Even though there is no road to the north there are ten guards posted there, the east and west have four each, and the south only has two. I easily sneak up behind the two guards who are sitting passing a bottle back and forth. They are very lax and don't seem worried about getting caught.

That should mean no one checks on them until shift change, but since the last shift change was only a few hours ago everyone should be dead before the next change. I easily sneak up right behind them and reach around to cut their throats with my claws without them knowing what happened. They die quietly and I sneak off to head to the eastern group of four.

They are not paying any more attention than the first two, they are sitting in a circle playing a dice game from the looks of it. The fact that they are all looking at each other makes it a little more difficult, but I have played plenty of stealth games in my last life. Gently tossing a rock over by the road makes all of them turn to look in that direction and allows me to kill the two closest to me with ease.

As soon as my claws slice across the necks of the first two I jump over them to cut down the other two before they can even turn to look back and see what the noise is. All four of them die with no more than a quiet gurgling sound. I crouch down and wait a minute to make sure no one comes to investigate before sneaking across the village.

I head to the west side of the village to take out the other group of four, I will leave the biggest group for last. These four are a bit more vigilant than the last four, two of them are sitting by a fire warming themselves while the other two stand by the road. I circle around one of the shacks and approach through an alley to get behind the two by the fire.

The two by the road are just far enough away that they don't hear their two comrades gurgling demise. A few seconds later they enjoy the exact same fate. Now I sneak over to the north side of the village to take a look at the group of ten.

*DING*

Congratulations! Skill Stealth has progressed to level 6!

Stealth

Level 6

DP Cost 15 Agi +6

You can sneak up on average beings.

'Huh! I forgot I even had the stealth skill!'

There are nine guards gathered around a fire, they are talking and passing a bottle around. I quickly move around them looking for the tenth, I find him in an alley relieving himself. I move up behind him swiftly and slash his throat silently.

I catch his body as it falls and drag it further back behind a shack, then I crouch down and watch the alleyway. I expect after a minute or two someone should come looking for him. I would love to use the roof of the shack to get the drop on them but I don't think it will hold my weight.

After a minute two soldiers come to the alley joking about the dead soldier not being able to hold his wine. I reach them in one leap and slash them even as their eyes widen in surprise. I move past them as they fall and rush the remaining seven soldiers.

Blitz becomes a flash of light as I draw and slash in a single move. Two more swings and all seven soldiers are dead, before the bodies even hit the floor I am off and running towards the church. When I get in sight I slow down and am happy to see there is no movement at all.

I circle the church once, there are two doors other than the main one, one large and one small. The large door should be for deliveries so I move to the small door, which I find locked.

'Oh, been awhile since I've seen a locked door. Do I even have any lockpicks anymore?'

Searching through the pouch I find I don't have any lockpicks. My first thought is that I can make some fairly easily, but then I realize that is thinking far too much. I simply hit the door with my shoulder lightly and it pops open.

Inside I find a dark and empty kitchen, I quickly move through it and check the door further in, the hallway is lit but empty. I quietly move through the hallway checking each room as I pass until I find the soldier’s barracks. About ten soldiers are awake with another thirty sleeping, less than I expected.

I draw Blitz and charge into the room cutting down everyone in my path. I kill soldiers who are still sleeping, just waking up, stumbling out of bed, or already awake. I don't fight fair or honorably, I just slaughter them all.

Once all the soldiers are dead I search the rest of the church, all I find are three young priests. I might have spared them if I didn't also find over a dozen young women held captive. After freeing the women and executing the priests I check the church one last time.

The only thing of interest I find is a small chest of gold hidden away, I dump it into my pouch without bothering to count it. I leave the church and the village, taking the road east. By dawn I have purged the churches of three more villages, only two more small ones and the main one remains.

I decide to rest through the day and continue at night, so I find a random spot in the grass and curl up to doze the day away. I am hoping contact with the outer villages is not frequent so I can keep the element of surprise. When nightfall approaches I head to the fifth village and observe it as the light fades.

Nothing seems out of the ordinary so once the night is fully upon me I resume my massacre. The fifth village falls as easily as the rest, but when I move on to the sixth I run into a problem. There are a hundred of the king's soldiers camped around the sixth village.