Redbone was a very popular player around Eadon and his strength was recognized. He let their excitement calm down for a bit before raising his hands to speak.
"I know that a lot of you are scared over the ideas of facing all these big names in battle but I am here to tell you personally that there is no need to be worried. I and my team would be in charge of distracting the big names!" Redbone said with arms stretched out.
His words brought a wave of relief and cheers from the rest and they all looked at him with respectful gazes.
"As long as you people can ward off any minions that emerge from any other group, we will be able to take away Sleeping beauty successfully. And once we gain the secret to his ability to use golems, your Red hammer guild will swiftly rise to success and would eventually enter the rankings!"
The members cheered happily at his declaration while the bull beastman just watched on silently.
After the meeting was over, the two retreated into the only room that was attached to the building where the members of Redbone's team and two other people were sitting around.
Black Raven, Whitesoul, Yellow lily, and Silver tooth. These four members were all here.
The other two people were commanders under the bull beastman's guild called Red hammer.
There was a fox beastman wearing white mage robes sitting with a dull expression on his face. The other was a tall human girl sporting a long metal spear on her back. She smiled when she saw them enter.
"The meeting didn't go too bad, guild leader. We should have motivated them enough right?" she spoke happily.
"SNORT!" the bull beastman sounded tired and sat down in a huge armchair with a huff.
Redbone took off his large cloak and turned to look at Black Raven.
"Raven, go out and scout the smithy and keep us updated on Sleeping beauty's position. We need to know when he leaves the smithy so we will know when to strike." He commanded her.
Black Raven was sitting in a corner talking with Whitesoul who was always grinning foolishly when she heard him and stood up.
She still had a mask covering her lower face and she faced Redbone with solemnity.
"I will go but I must tell you that I will not be taking part in the attack." Her voice was cold.
"What do you mean!?" Redbone looked at her irritably.
"When I first met you and decided to follow you, I told you about my conditions. I will not lay harm to anybody I have protected before. I defended Sleeping beauty during the berserk horde defense, he is now untouchable to me." Her voice was unmoving.
Redbone frowned when he heard this and an unpleasant glimmer could be seen in his eyes.
"An assassin is someone that is supposed to kill, not protect people. What sort of nonsense is that? You are working for me, understand? And I want you to find out Sleeping beauty's location and use your strength to capture him. Nobody is asking you to kill him." He was already growling at this point.
Redbone was an unreasonable person, that was the fame he was attributed with. He got rash and violent when he was triggered and he was someone who had killed a player before which was something of a taboo amongst players.
The rest of the team watched with a bit of apprehension in their eyes while the bullman and his two commanders just looked on silently.
Black Raven saw the situation she was in but she didn't relent.
"It still touches my bottom line, I refuse."
"You can go refuse in hell!" Redbone suddenly roared and summoned his shield from his inventory.
He threw it with strength at Raven and it quickly traversed the short distance across the room but she dodged it easily with a quick side shuffle.
She was prepared.
"You are after my life?" her cold voice echoed out.
The shield hit the wooden wall behind her leaving a dent in it before flying back to Redbone's hand.
PIU! PIU!!
Two streaks of metal followed behind the shield, daggers thrown by Black Raven. Redbone noticed it late but his skills were not for play. He quickly activated a skill that covered his shield in a light glow.
SCHK! PANG!
His decision not to underestimate the daggers were right. One of the daggers was fast enough to penetrate the shield before the skill activated and it got stopped by the light. The second dagger only smacked the surface and couldn't do any damage.
"Fuck! Have you forgotten who I am, Raven! I will make sure I kill you for sure!" he yelled at Black Raven who was already running towards a window to escape.
He wanted to do something about it but he couldn't move fast enough, Raven was already half-way through. But then….
BOOM!!!
The window suddenly exploded and burst into smithereens just as she was about to escape. The only thing the people in the room saw was a flash of red light.
"Ah!!!! Guild leader! This is the house we bought with all of the guild's savings! Why are you smashing it apart!?" the girl with the spear complained loudly.
That section of the wall was completely blown away by the attack.
The foxman mage approached the falling debris slowly while mumbling some nonsense under his breath. If you listened closely, you would notice he was rattling out calculations about money non-stop.
PAKT!
A dagger flew from the debris towards the mage but he stopped it just before his face and fell, a swirling mass of air was protecting him.
"Hmm?" the foxman didn't look too perturbed by the dagger though and was just looking around as he observed the damage.
"What are you doing? Check whether she's still around!" Redbone yelled, but the mage didn't answer and continued mumbling out calculations.
Just as Redbone was getting impatient and was about to move towards the smashed apart window, the foxman bent low towards the debris and grabbed a long black handle.
A blood-red hammerhead, shaped like a block, was attached to the long handle and he slowly dragged it from under the broken chips of wood.
"She was already gone a long time ago, the dagger that attacked me was triggered from a trap." He said dryly as he passed by the incensed Redbone while dragging the heavy hammer across the floor.
He couldn't lift it.
The outside was already filled with members of Red hammer who were wondering what had happened. None of them went closer though since they saw their guild leader was fine.
The foxman dragged the hammer beside the bullman's armchair and left it there. He then went back to his corner and continued to look on with a dull face again.
Hefting up the obscenely heavy hammer with one arm, the bullman put it back into his inventory before looking at Redbone.
"Your subordinates are not disciplined?" he spoke with his deep bass.
"We are a mercenary group so I admit the chain of command is a bit lax but Black Raven is somewhat of an exception." Redbone frowned but he answered him.
"How so?" the bullman asked.
"She is a role-player." Redbone simply said.
"Role-player?" the bullman leaned forward.
"She plays the game like she is living in her own fantasy story and operates by her self-created creed." He gave a more detailed explanation but he was feeling irritated inside and wanted to leave.
The bullman leaned back into his armchair with a thoughtful look for a while.
"This creed of hers, do you think it will be dangerous to the mission?" the bullman finally asked.
"I don't think so. It is like you heard, she will never attack anyone who she has protected before so she won't come after me. The mission will still hold." He turned back to look at the broken-down window where Black Raven had escaped.
There were trickles of blood dripped all over the area. They trailed for a while before vanishing without a lead.
"She is very good at escaping it seems, it will be hard to track her now." The girl with the spear came closer and looked at the trail of blood.
Redbone was glowering inside but instead, put on a small smile.
"Don't worry about her, she is not a threat as long as you are on guard against her. Her attack capability is quite weak and limited." He said to reassure them.
"So if we are not on guard, she could kill us?" The girl said with wide eyes.
Redbone didn't answer the question and instead, diverted the conversation.
"I am just concerned about how we can track down sleeping beauty now." He said with a faked sad expression.
"He is heading to the mines." A dull voice sounded out.
Redbone turned and saw the foxman looking at him.
"He is heading to the mines together with Roxanne. That is well outside the city and the guards there are only concerned about the mines. If we can ambush them on their way back, we would most likely be successful." He said dryly.
Redbone wanted to ask how he knew but he kept quiet. It was his mistake to underestimate the power of a guild in the first place.
He turned to look at his team members who were looking at him with silent gazes. Whitesoul looked terrified and was still looking at the window where Black Raven had vanished.
Redbone then turned to look at the bullman who was looking at him with tired eyes. The bullman nodded at him and said.
"You should start moving, I and my guild will set up the ambush and keep in contact with you." He said tiredly.
Redbone nodded and then gestured to his team.
Yellow Lily and Silver Tooth moved immediately but Whitesoul hesitated a bit. When Redbone glared at him though, he jumped up and followed them.
Redbone's eyes gleamed ferociously as he played with the thoughts in his mind. Black Raven's betrayal was a huge loss to him, one he couldn't just play down so easily.
'I will make sure I find that bitch and end her with my own hands!' he swore to himself as he and his team left the bustling commercial district and headed towards Eadon's large gates.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
In a quiet alley hidden from the boisterous commercial district, the lean figure of an injured Black Raven was drinking a potion from a glass bottle.
A side of her face was bloodied and one of her arms was twisted at an unnatural angle. There were numerous bruises all over her body underneath her clothes.
A normal person would have been in severe pain and highly distressed by the state of her body but Black Raven was silent throughout as she treated her wounds.
She took out a roll of bandages and bit down on it before using her other arm to twist the damaged one back in place. She groaned a bit but eventually suppressed the scream that was threatening to escape her throat.
Taking the bandages out of her mouth, she tied up the arm and supported it with her neck. She then took out a bottle of green pills and swallowed one down.
Black Raven took off her mask to reveal a face made pale by serious blood loss. A dainty nose sat on her face above a pair of thin pink lips, her dark eyes glazed over by some unknown emotion. She looked like a gothic beauty with those features.
Half of her face was covered in blood though and she carefully wiped it off with a piece of cloth she took out of her inventory.
Most of her wounds were already healed due to the pills and potions she took, the only thing left was her arm which would have to heal slowly.
Taking out a dagger from her inventory, she skillfully used it to cut the rope that was holding her hair up in a ponytail leaving it to cascade down and cover most of her face.
She then took out an old piece of cloth from her inventory and dropped it over her shoulders to cover up most of her injured arm.
Looking around, she found an old gnarled stick nearby.
She picked it up and assessed it, it was a bit too long. A few slashes from the dagger took care of that.
Using the stick like a walking stick, she bent low like a disabled woman and started shambling forward slowly.
'Third tenet; Eliminate anyone that threatens your life.'
Those words flashed past Black Raven's mind as she moved slowly towards the exit of the quiet alley and into the throngs of people outside.