Captain Helios stood atop
a fallen destroyer golem, the point of his spear lodged in its head. It had
been a perfectly normal day in Argopolis only a few short minutes ago. However,
all of that had changed when numerous thieves, assassins, and other such
scoundrels, backed by an army of the most advanced constructs the captain of
the guard had ever seen, had come pouring out of several thieves guild safe
houses across the city. Of course, the city guard had immediately engaged the
invaders, but it was clearly a losing battle. Perhaps that would not have been
the case if the army were here, but most of Argen’s troops were stationed at
the border with the Empire of Undeath, and the remaining troops were at the
border with the Barbarous Crags. To add insult to injury, dozens of cultists
streamed out of the popular Chelm’s Cheese shop and began shanking guards with
weapons that appeared to be combination daggers/cheese graters.
The scene before Helios was, from his perspective, quite
grim. The city guard had attempted to form a shield wall to blockade the road
leading to the castle. At this point, however, that wall was shattered and
Helios’ men were scattered about, desperately trying to combat the forces of
Imperium Cleptarum, the construct army, and the cheese cultists. Many of the
guards were actively burning to death because of the flamethrower-wielding
warforged the invaders had just deployed. This was not normal fire either; it
was alchemist’s fire, which stuck to its targets as they continued to burn.
Helios
had sent a runner to inform the king of the situation at the battle’s start and,
presently, was wondering what was taking so long. The captain pulled the spear
from the fallen construct he was standing atop and turned to see if help was
forthcoming. It was at that moment he saw the runner’s dead body lying on the
steps leading to the castle, a dart protruding from his neck. Helios barely had
time to curse under his breath when a poisoned dart struck him in the shoulder.
The captain of the guard turned to see from whence it came. After a few moments,
he spotted an indistinct shape camouflaged against the terrain flitting across
the roof tops. The figure became visible as it hurled some sort of dagger at
Helios, which the captain barely managed to block with his shield. Upon
striking the shield, the knife disappeared and returned to the assassin’s hand.
Helios pulled a javelin from his back and launched it at
his assailant, but he could already feel the poison taking effect and was beginning
to feel rather dizzy, throwing off his aim. The assassin easily sidestepped the
projectile before front-flipping from the roof and landing ten feet in front of
the captain. It was then that the guardsman finally got a good look at his enemy.
Standing before him was a skeleton wearing a typical ninja outfit, except it
was camo-patterned instead of black. Over this he wore a camo-pattered t-shirt
embroidered with the title “Hide and Seek Champion”. His eye sockets were
covered by night vison goggles, and in his hand was an exquisite dagger with a
faintly glowing cyan blade.
“You! You’re the one who’s been robbing our vaults, aren’t
you!?” Helios shouted at the undead assassin before him.
“The very same!” Smitty mockingly exclaimed with a bow.
“Sneaking up on people like you is just like hide and seek, and it never gets
old! And just as fun is the part where you die!” the skeleton gleefully explained,
before bursting into laughter. “Well, I better not keep the boss waiting!” With
that, Smitty threw has dagger at the guard captain.
Helios easily blocked the attack with his shield, but his
foe threw the dagger over and over as it continually returned to him. Although
they weren’t hard to block, the magical daggers were starting to cause major
damage to the guardsman’s shield. Realizing he was running out of time, Helios
threw his battered shield at the skeleton, which Smitty nimbly ducked. Taking
advantage of his foe’s momentary distraction, the captain ran toward him,
almost losing his footing due to the poison.
Smitty simply stood there as Helios approached. When he
reached the skeletal assassin, the captain of the guard thrust his spear at the
undead’s chest. Rather than jumping out of the way of the attack or blocking it
with his dagger, Smitty twisted a bit to the side causing the spear to pass
between his ribs.
“Tag! You’re it!” Smitty exclaimed as he slit Captain Helios’ throat. As his blade left his target’s neck, the skeleton disappeared with a flash of faint cyan light and reappeared ten feet behind his now very dead adversary. Smitty chuckled to himself as he effortlessly scaled the side of a building and then disappeared into invisibility.
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