The castle walls were ablaze, it was blinding - through the scope of his rifle. His finger sat stiff near the trigger, the way his body lay stiff on the ground. He was on a vantage point over the target: a hill that rose up above the scattered forests and plains that covered the land. The hill sat south-west of The Spot, the only lake in the country of Shoulderside.

Dolon had been waiting for three days on this spot, moving very seldom. He took in every sight, conveying it back to his team who waited beside him, all prone too. 'I'm going to be blind in my right eye when this is over...' He blinked. 'If it's ever over.'

'It'll never end!' Stacey whispered. 'We should have declined this mission, it's a pain in the a-.'

'It won't be long, you'll see that it was all worth it.' Niall, leader of the Harlequins, stated with certainty and glee. 'Just be patient.'

'If I'm going to be patient then I'll need a break.' Dolon rolled away from the rifle, not giving anyone a choice but to follow his next request. 'One of you will have to take over for ten minutes.'

'Damn it Dolon!' Gerome raised his voice and crawled to the scope, as to not miss the activity in the distance. Dolon Elias laughed through a wide open mouth while closing his eyes to rest.

'Dolon, how you can stay here for three days straight, I have no idea. Don't you have a job to go to?' Stacey questioned.

If only you knew, I'd be a dead man. 'Ahem.' Dolon looked sharply at Stacey. 'This is my job.' It was a hint to not break character, one that Stacey took with ease.

'Quiet down.' Niall commanded.

When Dolon heard the serious tone, he nodded apologetically at his Commander. 'I've been laying here for days, Boss, nothing's shown up for us to take advantage of.' Dolon started to complain. 'The siege isn't going to end any time soon, have you got a plan yet or are we going to keep waiting?'

'We'll wait.' Niall crawled closer to Dolon. 'The item isn't going anywhere.'

'All this for a knife...' Stacey sighed. 'Treasure hunting is Winged Man work, let those guys handle it. We have killing to do.'

Niall glared at Stacey. 'Shush.'

He did.

'We got this job because the Winged Men, in all of their glory, couldn't handle something this far behind enemy lines. Even Tanda, who loves them so dearly, knows deep down that her Winged Men aren't anything special when it comes to battle. Just a bunch of dungeon crawlers...' Niall was bitter, but he soon cheered up. 'Anyway, we can handle this job the way we handle any other. We have our fun, screw with the siege, kill a few Hurdies and Easties and get the knife. And then kill a few more on the way out.'

'I like that.' Said Gerome from behind the scope. 'But I hate this. Dolon, do your job!'

'Nope.' Dolon waved him off.

'Stacey, your turn.' Said Niall as Gerome moved away from the rifle. Stacey reluctantly agreed.

It was silent for a long while. Stacey reporting nothing of interest. Everyone lay flat and still and silent, the trees were still, the clouds hardly shifted in the mild wind. The sun lowered in the sky and the sound of squawking signalled the birds coming home to roost. It wasn't until the last member of their group appeared that anyone moved, though Dolon had returned to his duties at this point.

From the north, leaping from the tree tops and landing with a flutter of wings came a giant bird. Black and crow like, though standing much like a man in some form. This was a Tengu, a shape shifter. A black feathered man with crow's feet. He had wings instead of arms, though still capable of grasping like hands; and a black beak.

'Niall.' The Tengu spoke as his form transformed from crow to man. His feathers retracting into his skin and his animal features morphing into those of Archer. 'Riders are coming from the West towards the castle. Heavy cavalry.'

'Who is it?' Niall responded.

'I don't know their colours, red on white. But they're definitely Hurdland soldiers.'

'Hmm...' The Commander thought on it. 'They've come to break the siege.'

'It doesn't look like the Amaratsu forces know what's coming yet.' Dolon interjected. 'They're still just trying to burn down the walls.'

'Hurdland will have to attack from the south west of the castle, but that area bottlenecks between two rivers.' Niall was analysing now, seeing the bigger picture. 'All it takes is for the Diamond Dancers we've seen to unfreeze the rivers and the Cavalry will be stuck between them. The Easties can easily surround them. If the rescue looks futile, then Shoulderside Castle won't open its gates to help.'

Gerome spoke now. 'Then we help the Hurdies out. Dolon can handle the Diamond Dancers while we flank the Flame Pitchers when Hurdland reinforcements arrive. When the castle sends its men out to fight, which they should, Stacey slips inside and grabs the knife.'

'Yeah.' Stacey added. 'I can slip in through the walls and grab the thing while everyone's distracted outside and up on the ramparts. No trouble.'

Niall nodded and smiled. 'Sounds like a plan.' He stood up from the ground and stretched. 'Gerome, Archer, Stacey, you're with me. Dolon, you know your role, do it well.'

'Yes, Boss.' Dolon saluted.

'How long until Hurdland reaches the castle?' Niall inquired.

Archer calculated in his head. 'Maybe an hour, getting the horses through the forest and the brush.'

'That gives us more than enough time to set up our ambush. We'll head out now.'

Everyone agreed.

Archer again grew his feathers and wings and bird's feet. Gerome appeared to crumble into himself. He screeched and then tore at his own skin, ripping it from his body and revealing the form of a man-wolf beneath. Brown and grey and black, with fierce orange eyes and sharp glistening teeth. Stacey and Niall made no change, they only followed behind the faster wolf and crow. Dolon was left alone, his scope aimed over Shoulderside Castle. His rifle loaded and ready to fire.

When his comrades had disappeared into the vast wood ahead of him, Dolon let out a breath and eased an ever present stress. He was always that way when they were near. He took a brief break from the scope and closed his eyes.

In the top left of his periphery was the white menu bar, otherwise unseen when out of mind. In the bottom left of his periphery was the red dot, pulsing ever so slowly on and off. Dolon opened his eyes and peered through the scope, observing the castle gates. The clearing around the castle helped him see, but a few minor trees did obscure his view. Dolon was intuitive enough to compensate for this. He built an image of the unseen in his mind and imagined it in his vision. This was a skill acquired through years of practice, both in and out of the game. As many players did, Dolon studied his skills in this world and the other, truly immersing himself and elevating himself above others. The best players did this, though Dolon did not consider himself on level with the best.

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The fires had died, scorched earth and scorched stone remained. Despite the burnt walls, the castle was still standing. The Amaratsu forces chose to take a break in the absence of success, still unaware of the coming enemy reinforcements.

The Harlequins would still be finding their positions for ambush. Dolon's job was to hassle the Diamond Dancers, water and ice manipulators, as well as protect his team-mates on the ground. He would support their escape and then meet at a predetermined rendezvous point. If his position is located and attacked, he would have to escape and meet at the rendezvous early. He was confident that he would not have to.

The mission would be difficult for his comrades too. They would be performing a heist at Shoulderside Castle, all while two enemy armies compete for control of it. It was times like this when Dolon was thankful to be sitting in the distance.

Time passed and Dolon waited. The Hurdland forces sat on the castle walls, waiting to defend if a successful assault occurred. It wasn't for another twenty minutes until Dolon heard the loud rumbling of horse hooves on the ground. The Hurldland forces had arrived. Dolon turned his brass and wood scope to find them.

He saw red and white banners and tunics passing through the forests to the west. Near a hundred horsemen rode, spears and halberds and maces in hand. This was hardly enough to defeat the entire Amaratsu siege forces, yet it would put a dent in their numbers on the west side of the lake.

They were advancing faster than he would have liked. Dolon would not have too much time to do the job he needed to do, to kill the Diamond Dancers.

He swung his rifle around and pointed it towards the castle, scanning over the area. He recognised immediately the Flame Pitchers, the fire magic users, when he saw them. They were the men and women with dark skin and plain cloth clothing, hot red in colour. With them, standing on both sides of the three rivers close to Shoulderside Castle, were other dark skinned figures, wearing near nothing at all, either light trousers or shorts. They had swimmers' bodies and stuck close to the water, denoting them as Diamond Dancers and Torrents. Dolon's targets.

It was hard to read their numbers, the leaves and branches of the forests hiding them. But of those he could see, they were easy targets. He wasted no time. Two of the Amaratese spoke, a Dancer and a Pitcher. One sat at a river's edge, refreezing a segment of water with his hands, while the other stood behind him.

Dolon took aim at the Pitcher. Eliminate the witness... With a pull of the trigger and a loud crack, and a few short seconds, the Pitcher fell away from the river edge. Dead. Dolon snapped open his rifle, placed a bullet in the breech and snapped it shut again. He thumbed back the hammer and took aim again, this time at the man manipulating the water, all in a matter of seconds. The Diamond Dancer had still not noticed a thing. Dolon pulled the trigger again and watched as the man's head and body fell backwards.

A quick look over the area to be safe. No one saw, though some were looking up to the sky, not sure if they heard what they think they heard. Was that a gunshot, perhaps? Dolon sarcastically thought.

The Hurdland cavalry was gaining on the castle. Another target presented itself just east of the structure, a Diamond Dancer on the river bank issuing orders to three other Dancers standing on the frozen water. They were shaping the ice with their abilities, melting it down with unseen powers and shaping it with a gesture of their hands. The water rose up on their commands and then froze into a ramp aimed at the castle.

What the hell? Dolon focused in on them as a Flame Pitcher stepped on to the ice and tested it with her feet. She did not look pleased with whatever it was she was testing, then seemed to suggest something else to her water manipulating comrades. They acted on it, using their magic to roughen up the ice. The Flame Pitcher took a practise run towards the large ramp and seemed happy with the set-up. She needed friction... Are they going to do what I think they're going to do? 'No way...' Dolon watched the Pitcher as she took a longer run up to the ramp. 'This could complicate things.'

His scope followed the Pitcher as she hit the ramp and aimed her hands towards the back of herself. Her fingers sparked and then red hot fire began to pump out from them. This rocketed her up high, high enough to be able to see over the castle walls. The rocketing stopped. She took aim while mid air, built up a ball of fire in her palms and made to propel the orb of magic flame over the walls of the castle. Dolon fingered his trigger and aimed to intercept her before she could act, but then he saw her hesitation. He could not hear it, but he saw the words she mouthed. “Cavalry?”

She knows. She can see. Dolon squeezed the trigger. The bullet flew. The female Flame Pitcher rolled in the air as the projectile hit, then she vanished behind the castle. Dolon scanned back to those who created the ramp. They saw. As the four Diamond Dancers reacted, one searching for whoever shot the Pitcher, one running to their fallen comrade and one making to shout “ambush!”, Dolon had already reloaded and took another shot. The man who appeared to be a Commander was first to fall. The second target saw this, but then he fell too. Dolon reloaded and took aim. The third target stood in the river and gestured with his hands toward the ice at his feet. Dolon fired. The Dancer lifted his arms up and the river broke at his feet and water exploded upward. The liquid froze and the bullet hit nothing but a shield of ice in front of the Amaratese mystic.

Dolon skipped past this target and searched for the fourth. The rest of the Amaratsu forces were running around frantically, shouting orders and forming lines of defence. The Hurdland reinforcements had arrived and were running down the western siege forces. Flame Pitchers were crossing the frozen rivers from the east and south-east to trap them in the bottleneck, yet the Diamond Dancer's numbers had been severely weakened by Dolon, so as intended the rivers could not be thawed to trap the cavalry. The Flame Pitchers were non-the-wiser, their strategy was severely hindered. As if that was not bad enough, claws and teeth then descended on them from the south.

Gerome darted from the tree line as the Amaratese warriors entered the clearing around the castle. His speed was so that the enemy could hardly react. Dolon too struggled to keep him in his scope. He dashed one woman to the ground before leaping atop another, his wolfish form terrifying to see. Archer, the Tengu, had come from above with talons gouging and scraping and grabbing. Dolon scanned down, just in time to witness Stacey running in next, daggers in both hands. He cut into one man as another blasted fire over the field. Stacey span around his wounded foe and sprinted towards the fire. Before the flame could take him, he dissolved into grey-purple smoke, flowed through the fire and through the Pitcher until regaining solid form and backstabbing his opponent. Bodies littered the ground beneath the castle walls, the enemy lay dead.

Dolon saw Stacey return to his Ghostform and pass through the castle walls that the Harlequins had battled under, the purple smoke and shadow form finding its way through tiny gaps and minuscule cracks. His retrieval of the knife was commencing.

On the west side of the castle, horsemen battled surprised Flame Pitchers. Knights fell with heavy weaponry on to flame wielding men and women. Horses toppled to fire and blade. Death was everywhere, yet the Hurdland forces had the advantage. Unfortunately for them, and the Harlequins, a large formation of Torrents and Flame Pitchers were heading around the south side of the castle from the east. They would be at the western gates in only a moments time. Out of more than forty Amaratese combatants, only six were able to safely cross the river towards the castle. The Harlequins saw, could easily react, but chose to hold their position. When the six made it across the ice, their lives were taken from them in all but a moment.

From their left, his hands ignited in orange flames, with great speed and a flurry of clawing strikes on each of the six, Niall alone dropped them to the ground. The enemy across the river watched in astonishment. Niall's hands let go of their fire and what was left were the claws of some large cat, deadly sharp.

Dolon took advantage of the distraction and aimed at those across from Niall. He pulled his trigger and a man fell. He reloaded. When he found his targets again, they were filling the sky with fireballs and spears of ice. The enemy had charged over the frozen water and another large group was coming behind them. The Harlequins had scrambled for cover behind rocks and mounds.

Dolon did his best to cover his team, but found it hard to see through the fire and the ice and the smoke and the steam. To the west a horn signalled, the castle gates had opened and the men within had flooded out to backup the Hurdland reinforcements. They were winning, for sure, but the approaching Pitchers, Dancers and Torrents would turn the tide. It would be a massacre.

Dolon did not know what to do. He could not cover his team-mates, he couldn't find any targets. He could only wait it out.

Then it happened. Another horn sounded, this time from further away. Three times it trumpeted, long and loud. Dolon scanned the battleground and beyond, searching for the source. Then he found it, a red and white snake quickly making its way to the castle. It was as if the river waters had been replaced by flesh and metal. From the north, down river, came more Hurdland cavalry, riding on the frozen river itself, like a road, with spears and swords drawn! The Amaratsu warriors were pushed up stream, dashed against the ice or the river banks, ultimately destroyed. The Hurdland army turned from the battered dead and made for the west gate of Shoulderside Castle, riding around the south wall. Dolon zoomed in at the head of the charge, where a silver haired woman rode with her sword held high and her mouth crying for blood.

The Harlequins managed to hide their presence. When the cavalry passed, leaving mud and churned grass behind them, purple smoke seeped from the wall and then solidified into the form of Stacey with an ornate wooden box in hand.

Get out of there, quick! Dolon checked his team's surroundings, ensuring their safe escape. When they ran out of sight, he pulled his eye from the scope and knuckled it out of agitation.

It was now his time to move.