As Kwispii and JohnWillStab entered the festival, they were both drawn to slightly different things, while JohnWillStab was interested in the various toys and cosmetics, Kwispii was only interested in the fancy alcohol available for sale.

A loud crash was heard as everybody's eyes were drawn to the source of the sound they noticed a robed figure, an enchanted blade in hand standing atop a collapsed food stall under which lay an NPC, struggling to escape before being killed by the sword-wielding figure.

At first, the entire festival went silent, nobody was certain what was going on, was this an event? A performance?

Without saying anything else the figure lunged at another nearby NPC who tried to block their attack with a frying pan.

Soon more figures arrived, they were coming from the river, dozens of cloaked figures, each one wearing the SilverPeak guild crest and wielding enchanted weapons.

JohnWillStab: An attack? he put his mask and scarf in case he was attacked.

Kwispii: It looks like it. he started making his way to the attacker who tried to retaliate with a crimson-red lighting spell which once again failed to make contact with Kwispii before falling down and diffusing into the ground.

With one solid punch, Kwispii launched the robed figure across the festival, thanks to their level they didn't die, instead, upon falling to the ground and rolling around a bit, they jumped back to their feet, using another red spell this time to launch themselves forward, their blade sticking out ahead of them, as they were about to plunge their sword into Kwispii's gut he crushed the weapon with on swing, shattering it into bits and grabbing the cloaked figure by the throat.

Instead of playing the normal strangle animation the figure stayed still only to burst into several crimson spikes shredding its body into a fine mist but also dealing a large amount of damage to Kwispii.

Slowly Kwispii retreated his arm, his entire hand was gone, only a bit of shattered bone sticking out.

JohnWillStab: Kwispii! S#*t, are you alright?! he rushed over to him only to get tackled to the ground by a nearby cloaked figure, with the use of the manoeuvre skill he switched places, using the height advantage to perform a kick from above before retreating a bit.

As the figure stood up once more it drew from inside of its robe a large glowing ball of spikes attached to a chain, throwing it towards JohnWillStab shredding a nearby tend, as wood debris flew everywhere JohnWillStab was able to dodge the attack without any problem, he moved in and performed the slash and kick combo.

The figure dodged each attack moving backwards slightly each time before finally casting a spell, the crimson lighting spell from before, it shot towards JohnWillStab and before hitting him it flew straight down into the ground much like it did with Kwispii.

Elemental Grounding was one of the passive abilities JohnWillStab learned, it made him develop a powerful resistance to elemental abilities, it was most effective against ice and lightning and least effective against fire.

With that JohnWillStab officially entered the bear stance, he saw his stamina slowly start to drop, seeing his limited time he cast the bear charge ability allowing him to not only get close to his enemy fast but also plant his two daggers into his neck as if he was digging his fangs into his flesh.

If you're wondering how JohnWillStab got his weapons in, it's a very complicated tecnique nobody saw coming, he unequipped them outside and re-equipped them inside.

A torrent of blood sprayed out as the cloaked figure struggled to get JohnWillStab off, the moment he stopped struggling JohnWillStab cast retreat launching himself away prepared for another attack, just in time for the figure to explode into the crimson spikes form before.

In the distance, another NPC was being held by the throat as a cloaked figure stabbed them in the gut repeatedly.

In no time Bonifacius used his charge spell crashing into the figure, and allowing the NPC with little to no health to retreat to safety.

Bonifacius had no weapons so he had to rely on using his fists, he planted one fist on the figure's face resulting in it splattering to a pile of meat and blood particles.

Bonifacius: They appear to be pretty low level! At the very least a portion of them!

XxFoxlyxX was busy deploying dozens of scripts and papers all over the place, any player with a weapon would trigger it and make them burst into flames.

Bromy was also taking part in the fight, vines sprouted from the ground, mixed with roots and leaves they formed a dome into which Bromy could place any NPC of his choice hand have them be completely untouchable as long as he maintained the spell which he could cast passively, whilst doing other things, such as healing the NPCs and cracking the cloaked figures open like peanut except with guts and gore.

♕: Where the f#*k did these people come from!? she demanded casting a spray of fairy flies dealing considerable damage to nearby figures.

Lorb: Hey, NPC, you're level forty-something, you should return to the pet storage for now.

Forest cut-throat: Are you guys sure, I 'm sure I could help out.

Lorb: I doubt that will be necessary. he replied with a smug smile which sent shivers down even ♕ spine.

With that, the cut-throat disappeared as Lorb cracked his knuckles.

♕: What the hell are you planning?!

Lorb: A little trick I learned as while working on the Animus-Shift project.

A cloaked figure from nearby noticed the NPC-looking Lorb and started running towards him as he planted a single finger on their forehead resulting in their character standing still.

♕: Paralysis?

Lorb: Yeah, it paralyses the character, that's all it does.

Meanwhile, in real life, the player controlling the robed figure who attacked Lorb was laying on the floor, twitching amongst various bodily fluids of theirs and trying to recover mentally from the one second during which they were exposed the maximum possible pain a person could feel.

For just one second, every single particle of their body felt like it craved nothing but an end, no depiction of hell could ever compare.

Lorb: Yep, they might start moving eventually, but I doubt it.

The "paralyzed" robed figure disappeared as the player pulled the computer plug from the socket in favour of placing a fork there inside.

♕: ?

Lorb: Guess they rage-quid! :D

With that, the battle continued, blood was spilt and lives were lost, but eventually, the robed figures were forced to retreat.

As everyone relaxed the mood of the festival was permanently ruined. A total of 31 NPCs were killed, meaning they would respawn as normal NPCs without sentience.

♕: What the hell was that about?!

Lorb: I guess they're trying to stop the Animus-Shift, or maybe they're religious extremists against the idea of sentient AI.

♕: ...

Lorb: Oh s#*t, watch out! he called out as ♕ saw a one-armed, bloodied, robed figure running towards her, a dagger in one hand, crimson liquid dripping from it and sparkling in the blue light to form a purple droplet.

"Well, damn - that's a pathetic attempt, I'm not an NPC y'know, besides I can survive one attack like that." she though waiting for the dagger to make contact so she could retaliate only for the dagger to never reach her because Forest cut-throat was in the way, he left the pet storage to block the attack.

Moments later, the cut-throat fell down to the ground, red veiny textures appearing on him as evidence of the poison as his health started dropping quickly.

As the robed figure recoiled in surprise before being grabbed by Lorb.

Lorb: I'm about to apply some permanent paralysis to this character.