Raid Slayer 2

by Riley Morrison

Anita’s eyes narrowed. “More proof of patriarchy, if you ask me.”

  “No one asked you,” Betsy snapped.

  “Shut up, all of you,” Missy hissed in the angriest tone Zack had ever heard her speak.

  Instantly, everyone fell silent. Missy glared at Anita and Amy, then turned to Zack. “Go on, my sweet song. Tell us how we get inside.”

  Zack took a quick drink of water as he thought things through. Then he came up with a plan.

  “We stick close to the cavern wall and go forward on our stomachs. The light is dim that close to the edge and we should be able to get around to the side of the palisade where there are less torches. Hopefully, there will be a back gate or if not, maybe we try to find a way to climb the wall.”

  “Then what?” Betsy asked.

  “Once we’re inside, try to stick to the shadows. The quest said the target is inside the main building. With luck, there will be an unguarded entrance or window or something like that.”

  “Seems a lot of ifs and maybes,” Anita said.

  He frowned. “What choice do we have? We have twelve more hours to finish this mission before shit hits the fan.”

  The orc woman shrugged and turned away. “Amy and I had a solid plan.”

  “Come on, Anita. There could be a fucking army in there for all we know. I don’t want Amy, Missy and Betsy to die.”

  Her head snapped around. “My mother and sister’s lives are at stake here too. You’re not the only one with lives on the line.”

  Zack took a deep breath to calm himself. She was afraid, he understood that, but that didn’t mean they had to act recklessly.

  “I’m sorry. But we do it my way.” Zack went to cross his arms but remembered one of them was little more than half its normal size with tiny, kid-sized fingers.

  Anita glanced at the limb. “You sure you’re up to it?”

  “Damn sure.”

  He started crawling forward. “Now you can all follow me or you can stay here and sulk. Either way, I’m going in there to save all of you.”

  To his relief, he heard the women moving after him. Amy was just crazy and would have followed him into the settlement using stealth, even if he didn’t like her idea of going in, wands blazing. Anita… was just being Anita. As she had pointed out, every other time they had killed the Janitor’s targets, she’d walked right in amongst them and killed one before they even knew what was happening.

  But here was different.

  They had no idea what they were up against. Her way would only get them killed, especially when he wasn’t the man he was without both arms functioning.

  It was difficult sliding forward on his stomach without the use of both arms, so he had to resort to pushing himself with his legs and pulling himself with his one good hand. No doubt, he looked like a right fucking idiot, but whatever. He would do anything to save his harem.

  Anita soon took over him, taking the lead. He gritted his teeth as he watched her go forward. Just her small way of showing defiance, he supposed. Amy and the other two had the decency to keep pace with him. Betsy even kept watch on the palisade and warned him when a guard walked along the wall above them.

  They lay down and tried not to move, hearing the sound of the guard’s feet thumping along the wall until it drifted away. Then they started forward again and after around ten minutes, reached Anita.

  She’d found a pit filled with small stalagmites about forty-feet from the palisade. They climbed in next to her, trying to be careful where they put their feet.

  Anita leaned in to whisper to Zack. “There is a gate here but it’s closed.”

  With Missy, Betsy and Amy awkwardly crouching behind him, Zack peered over the edge and vaguely made out the gate in the wall. There wasn’t much light over this side of the camp, but the one guard did a slow patrol along the wall, sometimes shining the torch over the edge.

  As he patrolled along the palisade in front of them, they ducked down to avoid being seen. When he was gone, they stood and continued to search for another way in.

  They could not see the north end of the palisade, but like the south, the direction they had come from, it appeared well lit. They had to find entry on this side or they would have to go with Anita’s plan and walk through one of the main gates and hope for the best.

  Amy stood and peered forward. “How about I sneak over there and see if I can open the gate?”

  “What? No.” Zack struggled to climb out of the pit with one fully functioning arm. If anyone was going to go over there, it would be him.

  Amy and Anita pulled him back. “Let her go,” Anita said. “Our armor makes noise when we move and it could give us away.”

  “Then I will take it off.” He started to unequipped his gear and put it in his Inventory.

  Anita tapped his regenerating arm with an armored finger. “You can’t even climb out of this pit properly. Just let her go. She won’t fail you.”

  “I’m not afraid of her failing…”

  Amy put her arm on his shoulder. “I’m a big girl, I can handle myself. I love you being my big, strong, protector, but right now you can’t do everything yourself. I’m lightly armored, I’m fast, and if I do get seen, I can freeze the guard and buy myself time to escape.”

  Zack knew he was defeated. Amy was their best option of going forward unseen.

  He hugged her. “Don’t do anything stupid. If you get caught, then run.”

  Amy shoved her tongue into his mouth and brought his good hand to her ass. When she’d had her fill of him, she pulled away. “I expect all sorts of Zack loven once we get back to the palace.” She breathed him in. “I want your tongue over every inch of my gorgeous body.”

  Her sexy, sultry voice and her closeness made him relax. “If you find us a way in there without being seen, the rest of us will pleasure you any way you like!”

  She waited until the guard had made his pass again, then slipped over the edge of the pit and crouch ran forward, disappearing into the shadows at the gate.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  In The Backdoor

  Amy reappeared a minute later, moving along the edge of the wall. She reached the corner, then glanced around the edge at the north side of the settlement. After a moment, she ducked back and pressed herself against the palisade.

  Above her came the guard. He had changed the direction of his patrol and was heading back the other way.

  Zack and Anita ducked down, only the tops of their heads above the edge of the pit. They watched as the guard passed right over Amy and moved on, completely unaware of her presence.

  Zack breathed again. Shit, that was lucky.

  Amy crouch ran back over to them and they helped her down into the pit. Once she got her breath back, she said, “The gate is unlocked and I managed to get inside the wall. The problem is, there’s a sleeping guard sitting on a chair not far from the entrance. I think he was meant to be keeping watch, but nothing much must happen here and he slipped off to sleep.”

  “Was there anyone else about?” Zack asked.

  “I saw some guards playing cards at a table near the main entrance and inside the building just on the other side of the wall, I heard voices. All up, I counted ten guards, including the one on the wall and an unknown number inside the building.”

  “Lucky we didn’t just charge right in there,” Betsy said from down at Zack’s feet.

  Anita and Amy said nothing. Both were watching Zack expectantly.

  “Then we go in and slip past the sleeping guard and see if we can find a back entrance to the main building.”

  “I say we kill the sleeping guard,” Anita said. “Just to be safe.”

  Zack reminded himself what was at stake. All of their lives and those of Anita’s family out in the real world.

  “Fine, kill him. Just do it quick and silent.”

  “Of course.” Anita grunted. “I can be subtle too, you know?”

  He grinned. “Could have fooled me.”

  Zack and Anita both remove
d their armor to reduce the noise they made as they moved around. It felt absurd to him to be dressed only in his small clothes while going into a camp of enemies. But sometimes desperate times called for stupidly dumb measures, he reckoned.

  They waited for the guard to go past again before they made their move. A minute later, they were in the shadows at the gate.

  Once more they waited for the guard to pass by, then Amy slowly opened the gate. Thankfully, it made no sound. They slipped inside the settlement and stopped.

  Ten feet to their left, shrouded in the dim light, was a guard sitting on a chair. His chin rested on his chest and he snored softly.

  Anita crept up to him, Betsy's old sword taken out of Zack’s Inventory in her hand. Zack and the others held their breaths as she slowly reached out.

  Then with a quick movement, she covered his mouth, shoved back his head and drove the blade in up under his chin and into his brain. The man's body jerked around for a few seconds then went still, his blood pooling at his feet.

  Companion inflicted 545 damage

  Sneak attack 2x damage

  Honor Guard has died

  +500xp

  Just an NPC. Were all the guards non-players?

  Anita propped the body back up to make it look like the guard was still asleep, then after wiping the blood off her hands on the dead man’s cloak, she rejoined Zack and the others.

  He couldn't see her face in the gloom but he could tell she was well pleased with herself. She had proved to him that she could be silent and efficient when she chose to be.

  Zack led the way along the back of the building, the darkness shrouding them. They came to a thin ally between the smaller building they were against and the larger main building.

  His eyes had adjusted well to the low light. He could see well enough to know there wasn't any rear entry or windows leading into the main building. Its walls were made of stone, its roof way above their heads. The only way onto it would be from the top of the palisade and that was out of the question.

  That left the alley.

  Zack glanced around the corner. There was no one about. He scanned the wall of the main building, hearing a man's bellow of laughter coming from the building next to him.

  About halfway along the wall was a side entrance to the main building. There was what looked like a bin next to it. Perhaps it led to a kitchen.

  Zack gave the women hand signals, telling them of the door. Anita put her lips to his ear. “I'll go forward by myself and open it and see what's inside. If it's clear, ill wave you forward.”

  He turned to argue with her. He would go forward. Then he saw her face and shut his dumb male mouth.

  They’d already been through this. She was the better option. Without being able to use a shield, he was half the man he normally would be. Less really, as he had no armor on.

  Reminds me of when I was first thrown down here. Near naked and shit out of luck.

  Anita disappeared around the corner. Missy took Zack’s hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

  It was hard letting the women go forward without him. I'm a tank. We're always the first in and the last out!

  To make sure Missy, Amy and Betsy knew he was all right, he touched them on the face. They could barely see him but he gave them all a brave smile.

  Then he turned back and found Anita cautiously opening the door wide enough to peer in. Beyond her, was the well-lit central area of the settlement. He couldn't see anyone out there, though the alley narrowed his field of view.

  For all he knew, there could be a guard standing just around the corner at the front of the building.

  Anita soon waved them forward. Zack motioned for the three women to follow him.

  He stuck close to the wall of the main building as he headed toward Anita. They were halfway there when the guard patrolling the wall walked along above them. Shit, we should have waited.

  The man went by without slowing and Zack's heart stopped pounding in his ears. He moved up to Anita, then without pause, followed her through the door. Once all of them were inside, Anita shut the door gently behind them.

  They were in.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Agents

  Darkness enveloped them, the only light shining under the door on the other side of the room. But Zack didn’t dare light their torch. He felt around and found pots and pans sitting on the bench next to him.

  They were in a kitchen, which likely meant there was an NPC around like Margery who did the cooking and cleaning. But where were the players? Their target had to be another player because surely the Janitor would be able to terminate the AI of any NPC in the Underworld without fighting them if he so chose.

  Or was this all some type of test?

  Zack gritted his teeth and led the way toward the light across the room. They reached the door and Zack put his ear against it to listen. He could hear nothing outside.

  Anita got down onto her stomach and peered under the door. After a moment, she got up and whispered, “I don’t see anyone out there.”

  Taking a deep breath, Zack put his hand on the door handle and slowly turned it, making sure it didn’t make a noise as he did so. Then he opened the door half an inch and looked out.

  He could see a hallway with several exits leading from it. A torch burned on the wall further along and there had to be another to his left that he couldn’t see, as the light was brighter there. In one of the other rooms he thought he heard the soft murmur of voices. It was impossible to tell if they were male or female.

  Glancing at the others, he nodded. Let’s do this.

  He opened the door wider, slowly at first, then when he heard no sign that anyone had noticed, he opened it faster. Then he drew his sword and stepped out into the hallway and glanced around.

  They were alone.

  He moved out of the way so the other four could step out, each walking as silently as possible. If they were seen he and Anita would put their armor back on. It would only take a few seconds but if they entered combat before they could get it on, then they were shit out of luck. The game would prevent them from reequipping their armor or changing anything but weapons and shields.

  Another stupid rule made by idiotic developers.

  To their left, the hallway ended at what looked like a small feasting hall and the front exit leading outside and to their right, it ended at a door. Maybe this is where the people in the camp slept. The rooms off to the side of the hallway appeared small, as the doors were close together. The door at the end of the hallway seemed the logical place to start.

  They crept up to the door. Zack put his ear to it and listened.

  Silence.

  Gripping his sword, his heart racing in his chest, he cautiously opened it. Anita shoved past him and entered first. Zack stopped himself from snapping at her.

  Then he reminded himself that he had no shield and that he wasn’t his full self. Let her go first. It wasn’t like enemy players could be tanked anyway. They attacked whoever they liked.

  Zack went in second, followed by Betsy then Missy then Amy. They entered a room with a desk at the opposite end and a bookshelf running along one wall. The room was lit by three candles, two on the desk the third on a table next to them.

  No one was about. Another door led from the room on the right side. Maybe the bedroom of the camp commander.

  Amy shut the door behind them. Anita went over to the entrance to the bedroom and waited for Zack and the others to get in position. Then she opened it. Peering in, she glanced around then turned to Zack and shook her head.

  Damn it.

  Suddenly, they heard footsteps coming along the hallway toward them. Zack ushered everyone into the bedroom then shut the door. He had no idea if the person was coming into the main room but if they were, then perhaps he and his harem could ambush them.

  The bedroom was small and had no source of light except what spilled under the door. It didn’t matter. They didn’t need to see anyway.

  They
all held their breaths as the door to the main room opened and someone walked in. The door shut and the footsteps moved over to the desk. A chair scraped along the floor then came a thump of someone sitting.

  Zack waited a moment, then was about to move when he heard the door open again and another, light-footed person enter. “Simon, you’re back,” Said a woman’s voice.

  “Yes, I arrived a few minutes ago.”

  “Anything urgent to report?”

  The man started to pace. “Things are getting better for us out there but I do fear we will soon be found. We had traitors among us and once we caught wind of them, they fled into the quarantined zones.”

  The chair creaked. “Then they are as good as dead. What’s there to fear?”

  “When you have lived outside the City as long as I have, you learn that not everything they tell you about the world beyond its outer wall is true. That quarantine zone is a living, green paradise. It may have once been dead, but now life flourishes there.”

  “That doesn’t mean humans can live out there yet.”

  Zack didn’t know much of the world beyond the city. Speaking of the past and of the world that had once existed before the chaos that had seen the oligarchy rise to power was a Code 2 violation. A slow, torturous death awaited those who dared break that law.

  “True and that is why I didn’t send anyone to pursue the traitors. I let them head out there and hope to never see them again. But if I do see them again… that answers the question on whether we can enter the quarantine zones again.”

  “So what if we can?” the woman said icily. “There is nothing left out there except blasted ruins and the dead buried under them. There is one place we know where humanity can flourish and that is what I am fighting for.”

  The man was silent a moment, then cleared his throat. “The only other thing to report is that we acquired more stasis-game-pods and have installed them in Site D. Our agents will begin using them within the next few days and coordinate with your people. I’ve sent Cohen out there to oversee things.”