A guttural moan escaped a man's lips. "You won't… huuu… get out… we'll follow… huuu… you'll… be chased to-" the blade of a dagger graced his neck shortly afterwards, ending the show. A response from the darkness entered his ears.

"Your words hold no weight anymore." It was true. The Devilbone gang and their members across the city were to be annihilated in one motion tonight.

"Your members now are sleeping with their wives, children, families yet to be born. Their lineage won't end, but they will. Find solace in that, if you even can. We afford you what you did not to your victims."

"You will be annihilated after tonight. Your hideouts burned, your tomes unwritten. Public record will be altered. Your gang never existed, and never will."

"You are my final work, utterly deserving of your outcome and utterly deserving of my blades."

Several seconds passed as the light slowly faded from the dying man's eyes. As he drew his last a tear ran down his cheek. A bright mask drew near and lightly collected it as it dripped off his chin.

"Thus you cease."

The many emptied health potions, tossed weapons and tools crafted for single use purposes, and the slowly browning mask were all that remained. Not an inch of the man was lacking in blood. Well deserved for such a deviant of the city who performed such unspeakable acts. The unrecognizable corpse was left in a sealed underground room, dimly lit with a candle slowly dripping down the wick to darkness.

—

Abram finished loading his wagon. He was not staying in the city after last night. Fires broke out across several sections of the city, allegedly the work of one of the many gangs, but none have claimed responsibility yet. It led him to believe something more was brewing beneath the surface. There could be another gang war like the one fifteen years ago!

He looked around, his belongings were packed and his remaining goods were covered and stowed in several lockboxes for transport. He still needed a guardian though, and the mercenary guild was busy investigating the fires with a large bounty on who caused them.

This normally wouldn't happen, but one of the locations targeted was a record keeper's residence. Luckily he was out of town, but the entire building was set alight! 'From a small fire in his study' it was said, but given the other acts of arson it had a high probability of being related.

He grabbed a piece of charcoal from his belongings and wrote on a wooden board. "Hiring. To Greencoast Wharf. Combat Experience. 10 Gold."

No one seemed to bite. He waited several minutes… an hour… his patience was running thin, and just as he turned the sign around to raise it to 100 gold out of pure spite, a man approached him.

"I'll take you up on that."

Abram looked at the man in front of him. Masked, dark garb, not totally unsurprising given the rich elites dressed similarly, but he lacked the gaudy footwear and the shiny masking. A word graced his mind 'Assassin'. Probably used some stupidly small daggers.

"Sorry sir. I am sure you are great, but I need someone to protect my cargo from bandit and beast."

"I can do it."

"You… you probably can handle yourself around some small talk, but I don't entrust myself to-"

"Try it."

"What?"

"Let's get out of the city and you will see what I mean."

Abram sighed. He didn't want to offend an assassin of any sort. Nor did he want to stay any longer in the city. He handed over the ten gold and explained a bit about the journey, providing a rudimentary map to the man.

"What should I call you?"

"… Just call me your masked guardian for now."

"Fine by me." Abram replied. It suited him to not know the name of a masked assassin anyways. Only more trouble could arise from such knowledge.

The masked assassin added a few items to the wagon and hopped onto the back. Abram put his bulky crossbow with him at the front incase the man in the back wasn't enough to ward off issues.

They began to leave the city. Early morning, clear skies, it was to be a good day.

Several curious eyes roamed over the wagon, but as they gazed upon the figure in the back they displayed various reactions. Faces of displeasure, disgust, frozen expressions, and most prominent, fear. Abram missed their change in expression and kept running through scenarios to fight back on the road ahead with his wits.

"We could set the horses loose… then we could set fire to everything in the worst scenario…" Abram kept looking back as they left the city walls and was deeply relieved to see no followers. It appeared everyone was working to restore peace to the city. Better for him to take his leave during the period of shock.

The wagon carried onward.

—

Several days passed uneventfully.

—

A loud snapping noise awoke the masked assassin. He turned to his side quickly and peeked out through a hole he made in the fabric. Nothing showed itself, then another snap was heard and the wagon tilted sharply to the side.

"Fuck, the wheel!" Abram yelled out. The wagon stopped where it stood. They would not make it to the campsite before dark fell upon the roads.

"Well shit. That cost me a whole silver. Reinforced my ass! I'm never trusting another dwarf!" Abram seemed to be working himself up more and more as he got off the reins and started assaulting the broken wheel with his foot.

"I'm going to find a small clearing for us." The masked assassin said, moving off the road on a rough but wide path. Abram kept throwing a fit as he made his way into the woods.

—

He navigated through the widest section of the forest, listening out for a water stream and beasts. The trees were sparse enough the wagon could get through with only some issue. Checking his surroundings he took off the mask momentarily and wiped off the sweat from his brow. He needed something to keep him cooler in this thing, or he needed to clean it off. It would work in his favor though, this should be a fresh start.

He neared a stream after continuing on for another minute and wiped off the mask, its pale reflection dawning a new chapter in his life. A fresh beginning, a clean slate, another canvas to paint. He kept that internal voice to himself and put the mask back on. He looked across the small stream and saw a clearing with something like a large rock in the center with a... oh a person.

He ducked into some nearby brush as the person stood up to stretch.

He looked out from under the brush to see who it was. A female doctor it seemed… tight fitting holy garb, no, it was tight white armor, and... a longsword with a small hand crossbow already loaded. He found it odd, but he was confident in his ability to deal with her should she strike at him.

He called out from the brush, throwing his voice to avoid being found easily. "Hey, don't be alarmed, we need a place to rest. Can we stay here as well?" The woman drew her sword, pulled up the small hand crossbow, and looked around quickly. "Show yourself!" She looked... well it was hard to say what her expression was under the mask, could have been confident in a fight given her stance.

He revealed himself, standing from the thick brush he was behind. "Hi, already stated what-" he was cut off as a crossbow bolt flew past his head. "Damnit!" Both exclaimed, as they threw themselves behind cover. One ducked behind a tree and the other their makeshift rock-like campsite. He listened out as he heard the woman quickly withdrawing to another tree across the clearing.

"Listen here guy! I don't know who you are but do NOT sneak up on someone like that! Not cool!" The masked doctor called out from behind cover as the masked assassin responded, "Well I'm not going to expose myself to someone traveling alone who may be armed!"

"Oh!... That makes sense, okay, I can allow that then..." she seemed to be waiting for something, "You putting down your weapon first?"

"Hell no! What do you mean? You shot at me!"

"Ah yeah... sorry."

An impasse ensued for a few minutes as neither left their spots. The masked doctor was the first to break the silence. "So uh, what's your name?"

"… Vas"

"Nice…"

"You gonna tell me yours?"

"Oh yeah, Fae."

"Nice to meet you Fae, I guess."

"You too Vas!"

Another minute passed in silence.

"Okay, my plan is-" Vas was cut off by a piercing whistle traveling through the trees behind him. The call for immediate help from Abram. 

"-to run back, something came up! Help if you want!"

Vas took a look toward the clearing and the tree Fae was hiding behind once more before turning around and rushing back to the wagon.

"Oh, okay then. Hmmm…" she mulled over the idea in her head, didn't seem too bad, and he would probably not be scared of her! Fae spoke to herself before making up her mind, as any sane person would, then proclaimed to her audience of trees, "Sure I'll go!"

—

Back at the wagon, one of the leading horses was defending itself from a wolf as several other wolves cornered the wagon in a circle. They were coordinated, working on tiring out Abram's poorly placed crossbow bolts and the resilient horses one by one.

Vas rushed onto scene from a nearby tree's shadow, drawing his rapier and rushing the one biting into the horse at the front. He stabbed right under its neck with a deft movement unbecoming of a guardian. With a sharp pierce into the skull it went limp and in the same breadth he withdrew his rapier. Blood covered a bit of his clothes as he swept his rapier through the air, fending off several more who took the opportunity to attack him.

A bite to his leg was defended against as he retaliated with a swift kick into the mutt's jaw, shattering teeth. The runt of the group was kicked back as well, but Vas knew it would be an uphill battle from here. One more went to his other leg, as he still had yet to recover his stance, it bit deep, drawing blood and bringing him to the ground.

Luckily, an arrow shaft pierced the back of its skull, ending the threat before it became a worse issue. Vas looked back to Abram to see him already having lost the crossbow some time ago in the mud below the wagon, then turned to the tree-line to see Fae firing her hand crossbow at another wolf.

Vas realized she was soon to be in a bad position. He rushed into the mud beneath the wagon to grab the discarded crossbow, loaded a round and shot it toward Fae's position. Fae dodged out of the way as it struck a wolf sneaking up behind her. "Thank you!" She shouted, exposing her position even further.

"Goddamnit Fae." Vas cursed under his breath as he looked around. Only one more remained, a Direwolf from the looks of it. He looked around for another bolt but all near him were bent and broken from Abram's blind fury. "Even BETTER!" He threw away the crossbow toward Abram on top of the wagon, uncaring if he was ready to receive it.

"Wha- Ugh!" Abram fell from the carriage onto the muddy ground below.

Vas readied his rapier as he approached the Direwolf that looked toward Fae and him continuously. Fae looked ready to shoot her short crossbow again but a snap of string breaking was heard. "Fuck me! Fine, sword."

The two masked creatures approached the Direwolf step by step. A lingering fear from its youngest days appeared, when its mother and father looked to it with malice after it ruined the hunt. The eyes beneath the masks fed into that fear. It was stronger now though! Surely it can take them on! 

The Direwolf was the first to react, moving toward Fae. It rushed around, and struck toward her nape from behind. She brought her sword down quickly and turned around to face the attack. She pushed her muscles to their limit as she bent down at an almost impossible angle from the waist and simultaneously struck the beast's underside, drawing blood across its chest.

Vas appeared behind the beast in a blur and shot forth with his rapier to pierce directly into its back. Success was found on both ends as they twisted the weapons abruptly to worsen the wound. The Direwolf growled and howled in pain. It was strong, but not as strong as these monsters. The blade striking its back held countless lives in its hilt, there was an intangible purpose in the devastating strikes, and the movements of the being in front of it seemed ephemeral yet dangerous. This was not a fight it could win, nor escape from.

Another strike from the creature in front of it landed on its neck in a swift motion, severing its thoughts permanently.

Panting and gasping for air from within their masks, the two faced each other, blood speckles mirrored on their masks. It was a good kill.