“Heeeeey~ brother~” A muffled and whiney voice spoke out, only landing on deaf ears. Two people in white cloaks stood at the wooden entrance to a dungeon. Both were perfectly concealed by their white robes, the only discernable difference between the two being their height and build. The one currently calling out to the other was of larger build, both in frame and height, while the other who was smaller and thinner was standing impatiently, ignoring the other.

“Hey hey~ Heeeey broooother~” The larger one bent down, cupping his hands over where his mouth is and speaking next to the others ear.

“Tsk!” The other violently thrust his hand backwards, slapping his companion’s hands away from his ear “What!” He spat.

“Can’t we go in yet? the priest will be mad if we don’t find any…” the man slumped down “and I’m bored.”

“Ain’t nothin we can do bout that.” The smaller said, crossing his arms “But I getcha, this morning was weird.” He tore his gaze off from the dungeon’s entrance, looking to the east. Him and his brother were hired by the church, they were not the only ones, their gang and a few others got picked up by them as well, apparently needing some extra heads for their invasion.

It wasn’t that uncommon, hell, they even had a few death row inmates currently serving in this impromptu army, and the money was nothing to scoff at. Best part? They paid upfront, remembering the look on his bosses face when a large sack of gold was slammed on his desk, and the promise of booze and girls when they get back… The man couldn’t help but chuckle.

That chuckle turned sour, as he remembered the events of this morning. Their first target designated by the church, the point of invasion the fox tribe’s territory, was practically empty. Just a few elders, some kids, and one or two adults… remembering how pissed the priest was caused the man to shudder.

The priest should be happy about an easy invasion, but apparently not finding any beastmen was a problem…well, judging from how pissed he got when he found out that house on the hill was empty…not even their boss had gotten that angry.

“Comon, lets go already.” The big one said, starting to walk forward but was stopped, the smaller one grabbing his robe.

“Like I said, we gotta wait for [Sanctuary].” [Sanctuary] as the church called it, was a nasty ritual spell the church was using to make this whole operation work. While he didn’t listen to the whole explanation, he heard what he cared about, that it makes the people the church deem unworthy, his opponents, near powerless. This job was perfect, easy money and exp.

The larger man pulled his robe free “Fuck that, I’m dying of boredom and heat.” The man trudged forward.

The other shrugged, noticing the sky changing colors, [Sanctuary] had been activated “Heh, lucky~” he noticed his pal shimmer as lights began to fall from the sky, another neat effect was that to other people they would appear as nothing more as motes of light, unless they wanted to be seen or some other conditions were met that he didn’t listen to.

The two entered the dungeon, disguised and without a care in the world. They progressed, not having to worry about traps or monsters, deeper and deeper until they stopped, looking between each other and holding back laughter at what was in front of them.

‘jackpot~’ He thought, seeing a small Fox beastman girl in front of them standing in the middle of the hallway. ‘Knew they had to be hiding somewhere.’ He inspected the girl, who couldn’t be older than 6 with her height, she was also wearing a ragged dress with several blue blades stabbed into the dress itself. ‘Kid can’t be alone… parents further in?’ he stepped forward, motioning for his buddy to do the same.

“Late.”

Both froze, exchanging looks between each other ‘She can’t see us, move up’ he motioned for his buddy to continue. Doing so himself he stopped when he heard a light *thunk* looking down at it’s source he found a light blue dagger where his foot was about to step.

“Delayed for what reason? Random noise at the entrance? Distraction at the source of the ritual? Hate these uncertainties… disappointed the skill I wanted to level up most downs exp like a drunkard.” The girl lowered her hand that she had just used to throw one of her daggers.

‘I don’t like this…’ the man thought “Charge her!” He shouted to his buddy, drawing his sword.

The larger one ran forward, raising his fists and bringing them down in an attempt to capture her “GAH!” but reeled back when the girl avoided him, stabbing one of her daggers into his arm.

“Intimidation worked, big one attacked first, followed by…” The girl turned around, ducking just as an invisible sword past where her neck used to be.

‘The fuck is this bitch saying?!’ He leaped back, not wanting to end up like his brother and get counter attacked “What?!” he shouted, the girl had rushed towards him, following him even though he was practically invisible. He panicked, thrusting his sword forward as sparks flew out from its tip.

The girl stopped in place as the lightning approached her, fading out just inches away from hitting her “Non-physical magic of that level gets drained by the barrier, amusing you do not know this.” The girl smiled “Be glad, at first, I thought it a feint. My mistake.”

“The fuck are you even talking about?!” The man shouted, becoming visible, this was strange, too strange, how the fuck did she know about [Sanctuary]?!

She stepped to the side, narrowly avoiding a straight jab from the bigger man, she casually took one of the many daggers attached to her dress and stabbed it into the man’s extended fist “A wonder that magic is, with skills this fight wouldn’t of been this difficult, not that I am complaining.”

The man groaned, but then flipped around, roundhouse kicking the girl who just ducked under. The man felt a shiver run down his spine as he heard the girl whisper “Clench your teeth.” Before he felt the worst pain he had ever felt in his life over take him, dropping to the floor.

The smaller man had seen it clearly, by instinct backing up and covering his crotch. The girl had ducked under his leg, and while under him with his leg lifted high, stabbed a dagger into his crotch “W-what kind of kid are you…” he straightened himself up, he had to avenge his brother’s loss and had to put this kid down.

“Hrm, I wonder…” she took a few steps away from the larger man, cautiously pulling out one of her daggers “Hey, are you going left, or right this time?”

He twitched, “This bitch!” he clenched his teeth, dashing forward and slashing forward, which the girl avoided but visibly looked displeased.

“Ah, straight rush this time…” she said in annoyance.

Another twitch, over taken by anger he rapidly slashed his sword, but no matter which way he slashed the girl avoided easily, all he could do was keep a distance to avoid a counter attack but…

“Left, right, duck, left, left, annoyed random strike, left, under, stab, stab, stab, left-“

She was calling out his attacks as he was making them, all the while looking like this was the most annoying thing she could be doing right now “Fucking! Die!” he shouted, gathering sparks in his blade he reeled it back-

“Kick”

He paused “Wha-“ then felt a sharp and cold sensation at his side, he jumped back to a save distance, lowering his hand to the spot to find an icy dagger stabbed into it “I… when?”

“Center stab.”

He shot up, just intime to see the kid rushing him, he sidestepped, avoiding the stab directed at his gut. She had made a mistake! It was his turn to counterattack-

“Crotch stab.”

He instantly leaped back, checking his crotch he breathed a sigh of relief finding it unharmed, then snapped his attention forward upon hearing a chuckle, seeing the girl covering her mouth with one hand while laughing at him, her eyes smugly mocking him “B-bitch” he readied his sword, sparks gathering at its tip again.

The girl sighed “I told you, shooting that out is pointless.” She then took two steps back, drawing a line in the dirt “but go ahead, prove me wrong.” She smirked.

He faltered for a moment, but that smirk pissed him off, this kid had been playing him like a fool and he couldn’t take it anymore. He pushed more power into his sword, the sparks turning into lightning “Take this you bastard!” he screamed, thrusting the sword forward, a straight bolt of lightning burst from his swords tip towards the girl who was running towards him, wait.

His eyes widened, looking to where his magic was headed, the now empty space, and then down below that where the girl was running below. “Shit!” he messed up, he tried to re-adjust his body in order to intercept her but he had thrown off his balance from the magic he had just cast.

The girl leaped up, two daggers drawn and thrust forward, piercing one into his chest and one into his eye “Hey you proved me wrong.” The girl chuckled as he hit the ground, writhing in pain, he could barely make out what she was saying at this point “Eh, not that you are listening anymore.”

He struggled to regain his composure; he couldn’t believe what had just happened. But he had to get up, quickly before-

-----

Mia withdrew her dagger from the man’s neck “Not bad for a level 5 run, wouldn’t you say Ra?” She looked down the hall as a small cat’s paw reached around a corner, pulling the body it was attached to along with it.

“M-M-MIA!!!!” Ra yelled, coughing up blood. He was alive, but just barely. Cut up in several different locations, his armor stripped, and two icy needles stabbed into his feet rendering him unable to walk.

“Eh? Don’t look at me like that, you’ll be fine in just a moment.” She then detached the last remaining dagger from her clothes holding it up to her neck “Just a few more times Ra, Mia should be able to handle this herself with just a few more skill levels.”

“Miiiiiaaaaaa!” Ra angerly screamed, pulling himself forward.

Mia shrugged, stabbing herself in the throat and resetting time.

“It’s been a fun three months…” She whispered softly to herself as she rushed forward and grabbed La by the throat, starting the short cycle once more.