Henry couldn’t remember the last time he tasted a coppery tang in his mouth.

Most of his missions with Cha Bell were carefully planned affairs. It was rare that he ever saw battle. Rarer still for his targets to see him coming, at least not until it was too late.

He wiped the blood from his lip and picked himself up off the floor.

Seunghyo’s eyes had picked him out of the shadows. It was nearly impossible, but not unexpected. During their time together, Henry had grown fond of the boy. He’d proven himself more than capable and had a strong moral standard which commanded respect even if Henry only offered it begrudgingly.

The three of them watched him carefully.

As they should, he thought to himself. He rose up slowly, but it was a show. The blow hadn’t stunned him and he wasn’t hurt in the least. He had contingencies if one or all of them pushed in on him. In fact, he had been hoping for it.

Henry was in his element. It’d been weeks of fighting the frozen players in the icy wastes or the more deadly monsters from the man-made gate underground. The frostbitten posed no real threat in smaller numbers, but they were dull and uninteresting creatures. The monsters, on the other hand, were decidedly deadlier and more difficult for Henry to face-off against.

But living players, especially Seunghyo and his ilk were what he was made for.

The youngest of the three stepped forward and held up a hand. It glowed momentarily before launching a magic spell directly at him.

The spell was a puny thing, meant for bigger and slower opponents. Henry side-stepped it easily and launched himself at the girl with [double step]. He was quick, faster than the girl had realized based on her lack of a reaction.

The dagger at his side was in front of him in one motion, poised to run his target through before-

Wham!

The skill hit him with such force that it cancelled out his own momentum and pushed him backwards into the wall. His body moved instinctively and he slid sideways away from his opponents straight into a shadow.

[Shadow cover] concealed him in the darkness, camouflaging him to his opponents. It was a simple and effective tool for assassins, but lesser known was its secondary effect. He stepped clear of the shadow and moved into another, then another. The effects dissipated if he attacked or was attacked, but there was a delay when he stepped out a shadow. Just long enough for him to move from cover to cover.

He watched as Seunghyo walked right past him. He could easily reach out and plunge a dagger into the man’s breast, but the shield knight was close. Maybe he was quick enough to avoid her counter-attack or maybe she would be so shocked by her former lover’s death that he could disappear into another shadow. Maybe not.

He let the pathfinder move away and waited for an opening. The three of them were well-trained, even the young magic-user. They stayed in a tight formation without any gaps or too much distance between them. If Henry made a move to engage one at close range, the other two could easily cut him down.

Of course, Henry didn’t need to attack at close range. He held the handle of his dagger with both hands and pulled. His left hand came away with the dagger while his right came away with a copy.

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“Boo,” he whispered. He couldn’t help himself, it was just too much fun.

The dagger took flight and cut through the air, directly at the young scholar. It clattered harmlessly against the knight’s shield who held it out just in time to defend her young ward.

“There’s more where that came from.”

With each wave of his hand, Henry sent a dagger flying at the trio. Each one was blocked by a shield or cut down by a short sword before it reached its intended target.

“Willow!” the shield knight shouted.

“On it!” the young girl returned. And without another word, she was off, down the tunnel towards the control room Henry had just come from.

For a moment, Henry just stood there. It wasn’t often that his opponents took off mid-fight whether in terror or otherwise.

“Of course,” he said with a laugh. “The old man and the onion knight. Ha!”

On his way out of the control room, he looked back just long enough to see a large armored figure drop out of the gate. Whatever it was, it looked formidable. And based on how quickly the girl had run off, he was right.

“Is that wise?” he taunted. “The three of you had trouble enough and now…”

Hana lifted her shield so that the lip was just below eye level and Seunghyo stepped back so that his shoulder was behind hers, giving him partial cover from her shield.

The Frenchman’s voice trailed off as his mouth went dry. With the young magic-user, the trio had been well-trained but unseasoned. The way that Seunghyo and his ex-wife were constantly moving back to protect and defend their young assistant was admirable, but she was their weakness. And now, she’d taken herself out of the equation.

Neither spoke a word, but they moved in tandem. Henry sent one, two, three daggers in their direction but each one clattered harmlessly against the shield. Before he can put any distance between them, Seunghyo’s short sword thrusts through and comes within inches of running him through. The dagger met the sword’s point and turned it away, but the impact was enough to pull Henry out of line.

Shit.

The shield knight’s attack is no less furious. A nasty chop meant to lop his head off. Henry heard the air run along the metal blade edge as it swept past his ear.

The two of them made a good team. Henry was having trouble finding openings to attack, but worse still, he wasn’t able to step into any shadows and disappear. The knight stepped forward and cut a wide arc, her sword glowing. He dodged with space to spare, but the sword cut a chunk out of the wall. Before he could respond, Seunghyo was on him, making a flurry of light strikes meant to push him back.

Merde! He cursed himself for his foolishness. The girl had been their singular weak point and without her, they would eventually tire him or corner him.

He was out of options.

Henry used [double step] to put some space between himself and his pursuers. From experience, he knew it would buy him less than a second, but it was enough time to dig into his coat pocket and produce the only two things that would allow him to get away.

The research drive and unmarked steel cylinder clattered onto the floor.

“Is that-?”

One thing Henry had learned was where to look. Monsters, dangerous though they were, had little to no intelligence. You could keep your eyes on their hands and feet to see where they were going, how they would attack. People were different. With people, you watched their eyes.

Two pairs of eyes focused on the research drive and the sample case. By the time they looked back up, Henry had already wrapped himself in the shadows and felt the tug of his [shadow step].

***

“Godammit!”

Hana realized what was happening too late. She pumped her legs hard to close the distance before the skill completed. [Shadow step] was a teleportation skill. It allowed its user to set an anchor point and then step into a shadow to instantly teleport there. It had been how her party had been captured when Seunghyo betrayed them.

But [shadow step] had a short delay before the skill completed. A moment when the caster would move through time and space, but could be followed.

“Hana, don’t!”

She heard him, but her mind had focused only on the man who had nearly killed her father and brother. Who had turned Seunghyo against her. For a brief moment, she was blinded by anger and rage.

The dark shadowy portal quickly shrunk from view. Hana realized she wouldn’t be able to reach it in time, but her momentum carried her forward. She was dimly aware of Seunghyo close behind her, trying to stop her.

The inky blackness closed in on itself, but before it disappeared completely, she saw a slight glint of light flash into existence. A blinking light. No, a spinning object thrown back through the portal and directly at her.