Everlast Online

Nina was worried and doing anything she could to stay alive.

She was well aware she was the weak link in the party. Smokey was so excessively powerful that Nina had never seen her struggle against even one enemy; and Gloria's strength completely made up for Smokey's physical weakness, to the point she could just charge through any danger that presented itself to her.

She scrambled to the side urgently as another blade attempted to stab into her side. 

Nina was extremely close to being killed on many occasions as assassin after assassin came for her life with far more skill than she had. She recovered from her scramble, but was immediately forced to jump to her side as a knife flew from within the smoke.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Nina's mind was incredibly panicked as she tried her hardest to survive. All I need to do is survive long enough for the others to help me.

Nina jumped forward as an assassin came from behind to stab her in the back; she heard the distinct click of a tongue behind her as she dodged, but turning revealed no enemy at all. 

Are they... Mocking me? Nina thought. None of them are taking me seriously...

This realisation shook Nina to her core, none of these assassins actually thought she was a threat to them. She was just Smokey's plus 1 not even worth their full effort, that was why they weren't coming out to fight her:

They don't think I'm worth the effort. For a moment, Nina's thoughts were plagued with insecurity and depression; but those were soon replaced with rage. Rage at being looked down upon so flagrantly. They don't think I'm worth fighting, huh!? I'll show them!

It was at this point that Nina stopped being passive. She knew well how to play to her strength, but decided caution was the best way to proceed: Not anymore! As another knife flew from the smoke, instead of dodging out of the way and remaining in the abnormal clearing free from smoke, she rushed deeping into the disguised area. As she ran, she could hear shock from behind her as the assassins clearly hadn't expected that; though she thought she could also hear some mocking laughter, jeering at her running away.

"Shut up and find her!" One man yelled from behind her.

Nina broke out into a smile upon hearing that as the light around her glimmered, her form altering such that she looked to be wearing entirely black clothes that obscured her entire being.

Time to hunt some assassins.

"Haha!" She began laughing, knowing well this would attract attention. And so it did, 2 assassins entering her range of sight - briefly looking at her before looking away. Nina's grin widened behind the fake mask as she closed in on one of the assassin's backs, before driving a knife deep into the side of her neck; making use of [Ambush Strike] and muffling their cries with her hand.

Before the body had even hit the ground, Nina had pounced onto the back of the other assassin; utilising her [Feline Agility] to cling to his back and repeatedly stab him in the chest until he fell to the floor in a bloody mess. Nina quickly fled into the smoke again as she was unable to suppress her second victim's screams and they had attracted a crowd of people to investigate.

Phase 2. Nina thought, smiling.

6 assassins reached the area where the screams had come from, only to find 2 of their colleagues dead on the floor; one of them clearly having been brutally murdered. Rage built up in the hearts of the assassins as they looked upon their fallen allies. And right as that rage reached its climax, the target of their hatred revealed themselves from within the smoke.

A cat-beastfolk, covered in blood, appeared and stared at them. A moment went by before the assassins charged and the cat ran.

They ran for maybe a minute, before the lead assassin managed to get within range; grasping onto the cat's filthy tail - only for it to disappear upon contact. The assassin's eyes widened in shock as he turned to confer with his comrades; only for there to be no one behind him.

Shit! Right as he was about to call out for help, fully understanding what had happened to his allies; a knife dug into his throat and ended his life before he could. And the perpetrator slinked away into the smoke, as though nothing had happened.

Nina's skills were ultimately useless if she were to launch a full frontal attack, but should she be picking her opponents off one by one; it was perfect.

Of course the [Thief] class was more specialised in stealing and not as proficient in killing as an assassin, but this ultimately came down to a difference in active skills; on the surface a [Thief] and [Assassin] were mostly indistinguishable. Nina herself had not really gained much experience in being a real thief as it were, the primary skill of a [Thief] was [Steal] allowing one to randomly take any item on another person or from their inventory; Nina on the other hand had a lesser version: [Sticky Fingers] that improved her ability as a pickpocket; but even then she had not put much time into improving it.

Nina continued this way for quite a while, the assassins never fully realising that their numbers were dwindling; even without fully understanding the gravity of their losses, the few remaining assassins could feel something was off - the smell of blood in the air and the uncomfortable silence wafting throughout the area.

Soon all that remained were 5 assassins. They realised what was happening and ran to meet, converging in the clearing that was not obscured by their smoke; standing back to back, they watched vigilantly for danger - fear wafting through the group clearly.

It was not long before the smoke began to part, disturbed by the movement of another through it. Without hesitation, one assassin threw his blade straight into the smoke, only for their target to reveal themself, ducking under the attack and dashing towards them.

Her blood covered body told them enough of what had happened to their comrades and it both enraged and terrified them.

However, they were trained to kill enemies and that is what they would do. They ignored their growing emotions, knowing they held the advantage thanks to their numbers; as Nina dashed towards them, preparing for combat, they too got ready to initiate a manoeuvre. Right as Nina entered a good enough range, the group split, taking position equidistant from both one another and Nina.

Nina stood still, not having expected them to move in such a synchronised manner, but it in no way hindered her plans as she threw 5 knives simultaneously. Only one came close to hitting its mark as Nina had very little ability with throwing weapons causing each of the assassins to sneer, believing they had misjudged the threat level of their enemy after her pathetic display.

Failing to kill anyone with her throwing attack, Nina stalled momentarily as if shocked at the outcome; before rushing towards one of the assassins who simply stared at her, ready to kill. His confidence was staggering, so when his blade simply passed through the enemy in front of him harmlessly, dispelling her form into smoke his eyes widened in shock; but this was not enough to save himself as a blade sank its teeth deep into his neck, ending his life in a moment.

Nina grinned widely, noticing a pair of system messages appeared in front of her; she ignored them for the time being as her remaining enemies stared at her in shock, piecing together what had just happened.

Not one to give up an opportunity, Nina rushed toward her next enemy. She was not so lucky as to kill her enemy, but she was lucky enough to activate her weapons skill as the assassin's eyes seemed to cloud over and he began looking around and rushing towards his allies. Nina's grin widened so much it looked as if it would fly right off her face as she saw her enemies fall into chaos. However, Nina did not waste this entire time grinning as she closed in on another assassin, cutting them down from behind, but not instantly killing them as their ally came to their aid - pushing Nina back.

2 were fighting amongst themselves, another was injured; Nina had fully taken over the flow of this battle and wasn't about to let up now. She closed the distance between herself and the last assassin still able to fight her, their blades clashing one after the other as Nina was slowly pushed back.

Her level was clearly inferior allowing the assassin to retake the advantage.

Shit. Nina thought, knowing very well [Confusion] wouldn't last forever and the past 8 seconds she had gotten were already generous; the moment the assassin freed himself of the debuff she would surely lose this battle. Her mind began to spin like a set of cogs, wondering how she could ensure her victory when an opportunity revealed itself on a silver platter.

The ground became marshy below her feet, allowing Nina to duck low - feigning a poorly executed dodge - before grabbing a handful of mud and throwing it into the face of the overconfident assassin, completely throwing him off balance; and in that single moment Nina finished the fight, ending yet another life. She quickly killed the gravely wounded assassin after that, right as the confused assassin broke free of his affliction and realised what had happened.

Both of the remaining assassins were no longer in peak condition, having damaged one another before the status effect ended; a fact Nina easily  took advantage of. Nina took the image of an assassin, laying slightly on another assassin's corpse before the other 2 could realise what had happened.

They looked around, noticing the signs of breathing on Nina's fake chest; thankfully not noticing the other dead assassin as his body was obscured by mud and grass piranhas; they walked over, glancing around in search of their target, but before they could even ask where she had gone; Nina slashed upward, cutting straight into one assassin's face.

They fell back, screaming in pain as Nina turned to the last remaining assassin that could still reliably fight and cut into their chest before they could put up a decent guard. Both squirmed and groaned in agony as Nina stood over them; each making feeble attempts to get back to their feet.

"That's what you get for looking down on me." Nina spoke menacingly, striking fear into the hearts of her attackers in their last moments before finishing them off.

Guess I should look at those messages then. Nina thought after catching her breath, opening up her minimised tabs. She was happy to see she had gained a few levels, both in her skills and actual level, putting her at 63 and each of her skills at higher proficiencies or levels. Thanks to passing the 10 level threshold, she had even managed to gain another skill from her class:

[Triple Pierce (1) (E): Upon activation, allows user to stab 3 times in a second with increased damage. Power of skill scales with STR and skill level. Cooldown 3 minutes]

"Sweet!" Nina cheered, while sitting on the bodies of the assassins she had just killed, "Another active attacking skill."

She was glad to have the skill, any attacking skill was appreciated by her. This fight had shown her that she lacked ways to be useful in real combat, that she was lucky she was able to misdirect and hide from her enemies, pulling off tricks in order to gain kills, or else she had a feeling it would have gone down differently.

Nina was slightly perturbed by that thought, but pushed it to the back of her mind as she turned away from her level 60 notification and looked at the second she had received. Needless to say, this was a much greater surprise:

"Holy shit." Nina mumbled, realising she may no longer be dead weight in the party anymore.

With this many conditions it has to be a strong job!

It seemed things were looking up for Nina.

CassReyes

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, this should just about end the baron related chapters with Liz and her gang getting rewarded in the next chapter - along with some other progression :)

I'm not the happiest with these 3 chapters, but I still hope you enjoy

[news] I'm just releasing the chapters I have been writing and have not committed to a schedule yet, so don't get your hopes up for regular chapters just yet. [/news]