“Huh? Inspection?” Ty furrowed his brow at the incoming magicarriage.

“I have another suspicion, shall we say,” Allen replied.

Ty’s face scrunched up, but he didn’t say anything. Amelia sighed to herself and Christopher continued to look confused. Allen set his jaw with determination. There was only a small amount of evidence, but he couldn’t let it slide if he had an opportunity. Even though he had taken a few years off, he was still a Spade, and a Spade always confirms their suspicions.

“Honestly, I’m kinda hungry,” Camila said. “Can we just go back.”

“No.” Allen raised his voice firmly. Camila actually recoiled visibly, but he wasn’t looking. Allen’s eyes were on the magicarriage as it approached. The midday sun was warm, but not uncomfortably so. The air hazed a little over the flat highway. A bead of sweat formed on Allen’s forehead, but not from the heat. It wasn’t from the stress of the situation either, it was from the anticipation. “Follow my lead; this is going to be a fight.”

He knew he was right, he had been right many times before, but he could never eliminate every doubt. It was almost as if being wrong would hurt him, his credibility that is. The problem was that he wanted to be wrong. He always wanted to be wrong and yet he never was.

Allen had Break fully overcharged, just in case. It would take nothing less to wound a level one-hundred warrior. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.

“Logically, I should have just walked away,” Allen told himself, “but I just can’t do that in this case.”

The group stood quietly as the magic truck approached. They all seemed anxious and confused, possibly uncomfortable, yet Allen had gained enough of their trust, or respect at least, that they let him do as he pleased.

Allen ran out into the road ahead of the magicarriage and waved it down. “Hey! Stop please!” he shouted. Christopher raised a hand to stop him, but Allen ignored it.

The magicarriage slowed to a halt in front of Allen and a man stuck his head out the side with a raised eyebrow. “What is it kid?” he said, looking a little annoyed.

“Oh, thank the gods you stopped,” Allen began, mirroring the astonished and confused looks of the other four members of his group. He noted the man’s nametag and decided to go with the monster attack spiel.

Name: [Unknown]

Human – Warrior – Level 113

“We’re being trailed by Razorcats, but none of us are leveled enough to take care of them. That and my elderly grandfather can’t keep up in his chair.” Allen bit his lip and looked out over the fields of tall grass on either side of the road. “Damnit, we never should have made this journey on foot,” he said anxiously before turning back to the man in the truck. “Please, sir, they already got my uncle, and he had all the money and our passports. We won’t be able to make a living in the town without our pa—”

“Alright alright,” the magicarriage driver started. “What do you want?”

Allen looked back at his group. Christopher and Camila were both had a deer in headlights look, but that was passable. Ty seemed judgmental, in a certain way, but the stiff expression fit him better. “We just need those papers,” Allen replied in a shaky voice. “I’ll… I’ll give you half the gold we have if you help us find the body.”

The driver seemed unimpressed, but at the same time he was clearly considering the offer of money.

“Please sir,” Amelia began. Allen spun around to find that the Healer had moved up in front of the others. Her hands were clasped in front of her chest and a tear streaked its way down her cheek. “Maybe he’s still alive… I can… help him,” she said, pulling a touching emotional display from nowhere.

“Damn, that’s powerful, A plus,” Allen thought, erasing his smirk before facing the driver again with a pleading look.

The man sighed and pushed the magicarriage door open before jumping out. “Razorcats have been spotted in the area,” he began, puffing his chest out just a little as a longsword appeared in his hand. “You all should be more careful on the road. There aren’t any walls between you and the monsters out here.”

“Oh, thank you so much!” Allen said.

Amelia turned around and buried her face in Camila’s shoulder, weeping softly. The Warrior’s face twitched but she managed to awkwardly pat her on the back.

“Getting him out of the truck was the hard part,” Allen thought.

“Where did they drag him off to?” The driver asked, walking past the group to the edge of the road.

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Allen shared a look with Amelia when she turned around. Her expression was a mixture of annoyance and smugness. Allen sneered back at her. “Out there,” he said, pointing at a spot of particularly tall grass. At the same time, his new spearpoint knife appeared in his hands. It was already laced with the neurotoxin he had bought earlier.

He and the stranger stopped at the edge of the road a few paces away.

“Out where? I can’t te—” the diver stopped in the middle of his sentence. His shoulders tensed and he lifted his sword and tried to face Allen. He was fast, but not fast enough. Allen whipped his knife up and stabbed in into the man’s back. The problem was that the blade barely sunk in more than a centimeter or two.

“HEY! What the fuck are you doing!?” The man screamed.

He tried to pull himself away and lift his blade, but Allen’s miasma covered left fist collided with his face in the next instant. The assassin released Break and Suppression at the same time, shattering the stranger’s cheekbone and sending him staggering to a knee with a cry of pain.

“What’s in the truck?” Allen asked blankly, nodding towards the magicarriage.

The driver spit onto the road. The right side of his face was crushed, and his eye was filling with blood. Still, he wasn’t dead. Killer Instinct told Allen he had done heavy damage and caused a disorienting affect from Suppression, but nothing lethal.

“Why the fuck do you care?!” The driver shouted, then he noticed Allen’s cold, accusatory expression. “Damnit, I should have known better. You’ve made a mistake kid,” he continued, his hand shaking as he tried to touch the destroyed side of his face. Magic surged around the driver’s sword before he lunged forward.

“Kill him!” Allen shouted.

Camila pulled out her sword and flew into action as Allen jumped to the side. The stranger swept his sword down through the air and a blade of magic surged off. It felt like a tornado of a thousand tiny blades, meant to shred whatever it touched.

Allen dodged under the diagonal attack and sprinted towards his enemy. The driver circled back, having trouble seeing with one eye. Camila dashed at him as well, narrowly avoiding another slash of shredding magic.

Her sword came within centimeters of the driver, but he dodged at the last second and sliced the Berserker across the side. Camila screamed as the sword’s magic tore apart her flesh like a chainsaw.

Allen circled around behind the driver while Camila retreated to their Healer. She dodged under another shredding blade, but the others were behind her. Ty summoned his shield from his inventory and moved to intercept the magic, but he wasn’t fast enough. Amelia ducked, but the magic still tore through her arm and the left side of her face.

“Shit!” Ty yelled, crouching down with the Healer and covering her with his tower shield.

Arcane magic swelled around Christopher as he formed a barrier between him and the fight, with the others behind him. Then he amassed a ball of crackling miasma in the palm of his hand. A whip of arcane energy sprung out of the ball in the next moment, effortlessly passing through the barrier and snaking towards the driver.

He sliced through it with his sword, but the severed end kept coming for him.

Allen lunged at the driver’s exposed back with Heavy Accelerate, yet somehow the man sensed him coming. Allen ducked under a furious slash, took another to his arm, grimacing as he felt the magic tear through his flesh and into bone.

Allen ducked down and punched the inside of the driver’s knee with Heavy Jab as Christopher’s magic found its mark on the driver’s face Allen thrust his poisoned knife into the man’s eye socket as he went to his knees again, destroying his remaining eye and sending him to his back. He screamed in pain for a few more seconds before Camila’s morning star suddenly smashed his head into the road.

Your group has defeated Warrior – Level 113

Your contribution: 76% Damage

For fighting an enemy above your means, you receive a 50% XP bonus!

Awarded: 2034 XP

The mostly healed Berserker looked over at Allen with a grimace, then pointed at his stomach. Allen looked down and groaned. The driver’s sword was impaling him through the gut.

“Fuck,” Allen muttered. “That could have gone smoother, but it’s over now.”

“Camila, you pull it out please,” Amelia said as she placed a hand on Allen’s shoulder.

Allen looked over to his side and recoiled in surprise. Amelia’s face was still half butchered with pieces of flesh hanging off exposed bone. “Uh… Your face is missing,” Allen started.

“I already stopped the bleeding so it’s not a problem,” the Healer said.

“Really, because it looks like a problem to me,” Allen replied, fully conscious of Camila grabbing the hilt of the sword that was stuck through him. He clenched his teeth as she pulled it out. His vision swayed, but he stayed on his feet. No blood poured out from the wound either.

“You’re stable, “Amelia said, ignoring Allen’s comment. “I’ll finish healing you after you tell us what’s going on.”

The Assassin cocked his head to the side and met everyone’s gaze. They all had the same look in their eyes. Dissatisfaction, confusion, and anger.

“Like I said, just an inspection. I’ll show you what I mean, follow me to the truck.”

Allen’s abdomen throbbed in pain, but he guided the group to the truck regardless. Just as he passed by the passenger side, the door swung open and a young man jumped out, eyes wide and bloodshot.

Name: [Unknown]

Human – Worker – Level 43

Allen back fisted the young man into the truck before he could even open his mouth. His head smacked the metal doorframe before he fell limply to the ground.

Ty hissed angrily.

“Help me get the crates out of the back,” Allen said, turning to glare coldly at Ty. “Don’t waste your sympathy.”

Ty recoiled in anger, but he agreed. In a minute, the group had taken one of the five crates out of the back of the truck. It was labeled with the word ‘potatoes’ on the side and looked completely unassuming.

“Did we just kill a man for his potatoes?” Ty asked sharply.

“Shut up,” Allen snapped. “Open it.”

He and Camila were the only two who grabbed the crate to pry its lid off. With a sharp crack, Allen slid it off to reveal the inside filled with potatoes.

“What?!” Christopher exclaimed suddenly; his face gone pale. “Get them out!”

“What? The potatoes?” Ty growled.

Allen and Camila both pushed the crate onto its side, spilling a wave of potatoes onto the road, and with it, four bodies.