The three people in front of him had no idea how to react to such a casual introduction, Shaun had considered how he would approach the situation in the moments before stepping into view. He immediately ruled out attacking as he didn’t know what intention they had and starting out with violence would not be the best first impression. He had also considered acting like finding them was a dream come true, he could tell them some story about how hard it had been in the tunnels and that finding more people gave him hope but he ruled that out as well because if they really did have good intentions his level would be a giveaway that he hadn’t just been sitting idly by or wandering the tunnels. Acting calm and treating the situation like he would if he was introducing himself to someone that he had met back home was his best bet to getting a better grasp of the situation at hand.
“Why are you all alone? Where is the rest of the group who got brought to the tutorial with you?” the warrior asked, with a quick identify Shaun saw that his name was Jason and he was level 4 like himself. Looking at the rogue named Paul he was also level 4 and lastly the archer Daniel who was the same level.
Directing his attention back to Jason, Shaun replied “I’m not sure to be honest Jason, we spilt up a while ago. I couldn’t tell you where they are right now.” It was true in a sense, he had no idea where the other group was and technically he had split with Gabe and Eric to scout ahead and he didn’t know exactly how far back they were.
The warrior, caught slightly off guard from Shaun using his name, quickly recovered and gave his party a look before they all started moving forward. “That’s a shame, you see we are under instructions to find and bring people back to Ruin. Its rare that we run into people all on their own in these tunnels. Usually, people don’t survive without a team to fight with. But here you are all alone Shaun, pretty strong too.”
That caught Shaun off guard, why exactly were they out looking for people? Who had given them instructions and what the hell was Ruin? He didn’t really have time to contemplate these questions as the three of them were moving towards him, they hadn’t even lowered their weapons. He wasn’t an idiot, he knew where this was going but what annoyed him the most about the entire situation he was now in was that he wasn’t going to get answers to any of his questions.
“So you’re the good guys right? And who is giving you instructions? What is Ruin?” It was worth a try at least he thought.
With a chuckle the Warrior just replied “You know, it really doesn’t matter.” And with that they made their move to attack.
Shaun was prepared for this, he had been preparing and formulating a plan while they were speaking. Target number 1 was going to be the other rogue, they were the only one who would be able to detect him if he was in stealth. Second, he would deal with the archer, removing the need to worry about a ranged opponent and lastly, he would deal with the warrior. That was if he didn’t die before then.
As Jason ran right at him Shaun didn’t move, waiting for his perfect moment, as the warrior got within a few feet of him and started to swing his sword, Shaun threw himself to the ground in a roll moving right past him with the sword completely missing. Standing out of the roll, out of reach of the warrior, Shaun threw his dagger at the archer, the purpose of the throw not to kill, although that would be nice, but so that they would be distracted and not be able to get a shot off while Shaun enacted the next step of his plan.
Turning his attention to the rogue, he took out his second dagger and ran right at him, he wasn’t scared about them throwing their short sword at him, it would be a stupid thing to do and as they had the same skills as each other Shaun knew he wouldn’t be able to wield two blades at the same time with any success.
Predictably when Shaun got close enough the rogue named Paul tried to stab out at him, he tried to move to the side while also stepping closer so that he could use his dagger but he wasn’t quite quick enough. The sword sliced right through Shaun’s side, cutting in at least an inch or two, but still better than getting stabbed right through the gut which was where the rogue had been aiming.
Shaun clamped down on the scream that was building inside of him, it had hurt, a lot, but he refused to go down without the fight of his life. Trying to ignore the pain that hurt every time he moved, Shaun instead focused on what he was supposed to do next. He was now close enough to the rogue that he could attack without losing his dagger and Paul was just looking at him in shock because he had missed putting his sword through his stomach.
Shaun tackled him to the ground, figuring that the sword wouldn’t be anywhere near as useful if they were grappling with each other, he used one arm to wrap around the rogue and the other, the one with dagger in hand, he used to stab at their body. It wouldn’t kill him but it would hurt, Shaun could attest to that.
On the ground, Shaun landed on top of him, and not losing any focus, withdrew his dagger and then stabbed again. Paul tried to stab get with his sword but it was clumsy, the blade too long for what he was trying to achieve and Shaun easily battered his arm away. With determination Shaun lifted his dagger up a final time and plunged it down into the rogues chest.
Before he could even think of what he should do next he felt and arrow go right through his shoulder with enough force to push him off the body he was still on. He lost the grip on his dagger and was now defenceless on the ground beside the rogue. Looking up, the archer was nocking another arrow while the warrior was coming right for him, looking beside him he saw the short sword still in the rogues unmoving hand and grabbed it before he rolled over and decided he needed to run. As he was getting up he nearly got hit by the warriors sword, if he hadn’t rolled over when he did he would have been killed. Shaun kicked back at his knee which must have caused some pain as he immediately screamed and stopped focusing on Shaun, another arrow flew and this time only grazed his back, it still hurt but at this point what was a bit more pain.
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Before either of them could recover to attack, Shaun was already on his feet and he ran with all of the energy he had left until he was far enough away to drop into stealth. He quickly fell against the wall, his energy quickly leaving him, he wasn’t far from where he left the other two but he couldn’t keep moving with all the wounds he had. That didn’t mean he had given up, no, he was fully planning to deal with those animals, but first he needed to heal.
He took the health potion out of his pouch with his good hand, the other he could barely move, and downed it in one go, it wouldn’t work instantly but it would work, he had seen that. Next he took out the stamina potion and downed that one too. He still had to fight and his stamina was dangerously close to 0. With that done he looked down at his shoulder, he knew he was going to have to take the arrow out, he couldn’t leave it in if he was going to go back before Gabe and Eric stumbled across the two he had left behind. With determination he stuffed some of the fabric of his shawl into his mouth and grabbed hold of the arrow behind his shoulder, only hesitating a moment he snapped it in half, it wasn’t easy and it sent pain radiating through his body but he had done it.
He didn’t remove the shawl from his mouth though, he was only half way there. Grabbing hold of the point of the arrow that was sticking out of the front side of his shoulder he pulled it out, this time not being able to hold back his scream. He let himself take a few uncontrolled breaths through his nose before he removed the cloth from his mouth and took a huge breath and held it before releasing. He did this a few times before he felt back in control of himself.
His health was only at about half, even after the potion, but his stamina was nearly back up to full. Thankful that the warrior and archer he had left in the tunnel hadn’t come looking for him yet, he decided that it was time for him to stand up and go back before anything happened with Gabe and Eric.
This time, with the rogue taken care of, the others wouldn’t be able to detect him sneaking up on them. It didn’t take long for him to come back to where the battle had taken place. Shaun could now see the warrior limping around, the kick to his knee causing him issues, while the archer was on the ground with the rogues body.
“How did this happen Daniel? There was one of him and three of us and still he got away. No, he didn’t just get away he killed Paul! How are we going to explain this? We have done this multiple times and it has never gone wrong. What kind of animal is he? He just….”
So they had done this more then once, they had gone around killing people that were alone and for what? Shaun thought, and they are calling me an animal? They are nothing but a bunch of murderers.
Jason was still pacing around and still hadn’t stopped his monologue of how cruel and horrible Shaun was, neither of them looked to concerned about Shaun looping back and coming to finish them off, which worked well for his current plan. Sneaking along the wall until he was as close as he could get to Jason, who was still pacing around with his limp, Shaun waited until his back was turned and then made his move.
Still in stealth he got right behind the unsuspecting warrior and without a sound stabbed the sword through his neck from behind. Without waiting around, Shaun backed up against the wall again and observed what would happen next so he could work on his plan to take out the archer.
Jason had stopped his talking the moment the sword slide through his neck but still remained standing for a second or two before dropping down to his knees and then falling face first to the ground, alerting the archer to a change in his surroundings.
“Jason, what are you doing? Jason!” When he didn’t receive a reply Daniel stood up and nocked an arrow. “I know you are there, was killing Paul not enough for you? Now your back to kill the rest of us? You got your revenge what more do you want?”
Shaun contemplated how he was going to approach the situation, he still wanted answers to his questions but he also wasn’t in the best condition to have any kind of prolonged fight. While the archer was looking around trying to spot him he moved as close as he could, careful not to be spotted. He had already been shot once today and he had no desire to go through it again.
Once he was as close as he was going to be able to get, while they were swinging around wildly trying to find him, Shaun pounced on him to knock him of balance and the quickly positioned his newly acquired sword against his neck. “What I want Daniel,” Shaun said, “Is answers to my questions.”
Daniel had no choice in the matter really, he had a sword against his neck and with one wrong move Shaun would do what he had to, he wouldn’t even hesitate. “Tell me who is giving you instructions to find and kill people.”
“What?!?!? We were never given instructions to kill people!” Shaun pressed forward with the sword, cutting into Daniel’s neck just a little which caused him to flinch. “Alan! His name is Alan, he runs Ruin! He is the leader! But his orders were to only find people and bring them back, he never said to kill anyone I promise. He is just trying to gather everyone in a safe place I swear!”
Shaun thought this over for a second considering what had been said. He believed the order wasn’t to kill, they had made that decision themselves, he didn’t really care why, there was no justification for it anyway. “What and where is Ruin?” Shaun asked.
“Ruin is a safe place that was found in the caves. Its just what it sounds like, it a huge ruin of some ancient city, it has plenty of room, there are already thousands of people living there. It's about a full day's walk through the tunnels, we marked each of the passages with a cross so we knew which way to go back. Please just let me go there is nothing else I can tell you!”
That was all Shaun really wanted to know, he didn’t think of anything else he could ask at that point and he did believe the archer when he said he knew nothing else so instead he asked his final question, “You have killed before haven’t you?”
The archer didn’t answer him, but it was clear that he understood the implications of what he was being asked, “Please don’t….” and before he got a chance to continue Shaun flicked his sword, silencing him forever.
Before Shaun even had a moment to process what he had done, what had occurred over the last few minutes, he heard a voice from behind him, this time, one he recognised.