Moss and Rake watched from a nearby balcony horrified at what they saw. Neither believed the girl was going to pull off the deliveries on Moss’s blacklist, but the sight before them was nothing short of ridiculous.

  “That princess was set up seven ways to tartarus and back, but this is ridiculous…”

  The pair stared at the supposed resort building said to be cleared for a royal designations. This was supposed to make it one of the safest areas within the instanced zone, however the droves of monsters being herded into the area told a completely different story as to what was actually happening.

  “We’ve seen worst set ups,” responded Rake.

  “We’ve fumbled jobs that looked better than this Rake,” said Moss, gesturing toward the series of buildings sculpted into a wilderness being destroyed by giant wolves and foxes. The buildings beasts, while the walkways between the battling animals were formed from legitimate trees, far unlike the stone that made up the surrounding structures.

  The instance was a beautifully designed setting, which is why her boss had chosen it for the event. Looking at the majestic bridges formed from the trees in the distance below them, their elegant paths captivated Moss. She felt stupid knowing that she was more concerned for the architecture made and left by her boss’s ancestor than even the young girl she’d set up for failure. Yet watching as a mountain troll walked through the beautifully woven tree branches, snapping the murals woven into each and every path, moss grew angry.

  “I’ve seen that look before, Moss, we’ve done enough here, leave it alone, the deliveries were made and look,” said Rake, pointing out a giant skeleton rushing toward the building Drake was inside.

  “I doubt the bone lover is going to die in there.”

  Moss sucked her teeth, looking back toward the fight between the young girl and the assassin she knew was holding back. She too had once been tested by one of the six fingered assassins, and knew that if Drake could survive the poison running through her veins, that she would be eternally marked as Moss was.

  “Let’s just hope that the girl doesn’t accept the recruitment if she survives,” said Moss, forcing herself to turn her back on the fight below.

  We’ll have bigger problems on our hand’s if she figures out we knew how dangerous those deliveries truly were…

  Each and every person on Moss’s blacklist was a high profile target, and the potential for assassination attempts was that much higher the farther down her list of names one went, and though Moss didn’t necessarily feel bad for setting up Drake, she somehow knew she would pay in the long run for her decision in a way she never had before.

  Bloody HonorBorn scions will be the death of me one day…

  “Send the boy here for his next delivery, she may need her companion for what is too come.”

  “There aren’t any more pack—“

  “Just send him Rake, package or not, set up a pick up, I don’t care just get it done old man,” said Moss, cutting off Rake as she bent her knees before rocketing upward into the sky, taking flight in an instant.

  “As you wish,” said Rake, glancing back at Drake once more. The girl’s movements impressive to watch. Each and every dodge as elegant as her surroundings. Her body seeming to become like that of a painter’s brush, helping to twist the colors around her into a dazzling tapestry of motion and grace.

  “As you wish…”

  …

  Drake felt off. The more she moved, the more she felt whatever poison was rushing through her veins try and slow her down completely.

  Her mind felt like she was being asked rapid fire questions just as she opened her eyes after a long sleep.

  Though she knew what she needed her body to do to dodge the blows, she was forced to rely on Zen to block, and deflect the strikes being sent toward her.

  Not only because of the poison, but because of her current limits. Drake could tell that even if she was at one hundred percent, that she wouldn’t be faring well against the assassin. The poison definitely gave the killer an edge, but many of her opponents attacks landed without Drake even being able to follow their trajectory.

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  One moment she saw a glint of the small trident like dagger, and the next it was being pulled from her body as if teleported there.

  Wait… what if that is exactly what is happening?

  Drake dodged, dropping below the assassin’s weapon, surging forward, signaling for Zen to drift slightly away from her body, creating a small opening.

  The three blades sunk into her arm and Drake smiled, using Havoc to grab at the wrist of the assassin as they withdrew their weapon. Her skeletal weapon there in a flash, clamping its powerful grip around the assassin’s forearm.

  “Gotcha…!”

  In the next instant however Drake found herself disarmed. Her weapon hadn’t been pulled or knocked from her grasp, instead, she found her hand completely empty after a mere blink. The lack of friction against her palm telling her everything she needed to know.

  In the next instant,Drake froze as the assassin froze, both her and the killer looking between her empty hand and Havoc still wrapped around the assassin’s wrist.

  “You cheating bastard, you don’t even have to try to aim, your just teleporting the blade into my body whenever you see an opening,” said Drake slurring her words.

  “Indeed, and you should have died after the first time my blade’s poison met your bloodstream,” said the Assassin, speaking for the first time. The deep woman’s voice surprising Drake.

  “You’re a woman?”

  “I tell you that you should be dead, and that is what you want to know, hmm, odd, but yes I am a woman, as are most of those within my order.”

  Interesting, thought Drake, continuing to move as the assassin regarded her. Her combination of tai chi and yoga poses was the only thing keeping her alive from what she could understand of the situation.

  Apparently the poison should have killed her already. However Drake’s moving meditation technique was obviously more useful of a skill than she understood; toxins being purged from her system with every deep breath and the fluid perpetual movement of her body; poison pushed from her veins out through her pores and the various stab wounds across her torso.

  Though she felt as if she was moving at the bottom of a swimming pool, she now knew that dodging or blocking the assassin was nearly impossible. She smiled; her metallic bond detaching from Zen’s mantle, flying to retrieve Havoc.

  The Assassin tried to slash at the incoming arm, only for her metallic minion to maneuver out of the way, and grab Havoc by the handle of its upper humorous. Havoc let go of the assassin’s wrist, and the bonds returned to Drake; Havoc’s handle once more warming her hand as her metallic bond returned to Zen’s mantle.

  Drake glanced around, only then realizing that Camilla had fled at some point. She cursed mentally, wishing she could have figured out a way to flee alongside the princess, but counted herself lucky to be alive.

  Just keep moving Drake…

  Think…

  Though she was tired, her body was still able to move. Her technique was removing the poison, and though the assassin was consistently reapplying the toxin to her body, Drake’s own abilities persisted well enough to keep her breathing.

  Analyze…

  Drake began to break down the area around her. How much space she had to move. The obstacles in the room, and even the tremor she felt shaking the building they were within.

  Move…

  Drake darted forward, performing a spin kick through the air. The assassin dodged, ducking just below her foot. Drake barely landed before the woman swept her feet from beneath her, lashing out with a kick of her own. The assassin’s well practiced maneuver nearly flipping Drake upside-down.

  Zen planted its palm flat on the ground, keeping Drake upright as she flipped upside down, executing splits smoothly, kicking the woman in her gut, even as Drake swept Havoc out wide.

  Drake used the momentum of her kick to spin, aiming Havoc toward the woman’s knee. The blow was easily dodged, but as Zen pushed off the ground, allowing Drake to flip right side up, her weapon once again opened its closed fist, picking up the assassin’s dropped off hand weapon, before flicking it toward the hooded woman.

  The woman once again was easily able to dodge, and even managed to catch the weapon aimed at her head by its handle as it pierced through the air.

  Drake blinked and the woman was gone, her metallic bond’s movement at her back the only thing that told her where her enemy was. The sound of metal being deflected surprised Drake; her eyes narrowing as she spun slowly to face her attacker.

  Once more the folds of the woman’s hood told Drake where the woman was looking. The assassin’s gaze obviously sliding from her weapons to Drakes own metallic minion; her bond waving at the woman over Drake’s shoulder.

  You cheeky bastard, save my life and then immediately try to piss off a teleporting assassin, what’s wrong with you?

  Her bond patted her shoulder, and Drake rolled her eyes, feeling bad for not giving the bond a name.

  Another problem for another time. Focus Drake, your staring into the face of death, now is not the time to be distracted.

  “It seems I will have to take this more seriously than I originally thought,” said the assassin with a sigh. Drake’s smirk vanished, as the woman teleported.

  Zen blocked the kick aimed at Drake’s head, trying to grab the woman’s ankle. The woman was already spinning toward Drake’s opposing side, the very same kick that Zen had just blocked, landing cleanly at the back of Drake’s head, sending her flying.

  Drake’s metallic minion detached as she flipped through the air, managing to block a flurry of strikes sent toward Drake even as she flew end over end toward a nearby wall; Drake completely unable to follow the movements of the assassin that teleported all around her, the woman stabbing at her almost a dozen times before she smashed into the wall.

  Zen tried to cushion her landing, bending backward to catch Drake, but another well timed teleport and kick to Drake’s midsection ended with Drake’s body cracking the stone of the wall behind her.

  Drake was glad to not have been stabbed on her trip through the air, but was beginning to wonder why her metallic minion wasn’t guarding against the assassin’s devastating kicks. Drake groaned, landing on her head, after being bounced upside down off the stone wall, and was immediately forced to roll, feeling another blow hurtling toward her back.

  Damn I miss Aurora!

  Drake hadn’t known how much her new friend had helped raise her awareness during combat until fighting in the instanced zones boss room without her. The trolls, and now the Quadruped assassin, were all made to be far more difficult without her companion’s continual sensory signals flooding Drake’s mind.

  It was the lack of her friends ping like sonar that made her think of her friends and all the promises made between them. Drake had many things that she needed to do, not only for those she was coming to care for and had fought beside, but for herself as well.

  “I can’t die here…”

  A series of teleports were accompanied by savage attacks. A reverse axe kick that launched Drake upward, was followed by a complex dance of barely blocked stabs. Every attack was perfectly executed after a well timed teleport, yet only the kicks managed to break through the defenses of Drake’s minions.

  I want to become this powerful. I want to become even more powerful than this even. I want to learn everything that magic has to offer, and be free!

  As drake fell through the air, she was heel dropped in the chest, causing her to plummet downward. The tile below exploded on impact, Drake gasping for breath, as a three bladed dagger was driven toward her face.

  “I can’t die here…!

  Drake saw her metallic minion swooping toward her to defend, while both Havoc and Zen curled inward to stop the attack Drake feared was a mere instance away from being teleported into the depths of her very skull.

  “Nooo!”