“Vina, can you take out the leads?!” Yelled Spark from behind me, his lumbering form not quite fast enough to keep pace with the rest of us.

Mind you, he was still moving blisteringly fast. It’s just that he’s a hair slower than the rest of the group—and thus slower than what was steadily catching up to all of us.

I nodded, and loosed a few arrows enchanted to explode behind us, hoping to at least slow some of them down. Unfortunately, anything I brought down was quickly replaced or brought back.

Damn devs. What happened to never making unkillable enemies?

Let’s back up a little here, right? I’m sure you’re burning with curiosity as to what happened to get my little group in such trouble while playing Ashenload, so here’s the backstory.

We had completed the initial part of the quest involving the bandit castle by nearly wiping them out, and rescuing all the slaves they were holding in the underground dungeon. Next, we took the slaves to the closest city, and arranged for them to stay safe while recovering from their ordeal. A number of the ex-slaves still have family outside the city from what I understood, and they would leave as soon as they could to seek them out.

The next part of the quest should have been easy, for all intents and purposes. We had to apprehend the one who had been funding the bandits. We knew exactly where to find him as well, but there was one small problem. He ran away.

Granted, it had taken us an in-game day to get from the castle to the city, and then another 2 to reach the larger city where the culprit lived.

But by the time we got there, we learned that the man had run three days ago—when we had initially stormed the bandit’s castle. We started to track him down, and eventually ended up at an extensive cave system, with the clues pointing towards the fact that he had run inside for some reason.

And of course, we followed him into the caves, eager to have this reputably difficult quest out of the way and cleared.

Only, things didn’t quite work out that way. The caves ended up being larger and more complex than we had anticipated, and thus there was a fair bit of difficulty just trying to find out which direction to take.

We did find the right way eventually though, through a combination of reasonable deduction, and tracking skills. And we did find him.

We just didn’t expect to find him with twenty-odd high level liches, and their pet summons.

Now, our group is good. Very good. However, there are some enemies that everyone has to run from. At the top of this “do not engage” list, are the gods. For somewhat obvious reasons. Next would probably be the joke bosses. Some still think they might be beatable, citing the fact that a single player had once accomplished that Sisyphean task. Nobody’s emulated that, though.

Going down the list, you’d eventually arrive at a cohort of liches. They’re rated as pretty dangerous, surprisingly. You see, a single lich would be pretty bad for the average player. And the danger only gets exponentially worse, the more liches you have. This is due to the fact that each lich has a basic spell which can heal undead. They can’t use it on themselves, but the can use it on other liches, and their summons.

Perhaps you can see why things might have the potential of getting out of hand now? Oh, and if it weren’t bad enough that it’s very, very hard to kill a group of liches, there’s also the unfortunate fact that they have resurrection spells. Which sucks. Like, a lot.

And then adding on the “pets” they can summon?

Yeah, you want an army to deal with these guys. Because you need to keep the liches separated when killing them, else they’ll just be resurrected, leaving you to repeat the process all over again.

So, we did the smart thing, and tried to back out immediately upon seeing the liches. Unfortunately, things happened, and we were spotted. Then pursued. The liches were chasing after us, their feet hovering just above the ground as they flew behind us, casting spells one after another. Occasionally, a skeletal dragon or something would be summoned, and sent after us.

That brings us to where we started this chapter. Us, being chased. The summons catching up with us. The liches chattering away behind the summons.

Not a good situation, right? I’m of the same mind. We needed to get out of there as quickly as possible. It’s also still daytime outside, so the liches shouldn’t be able to follow us. However, we first have to get outside, and not let them catch up to us before that happens.

Hence why I was attempting to shoot down anything that comes near us, and protecting Spark at the same time. He’s the slowest one in our group, and thus is falling behind slightly when compared to the rest of us. Well, second slowest. The slowest one out of us all is actually Xavier. You know, dwarf and all. But he’s riding on Sparks back right not, wisely not saying anything. All the more reason to protect Spark.

“How much further until we reach the cave opening?!” Yelled Rina, whose tiny form was flying besides Diana. The two of them were up in the front, though Rina flitted by me a few times to lob some spells back at the liches in the hopes of slowing them down.

She even brought down the cave ceiling behind us once, though the liches just phased right though the fallen rocks, reminding us all that they also have an incorporeal form—as if things weren’t already bad enough.

“Three minutes!” I called back to Rina, who nodded in response.

I went back to shooting at the lead summons, systematically destroying them in order to slow them down. The liches would then resurrect them, or simply summon new undead creatures to chase after us.

“Come on, come on, come on….” I heard Spark chanting under his breath, trying to push himself to move faster, to get us out of here.

“Two minutes!” I called out, getting brief acknowledgments from everyone else.

We continued running, and I still shot arrows behind me whenever an enemy got too close, which was now happening alarmingly often.

I turned around again, and nailed a skeletal….thing in it’s skull. It was depressing to see one of the liches wave a bony hand, and have the creature reform before continuing to chase us. So, of course I would end up shooting it, and have the same things happen again.

Annoying. It’s frustrating as all hell.

“One minute!” I called out. We were still far enough away from the cave’s entrance that the only light we had was from the magic being flung about.

“Come on Spark, we’re nearly there!” Yelled Diana from the front, encouraging Spark to dredge up the last of his stamina in a final burst of speed.

The strain showed on his face, putting his all in at the end.

It was just enough. We burst out into daylight right as his stamina ran out, and he collapsed to the ground, side heaving.

In a long distance run, Spark would be able to beat us all handedly due to his immense stamina stores. However, running as he just had drains them much faster than normal, leading to an early collapse. He’s taken the slow and steady route.

The liches ground to a halt right at the cave entrance, clattering angrily at us. They wouldn’t be able to do anything to us while the sun was still up. That didn’t mean we were going to loiter around the cave entrance though. As soon as Spark had recovered a bit, we all started walking away at a good and stable pace. Might as well get as much space between the caves and us as possible.

Eventually, we reached a clearing.

“I think we better go ahead and call it a day, guys.” Said Rina. Diana nodded beside her, obviously agreeing.

“Yeah. Kinda useless to keep going right now.” Grunted Spark, who was looking decidedly worse for wear.

“How about this? We all log off, and start thinking of ways to get around those liches, right?” Asked Xavier.

“Sure, sounds like a good idea. Well, see you guys tomorrow.” Said Rina, before logging off. Everyone else quickly followed, leaving me as the last one standing in the field. I looked up at the sky, and noticed that the sun was minutes away from setting. We really pulled this one quite close, no? There were so many ways that could have gone badly.

Oh well.

Eventually, I logged off as well. In real life, it was now well into the night, and I have school tomorrow.

Quickly, I finished up any of the homework assignments we were given over the weekend. Then I prepared for bed, and slept peacefully before waking up with the red tinted sunlight.

I took a morning shower, got dressed, ate breakfast and everything. Leaving the apartment, I noticed that the day seemed fairly peaceful. I got the feeling that everything’s going to go my way today. A great feeling, I must say. Certainly, it’s a good change from all the doom and gloom that I’ve been getting lately.

The sky was clear outside, and the train wasn’t crowded at all. I briefly got the urge to break into song about how great this day is, but I shoved that deep down inside.

I got off at the school’s stop, and relaxed until class started. Everything was normal. Well, almost normal. Ussen keep glancing over at me, a puzzled look on his face.

I take it he’s noticed that something’s off about his father by now. Hell, I’ll bet that his father’s noticed, and will be trying to find out what’s happening to him as soon as possible. Which means that I should be anticipating a visit from him.

I rather look forward to that occasion. It’ll be funny, at least.

Finally, break time came, and Ussen walked over to me.

“Hey, can we talk, Revy? I need to ask you something.” Ignoring the sudden rise in chattering from my fellow female classmates, I nodded and followed Ussen to the rooftop of the school. Once up there, he closed the door behind us, and turned towards me.

“What did you do to my father? He seems…distant all the sudden.” Asked Ussen, looking a little worried.

“Got him to swear oath.” I said.

“Oath? What sort of oath, and how the hell did you manage it? I can’t think of him doing anything like that.”

“Oath to stay away. Tricked.” I replied.

“What? You tricked him into making an oath?! And what was that oath, specifically?” He asked.

I pondered for a second on how to convey the oath to him, since it exceeded 5 words. Coming up with a solution, I extended a small trail of Mana to my fingertip, and traced out the words in midair while forcibly changing the color of my natural Mana. The words hovered there for a moment, allowing Ussen to read the blue lettered oath.

“You made him swear to not interfere with me, under a binding oath? By the Deities, Revy, how the hell did you do that?!”

I shrugged. No need to tell him everything, I guess.

“Wow….I just—Just give me a moment.”

I nodded, and backed off a little. I mean, he’s just had his entire world flipped around. No longer does he have to do whatever his father tells him to. Ussen can do whatever he wants now.

He squatted down, as if to better ground himself. I could hear him mumbling to himself, though I pretended to not.

I went ahead and slipped off the rooftop, leaving him alone until next class. It seemed like he would want some privacy in the moment.

When I reentered the classroom, I noticed that quite a few of the girls looked over at me with questions running through their minds, and some with abject jealously writ large on their faces.

Oh god, Ussen isn’t one of those, it he? He isn’t….popular, is he?

Great. Those girls better stay the hell away from me, or I’ll end up showing them a hell they’ll not soon forget.

Class started, and Ussen made it back right before the bell rang. He looked…happier, like a weight had been lifted from him. There was a slight bounce in his step.

Again, the sight of his happiness didn’t go unnoticed by the girls, and set them chattering again. This could get annoying, very quickly.

Oh well. That’s something to deal with another day, I think.

I suffered under their gazes for the rest of the school-day though. Made me kinda glad when the final bell rang at long last.

I also got home after that without any major hiccups.

Well, there was one thing…..

I was on the train, getting off at my station. It immediately became apparent that Halif had noticed that something was wrong, since one of his servants was waiting for me outside of the station, next to a solidly black vehicle. The servant looked my way, and I knew that a meeting had been “arranged” for me.

I got in the vehicle, and we started down the city streets, gradually reaching some of the shadier bits of town. I know perfectly well what Halif’s trying here. Intimidation or shake tactics won’t work on me. Don’t know why he might think that they do, unless he’s continuously underestimated me even more than I’d thought this whole time. Oh, wouldn’t that be entertaining~

The vehicle stopped after about 30 minutes or so of traveling, and we were deposited in from of a worn down and decrepit looking building. The servant ushered me inside said building, whose interior presented a stark difference for the exterior. Nice, clean furniture, tasteful decorations, solid walls, a receptionists desk and everything. It seems like this is one of Halif’s little assassin hideaways, where members of his group can come to pick up commissions, rest, and do other things. Kinda like a guild hall in some VR games, really.

The receptionist was obviously waiting for the servant and I, since she brought us to an office located centrally to the building. I’m guessing this is where Halif would be whenever he decides to visit and catch up on affairs.

The servant left me in the room before leaving me in the empty office. Halif’s probably going to make me wait, as a sort of power play. He’ll sweep in X minutes late, just to show that he has the ability to, and that I have to wait.

I chuckled a little because of this. He wants to pull such petty tricks over me? Well, let’s out-petty him then.

I sat down, and waited for him to arrive.

And I gotta say, the look on his face when he did was well worth the wait.

It took him another half-hour to show up, but he got a little surprise when opening the door to the office. Halif initially swept into the room, all imperious like and stuff. However, he faltered a fair bit when seeing me sitting in his chair, my legs propped up on his big and fancy desk. He stared for a second, before barking at me to get out of his chair.

I obliged, and sat down in the somewhat less impressive chair opposite his. I sat cross-legged though, somewhat diminishing the somber nature of the room.

Halif cleared his throat, and leveled a sharp gaze at me.

“What did you do to me?” He said, his tone threatening.

“Nothing.” I said, and spoke the truth. This was something Halif did to himself, after all.

“Let me ask again, girl. Under this binding oath, I require you to say exactly what you did to me.”

I shrugged.

“Don’t know what you mean.”

“But…” Said Halif, at a bit of a loss. The poor man still thinks I’m under oath, and can’t lie. He was convinced this was my fault. Which it kinda was, I’ll admit.

“If it wasn’t you, then how…?”

I could see him puzzling things out in his mind, or at least trying to. I sighed, and rearranged myself on the chair. Suddenly, Halif shot upright, glaring at me.

“No, this is your doing, isn’t it? Somehow, you got what I said back in your apartment to bind, didn’t you?”

I shrugged again, looking as nonplussed as possible.

Halif paused, seeming to think. It seemed he arrived at a conclusion, since a decisive glint appeared in his eyes.

“Revy, kill yourself.” He said, command evident in his voice.

He didn’t seem very shocked when I didn’t move at all, instead simply staring at him.

“Damn it—You found a way around the oath, didn’t you?” He said, slightly stunned.

I nodded slightly, and showed a toothy smile.