Chương 23

"She's a vampire." Wade said, coming to the only complete and logical explanation. Especially when the group noticed Selena had sharp fangs in her mouth and started bickering if her pale skin was too pale or just something about moonwing elf biology. Elves don't have sharp fangs. But Wade knew who has fangs: " Vampire. Final answer." Said elf's ears twitched, as if aware they were gossiping about her. She shot them a glance, but all three seemed to immediately have their attention anywhere but her.

The group continued to walk between the dark alleyways, far out of the golem's line of sight. The goal was simple: Gather as many mithril disks as possible, and then make a collar for him. Once he had the Blackrot under control, then they'd start figuring out a way to cross the road and finally get to his silver lootbox. They unsealed the next home's doorway, stole inside with practiced ease, and immediately went for the dim light that flickered awake.

That was unhooked by Leon, mostly due to his height, then tossed to Wade so he could deconstruct and loot its mithril capacitor disk. Which would be added to a growing number of stockpiled disks in Illy's bag. On her end, she would be cutting twine by the laundry kitchen sink, and left in charge of looting anything of interest inside the empty houses. The project was coming along nicely over the past hour, without any enemies besides the golem sulking on the road far off.

Throughout it all, Wade got them up to speed about the world of Azdrial as he'd learned from Play. Without the actual god answering any questions, as they'd all been basically left on read. The last message he'd gotten was quite literally three words. brb, amazon package Play was busy with something, or dead. And Wade could only hope it was the former, because he planned to be the one delivering the latter. And that eventually came back full circle to discussion about Selena.

"Really?" Illy asked, eyes darting from Selena back to him.

"That's your fecking guess after all this chatter? A vampire? We don't even know if that's a thing in this world at all!" The ears twitched again. He'd talked slightly to her earlier about abilities and other topics the team here had needed to know for the operation.

Selena was highly competent with spears, had an entire set of enchanted armor handed down to her by her noble family heritage, could bind the souls of the dead back out of the spirit realm and manifest them halfway into the physical realm to assist her - of which Wade was certain that shouldn't be a paladin thing at all - and she could fly and make herself weigh less during combat. Those were the important things she could do. He'd also asked about skeletons in general, and the answer was that they were pests.

Actual pests. Leave dead bodies around for too long and ambient mana reanimates them as feral monsters. There wasn't any quick way of killing them, although in theory a large enough block of mithril would suck the mana out of them. They'd need a really huge amount of it, as mithril's effective range was measured in inches at best.

She'd spoken a bit about her being part of a Flight, which sounded more like a religious cultish chapter that banded together, and her Flight was specialized in night missions and stealth. Although she claimed she hadn't yet mastered those. Stab and attack them until they were too maimed to keep fighting, or the mana got used up trying to sustain them. They were still trapped insane souls within the bones, so Selena started a small lecture about using and manipulating souls.

It was at that point that an argument started up among the group as Wade dutifully relayed the information.

"I'm just saying," Wade shrugged, "If it quacks like a duck, has teeth like a duck, and turns into a mist of bats like a duck - she's a vampire."

"She's not turned into a mist of bats yet, you fat turnip. She said she can glide and fly with wings."

"Basically the same thing as turning into a bat." Wade countered, trying to extract the mithril disk from his latest steal, a small pile of loose screws building around him.

"And did you miss the part where she can bind and control souls? That's vampire-adjacent enough."

"And the feathers? On her face? Knife-ears looks more related to a hawk than a bat to me."

"It looking more like hummingbird to me." Leon pointed out.

"Notice iridescent sheen on feathers, on parts that are maintained."

"Hummingbirds drink to feed." Wade pointed out, fiddling with his latest loot.

"Just adds to my theory here. So, a vampire-humming-hawk then. A vawk? A hampire? Whatever you want to call a bloodsucking bird-elf hybrid. I'm telling you, those fangs aren't for eating salad."

"That's not even clo-" She stopped cutting twine, narrowed her eyes at him and wagged her dagger in his direction.

"I know what you're doing, you little shite stirrer. And I'm gonna hurt you someday, emotionally."

"Hah. You'll never do worse than my rent."

"I don't need to do a thing. Your wallet's already doing the work for me, go give it a look."

"... you take that back." Wade said, horrified.

"Oh, then convince me of the errors of my ways, ser wanker." She even gave him a mock bow as she passed by him and out of their latest looted house.

"All right fine, how about this: Name one thing that has fangs, looks pale, and avoids normal food that isn't a vampire." Wade said, walking out himself.

"My aunt Meredith. Terrible dentures, anemic, hated everyone's cooking. Also everyone in general too."

"Was she also allergic to garlic and couldn't cross running water?"

"Lactose intolerant and hated baths." Leon laughed behind them, "Smoll devushka real fast with the words."

"She sleep in a coffin by chance?" Wade asked, focus firing.

"Recliner chair, and planning on getting buried with it, so counts as a coffin." Wade turned to Leon, and both gave each other a short nod. Then he spoke with all the gravity of someone giving the news of the family hamster's passing.

"I'm so sorry to tell you this Illy, but your aunt is a vampire. Objectively speaking. And so is Selena." A pair of elf ears once more twitched.

"Aunt could be outlier." Leon said, patting Wade's untainted shoulder at the team walked into the next abandoned house to start the looting process.

"One data point not statistically meaningful. Need more evil vampire aunts for proper study."

"Arch, not you too Leon." Illy groaned.

"…Though, they got the evil part down, I'll give the lot that at least."

"In the spirit of fairness, I'll give back a point, Selena's not evil. So far. Although she did threaten to kill me a few times with her spear. You know what, I'm taking that point back." The ears twitched one final time, and the elf had enough.

"Human. You are telling them something about me." Wade's hand froze mid-air, the Nathir house light an instant away from being dismantled.

"Errr..."

"As contracted moonwing mercenary to Lady Illy, I invoke my singular right of inquiry." She continued, standing tall.

"And since Lady Illy cannot understand our tongue, the duty falls to you as her ally, human." Illy cocked her head.

"She figured out you were accusing her of vampirism?"

"Some kind of formal mercenary contract thing," Wade explained, letting his blessing do the heavy lifting for him.

"I'm getting a loose sense it's… frowned on to ask questions to their employer, because mercenary, but they are allowed one freebie. Doesn't sound like moonwing paladins are very holy, feels a little under the tab--" Selena tapped the butt of her spear on the ground, getting his attention.

"I demand to know what you are saying about me! You were speaking of me. I heard my name. Are you telling them I spoke curse words? If you breathed even a word about my prior language choices I'll..." then she nearly shoved a hand in her mouth, "... Forgive my outburst, I am… mildly out of practice." She really didn't lie well and Market's blessing was putting a magnifying glass on every tale-tell sign she had, especially the ear twitching.

Wade could understand why the buff description said he'd have better luck in gambling. He could immediately tell she was lying about being out of practice. But she hadn't lied about being a paladin-in-training. Which meant...

"Selena… is this your first mission?"

"No of course not." Twitch.

"I've been on dozens of missions before!" Twitch twitch. He gave her a flat look, which was rather universal. Her ears dropped in sudden defeat.

"Yes, it is my first official mission… Oh, I've made such a terrible mess of things. But you are all so… so weird! Arriving from another goddess damned world? Who'd believe that?! And I find myself pulled in some kind of Nathir city? There aren't any Nathir cities!" She started pacing back and forth, the ears moving a mile a minute as she ranted.

"All anyone's ever found were their war golems half buried in a mountain or some random broken down bunkers - which nobody can even get inside of because their wards fry everyone even a thousand years later! This is insane! How could any paladin hold off questioning their employer in this madhouse?!"

"Wade, are you fecking bullying my level twenty five paladin? If you make her cry, I'll swipe her spear and stab you meself." Illy warned, somehow already in-tune with Selena. How could she even tell?

"Whoa whoa, it's okay, you were right, we admittedly were talking about…" Wade hesitated, searching for the least offensive way to phrase it.

"Your dietary preferences." Her face went completely still, but the feathers were all puffing up in clear confusion. Whatever she'd expected, it hadn't been that.

"Wha- I mean," She stopped, took a breath, and tried again.

"I beg your pardon?"

"You know..." Wade gestured vaguely.

"The fact that you don't want to talk about food. And you have, uh, fangs." Her face feathers puffed out with embarrassment for a single moment before she schooled her features.

"My fangs are entirely clean, human! I always brush them on a strict schedule." Twitch.

"And the stomach growling?" Wade pressed.

"Paladins of my station observe... fasting periods." Twitch.

"It's traditional." Twitch, twitch"Uh, huh." He said. Now actually considering the theory of her being a vampire. He'd been having fun up till now, but Selena was absolutely hiding something. And also terrible at hiding things. He should play cards with her someday, nobility would probably have quite a fortune. What if she bets gold coins? Wade considered the exchange rate, already calculating his potential haul.

She's rich, clearly from her polished armor and stick up her ass, pocket change for would be a windfall for him. Her stomach chose that exact moment to emit a long, painful growl.

"We should add food to the list of things to ransack." Illy said, "Just hearing that every five minutes is making me hungry. Water isn't going to fill our stomachs for long either. Let's get her some breakfast or something."

"Sure, but I'm keeping my blood where it belongs - inside me." Wade said.

"How about we volunteer Leon?" The Russian laughed, then shook his head with a wide smile." Good luck." That sounded like a threat.

"Oh shut the feck up, you know she's not a vampire you tosser." Illy said, elbowing him as she passed him by. They hadn't had much luck when it came to food so far, likely they'd need to hunt rats. Or weasels. Wade shuddered at the thought, all prior plots and schemes derailed. He was almost certain he could feel the blackrot wiggle in his arm at the thought of that weasel. Or maybe he was just imagining it.

When he looked at the debuff, it was steadily creeping up in body mass percentage, but the little mithril pluck they'd tied around his shoulder was keeping the blackrot contained to his arm. … Better get back to it. That collar had to be done and tied around his neck before the next hour, or else he'd be the one biting people in their necks. The crew reached the next run down house, deeper into the little mess of housing units.

They'd started to call this particular place 'the gloom' due to how the lights further down here weren't working as much as the side closer to the golem's camping ground. And that side was already lacking. The gloom out here was more oppressive, leaving most of the alley in darkness with an odd vapor like quality to the air. Their own little pilfered lamps were doing the heavy lifting for them. Buildings were starting to show signs of breakage, and the rope twines between the units felt more dense.

On closer look, seemed as if there were thin slimy or organic looking strands that stretched from wall to wall, some all the way down to the floor. Like thicker spider webs except no actual web anywhere. Just random strings floating. It was incredibly creepy.

"If knife-ear's of them bloodsuckers - and I'm not admitting that she is - how'd a vampire- paladin even make sense?" Illy whispered, breaking the silence that the group had been operating under for the past five minutes. Wade stared at her, "That's what you've been mulling over this whole time?"

"Go on then, I'd like to see you summersault around that part." She reached out to open up the next house to pillage. This time, it remained shut even as she tugged at it, the first time they'd found a locked door.

"Huh."

"Well, you saw those spells she used to bind souls and have them attack things for her?" Wade said, catching up.

"That's necromancy. So at the very least she's a necromancer paladin. And for all we know, Nox could be the goddess of darkness or death, or something. Which would make her a necromancer paladin. A necromancer vampire -paladin." Leon closed rank behind them all, one hand holding a small pilfered un-deconstructed light in his hand, illuminating the alleyway here. She gave a mild elbow shove.

"Now I know you're just taking the piss out for giggles. Holy necromancer ain't a thing."

"Holy necromancer or sanctified undead is not uncommon." Leon said behind them.

"Happen many times in history, plenty of cultures." Illy kneeled down and tried to tug at the doorway again.

"Run that one by me again? Why would anything holy be involved with the dead?"

"Religions almost always used in funerals for a reason." Leon continued, his eyes more scanning the pathways leading out of the alley.

"Who better than holy men to handle the souls of the dead?" Wade pointed a finger at him.

"Oh, that's a good line. Great point here, thanks for the assist Leon." Illy gave one last attempt at opening the door, cursed under her breath then gave it a frustrated kick.

"Leon, quit encouraging the yank and come help me out here. I know you dumped all your points into strength. Put it to work." The giant gave a short chuckle, then passed by, handing her the light, switching places. She took up his prior position, knife in one hand, light in the other.

"We could just skip this one and go to the next." Wade said, pointing down the alley. There were plenty of houses here. Admittedly, it was getting sketchier the further they traveled into the gloom.

"No, is good chance to see if we can open locked doors." Leon said, giving the handle a small tug just to check how hard it was.

"Better we learn when things quiet then loud."

"Plus he's the physically strongest we've got on our crew," Illy said.

"If he can't peel these sardine cans open, we can consider them dead ends in a chase and not waste any time even trying. I think you noticed how creepy it's gotten this far down, always keep escape routes in mind." Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. Wade could see the logic there. And it did make him think of a different topic as the russian knelt down to grab the handle.

"Hey Leon? Why did you end up putting all your points into strength?" Wade asked.

"You mentioned a while back you had a skull fracture that didn't heal right? Vitality might have been a better spot for points to heal that up." Assuming Leon had a debuff from that bone injury that knocked him out of boxing.

"Reasons." The giant shrugged.

"Besides, strength help more than just strength. Makes you run much faster. And open locked doors too."

"Shouldn't Agility make you faster?" That's how it worked in video games, and if the system was running on video game logic…

"Naw," Illy said, leaning on the side wall.

"How do you think you run in the first place? Legs push against the ground. Agility will make you better at parkour, balance, vision, hand-eye coordination," She demonstrated with her summoned knife, tossing it up and down, catching it by the hilt each time.

"Gives ye a better sense of where things are. But the actual moving part of all this? Pure muscle."

"You put a point into Agility I'm assuming?"

"Two now in Agility since I only got daggers to work with, one in strength to help overall. So I can tell the difference. I played DnD a couple times, I know how it works. Wheredja you put your points into?"

"One in vitality, other two points I'm holding back on, still debating where to put them. Could go all-in with vitality to get rid of the limp and pains, but my damage comes from strength." Illy looked at him like he'd grown a second head.

"Hold up. You've been limping around with two extra stat points this whole time? The bloody hell are you waiting for? I didn't take you for an actual eejit."

"What if I put it all in vitality to cure my limp, and later run into an issue where I die because being stronger was what I actually needed instead? And vice versa. I was thinking it'd be better to hold off and use the boosts right when I need them." Leon grunted as he pulled at the door.

"Later is not guaranteed. Now is." Something snapped on the other side of the door. A terrible metal screeching sound came from the whole thing for a half second before Leon let go and stopped.

"Ooof, need to take it slower, very noisy door."

"The big man's right," Illy said, crossing her arms.

"You're a right dobber if you think saving it makes any sense. What happens if you get killed because you were too stingy with your own bloody points?" Wade ran a hand through his hair.

"In games, you can't usually respec your character, or it comes at a heavy cost. That's what I'm worried about. It's more planning for late game." Illy rolled her eyes.

"This isn't a bloody game, you walloper. It's life and death. Real life and real death."

"It's literally called THE GAME," Wade pointed out.

"Aye, and I'm literally called fed up with your shite," Illy shot back.

"Put the point in something before I find a way to do it for you. If I ever hear you skimping out on upgrades without a real good reason, yer gonna wish I hadn't. Got me?"

"Threatening American won't convince him devushka." Leon started to slowly pull up the door, the metal scraping on the other side was far more quiet this time with his pace.

"Yeah, well then you fecking give it a shot." Leon hummed, then lowered the door back to the ground. He stood up and gave Wade his full attention.

"Is decision paralysis. Common problem, you afraid of making wrong choice. But here, indecision gets you killed. No choice is a choice. Any point spent will be better than no point spent." He gave a light shrug next, "Maybe more optimal point spread possible, sure, but no way to knowing that. You can make anything work if you alive to do it. Can't do that when dead." Wade knew they were right. He was overthinking this, the way he overthought everything.

Basically the equivalent of hoarding all the rare potions until he reached the final boss before the game ended, and still not using them. Any choice was better than no choice. He wasn't going to make the smartest optimal decisions each time, but whatever he did decide on he could work with.

"Okay." Wade said.

"I'll spend it. But if I end up with a build I regret, I'm blaming both of you and writing a strongly worded letter to whoever you work for."

"I'll have that letter framed and mounted right above me bog." Illy said.

"Anything else ya need to know?"

"Strength or vitality?"

"Strength." She immediately said, "You're the damage dealer, go all out. We'll deal with keeping ya alive."

"Agree with smol devushka, put points into strength. Keeping you safer is doable with better planning. Many strategies we haven't tried yet. But more damage is impossible without better tools."

"And there's a right big wanker in between you and your lootbox, so running faster and hitting harder is gonna be the ticket. If that bugger hits any of us, we're cooked. Two points in vitality or no, dead as shite." His skyviper archer ability did deal damage reliably to things that couldn't easily be damaged. Like that giant golem. And it did seem to scale off initial damage.

"Right, fine, I'm convinced so long as you work around my limp issues. That's the only reason I'd have picked vitality."

"Deal." Illy said.

"We'll have you carried around in a fight." Leon laughed, "You say that, but I sensing you won't be carrying him anywhere."

"Everyone's got a job, Mr. Wade Wrangler." Illy said, patting Leon's back.

"The royal regiment thanks you for volunteering." That worked for Wade, he had a feeling he was going to end up putting the points into strength anyhow, even if he had no other mitigation for his limp other than pure sucking it up. Sure it might be a lot less useful to him in the distant future when he had something like a gun to deal the damage with, but right now, he might very well die if he didn't use everything he had. He slammed home the plus sign on his status screen and felt the changes.

Two points of additional strength was instant, undeniable, and utterly viceral. There wasn't an end to pain like vitality had given him. Instead it felt like he'd been submerged his whole life in half-water, and now he was finally moving in pure air while on some planet with lower gravity. His muscles tensed and flexed involuntarily, waking up from a long nap, ready to be put to use.

"Whoa." He rolled his shoulders, still feeling the usual pains he'd felt before, but there was just more power to it. Moving in general felt easier, snappier. He felt like he'd lost forty pounds and could jump higher. Everything felt easier. Everything.

"Holy shit, even my lungs feel stronger." Leon gave him a thumbs up before going back to work on the doorway.

"More air, better running. Came in great use so far. No regrets." He took another experimental tug on the door handle. It lifted a half inch up as it had before getting snagged on something. He stopped, and took a breath for another go. Another heave, this time with more force. Something finally snapped on the other end, and the doorway slid further up without resistance anymore. He continued to slowly slide the door open…

and then deep and extra loud THUD came from the other side, like something heavy, metallic and filled with tools had hit the ground. All talk between the group vanished. In the far distance, they heard a sound. Some kind of shrieking. More came out of the area, like dogs howling at each other - except the howls weren't canine in the least. New Personal quest: Challenge Gauntlet - An enemy forty levels or higher above you is hunting you down. Evade or defeat your hunter.

Reward: One storefront coin if your pursuer is eliminated.

"Shit." Wade hissed. The others equally stopped, glances looking between each other. Wade muttered Identify under his breath and checked for any health bars. There weren't any on the alley outside, but the inside of the house? Level 13 Undead Nathir Slave - 100% Level 10 Undead Nathir Slave - 100% Level 11 Undead Nathir Slave - 100% Level 2 Undead Nathir Slave - 100%"Skeletons!" He called out, just as the bedroom door on the far end creaked open.

One skeleton came stumbling forward, as if woken up from a poor nap to check into the sound coming from the living room. The skull rotated until it stared at them, then unhinged open in a silent war cry.

"Feck, they already seen us. Put them down now or they'll chase us forever!" Illy called out, already sprinting into the opened room. As Wade followed behind, he saw what had been keeping the doorway sealed, and what had equally made the giant noise: An overturned metal bookshelf and random junk and metal tools, likely what was used as a barricade. Illy vaulted over that, Leon following like a shadow right after.

Her first thrown dagger slammed into the incoming skeleton's skull, pinging off but dealing slight amount of damage. Then she dove to the right side, letting Leon barrel past her, giving him a light kick in his calf just as he started swinging. Leon's hammer slammed the charging skeleton into the wall, crushing it with a heavy knockback, likely scoring a critical hit of some kind on top of Illy's dagger debuff. Wade made a jump into the living room and overshot by a significant mark.

Holy shit, that strength increase is no joke. He'd almost bonked his head into the wall. He managed to recover, then aimed a rock mid-hop at the open bedroom doorway. He could feel the blackrot in his throwing arm contract then expand out at the apex of his throw. The rock went racing through the air with a louder woosh than he'd heard before. Another skeleton was climbing out of the bedroom, jaws wide open, the loping charge half-started. And then it took the rock mid-leap.

The skull burst into pieces, his debuff eating away at the rest, as the skeleton stumbled down from the hit. Wade could tell it would die before it even got back off the ground. One down. A smaller tiny skeleton scurried over its fellow, the level 2. A horrifying double set of teeth made his skin crawl the instant he had sight. Fortunately he didn't need to see it for long as Leon punted it like a football, right back into the room it'd come from. Then charged after it.

Illy shanked the wall-slammed one a few more times with some expert dagger stabs that failed to do much damage even with her debuffs triggering one after another on it. She ducked under a swipe and then kicked into skeleton's leg, forcing it down into range, where she sliced her knife by reflex where a jugular should have been, followed by grabbing its head and driving a hard knee up into its skull.

The move would have likely gotten anyone else stunned, but the skeleton wasn't human any longer and its bones were tougher to break. She cursed, reached a hand out and outright grappled the enemy off its feet, into the ground.

"Wade!" He didn't miss the window of opportunity and finished it off with a rock spike down into its skull. Already weakened from Leon's blow and her flurry of stabs, it didn't survive this hit. Leon was walking out of the doorway he'd charged into, hammer resting on his shoulders, job handled on his part.

"Where's the fourth?" Wade asked. As it turned out, the last skeleton had been above them, crawling on the upper level, leaping down to rush into the front doorway for a flank. It hadn't made it anywhere close before having its spine stabbed through with a spear, followed by a shield bash and a follow-up sweep through the neck. Unlike Illy's reflexive surgical slice for a vein, Selena's slice was looking to cleave everything and succeeded at that.

With that skeleton dead, she'd retaken her position, shield pointed out the doorway, holding the group's flank in case anything else came their way. The fight took less than ten seconds and the crew had killed the entire set of enemies.

"Good work!" Illy called out, "Leg it before whatever was screaming shows up!" Wade felt himself yanked off his feet as Leon sped behind him, taking the weight off his limp completely.

"Where do we go?" Leon called out as the group fled, shrieks sounding behind them.

"I vote we backtrack to the golem!" Wade pointed forward, still held under Leon's arm like groceries.

"With any luck whatever's chasing us will think twice about it with that asshole in the area."

"Yank's got a point! Whatever's lurking back there learned to stay there, else we'd have run into it during our looting spree." Shrieks came out again, and Wade was certain whatever it was that heard the sounds had now reached their prior bust-in. But soon they were crossing their prior hunting grounds, narrowing down on one building that was closer to the golem. On a second stage floor, with only the window and the doorway as entrance, from a ladder. It was defendable enough.

Leon tossed Wade up far enough he could grab the rung. When he tried to pull himself up, he underestimated his new strength for a second time, bonking his head against the wallside. He'd accidentally pushed himself too hard. He still managed to crawl his way back up into the room, but not before taking a humiliating one percent damage.

"I'll go put down some false trails, if you see me running back calling for help, start throwing rocks from up there, you got that yank?" Illy called out, doubling back.

"And if I'm screaming bloody murder, throw the rock at the golem instead!" Wade called out to Selena, giving her the plan as the elf seemed stunned watching her charge running back to where all the terrifying screams were coming from. Feathers puffed out all at once with a muffled curse word under her breath and she chased after the crazy scot. As for him and Leon, they got to work on redecorating the interior.

The single window was boarded up with an overturned table, some kind of large metal bookshelf filled with spare tools was moved over, ready to barricade the doorway. It would have been only Leon moving the heavy stuff, but now Wade could pitch in, even holding the other side of the metal bookshelf. Progress moved fast as the two wordlessly worked together. By the time they'd completed most of the items, Selena and Illy had climbed over the rungs and rushed back inside.

"Job's done, seal it up!" Leon followed through, closing the doorway then pushing the metal shelving until it held down the handle and pushed into the doorway. It grew quiet within the room, except for breathing.

"What did you end up doing?" Wade whispered to the girl. She waved a wrapped up hand.

"Cut some blood on that side of the track, then doubled back. Your favorite vampire put down some vision wards, so now we're both watching the false trail and the golem. Giant metal muppet hasn't noticed anything yet, thing's as smart as pile of rocks." Wade nodded, and the group grew quiet as the minutes passed by. They heard nothing outside. Then scrambling and a screech. Not quite nearby, but neither was it too far off. Two minutes passed.

"Something's destroyed the vision ward I'd set on the decoy path." Selena whispered in the quiet.

"That could mean they were fooled by our work."

"Could you see what it was?" Wade asked. The ears wiggled.

"Damn, really? Not even a clue?"

"It moved too fast to identify. What I did see was a large size, hair everywhere, low to the ground with far more legs than four and some kind claw or fang that punctured the ward. It was over in under a second." Wade was extremely glad they'd decided to get out of Dodge instead of picking a fight with whatever was dangerous enough to trigger a full quest like that.

"The wards covering our actual route remain functional, I see only empty streets. Perhaps the golem's proximity is keeping it away." He nodded at that, whispering the translations to the rest of the group that flashed him thumbs up in the dim light. After ten minutes, Selena relaxed her guard slightly.

"If it had caught onto our true trail, it would have passed by my wards several minutes prior by now. I believe we are in the clear." Another five minutes passed in the silence, and then Wade could swear he heard a screech from far off. Followed immediately with notification they'd hoped for. Challenge Gauntlet Complete! One storefront coin added to inventory. One storefront coin. And the quest had been clear on how they could get the coin.

"Shite." Illy said in the gloom of their make-shift bunker.

"There's something worse out there."