299. EXPOSED SHADOW: TABITHA.

The moonlight was coming and going between the clouds. It wasn’t ideal, but it could have been worse. I went over the wall easily enough with My Shadow Step, met the others, and told them about the plan.

I got the feeling Ruku would have liked to change a few things, but he went along with it. He is our experienced tactician, and we should have consulted him. He did point out one glaring detail which required a change. Two-thirds of the wall was on one side of the gate and one-third on the other. Umreti cannot clear the whole wall himself. Lee was not confident about dealing with the guards on the smaller side, so Ruku would do it and then join Modrica. That made it easier for me, as Ruku could climb the wall with his Suction-cup Skill, and I only had to get Umreti and Lee up together on the larger section of the wall.

We left a bored and grumpy Modrica sitting on Težka. A bored Modrica may be tempted to attack before the time. She has missed out on a lot of the fights recently.

Umreti and Lee travelled in my Shadows Embrace to the base of the wall. I Shadow-Stepped to the top and killed the end guard. I then lowered the rope for Umreti and Lee to climb. Umreti was wearing a smaller pack than the main hive, with hornets crawling in and out of it.

“Don’t start more than half an hour before Modrica’s attack unless there is a disturbance. Wiremu has probably set up a complicated set of traps rather than simply dropping every one in a lava pit,” I shrugged, “We don’t want the alarm to sound until after I kill the Slave Taskmaster. Once the wall is clear, support Modrica and watch for any who try to run.”

Umreti nodded and indicated to Lee he should put on the dead guard's jacket and pretend to be her. I Shadow-Stepped down the other side of the wall and went to find the Taskmaster, and then I will take out as many of the officers as possible.

The officer's quarters are a large two-story structure situated behind the administrator's offices. The ground floor of this structure and the administration centre are made out of stone. The upper floor is wood. It is like it was added on later and may have been. I was observing it from the roof of the admin building tracking guards.

I have maybe two and a half hours to get this done, but the problem is these guards are not your basic troopers. There were some specialised Sentries among them. They were alert and active. My guess is they were assigned to protect the Slave Taskmaster.

The building has lots of windows, but the guard rotation has pairs patrolling the outside, so one pair always has eyes on the walls, and help is a corner away. There are eight outside guards. How many are inside? I can tell when a guard approaches the window opposite me, but the others are bedrooms. I think the Taskmaster is in a ground-floor room on the other side of the building.

I wait for the latest set of guards to have their back to me, and Shadow steps across and up to the other roof. Even though I was Embraced in Shadow, one of the guards looked back. Maybe it was a coincidence. Maybe he had a different sensing skill. I lay flat until they turned the corner.

I then worked my way across the roof. As I did, my Spatial Awareness was noting where everybody was on the top floor. There were two guards in the hallways, and four of the five rooms were occupied by sleeping officers. Three of the four had sleeping companions. One of them had two companions. I couldn’t tell, but they were probably slaves. Whether they were personal slaves or slaves from the quarry didn’t matter except for who had to die to set them free. Maybe they weren’t slaves but spouses or partners. Wiremu could tell I couldn’t, so we will see what happens after the Taskmaster is dead.

I investigated the chimney. The morning cooking fires were not yet going. Some smoke was rising from last night's embers. That would be a messy way to enter. If my Shadow Merge was at Apprentice Level, I could get in easily that way by Shadow Merging my whole body. It would need to be at high Apprentice to stay shadowed for that length of time. Unfortunately, it was stuck at the top of the Novice level.

I went to the empty room. It had a window, but the ground Patrols were diligently looking up on every wall. Then I realised the window wasn’t just locked. It was nailed shut. Did I have to open the window, though? Could I Shadow Merge through it? I would have to Merge each part of my body as it passed through the window and keep merging different parts as I went through. It sounds tricky. It is only a pane of glass thick. I could not do that with the roof as Shadow is linked to light, and neither can pass through opaque objects. They can pass through glass.

Once the patrol had their back to me, I reached down and tested it with my finger. Then, my whole hand. I then pulled back to consider as the next patrol came around the corner. The Patrols meant I had maybe 30 seconds to do this. I mess up, and I shatter the glass and alert everybody, as well as potentially losing a limb. It is unlikely I would lose a limb, but I would have serious injuries with glass embedded in me. Glass in the brain is serious.

Spiritual Strength and Spiritual Agility guide Shadow Merge. Strength governs the time I can spend merged and how much of my body. Agility is what I can do with it. In this case, it will govern the merging of different parts of my body at different times to pass through the glass. Both my Spiritual Strength and Agility were in the low fifties. Slipping my spare attributes into them would bring them both up to 55, particularly the Agility. I did that and tested my hand again.

I slipped my arm in and hit a snag. My sleeve bunched up against the window. Shadow Merge did not turn my clothes into shadow. I probed the Skill with my Identify, and it wasn’t until Journeyman level that I could start adding objects. Probably underwear-sized objects until the mid-journeyman levels. Fuck. I don’t want to bloody rob places naked. I am not Wiremu and don’t want to be bare-assed in front of everybody. The chimney was looking more inviting all the time.

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Fuck it. I swore to myself continually as I stripped naked. At least I had reasonably dark skin, so I didn’t become a beacon. The good thing was that my Spatial Pocket was large enough to fit everything. Just. I had a lot of stuff in there for emergencies. I might need to leave more space now.

Here I was, clothed only in shadow, waiting for the patrols to move past. It felt unusual to have the draft against my private bits. At least my tits are small and won’t be a nuisance. Then, I wrapped them in shadow and used Shadow Manipulation to give a bit of extra support. A shadow bra, how low have I sunk? Actually, I could make this sexy… No! Stop! I don’t have a partner right now, and that line of thought is unhelpful. I will save it for later. Lee’s quite cute. I wonder if she has had seduction training as part of her spy skills… Time to go.

I grabbed the edge of the roof with my hands and swung my legs over the edge. I would go feet first. I moved smoothly with my feet to the window and had my butt out for everyone to see. I was in Shadows Embrace, so they couldn’t see, but it felt very exposed. I supported my body with Binding Shadows and merged my feet through the window before I could change my mind.

I kept my body moving smoothly through the window pane despite it feeling strange as I moved the Shadow Merge to different parts of my body, and the pane of glass felt like it was splitting me in half. When the pane of glass passed my tits, it gave me a funny feeling, and I almost lost control of the merge. Shit, this was hard. I am glad I put the points in Spiritual Agility, but I didn’t realise how much Mental Agility I also needed.

I had Binding Shadow supporting me on both sides of the window so I wouldn’t crash to the floor. I had Shadow Embrace working and Shadow Merge constantly changing. I let the shadow bra go as I needed the concentration elsewhere and didn’t need the support. I am out of practice juggling this many things.

Once my head was through, I relaxed a bit, which was a mistake. I was still bringing my arms through when my feet kicked over a shelf, and I didn’t have the spare reflexes to catch it. It crashed onto the floor along with its contents. This alerted the hall guards, who moved toward me. I quickly moved my arms in and deepened Shadows Embrace as much as possible. I also used my Binding Shadow to pin me to the ceiling on the offside of the door. I drew two knives from my Spatial Pocket.

I heard one guard mutter, “That room should be empty. The Force Leader is on duty.” They drew their swords.

I am really not sure I can keep this quiet anymore. I will try, but speed is going to be needed. Shit. Here I am, clinging to the ceiling, naked. I need armour. These are no basic troopers. I shaped my Shadow Shield around my torso to give a little protection and to cover my butt, of course. It is not strong shielding and never will be. But it is something, and it will make me stop feeling naked.

The troopers, not quite, slammed the door open. It was very firmly and forcibly opened, and they came in swords drawn. I caught the door with shadows so it didn’t bang against the wall. One trooper went left and the other right. I threw my knife at the further one while I dropped on the nearest one. I got the Blacksteel knife into his neck, severing his spine, but the other one moved, and the knife deflected off his armour.

I reached out with my Binding Shadows and bound his mouth shut as I leapt towards him. He was fast. He grabbed my knife arm and wrenched it away from him. He dropped his sword and grabbed me with his other arm, bringing his knee up to my groin. He was a brawler/wrestler class and aimed to make full use of it. His knee crashed into my groin, which was only covered with a light shadow shield. I might not have balls, but shit, that still hurts.

I pulled out some of Wiremu’s Phansy dust with my empty hand and threw it in his eyes. I could see him affected and temporarily blinded. I kneed him in the balls. Unfortunately, his armour protected him, and I only had Tough Hide on my legs.

He was trying to twist my arm off, but I could tell his mind had blanked, or I would be receiving punches as well. I twisted with the arm and elbowed him in the throat. The arm and groin were painful, but I sparred with Modrica. I used Slight of Hand and Pickpocet, got his belt knife, and stabbed his groin instead. That made him release my arm, so I stabbed him up from under his chin into his brain, and he lay still.

I stood up and checked them both, but the fight had not been silent, and the neighbouring room occupants were getting up to investigate. I realised I was standing in a room with two dead bodies buck naked. His hit had dissolved the Shadow Shield, but I didn’t have time to get dressed. I went to re-engage the shield but realised I had a new Skill, Shadow Armour. Thank you very much. I put that on, and it hugged all my curves. It almost felt like I was still naked. Now was not the time to be picky. My arm and groin were throbbing, and not in a good way. I will figure out the details of the Skill later.

I took off for the stairs, sending Nyx on ahead to bind the Slaver. I was on the stairwell as the first doors were opening. The Slave Taskmaster was at the bottom of the stairs in the second bedroom on the right. There were two guards on the door. I spread out the Engulfing Shadows and Syphon Constitution. The Shadow Armour seemed to help me move in the shadows better. It will still have poor armour value.

One Guard had drawn his weapon and was trying to see through the shadows, and the other had turned to enter the Taskmaster's room, probably to warn him or get him out. Nyx had blacked out that room as well. I could hear thrashing from the room as the Taskmaster had some way to at least get partially free of Nyx. I stabbed at the guard in the hall, but she sensed something and moved. It only scraped her armour. I bound both guards in the shadows and stabbed the back of the one who was facing into the room while ducking under the wild swing of the other's sword.

I left the hall guard and stepped over the one collapsed in the doorway. The priority was the Taskmaster. I pulled out a short baton for my offhand and clubbed unconscious the young boy in bed with the Taskmaster. There is another traumatised kid. With my other hand, I removed the Slaver's head with my war knife.

The guard in the hall was yelling the alarm, banging on the walls, and making a racket to get attention. The outside guards were heading for the door, and there was a lot of movement upstairs. My best exit was back upstairs and out a window, so I stabbed the troublemaker on my way past and headed back upstairs. That is the wrong choice of words. I am the one making trouble.

Nyx flooded the whole ground floor in shadow, and I dropped a couple of Phantasm rocks to confuse people in the shadow. I headed back upstairs to kill as many as I could on the way out.

I hoped everybody was ready because this just went loud.