As he approached the closest of the four buildings, Ewtain thought about Hailor’s advice. While the test had one win condition, he wanted to demonstrate his versatility. He was also aware of the instructions he was given; while the groups had been told to protect the flags, he only needed to acquire a ring from each. He regretted not asking about potential pursuit if he were to take a flag outright, but it was too late for that now.
The first building was two stories high with a sloping roof. According to the map, this was the Blue Squad’s position. From his vantage point on the ground, he counted five men on the roof, one stationed right next to the flag. That meant two were out of sight, since each squad, except the Green Squad, consisted of seven men. It seemed unlikely any men had been sent home. Determined to locate the missing two, he moved to the building across the street, directly north of his target.
Using a rope and hook, he started his ascent but found he could easily scale the structure by leveraging the corner where two walls met. This building also featured a sloped roof, so he crouched low as he approached the apex. He tucked himself behind a chimney stack, peeking around it to survey the Blue Squad’s defenses.
The streets were well lit, but the lamps were not high enough to illuminate the rooftops. The roofs were much darker than the streets below, but despite the poor light, the shapes of the men were clearly visible. He was even able to make out a blue armband on one of the men near the edge of the roof. He spotted a sixth man crouched next to a chimney who was attempting to remain hidden. This man had his back to Ewtain and was looking in the opposite direction. A large chimney stack likely concealed the last man.
The buildings adjacent to the flag were close enough to jump to from the roof, though their elevations varied; the building to the east was four or five feet taller, while the one to the west was that much shorter than his target. The structures were built on a slope, creating a pattern that continued up the hill, with each building looking like a large, unequal step. Men were positioned near each of the adjacent buildings, making an approach from the shorter building impossible as he would be easily seen. Ewtain decided to make his way to the building east of his target.
He climbed down and headed west until he was two buildings away, but still on the same side of the street as the defended building. He wasn’t sure if the men would follow him, but he wanted an easy way down from the rooftops without having to scale a wall or jump. He climbed up the building, secured the grappling hook, and lowered the rope. He climbed down the rope, moved to the next street over, and made his way east.
He arrived at the third building, east of the one he had originally climbed. From there, he circled around to the street and took a quick glance at the scene on the roof. He was far enough away that the men would have needed to be at the edge of the roof to see him, so he felt safe crossing the street there.
Instead of trying to get closer immediately, Ewtain scaled a building further up the street. This would give him some practice jumping across the gaps between buildings before he was close enough to alert the rogues. He crouched low as he moved, even though he was too far away to be seen while walking upright. The gap between the buildings was five or six feet across, and the drop between buildings was probably the same distance. In the real world, he lacked the broad jump capacity to make it without a running start, but in this world, he knew his abilities well and could easily make the jump without taking even a step first.
He wanted to determine how loud his landing would be, so he took two steps before his first jump just to be safe. He sailed over the gap between the roofs and landed gracefully, absorbing the impact by bending his knees. The sound was minimal, but a good rogue would notice even that much noise when someone landed on their roof.
He made the next jump from a standing position. He landed smoothly, but it wasn’t completely silent. He needed a diversion for his plan to work. He checked his inventory and found a clay bowl that he used for washing up. This should do the trick.
Crawling was necessary as he approached the next building; anyone on the far end of the roof looking his way would see him if he simply crouched. His initial plan was to launch the bowl onto the roof and rush to the flag, but he doubted the guard would abandon his post to investigate the noise. He decided to combine tactics.
Still several feet from the edge, he risked crouching just enough to see the man standing next to the flag. The man faced the other direction. Standing up quickly, he flung the bowl like a Frisbee. He aimed for the guard’s shoulders, but the bowl dipped mid-air and struck the man behind the knees instead.
The man cried out as his knees hit the roof, sliding towards the edge and a twenty-foot drop to the ground. Most of the other men sprang to help him, but two remained disciplined, keeping watch on the streets. Ewtain crept to the edge and jumped down to the target roof. Any noise he made was drowned out by the screaming man and the rescue efforts.
The man had fallen to the right of the roof’s apex, so Ewtain raced towards the flag on the left side. Only one rogue remained, and he was focused on the street below. Ewtain drew his knife and swiftly cut the central ring that secured the flag to the pole. Without pausing, he kept running. The flag maintained its form despite missing one of its rings.
Just before Ewtain reached the far end of the roof to make his jump to the next building, he heard one of the flag’s guardians shout, “There he is!” He leaped, and something struck the roof next to him as he landed on the roof of the adjacent building. Without looking back, he sprinted away and leapt to the next roof. There were no sounds of pursuit, but Ewtain didn’t slow down until he reached his rope and quickly scaled down to the ground.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
He crossed the street and went behind the building on the other side. He made his way back to the original building that he had spied from and climbed back up. When he reached the chimney, he could see that five of the men had surrounded the flag, and the other two were on the edge of the roof next to the building that Ewtain had escaped to. “We need someone else to guard the flag... I think the leg is broken.”
“It ain’t broke,” another protested, and from the sound of pain in his voice, it was likely the one that Ewtain had hit with his bowl.
“What I want to know is, why’s the flag still here?” a third voice asked. “The bastard was clearly up here.”
“Let me go after him; I promise to make him squeal for that,” came another voice.
“The flag’s here, so we stay here; them’s the rules,” said the third voice again. Ewtain appreciated the hint from Hailor; he had the option to bring back either the flags or the rings. If the guards were only allowed to chase him if he took the flag, then removing the ring from the roof would allow him to escape unless someone disobeyed orders. Given that they were being watched and likely judged, disobedience seemed unlikely. They were, however, criminal types, so maybe disobeying orders was a good thing?
Additionally, Mr. Green’s crew would follow Green’s orders, so Ewtain would have to treat that group differently. He only had one grappling hook, so he retrieved his rope and hook before proceeding to the next target. He made a mental note to buy a couple more hooks when he got the chance.
The Yellow Squad occupied the second building, also two stories high. Unlike the previous one, this roof was much larger. Ewtain scouted from a building directly across the street from his target. After about ten minutes, he had identified the locations of six of the seven defenders wearing yellow armbands. Their roof wasn’t sloped and had multiple levels and various chimneys and protrusions that provided ample hiding spots.
With no nearby buildings to jump across, Ewtain realized he’d have to climb the building directly or find a way through it. Sneaking close or even into the building unseen seemed feasible, as there was a row of bushes along the street, providing cover except at the building entrances. Ewtain could maneuver next to or crawl under these bushes to move between buildings.
He lingered, hoping to locate the last defender, but after another twenty minutes, he gave up and moved a few buildings away. He then army-crawled under the bushes until he reached the corner of the target building.
Ewtain scaled the wall, again using the corner as a helpful aid. This one proved easier to manage due to the many handholds to support him during the climb. The chosen corner featured a room with a balcony higher than the main roof. He tied his rope to the railing and draped it over the edge.
Next, he spent ten minutes moving between areas of cover to get closer to the flag. This roof was flat, so there was less light from the street lamps to illuminate the area, and the extra hiding spots made it possible for him to sneak close to the flag. He even gained a level of stealth in the process, putting his skill to level 9.
He identified the seventh man sitting on a balcony similar to the one he had attached his rope to. The man was surveying the street and other rooftops. Currently, Ewtain was positioned within fifteen feet of the flag, and while there was generally someone close to it, the dedicated sentry had a tendency to roam around, keeping a fairly close perimeter to the flag. Ewtain waited and watched the man make two passes in order to time his circuit.
The moment of truth arrived: the sentry turned, his back now facing Ewtain. The Night Stalker crouched low and swiftly approached the flag. No one cried out as he deftly severed the middle ring from the flag. With no time to return to his original hiding spot before the sentry turned left, he angled to the right and concealed himself under an archway until the man completed another pass.
When the sentry’s back once again faced away, Ewtain began the slow process of navigating between covers to reach his escape rope. He descended shortly after, opting to avoid being spotted on the ground by crawling under the bushes until he was sufficiently far from the building to escape notice.
Ewtain couldn’t help but note that while the men in this group seemed more disciplined than the first, the sheer size and numerous hiding spots on the roof should have prompted them to actively search rather than relying solely on stationary lookouts. The lone sentry had proven inadequate in safeguarding the flag, or in this case, the rings. He Examined the yellow piece of metal that had been attached to the flag before putting it in his inventory with the earlier-acquired blue one, hoping that the upcoming green and red tests would be as straightforward as these had been.
Ewtain went to the next building marked on his map, which was only a few blocks away from the Silver Penny Inn. If the color code on the map was correct, this would be the Green Squad. He surveyed the roof from atop a nearby building. It was a three-story building with a flat roof bordered by a raised stone lip running along its perimeter. The lip, standing at about a foot tall, offered no hiding spots from his vantage point.
With nowhere to conceal themselves on the roof, Ewtain easily spotted the four men guarding the flag. One stood at the middle edge of each side of the building, while the flag sat prominently in the center, mirroring the setup of the other two objectives.
Ewtain sat down, pondering how to tackle this new challenge. He noticed gutter spouts running down the building’s corners, likely mirrored on the opposite side. Although tempted to use them for climbing, the rogues’ positions made it too risky; he’d be spotted for sure.
The two buildings adjacent to the target were at least twenty feet away, so jumping would require a good sprint first and might result in a bad fall. Ewtain searched for information on falling damage, but none was available. In some games, a three-story fall resulted in minimal harm, while in others, it meant death. In reality, it likely meant at least a broken bone.
He thought about borrowing a bow to try to shoot at them, but he lacked the bow skill, and when he had borrowed Vanya’s to fight the Giant Ape, he had missed the enormous target badly on each attempt. Technically, he lacked the climb skill too, but his high Dexterity (and sometimes a rope) had helped him thus far.
He had come to a decision as to how to approach this group, but he wanted to save them for last just in case there were repercussions for what he intended to do. He headed to the red group’s building a few streets over.