Lem was excited, after nearly a week of stalking their primary target, killing him less than a handful of times, it was finally time to strike the final blow.

“Are you sure they’ll be there?” Iron Bear asked.

‘What a stupid name, and stupid people,’ Lem thought, before answering. “Yeah, the Reaper has an inside source, they should be here in less than ten minutes.”

“Good, about damn time we get some payback. Stupid bitch is hunting us down in the street, and the guard does nothing,” Iron said.

“Yeah, and if the rest of us tries to intervene, we’re warned that the guards will hunt us down inside the town, it’s not fair. And now there’s three of us who can’t even earn XP,” Acid Bear complained.

“Yeah, if we had not received those credits from your employer, we would have had to disband,” Iron Bear grumbled. “Who did you say your employer was?”

“I didn’t,” Lem grumbled.

“Ah, but this game really sucks, there’s no room for having fun. It’s all serious, don’t break the rules kinda of stuff, so lame.”

‘Maybe if you stopped being a whining asshole, you could find some fun,’ Lem complained to himself. Out loud he just gave a noncommittal grunt. He liked the fact that it was hard to be a player killer, made it a challenge for him to assassinate players. Of course, he was not happy about spending nine days on a boat just to kill some upstarts.

“Lets go over the plan,” Lem said. “There’s a few copses of—”

Someone called Balls of Bear interrupted with a laugh, “And soon there’ll be more corpses.”

“Copses of trees, you idiot, there should be a few around the farmstead.”

“I’m not stupid, yo—”

“Enough,” Iron ordered, staring his man down.

‘Bunch of wild animals,’ Lem thought while staring at Balls. “Some of us hides in them, and some of us will hide in the farmstead. When they’re boxed in, we’ll appear and kill them all.”

“Sounds good, anyone we shouldn’t kill like this inside source?” Iron asked.

“Please don’t say it’s that leader or the ninja chick, they both need to be killed and skull fucked,” Balls said with a frown.

“Blaze,” a voice whispered, seemingly to come out of nowhere. Lem shivered. Freaking Reaper, playing with Fade again. Stupid skill let him go invisible as long as he stood still.

“Who’s there?” the Bears drew their weapons and looked around wildly, looking for the source.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Sheath your weapons, it’s just one of ours,” Lem said with a groan. He was not so sure about using the local talent. They were jumpy and undisciplined, but Aragoth had ordered them to cooperate with any of the Blackport guilds that wanted to mess with Blue Lotus.

“You guys are cowards, hiding in the shadows. We should just take them head on,” Balls said, voice dripping with disdain.

“Talk like that will cost you your head,” the Reaper whispered, freaking the Bears out.

“Come now, we need to get in position before they get here,” Lem said.

“We got time, there’s still at least five minutes before they’re here,” Reaper said and popped into existence a few steps away from Lem.

Lem started dividing up the force. There were three hiding spots. Lem placed himself, Reaper, Iron and two casters at the burnt down farmstead. Two Shadowguards and Balls went to the western copse, while the remaining two Bears and the remaining Shadowguard went to the eastern stand of trees.

He was not happy about it, only having 11 fighters against Blue Lotus’ 9, and they were a bit underleveled. Well, it would be 12 against 8. Reaper had promised that the traitor would change side before the fighting started.

They had to wait almost ten minutes for the Blue Lotus people to show up, and Lem had lost track of Reaper, since he kept changing position. Sometimes in the ruins, sometimes out in the open, using Fade to turn invisible. There were eleven of them, including two of their crafters. As far as Lem knew the only two missing were the two lumberjacks slash carpenters.

When the rats had entered the killzone, Lem let out a whistle before stepping into view himself and quickly dismissed the prompt warning him.

WARNING

You are about to commit an act frowned upon by the Gods. It is recommended that you do not follow through on your planned course of action.

The whistle had been a signal for the others to reveal themselves. The enemy reacted at once, drawing their weapons and the three with shields stepped to the forefront. The earth rumbled and an earth elemental shot out of the ground, interposing itself between the western group and the Blue Lotus.

“We got you now!” Iron laughed gleefully.

“Are you sure you want to do this? Again?” the voice of the Blue Lotus leader drifted out from somewhere inside the group of people.

“Shut up Damian, we got you outnumbered eleven to nine, you and that bitch aren’t fighters.”

“You outnumbered us twenty to five last time, what makes you think these odds are better?”

“No hordes of rabbits can save you this time! And we got better fighters,” Iron shouted back, sounding angry and having lost a bit of his confidence.

“I count only ten of you, and remember the time I beat you and one of your pals by myself?” one of the females said in a loud voice. Lem was wary of her, she was high levelled and a skilled fighter. The only one that really worried him.

“You should count again,” a tiny male said, as he stepped out of the group and walked towards Lem and his group. Lem quickly checked his name and saw it was Blaze; Reaper’s inside source.

“Blaze, what are you doing?” the big black guy shouted.

“You really think I’m going to keep working for a madman? Got a better offer,” Blaze answered as he leisurely strolled up to Lem and his group.

Lem nodded at him. “Good choice, I’ll make sure you’re richly rewarded.”

“Li—Blaze, why are you doing this?” the leader of the Blue Lotus asked with a crestfallen look on his face.

“You should know me well enough by now, Teach. I do what I have always done, you said it was one of my most remarkable qualities in all those conversations with my mother,” Blaze said with a laugh.

“Enough talking, it’s time you all die. And this is just the first of many, we will hunt you each and everyday until you quit,” Lem said with a sneer, taking a step forward. That was when Reaper appeared out of nowhere, and threw a handful of daggers, hitting his unexpecting targets. His attack signalled the start of the slaughter.