Before moving onwards, I cast my buffs and renewed my protections.

You have cast reaction buff, increasing your Dexterity by +4 ranks for 20 minutes.

You have cast lighten load, reducing your total armor penalties to 0% for 20 minutes. Net effect: +2 Dexterity and +1 Magic.

You have cast mind shield.

You have activated a disease protection crystal.

You have activated a scent protection crystal.

I wasn’t going to make it easy for the mantises to locate me. In fact, I was hoping to find them first. Hands gripping my blades, ready to draw them at a moment’s notice, I crept towards the sector’s entrance.

All the corridors I passed were pitch black and eerily quiet.

No undead patrolled the passages, and the doors leading into the side rooms were securely fastened. Idly, I wondered how the dungeon party was faring. Given the tactics they’d chosen, the players had to be confident of the size of the sector’s roving denizens and their own ability to defeat them.

Sure enough, when I reached the entrance portal, I was greeted by the sight of Toff’s party holding firm against a tide of undead. The ogre’s party was still twenty-strong; they hadn’t lost anyone yet. But there was no sign of the other three-man team. They’d either perished in the battle with the sector boss or from conflict with the larger party. Their fate mattered little, though.

Crouched in the darkness outside the range of the magelights hovering over the ogre’s party, I studied the battle. The players were mopping up. Over two-thirds of the undead had fallen, and those that remained—ghouls and zombies—seemed no match for the party.

There was no sign of the mantises, though.

They couldn’t have beaten me here, and I could only assume the encounter with the hunter eye had slowed them down. They must still be searching for me on the first level.

By necessity, my plans for the mantises were fluid. There were too many unknown variables for me to control them all, and rather than stay married to any one strategy for dealing with my foes, I had a few in mind.

The present circumstances—encountering the dungeon party first—allowed for the execution of one of the more promising ones.

Closing my eyes, I cast lesser imitate. Holding the image of my target in my mind, I spun an illusion of light about myself, blurring the lines of my body, clothes, and face.

Once my new guise settled into place, I rose to my feet and stepped out of the shadows. None of the players noticed me at first, too caught up with battling the ghouls between them and me. But the distinctive green-clad garments I wore were nearly impossible to miss, and eventually, one of the players in the party’s back lines—a mage—spotted me.

You have passed a mental resistance check! An unknown entity has failed to pierce your disguise.

The player’s eyes grew round, and his head snapped back around for a second look. "Mantis!" he mouthed.

Even over the distance that separated us, I could read the fear on the mage’s face, and I smiled in satisfaction. It’s working.

Drawing to a halt, I mimed reaching for a dagger on my belt.

Panic suffused the mage’s face, and he dashed forward to attract the attention of his leader. Standing on the party’s frontlines and battling a ghoul, Toff ignored the feeble pounding on his back.

"There's a mantis here!" the mage tried again.

“Shut up and fight!” Toff roared.

“Just look!”

Involuntarily, the ogre’s gaze jerked in my direction, and consternation flickered across his face.

You have passed a mental resistance check! Toff has failed to pierce your disguise.

Perfect. Dropping my mind shield, I whipped back my arm and flung a psi dagger at the ogre.

Toff sidestepped the astral blade easily—I’d not taken any particular care aiming it—and, bashing in the head of his foe, turned to face me. “You green whoreson! What is one of your stinking kind doing here?” the ogre roared. He fairly trembled with anger, displaying not an ounce of fear.

Not bothering to attempt a rejoinder, I melted back into the shadows.

Multiple hostile entities have failed to detect you! You are hidden.

Bewildered cries and shouts of dismay followed in the wake of my disappearance.

“Where did he go?”

“What's a mantis doing here?”

“How did that Dark bastard get ahead of us!”

“Is he hunting you?”

“Don’t worry, Toff. We’ll protect you! Those cowards will never get their hands on you.”

“What nonsense! Listen to me, Toff. You’re better off fleeing. If the mantises are after you—”

“I'll not run!" the ogre roared. “Now, enough of this useless prattle. Fight, and let’s be done with these wretched undead.”

Despite Toff’s command, the party continued to whisper and speculate amongst themselves, if in much softer tones. Sitting in the shadows and observing them, a small smile played on my lips.

The ogre’s party was twenty-strong, and they had nothing to fear from Wengulax and Gintalush. If anything, it was the mantises who were in for a surprise, especially now that the other players had been primed for their appearance. With my mind shield down, the assassins had to be already homing in on my location.

Wengulax and Gintalush would certainly suspect a trap, but not perhaps the one that awaited them. Eyes glinting in anticipation, I kept my gaze fixed on the entrance portal.

It won’t be long now.

~~~

Five minutes later, Toff’s party slew the last undead.

Their chatter had not stopped, however. Looting the corpses, they continued to discuss the mystifying appearance of the mantis in the dungeon and why it had attacked the ogre.

It was then that the assassins chose to appear.

This time around, the party was quicker on the uptake. “More mantises!” an elf yelled.

Without further prompting, weapons were drawn and pointed at the two green-clad figures that had emerged from the portal, and a heartbeat later, the air began to buzz with magical and physical projectiles.

Wengulax and Gintalush did not retreat, though.

Despite the swiftness of the party’s response, the pair were not caught flatfooted, and an instant before the first attack descended upon them, the assassins multiplied.

Suddenly there weren’t two mantises, but ten.

Cries of consternation erupted from the other players. Crouched in the darkness a few dozen yards away, I was as perplexed as Toff’s team.

What had just happened? Had more assassins arrived through the portal?

Just as the first of the party’s projectiles struck, the ten mantises dispersed, taking off running in different directions. More attacks followed, but now the players had ten targets, not two. Renewing my mind shield, I watched the battle play out while I tried to make sense of what I was seeing.

An ice shard struck one of the green-clad figures, and it flickered. An arrow passed harmlessly through another. A whirling blade cut through three with no effect.

Illusions, they’re illusions.

Toff’s party came to the same realization. “It’s a mirror image spell!” an archer shouted.

“Mages, launch area attacks. Now!” the ogre ordered.

Three of the images had disappeared already, but at Toff’s words, the other seven turned on their heels and descended on the ogre’s party, bare blades at the ready. My mouth went dry at the sight.

My ploy had gone horribly wrong.

Had I overestimated the party’s abilities? Were they about to be slaughtered?

But a moment later, I realized the seven attacking ‘mantises’ were doing no damage. Despite them striking at the players with abandon, their blades passed harmlessly through body and armor alike.

They’re all illusions. They had to be.

If Gintalush and Wengulax are not amongst the images… where are they?

Hiding. Stalking me.

Realizing my own danger, I shifted position abruptly and scanned the surrounding darkness.

You have failed a Perception check and are unable to find your targets.

I grimaced but kept at it, sure now that the two mantises were likewise searching for me in the shadows.

You have failed a Perception check!

You have failed…

…

But both I and the assassins had forgotten the dungeon party. They had not been standing idly by.

“Get ready,” one of the mages shouted.

I broke off from my search to stare in her direction. Ready for what?

“Dispelling now!” she yelled obligingly.

A heartbeat later, an angry-orange pulse rippled outwards from the player’s raised-up staff. It passed harmlessly over Toff’s party members. But when it touched the images, they vanished in a puff of smoke, and soon, all seven disappeared.

The pulse did not stop, though.

It kept going, expanding faster until…

…three yards beyond the party, it revealed a green-clad form, caught bent in half and creeping in my direction. Gintalush.

“There’s one!”

…and eight yards farther, it uncovered another figure, this one with drawn blades. Wengulax.

“And there’s the other!”

I gripped my blades, waiting for the inevitable. Only a dozen yards separated Wengulax from me.

But it made all the difference.

Halfway to me, the pulse stopped short and vanished. I sagged in relief. I was not about to be exposed. My gaze flickered upwards to the two revealed mantises, wondering what they’d do next.

But before the pair could react, the party took the decision from their hands.

“Kill them!” Toff roared.

Bows were aimed, and staffs were lowered.

Wengulax and Gintalush shared a look, then as one, they took off running—down opposite side passages.

“After them!” an elf screamed.

My eyes narrowed as I saw my prey fleeing. Which one to pursue? Gintalush, I decided and slipped down another side passage on an intercept course.