James could tell something was very wrong with the fourth floor of Runar's building right immediately after he went out of the stairwell. Without considering the ruined runes spreading on the walls caused by the Techzooka, the atmosphere and the decor were just off. The windows were all closed and boarded, the floor was only illuminated by weak lightbulbs dangling from the ceiling and protected by the barest lamps he had ever seen - though he could also see the symbols on them, hinting that they were more than they appeared. Unlike the second floor, the fourth wasn't a single open room, instead, it seemed to be a labyrinthine hallway with dozens of closed doors. There was no furniture, no decoration, no painting, just plain off-white walls with black symbols and, what truly worried him, oddly shaped groves in the cement, plaster, and padded floor, things he could only describe as claw marks.

None of his information about Runar mentioned anything about any kind of animal or even bestial fighter like his own Loedycan, and James doubted that a wild monster - for what else could be big enough to make such large marks and sneak in - had found its way up here, with all the thugs and security on the previous floors, and right under the runemaster's nose.

There was an unknown creature on the fourth floor, and it put a wrench in his plan.

----------------------------------------

Larry, Barry, Mark, and Jeffrey weren't feeling very good right now. They had just closed the store in advance, telling their customer that their employer had just set up an emergency meeting and they needed to go, and were now walking as fast as possible - running would attract unwanted attention from thieves and hungry Sicklers - to the warehouse accompanied by a pair of infused guards, wearing strange basic armor that was a mix between riot gear and sports equipment. Not that the duo of emotionless drones wore the most eye-catching gear out of the small group, Larry and Barry's white and black suits were quite the sight in any setting, and out there in the slums, they were even more remarkable.

Mark and Jeffrey also got some new stuff, though it was very recent. The two former goons of Soluble had agreed it was more probable their boss was just that worried about the incoming threat rather than them gaining his trust, understandably so, as they had been part of the group sent by Runar by proxy to raid Silhouette's home after all, and they hadn't surrendered as fast as those that now formed the Shadow Commando did, not to mention they had antagonized him and Larry and Barry previously. Really, the fact they were still alive and getting a decent pay far better than whatever they managed to racket or steal or get out of selling scrap with Soluble was a pleasant surprise. Even their former nemesis duo had been quick to let their old grudges go after a few work-intensive weeks.

The lizardman and the ratkin's new gear was relatively simple, compared to what the other brute force minions got. They now wore padded black leather pants and jackets with some small metal parts that would have been at home on bikers, though Feffrey's jacket was usually tied to his waist to avoid overheating because of his fur. In addition to the clothes they also got pendants, largish round pieces of metal with a single pearl-like item in the center, supposedly those were portable versions of Techlord's latest electroshields. And the weapons! How could they forget the weapons! Their brand new shiny daggers of black metal were beautiful things, and somehow they were even sharper than they should be, as they had tested on small sheets of metal when trying them out for the first time. Of course, along with the melee weapons, the duo had finally been trusted to have infused firearms - regular guns, not the energy launchers Larry and Barry got, but still more powerful than anything they could have ever hoped to get on their own.

Still, for all their valuable equipment and years of experience living in the slums, the small group didn't feel at ease. Their job was to catch the attention of any of Runar's men currently not in their base to lead them to the warehouse, where the workers had all been given a free day, and although they were equipped more than well enough to deal with any lambda thug or even a mage or a knight or two, there was always the risk of catching the attention someone higher up in the hierarchy of the runemaster's organization. To be specific, Silhouette had told them of one particular individual who might be willing to ignore a call to return to base in favor of antagonizing them. A certain someone the shopkeepers and their former enemies were more than familiar with after his latest assault on their workplace.

A certain someone Jeffrey was confident he could smell.

"Uhhh... I think he's here..."

Mark's scaly tail straightened at that while Larry and Barry stayed surprisingly calm once they got past the initial shivers down their respective spine.

"Don't worry guys, we're almost there!"

"Jeffrey, is he alone? This is very important."

The smallest member of the group scrunched his pink nose in search of additional nearby scents.

"I think? I can smell a few more people, but they're like everyone else?"

Mark was visibly holding back from pestering his oldest friend, but luckily for the lizard's temper, the ratkin was not the only member of the group with an overly developed olfactory sense, for that was also Larry's trick.

"Alright, they're getting in range for me. Yeah, there's the golden knight and a few other people around, but none of them have any trace of him on them, and they're also quite distant from him. I think those are the scouts the boss told us about."

The shorter bald brother with mutton chops nodded thoughtfully.

"He made too much of a mess last time, no one else is willing to follow him. Alright, the warehouse is right around the corner, so as soon as we see it, we run in without looking back, got that you idiots?"

Larry happily nodded, his greasy hair and oddly his goatee moving as his head moved, whereas Mark and Jeffrey just shared a look at the brothers' antics.

"Alright. Get ready. Three, two, one..."

As the group turned around the corner, suddenly a strong wind blew past them, so fast dust was raised and blinded most of their vision for a few seconds...

Only to fall back down and reveal the man in golden jousting armor covered in lightly glowing magenta runes, his arm raised and pointing a very familiar rapier of shining metal covered in similar violet symbols leaking energy at the group.

"Surrender, or fall to the blade of Pierce Evil."

----------------------------------------

Loedycan and Fluorine stood side by side as they stared at Speareau, Runar's white knight, as well as the various thugs and mages and armored foes accompanying the man, all of them wielding at least one piece of runic equipment and quite a few also bearing firearms. As magical water escaped from the ivory-tipped namesake weapon of the knight, the elite duo of James' infused readied themselves for a fight, copied in perfect synchronization by a dozen of others who had been permanently changed by James' infusion of shadows, their own two mages looking like grim reapers already beginning to write in their black grimoires with their enchanted quills.

Speareau let out a sigh as he twirled his spear, the water manifesting from it forming floating trails in the air.

"Very well. if you wish to throw away your lives, then I shall grant it. But enough talk, have at thee!"

The white knight leaped ahead, the tip of his spear aimed at Fluorine's head, and Loedycan jumped in the way to deflect the weapon with his metallic claws, phantom black flames suddenly emerging from the blades and from where his eyes should have been, the fire harmlessly passing through the black glass of the mask behind which the hollow sockets rested. The black flames and the unnaturally blue water clashed for the few seconds the opposing weapons were in contact until Speareau stepped back and twirled his spear once more, just in time for the ivory shoe of his shaft to block a ball of dark green fire thrown at his face by the goblin shaman, the movement also leading some of the magical water flowing from his weapon to form a projectile that flew in turn to Fluorine's head before it caught the attack with one his new gem-mounted gloves, the water turning to green while the wolfman and the spearman traded more blows until Fluorine deemed it ready and launched it back, forcing Speareau to step to the side to avoid both Loedycan's claws and the incoming magic acid.

But the leaders of the two groups weren't the only ones to fight, for the infused and Runar's men followed in the trio's footsteps. The infused fired their weapons at the thugs, aiming to get rid of any with a firearm on their person, and despite the runic mages' best efforts to form shields in time the corruptive bullets passed through and thugs fell. The infused in dark robes closed their books at the same time, and their shadows grew to spread to reach the thug and dark tendrils began to emerge and assault everything close enough. Runar's forces weren't idle either, though most of the thugs with firearms were being gunned down some managed to bring out their weapons and shoot blindly at the infused, only for a wall of shadows to rise every time and catch the bullets before they had to wound anyone, the runic mages, with panicked faces, wrote as fast as they could in their grimoires to both protect themselves from the dark tentacles and launch spells at the other side's magical forces to keep them occupied, and the knights tore through whatever shadowy appendage rose from the ground with their swords while keeping their enchanted shields in front of them to block the ranged assault, the combination of magic and metal barely enough to protect Runar's strongest non-elite goons from joining the ranks of bodies on the ground with blackness growing on their skin.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

As focused as they were on their fight, Fluorine, Loedycan, and Speareau still did their best to stay aware of how their underlings were doing, and Speareau didn't like what was happening one bit. Disregarding the two former warehouse managers that had become much stronger since their last encounter, Silhouette's forces were mowing his troops down. He never liked losing people, but he couldn't help with the duo fighting him, and he couldn't go all out either without risking casualties on his side. As a black metal claw covered in shadowy magical fire nicked at his white armor and he in turn cut away at the wolfman's dark fur with the ivory tip of his spear, the white knight couldn't help but wonder what were the other Runarian knights doing to leave him alone to fight such an obvious threat. A possible answer formed in his head, one that shocked him enough to lower his guard for a brief second, enough for Loedycan to strike at the white armor and send the man flying through the air until he gathered himself and formed a bubble of water to surround himself to cushion the fall and protect him while he got back into position.

There couldn't possibly be more of Silhouette's forces inside, surely? Otherwise, he might just have to stop worrying about casualties.

----------------------------------------

Things were going well for the Shadow Commando. They had just finished taking out everyone that was unarmored on the second floor, even those hidden beneath their workstations to be sure they wouldn't suddenly pop out and fire any runic gizmo they might have improvised during the attack, and the few knights that were still standing were well on their way to be put out of commission as well. Their shields might be able to block their bullets and energy blasts, but with all the black smoke in the air they couldn't see a thing and thus it was easy for members of the Commando to just sneak around behind them and fire at their blind spot. Although they did their best to keep their professionalism and their gear made look quite intimidating, on the inside, Silhouette's employees were all quite giddy with their performance. This was the first big operation where their presence truly mattered, and they were doing exceedingly well.

As the last knight fell and only the Commando was left standing, they couldn't hold it back anymore.

"God, that was so cool."

"Yeah! Techlord's grenade, the black smoke, us rushing in... Nine, I still have thrills."

"It was like we were one of those cool strike teams the big names have."

"Dude, we are a cool strike team for a big-name Super. It's just he isn't famous yet."

"Eh, I dunno, the boss doesn't strike me as the type to want fame and glory."

"Or infamy!"

"Or infamy."

"Forget about that stuff guys. Just look at us! We defeated a bunch of guys who would have absolutely destroyed us just a few weeks ago!"

"Sniff... My mum's gonna be so proud..."

"Alright, enough hyping ourselves up. We still have the rest of the building to take care of."

"I can't remember, are we supposed to go to the third directly or go to the first and meet up with the ground team before going back up?"

"Third."

"First."

"What? No, we keep going until we meet back up with the boss and Techlord."

"No, we go down to fetch and possibly support the ground team and then we go meet the boss."

"No, he's right, think about it: they're already on the fourth, since we're done here we go take care of the third so they won't be taken by surprise by a pincer attack."

"Yeah, but before that, we need to help the ground team clean up the first so that we don't get caught by a pincer attack."

Unseen by all, a three-eyed knight's temper was being vigorously tested by the ongoing stupidity.

"So... We split up and do both?"

"No, don't split up, that's rule number one. Remember the last time we split up? Little hint, everyone else died and we got a new job, and spoilers, I don't think we'll have the same luck twice."

"Okay, fair. So, what now? We argue until the ground team comes here and we rejoin later than planned with the boss?"

"We could try Shifumi."

"Uh?"

"Rock-paper-scissors."

"Oh! Yeah, sure."

"Guys, we don't have the time for everyone who disagrees to participate."

"Eenie meenie miney moe?"

"That's for kids, dude."

"And rock-paper-scissors isn't?'

"I'll have you know Shifumi is a highly respected tradition, you ignorant plebeian."

"Why you little..."

"Guys, what about a coin toss?"

"Uh, sure. What for what?"

"Heads, we go meet up and meet the brains of the operations, tails, we go down and meet the latest guys."

"That makes sense to me. Alright, anybody has a coin on them?"

"Uh... Drats, I think they were in my other pants."

"I never carry money on the job. If I die and they loot me, they're not getting anything."

"Dude, your gear."

"Yeah, but the boss would probably get them within the week if they used it."

"Uh."

"Guys, a little focus?"

"I have a coin on me, but it's a two-headed one."

"You cheater! We bet our watches on that coin!"

"Hey, none of you ever caught on in weeks, that's on you. Besides, you don't see me complaining about your cards, mister 'I always have an ace of hearts', um?"

"Jack! Don't tell me it's true!"

For Tristare, The Runarian Knight in charge of assassinations and intelligence, this was the last straw. Never before had he seen such sheer idiocy, at least not in sapient adults, and particularly not in a death squad that somehow managed to be ruthlessly efficient. He had hoped he could learn more by listening to them, but no, there was nothing to learn here, if anything he could feel some of his neurons quietly dying the longer the discussion went on. No, these cretins had nothing of value to reveal bar the bare minimums of the plan of attack Silhouette had come up with, and even that information was faulty. He had had enough, for the sake of Runar and his dwindling sanity, he had to get rid of these lemmings. Though what remained of his professionalism reminded him that torture might get something useful out of them, and thus it would be for the best to take them alive.

"-and I'm telling you, flip the bottle would be a fine replacement for a coin toss!"

"But how? Hell, even if it worked, we don't have any bottles either."

"Let's just use one of those guys!"

"Or one of their tools."

"Yeah! A sword is roughly bottle-shaped."

Jack swore he could hear someone gritting their teeth before he saw Bob suddenly falling limp on the ground.

"Bob!"

Jack was ready to ready to rush in, but he stopped himself. The way his colleague had fallen was weird. It wasn't someone tripping over or even having a heart attack, if anything it looked closer to one of those silent takedowns he had seen a more experienced mercenary do on one of his former jobs, just without the assailant, just the victim.

Wait...

"GUYS! STOP!"

The rest of the Commando, all ready to go and help their friend, froze in their tracks and turned to Jack.

"There's someone invisible! Stay togeth-"

Jack too fell to the ground, or more accurately, had been taken down by Tristare. The knight with a chainmail veil had to give credit to the idiot, for such an imbecile, he had caught on to the trick pretty quickly. The overwhelming stupidity of the group couldn't possibly be a foil, surely?

"Oh my god, they killed Jack!"

"I don't wanna die!!!"

No, the knight was reassured, they were genuinely dumb.

Still, the Commando followed the advice of their fallen comrade, they met up in the cent of the floor and grouped up, standing shoulder to shoulder and facing all possible directions to cover their backs, with a few even aiming up at the ceiling and down at the floor. Having a shapeshifting shadow boss taught you a few things about where opponents could come out from.

"So... Invisible guy. Wanna come out and talk?"

Silence.

"Uh, should have guessed so."

"Okay, what's the plan?"

"Shush, he could take us down-"

"Assuming it's a man, are we?"

"Fine, they could take us down despite the smoke, so my guess is they had developed senses beyond sight, so they hear everything, so don't talk and use sign language instead."

"What sign language? You mean the stuff Techlord taught us what, yesterday, in like, thirty minutes?"

"The mercenary stuff! I mean, we all went through some training before we went on jobs, right?"

"Uh..."

"I'm what you'd call a freelancer."

"I picked up a gun for the first time last year."

"I did go through some training, but I kinda sleep on the hand signs part. In my defense, I lived next to a Sickler nest at the time, so I was busy trying not to die at night."

"Alright, that one's fair. But seriously guys?"

"Dudes, you're assuming invisible menace over there can't see a thing. What if it's the opposite? What if they have Super vision and don't care about the smoke? What if they could see everything? Like, X-ray vision kind of stuff?"

The sole woman of the Commando furrowed her brows, not because of what was said, but rather because the very faint sound of gritting teeth reached her ears.

"So, enough tomfoolery. How do we take them out? The boss won't be around anytime soon, and I'm not sure the ground team has what it takes to deal with invisible threats."

"We could fire all at once in every direction, maybe even spin to cover more ground? Techlord said the new electrorifles can have sustained fire, like a ray, right?"

"Sure, but if mystery menace over here can avoid everything, they have a perfect opportunity to slip in and take us down all at once."

"I mean, I don't think they have a grenade, otherwise they could have used it already, so they would have to do the job manually."

"Yeah, and they don't seem that tough. I mean, they went after Bob and Jack when they were alone, and let's be honest, they weren't the best of the bunch."

"You're still salty over the cards thing?"

"I bet two weeks of pay on a friendly game with that filthy cheater! I could only eat canned food! CANNED FOOD!"

"Whoa, woe is you, able to eat actual food in clean containers."

"Canned tastes disgusting!"

"You take that back dude!"

"NEVER!"

She heard it again, that sound. And silently, without a single muscle on her face twitching, she got an idea.

"Dominic?"

"Yeah?"

"If you hate canned food so much, why not go after the cockroaches? They're free after all, and I'm sure Mischief would have shared."

Though black glass was hiding it now, she knew her colleague's face was probably redder than a tomato at this point. Dominic was a food diva, and there was one thing he hated above all else.

"BUGS. AREN'T. FOOD."

"Sure they are, Mischief loves them. Hell, most of us ate some roasted roach at some point. Not like there was else in the Sunken City."

"BUGS ARE THE FILTH OF NATURE, THE REJECTED UNEDIBLE WALKING ROT BROUGHT BY THE HERETICAL SINS OF MAN."

"Aren't bugs arthropods? And aren't those, like, one of the first things that evolved, long before fish and mammals and even plants?

"THEY ARE THE LEFTOVER MISTAKES OF AN UNCARING AND INCOMPETENT GOD."

The sound of gritting teeth grew louder and louder, and just as Dominic opened his mouth to continue his rant-

BANG.

The Commando looked in shock at their female colleague who had just turned around and seemingly fired at their friend, only to then turn to their friend and instead see the knight covered in chainmail and clutching at his shoulder standing just in front of Dominic. They ignored how blackness was already spreading from the wound - they had grown accustomed to all that infusion stuff - and instead all raised or lowered their weapons to aim at the now visible man, and as the world began to distort and his body quickly turned translucid they fired wildly, and the body became visible once more as it hit the ground.

As one they all turned toward her.

"Weaponized stupidity. Every self-proclaimed genius' downfall. Now, let's check on the two idiots and secure this guy before we go to the third."

"Don't you mean the first?"

"No."