"Remember the plan?"

"Course I do,"

Encircling the inn tucked away in an obscure corner of the city, the vigilantes made sure that no gap was exposed in their formation. They were veterans.

"Be ready, as soon as I breach the door, charge in. Remember. No mercy, do not listen to their blabber, it may cause psychological harm,"

Cooper, the lead adventurer spoke solemnly, as he gazed at the hardened expressions of the vigilantes he gathered. Everyone was aware of how suicidal it was to engage the cultists in their own den, after all, who knew what devious traps and curses they may have in place? But it had to be done. Well, it wasn't necessary, but to them, it was a requisite.

Layering the steel braced door with talismans and explosive packages, Cooper gave a thumbs up before moving to the side and detonating the charges he laid.

*Boom!*

The explosion was isolated and busted the door without affecting their surroundings, a beautiful display of his skills as an experienced sapper.

In turn, he rushed inside, backed up by his fellow vigilantes.

And immediately he found his first foe.

Being caught up in the explosion made them an easy target. Problem was…

When did they start keeping little children?

Such a thought flashed in his mind before he immediately processed the implications.

"Stop! STOP!"

Seeing his fellow brothers in arms swing wildly at the defenceless child, he quickly halted their actions.

"She must be a hostage or somethin'." However, glancing at the girl again, she seemed to be in cultist attire, though her youthful appearance and genuine fear dashed the thought that she was just a midget cultist, "Probably got kidnapped, so don't stab her!"

“Tsk, says the guy who said no mercy,”

Though he managed to stop them from going ham, they were rather reluctant to believe that she was a hostage, considering that she was just loitering inside the den of the dark arts cult without any supervision.

Approaching the little girl, he hurriedly questioned her to alleviate suspicion from the rest of the group.

Around a round of questioning, he was able to glean quite a bit of information. Firstly, her name was Sheeny, and has one relative, other than that, nothing. From that preliminary investigation, Cooper could tell that she doesn't even seem to understand the situation she's in, considering that she apparently works here.

"Now I kinda feel bad for involving her in the brea- Wait, works here?" As in works for the cultists?

Now, this was raising too many questions than what he felt was worthwhile. When did these people start hiring? And what kind of business do they even do? Judging by the layout of this place, it was definitely an inn, but they most certainly weren't housing any guests here. So what kind of employment are they providing?

As Cooper is about to begin another round of questioning, he catches a glint out of the corner of his eye. It's a short flash, one most people would miss, but not Cooper. There was a reason why he was selected as the representative leader here.

What the-?!

Snapping his neck at the glint, he spots a reflective knife, following the knife down to the arm he spots a cultist, peeking at them from behind a corner. Except, they seem rather short…

Tracing the vector with his eyes, he suddenly makes eye contact with the little cultist. She tilts her head, allowing Cooper to get a proper look at her face. And she's also a little girl…

"What the hell?" Another one?

Why are there so many children here? Could it be… No, surely not…

"They're child predators?!"

Someone by the side spewed Cooper's exact thoughts.

…

What the hell is going on?!

I'm over here just trying to take a nap and suddenly some strangers bust in here and start making a ruckus.

I grumble, dragging my feet toward the hubbub.

Checking out the reception area, I can see people who most definitely aren't allies, though they look different from the crooks that I expected. They seem oddly equipped and prepared for a simple house invasion.

So that dashes the thought of it being a robbery. So who are they? Judging by their attire, they are most certainly vicious ruffians, it seems I must expect the worst out of these home invaders.

Oh, poor Lazari, she must be spooked by their vicious gazes.

Indeed, what scum they are!

And look at that! They hath already surrounded Sheeny!

Tsk, it's a tragedy that the others left to go run some errands, leaving just me in the base. The new guy was also supposed to be at base, but…

Yeah, I don't see him anywhere. Did he run away? Or is he hiding? What a bastard.

Sigh, despite what I want to believe, I can tell, although these people may be scummy ruffians, they're skilled, at the Silver strength rank, minimum. Naturally, being a rank above me, it would be quite tough to fight them all at once, but to make matters worse, they're hella decked out. All of their equipment shines in the pervasive darkness with a soft hue, telltale signs of enchantments and thaumaturgy.

With this in mind, I plan to take full advantage of the element of surprise and the pitch black environment as I sneak to the side of the room. Encroaching behind an unsuspecting fencer, I wrap my hand around her mouth, pressing my machete against her neck before promptly slitting her throat. She struggles, her pupils dilating as they dart around trying to catch a glimpse of me, but I have her firmly held, such that she doesn't make a squeak. She perishes like the little rat she is. Heh, if this is the average level of skill that these guys have then this'll be a piece of cake.

What fools to come in here so brazenly.

*Thud*

What was tha-? Oh. Oh no.

I forgot to catch her body. I've made a rather fatal mistake, haven't I?

And my position is less than ideal, to say the least. WIth me being near a corner of the room with little movement space, it puts me in a rather precarious position as dozens of cold gazes bore into me.

Ah shite.

"We let our guard down!"

"Who cares?! Get him!"

Before I can make any movement, I'm shield bashed through the wall of the inn. I fall through the other side in a shower of debris, briskly hopping back to my feet.

Why are these walls so thin?! Surely a cultist hideout had stronger walls than these?

Nonetheless, omitting the pain I'm in, this might've improved my situation, as now I'm outside the building, where I can easily… be sniped by the rangers disseminated across the rooftops.

Godsdamnit.

*Fwip!*

Ha, that arrow was way off, can these guys even see in the dark?

*Fwip!* *Fwip!**Fwip!* *Fwip!* *Fwip!*

Nope nope, it doesn't matter if it's dark, they can still aim pretty well. I learnt that the hard way, with an arrow through my foot. But why the foot? Was it just a stray shot or are they actually aiming for that?

Wait, are they aiming to immobilize me? It makes sense, after all, it's common knowledge that dark arts cultists don't go down so easily, so if they immobilise me then I'll literally be a sitting duck. Damnit, I've fallen for their dastardly trap!

The only silver lining to this situation is that it's just the rangers after me, the others seem to still be snooping around inside.

I hop around for a few minutes, like a wee varmint as I avoid the arrows that happen to come my way.

Phew, it seems like the arrow rain let up, but in its absence came another barrage, a magic barrage…

However! I haven't been spending the past couple days doing nothing. By training my mind and reaching deeper into the mysteries of my blood, alongside a daily routine of extensive pondering I have finally been enlightened of the mastery of the dark arts. Hopefully…

Well, it's time to find out if my efforts were worth anything!

*Shwoop*

Waving my hands around me, before the spells are unleashed, I throw a swift, sharp curse at them. Doing nothing more than giving them a mind splitting headache, which was more than enough to disturb their concentration, practically sealing their spellcasting abilities.

"Ha, your bad. I suppose you can't even fulfil your only purpose," I give a dark grin, which is sadly concealed by my face mask.

Nonetheless, my taunt still gets across and it's super effective, the mages seem to be barely restraining themselves from throwing themselves at me. I have seen many enemies use this skill many times before, so I thought I might as well use it seeing how compelling it was.

It seems effective but not nearly potent enough. Although I nearly made the mages throw themselves at melee distance, 'nearly' is the keyword. And if they were in a calmer state of mind, I wouldn't have even achieved any effects at all. I'm gonna have to find someone to help me out with that. Probably Laffer. He's profoundly good at the art of pissing people off with the most minimal of efforts.

In this short reprieve, I wonder if Lazari is doing ok in-

Yeah, she was doing well. Looks like they turned their backs on her and kept exploring the base. In fact, some even came outside to fight me, a grave mista— ouch.

Taking a step toward them, I feel an acute pain in my foot. This may be more annoying than I thought. They seem to be gauging me for any other tricks after seeing what happened to the mages or maybe their arrows ran out. No matter the case, right now, the scenario where I had the highest probability of succeeding was in a melee.

Which is how I come to a magnificent plan of action.

"Come at me!" I yell at the rangers who keep their distance, "Or are you going to keep hiding up there like a rotten midget?"

Since moving to them is going to be a pain, I'll make them come to me! Ingenius if I say so myself.

At least, I thought so until they started throwing sheets of paper inscribed with rather intricate epigraphs at me… At first, I thought 'Psh, no way pieces of paper could hurt me,' but unlike normal sheets of paper, these actually cut through the air, finding no resistance as they glided at unnatural speeds and hit my body, totally catching me off guard. Detonating into a flurry of spells, from electrocution to explosions and even straight up just turning into steel daggers. One of them embedding itself in my other foot.

Sigh. Why the foot? It's always the foot. And yes, I do regret everything.

Come on. If your gonna kill me, just do it already! End me~!

Yeah, but for all accounts, I don't feel so good. I might be suffering from heat syncope…