out from their group.

“Zi Coh,” she said.

The person hesitated then returned the same gesture with a similar bow saying, “Ka Doh,” in a soft feminine voice that surprised Perrin. It was difficult to make out details on the people around him, almost like something was obscuring his sight. The part of the hood with their eyes was the only clear part. The woman’s eyes were different from the two similarly attired individuals from earlier. Her irises were still that red burning ember color but in the shape of a five-petal flower.

Mazikeen straightened after the exchange and said, “It’s pleasing to know that the Oda still exist. We had assumed none had made it off Zion.

The woman nodded her head, “This is to be expected. We no longer travel the stars as we once did. A deal was made, and those that could be saved were brought to this place.”

“That makes my heart sing to hear. I was devastated to learn of the loss of such a beautiful culture. May I have the pleasure of knowing to whom I’m speaking with?”

“Your words are well met. This one is known as Mei-Hasu Senoku, Daimyo of the Oda.”

Mazikeen bowed a little deeper this time. Perrin wasn’t sure why or what Daimyo meant, but he assumed it was a title of importance.

“I’m honored to meet you Daimyo Senoku. I am Mazikeen Dalodracree Saphoron. Is there by chance any possibility we can come to an arrangement. Maybe an exchange of information of the outside world? We have only been here for a few days. I’m sure this would be much more valuable than a contract.”

I did not know that was her full name. Have we even exchanged full names? That seems odd that we haven’t, although I’m sure I told her mine. Either way, that’s a tongue twister. Maze is just fine.

“This one apologizes but we cannot. Under different circumstances this one would consider such an arrangement, especially to one who’s showed respect.”

“We have done nothing to offend the Oda people. Why would we warrant such as you to come for us personally?”

“Agreements have been made that cannot be broken. This is about more than reputation.”

Mazikeen dropped to her knees, placed her face on the ground, and cow towed to the woman. Perrin was stunned. He didn’t know what to think or if he should be doing the same. Mazikeen had shown little respect to anyone since he met her, so this display was shocking.

Mazikeen said, “Please I beg of you. There has to be something. Some other way around this agreement so that it can still be honored and preserve our lives.”

The woman looked down at Mazikeen but said nothing. She looked off to the left and seemed to be reading something he couldn’t see. Then looked back down to Mazikeen.

“This one can only offer one option and before this one speaks it you must agree. If you do not do what this one commands immediately, we will kill you both. Do you agree?”

Mazikeen stood up and bowed to the woman once more. “I agree.”

“Throw him into the forest.”

“Wait, what? Oh, hell no! I’m not about to…”

Perrin never finished his words as he found himself flying into the air over the side of the bridge. A silver-black flash pulse across the warded stones, and a shadowy barrier flared up into the sky. It was the last thing he saw before his vision was obscured by the dark waters of the river below. He wanted to burst out laughing as he thought about the situation.

Space ninjas are real, and of course, they want me dead. At least my life is consistent.

End of Part 1