“It’s a pleasure to finally
catch up
… Brave. How have you been? It’s been so long.”
The mercenary leader’s smug face introduced itself to the teen once more.
“I see you brought some… friends. Worry not, we did too. Wouldn’t want to not reciprocate, now would we?”
If almost as synchronized a response as a fine-tuned machine, a battalion of new members steps forward.
“I hope you didn’t underestimate who you were fucking with,” the leader whispers, leaning into Brave’s face in a taunt.
Assassin and Vector tense up. This is not a fight that they could have prepared for nor one they can win. Among the ranks are higher-leveled adventurers known to sell their services as hired hands.
“So you have two options, as usual: fork over all of your stuff or have us loot it from your corpse.”
This is bad. I don’t have a gun and there are like 40 of them.
Brave’s train of thought spirals into a tree, with the spanning branches serving as a potential favorable outcomes. As the branches extend, however, an unknown force terminates them, blocking the respective path.
Andrei and Vasily are seriously under leveled. That’s where our problem stems from. If only there was a convenient system to get better instantly...
There isn’t. The age of micro-transactions and pay-to-play models had ended long ago. There is no moneying out of this predicament.
Brave turns to his friends; one is furiously tapping his leg with different fingers, almost in a rhythmic pattern. In a moment, Brave disregards the villainous monologue and open his messages to read the battle plan his strategist had formulated.
From: Vector
Stop fretting, idiot. I’ll boost you and Assassin to the ledge above us. Afterward, you two swing me up as well.
Brave nods. As Vector backpedals and slams against the wall, Assassin flips around and sprints toward the twenty-meter barrier. Before colliding, he jumps onto Vector’s outstretched arms and propels himself onto the windowsill. After hoisting himself up successfully, he flashes a thumbs-up and clears the path.
My turn.
It is only as Brave attempts the same feat that the crowd catches wind of the action.
“Wha- Don’t let them get away!”
Perhaps it’s because Assassin’s name followed his namesake class that no one noticed his swift ascension, but Brave isn’t as adept at climbing. His fingers struggle to take hold of the protrusion.
“Hurry up Morozov. I’m going to get shredded down here if you can’t even lift your ass high enough up there,” Vector yells.
The mercenary raises his brow.
That was enough for him to hear. He licks his upper lip, then stands down as the remainder of his mercenary squadron continues pushing to the group of three.
He chuckles maliciously, watching the teens scale up the building and sticking all who attempted to follow suit with off-hand daggers.
Escape as they may now, there was no avoiding him in the long run. The three little bastards had just had their fates sealed.