Before Azalea could think of a response to this unexpected question, the doors to the tavern burst open with such force that nearly every person in the taproom - Azalea included - jumped, and turned to see who had just arrived. A solitary figure stood in the now bright light of the outside street. His face was cast in shadow so they couldn’t make out the details of his expression, but it was clear from his body language and how he was turned that he was looking directly at the people at the bar. More accurately, he was glaring directly at Azalea.
“Killer!” Patsy gasped. “Give it up, you can’t attack her in here. This is a no PvP zone!”
The stranger stepped across the threshold, his stiff leather boots stomping on the worn wooden boards of the floor, and strode directly for the target of his attention. Azalea stood on instinct, even though she knew there couldn’t be any fighting here. Caius and Patsy both rose with her, and the grizzled old warrior stepped forward so he was half-covering her, one hand on the hilt of his sword.
“Back off,” Caius warned the stranger. “We might not be able to fight you in here, but if you annoy us too much, I’ll drag you outside and kill you myself.”
Killer offered him no more than a quick sneer before returning his attention to Azalea. “Don’t bother. You so much as touch me, and this entire city will fall on your head. You’re the outsiders here.”
The rest of the tavern had fallen into a nasty silence at Killer’s arrival, and at this last comment, several people grumbled uncomfortably. It was clear that they weren’t sure of his words, yet nobody spoke up to contradict him. Noticing this, the sneer on his face stretched into a fierce grin. It was the way a wolf showed its fangs before striking, Azalea thought. Then she mentally shook herself. This was just another player in the game. Someone who had to gang up on innocent players to try and steal their belongings.
Killer turned slowly to face Caius, his grin widening. He showed no fear, which was - in Azalea’s opinion - a clear indicator that he knew nothing of their guild. “Please. All that armor you’re wearing? I’d cut you to pieces before you could draw that sword.”
“Well, if speed is everything,” a voice came from behind Killer, “then you’re really stupid, as each one of us is faster than you.”
Killer’s eyes widened, and he spun on the spot, one hand pulling out the sword at his waist. He’d swung before he knew what he was doing, but Oscar showed no sign of reacting as the blade passed harmlessly through the air in front of him. He shook his head slowly, his brown eyes never leaving Killer’s. “You can’t even swing a sword properly, and you think you could touch Caius? He’d beat you without the sword. Now get lost.”
Killer made no move to leave, but he did take a full step back, putting distance between himself and Oscar. He seemed unnerved by how quickly the rogue had appeared behind him, and without any sign of entrance. Several pairs of eyes flickered to the door, which was still closed. How the hell had he gotten in without that door opening?
“This is a free city,” Killer snarled, quite a bit less certain than he’d been a moment ago. “I can be wherever the hell I want to be.”
“Not tonight, you can’t,” Oscar quipped back. There was no sign of anger or hatred in his voice, and his face was quite even. All the same, a cold aura of silent intimidation rolled off of him like a physical wave. He had quite the scary demeanor when he wanted to, Azalea thought with a shiver. Clearly, Killer - being right in front of it - was feeling its effects as well. Finally, the bandit player took a step back and to the side, almost unconsciously moving himself closer to the exit.
“It doesn’t matter,” he spat, for all his bravado moving very quickly to the exit. “You’re too late anyway. There’s nothing you can do. And if you even think about following me out and attacking me, I should let you know my guild is nearby, and we outnumber you two-to-one.”
Azalea, in her own estimation, was far from what you would call a student of body language. But she would have been willing, in that moment, to bet everything she owned - both in-game and out - that Killer was lying through his teeth. But it didn’t matter. He practically bolted from the room, still keeping an eye on Oscar as he retreated. He very nearly made a Killer-shaped hole in the door as he scurried away. As soon as the door swung shut, the sound of quiet chuckling could be heard from the other people in the room.
“What the hell was he talking about?” Caius asked, turning to regard Oscar. “What are we too late to stop, now?”
At that, Oscar’s face set in angry lines. Before he answered the question, he stalked over to the bar. For a man that was clearly stomping in temper, he made very little noise across the old floorboards. “Our loot. They raided the marketplace almost as soon as you left.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Wait,” Azalea said, leaning forward. “How much did they get away with? Who did they kill?”
“Nearly everyone, by the sounds of it,” Oscar said sourly, accepting a tankard from Brian, and paying for it. “I know Tankbabe got away based on the description I got, and they say a small chibi avatar made an escape as well.”
“Fluffypie,” Azalea guessed. Oscar’s shrug was all but a confirmation of it. “Damn. Kyraa’s not going to take that well.”
Oscar let out a snort at that, nearly spitting up some of his ale. “Understatement of the century, Azalea.”
“Why did you come here first?” Caius asked. Azalea glanced at him to see that his eyes were narrowed. “You could have at least tried to save some of the loot.”
Oscar shook his head firmly. “Not a chance. Even if I was able to get to where the stall was, there’s no way I’d be able to get out in one piece.”
“What makes you say that? You’re sneaky enough.”
“Not for this. The whole market turned into a battlefield. As soon as that one guild started killing the Sisters, word is that every player in a half-mile radius ganked them. Now it’s a roiling battlefield. Players have been running from it since the fight broke out.”
Caius jumped to his feet at once, leaving his half-empty tankard sloshing on the bar. “Right. Azalea, let’s get out there. You too, Oscar. And if we find Riley on the way, we’ll have the full squad.”
Azalea was already on her feet by the time Oscar was able to come up with his indignant reply. “What? Callus, there are dozens of players in that market right now. Probably almost a hundred already. We can’t take on that many.”
“We don’t have to fight them all,” Caius said. “It’ll be very profitable even if we can only survive a few minutes. But we’re going to try to reclaim as much of our loot as possible. We’re really only accelerating our timeline, if you think about it.”
Even as he answered, he was already walking across the taproom to the door, Azalea hot on his heels. Reluctantly, Oscar followed suit, offering one longing glance at his tankard before unslinging his bow. Azalea heard him muttering something under his breath, but she couldn’t quite make out the words. She followed Caius out of the tavern, only sparing half a glance back at the bar for the baker Patsy, who looked completely thrown off by this rapid turn of events.
There were quite a few players on the street when they exited the tavern, all of them running in the opposite direction of the market. They veered violently to the side as they saw Caius, Oscar, and Azalea step outside, all armed. Just how bad was the fight if they looked that scared? Surely public fighting was a common sight in this city, she thought. How else would all the robberies happen?
They found fighting sooner than expected, and long before they reached the market. Barely a hundred yards away from the tavern, a shadowy figure leaped out from behind a nearby building with a sword and swung down at Caius with a vicious attack. But Caius, already on edge and with his gear ready, was able to bring his shield up to block the attack just in time. With a resounding clang that set Azalea’s teeth on edge, the sword bit into the shield by an inch or two, then held firm.
Caius grunted under the impact of the attack. “Your strength must be high. At least C-Rank, if you’re able to hit me that hard.”
He twisted his shield to the left, wrenching the player’s arm. With a cry of surprise and pain, he was forced to let go of the weapon, and Caius’ retaliatory attack slashed him across the chest before he could do anything else. He fell with a grunt onto the cobbled street, and a moment later transformed into a small pile of items and coins. Caius instinctively stooped to collect the loot, but the sound of more yelling distracted him.
Three other people were now running into sight, from where the first player had appeared. Two of them had swords drawn and charged in, while the third held up a crossbow and pointed it directly at Caius. Idiots, Azalea thought, once again surprising herself with the sudden change in attitude. Maybe Caius was finally rubbing off on her. She lifted her left hand, and, using the silver bracelet on that arm, sent a fan of flames rippling through the air. One of the swordsmen saw it coming and dived down to avoid it, but the bandit with the bow caught the full force of it. He was thrown back onto the ground, and a second later a grey-shafted arrow sprouted out of his chest, courtesy of Oscar.
The first of the three bandits reached Caius. Like his friend, he brought his sword down in one massive stroke. Even Azalea, who sucked at fighting, knew that was a horrible idea. Thanks to the training that Caius had been giving her these past few weeks, she could tell that he was overextending himself. She knew enough to see the difference between the two fighters, at least. One was clearly influenced heavily by video games, and so didn’t seem to have any knowledge of how to actually fight. Caius didn’t even have to use his shield. He smacked the sword out of the way with his own, then thrust it into the player’s chest, killing him instantly.
The last player never got the chance to get into a fight with Caius. By the time he’d regained his feet, he saw his three compatriots dead on the ground, reduced to the items they’d carried. He let out a loud curse and began running away in the direction of the market. Before he’d made it more than a few feet, Oscar put an arrow in his back.
“I’ll be damned,” the rogue said. “He actually had some friends waiting outside for us. Funny, that didn’t feel like a two-to-one fight. Where do you think that coward is now?”
“He’s either hiding like the coward he is, or he’s making his way to the market,” Callus replied, sheathing his sword. “Let’s pick up this stuff, and follow through.”
All three of them hurried to collect the fallen items, passing it over to Azalea who shoved it into her bag of holding without thinking. She really hoped that Caius was right and that they could profit from this encounter. If she died for nothing, she’d lose her bag, and that would probably be the worst part of it all.