The cat girl stepped softly on the ground. Her night vision allowed Kalistra to see clearly in the darkness. Of course, the torches held by the would-be killers also gave away their positions. The hunter saw the closest human was only twenty feet away. The cat girl looked up at the branches to see which appeared strong enough to bear her weight. She quickly charted a course in her mind and jumped onto the first branch; from that starting point, she hopped from tree to tree until was above her target. The hunter waited patiently until her target moved a bit too far from the rest of his companions. Seizing the moment, she pulled out her sword, jumped down and landed softly behind the human. Kalistra immediately covered his mouth with her left paw while she cut his throat.

The victim dropped his torch to the ground.

Kalistra immediately dropped the lifeless body over the torch to smother the flames and prevent a forest fire from breaking out. She jumped onto another branch and looked for the man's comrades. She saw three torches and started jumping toward them.

The cat girl waited patiently for another man to wander off. Again, she disposed of him as easily as the first man and jumped back onto a tree branch.

The group of humans had spread out too widely to realize that two of their members were missing.

Kalistra took out two more men before the leader realized what was happening.

"Everyone, gather around me!" the raspy voice of the leader ordered.

The cat girl took this opportunity to study the speaker. She saw a man of medium build with a shaved head and a black eye patch over his left eye. He wore boiled leather armor and carried a bastard sword behind his back and a short sword at his left hip.

"Hey, where are Luxpin, Jiofen, and Rieheart?" another man asked.

The cat girl decided that it was time to reveal herself to the men. After all, she was not an assassin and it was the Honorable thing to do. She dropped down from her hiding spot and stayed just beyond the edge of their torchlight.

"Damn!" the leader muttered as he noticed the pair of eyes glowing in the dark.

One of the remaining men lifted his torch higher and his light finally revealed the hunter in their midst.

The four men saw that her blade was slick with blood and they knew the fate of the missing men.

The leader pulled out his bastard sword and pointed its edge at the master swordswoman. "Whoever takes her head will get a ten gold bonus!" he yelled.

The remaining men cheered with false bravado at the large bounty and charged in unison. Their only chance of surviving this fight was to gang up on her.

Kalistra shook her head with disappointment at their simple tactic. There was neither skill nor strategy behind their charge. If she was their leader, she would order them to surround her first. The master swordswoman activated the "Charge" technique on the closest opponent and decapitated him. Sensing movement behind her, the agile warrior jumped straight up. Using her right heel, she kicked the headless body into the man behind her and landed safely on the ground. When she turned around, she saw that the second attacker was entangled with the dead body and both were on the ground. She seized the opportunity to jab the point of her blade straight through his heart.

"Yeargh!" someone yelled while charging toward her.

The cat girl did a back flip. While in the air, she saw that the third attacker was making an overhead swing with his blade. However, before the sharp blade could reach her, the swordswoman lashed out with her own blade and chopped off his hands.

The man stumbled forward as he suddenly realized that his hands were missing. Then he felt cold steel in his heart and wondered no more.

As Kalistra pulled her blade out of the dead man's body, she felt another heavy air current behind her. The cat girl spun around and kicked the body at the direction of the air movement. She hopped back to safety as she observed a long, wide blade bisect the body with ease. She saw that the leader was looking at her with rage. "Who sent you?" she asked.

The last man standing sneered at the question. "Silly girl, you will never be able to force me to reveal my employer," he taunted her.

"Why? Don't you want to live?" she asked.

The one-eyed man laughed. "You are offering to let me go if I reveal my employer to you? How would you know that I'm the telling, silly girl?"

"Sooner or later, the truth will be revealed. And if I discover that you lied to me, then you know I will come after you," she answered.

The contractor shook his head. "A Lawful being like you would never understand the Underworld's Rules. If we take on a murder-for-hire contract and fail to take out the targets, then our own lives are forfeit. I cannot walk away now," he explained. "Come, show me a master swordsman technique and I will defeat it," he challenged her.

"Very well. I shall grant your dying request," the cat girl agreed. Suddenly, Kalistra ran at her full speed and circled the man.

The human tried to swing his bastard sword but his target was moving faster than he could swing his sword.

"This is a technique I created myself. It's called, 'Death by a Thousand Cuts.'"

Suddenly, the circle tightened and the man felt his entire body being cut by her blade. No matter how he tried to shield his body with his sword, he was still cut. Even worse, each wound resulted in a bleeding effect and he was literally bleeding to death. The rapid loss of blood was too much to overcome and the victim dropped, face first, to the ground.

As Kalistra came out of her deadly dance, a barrage of throwing stars came right at her. Accepting the challenge head on, the cat girl used her blade to deflect the projectiles. She managed to deflect all 40 throwing stars. However, one of the deflections went backward and grazed her sword arm; immediately, the defender felt as if her arm was on fire.

Seeing that the mission was accomplished, the assailant fled, hopping from tree branch to tree branch.

The cat girl's paw started trembling as the poison spread throughout her arm. She dropped her sword and immediately reached into her pouch for a Potion of Neutralize Poison. She carefully observed the effects of the poison as she calmly drank the potion. The poison reduced her health and also her stamina. The potion was able to counter the health reduction but not the stamina reduction. She tried to reach into her pouch again to grab a stamina potion. However, her stamina bar was already low due to her use of the master swordsman technique. And the poison was rapidly draining the tiny sliver of stamina remaining. "Damn!" Kalistra said as the poison reduced her stamina to zero and knocked her unconscious.

Two elves dropped from the trees and approached the cat girl on the ground.

"Never thought I'll see the day when the great and mighty Kalistra is knocked out," the male elf remarked. He wore green leather armor and carried a bow and quiver, and a sheathed short sword at his left hip

His companion searched the vicinity for one of those throwing stars. The other elf was female and wore elven chain mail enchanted to move silently in the forest. She had a shield on her back and a long sword in a scabbard at her side. When she found a throwing star embedded in a tree trunk, she grabbed it with her gauntleted hand and pulled it free. She took a sniff and blanched at the smell. It smelled like pus. "I don't recognize this poison. Please smell it, brother," she requested.

The other elf took a whiff and made a face. "There are two distinct odors on it. The one I recognize is boiled jabber wort. Depending on the concentration, it can sap up to 10 stamina per second. It's nasty against professions that rely on stamina to activate techniques," he noted with a shiver.

"No wonder Kalistra is knocked out. The poison is keeping her stamina below zero," the female elf replied. She carefully wrapped the throwing star in a cloth and placed it in her pouch. "We'll need to take her back to her hideout and wake up the nobleman," she said. The elf gently carried the cat girl in her arms and started walking.

The elven ranger scanned the battle field and found no sign of life. Every human who crossed blades with the cat girl met his death. The elf shivered at the memories of their slaughters. He quickly followed his sister.

When the two elves arrived at the hideout, another person dropped her illusion and came into view. The newcomer was a human girl who wore a dark gray robe and carried a staff, which marked her as a mage. The mage gasped at the sight of Kalistra. "Is she dead?"

"Poisoned," the ranger replied.

"By an assassin," the warrior added.

The mage looked at her party members and gave an order. "Let's make camp here. I'll wait up the nobleman."

#

Tap-tap-tap.

I heard the noise but my mind failed to comprehend its significance.

"Wake up, milord," a female voice said. Seeing that the gentle method had failed, the mage tried the hard method instead. She poked the end of her staff into my ribs.

Ow! My body immediately awoke from an automatic fight-or-flight response; I put up my fists and prepared to fight with whoever had attacked me. My eyes landed on a familiar looking dark gray robe. The wearer of the robe was bent at the waist and leaning her head under the roof of trees. Her fiery red hair framed her beautiful face and her dazzling green eyes looked straight into mine.

"Do you remember me?" the human woman asked.

I took a deep breath. My heart was pounding so hard inside my chest that I thought it was going to explode! I was fortunate that her prank did not trigger a panic attack in me. Yes, I recognized this person. She was a spellcaster who traveled with the elven twins, Bjoukia and Bjoukin. I met the trio on my first day in this gaming world. They sat on the same table as Ebenthal at The Noble Lady during lunch. Rijana was what I call a "troublemaker" because her appearance always brought trouble along with her. "Why are you here, Rijana?" I tried not to grimace at knowing her name. I wondered if she was an avatar for some unknown goddess.

Rijana smiled for a brief instant and then her face turned serious. "It's your master. She's in trouble."

At the expected (or unexpected, depending on one's perspective) news, I lunged for the opening out of the hideout.

"Eek!" the mage yelped in surprise and reflexively backed away.

I rudely brushed past her and looked around. It was still very dark but a glimmer of moonlight from the waning moon illuminated my surroundings. I quickly noticed the camp fire just a few yards away. And on the ground laid Kalistra, who was curled up in a fetal position. I became alarmed at the way she slept because I had NEVER seen her in that position before. She had always slept on her back with her tail tucked neatly between her legs. She acted prim and proper even in her sleep! Thus, for Kalistra to be ignoring proper decorum was a big warning that something was seriously wrong with her.

As I approached the campfire, I saw Rijana's companions, Bjoukia and Bjoukin, leaning against separate trees.

"What happened?" I demanded to know. I was so concerned by my master's current situation that I skipped offering the two elves a friendly greeting. The last time I saw them was at the dojo when they volunteered with other adventurers to enter the underground wererat lair to mop up.

Bjoukin the ranger rose to his feet and walked until he stood in front of me. He wore a green colored, full set of leather armor. His curly blonde hair was tied back with a green string. His sky blue eyes met mine for a brief instant. He bowed deeply to me for some unknown reason and then gave his report. "Milord, your companion decided to pursue a group of humans on her own. While she was fighting the leader of the group, an assassin attacked her with ranged weapons that were coated with poison. She deflected most of them, but one managed to graze her arm and poisoned her."

I grimaced at his report. Kalistra told me she was going to track them, not fight them! I cursed my own stupidity for not instructing her to expressly avoid fighting them. As her master, I could have made this order and she would be forced to obey my command. I took a deep breath. "Those men were under contract to kill us. Why didn't you help her fight them?" I asked.

The two elves traded glances.

By now, Bjoukia the fighter had also walked over and stood to the left of her brother. "The Elven Nation assigned us to protect you, not her," she revealed.

"We saw her drink a Potion of Neutralize Poison but then she fell unconscious. I decided to bring her back here and we set up camp outside your hideout," the ranger added.

I quickly viewed Kalistra's status screen and saw that her current condition was "Poisoned. -10 Stamina per second." When I relayed this information, the two elves winced.

Bjoukin sighed. "I was afraid of this. The projectile was laced with two poisons. The potion that your companion drank was able to neutralize the lower tier poison but not the greater tier one. The constant stamina reduction induced her to sleep. It will also prevent her from using her deadly sword techniques," he explained.

"Perhaps, I can help," a voice interrupted us.