Three men were riding horses away from the capitol, the one leading the charge was a man in a full suit of armor, a shield on his back and a sword at his side. He was rubbing his face, grumbling to himself as he remembered the experience he had just moments ago. A man, the recently summoned hero, had used his face as a foot stool and leaped over his barricade, the resulting force of that action had slammed his face into the ground, breaking his nose.

It was soon healed by a healer, but he soreness did not go away as it throbbed with his residual anger. What happened afterwards didn’t help either, because of the hero’s actions the town was in disarray. Talks about a beastman being freed from its collar, the hero attack and winning against a high member of human society, and even fighting back against the guard.

They said he went mad, stirred by the words of the beast.

Regardless of the reason, the knight once healed took charge, he was captain of the gate garrison after all, and ordered his men to calm the citizens while the gate was repaired. All was going well until that damned priest showed up.

“Tch.” Remembering that bastard made his face sore, he had shown up, all pompous like, and using his authority from the church commanded him and a small group to go after the hero.

At first the knight captain was confused; he was trying to control a panicking mob and he wanted him to go? And not only that, but only bring a few others and not a whole squad to apprehend a hero? Someone who effortlessly escaped the capitol? He questioned him while trying to explain the situation, but the priest simply scoffed.

“You are retrieving a corpse, it won’t take much man power.”

This confused him even further, a corpse? He tried to remind him that a hero is a special existence, someone who gains levels faster, has the highest default point gain, and usually had special skills, even a low leveled hero could overpower a trained knight under the right circumstances. Of course, that wasn’t accounting for skills, titles, and battle experience, just by raw stats alone.

Again, he scoffed.

He explained how it was because of those special skills it would be so easy. He explained that because the hero had used his skill so openly and without a plan, and how he so graciously gave them the description, he was now easier to kill than a limbless goblin.

When questioning why they wanted to kill him he answered that they “Didn’t need a disobedient traitor.”

And that is what lead him to where he was now, as soon as the gate was opened, he had arranged one of his higher level guards, a man at level 20, and a healer who was at level 13, to accompany him. The captain himself was sitting at level 35, if the priest words were true the hero was only level 7 and the slave, he stole was level 2, neither a threat if the hero was truly helpless.

He turned to his right, seeing the healer knight dressed in light leather robes “Roxle, you will get the kill on the hero, won’t do much for our levels if we take it.”

“Right, thank you captain.” The man, Roxle, turned to him and nodded.

This was for the best, even if he is a hero he is only a level 7, the experience he would give would just be a drop in the ocean and leveling as a pure healer was hard enough, so it was good to give him the opportunity.

“What of the slave?” The man on is left, Jay, spoke.

“Capture it if it even stuck around, don’t injure it unless you want to make Trinity madder than she already is.”

“Trinity? Man this dumbass…”

The captain, Carter, couldn’t help but agree. Trinity was not only an owner of a prominent club many high-ranking nobles visited, but she was also one of the highest leveled humans in the city, but this fact was kept as a sort of non-secret, just something everyone acknowledged but never publicly spoke about. While her exact level was unknown, the hero even winning against her, at level 7, shook the town hardest.

There were even rumors that she had evolved…

Regardless, it spoke to just how much damage an unchecked hero could do. Even if it was just a special skill it does not change the fact it allowed him to become unstoppable and accomplish feats well out of the realm his level would allow. His face throbbed, anger rising as he realized he was jealous of his power, a power that was just given to him.

He almost wanted to deal the final blow himself…

“Captain! There they are!”

He snapped out of his thoughts and looked ahead, chuckling at the scene in front of him. “Priest wasn’t lying.” He said, pulling on the reigns to slow the horse, leisurely trotting up to the two targets.

The hero was laying on his back with his eyes shut, his chest was bobbing up and down as if breathing, so he could assume he was alive. It looked as if he had been dragged, his cloths battered and covered in dirt, and dragging marks in the ground confirmed this. He guessed the slave had tried to drag him,but was unable to get too far because of her smalls stature and low level.

Speaking of the slave, this is what caused him turning traitor? The slave herself was of the fox species, black fur, and couldn’t be older than 6. She had a dull look on her face like she was about to fall asleep, or just genuinely not interested in what was going on, frankly it was amazing she stuck around and didn’t just run off with her newfound freedom.

Idiots flock together I suppose.

Annoyed he would have to capture that alive they approached and dismounted their horses. He took a deep breath “You sure caused a lot of trouble in town, and for what? This useless thing.” He said, gesturing to the slave.

The hero did not open his eyes, and seemed barely able to even speak without suffering from what ever pain he was in, even so he spoke in a weak voice “Wasn’t just for h-her… you knights know, don’t you? Abou-“

“Silence!” Jay shouted “We don’t want your excuses traitor!”

The captain couldn’t help but smirk, Jay was right, they were not here to debate. Wanting to make this quick he gave his orders “Jay, recapture the slave. Roxle go collect yo-“ It was sudden, a white flash exploded from his side and in the next moment a scream was heard from his side.

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“Guawauh-!”

“Jay!”

Turning towards his subordinate Carter found himself surprised, a white icicle was firmly lodged in Jay’s left eye socket, the knight himself going to the ground. Now understanding they were under attack he readied his sword and shield, but where were they getting assaulted from? His looked towards the hero, who was still on the ground in the same position he last saw him in, unchanged…so where?

He felt a shiver, his danger sense kicking in, he leapt in front of Roxle with his shield raised, just in time to feel the brunt force of an icicle shatter against the metal shield.

“T-thanks captain…”

He paid his companion no mind, right now what was important was identifying the attacker. “From the forest?” he murmured, glancing towards the forest past the hero “…Roxle, heal Ja-“

“GAAA-“

Right when he was about to give the order, a scream sounded out that was cut short, he knew what he would see, he’d hope Jay would have gotten ahold of himself but that injury already spelled his doom. He glanced over, nearly dropping his shield at what he saw “The…the slave?”

Appearing to have come up from behind, the little fox had leaped up and firmly planted a light blue…ice? Dagger into Jay’s neck. The Fox remained on his back, gripping the dagger as they fell.

“Jay! You beast!” Roxle pointed his hands towards the fox, beams of light shot out towards her but she swiftly dodged, kicking off the corpse she pointed her hand towards them, an icicle shooting out that was quickly approaching them.

“Shit-!” Carter blocked the shot with his shield “The fuck is up with that brat!” He had completely forgot about her, as in his mind she was not even a threat, but she had already managed to take out one of them “This wasn’t what the priest said! Stay behind me Roxle!” He shouted, keeping his eyes on the girl.

By the way she moved he could tell she was fast, nimble even. Magic aside and combining her quickness with the surprise attack that bypassed his danger sense he concluded she was some type of assassin build, her sneaking up and delivering the finishing blow with a critical hit from behind also helped confirm that. “High dex…” Her not also pelting them with a barrage of magic also meant she didn’t have a lot of mana, despite the icicles hitting as hard as they did.

From experience he guessed she would be around level 40, heavily specialized in dex and int…. “cowardly” he spat at the thought, with him focusing on con and str, he should have the advantage in a straight up fight as long as he kept her in view…the problem was Roxle, with her fire power he would be done in by a single shot, critical or not.

He glanced back at him, then looked towards the fox, who was still standing some distance away from them with one hand pointed forward, the other gripping the ice dagger “…heh.” Making weapons with solid magic like that costs a lot of mana, so that confirmed it, her holding her hand out like that, ready to blast was a bluff.

“Don’t attack, focus on support.” With that simple order whispered to Roxle he charged. As he approached, he clicked his tongue, the size disparity between the two would make this difficult, but he just needed to land a hit in. One hit should end it.

Despite his charge the fox did not move, instead she lowered her arm and stance, bracing herself “Don’t get cocky!” He raised his sword up in the air, before bringing it down rapidly, hitting empty air as the fox had leaped back, he had missed but the fox appeared to be clutching her right shoulder, somehow looking annoyed “Tch, slippery beast.” He charged again, not letting up.

He slashed and again the fox dodged effortlessly, he kicked and the fox was already gone, he tried to bash his shield, expecting a counter attack to his missed kick but only found the fox had retreated backwards, still with that annoyed look on her face, border lining on frustration. This pissed him off “Do you only know how to run?! Come on, stand still!” In his rage he raised his sword up into the air, swinging it down onto her but only managing to hit the ground as the fox had leaped back.

“Fucking stop dodging and sit still!” He was losing his patience, her dex must have been way higher than his, but they were still at a standstill, he could not hit her, and she could not hit him. He smirked ‘so far…’ he had yet to use skills, so far he was just trying to keep her attention solely locked on him, now that he had lulled her into a false sense of security and gauged her speed it was time to pull out one of his trump cards.

He charged forward again and engaged in another bout of slashes and kicks waiting for when she…now! When she jumped back he activated his skill, a motion she would be used to by now but with a twist, he raised his sword into the air, this time the sword glowed, magic gathering in it as he brought it down, this was one of his skills [Smiting Thrust] and her leaping back like that sealed her fate. The sword upon impact, missing or not, would explode the area in front of him in a wide area, she would su- huh?

During his downwards thrust she had suddenly changed her direction, dashing forward and between his raised arms “W-what?!” stuck in the motion and unable to stop, he stuck the ground, the area in front of him in a 10 meter cone exploded, tearing the ground asunder.

“N-no! Stay away!”

He quickly turned around, paling as he saw the fox was dashing towards Roxle, who in his panic started firing off his light rays. The fox effortless dodged them, which was not the case for Carter, who was behind them. He raised his shield as the light rays harmlessly tinked off of it. He closed his eyes, knowing what came next.

“No! Stop! You bea-AAAAAA!”

Unable to stop the fox, she had reached Roxle, thrusting her dagger into the button of his skull, twisting it free when Roxle fell limp.

“…Damn priest…” If he had more men, this would not have been happening, but no, it was just one useless slave and a crippled hero. Well now two men where dead to that useless slave and he was alone having to clean up this mess. While pondering his next move he noticed the hero, still laying there defenseless…and now that he didn’t have to defend some low level he-

He raised his shield as two icicles slammed into it “She still had mana?!” he screamed out in surprise, another icicle hitting his shield, this one leaving fist sized indent from the impact, leaving his arm sore on the other side. “…” they had gotten stronger? Was she just playing him this whole time? He looked up from his shield, seeing the fox was smiling while holding her head

“No…”

Something was off.

He glanced at the his fallen ally by her feat, then looked towards the corpse of his other subordinate, finally he brought his gaze back to her, who was still clutching her head with one arm, then it clicked. She had leveled up and was dumping enough points into her stats to get recoil from it.

He suddenly felt like a heavy rock had been dropped into the pit of his stomach, dread filled his mind as he pieced together what was going on. Killing a few knights, especially ones lower leveled than you, would not give anywhere near enough points to trigger level up disease, or recoil, normally a common person would never get anywhere near enough points to trigger it, it was however, common for new knights and adventures, who would hoard their points for use after a dungeon, raid, or campaign.

He had seen it enough times to recognize it, and the fox in front of him was showing signs of it after killing few knights… no matter how he tried to justify it in his head it didn’t make sense…unless… he was wrong about her level? But then how did she…no…he didn’t want to admit it, he didn’t want to entertain the thought any longer, he knew this was bad and he had to stop her.

He started to rush forward, halting and raising his shield as another icicle smashed into it, he felt metal dig into his arm as the spell had managed to break through, just how many points did she dump into int?! and how was she still standing?!

With his arm feeling numb he continued on, noting her start to stagger. She was on the edge of consciousness, he just had to reach her. He raised his shield arm again, blocking another chunk of ice as it crushed into his arm. He grit his teeth, making a mad dash towards her. He gripped his sword, the blade shining as he readied another one of his skills.

As he approached her his side he started to slash, the fox herself just stood there, smiling as she raised both her arms and a blast of icy wind burst forth, he tried to raise his near shattered shield to defend but found himself unable to move his arm to do so. As a result he chest was blasted with an icy beam, blowing him back as his chest and shoulders were incased in a thick layer of ice.

He collapsed, going to his knees. He looked up as she approached, he tried to move his sword arm to strike, but found that to was unresponsive “Fucking fox, what are you!? The hell are you even protecting him for!”

The girl just frowned, one arm on her head as she tittered from side to side “This is for my arm.”

He blinked “Wha-“he was confused but never got the answer, as a dagger was thrust into his neck, his world fading to black.