The Insider System

Chapter 130: Errands Pt.1

Stepping out onto the street, Lake said to the guard who was standing in front. "Do your thing, but try not to bother me while you do it." He did this because he figured they would be in charge of the other four for this mission, as they liked to call it.

He would usually be nicer, even if he was just talking to guards, but he had just been told they couldn't spare a cart for him because all of them were running goods that had been sold. That left him walking to the Blacksmiths guild. He saw the guards seemed to understand what he wanted as they fell in line behind him.

He nodded and started down the street about half the speed he could move without using burst. This should be the right speed for the guards to be able to keep up with him if they had stats like Joy's. Using his skill A Thief's sense he could tell there were quite a few eyes on him and he wouldn't be surprised if some of them were the people that could track him using the dagger.

This was the reason he was mad about having to walk. If he was in a cart they would probably do what they had done yesterday, and just watch but since he was out in the open they would be able to see how vulnerable he was. He guessed he should have been nicer to the guards, after all they would be the ones to die, not him.

Lake couldn't really stop it from happening at this point, all he was saying was if he had been given a cart they wouldn't be in danger of dying. Slowing down slightly after a few seconds because it seemed one of the guards was slower than he had hoped, Lake got to the, now empty, main road through town that all the guilds other than the Alchemist guild were built on.

It was weird to think about all the people who had been evacuated to the capital only for it too to become such a mess. This had made less sense as he had thought about it, but now that he knew there were actually a bunch of underground shelters built that the people who had decided to stay instead of running were now calling home he understood why it had turned out like that.

He wondered what it must be like in those bunkers he assumed the king built for the people to hide in. Like how much food was provided and how long they could stay down there? because he assumed with the use of magic the bunkers could probably grow their own food and had a simply of water.

That really just left them with security to worry about. The level of panic had been quite high the day before everyone had gone into hiding, so it was probably pretty rowdy down there. Not to mention he was sure the Demon Worshipers would break down the doors the moment the Temple failed to protect them so they could turn them into undead for the Demon Lord's army.

This would make the level of unrest crazy and hard to deal with from a management perspective. "Guh." Lake snapped out of what he had been thinking about to turn around to see why one of his guards had made such an odd noise out of nowhere. Seeing one of them on the ground, Lake guessed it meant he was under attack by one assailant, or whoever they were working with didn't understand timing.

Pulling his knife Lake got into a fighting stance and tried to look around to see who was attacking them. He knew he hadn't been targeted yet because his skill The Sight hadn't kicked in yet so he was pretty calm and not about to run until he saw if he could win this fight. Not seeing anyone, Lake got close to the guard to inspect the wound.

This would tell him if it had been a stealthy melee attack or a ranged one from something like a bow or spell. "Guard me while I help them." Lake figured he might as well use this opportunity to save their life as well since he would have plenty of time to pour a potion into the wound as he looked at it.

It would probably make his guards actually like him as well because if he was them he wouldn't like him after how he had talked at them earlier. It wouldn't mean they wouldn't still do their jobs of protecting him but being nice had unintended rewards down the line sometimes.

Getting close to the guard on the ground, Lake saw a wide gash in their neck that reminded him of what one of his attacks would leave, meaning it was probably a knife which meant he needed to get ready to fight a battle of speed. Getting ready to pour some potion on the guard's neck, Lake heard another attack, or the noise the guard made as they received an attack.

It had happened behind him so he hadn't seen anything so he asked one of the still living guards as he poured the potion. "Did you see them?" Not getting a response Lake looked up to see it hadn't just been one guard this time but all four who were slowly falling, first onto their knees before flat onto the ground.

He guessed this would mean all four of them were either dead or slowly becoming that way. "It's messed up to just kill them before we even get a chance to talk." This was honestly how he felt because there really hadn't been a reason to make Lucas mad at him like this. He could already see what he was going to say when he got back with five less guards than he had had when he left.

With no response to his statement, he guessed this was going to be one of those quiet fights where there were no interesting points of view shared between the two combatants. It was too bad those fights had always been his favorite when he read books. He shouldn't give up just yet though because maybe they would change their tune once he found them.

They were probably pissed and would be happy to tell him about it once they weren't hiding anymore. "Okay, let's get this started because we both know there are bigger things happening today than this." Lake of course was talking about the giant that could be here at any moment and if he was right about this person being sent by the Temple they would know about this as well.

Feeling The Sight kick in Lake knew his taunt had worked and did his best to get his eyes on the person who was attacking him, or the attack itself if they had switched to ranged weapon. Not seeing anything, Lake switched his guard to his neck and jumped upwards because it was a weird move and he felt they wouldn't be expecting him to do it.

Once he was in the air he did something he wasn't supposed to do according to Joy, and started to cast Fly. It was dangerous to use Fly when you had no way to stop yourself from falling if the spell got disrupted, but he didn't plan to use it to Fly away, so there was little chance of him falling from great height.

Getting the spell up and running, Lake Instantly used it to dive back towards the ground as fast as he could. His plan was to make it seem like he was about to run so whoever was attacking him would think he was the average thief who would always run from a fight, so when he instead came back down, he would run into the person who would be trying to stop him by diving in after him.

Feeling himself barrel into someone and a sharp pain in his chest Lake knew his plan had succeeded about as well as he could have hoped. He had been stabbed, but the person who was attacking him was now in his hands even if he couldn't see them. Wrapping his hands around them, Lake felt another sharp pain this time in his back.

Not really having a choice and because he didn't know how you were supposed to handle fighting someone who you couldn't see, Lake activated Burst and used one of his hands to find the person's arm. Once he had the one he was sure had the knife he just did an exaggerated pulling motion with all his strength.

He figured if he ripped their arm off they wouldn't really be able to stab him anymore but however he was fighting was too tough and the only result he got was a gross popping noise he guessed had come from their shoulder. Lake heard a muffled scream and not being the kind of person who would give up he pulled on their arm again till he felt the feeling he was after something being torn loose.

Looking at what was in his hand because it didn't feel heavy enough to be an arm, Lake saw a sleeve that he assumed would be from their Temple robe since it was white. He found it funny that someone who specialized in stealth would wear white but he had bigger problems. The person was free again and from the amount of blood around that had clearly come from him he needed to heal himself, but he was sure as soon as he tried to he would receive a knife in the neck.

This meant he might actually need to run before he died in some dumb fight over something he didn't even want. He just hoped him almost ripping their arm off gave them the same idea or at least made it easier for him to do so. Activating Burst again Lake started to run, it wasn't a good look, but there was nothing wrong with saving your life.