In the end, they decided to wait until the day had ended. In the dark, their target would be less watchful, and easier to track down. Also, and this was a point emphasized by Falynn, there would be far fewer innocent civilians out and about. She may have capitulated to the dangerous nature of their chosen mission, but she wasn’t going to see anyone involved that didn’t need to be. Not if she had her way.

It was a marked difference for the party, used to Tyrman and the capital city of Milagre as they were. Not just the way of life around here, but the quiet of the night hours. This city was nearly as large as Sheran, another Tyrman city they were familiar with, but when the sun began to set, the residents all turned in for the night. There were a few more excitable hours in which the single men and farmers enjoyed a drink at one of the many taverns, but even those places serving drink closed down, sending their passengers staggering home.

This was the window they were looking for. In a few hours, the fishermen would rise blearily from their beds and make for the ships. Captains, crew members, and even solitary fishermen only in it for the day’s catch, they were all up before the first of the sun’s rays broke over the horizon. If they didn’t want any innocent civilians caught in the web of their attack, there was no better time than now.

“This is when we do it,” Falynn said, her eyes intensely scanning the street in both directions. They were taking advantage of the deep shadows behind the Nestled Inn to stay out of sight of the street while also having a clear line of sight in almost all directions. “I haven’t seen anyone come down the street in nearly ten minutes.”

“Are we really sure that they’ll send someone after us again?” Roni asked. She was in the back, stringing her bow, and didn’t seem too interested in the discussion of their plans. She was, Falynn knew, waiting for her chance to hunt an enemy.

“It tracks,” Leonov said quietly, adjusting a strap on his shield. Strictly speaking, the strap didn’t need adjusting. But he was a man of action, and this torturous waiting was wearing on his nerves. “They failed last night, and they think we’re still in the rooms upstairs.”

“Who do you think they’ll go after?” Falynn asked.

“I don’t think we’ll get a chance to tell,” Leonov said. “Not if our plan goes the way we want, at least.”

Falynn nodded, realizing the truth of the statement. They expected to intercept the would-be assassin as they slipped into the Nestled Inn under the cover of night. It was nearly the same time as their previous attack, with barely ten minutes to go, so they were on the lookout. Roni had cast some kind of magic they didn’t recognize to cloak them. If anyone were to look in their direction, the shadow of the building would be a little too thick to see through, too dense to reveal what they hid.

“I don’t know why you don’t rely on your magic more often,” Falynn told her, thinking of it now. “With your skill, you’d be an even more fearsome hunter.”

“I’m already a fearsome hunter,” the ranger said, lifting her bow. She gave the string a quick tug to test that it was seated properly, then nodded in satisfaction and drew an arrow from the quiver over her shoulder. It made a gentle hiss of wood on wood as she half drew it back, her green eyes focused on something in the street. “I spotted the prey before any of you did.”

The three of them spun around at once, but not before Roni drew back the string of her bow, raised it, and released, all in a single smooth, fluid movement. She didn’t even seem to aim. They couldn’t see the flight of the arrow as it flashed over their head toward the target, but they saw the shadowy figure clutch at his thigh as it struck. The man’s cry of shock and pain rent the night, sounding like the roar of a wounded beast, not a man.

“Go!” Leonov shouted. At once, he and Taiki were charging out of the alley. So quickly did they move that the stranger became aware of their presence only when they were about ten feet away. But Falynn, who’d prepared herself for the quick start, already had her magic stretching out to grasp the two of them. As the two warriors rushed the indistinct figure, vines burst out of the ground at the enemy’s feet, surging up his legs and binding him in place. Or rather, that was what should have happened.

There was a brief flash of light, and suddenly, the warrior was gone. Leonov and Taiki’s strikes hit nothing but the cobbled street below them. Another flash of light, and the shadowy figure was back, a curved blade raised to attack. His stroke was stopped by yet another vine, however, wrapping around his wrist and yanking him to the ground by the arm. The earth itself opened up slightly to trap the limb, and he could not move.

“I got him!” Falynn yelled. “Hit him now!”

Taiki whipped around to face her foe, the heavy wooden club she carried already swinging down. Pinned as he was, the strange man still put up quite a fight, one foot kicking out at her weapon and knocking it aside so that it missed by mere inches. Falynn sent out more vines to pin his other limbs, but before any of them could connect, there was another flash of light, and something invisible struck her in the stomach. She doubled over from the pain of it and lost concentration on her magic.

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For a few seconds, Falynn was aware only of the thrum of Roni’s bow, and a yell that could have come from either Taiki or Leonov. She sensed Roni stepping over her to protect her, and rolled back to give the elven room. Then she was back on her feet. A little unsteady, but otherwise fine. What she’d heard with the yell was Taiki charging in to suppress the enemy. At some point, he’d broken free of the trap holding him in the ground, and he was dashing back and forth, avoiding the nasty spiked club as it swung down.

“How can he move so well with an injured leg?” Roni snarled, continuing to fire arrows. “I shot him through the thigh! He should barely be able to walk!”

She didn’t get an answer to her question, not that she seemed to be expecting one. She merely continued to carefully fire her arrows, one at a time, trying to strike the swordsman again. But it was a moot effort, for each projectile was slashed out of the air by the stranger’s katana with consummate ease. He himself was focusing the majority of his attacks on Taiki, who posed the largest threat to a lightly armored opponent. Whenever Leonov went in for a strike, he merely parried the enchanted blade away and then moved in to attack Taiki once more.

“He’s trying to kill her first!” Falynn exploded, feeling her anger rising. She supposed that they would find out the assassin’s target after all. She didn’t bother trying to push the anger down or wave it away, knowing that when it came to chaos, raw emotions gave her magic more power and made it more pliable. Another vine, this one crackling with ethereal blue energy, burst out of the ground. It didn’t wrap around the swordsman, however. Instead, faster than either of them could blink, a flower with bright blue leaves bloomed at the very end of it, that crackling energy gathering in the center.

“Out of the way!” She screamed. Neither of her friends knew what this spell did, and so wouldn’t be able to weather its effects. They didn’t waste time arguing or trying to figure it out and threw themselves back to the sides. No sooner had they done that than a paper-thin blue line of light shot from the flower. It pierced through the assassin’s chest and struck the ground with a ring like that of a bell. A beautiful sound to hide the disastrous effect of the magic.

One shivering second of silence lapsed through the air, the line still bright as ever, shivering slightly. Then expanded, and drove all of the chaos that the flower had contained into its target. When the light faded, there was nothing left of him.

“Yes!” Roni shouted, quite unlike her usual taciturn self. “You should use magic like that more often!”

But Falynn didn’t reply. She turned her head from side to side, her nose twitching as if sampling the air. Something was wrong, she thought. It might have only been the second time she’d used that spell, but she didn’t think that it should incinerate any enemies it struck. It was designed to disable a mage, nothing more. Yet there was no sign of the assassin. Had he dodged? No, she’d seen the beam pierce him. Once that had struck, there was no chance of evading it.

Then the answer came to her, clear as day. She could have kicked herself if she wasn’t so frightened for her friends at that moment. Turning to Taiki, she screamed, “It was a simulacrum!”

“A clone?” Leonov asked, instantly on guard once more.

“Correct,” a low, sinister voice said. “Clever little druid girl, aren’t you? But more than a druid, I think.”

There was another flash of light, directly behind Taiki. The warrior sensed it and turned, already on the attack. But Falynn, watching as if time had slowed around them, could tell that the attack was doomed to go wide. The swordsman had already stepped gracefully to the side, and his sword was slicing upward in a beautiful but deadly display of power and accuracy. There almost seemed to be no injury by the time the weapon finished tracing its path. That was, at least, until Taiki’s arm, still bearing its heavy armor, fell to the cobbles with a clang.

Leonov was the first to react, as ever. Letting out a roar like a wounded dragon, he lunged forward. The warrior, sword raised for the killing blow, never noticed the Attosian’s weapon hooking around Taiki’s stunned frame and jabbing up. Before he could bring his katana down, Leonov’s sword had sheared through the bottom strap of his helmet, and up into his skull. Then Leonov himself hit the man, driving both sword and skull deep into the cobbles in a terrifying display of ferocity.

Falynn’s fear took a long while to set in. She remained in silent shock, not reacting to the fact of what her eyes were seeing. Only when Taiki dropped to her knees did the fear set in, and she rushed forward, her heart in her throat. She caught Taiki before she fell properly. “Taiki! Don’t worry, I can fix it! Just stay awake!”

She thought through the problem quickly, forcing herself to stay calm. Leonov was of no use to her now, what with the battle rage that would still be clouding his mind. Roni was calm and quick-thinking but knew nothing about healing magic. She could do basic medical work like bandaging a wound, but nothing so critical as this. “Roni, just keep an eye out. I’ll take care of this.”

There was still light in Taiki’s eyes, but it was dimming, and her face was pale. Taiki ran one hand through the air over the severed stump of Taiki’s arm and frowned, feeling the corrupted energy there. It wasn’t true corruption, but this wound could not be healed. Not fully, in any event. She clenched her teeth to hold back any sound and went to work. There was no time to cry in fear or scream in rage. She had to save her friend. She worked as quickly as she could, pulling the corruption out of the wound, then conjured intense heat to singe the stump, stopping the bleeding and killing any infection that would otherwise come.

Taiki was only aware of the pale, nervous face above her. It was framed in a gentle green glow, and in that moment, it was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. The peace it gave her washed away any other worry. A great calm settled over her, letting her know it was fine now. She could relax. The angel above her would soothe all her worries away, and deliver her to true peace. Relaxing sounded good, she thought, letting her eyes close, ignoring that faint shouting. She’d find out its source later. For now, she’d slip away. For now, she’d sleep.