“We accept” said Sain seeing the quest details.

You have accepted the quest

Seeing this, the dwarf smiled and said, “My name is Hale. Just your common dwarf.”

Sain nodded and said, “Sain” and then gestured to the others and said, “Miriel, Lyndis, Serena, Raven, Shadow and Aria.”

“Nice to meet you. What do you need to know first?” asked Hales who had a change in attitude to them when they had accepted the quest. It looked like by accepting this Guild Quest which went completed would completely finished off the requirements of number of Guild Quests to be completed if they finished it with the other one.

There were a number of things to talk about. First was a place to stay, others that were with them in their cause and so on.

But Sain thought about it and the quest they got from Aria...

“The locations of the places where those who have been kidnapped, especially children are sent to” said Sain wanting to know that.

Hearing this, Hales frowned and then after thinking of it for a bit said, “I may know a few...all tightly guarded though.”

Hearing this conversation, Aria suddenly interjected in and said, “Then is it possible for my siblings to be here?!”

Hales looked at Aria a bit wide eyed, “You aren't...”

Sain then said seeing Hale's expression, “She is someone who commissioned a quest to find her kidnapped siblings. There seems to be a chance they could be in this city...plus we have another Guild Quest possibly involving this place as well.”

Hale stiffened up hearing that this city may be involved in yet another Guild Quest.

“Don't worry, it's just this city may be involved. We don't have anything concrete on it at all since this city was really the only lead we have” said Sain continuing with his words, “However you don't need to worry since one of the conditions you have given up is for this city to be intact later on. Plus this kind of thing will take time to even start and to finish as well.”

As he said that, there were several shouts in the area. The place was being filled with people and it was likely they would be caught soon if they stayed here.

“Damn, we need to leave...now!” said Hale in a hushed tone gesturing for the group plus Aria to follow him. Therefore for the next hour or so, they had gone through, sneaked through and even pakor through a series of places Sain did not know could even exit in a city like this.

Eventually they were up in one of the incomplete buildings near the north-west side of the city that was carefully hidden by a rain net and in a place where the light from the sun did not shine in.

Sain and the rest of the group looked around the place. There seemed to be no indication that there were anyone else living with him. There were stacks of cans of food around as well as several large jars as well.

“What are those jars for?” asked Lyndis curious and pointing to them.

“Those store the liquor I've made” answered Hale plainly, “Too bad the earth essence in this place is below average else I could have bride my way to get rid of those trash of dwarves that think they are above everyone else.”

“Liquor? Do they really sell that much?” asked Lyndis again which caused Hale to simply sigh-

Smack!

-And Miriel to smack her on the head again.

Lyndis looked at Miriel with a pained look on her face that asked 'why?'.

As such, Miriel sent back a glare that said 'You should know this already' but in the end decided to explain since Lyndis wasn't the type to know everything she knew, “Liquor or alcohol is one of the more expensive things in this game, at least the high quality stuff. Besides taste, they also give you great stat boost as well. Liquor made in a place with good earth essence are several times more valuable than normal ones.”

“Oh, so basically it's a really good profit profession?”

“More or less.”

With that conversation out of the way, Hale brought up of map of the city that were marked in several places and started to explain.

“The first thing you all need to know is that going in a 300 metre radius to the tower is forbidden. Unless you have to be filled with holes by turrets, I suggest you adheed to this advice carefully. This is where most of those smug bastard that horde in money and supplies live.”

The group nodded. Basically this was something similar to a noble quarter where commoners weren't allowed to go into. In some places, this was the case though it had been decreasing since Weed didn't care much about those kinds of things which made him super popular with commoners and not so much with nobles.

“Another thing is to not cause trouble, at least trouble that is drawn out. These guys usually have a person that is able to communicate with the guys at the Tower and within a minute, will have everyone they can rushing at your location.”

Hale held up something that was akin to a walky talky in the real world.

“I nicked this from a person before and it took me a year or so to find this place which no one visits which makes this a perfect safe point unless someone does something stupid near here” Hale looked at the group expecting them to not do this and cause them to run away from here as well.

“Got it” said Sain nodding and confirming that they would not do something so stupid.

This place was a safe point in a city filled with danger zones all over. Of course they wouldn't do anything that would risk it.

Plus if they did, they would make this guild quest even harder and if they failed...

Sain would rather not think of what would happen next if they did.

“Besides that, this city is split between 4 sections. We are in the north-west section which is much more friendly with outsiders than the other three which is why I can keep you guys safe here. However even so, there are still some shady things happening here.”

“In that case, what would happen if we 'cleared' this section of the city of it?” asked Sain.

“Don't. At least not immediately since that will alert others and make it even harder to get to the other three sectors. The central sector with the Tower, main relies on the four sectors around it to maintain order” warned Hale.

Sain once again nodded. People would notice if one part of the city was no longer under their control at all. They would at least send a large number of people to investigate and could even start a purge of this part of the city.

Countless people would die to it.

And that could fail their Guild Quest involving this city as well.

“Therefore it is better to spread out activities on all four sectors evenly at least at the beginning until you want to make a big move. There are several places, like here and here.”

Hale pointed to the red markings, “These places needs to be rid of immediately since they are large gathering of scum. It is probably in these place where your siblings may be” he continued looking at Aria.

“In that case, me and Shadow will search through them slowly. If we can, we could possibly clear them as well and get more people out of this city's control” said Sain looking at Shadow who nodded agreeing with the task.

It was then that Lyndis asked, “Why can't the rest of us go?” which was a good question her but an obvious one to Sain.

“Because everyone else doesn't have experience in stealth. Even though I don't have the skill despite lots of experience in it, I'm better than the rest of you at hiding and sneaking away.

“How do you have more experience than us in hiding? I thought you didn't have the stealth skill” Lyndis further asked.

Sain answered with a statement, “The guy that gives order will be targeted first. Therefore have you seen me being attacked because of it?” and a question at the end.

“A few times but less so recently” answered Miriel.

It looked like she was supporting him on this matter. Remembering of Miriel, Sain could not help but to think of what happened in that alley way...even though part of his memory was lost of what happened afterwards...

Ignoring the slight embarrassment he was feeling remembering that event, Sain was still able to communicate with Miriel properly though he was thankful enough that she wasn't as stuck to him as before. It was either she was confident enough that no other girl would get close to him or that she was embarrassed as well.

Either way, it was good news that he could move around more easily when she wasn't trying to track him all the time now.

Looking at the map that Hale provided again, Sain looked at several location in near the place they were in. There were already three in total...two of them seemed to be drug dealers from these notes but one of them was a slave trading place, well at least for in this city.

Sain guessed she should start there, extract information and move on if there's nothing.

“Shadow, come with me. Rest of you stay here and get more information off Hale. We'll be back in a few hours” said Sain issuing an order to the rest of them.

“Hmm....fine” Lyndis agreed to it. Out of everyone, she was really the only one, aside from Miriel that could drive the group in another direction.

Basically since Serena and Raven were neutral and Shadow followed orders well enough though complains, only himself, Miriel and Lyndis had power on the choices they would make as a group.

However Lyndis was completely different from him. Impulsive, straightforward and easy to understand, Lyndis was someone that most people would get alone with. But at the same time, she didn't make the best choice at times relying on her instincts and emotions more than her head.

This was dangerous for them in a critical situation though could be quite useful when they had no time to think.

Sain hoped that there was no incident that would happen due to her for a while. They had already gotten one Guild Quest which lead to another Guild Quest. Completing both would mean they would only need to get to level 300 and do that one personal request from Eden in a year and a quarter from now on.

Therefore, it was a large advantage to get these two Guild Quests out of way now while they could.

Plus, it was likely that they would get some support if they reported it to the guild. But for now, he wanted to get some more information before telling Eden of the situation here.

Sain knew that the group would understand. It was better to appear that they knew more of the situation than they did.

Since most of the time, Miriel would agree with him he did not need to worry about her.

Lyndis was the only one he needed to convinced to do things his way since rallying up people to fight was not the way to complete the Guild Quest though Sain felt that Lyndis had a different set of views from him that may clash later on.

xXx

“Three to the left, four to the right, security is quite tough for a minor slave trading place” muttered Shadow though Sain felt like he was cursing at them.

The location of this slave trading place which they came to was set in between a place that you could only get to through two alley ways, both of which could only fit a small number of people, two at most three at a time.

Plus even if they wanted to drop from above, there were still another couple of guys looking around checking if anything like that happened. However at the same time, Sain believed that no one normal could survive a fall from above that high.

“From the looks of things, we need to finish this extremely quickly in a short amount of time else they will call reinforcement. Hale said something about those guys being able to communicate quickly” said Sain.

“But first we need to find who is the one with that ability to communicate. Something like that isn't exactly common for NPCs to have” said Shadow looking down as well, “It's probably one of the ones in the middle overlooking those people.”

“Yeah...the only problem is of whether anyone else had one or the risk that someone may run away to tell on us or someone overhearing us fighting” said Sain with a sigh. There were simply too many things that may go wrong.

Plus there was this other risk of a hidden turret being somewhere to shoot at them.

“So how do you want to proceed?” asked Shadow.

“Well...” Sain looked at the layout that they needed to get through again, “For some reason there aren't that many people that come and go here which is reasonable since this is one of the places that captured people, slaves are gathered.”

“Which makes it harder to get close to but at the same time gives us an opportunity to exploit” said Shadow nodding.

“Yeah, we may be able to use a three side attack on this site because of that. You and Luna can attack both alley ways at the same time, while I snipe from up here on everyone else if I can...or I can help you distract the guards at the alley way so you can rush in and kill the rest of them” said Sain throwing out some strategies at random.

Whatever way they use, the results will be the same but the methods and difficulties depending will rise or lower a bit. And that was enough for a plan to succeed or fail.

“Anyway can you make out some blonde haired twins from up here?” asked Sain. Before he and Shadow left for here, he had gotten a description of the siblings that she wanted to be saved. Basically they were twins, both boys and were only nine years of age. Quite young to be kidnapped like this.

“My eyesight may be better than most but without a direct vision skill to help me, I can't tell anything, even the number of people they have down there captived. Plus there is another damn problem which is what to do after freeing them.”

“They will probably be punished if we leave them there...” said Sain before realising something, “Or we can simply raid them once to see if they are there...”

“Won't they become suspicious if we raided them, killing half of them before retreating?” asked Shadow having a bad feeling.

“Not if the attack is extremely hurt when getting out or if a person suddenly dropped from the sky and escaped without killing anyone. Their pride and fear won't let them tell their superiors” said Sain with a smile to which Shadow realised what kind of thing he was proposing.

“No...NO! Just no!” Shadow shouted at once rejecting the idea, “Me being close to death is a bad thing.”

“But your defence is only a bit lower than mine even without armour on” said Sain like that mattered, “Plus you are several times faster than me as well.”

“Still, I might die!” retorted Shadow.

“But with our titles, we won't lose a level or any equipment on death” said Sain countering Shadow's words.

“Like hell I'm going to spend a whole day out of the game thanks to you!”

“Well you have no choice here then” said Sain with a great smile on his face. With a simple push, Shadow was thrown off the building. Sain had estimated that he would survive with around critical wounds or something along those lines.

Though just in case...

“Let the body become harder than all other! Iron Skin!”

He buffed Shadow's endurance before he hit the ground after he kicked off the wall to decrease the speed he was falling down. They were only around 10 stories up at most, he could survive based off a level 200 player's body being new superhuman to begin with.

But even with a 50% fall damage reduction from his climbing skill, could he survive a 10 story drop?

“Uh oh...” Sain just realised the folly in this plan if Shadow were to die like this.

However just before he hit the ground, Sain saw that Shadow's split into several more, around five of them. He used his clones to cushion the fall a by a bit that could possibly save his life.

BANG!

And he heard Shadow hit the ground. Yep, he was still alive naturally. Sain sent a message to Shadow to ask about if the siblings were here to which Shadow shouted-

xXx

“LIKE HELL THEY ARE HERE!!!” Shadow screamed upwards to that Sain that was watching everything from above there. That bastard actually pushed him off though he was kinda expecting it, he did not believe someone like Sain would do that so casually.

If it weren't for his fall damage reduction from his climbing skill plus him using 'Boost' to increase his stats and even his 'Real Illusion' power to make cushions for him to fall on to reduce the damage even more, he would have died instantly.

But at the same time, looking around all eyes were on him...literally.

“Who the hell are you?!” shouted one of the guards drawing his weapon. Shadow tried moving his body to escape now but he figured that some bones were definitely broken.

Thank God for that reduced pain system this game has else he would not be even continuous after being dropped for far up.

“A guy that was almost killed by being pushed off someone I trusted” said Shadow in a near sarcastic manner with a laugh at the end.

Checking his health, he was in the critical state, seemed to be bleeding out and what did you know, broken bones everywhere....great.

But then a gentle light surrounded his body.

You have been healed 2500 health

Around a third of his health was restore, probably due to Sain. Shadow could only sigh as some of his bones recovered and some of his wounds closed at the same time. But at the same time, his thoughts were less on his wounds and more on the situation he was in now due to Sain.

“Shit shit shit shit shit!” he repeatedly cursed at him for this.

He would need to escape now...

Five blades came down on his as he rolled away. Several of the blades chipped him causing him to lose some minor bits of health at a time.

Getting up Shadow muttered, “Ow ow ow...damn my body still hurts like hell” ignoring that five people had their weapons swinging at him again. Shadow did not even have his weapon draw out yet, with his armour stupidly thin, he had no way to defend.

“Take cover!” a voice shouted from above, Shadow knew it was Sain but not of the warning.

Soon enough, from above, several dozen dark flashes shone from the sky and hit the ground randomly all around him and yet not hitting him at the same time by dumb luck.

Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang!

It looked like Sain fired off 'Mana Bolts' to give him time to get out of there. However knowing that Sain actually dared shoot down blind...

“SAIN ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME AGAIN?!” Shadow retorted loudly at the guy up top.

“Wow...what was that?!” one of the guards shouted looking up.

Another of the guards also said, “Enemy attack? Fuck those slaves, I'm not going to die here!”

“Get cover, someone call back up!” the third person said prompting for the guy next to him to call. However at that moment, a carefully aimed attack, a 'Magic Arrow' attack among the other arrows hit that guy straight to the head and immediately killed him.

Another 'Magic Arrow' strangely also destroyed that communication device while Sain fired off a whole bunch of them off.

“....”

Shadow realised that Sain had perfect aim even at that distance. How far up was here or did firing from up top become easier than normal? Or was this the effects of his 'All Knowing Eyes' as well. Of everyone's abilities with 'Boost', Sain's one made the least sense.

“Damn, retreat! Call over the guys alread-” the guy's words were cut short as he was under fire again.

Of the guards that had surrounded Shadow before, one was dead, two were injured and the other two were hiding under cover. Best of all, the guards at the alley way wasn't paying attention to this commotion at all.

Shadow was not going to let this chance go to escape like this.

Though he really wanted to kill someone since he was just pushed off a damn building and almost died here. Either way, it was a good chance that these guys that were running away weren't as strong as him which was a good thing or bad thing.

“Burst Speed.”

He activated this skill for the 100 mana it cost and increased his speed by three and a half times though with 'Boost' still active, it was increased to seven times and the cost increased to 200 mana.

Now that he thought about about, that Blue Stripped Panther was even faster than him even though his speed was increased by seven times most of the time. That Boss Monster was quite the monster ironically.

“Not the time to be thinking of that...” Shadow muttered sprinting to one of the two alley ways out of here while some people were running away due to Sain firing upon them. He ran to the one to the left who had only three people in there.

Chances of him escaping through that way was slightly higher.

Kicking the closest one and knocking aside the other two, Shadow ran out of the alley way with extreme speed. However at the same time, something unknown started to fire at him.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“The hell?!” Shadow leaped away hearing the shots immediately.

You took 172 damage

You took 105 damage

You took 199 damage

Even though he did not get hit directly, and dodged a fair distance away, he still lost health due to the explosion blast.

“Shit!” he cursed seeing that this was due to those turrets that Hale mention. You could not determine where they were and Shadow really believed it now. He could not even tell where even one of them was firing on him was.

From the directory of the shots...the turrets were up on the walls or where ever it could not, he needed to get of here fast!

“Shadow get out of there” ordered Sain via a message. Even though he was being attacked, he could still be sent messages.

As such, Shadow sent one back, “I'M BEING SHOT AT!!!”

“The use those clones of yours to escape” said Sain again even more calm now.

“Right, actually forgot about that.”

Creating a couple more clones that cannot be destroyed by attacks, Shadow spread his escape route into several directions. He moved in all four directions with 7 clones in total with two on each route spread out just in cast.

One of the abilities of 'Real Illusions' wasn't just to create clones of himself that could phase in and out of the physical plane but also instant teleportation to any of the clones he made and used. Therefore it was actually hard to even touch him when he could move from one location to the next.

Though this ability had a limit in distance of teleporting to other clones was limited to a certain distance; no more than 10 metres.

Basically it was like he was using 'Shadow Step', 'Shadow Play', 'Become Mist' and several other skills at the same time but all at once. The only problem was that his clones had these effects and not him which means even though he can shuffle through each of the clones he makes, he can still get hit.

Plus this turret or turrets that were firing on him were rapid shooting him.

Because of this, Shadow was not an expert in escaping with this skill simply because it was not an invincible skill. There was still a high chance he would be hit.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

However at the same time, he was still being shot at and none of his clones were.

“What the hell is this?! Does this thing have auto-aim?!” Shadow unintentionally screamed out while dodging attacks.

This meant that whatever was shooting at him, it knew where he was. This meant that his 'Real Illusion' skill was quite useless aside from teleporting around the place.

“Damn no choice...”

Since his 'Real Illusion' skill wasn't working...he had no choice but to use something like 'Become Mist' even though it was kinda risky to use it in a place where wind direction was unpredictable.

“Become Mist!”

Body had been converted to a mist state. Due to this, health will be reduced by half for the next 24 hours

Shadow's body suddenly 'disappeared' from sight in a both metaphorical and literal sense as he went from the physical state into the mist state. Whatever was shooting him and barely missing thankfully stopped firing due to this.

“Lucky...” Shadow muttered. It looked like those turret things did not or rather could not target him in this state.

But fate was about to toy with him now....

Breeze~

“Hmm? Whaaaaaaa!!!” he let out that scream but at the same time he couldn't scream.

All of a sudden, Shadow felt that is no longer physical body was being blown up...into the sky.

“What the hell?!” he cursed internally. Of all times, he had to use this skill in this kind of place and at the same time, a sudden wind had to blow right where he was. By the time he had the chance to cancel the skill he ended up over a building dropping from the sky again.

THUD!

You took 10 damage

“Lucky it was only 10 damage...” muttered Shadow seeing this flash of a message in front of him.

“You're right, I expected you to take more damage there” said Sain looking down on him who had just crashed from around a few metres from the air to the top of this building.

“YOOOOOOUUUUUUU!!!!” Shadow got up and grabbed Sain's collar. If Miriel saw him do this, she would certainly kill him.

However Sain did not even react to his threat and looked down from the building and said, “Better get out of here. Seems like reinforcements came through either way.”

Shadow turned to also look down and found that dozens of people were gathering rapidly.

“Damn I am really tempted tp throw you off here as well” said Shadow now holding a grudge against Sain for what he did. Now he needed to be careful around him on top of buildings because of what happened earlier.

“Not now, we need to leave. Need to hide out for a while until thing settle down here” said Sain though also adding, “Also you will be the one who will scout out for information around the city as well.”

“....”

“Unless you want me to come with you of course” said Sain smiling at him. Something always seemed to happen when Sain smiled at him with one of his plans at way.

As such, Shadow regrettably let Sain go this time and went back to the others with him that Aria's siblings weren't there.

Later on, they got some complaints that Sain and himself did not save those people but really it was impossible to save them since so many people came in such a short notice. Hale was right that it was difficult to do anything in this city.

xXx

After this event, a week had passed due to the large swarms of people searching for them. It looked like those at that Tower place put two and two together and figured that we were still alive and the cause of the event.

Naturally this was a bad thing.

“How much longer we do need to do this?! Might as well stay out of game until we can do something” complained Shadow lying on a wall flicking his throwing knives up and down as entertainment.

“Shut it, we are all sick of this situation!” Miriel didn't shout but her voice was louder than usual and was much more fierce now with stress.

“How exactly did we get into this situation? Wasn't it because you had to reveal yourself to the enemy and then run away?” wondered Lyndis as she continued to maintain her Katana. Since the Boss Battles incident, she found that this sword was powerful but really fragile. She would need to get Sain engrave a run on the sword to strengthen it before battles.

“Sain pushed me off a 10 story building” answered Shadow with irritation and still some disbelief in his tone.

“Yeah I still don't see how Sain would push you off a building, right Serena?” said Lyndis seeing that Sain wasn't the type of person in her eyes to do such a dangerous and yet entertaining thing.

“Mhmm, Sain never put us in danger intentionally” said Serena agreeing with Sain. Shadow could only sigh when they find out Sain was precisely that kind of person.

“Anyway where is Sain?” asked Miriel looking around, they had logged back in the game so he should be here.

“No idea” replied Lyndis not caring on where he was.

“With Hale and Aria” said Raven answering the question instead. Miriel nodded and headed there leaving the rest of them alone.

It was at that point that Lyndis asked Shadow, “Did Sain really push you off a building like that?”

“Yeah though he did cast one of his buffs to help me survive and provide covering fire so I could get out of there quickly as well” said Shadow.

Lyndis looked puzzled and asked, “Why are you defending him now? Just a moment ago you were against him pushing you off a building. You and Sain are strange.”

Shadow let out a chuckle and said, “You are the one to talk. Plus it's better to make Miriel think I'm against her instead of with her. I rather not want to make her think I'm the third wheel in her relationship with Sain.”

“Yeah, speaking of Sain, he's been acting strangely lately” said Lyndis in a low voice to not let Miriel or god forsake Sain listen by mistake.

“He has?” wondered Serena who found nothing out of the ordinary, “Sain always been like that.”

“I mean he has been acting...colder and crueller than he usually is. I thought I saw him torturing a Boss Monster back then with that incident coming here” said Lyndis with caution again.

“But Sain said he would finish it off back then” said Serena.

“Maybe it had some strange ability which forced him to do things longer” said Shadow as well.

“Well I don't know...” said Lyndis deep in her thoughts now, “When I think of Sain, I think of all smiles and kindness, that is the kind of thing he lets out.”

“Unless it's in a dungeon, then he becomes like Hitler” said Shadow with a laugh.

“That actually has been getting better right? I mean, now he doesn't go into his all 'commander' mode when we go dungeon hunting anymore” said Lyndis with a sigh, “Though that was probably due to the effects of the 'Mark' itself.”

“Speaking of the 'Mark', Miriel really has it hard” said Shadow with a hint of pity to her.

“Why?” asked Lyndis and Serena at the same time.

Shadow frowned seeing that these two didn't understand, “I mean, Miriel had feelings for Sain in the game for certain but back in real life she doesn't.”

“But she does in real life or in the game” said Lyndis confused. Serena even let out a “Yeah” and a nod to this as well. Shadow was not sure on what to say to this.

“Doesn't 'Hina' become super embarrassed and bang her head on the wall every time she does something to Sain in game?” asked Shadow.

“That's because Miriel was embarrassed though” said Serena.

“And the fact remains that Miriel is a shy girl in love” said Lyndis adding her comment in as well.

Shy girl? In love? That Miriel? That person who pushed the leader role onto Sain to make him a scapegoat and a puppet for her to control the rest of the group?

“I guess their feelings are mutual for this to happen” Shadow started to sigh again but Lyndis interrupted this asking, “What are you talking about? Sain has feelings for Miriel?” with eyes glittering with amusement.

“Y-Yeah...he told me when I asked him though did not ask me to hide it thankfully” said Shadow.

He looked as Lyndis and Serena seemed to be discussing something with each other low voices. But at the same time Shadow could hear them the entire time since they forgot he had TWO listening skills.

“Isn't this a good thing. Miriel can get Sain.”

“But neither of them confessed to each other.”

“But still, both of them have feelings for each other!”

“Yeah, that's great for Miriel but she said she didn't have plans on confessing at all.”

At that last comment by Serena, Shadow spoke up and said, “Oh Sain said the same thing as well.”

“What?!” “Eh?”

The two seemed surprised as Shadow said those words. He continued to say, “It looks like both of them have the same reasons on not being true to themselves. Both put the group, us above their love lives it seems. Even though Miriel actually kissed Sain in that alley way.”

“WAIT! KISSED?!” Lyndis shouted to which both Serena and himself quickly moved in to cover her mouth. It would be a bad thing if anyone heard them for more reasons than one.

“Yeah, after you were knocked out my Miriel due to reasons, she dragged Sain in...said a few things including the line 'You are mine', kissed him and proceeded to tickle him to the point where he was out of it like you” Shadow explained a bit lazily.

“....”

Lyndis and Serena looked down a bit and Lyndis suddenly said, “I need to talk to Miriel” before trying to walk off to her. However Shadow grabbed her and said, “There is no need to push the issue.”

“But their happiness...!” Lyndis complained.

“That is their own happiness, their choice to what they want with it. Butting in will only make it worse for them since you are trying to control what they wish to do!” Shadow said these words to her, “If you wish to, I will stop you since I'm friends with Sain.”

“Even though he pushed you off a building.”

“Even though.”

The two looked at each other, no stared at each other, neither backing off until a few seconds later where Lyndis looked down and back at Shadow and asked, “Just when do you think you're going to let me go? Do you like to touch me that much?” with a smile though her eyes were dead.

“....”

Shadow let go of Lyndis' arm and did not say anything else simply frowning.

“What is it? Why are you backing down? Usually you have some sort of comment about me that is insulting” said Lyndis moving closer to Shadow which in turn caused him to try to move further away from her.

“....”

Lyndis made a serious expression then seeing Shadow was avoiding her and even wasn't even speaking and asked, “Why are you so silent?”

However at the same time, Shadow was listening in one what was being said a distance away. What he heard made him frown and not speak but rather think of what was going on. He needed to tell this to Sain if he did not know already...

“Actually no, I can't tell Sain yet. There isn't enough proof and if he finds out...” Shadow muttered while looking down a bit and holding his chin with his fingers thinking of what to do. If what he heard was true then....

“Hey, what are you talking about?” asked Lyndis.

“Nothing” replied Shadow too quickly. As such, Lyndis moved in and grabbed Shadow's arm and pushed him to the wall.

“L-Lyndis!” Serena looked panicked as she tried to think of what she could do while Raven remained silent, watching though hands were on his throwing axes just in case.

“What is the meaning of this?” asked Shadow this time in an angry tone.

“Answer.my.question.or.I.will.gut.you!” responded Lyndis in the same tone.

Kick!

Shadow kicked Lyndis away using his leg forcing her face up on the ground and in the next moment, he drew his dagger out and stabbed it down at her with killing intent. His actions were all done in a single few moments smoothly.

Whoosh~

Clang!

However all of a sudden, a throwing axe moved at extreme speed in front of Shadow's face which forced him to momentarily pause for a split second before continuing to drop down with his attack on Lyndis.

“Tch” Shadow realised that he was unbalanced right now and because of that, his aim was off.

Bang!

And as a result, Shadow's dagger dug into the ground next to Lyndis' head. It cut through part of her dark red hair that was spread out on the ground due to the sudden fall. And then the killing intent in her eyes as she realised this as well.

“You DARE cut my hair?!” she said with absolute hatred in her eyes.

“Uh oh...” Shadow muttered, he felt that this was bad. And in the next instant, he was right. From that position, Lyndis drew her Katana and slashed at Shadow to which he leaped back to dodge, though barely.

“....” “....”

However Shadow did not back down due to that. He drew his much more powerful short sword as well and took a stance to either attack or dodge. Lyndis seemed to be doing the same as well. Both of them were prepared to fight and kill each other right now.

And when both sides charged in for the kill...

“Stop! Root Bind!”

“...!”

Raven appeared quickly in between the two blocking both attacks, on both sides with both his shields equipped. And when they were momentarily stopped due to that, roots grew around them and stopped them from moving completely.

“Raven get out of the way” ordered Shadow.

Similarly Lyndis said, “Serena, unbind me.”

However neither did. As such, both of them took matters into their own hands in escaping.

“Life Burn.” “Become Mist.”

Body had been converted to a mist state. Due to this, health will be reduced by half for the next 24 hours

Both of them used their skills. Lyndis's body was surrounded in flames in exchange for draining her health and being freed from Serena's vines while at the same time Shadow's turned into his mist form that allowed him to escape from the physical bindings.

Shadow quickly 'moved' in his mist state behind Lyndis and rematerialised with both blades already coming down at Lyndis with the intent to kill.

This was the last straw he would tolerate of her. It was one thing to attack him verbally when she could but a completely another thing to get violent with him and threaten him.

Clang! Clang!

However Lyndis turned around quickly and stuck at both blades at once in one strike to which he switched from attacking to defending at that moment.

“Damn your demonic swordsmanship!” Shadow cursed while at the same time shouting, “Divine Shadow Art: Stealth Blade!”

His blade was covered in black light as he twisted around Lyndis' guard and struck her hard on the stomach though blocked by armour.

You have dealt a critical blow

Lyndis coughed up blood at that moment but her 'Life Burn' skill was still active. As such him getting close to her burnt off some health. He lost 10% of his health like that, her fire skills were quite powerful even though he did not like to admit it and she did not like to admit it was more powerful than her swordsmanship.

“Dancing Dragon Art: First Slash!”

BANG!

With a single counter-strike, Shadow was blown away in a single shot due to that attack.

You took 741 damage

While the damage was kinda low, the massive knock-back effect was extremely powerful when used right. Especially when it could when timed correctly, stun you for a few seconds. Shadow's back was to the wall now and Lyndis charged in to attack.

“Power Strike!”

Clang!

Shadow barely managed to block that attack though at the same time, he lost a bit of health as well.

“....” “.....”

Shadow and Lyndis both stared at each other with deep hatred as they both tried to kill each other several times to the point they were using skill against each other.

“Please stop! Blood-”

Shadow panicked and shouted, “Serena, not that-!”

“-Burst!”

“Waaaah!” “Ahhhh!”

Both of them let out a scream as they tripped over to dodge Serena's attempt to stop them else be killed painfully by her.

Thud!

And as such, Shadow and Lyndis both tripped over each others' legs and fell onto the ground. Because of this, they were currently positioned...

“That noise, what's going on over there?” called Sain. Shadow realised this kind of position wasn't exactly the greatest...

Miriel also came over with Sain, “Lyndis, are you fighting with Shadow aga-” and looked with shock of what she saw.

“Wow....never thought I see you two like...” Miriel muttered while eyed.

Currently, Lyndis was on top of Shadow in a manner that made it look like she was mounted on him though their weapons were scattered around the place since they were quite quick in trying to escape the attack from Serena.

“....”

“....”

And Shadow and Lyndis looked at each other at that moment blank minded.

““Waaah!!!””

Lyndis scrambled trying to get off Shadow while at the same time Shadow tried to push Lyndis off of him.

“Don't push!” “Get off of me!”

While they shouted those words at each other, the rest of the group looked in interest. This kind of entertainment was rare to see. And after a few scuffles where Shadow was on top of Lyndis next and the other way again, both of them finally stood up from the ground panting.

“....”

Picking up his weapons, Shadow found that Sain and Miriel were about to comment but he quickly said, “Don't say anything. Everything you saw was a misunderstanding.”

“You mean the fact that Lyndis was mounted on you?” asked Miriel. Lyndis let out a groan and said, “That was the results from us escaping from Serena's attack.”

“Why did Serena attack?” asked Sain this time.

“Because she with Raven was trying to stop us from killing each other” answered Shadow.

“And why were you trying to killing each other?” asked Miriel.

“Because Shadow attack me” answered Lyndis though Shadow tried to say something but was stopped when Miriel asked, “You attack as in 'that' way or 'that' way?”

Lyndis looked shocked and with a gasp, “Oh God no!” and then with a glare said, “Are you getting back at me for teasing you before?”

With a slight grin, Miriel said, “You guess right though I also swore that I would make Shadow's life hell as well.”

“What the hell did I do?!” Shadow retorted seeing that he was being punished for something he did not do.

“Eavesdropping and whistle blowing. Raven told me” she answered.

“Raven!” Shadow unintentionally shouted at the 'betrayal' of Raven who seemed to be so useful in various ways. Though Shadow had no reasons to stop using Raven to get discounts on food and other items from stores, he would from now on be more careful of telling him witness anything.

“Leave your grudges back for a while, we all have work to do. We're raiding a place later on today for you to know” said Sain getting in between all of this.

“....”

Shadow swore in his heart that he would get Lyndis back someday and also to avoid Miriel from now on or be extra careful.

xXx

And so another two weeks passed with the city changing. For starters, there had been word of a resistant movement had formed and was going against the Tower. As such, restrictions on entering and especially leaving was tightened beyond anything else recently due to this as well.

There was little chance of anything on getting out of the city, at least for a while until anything ends. Due to this, the Kingdom started watching Shia City and was on the verge was identifying it as a rebel city to be eliminated.

There was only so many months left until this verdict was made but only postponed since there had been word that a certain Independent Guild was working on it.

And as for Sain who was playing the game in the shadows...

“Sain are you done yet?” asked Shadow lazily after killing a man stabbing him in the throat. This man was one of the guards outside a building which held a few secrets that Sain wanted.

“Just about” said Sain. He was standing in front of a dead body which he killed and was currently searching through files that were in this building.

For a misplaced shack in this city and place with little security, there was quite a bit of secrets hidden in here. Sain was sure that many of the information he was looking through could be used to blackmail quite a number of people.

He was sure that some of this information could be exchanged for Contribution Points for the Guild later on.

As for the inside of the shack, it was quite clean. In fact most of it was empty though there were several folders that were hidden at the bottom of a chest filled with potions. One would take the potions and leave the folders under a false bottom as one would not expect anymore.

But Sain looked through everything thoroughly and found it.

“There's another couple of set of folders here which is all interesting but I found what I wanted to know. There is or rather was a spy for Little Droplet in this city” Sain said to Shadow outside.

What he found was that some of the places in this city that they were working to eliminated were originally helped out my Little Droplet but then went solo went they left this city not so soon after they came in.

It looked like they were tipped out and left when they could.

“So what do we do now?” asked Shadow.

“We have one Guild Quest in this city and another that is possibly in here as well” said Sain, “We can't leave...”

Sain picked up another folder and looked through its content.

“Hmm....” he skimmed through it since it was unlikely that someone would not come as long as he needed to. He would need to hurry up. After skimming through the rest of the folders and the files within them, he found something again.

“Uh oh” Sain put down the folder and organised it back into the false bottom of the chest, placed the false chest over it and even placed the potions back in there the way he found them and closed the chest.

He needed to make sure he didn't leave any trace of him here. There was a lot of things in here there he should not know. The Kingdom wasn't as glorious and bright as many think it is. Lots of people, mostly nobles have been doing a well kept series of shady things in the background.

And if what Sain read was correct then this was bad.

“What is it? I want to get away from this place as quickly as possible” asked Shadow. He was worried that someone could come and then alert other people into chasing them out of here.

Plus he killed a guard and would be a criminal since this was one of the guards of the city and the city was part of the Kingdom and so on. They were still technically part of the right here.

“Found a lead” said Sain.

“To what?”

“A spy in our mist. Little Droplet was in this city but left when they found out we were here. However no one knows that we were here except for a few people...”

“So Hale?” wondered Shadow, he was the only one who interacted with them.

“Maybe, need to find out. I'm going to report to Eden about this. Perhaps he could find something or send someone who can” replied Sain, “Oh and there is another thing.”

“Which is?”

“Found Aria's siblings. Need to make up a plan later, its going to be hard” sighed Sain, “This is going to take a while...and probably an even longer time to plan out properly.”

Onwards?PreviousExitNext

Author's Notes:

- Word Count: 8500~

- This took a while. I wasn't exactly sure on what I wanted to group to do in the city hiding out, so I decided to do something more about Shadow, the backman to this instead of Sain mainly this time. Lots of chapters and volumes were with the perspective of Sain so it was nice to not write about him this time for most of a chapter.