A Goblin’s Evolution

The group walked further through the corridor. There were a few flickering torches here and there, but it was still pretty dark. But due to excellent night vision, the assassins could hone in on several doors in the corridor, on both sides.

In the end of the corridor, there was another guard bandit, but he seemed to have fallen asleep. However, if he were to wake up, he might see Min and the others. Thus, he had to die.

Haemir knocked a poison tipped arrow on his bow, and drew. As he let go, the arrow whooshed through the air, and in a short moment, it impaled itself into the bandit’s throat.

The bandit woke up immediately and clutched at his penetrated throat, but he could only fall silently. His vocal cords had been severed, and his airway cut. All his screams of woe came out silent.

Having killed another bandit, the group wanted to hide him, but they couldn’t think of a good place. Due to the bandit they had tortured for information, they knew what room laid beyond the, now dead, bandit.

It was the treasury, and inside, there would be several more bandits keeping guard. Thus, they couldn’t hide him in there.

As for the several doors in the hallway, they knew one of them led to the bandit leader’s chambers, but they were unsure of what was inside the other rooms. Thus, they decided to just leave the bandit where he was, like they had done with the other two.

Either way, it didn’t matter too much. It was the middle of the night, so most bandits were sleeping. Min and her group doubted they’d have any patrols going around.

Bandits usually weren’t the most careful bunch, and they were out in the middle of nowhere, in the first place. It was unlikely that they would suffer any intruders. Yet, here they were.

The group ventured further into the corridor, until they arrived outside the first door on the left side. According to the dead bandit outside, this door led to their target.

Kemah slowly opened the door, while doing her best to look through the gap. There was no keyhole, so they had no other way to see what was on the other side. Thus, Kemah, the one with the quickest reactions, was the one to open the door.

As soon as the door opened, the bandit inside looked to the door. He saw the yellow eyes of Kemah in the darkness, but it was the last thing he saw.

The very moment Kemah had been spotted, a knife went flying through the room, lodging itself deep into the bandit’s throat. It was the go to place for an assassin to target. It was harder to scream for help, when you’d been stabbed in the throat.

Having dispatched of the bandit, Kemah zoomed through the room, over to where the dying bandit lay. The bandit had stood in a corner, and if there was another bandit nearby, Kemah would need to kill him or her as soon as possible.

Luckily, beyond the corner, there was only yet another door, allowing Kemah to relax. She promptly stabbed her dagger into the bandit’s heart, relieving him of any more pain.

The other three assassins quickly followed behind Kemah, closing the door behind them. The four looked at the door.

“If what that bandit said was true, this is where our target sleeps. After dealing with this feller, we just need to kill everyone else here, and then we can go home. After looting the treasury, of course,” Kor said, a satisfied look on his face.

So far, their mission had proceeded splendidly. The only uncertain variable left, was their target himself. To be the leader of a group of bandits, he had to be strong. But if everything went according to plan, he would be dying in his sleep.

As for the rest of the bandits, they would easily be killed. Individually, none of them could stand a chance against any of the four assassins, but Min and her new friends were all adepts at stealth. The bandits would die before they even knew what hit them.

Everyone made their final preparations. Min readied a spell, just in case something went wrong. Haemir knocked a poisoned arrow, and Kemah and Kor readier their daggers.

Finally, they opened the door. However, what none of the assassins in training had expected, was that their target had prepared an alarm.

No matter how slowly they opened the door, it would still cause that bell to move, to ring out. Even though it wasn’t loud, it was still enough. The large statured man slowly opened his eyes. As he sat up from his bed, his gaze went straight for the four strangers in his room.

“Shit!” Haemir said, as he loosed his arrow. The bandit leader’s eyes widened, as he saw his attackers, but his reaction was quick! Seeing the archer let loose an arrow, the bandit leader moved at his quickest speed.

He was able to move far enough so that the arrow only cut along the flesh of his arm. But Haemir still smiled, as if he had succeeded. With Haemir’s arrows, it didn’t matter where he hit. All his weapons were coated in poison, so as long as the target’s flesh was cut, he would be poisoned.

As soon as the arrow pierced into the wall behind him, the bandit leader flashed away from his bed. He made his way to weapon rack, where he grabbed the first sword he could find.

The bandit leader was wearing nothing, but his sleeping garments. This would be a tough fight. But there was no way he’d just sit back, and let these attackers kill him. He had to take charge of the situation!

The bandit charged ahead, swinging his weapon in a furious arc. His sights were set on the neck of these insidious bastards, who dared attack him in his sleep.

However, the assassins were all quick witted, and their reaction abilities were trained. They quickly spread out, surrounding their target, while simultaneously dodging his attacks.

The next moment, everything was shrouded in darkness. Even the single lit torch was drowned in shadows. Min had cast her spell, filling the entire room in darkness.

This was the spell, ‘Darkness Shroud!’ It shrouded an area ten meters in diameter in pure darkness!  You would be able to see nothing at all in the area of effect. However, it had one weakness. If your enemy had night vision, it was useless.

But in this case, it made the spell even stronger. All four assassins had powerful night vision capabilities, while the bandit was completely blinded!

Having cast her first spell, Min drew back, as she started preparing her second spell. Meanwhile, Kemah and Kor were attacking the target with everything they got.

Kemah would never be in the same spot for more than half a second, always jumping all over the place. As for Kor, he was plenty agile himself. After just a few seconds, the bandit leader had suffered several wounds.

Meanwhile, Haemir was loosing arrow and arrow on the bandit. However, this bandit leader was even stronger than anyone had expected! Even when blinded, he was able to dodge any lethal attacks. He had more than a dozen wounds on his body, by now, but they were all superficial.

As for Haemir’s arrows, either they missed, or they only did as much damage as the first one had. However, the poison was showing its effect.

The bandit was sweating pearls, and his breathing was getting heavier. He was slowing down by the second.

Finally, Min cast her second spell. As she let the dark energy around her go lose, a black pit appeared below the bandit. Out of the pit, several black arms rose, trying to pull the bandit down.

This was another supportive spell, called ‘Black Abyss Shackles.’ With her second spell cast, Min pushed out both her palms.

Visible dark mana started coalescing in front of her palms, before creating a crescent shaped blade, flowing in the air.

One blade after another shot out towards the bandit. As the blades hit the man in the back, instead of cutting into him, they exploded, causing a dark acid to cover his back.

“Aaaaaaah!” The bandit screamed, as he nearly fell to his knees. The skin was falling of his back, as the black crescents continued bombarding him.

The spell ‘Black Crescent,’ didn’t do as much damage as some spells, however, it caused intense, burning pain, and it could be fired rapidly.

Under Min’s assault, the bandit was barely able to fight back. Soon, the frighteningly fast Kemah managed to lodge her two daggers deep into the bandit’s throat. Meanwhile, Kor simultaneously managed to puncture the man’s lung.

After a relatively short, but still frantic, fight, the bandit leader could finally go on no longer. He fell to his knees, spat out a mouthful of blood, before finally collapsing.

With the death of their target, Min drew back her Darkness Shroud, allowing the lone torch to light up the room, once more.

“He was quite strong,” Min remarked, as she gave the bandit a light kick.

“Yes. Without your magic, it would have taken us a bit longer to kill him. Magic truly is a useful tool. And I have to say, your magic in particular, is especially cruel,” Kor replied, a smirk on his face.

“Yeah, no shit. The flesh has been seared off his back. I can even see some bone,” Haemir said. It was a grizzly sight. Kemah couldn’t even look at it.

“Let’s get going. We still have to kill the rest of the bandits, if we want our bonus,” Min said, as she started walking towards the door, her butt swaying seductively.

“Sure,” Kor replied, while sheathing his daggers. The others silently followed Min out of the room. Even though Kemah was more sexually pure than Min, she actually walked in a very similar manner. It was part of her feminine charm.

When the four got back out into the corridor, they turned towards the treasury. It was best to deal with the bandits in there, first.

Thus, the assassins silently made their way to the treasury. Despite being perhaps the most important room in the entire fort, it had no door. But it was well defended. There had been that, now dead, bandit outside, but inside, there were four more bandits.

Min, Kemah, Haemir, and Kor looked inside the treasury, spying on the bandits, while the bandits themselves, remained none the wiser.

Kor started giving out signals, dividing the bandits between them. Since there were four bandits and four assassins, they would just have to kill one each.

Haemir knocked an arrow, while the other three readied their daggers. Even though Min specialized in magic, she was still a formidable combatant.

In fact, between the four of them, Min was the hardest person to disarm. Even if her magic was drained, and her daggers confiscated, she could just shapeshift her hands into claws.

The only way to deprive her of all weapons, was to chop off her arms. But even then, she still had her fangs. Even without her arms, she’d still be able to bite!

At Haemir’s signal, Min, Kor, and Kemah charged into the room, following behind the flying arrow.

As the arrow pierced into the bandit the furthest back, the other three all reached their targets.

Without knowing what hit them, all four bandits were killed. Three bandits were stabbed in various spots on their bodies, while the fourth had an arrow pierced into his heart.

“Wow, there’s a lot of treasure here. Too bad we can’t take it all with us. We’ll just have to take as much as we can carry, after we kill all the bandits,” Kemah said, her eyes sparkling. Kemah had an appreciation for the finer things in life.

“Yeah, we’ll come back here after we’re finished. This is probably even better than the bonus,” Haemir said, as he held his bow in one hand.

“Let’s continue. There’s still plenty of killing to do,” Kor said, as he exited the room. The other three soon followed. Back in the corridor, they now turned their attention to the doors placed along the walls. Other than the door leading into the leader’s bedroom, there were three others.

After entering the rooms, they found that they were all bedrooms, housing a single bandit. Probably the lieutenants. Dispatching of them was an easy matter, as they were all asleep.

Finally, they could leave this corridor, entering back into the hallways they arrived from. However, there was still the corridor parallel to the one leading out. Min assumed that this would probably lead to the living quarters.

It was probably where they’d find the most resistance, and the highest number of bandits. Good thing they’d decided to attack at night.

Walking down the corridor, they only came upon a single offshoot, which seemed to lead into the dining area.

Inside, there were eight bandits, relaxing. They seemed to be slightly intoxicated, which made things easier. Kor tugged on Min’s shoulder, getting her attention.

“Can you cast that darkness spell again? The one that made the entire room go black?” Kor said, whispering into Min’s ear. Not that it was needed. Min had excellent hearing.

“Sure. Gimme a sec,” Min said, as she prepared the spell. Soon, a black blob appeared between her hands. With a slight motion, the ball entered the room, exploding into a large field of darkness.

“The fuck? Guys, I just went blind! I can’t see shit!” One bandit exclaimed, as the darkness took him.

“Me too! What the shit fuck! Did the booze go bad? Can booze go bad?” Another bandit said.

Before anyone else could say anything, Min and the others had already entered them dining room. In a matter of seconds, the bandits all had their throats slit.

“Onwards we go,” Min mumbled, as she licked the blood of her dagger. It was a tasty treat, to her vampiric tongue.

Back inside the corridor, they could finally make their way to the end. At the far end of the corridor, was a small storage room, filled with barrels and such.

However, a few meters back, there was another offshoot, going to the right, in the same direction as the other corridor. However, they had long walked past where the stairs leading outside would be.

The offshoot led into a short hallway, which in turn led into a circular, doorless room, filled with beds. On each bed, there was a single bandit, sleeping. Other than the couple of beds that remained empty.

Like a breeze, the assassin made they way from bed to bed, stabbing each inhabitant in the heart. Some struggled for seconds, but they all died after a short while.

“Well, that’s all the bandits inside. Now we just need to kill the ones keeping guard outside. But that’s an environment much better suited for stealth, and there’s only a couple of bandits there. Let’s get this over with, so we can loot our treasure,” Kor said, before leading his companions out.

Outside, things went just as smoothly as it had, so far. In just a minute or two, all the bandits outside had been slain. Not a single enemy remained alive, by now.

“Well, that’s that. But it’s late, and I don’t feel like sleeping outside, when there’s perfectly good beds inside,” Haemir said, as he finally tied his bow to his back.

“I second that,” Kemah replied, getting dreamy at the thought of sleeping in a bed again.

“Let’s get some well deserved rest then,” Kor said, as he turned back to the entrance into the fort.

“Can’t wait,” Min said, before yawning, as she stretched her arms. Thus, the four found a few good beds, and went to sleep.

As morning came, the first destination Min and the others made, was the treasury. There, they put as much treasure into bags as they could carry. Each person would take home what they could personally carry for the long trip.

After looting the treasure, they finally made their way back out of the underground fort, more than ready to make the trip back home. However, outside, they saw an unexpected sight.

A seemingly fat man, but shaped in bulging muscles, as well as a group of dangerous looking people, stood before them.

“So you’re the one who killed these underlings? And you even dared to steal the treasures that were owed to me. No matter. Since you have destroyed one of my outposts, you’ll die.”