Hard Labor Builds Character III

One final mission, Jian told himself, one final mission in this empty village and then he'd move on to the capital.

Jian never really had any trouble moving from one town to another at a regular pace, in fact that was how he liked it - his job was hardly legal, so he disliked having to stay in one place too long for fear that the guards would work out exactly who he was and would attempt to execute him.

He hated killing guardsmen, they were good people who were just trying to protect the peace and yet he had to kill them regardless just to protect himself. They were the only ones he ever really felt bad after killing.

That being said, he was having to stay in Portsmouth longer than he had expected. Every time he'd finished a job, they had a new one to do and that just meant that he was able to get more money before heading to the capital. For example, today he was dealing with an infestation.

Normally, you wouldn't send in an assassin to deal with an infestation, but these weren't exactly roaches or ants. You couldn't just spray the entire place with insecticide and come back a week later, the place was filled with a giant nuisance... in so far as that the nuisance was around eight foot tall.

You see, the creatures that had inhabited the mineshaft were not actually animals at all. These were owlbears, a species that was apparently created by life mages getting a bit too big for their boots. They were, if anything, aberrations or a living spell. They also seemed to love dark, dry places, which explained why they'd taken over the mine.

Now, despite the fact that they'd done nothing wrong, he was going to have to purge the mine of their unwanted inhabitants. Jian had no issues with this directive, considering the fact that they weren't really humanoid or even that intelligent (they were literally owls crossed with bears), but it did seem like a bit of an overreaction to them just dwelling in the mines.

352/1000

After around half an hour's worth of hiking, Jian found himself standing outside the mine that the Owlebears had come to call their home. Despite the fact that this place obviously used to be quite heavily used, it was absolutely deserted.

He could smell the smell of rotted flesh coming from the mine, likely scraps from whatever meal those abberations had had. They were going to have to deal with that little one without him, as he was not getting involved with corpse clean up.

Stepping through the "gateway" of the mineshaft, he quickly noticed just how dark it was down here. Torches weren't used around here in case they hit a flammable gas vein, and he didn't have a light-magic enthused helmet to guide him down here. Picking a handful of throwing knives out of his inner pocket, he decided that entering the mine too far would be a bad idea, so he was instead going to draw them out.

"AAAAAHHHH!!!!" Jian called, his throat hurting as he forced himself to shout at the absolute limits of his volume. The sound reverberated throughout the mines and seemed to have succeeded in drawing attention as, from the murky darkness, the unmistakable shape of four owlbears approached.

Ignoring the larger one, which he supposed was the mother, there were three smaller ones. They were actually a few inches shorter than Jian, so he guessed these must be their kids. Good, if he killed these first, he took out a generation and he'd force them to attack him in a blind rage.

Stepping back, letting them draw into an area he could actually see them in, he waited for a second to aim. The issue was, though they walked on two "feet", they weren't all that close to humans. Their skin looked very strong and covered in protective fur. Hell, they didn't have obvious weak points like humans did, but maybe he could try this.

Letting loose his knives, two of them found their mark in the creatures eyes, piercing through and into their brains, causing them to fall back on their ass. Unfortunately, one went slightly off the mark and landed just next to their eye. It was a bad hit, but not lethal - thus, the creature started screaming its head off, running past him in an attempt to get away from the predator.

This was bad, Jian thought. It wasn't so much that he was worried about the screaming - The child's scream would attract the parents, and that just meant he didn't have to pull them out here. Instead, this wasn't good cos he was never going to get that throwing knife back.

795/1000

It seemed like the mother was reacting exactly as he had expected.... unfortunately, he hadn't noticed one that was in the darkness behind her. Judging by the similar sizes, he could only guess that it was her mate, the father of those kids he'd just killed. Fuck, he thought, blinking in surprise. How'd he fail to see this guy? Either way, he forced him to ignore his surprise as the thing bellowed in rage, running towards him alongside the mother.

Rolling out of the way, he yanked one of his fans off his belt before throwing it, letting it cut through the air turning into a sphere of death as it did so. Due to them charging side-by-side, not only was it easier to dodge them, but it allowed the fan to slice through both of them at once. It seemed like their skin wasn't that hard after all, but this wasn't enough to put them down even as their red blood began to pool on the stone floor.

Grabbing two more throwing knives from his inner pocket, he decided to use them for a second reason. Running forward towards the mother, he propelled his legs forwards and upwards, leaping into the air above the approaching grieving parents. The ceiling of the mine dug into his back as he jumped, reminding him not to use this technique in enclosed spaces like this, but it gave him a moment to aim without needing to worry about their taloned claws.

Another two bloody thumps as the knives pierced through their skulls, drilling into the parents brains, sending them collapsing to the floor like their disgusting spawn. Good, that ended that. Now he could get out of this backwater village.

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1000+/1000

130/150: