One moment, General Scott was reaching out a hand to send a mind-controlling burst of mana into one of the frozen Abelino clones.

The next moment, there was a shadowy flicker, and he fell to the ground, clutching his bleeding throat.

A shadowy, feminine figure appeared above General Scott’s corpse. The assassin was dressed in pure black armor, without an inch of skin showing.

From the knives adorning every inch of her body, I had a good guess who it was.

Adia rushed my direction.

The clone closest to Adia met her in the street with a raised sword. Somehow, Adia sped up even faster, dodging nimbly around the Abelino clone’s blade.

The Abelino backed up, unwilling to let Adia close the distance between the two.

But then an arrow flew from a rooftop, carefully positioned and timed so that it was about to pierce through the Abelino clone’s retreating back.

Somehow, the clone sensed it, dodging to the side, just as Adia moved that same direction. The moment Adia closed the distance, she stabbed a knife into the clone’s neck.

During their battle, I moved.

The woman in purple’s miscalculation was that I still had 100 Agility, and I was within a sword’s reach of her now.

Her attention, and the attention of the remaining three Abelino clones, were split between myself and Adia.

I pushed past the pain from the gaping wounds in my chest and hip. Leaping from the ground with my right leg, I stretched out my left hand towards the Void Pistol that was pointing towards me.

I was following Samantha’s tried-and-true battle tactic. When all else fails, sacrifice your left arm.

The woman in the purple dress pulled the trigger of the Voild Pistol, but my hand was already at the muzzle of the gun, twisting the angle of fire.

The Void Pistol flared, sending a Void Bolt through my hand, but missing the rest of my body—and “coincidentally” traveling through the torso of the closest Abelino clone.

The pain was immense, and I could still only support myself with my right leg.

I was close enough to the woman that I could easily break through her last Mana Shield, but one of the Abelino clones was already swinging a blade towards me.

My mobility was shot—literally—so I was forced to block the Abelino clone’s strike with my blade.

“STOP,” the woman in purple said. I could feel a wave of power roll through the street. But the command wasn’t directed to me—it was directed towards Adia, who was charging towards the woman from the Mentalist Cooperative.

Adia never even flinched, continuing her charge.

My blade was still locked with one clone’s blade, and the other unwounded clone—which had been about to attack me—was forced to intercept Adia’s charge.

My heightened perception noticed a shadowy figure on a rooftop a few blocks away release an arrow my direction.

Samantha’s combat outline had me press with even more force against the clone’s blade.

Just like with the previous clone, this clone somehow noticed the arrow as it was flying towards him, but he had no good chance to dodge, only able to incline his body slightly before the arrow tore through his shoulder.

I made full use of the attack, turning my back on the clone, and swinging my Vampiric Blade with as much force as I could muster towards the woman in purple.

Crack.

I could finally see a hint of panic in the woman’s grey eyes.

The Abelino clone that the woman had accidentally shot earlier jumped between the two of us, and the Abelino clone that had just taken an arrow to the shoulder tackled me to the ground.

As I was falling, I saw, as if in slow-motion, Adia evade the Abelino clone that was blocking her path.

She moved with lithe and confident ease. She made the Abelino clone look like a blundering fool, practically dancing around him, just centimeters away from the clone’s deadly blade.

I knew, with Adia’s stats, that a single blow from the clone could kill her.

Even worse, Adia had no way to block any attacks from Abelino. She had short swords at her belt, but she knew better to draw them. If she was forced to meet any of Abelino’s strikes, she would be pushed back and likely be injured just from the collision of the blades.

Adia must have known this, because she dodged just centimeters away from Abelino’s blade, all in order to close the distance between herself and the woman in purple.

I heard and felt a painful crack as my head hit the street, the Abelino clone firmly holding my arms and pressing my chest against the ground.

Now that the woman in purple had no shields, I would have been able to use Cursed Lightning, but even as I used all my remaining strength to try to toss the Abelino clone off of me, Adia struck.

The woman in purple was just pulling something out of the pockets of her dress, but she was too slow, and too late.

Adia right hand planted a knife through the woman’s dress into her heart, and then a second knife followed, slitting her throat.

I felt a moment of regret, watching Adia kill the woman. Samantha and I had been working so hard—we did all the hard work, really, taking down Mana Shield after Mana Shield, incapacitating a sorcerer, all setting her up for the killing blow. It was infuriating, seeing Adia smile after the kill—likely receiving the same rewards and mission that I had received. Now, it seemed, I would have competition, finding and fighting these Renegades.

The thoughts were only accentuated by the pain I was in. I had bled and almost died several times, for no material gains. This whole time since I had met Abelino, I had barely gained any experience. Abelino had dealt with most of the monsters getting to Fayette City, and killing Abelino clones didn’t grant any experience. The whole battle left a sour, bloody taste in my mouth.

The moment the woman in the purple dress died, the mind-controlled clones around me immediately backed away and dropped their weapons.

At the same time, the 30 odd Abelino clones that were standing frozen just a short ways away around the warehouse came to life at the same time, immediately rushing towards us and shouting quick commands in Spanish.

“You look like shit,” Adia said, tossing me a Health Potion.

I picked up the health potion gingerly, and drank it quickly. “What are you doing here?” I asked, the moment I finished.

Adia glanced around briefly. It was strange, actually, that there were no more soldiers nearby that we needed to fight. In fact, off in the distance, I could hear the sound of weapons ringing against each other, and cries of pain.

“I’ll tell you later,” Adia said. “I have a city to claim.” Adia collected all the loot that the woman from the Mentalist Cooperative had dropped—smirking my direction in the process—and then rushed away.

I let myself lay in the street, trusting Abelino to not let me get too hurt, as my wounds patched themselves up.

“Get up,” an Abelino clone said. “You look pathetic.”

I staggered to my feet, surveying my surroundings.

There were about a dozen clones around me. Some were exploring the house that General Scott had come from, others were exploring the warehouse, and even further down the streets, I could see some clones rushing towards the .

“All my clones are accounted for,” the same Abelino said to me. “The woman in black—do you know her?”

“Yes,” I said. “She is ex-Crucible.”

“She doesn’t seem to like you, very much.”

“No,” I said, shortly.

“She has a team of people, should I let them take the city? I have no interest in a city this far north, but I would like to consider Daybreak and the Novak Alliance my allies.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Check with Dawnbreaker.”

The Abelino clone took out a Communication Amulet. Since he hadn’t connected his amulet with Dawnbreaker, he had to contact Alex first.

“This is Alex. How did it go?” Alex sounded like she had just woken up.

“I have all my clones. Someone named—” Abelino gestured at me.

“Adia.”

“Someone named Adia killed the mind-controlling woman. Did you send her?”

There was a moment of silence through the Communication Amulet.

“Adia represents a separate group. They are calling themselves the Ravens,” Alex said. “She was actually already in Fayette City. She had a grudge against the Mentalist Cooperative, you see. We let them know that there would be movement tonight, yes.”

“Why didn’t you mention this to us?” Abelino asked.

“There was always the chance one of your clones would be compromised,” Alex said.

“She was well-prepared,” Abelino said. “She killed one of my clones. Permanently. And the mind-control did not work on her.”

There was no response on the other line.

“I need to return to my Zone,” Abelino continued. “And the Teleportation Circle is broken. I will either support these Ravens, or I will claim the city for myself. Which will it be?”

“Support the Ravens, then,” Alex said. “We look forward to working with you in the future.”

With that, Alex cut off the connection.

Abelino glanced at me, thoughtfully. “Dawnbreaker. You have seen her fight?”

I nodded my head.

“Do you think I could beat her?”

Samantha said, immediately.

“No.”