The man was built like a bull, wide chested, flat-faced, skinny legs. His clothing was all leather, without an inch of skin uncovered from just below his chin to his toes. Several daggers were prominent on his body, strapped to hip and thighs. Their exposed blades glinted in the alley’s dimness.

Elf Warrior (Lvl 28)

Cass’s hands tightened again around her staff.

Level 28? That was three levels higher than the assassin, Levina, and two levels over Alyx.

He stood casually in the middle of the alley, his hands resting on his belt, in easy reach of the larger daggers hanging from either hip.

“And what would an esteemed lady of Veldor need with the humble smithies of Hervet?” His tone carried the biting friendliness of a crook asking politely for your wallet. “I would’ve thought you’d send the butler for somethin’ as simple as a trip to the smith’s.”

Two more people stepped out of the shadows behind Marco.

Was this our tail? Cass asked.

No, the tail backed off for now. Those appear to be two of the mercenaries we met on the dock. The Gulls, was it?

How many are there? Cass asked.

There were five on the dock, Salos said. Though this man in front wasn’t one of them.

That meant it would be five verses at least six? There was herself (lvl 19), Alyx (lvl 26), Salos (lvl 14), Marco (lvl 34), and Telis (lvl 27). Could they handle six or more?

The smart move was deescalating the situation. She didn’t know what the Red Gulls wanted, but surely the public knowing they attacked their clients in the street wasn’t one of them.

“Do I know you?” Alyx crossed her arms over her chest, every bit of her tone a direct challenge.

“Don’t suppose you would,” the man said. “You’re fancy servant did all the negotiating without you. She said it would be a simple enough job. You’d take several sub-level 27 members and the lot of you would try your hand at the Uvana Trial. She promised it would be a great opportunity for us. That mercs like us are never offered a chance like this.”

“That’s all true. You are a member of the Red Gulls, then?”

“Member?” The man laughed. “Try boss?”

“You were paid,” Alyx said. “What more do you want from me?”

“Several of my people didn’t make it back from your little expedition.” He leaned forward, towering over Alyx, his teeth on full display in a predator’s snarl.

This seemed like the perfect opportunity to offer condolences and then push past him.

Alyx didn’t so much as flinch. “That is the risk we all take when we enter a place like Uvana.”

“Fair enough,” the man said, though his voice suggested anything but. He stepped back, drawing a dagger from his chest and turning it over in his hands. “The weak will die in a place like that. And yet, I find it wasn’t the weak that died.”

“Get to your point,” Alyx ordered. “I have places to be.”

The man pointed his dagger at Alyx. “Where is my sister?”

“Your sister?” Alyx repeated.

“Levina, level 23 when the lot of you set out. The team’s assassin?”

Alyx shrugged. “The weak die.”

The man’s jaw clenched. “Where is her body?”

“Crushed under the hooves of the Lord of the Pass.” The ghost of a smile slipped across Alyx’s lips.

Cass scurried up behind Alyx. This was the opposite of deescalation. “Is this a good idea?”

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“I have this under control,” Alyx whispered back. “Stand back.”

Cass scooted back. There wasn’t a lot of space between the man in front and the pair behind.

Marco had the first inch of his sword drawn. His eyes flipped between the two behind them with suspicion.

“You left her there?” His hand clenched around his drawn dagger. His free hand grabbed a second from his side. “I was promised that you would not try the Pass.”

“And I was promised your team would work for me,” Alyx snapped back. “When Levina tried to assassinate me, all deals were off.”

“Assassinate you?” the man growled. “If that was the plan, you would be dead.”

“Want to try it?” Alyx taunted, taking a step toward him. “It didn’t work out so well for your sister.”

Does he really not know? Cass asked.

It doesn’t matter, Salos snorted. If he knows, he’ll never admit it. If he doesn’t know, it just means his people were working behind his back. He’d hardly be in a rush to admit that, either.

“I’ve heard enough,” the man shouted. “Kill the noble brat. We’ll send her soul to Dexterity in Levina’s place.”

“You can try.” Alyx darted forward, her short sword already in hand.

The mercenary boss parried Alyx’s sword strike, returning with a flurry of fast jabs of his twin daggers. Alyx flickered out of sight as one blade pierced through the space her heart had been but a moment before. She appeared to the side and slashed down his exposed flank.

Gritting his teeth, he contorted around, slashing back at her in return. His dagger skimmed across her chest, blood trailing through the air behind it.

The blood pooled in the air beside his off-hand, coalescing into a swirling ball. He swung his second dagger down and the ball exploded, the blood snaking through the air into his own wounds. The cut Alyx had made along his side stitched itself closed before their eyes.

He grinned, his teeth glinting. “That all you got?”

“Hardly.” Alyx threw herself at him again, their blades clashing in a singing roar of metal.

Behind, Marco fought the pair of thugs. One was a wiry man with a short sword, the other a stocky woman with an ax.

The man rushed the guard. Marco deflected the sword strike with his buckler. The blow knocked the man to the side as the woman followed it up with a heavy downward chop.

Like water, Marco slipped around the chop, punishing the wide movement with a slash of his own. It cut deep through the woman’s leathers.

The wiry man rebounded off the alley wall, racing back into the fray with a manic grin, his sword aiming for Marco’s back.

The ax woman pushed through the pain, swinging wildly again.

The guard made a quarter turn and half a step back, avoiding the wiry man’s stab by millimeters and returning with another heavy backhand with his buckler. In the same movement he wove between rapid ax swings, his own sword snaking out and biting deep into the woman’s shoulder and hip.

Cass’s hands clenched around her staff, uncertainty growing. Alyx had said to stay back. That she could handle this.

Alyx’s fight was fast and furious. A flurry of daggers followed every sword strike. They bobbed and weaved around the blades in a dance of flashing steel. Cass wasn’t sure she could intervene without getting in Alyx’s way in this tight alley.

And Marco certainly needed no help. His opponents were both leveled in the late teens where he was 34. The level gap was clear in his command of the fight.

But these three were not the only opponents.

There are more of them, Cass whispered across her bond to Salos. She could feel their movement in the dark with Atmospheric Sense. Lurking. Waiting for the right moment.

Indeed, Salos said. You should be prepared to Wind Step away if things go poorly.

You want me to ditch Alyx? Now?

Well, I don’t want you to die with her, if that’s what you are suggesting.

Are things that bad? Cass asked.

Hard to say. Her guard is more than capable of handling his two. I imagine he could take one or two more with little trouble. Your friend, on the other hand? I don’t know if she can handle the one she’s got.

A fourth thug materialized out of the shadows behind Alyx.

Alyx didn’t see them, her sword entwined with the mercenary boss’s blade. And even if she saw them, she would not be fast enough to turn to stop the dagger coming for her back.

Alyx had said to stay back.

But Cass couldn’t just sit still and let Alyx and Marco handle this alone. She should help. It was what teammates did.

And she was their teammate now.

Cass stepped forward, her staff swinging. It slammed into his head and he went flying into the wall with a thump. Blood trickled down his temple. He didn’t move, but Atmospheric Sense could feel him breathing.

Human Rogue (Lvl 18)

He was weaker than her. Only by a single level, yet she’d thrown him across the alley with that one attack. She hadn’t even used Elemental Manipulation or Wind Blade. That had been just Staff Mastery and raw Strength.

Staff Mastery buzzed with excitement, adjusting her hands on her staff and widening her stance.

Another rogue jumped Marco. The guardsman effortlessly stepped out of the way of the rogue’s daggers as he shoved his sword through one of his initial opponents.

Alyx slashed through the mercenary’s whip of blood. The cut section dropped to the ground, staining the cobble street crimson. The rest of the bloody mass retracted into the orb floating by the mercenary boss’s head as his daggers danced out for Alyx’s flesh.

Cass’s opponent staggered to his feet. His eyes were of focus. His dagger was still in his hands.

“Stop this,” Cass shouted at him. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

A grimace spread across his lips. He raised his dagger and bolted toward her.