At the second strike, Sarah’s health depleted, dropping dangerously low. By the second strike, her reflexes returned. A shimmering curtain of powerful holy energy surrounded her, rendering all damage completely ineffective. Frustrated, the Demon Assassin struck helplessly against the bubble of energy.
As Taylor Lynn called on magical power, Jay and Lester rushed for the Assassin. She couldn’t use her most effective spells with a cluster of her allies in melee range, but her basic spells could still be aimed. Her potent buffs could extend the capabilities of even her basic attacks.
Before Sarah’s allies could join the fray, the Demon Assassin shimmered with a translucent film. In a split second, the shimmering film turned utterly transparent. Jay and the others completely lost sight of her. They froze momentarily, uncertain how to react to the Assassin’s vanishing act.
The momentary pause was too long. Exploiting the poor defenses, the Assassin appeared again with her dagger in Lester’s chest. His health poured out with the enemy far too close to him to properly strike with his sword. He tried to back away, but it was in vain.
Jay pushed his speed to the brink, chasing after T to catch her unguarded side.
T struck Lester multiple times as he tried to back away, but the Assassin was much faster. She was as quick as Jay. The reason was apparent from her nameplate data; the Assassin was somehow already level 52.
Jay reached her. T’s move took the whole party entirely by surprise. Lester was still trying to rally some kind of defense against the powerful onslaught. Taylor Lynn was in the midst of casting a spell, magic clinging to her from the empowering buffs she was under. Still trapped in her own protections, Sarah could not act beyond slowly healing herself.
The Demon Assassin unleashed a flurry of a dozen cuts, slashing through the lightly armored Lester’s pathetic defenses. His health sank, dropping to dangerous levels and hurtling him toward death. There would be no respawn. When Lester died on the thirteenth strike, Jay was three steps away from the Assassin.
Unceremoniously, Lester’s character dematerialized and vanished from the game. No avatar corpse was left behind.
Shouting in anger, Jay lashed out at the Assassin. With a smirk, T started vanishing from view in a coating of translucent film. He couldn’t be sure whether or not he successfully struck. The Demon player vanished from sight before his swing was completed.
“Hurry, group up!” Jay called to Taylor Lynn. He waited for her to hurry over to him and walked, maintaining a defensive posture, to join his sister. The remaining three spent thirty minutes on edge, peering around the perimeter and waiting for the Demon to reappear.
The moment never came. Instead, the twins were the first to arrive on the scene for the planned grinding session. Jenny looked over the three players, arranged in a battle formation, with a deep sense of confusion. Ken stepped in to ask the question.
“Where’s Lester? Don’t tell me the guild leader is late to our grinding session? Man, the guy could be late to his own funeral.”
“Not funny,” Taylor Lynn cautioned.
“Really?” Ken asked curiously. “I thought it was pretty funny. Let’s not pretend this would be the first time he appeared late muttering nonsense about guild business.”
“Lester died,” Sarah spoke plainly. “That Demonic Assassin player attacked us, and he died. First, she tried to kill me, but she couldn’t. I threw up my protection bubble. So, she went after Lester.”
For a brief moment, everyone stared at each other.
Ken finally broke the silence. “We’re not going to sit here and pretend that’s not awesome, right? I mean, what do I care about Lester? I always thought he was a little pompous, and we’ve got Sarah to tank for us now.”
Admittedly, Jay was thinking something similar. It was a bit inconvenient for the guild to lose the leader, but so many of Jay’s problems were solved with Lester’s character death. Even if he returned with a new character, he wouldn’t be in a position to lead the guild.
Lester would scramble to work something out with Tumultua’s character design system, which was typically locked down to one avatar. Considering his brother worked for Tumultua, Jay had no doubts that he would eventually get another character. Still, many things would happen in the guild before that point.
Lucille and Ichibad could step up to take leadership, which would bode well for their agenda. Assuming they were actually in the right, given the information they gave him a heads up on, that would be highly convenient for Jay. They were placed firmly on his side, though both were a little enigmatic for his personal taste. He still wasn’t sure what their endgame was.
Jay needed to have another conversation with the guild lieutenants at the first available opportunity. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t be possible until he exited the island.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
If the party was going to get off the island, they needed to kill T. The Demon Assassin player would be a huge nuisance, especially with her level as high as it was. She seemed capable of disappearing with minimal warning. Jay guessed that it stemmed from an ability she received at level 40 or 50.
The process of killing T wouldn’t be easy, but the party couldn’t grind while she was waiting in the wings to jump them. If they could find Lurian, that would help their chances, but the most paramount thing was locking down her stealth powers. With horror, Jay realized they needed to kill her soon.
He had no idea about T’s sleeping habits, but Sarah was often left alone in the game. Most of the party slept in the real world, aside from Jay’s habit of sometimes falling asleep in-game. Even if he stayed with Sarah, Jay had the sneaking suspicion that the situation would just get them both killed.
“I guess we are going to sit here and pretend it isn’t awesome,” Ken acknowledged. No one answered him since, like Jay, all were involved in processing their own thoughts.
“I can get over it,” Taylor Lynn admitted, frowning. “I’m not sure how Carlos will take it, though. We can’t really afford to lose another healer. If we can’t convince him to join us…”
“I’m kinda sad for Lester,” Jenny chimed in. “It’s really annoying to lose a character like that. And to an Assassin, too. We need to do something about this god debuff thingy before we all lose our characters.”
“We can’t worry about him, sis,” Ken gently chastised. “We need to kill that Assassin. We can’t even level up until we know she’s out of here. She could be looming behind any of our backs, and none of us would know it.”
“I guess that’s true,” Jenny said. “How are we going to do that? She seems really strong.”
“Everyone has a weakness,” Jay shrugged. “Although, an overleveled Assassin is pretty perfect for picking off a bunch of lower-level players.”
“Which side are you on, dude?” Ken asked, dumbfounded.
“Right,” Jay winced. “I think we need to find something to deal with her stealth abilities. I could hit her with a necrotic bolt if damage breaks her stealth. That might help.”
“I could probably work on a toxin that would deal periodic damage,” Ken added. “That would periodically break her stealth. There’s also my mark—it’ll let us track her once I successfully activate it. Could break through her stealth.”
“Does anybody have dispelling abilities or something like that?” Jay asked. “We could just get rid of her invisibility. It doesn’t seem to operate like a normal stealth ability. It’s too fast.”
“Maybe Carlos,” Taylor Lynn offered. “We can check with him when he logs on.”
“I have a tag that can weaken her damage,” Jenny added. “I don’t think it’ll help with the invisibility, but it might at least help prevent some deaths.”
They continued to discuss various ability combinations, trying to find a plan to take on the Assassin. Eventually, Jay remembered the poor young woman they were leaving out of their plans. No one had mentioned Casey yet.
“What about Casey?” Jay asked. “We talked about Carlos. Do you think she’ll help us take down the Assassin? Someone else could easily die. The damage output against Lester was absolutely insane. She could lose her character.”
“My friend’s not a wimp,” Sarah defiantly pointed out. “She’ll be fine. Besides, I’d love to see that dire wolf take a big old bite out of that Demon woman.”
As if being summoned, Casey and Carlos both logged into the game at that point. They arrived in the game at the arranged grinding time, right on the dot. The party spent a bit of time catching them up on the planning so far, allowing them to contribute ideas.
Carlos didn’t have any dispelling abilities. The party had already seen most of the support and abilities he could offer. He wasn’t designed for tracking or fighting against invisibility. All in all, he was fully expecting to help deal with the Assassin. His stated reason was that the party wouldn’t help him get off the island if he backed out.
Jay had to admit Carlos had some great foresight.
Casey offered some potential for turning the tides, but there was a complication. At level 30, she had gained a second Beast Contract slot, although it remained unfulfilled. They could find her a unique companion to help deal with the Assassin. Still, it would involve her channeling an ability to form the contract as the party protected her.
The scenario would create a perfect setup for the Demon Assassin to strike. After several minutes of discussion, the party ultimately decided as a team that the situation would be too risky. Casey, absorbed in the contract, would be unable to defend herself. Her second contract could be handled after the Assassin was taken care of.
The discussion continued, arguing over how to use the available resources. The party could incorporate some potions into the fighting if they could set up a proper plan. Potios would lend the party an edge. There was some more Enchanting and Runic Imbuement work that could be done with a bit of time investment.
Sarah was quiet for most of the discussion. When she finished chewing on it, she interrupted a comment from Ken about trying to follow the Assassin’s tracks.
“The stealth abilities are a big problem, but they aren’t the biggest problem,” she stated. That worked very well in gathering the attention of the party. “The worst thing about her is that she will never attack when the full party is gathered together. She’ll be waiting for moments when we’re meeting up and assembling. Even if we move the camp, she’ll track us down again.”
That brought silence over the party for a few seconds as everyone thought over the problem.
“I don’t think we can do this on her terms,” Jay sighed. “We need to find a way to put the fight on our terms. She’ll be able to ambush us on her terms whenever she wants to. Figuring out how to fight off an ambush that could come at any time, or might not come at all, is complicated. Especially given the disadvantage of the level gap.”
“How will we force an Assassin to fight on our terms?” Ken asked rhetorically. “The whole point of their class is to kill and then slip away. This is the absolute worst person to be trapped on an island with.”
Jay didn’t comment about how that was essentially his earlier point about picking off lower-level players.
As they worked on buffing up their gear, the party continued to discuss the situation. Their conversations went on for hours. Late evening disappeared. Night fell over the game world. Still, the party’s discussion continued. Arguments flew back and forth until, finally, someone laid out a plan that everyone could agree to.
In the end, Jay was the one to put together an operational plan that might let them take on the Demon Assassin.