Chapter 291: A new morning, new troubles

With the arrival of the next day, a group of shady figures, garbed in matching dark travel cloaks could be seen gathering just outside the city walls, far away from the western city gates. There were sizable company 11 strong. 

With the hood pulled over their heads and mask pulled over the lower half of their faces, they were shrouded in mystery. Still, there was an ominous feel to the group, the air around them was sinister, cold, eerie.

They seemed to be waiting for something or someone, as they stole glances towards the far right, where the city's sewage system connected into the nearby river. They didn't need to wait long, as soon, the grating was lifted, and a figure, donning matching clothes as the group appeared. The aura oozing from him, however, was several classes above the rest. 

"Greetings, Mast-" the closest of the waiting bunch nodded and spoke in a gruff tone to greet the newcomer, but an unexpected slap coming from the figure sent him to the ground. As he struggled to get up, he looked at the figure with fear and uncertainty. What did he say that insulted the master?

"How dare you? The only Master we serve is the future City Lord, Master Leon. I am merely your boss, do you understand?!" The cloaked figure roared with anger, causing the group to shiver with fright upon the exclamation.

"Y-yes… M… B-Boss! I-I apologize for my rudeness, hope you can forgive me." The slapped man slowly stood back up, and bowed immediately, apologizing with fear and dread clearly visible in her stuttering tone.

"Hmpf. As long as you understand." The figure, obviously the leader of the gathered group spoke indifferently. Shifting his attention he looked at the group. Taking a short gasp of air, he addressed them with a commanding tone. 

"We have a very important task to carry out, given to us directly by the Master. If we can do it to his satisfaction you can all expect some great rewards. We might be able to finally gain the honor to be counted as one of his forces! I hope I need not remind you of the importance of this chance!" 

He paused in his speech, glancing over the crowd. The gasps and excited yelps satisfied his ego causing a contented smile to appear on his well-hidden face. 

"There is a new pest that Master has some unsettled debts with. The Master ordered us to show this commoner filth the grave mistake he made when standing against the natural order! We will give a surprise visit to his family and ever-so 'graciously invite' his family to come and join us. There should be only an old hag and some tasty-looking blonde girl there." He spoke, putting some emphasis on the latter part of his speech. It was clear he didn't put the family in his eyes. What the Master told him, was that while they could be a bit rowdy, they are not combatants, and should not be any challenge at all. As long as that monster of a boy is not with them, they should be easy targets.

"B-boss, are we allowed to…" The closest to their leader the one that was slapped so brutally just a moment ago raised another question with a fearful tone. Although he didn't incur their leader's wrath any longer, they still wanted to know if they were allowed to act like usual or not. 

"We can rough them up, but can't taste the goods this time. Master specifically asked for the blonde girl to be brought to him and that he shouldn't be tasted."

Hearing that most of the fun they had in these types of missions was this time forbidden, voices of dissatisfaction could be heard from the group. Still, it quickly quieted down as they remembered that by doing this job perfectly, they would have the chance to finally be initiated to the Master's Special Forces. They could still enjoy some celebrations in the evening once they were done.

Once the group turned quiet and focused on their leader, the man continued.

"Let's get to it, everyone! This is it, the chance we were all waiting for, our chance! From tomorrow onwards we will be members of the Master's Special Forces Team!" Raising his right fist in the air, the leader yelled excitedly, rousing the group's morale to its peak.

With his speech finished, he turned towards the forest stretching seemingly endlessly across the horizon. A short while later the group began to dash towards the treeline with excitement and fervor shining in their eyes.

Some couldn't even believe their luck, by merely doing a menial task of collecting some forest-dwelling commoner filth that anybody could do, they would gain the chance to join the Master's forces! How lucky is that?!

---

Sometime later the group of now 12 shadowy figures could be seen dashing through the thick and grove of the trees, rushing towards a certain direction. Donned in various armors, some had a matte, painted, black steel glimmer in the thin dawning rays of the sun with a slight sheen, others were wearing studded leathers. Swords, daggers, and a quartet of bows were also present making their team an all-rounder, usually ready to tackle most dangers.

The only role they were missing was some spellcasters, but their kind was already extremely rare and most importantly, very high profile for a group such as them. Still, none of them were bothered even by a bit that they had no such support with them, as the task they were given held absolutely no dangers in their eyes. Kidnapping a commoner's family wasn't something they had anything to worry about after all.

Only one person in the group, the leader had a slight frown as they were dashing towards a particular little hut not too deep in the forest. For some reason, he had a bad premonition as they closed towards their target. His trained and heightened senses were tingling, warning him of a potential mistake he was about to make.

He couldn't understand this feeling he had. What could go wrong? Just some alchemist hag and her brat of a child… What could possibly go wrong?! 

'Hmpf! I'm getting too old for this…' He muttered inwardly, forcibly shrugging of this ominous feel he had.

With all the preparations they had made, their trip towards the hut in the woods was without any threat. The predators were mostly asleep by now, the other type of threats were warded away with the protective charms they have brought with them.

As they reached the simplistic-looking small wooden fence, the group was already setting up in position. Each of the archers found themselves a tree to climb up, the dagger-wielding ambushers, the assassins, circled around the perimeter searching for an obscure spot or corner to lay in wait.

The leader of the group and his 4 sword-wielder lackeys remained only in plain sight. As he looked at the small house, his senses continued to tingle, warning him like alarm bells to do not approach this den of hell any further.

However, they have already crossed the point of no return. They couldn't go back to the Master empty-handed. That would greatly disappoint him, which would be equal to a death sentence.

Being a master of unarmed combat, he held no weapon in hand, he clenched his fists ever so tightly and kicked at the small wooden gate, destroying it into small splintered remains in the process causing a loud burst of explosive sound at the same time.

The loud ruckus he deliberately caused obviously alerted the residents, and not long after, the entrance door slowly creaked open. An elderly woman draped in several layers of tattered, ragged clothes and a patched-up red hooded travel cloak appeared in the doorway. With a gentle friendly smile on her face, as if unaware of the dangers she was facing, asked the man in the front.

"Why good morning gentlemen! May I ask, what sort of troubles did that small wooden gate cause to earn the ire of that young man?" As she spoke, she was full of smiles, her tone was warm, inquiring. She seemed completely oblivious of the situation.

This sort of reaction caused the leader to freeze for a moment and unable to respond. However, he recovered in the next second, he coughed, raising his right arm in the air. This was the signal for his man in the back to get in ready positions and aim their weapons at the target.

"Don't play dumb with me old hag, even with your advanced age and low eyesight, you should still know that you are surrounded by my guys. Even if you are tired of living, you surely don't want your little wh*re of a grandkid to be humiliated and then killed, do you?" He sneered already expecting the usual fearful, frightened reactions. He really enjoyed the moment as the despair settled on the faces of their targets, the moment they realized that the lives they lived were gone. 

He reveled in these situations, he hated his undercover role at the guild. This was the true way of life, not that office work.

Sadly, the reaction he was hoping for never came. The old woman remained standing, she did not shiver, she did not cower. The gentle, kind smile on her wrinkled face never faded. She turned her head slightly to the left, then to the right as if searching for something. 

After that, her gaze returned to the leader of the group and asked in a curious tone.

"Surrounded? By what men? I don't see anybody other than you lot."