A very normal hostage

"Stop! STOP!"

Seeing his fellow brothers in arms swing wildly at the defenceless child, he quickly halted their actions.

"She must be a hostage or somethin'." However, glancing at the girl again, she seemed to be in cultist attire, though her scared expression dashed the thought that she was just a midget, "Probably got kidnapped, so don't stab her!"

Though he managed to stop them from going ham, they were rather reluctant to believe that she was a hostage.

Approaching the little girl, he hurriedly questioned her to alleviate suspicion from the rest of the group.

Around a round of questioning, he was able to glean quite a bit of information. Firstly, her name was Shan, she has no relatives in question, no family, no nothing. And she doesn't even seem to understand the situation she's in, considering that she apparently works here. Now I kinda feel bad for involving her in the brea- Wait, works here? As in works for the cultists?

As Cooper is about to begin another round of questioning, he catches a glint out of the corner of his eye.

What the-?!

Snapping his neck at the glint, he spots a reflective knife, following the knife down to the arm he spots a cultist, peeking at them from behind a corner. Except, they seem rather short…

Suddenly making eye contact with the little cultist, she tilts her head, allowing Cooper to get a proper look at her face. And she's also a little girl…

"What the hell?"

Why are there so many children here? Could it be… No, surely not…

"They're child predators?!"

Someone by the side spewed Cooper's exact thoughts.

…

What the Hell is going on?!

I'm over here just trying to take a nap and suddenly some strangers bust in here and start making a ruckus.

Checking out the reception area, it most definitely isn't the other cultists, these people look different. They seem oddly equipped and prepared for a simple house invasion.

Could they be robbers? No. Judging by their 'lecherous' looks they're giving at Lazari they must be it…

Paedophiles!

Oh, poor Lazari, she must be spooked by their vicious gazes.

One may wonder where Jeffrey had learned such terms from, but after the cake day, Lacer had informed him of the intricacies of the dark side of society at Jeffrey's behest.

Jeffrey's greatest gain from that information exchange was the discovery of a certain type of people…

Paedophiles.

Indeed, what scum they are!

And look at that! They hath already surrounded Shan!

Tsk, it's a tragedy that the others left to go run some errands, leaving just me in the base. I can tell, although these people may be scum, they're skilled — at the silver strength, minimum — . They're also decked out.

Taking full advantage of the element of surprise and the pitch black environment, I sneak to the side of the room, before slitting the throat of one of them. Hm, the lecherous bastard was so focused on Lazari he didn't even see me coming.

*Thud*

What was tha-? Oh. Oh no.

I forgot to catch his body. And my position is less than ideal, to say the least. WIth me being near a corner of the room with little movement space, it puts me in a rather precarious situation as everyone's attention is now on the body, before turning to me.

"We let our guard down!"

"Who cares?! Get him!"

Before I can make any movement, I'm shield bashed through the wall of the inn. Why are these walls so thin?! Nonetheless, this might've improved my situation, as now I'm outside the building, where I can easily be sniped by the many archers disseminated across the rooftops.

Goddamnit.

*Fwip!*

Ha, that arrow was way off, can these guys even see in the dark?

*Fwip!* *Fwip!**Fwip!* *Fwip!* *Fwip!*

Nope nope, they can still aim pretty well. I learnt that the hard way, with an arrow through my foot. Why the foot? It's always the foot. Wait, are they aiming to immobilize me? Damnit, I've fallen for their dastardly trap.

The only silver lining to this situation is that it's just the archers after me, the others seem to still be snooping around inside.

Phew, it seems like the arrow rain let up, but in its absence came another barrage, a magick barrage…

However! I haven't been spending the past couple days doing nothing. By training my mind and reaching deeper into the mysteries of my blood, alongside a daily routine of extensive pondering I have finally unlocked the ability to manipulate most essence. Hopefully…

Well, it's time to find out if my efforts were worth anything!

*Shwoop*

Waving my hands around me, the spells deconstruct and dissipate instantly. Utterly flabbergasting the casters.

"Ha, your bad," I give a dark grin. Which still, cannot be seen beneath my mask.

Nonetheless, my taunt is super effective, the mages seem to be barely restraining themselves from throwing themselves at me. I have seen many enemies use this skill many times before, so I thought I might as well use it seeing how effective it is.

It seems effective but not nearly potent enough. Although I nearly made the mages throw themselves at melee distance, 'nearly' is the keyword. I'm gonna have to find someone to help me out with that.

Wait a minute. Those animals are still in there! Is Lazari doing ok in-

Yeah, she was doing well. Looks like they turned their backs on her and kept exploring the base. In fact, some even came outside to fight me, a grave mistake- ouch.

Taking a step toward them, I feel an acute pain in my foot. This may be more annoying than I thought.

"Come at me!"

Since moving to them is going to be a pain, I'll make them come to me! Ingenius if I say so myself.

Except when they started throwing sheets of paper inscribed with rather intricate epigraphs at me… At first, I thought 'No way pieces of paper could hurt me,' but unlike normal sheets of paper, these actually cut through the air, finding no resistance as they hit my body, totally catching me off guard. Detonating into a flurry of spells, from electrocution to explosions and even straight up just turning into steel daggers.

Yeah, I don't feel so good. I might be suffering from heat syncope.