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It was my second time coming here.

The guards hadn’t moved at all.

 

And once again, I thought about how annoying it was that there were two of them.

As you attacked one, the other had time to either run or join the fight.

 

But this time, they had friends close by.

If they decided to call their friends and fight, I would have to fight a group of them while waiting for my backup to arrive.

 

“Getting surrounded by professionals is the last thing that I want right now.”

I would attack once and then run away.

 

And so, just like before, I went around and came up behind the guard’s back.

I stayed still for just a moment. It seemed that the enemy hadn’t noticed me yet.

 

I had scanned the area already, and had found nothing related to magic here.

And so I slid out of the shadows and thrust my sword into his back, aiming for the heart.

 

“…Gggaah!”

Good. It went through.

 

I twisted the sword for good measure while pulling it out. And then I turned to look at the other. He was about to whistle.

I was too late!

 

Pppiiii—!!

 

The sound echoed in the shadows of the night. I dashed down the rocky mountain.

If I met the other guard in combat, my back would be open to the other enemies.

It was better to run for now.

 

Unsurprisingly, the guard who had whistled started to chase after me.

At worst, he wanted to slow me down a little.

 

Who would arrive first, enemy or ally? Of course, it would be the enemy.

I wanted to keep running, but continuing to show my back here would also be dangerous.

 

And so I waited for the enemy to catch up. He was much faster than I expected.

My friends…had only just left the grove.

 

So, how much time could I buy until they arrived?

It was just as I was thinking this that a black mist suddenly surrounded me.

 

It wasn’t like my shadows. It was thin, yet sticky. A foul kind of mist.

 

“The enemy’s magic?”

 

I swirled around, but could not see anyone.

Apparently, this mist also obscured your vision.

 

“Damn it.”

 

I wasn’t scared for myself. I could always dive into the shadows.

However, if the others were swallowed up by this, they would just be prey to one-sided attacks. They might even accidentally hit each other.

 

I wanted to find the enemy who was creating the mist, but I couldn’t see anything.

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