The Ghost Shepherd

Joining a Team (part 2)

The cold from the Ice Lances penetrate deep into the muscles of the dracos reducing their movement and attack speed and this brought an opportunity for the hunters who immediately took action and cut their enemies down.

The arrival of new enemies sent the Draco leader into a berserk state, the scales in his body changed color and with one swing of his arm, he sent the shield user flying and moved to attack the others.

In the meantime, the Spirit was able to kill his opponent and severed his head with one of his Katanas. Blood surged like a fountain but the Spirit continued towards the place where the strongest Draco was causing Chaos.

The fight was intense but disaster struck the back of the battlefield as the chameleon eliminated the wounded members one by one when they moved backwards to recover after being injured.

The leader of the dracos had amazing resilience but after being the last one standing he was quickly overwhelmed by the spells and other attacks from the hunters until it was finally brought down.

When everything was set and done the Spirit of the warrior race known as the Ortonians looked around and to his surprise there were only 5 people left. Two long range hunters, the shield user, a double dagger user and himself.

The smell of blood was heavy and corpses covered the floor all around.

"Well done guys, you were great, the Ortonian race is truly something" said the Chameleon while getting closer to the Spirit with a smile on his face.

The Ortonian warrior was a little embarrassed but they needed to organize the corpses. He put his weapons away and said, "I am not that good, my father would have been able to kill all twenty by himself"

"You will be able to do the same soon enough… or maybe not"

UGHH.

The dagger penetrated the Ortonian's heart while a plasma gunshot was fired to the back of the shield wilder that was busy checking the corpses.

The Ortonian fell to the floor and all he could do was stare at the faces of the people who betrayed him and with resentment built inside his soul, he died soon after.

Sly woke up and was surprised how cutthroat the three person team had been, "Can I trust Steelforge?" It was the first thing that came to his mind and then he commited the faces of the traitors before proceeding to tell K.C all about it.

"Well at least you were able to see the faces of those three bastards thanks to the soul. They are three less to worry about"

Sly listened to what his chip had to say and couldn't go back to sleep, he asked for the time and to his surprise 12 hours had passed and it was time to see if there was any information from Steelforge.

In order to go back to the first floor of the Bunker, all he had to do was press a button inside the capsule and mechanical hands would take the capsule to a vacuum channel to be sent back.

Swoosh.

Inside the first floor of the Bunker was extremely busy, people were coming and going like the day before, it was nonstop. The moment Sly stepped out of the capsule a message was delivered to K.C from Steelforge, "I'll be there in two days, DO NOT MOVE!!"

"What a b***h, she is not the boss of us. Let's go hunting and get some E.C"

"I don't know K.C, after seeing those memories, I am starting to believe that going alone is not a good idea. We got some money why don't we wait and see"

"I guess it doesn't hurt to give Blackie some face. So what should we do until then?"

"We can see what teams are recruiting and then maybe gather information about what organizations to avoid"

"Sure"

The majority of the groups gathered in the bar where Sly had dinner the previous night. There were small parties and there were some advanced parties that were looking for members for high risk missions in the red zone of the map and they were on constant lookout due to the high mortality rate in the area.

Sly sat in the same chair as the previous day and got the same waitress that immediately recognized him. It was not every day an albino with razor sharp teeth and a blindfold came in.

"You are back!! what can I get you?"

"I'll take the ale and some of that tartare would be awesome"

"Coming right up!!"

“Thanks”

The ale came right up and Sly looked around to see what was happening. The atmosphere was pretty light and there were a couple of tables where people were coming and going. It was not difficult to recognize the recruitment tables, some stayed and asked questions while others just put their name down for consideration and proceeded to exchange some information with the groups before taking their leave.

It was all very casual.

Sly was communicating with K.C when a person sat on the empty chair across his table.

"Are you new?"

Sly looked up at the face across the table and his eyes had a flash of dark light underneath his blindfold.

After about a minute of waiting for an answer, the person sitting across said, "Are you deaf too?"

It was the Cryomancer from his dream, the one that betrayed the spirit that his core had swallowed. He had a smile on his face and it was so sudden Sly didn't know what to do.

The core in his chest was burning and he could feel the resentment in it like hot lava around his skin. Sly felt the urge to decapitate the mage and satiate the unexpected itch that arouse within him, but he knew that unless it was proven that the mage did all those atrocities, he would be executed for murder.

If the Cryomancer was standing in front of him then either nobody had found out about the murders he committed or he had a powerful backer. Either way it was wiser to reel his anger back and exercise caution.

"I can hear you" the words had a tint of anger to them but the ice mage didn't mind. He had barged in and took a seat without asking if it was ok to do so, it was only natural that the other party would be annoyed.

His mission was to get close to Sly and since he failed in acquiring the dracos, he had to look for another opening. There was no 'i couldn't do it' in Raol's book, if you were not an asset then you were somebody to be disposed off. Ending up as a mere organ in the Nezekiel’s plate was not something the Cryomancer was too kin on.

The Cryomancer put up his best smile and said, " That is great brother. My name is Kled but people call me snowflake, I am a cryomancer so don't think I have weird inclinations or anything like that. You look like a capable fighter and we have a team of ten that is going to the red zone to hunt Dracos. It is the quickest way to meet the quota and live in style back in the city. All the team kills are counted for each individual member so it is a lot easier and safer than doing it alone, it is like taking candy from a baby ..."

Sly was looking straight at the Cryomancer’s eyes and the shabby blindfold made Kled uncomfortable but he had not been able to fool all those groups into trusting him with their lives had he not been a great actor, he kept his smile up and continued.

"What weapon do you used"

"Scythe"

"Great a close combat fighter. We need many of those"

"Here is your tartare"

The atmosphere was interrupted by the beautiful waitress and Sly took this opportunity to have a little fun.

"Thank you, can I have six more". He didn't even grab a fork and use his hands to grab the meat on the plate and show his teeth while he chewed and talked with his mouth full.

"I don't care about the government reward what‘s in it for me"

"We can negotiate the price. Close combat fighters are hard to come by so any request within reason can be possible"

"I want all the Draco corpses".

"Sure"

Sly threw a curve ball at Kled but the response surprised him. It was an impossible request for any party, especially a large one like the one the Cryomancer mentioned, so he knew there was something extremely fishy at work.

In the mind of the mage he was thinking 'you won't live to enjoy them anyways, so no matter what you say the answer is yes'

"I'll think about it"

The response was unexpected but the mage didn't act like he was bothered.

"We leave in three days, here is my ID so send me a message if you are interested"

Their organization had nothing but time and his objective has been accomplished, he had made contact with his mark. The mage excused himself and left the bar knowing the bait was cast and all he had to do was to wait. Nobody in their right mind could refuse such a good offer, especially a novice.

"Nicely handle" said K.C

Sly continued to eat while lost in his thoughts before making his way to one of the tables.