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  When she said that, I froze.

  It’s not something I did consciously. It’s like a kid being caught with his hand halfway already in the cookie jar and you heard your mom’s footsteps. Sometimes fight-or-flight response tends to get stuck somewhere in the middle. This happens because you don’t plan ahead. Why don’t people plan ahead?

  Because you get caught off guard, being thrust into a situation you didn’t account for. So when the Bishop’s bodyguard, whose name was apparently ‘Emilian’, accused me of being a non-orc, I froze like a pre-thawed turkey on Thanksgiving night. And Emilian was more than smart enough to catch it.

  “See?” I could imagine her smiling behind her veil, though I had no idea what she looked like. “He froze the moment I accused him of being a none-orc.”

  Emilian was dressed in these long white draping robes that was distinctly Japanese in style, like a kimono that a shrine priestess might wear. But there were some western motifs that were embedded into the design. Like a rectangular belt-like thing that cinched her waist; accentuating her waist, hips and even chest. As she swayed forward, the veil flitted about; revealing a second face-covering. She was wearing blind-folds and I tucked that information away for later –blinding her with [Lingering Darkness] wouldn’t be an option.

  She swayed back and forth on the wooden beam, flinging herself into the air and flipping over multiple times before landing without a sound. When I think of oriental influences, I think things like forests and mountains. Her pure white dress-robe stood out from the harsh grains of sand all around us.

  “You’re telling me, that’s not an Orc?” Dorocian growled.

  “You always were on the stupid side.” Emilian answered.

  Dorocian’s wolf growled in her stead.

  Emilian took another step towards me and I yanked hard on the leash I kept on my instincts. It was a near thing, fighting against my own fight-or-flight response. If I took a step away from her, someone like her might mistake it for weakness. If I chose to lunge towards her out of desperation, that too would be taken for weakness.

  Unlike the Akka Xaluds and Vetilians, I had not figured out the fighting styles of the Kojisan family yet.

  The Akka Xaluds tended to adopt body-transformation type Cores, relying on exotic creatures that resembled insects. I think they relied a lot on summoning-type Cores too, choosing to summon those partners. A lot of times, they tended to synergize with the two; fusing in some way with their summons to bring about new abilities. The Vetilians on the other hand, favored body-strengthening Cores. Similar to how Aurora and Borealis employed their own Cores; they were the typical Knight-type build.

  The Kojisans on the other hand…

  Kyrian told me once about them, that out of the three Great Families their abilities were the most mysterious. He told me no one exactly knew how the Kojisans worked. Dorocian’s build had given me a clue, however, because she relied on Summons and synergizing them with her Weapons. Bestowing mystical abilities to her wolves and using them for the bulk of her fight while providing support from the sidelines.

  The keyword here isn’t Summon but the Sidelines.

  And judging by Emilian’s equipment… I had an idea of what that family’s fighting style was like.

  This was a good time to test my theory.

  “Three reasons.” Emilian pointed somewhere behind me. “One, he hasn’t killed any of the guards.”

  Um.

  She held up another finger. “Two, he hasn’t shown any Core ability. Three, he froze when I called him out on his bluff –that he’s not from the Uleum Horde, or an orc at all.” Then she finished with, “Plus the strength to fight off the Auxiliary forces... it is possible he's a member of the main force."

  She was smart and smart often meant dangerous. I had to supress the urge to touch the bandages wrapped around my face, checking to see if they were still there.

  Dorocian spat a globule of sand and blood from her mouth. “Then how do you explain that Crow Totem?”

  Emilian shrugged. “Probably a Core ability that one of the fleet members kept hidden.”

  At least on that count, she was wrong.

  “There is no Core that I know of that could create the illusion of a crow.”

  “...Either way, it is highly probable that this one is an insider.” Emilian twirled her sickle. “This calls for an investigation.”

  “Ha!” Dorocian whirled on Emilian. “You’re just trying to get in Saintred’s way. You think I don’t know what you’re up to? You obviously have your own agenda. By pushing off the blame to one of our own, you’re hoping to weaken Zenom’s power.”

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  “You really are magnificently stupid.” Emilian deadpanned. “There are smarter ways to weaken Saintred’s base.” But I didn’t miss the rise that Dorocian’s comment got out of Emilian and the Wolf-Summoner didn’t miss it either.

  “Back off, Emilian.” Dorocian muttered and the wolf pivoted, facing me but not quite leaving its back to Emilian either. “This is Saintred’s Mission.”

  “You dog,” Emilian actually carefully positioned herself so that her back wasn’t to Dorocian anymore, “You’re actually serious about supporting Zenom Saintred? He’s nothing but a tool for the Church. If you had half a brain, you would understand that-”

  “And you’re any better? Supporting that pompous Bishop?” Dorocian slashed the air in front of her with the dagger. “And I’m not following Saintred.” Dorocian turned up her nose, standing straighter. “I’m not like you, Emilian. I’m not working for anyone. I work for myself and myself alone. And I pledged my services to Zenom for this expedition and he shall have it.”

  Emilian grew still. “You really are no better than a dog, wagging your tail for the hand that feeds you. Is the coin all that matters to you?” Her voice was hoarse, her voice straining with contained anger. A volcano that was rasping out smoke but the molten lava was bubbling underneath. “By working with the Church, us bastards have a chance. Don’t you see that? The Great Families have gotten too strong. Only the Church can rival them.”

  “And I don’t give two shits about everything that’s happening.” Dorocian shot back. “I’m done with that life, Cousin. I live for myself. Not for Saintred. Not for my family. And certainly not for the Church.”

  The Turinans were so wrapped up in their political-religious drama that they had forgotten I was there. I just stood there, listening to the two.

  That’s what happens when an Empire is focused on War –you have these pseudo-political organizations emerge with their own agendas. Church, Families, Merchants. And sooner or later, they become so interconnected that they can’t achieve anything worth shit. Too busy tearing at each other’s throats.

  Reminds me of home.

  Emilian gave Dorocian a death stare. As best as she could through the Veil that covered the entirety of her face and the blindfold underneath it anyways.

  “Fine, it matters not why you’re doing this.” Emilian turned away from Dorocian and her Wolf, towards me. “As long as we are both in agreement that this intruder must be dealt with.”

  Dorocian’s sneer turned into a smirk. One without any of her humor. “Dead or Alive?”

  “Does it matter? If an Uleum Orc, he’ll be executed anyways. If one of the expedition members…” Emilian raised her sickle. “...We can just torture his party.”

  “Dead then.”

  Oh. Uh oh.

  In my moment of stupidity, I almost missed the slight tells that Emilian and Kojisan gave off right before their attack.

  For Dorocian, it was the short low-pitched yelp that the Gray Wolf gave. It lunged forward, using [Screw Bite] again but this time it wasn’t alone –Dorocian lunged with it, forming a pincer attack with the wolf on top and her on the bottom to react to any moves that she might make.

  I didn’t even wait for Emilian’s move, immediately using [Lingering Darkness] to wash away any hint of light that shone away on the beach.

  God damn it, what the hell was taking Skaris so long?

  “Emilian!” Dorocian cried out.

  There was no point in waiting to see what would happen. Dorocian’s veil, her blindfold; they were clues to what type of class she was.

  An Assassin.

  Which brought up all sorts of questions; like what the hell was the Bishop doing with an Assassin in his employ? But there wasn’t time to mull on this.

  Instead, I stepped to the side, ducking low. It was just in time, because something cold and sharp whistled through the air. The metal brushed against the back of my armor –close enough for me to feel the hook catch on something. I spun and danced away, each step taking me further and further away from Emilian who had acted exactly the way I predicted: A single move to my neck which should have beheaded me from behind.

  “Stop talking, Dorocian.” Emilian said calmly as she landed on the ground without a sound.

  Fuck, she had some kind of ability that muffled her footsteps. Maybe [Silent Steps] or [Quiet Night]. Not only that, her sickle shone with light-blue [Aura].

  ...Wasn't she a Bastard?

  A lot of Knight builds center around [Aura]; the flexibility of the human racial trait allows you to do some cool stuff. With [Aura], you could shear through pretty much 90% of the armor in game. Combining [Aura] with any type of tick damage like Poison was a given –any element worked great. Water, Fire, Wind… but it’s not limited to natural elements.

  That light-blue colored [Aura] that Emilian was using, unless I was wrong, it was combined with a type of Mana Burn. She most likely had some kind of ability that allowed her to burn Mana equal to the damage she did. With the [Aura]’s outrageous capability to do damage, it was a quick way to drain the opponent of their supernatural abilities.

  Emilian circled me, brandishing her sickle.

  The wolf emerged from my left side, sniffing the ground. It’s nose pointed towards my approximate direction.

  Dorocian appeared somewhere to my right.

  They looked at each other, sharing a signal.

  I couldn’t use [Aura]. I couldn’t use my Cores. What did I have left?

  ‘You don’t have to beat them. You just have to buy time.’ I told myself.

  That’s right. They needed to either kill me or capture me to win. Me on the other hand… I just needed to get away.

  Concentrate. Focus. Still. Calm.

  I made the first move this time.

  My body nearly fell to the ground as my muscles relaxed completely and I exploded into movement towards Dorocian. The wolf could smell me coming, Emilian could hear me coming. But Dorocian’s only way to detect me was through her Wolf –which meant that there was a delay in there that I could exploit. In the game, perhaps it was instantaneous. But the longer I stayed in this world, the more I realized that what was taken for granted in the Game wasn't necessarily the same here and vice versa.

  Dorocian’s Wolf snarled and tried to get in the way but I was simply too fast. The warmth of its stinking breath washed over my thigh and the jaw shut closed around nothing. In the corner of my vision, Emilian blurred into movement towards me –nearly rivaling my own speed but I had the head start. They’d spent precious few seconds sending unknown signals to each other and I had no intention of letting that plan come to fruition.

  The blue-haired Kojisan tried her best to raise her daggers and engage me in melee. But I was stronger, faster and I had a spear.

  Imitating Skaris’ movements, I lunged forward and let the spear slide across my hand until it was fully outstretched. At the last second, flames burst out from the [Weapon Mod] casing and burned straight through Dorocian’s shoulder pad.

  Of course, in the fight earlier with the guards; I received a few stacks of buffs from the prolonged fights. Plus, fighting in [Lingering Darkness] made Emilian and Dorocian’s movements dull. Slow. It wasn’t quite on the level of a [Special Field] yet but it was more than enough.

  The combination of the two factors gave me plenty of time to turn around in time to catch Emilian’s sickle with the shaft of my spear.

  Emilian focused her [Aura] into a single point to try and cut through the spear. A smart move.

  So I let her.

  The spear snapped in two and the sudden lapse in tension made Emilian lose her balance. Not long, not even a full second. It was momentary, just short enough for me to notice and do something about it.

  I grabbed her wrist.

  An Assassin specialized in [Speed] and decisive strikes that maim the enemy. Her build wasn’t made for a prolonged fight and definitely not in a face to face stand off. Emilian was meant to attack in the dark, stay hidden and kill the opponent in one fell swoop. If not, her [Mana Burn] would let her weaken the enemy enough to get away or look for another opening.

  But the point is that she’s not specialized for grappling. My build is specialized with killing Mages.

  It’s my knowledge of how this game works that lets me deal with everything that’s not a Mage.

  Using my superior [Strength] stat, I snapped her wrist with a sickening crunch.

  I had to give her credit, Emilian didn’t bat an eye (not that I could see her face). She rolled with the movement and spun, a second sickle appearing in her other hand. But I knew that an assassin like her would try something like this; they always have a back-up plan or an ace in the hole ready to go. I leaned back and the sickle swung through the air.

  Spraying my face with some kind of liquid.

  Acid.

  The bandage on my face literally sizzled as the acid immediately burned through them and began to dig into my skin. It burned and burned and burned.

  And I couldn’t make a single sound lest one of them recognize my voice.

  “Dorocian! I got his face! You have to look at his face!”

  “I can’t see, you stupid bitch!”

  BOOOOOOOM!

  The explosion had come from the ships. The two froze, looking at each other.

  “The ship?...”

  “Fuck! I told you it’s the Orcs! They’re attacking our ships! Fuck this guy!”

  “Dorocian, wait!”

  “If the ships are gone, we’re all stranded here! MOVE!”

  They were arguing again.

  That was my cue to go.