[20:02 | April 11, 2035]

Shin leaned against the guardrails of the bridge. His arms hung over the edge. The snow began to collect on his his hood and shoulders. Every few minutes, small groups of adventurers passed by the bridge behind him.

All of the sudden, Fuyumi appeared beside him, copying his posture.

“You’re looking awfully dramatic.” She said playfully.

“I was looking for something along the lines of ‘Sorry, I kept you waiting’ but I guess you never learned manners.” Shin quipped.

“How rude of you!” Fuyumi replied while slapping Shin’s shoulder.

“We should get going. This isn’t exactly the right time to be making jokes.” Shin added.

“Boooooring.” Fuyumi said while flipping her hair back with her hand.

“I’ll be following behind you.” She said, shifting to a serious tone.

As she said that, she disappeared in the falling snow once more. Shin shrugged the snow off of him and began walking toward the forest. He figured that the easiest way to find him would be intercepting the first big group of people moving toward the city. He would likely be traveling in a carriage.

Shin followed the path, continuing from the bridge. When he passed the treeline, he walked off the road and blended into the trees. Fuyumi described Syros’ physical appearance to Shin while they were walking.

Shin felt awkward as he felt like he was talking to himself. After all, Fuyumi was invisible. He couldn’t even make out her position based on footprints. If she was following him closely, there were no footprints to be found anywhere near him.

Eventually, they came upon a fork in the road.

“Should we wait here? He wouldn’t come from any other direction. We can’t afford to gamble on one road over the other.” Shin asked.

“That would be ideal, except this is a risky spot. We’re pretty likely to be found since the paths converge here...” Fuyumi replied.

“We could split up.” Shin suggested.

“Assuming we’re not too far up each road, that could work. If one of us finds him, we could let the other person know before initiating any kind of attack. We’ll have to use our surroundings since we don’t know how high level his party members are going to be.” Shin continued.

“That’s fine with me.”

Shin and Fuyumi split ways. Shin went to the left route, which led to Levendale. Fuyumi took the right route. Shin hasn’t gone too far down the right route to know where it led to.

After walking down the path for five minutes, Shin found a vantage point atop of a boulder. He was able to see anyone who passed by. The trees around him were tall enough to shroud him in their shadow.

He sat in wait looking over the pass. Several minutes passed without any carriages passing by. However, several small bands of adventurers came and went.

“How are things on your side, Fuyumi?” Shin sent in a message.

“Nothing new. I saw two carriages come by, but none of them looked like they would have Syros in them.” She replied.

Shin began to wonder if they had missed him already. However, that shouldn’t be possible since these two roads were the only two paths leading into the city.

“I think this might be him.” Fuyumi sent in another message.

“I’m going in to get a closer look.”

Shin waited anxiously. Shortly after, he received another notification.

“It’s definitely Syros. He’s in a group of ten people. I can see his carriage alongside ten people walking beside it. They’re well equipped. I’ll wait for you.”

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“I’m on my way.” Shin replied.

He began moving from his position, jumping down from the boulder. He cut through the forest running directly toward Fuyumi’s location. Shrubs and trees brushed past Shin as he ran. He couldn’t break into a full sprint since that would make too much noise. He had been humbled by his stealth capabilities once before.

As he approached the road, the top of the carriage could be seen over a small hill of snow. Fuyumi suddenly appeared in front of Shin with her arm stuck out, gesturing for him to stop. Shin nearly tripped as he abruptly came to a stop and knelt down behind Fuyumi.

“All ten guards are NPCs.” Fuyumi whispered.

“Did he plan on doing the quest alone? It could be that he wants all the rewards to himself.” Shin replied.

“No clue, but that makes it easier for us. His greed will be his downfall.” She said in a serious tone.

“I’ll take care of them one by one. You can support me from the rear.” Fuyumi continued.

“Giving orders, huh?”

Without an answer, Fuyumi disappeared from sight.

Shin laid down on the hill overlooking the road. The carriage was moving slowly. Shin estimated that it wasn’t any faster than eight kilometers per hour. The horses pulling the carriage were visibly struggling in the heavy snowfall.

Shin took out his bow and prepared and arrow. He decided to use regular arrows as the poison arrows were reserved for Syros himself.

Fuyumi, invisible, snuck behind the guard at the rear end of the group. She made her way in front of him, grabbed him by the neck, and shoved him down into a nearby bush. She ended him with one strike to the throat with her dagger. The other two guards nearby were completely oblivious.

Shin had an arrow drawn and held it in a ready position, aiming at the rear guard.

Fuyumi appeared from the bush and made a hand signal to Shin, signalling for him to deal with one of the guards walking next to each other. She then disappeared once more.

Shin released his grip and the arrow flew straight into the guard’s neck. He immediately followed up with two more arrows to their torso. The guard stumbled and then fell over once the other two arrows connected. He used [Spatial Mastery] on the impaled arrows to drag the body into the bushes. However, he couldn’t do anything about the blood.

Shin and Fuyumi continued executing the guards one after another until they were only left with the two front guards.

They were surprised that Syros hadn’t noticed yet. With that passing thought, Shin peeked into the carriage window and found Syros sitting with his arms crossed. He was completely unfazed.

Seeing this, Shin fired an arrow at the coachman. He fell over in his seat, clutching his wound. Shin stood up from his position and stared at Syros through the window. Syros met his gaze.

“I’ve had enough of this! Bandits, have you no shame?! Face the wrath of the goddess!” Syros shouted, kicking down the door of the carriage.

Syros slung his enormous war hammer over his shoulder. It was the most intricate weapon Shin had seen yet. Two golden snakes ran down the handle. Its head was adorned with gold embellishments and a golden cross. Along the end of the hammer’s head were spikes that ran along the edges.

Syros’ armor covered him from head-to-toe, ornate as his hammer. His armor appeared to be made of silver and gold. His back was covered by a large red cape embroidered with the Stormwatch guild sigil.

Shin swapped to his secondary quiver, carrying the poison arrows.

Fuyumi leapt out of the snow above Syros. With two hands on her blade, she ferociously swung downward into Syros. At the same time Shin, fired an arrow directly at Syros’ head.

Syros swiftly blocked the arrow with his armguard and knocked Fuyumi’s blade out of her hand with his hammer. Fuyumi flinched but quickly retreated backwards. Shin reached his arm out at her dagger.

“Fuyumi! [Collapse]!”

Shin pulled Fuyumi’s dagger back towards her. She jumped up and snatched it out of the air.

Syros jumped on top of the carriage.

“Don’t think so!”

He swung his hammer at Fuyumi as she caught her dagger. Fuyumi looked down and managed to flip backward by kicking off of the hammer. Fuyumi disappeared into the snow.

“You brat.” Syros called out.

He turned around and pointed his hammer at the air.

“O’ goddess, grant me strength.”

A surge of golden energy burst from the base of his hammer. His hammer glowed with a golden aura.

He followed up by slamming his hammer down on the roof of the carriage. The roof crumbled and partially collapsed, leaving a massive hole between his legs.

Shin saw a yellow light gather around him. He instinctively dodged out of it. Shin looked back at his previous location. A tremendous pillar of light erupted from the ground and stretched high into the sky. Its shockwave pushed Shin backwards slightly.

He turned his focus back to Syros. When he turned his head, he was met with a beam of golden energy barely missing his face. Fuyumi had kicked Syros’ arm, causing him to narrowly miss.

She followed up by slashing his abdomen with her blade. Sparks flew as the dagger collided with his armor. The blade left a scar in the armor but didn’t cut through to his flesh.

“Gyaaah!” Syros shouted while elbowing Fuyumi.

“Fuyumi!” Shin called out while leaping off the hill toward Syros.

Shin called his dagger out to his hand while midair.