Above the staff of the Drow Beastmaster, birds circled around like a mini windstorm. He tapped the staff, and a hollow echo resounded through the sky. The birds dived down at the injured Drow matriarch.

  She darted back, wrenching off her crossbow and sheathing her sword. She fired at the approaching wave of birds. Each of her arrows pierced through the birds’ bodies, no doubt killing more than one, and a hail of them followed, delivering death. But the birds were numerous; those arrows were unable to pierce through to the ground.

  The Matriarch growled. She slid off her sword and prepared to fight. Around her, Drow Warriors formed up, and two Rangers, the survivors, kept shooting.

  Like a huge wave, the birds descended with their talons, sweeping over the Drows in a sheer volume of flesh and wings.

  Suna could see blood carve through as the matriarch carried forth her swing, but she was overwhelmed, and soon her body was consumed by the birds. They spun around and began clawing at the trapped Drow, who struggled and screamed in a gut-wrenching wail. Not only with their talons, but the birds also used their beaks to peck at the Drows, drawing their flesh and blood.

  Beside him, someone gagged. Noa emptied his stomach near him. Suna had to skidded aside, and Min caught him before he fell to his death. Not from the fall, Suna thought he would survive it. But, from the slow torture these would inflict.

  “Are you okay there?” Min asked. She pressed a finger on Noa’s neck vein. “Calm down,” she whispered.

  He did not even realize his heart was beating; the shrill cries of the Drows were not helping, and cold sweat wet his hair.

  “The [Beastmaster] gets turned,” Suna grunted, stating the obvious.

  “Yes, we need to move, no point in watching this…” Min tried to find a word.

  “Massacre,” Reki finished. “Come on, everyone, let's move far away.”

  “Wait!” Slea shouted. The girl was tense as she turned around. She raised her staff and aimed at something, something behind them.

  “What is it?” Noa asked, but the answer showed itself in the form of a Drow.

  Suna could almost laugh, just when he thought the turned [Beastmaster] and [Cleric] were too much… there was another one.

  [Rogue Drow. Lvl 15]

  What was worse was that this one blocked their escape route.

  Suna pulled his bow and drew an arrow. Min mirrored his movement.

  In unison, they both released their arrows.

  Two long daggers glinted in the moonlight. The Rogue parried Suna’s arrow with his right dagger.

  The Drow met resistance, but ultimately Suna’s arrow was knocked to the side. He blocked Min’s arrow with ease and began to run forward.

  Noa, with all his armor, met the charge. The warrior roared, hefting his sword up and blindly swinging upon the Drow–who dodged the attempt easily. The Drow effortlessly parried each and every strike; however, when he tried to lunge forward, he met the scaly shoulder plate of the Warrior.

  The [Rogue] kept backing away, and Suna tried to find space to shoot, but Noa's body kept moving erratically.

  Shadow shrouded the [Rogue], and in the blink of an eye, it disappeared to appear in front of Slea, who still aimed her staff at where the creature had been.

  He brought down his dagger, only to be met by a shield.

  Reki was there–the office worker growled, catching the attack. The office worker moved with surprising speed. He brought down his mace, glowing with golden light.

  The Drow tried to parry with both daggers, and darkness flickered on them. But in a surprising turn of events, he was overpowered. Reki’s glowing mace bludgeoned through the Drow’s defense and smashed straight at his guts, sending him rolling away.

  Suna tracked where the Drow would end up, and he shot at the [Rogue].

  The moment the [Rogue] steadied itself, the Drow immediately parried Suna's arrows with a whip of daggers. There was strain of strength– a couple of seconds before Suna’s arrow could truly be blocked.

  But the Drow did not have a moment to rest. A blast of blue Mana discharged like a beam at him. The [Rogue] rolled, and a flicker of shadow appeared on his body again. He zoomed out of the space and appeared at the edge of the roof.

  Suna and Min kept firing, and each of their attempt met with the wrenching parry of the daggers.

  Again, the Drow’s shadow shrouded his body, and he tried to launch at Slea. But Reki was beside her.

  Reki glowed with bright light, and the shadows vanished–the teleportation spell died out.

  But in another second, a shadow appeared again, this time the [Rogue]’s gaze settled on Suna and Min.

  Suna drew another arrow instead of his sword. He aimed at Min, who stared around, unsure where the Drow would come next.

  “Down!” Min shouted at him.

  Silver-basked dagger streaked at Suna, an inch away from his neck. With his arrow drawn, there was only one more option left.

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  Suna skidded back with Archer's Back step. But, dagger grazed across his throat; he groaned as a pinprick of blood welled up.

  The Drow finished his strike across the wind, his eye widened at the sudden distance between them.

  That was close, you bastard.

  Suna now released his arrow, straight at its gut. The Drow tried to parry with his left dagger. His steel was connected to the arrow, but he did not have the same strength as his right hand. Arrow deflected straight to his neck, digging deep, and the Drow staggered back with croaking breath.

  The [Rogue] fell on his knees and, with both hands, somehow pushed shadows to his own throat. The Drow somehow prevented his blood from falling through that power. However, he lifted his head just to find another strike–Noa swung his sword down, wrenching the drow's gut, blood splattering through his armor.

  “Get back!” Suna shouted. He knew what would happen next, and hopefully, Noa too.

  Noa hefted his shield up with his shoulder scale as extra defense.

  Black dots matted the Rogue Drow’s skin, and the [Rogue] jumped up, over Noa’s shield, kicking straight at the [Warrior]’s head, sending Noa flying down from the building.

  A deafening crash rumbled the ground down below. He looked down to see Noa shaking himself up slowly.

  “Noa!”

  The Drow [Rogue] kept moving. It was an impossibility–still running with an arrow still stuck on his throat.

  Another teleportation spell was cast. Shadow began shrouding him, and Suna had already narrowed down the Drow's target.

  Min and Slea were behind Reki, who was still glowing with bright light, and Noa, of course, had fallen.

  Slea shouted after him, and Suna peeked for a flicker of a second to see the birds beginning to notice them.

  They had to take down the [Rogue]. Now.

  The moment the Drow appeared, he opened a fabric of reality made out of shadow in front of Suna–reaching toward Suna's throat again. Suna skidded back, bow trained at the Drow--and released. Along with him were Min’s arrow and Slea's mana blast.

  Shadow overtook the Drow again before his body fully materialized. And again he disappeared.

  Suna let out a curse as another shadow opened up in front of him in the form of a Rift.

  The Drowfication skill also enhanced magic!

  He skidded back and instantly fired again.

  But his arrow merely found the sky as the shadow rift closed and appeared on his side.

  This suited Suna just fine; he drew his sword, prepared to parry. And again he lurched back once more.

  Immediately, however, his body betrayed him, showing that he had made an error.

  He failed to understand his ability.

  The moment he used Archer Back step, his sword got sheathed, and in his hand was his bow and arrow, aimed automatically at the Drow.

  However, that was not his biggest mistake; the second one was much bigger.

  Archer Back step allowed him to create distance from his opponent, but what would happen if an enemy appeared to your side and behind was a drop? He found out the hard way.

  Suna's heel caught the edge of the roof, and the last thing he saw before falling was the glinting steel of the [Rogue]. He shielded himself with his new shoulder guard, but the [Rogue]’s dagger sliced through it, drawing a hot, relentless pain across Suna's shoulder.

  He fell, his body spun once, and his back was crushed into the cobblestone road. He groaned, opening his eyes, reminding himself that the fight was not over yet.

  Suna rose only to tumble down, and the pain flared. His hand fumbled in his pocket, removing a red vial. He downed it in one go, and the pain lessened.

  Near him was the rugby player hiding his head beneath his tower shield, bashing the bird with a skill that made his shield bigger.

  He looked up to see that the [Rogue] was not there. Suna stood straight, bow drawn in an instant.

  The [Rogue] was not on the roof.

  He fell face down a meter apart from where he was, with an arrow sticking in his back

  Must've been Min’s.

  He shot an arrow at the Drow's fallen body, just to make sure. Was it dead? Had Min gotten the kill notification?

  He'd better make sure. “Min!” Suna called, but a voice cut him off.

  “Help! Anyone!” Noa screamed, drawing Suna's attention. A bird nosedived into the Warrior's unprotected back, finding a gap between his plate. Blood exploded out as the fallen body of birds crumpled in a heap of flesh.

  Like a suicide bomber, the birds bludgeoned into Noa’s armor, each with complete disregard for their own life.

  Suna shot an arrow, only for it to just swarmed by the black bodies of the birds.

  His class was not made for this. Is there anyone who could…

  “Shield up, Noa!”

  An explosion of blue shimmered down. And Suna thought Slea was mad. But a blast of Mana burst to Noa’s shield, they exploded, sending a burst of blue after blast to burn away the birds.

  Next, Slea blasted another of her spells against encroaching birds. She killed a bunch of them, maybe a hundred. She was the only one who could hold the birds back.

  Suna ran toward Noa. The Warrior fell on one knee, a myriad of blood points marred his body and face. With the Health Potion already opened, he handed it to him.

  As Suna lifted his head up, however, his heart almost stopped as a dark rift appeared right in front of him.

  But it was slow, much slower. Two daggers lurched at him along with the [Rogue]. However, Suna had already drawn his sword.

  He pushed Noa aside, gaining space to swing. His obsidian sword met the daggers, blocking both of them as they came one by one. He wielded his sword right in front of him, focused on just warding off the attempt.

  Above them, birds descended, but blue energy blasted through them, coloring the starlight-filled night.

  As if using sound as cover, the [Rogue] rushed at him. His speed took Suna off guard as he managed to plant a dagger straight at his shoulder.

  With an emotionless face that a corpse should have, the Drow plunged another dagger, this time, however, it was a tad bit too slow.

  Suna skidded back, creating distance in the blink of an eye. His sword was sheathed and Bow drawn.

  He let his arrow fly, and it streaked true. The Drow let out a visceral scream–and crashed his left dagger into his arrow. The dagger went flying out of the Drow's hand, and a flicker of darkness began shrouding the Drow again.

  Suna kept firing. He released two arrows, each of which was warded off, but the second one flew straight into its shoulder, and its whole body snapped back.

  But soon the darkness was about to cover it, if not for Noa, who had recovered.

  The [Warrior] howled, and he thrusted his sword straight at the Rogue Drow's gut. Noa wrenched the Drow body from the darkness, and he spun around to pin the Drow body to a low stone wall

  Groaning and coughing blood, the Drow plunged his dagger forth, only to be met by the warrior's scaled shoulder guard. He opened his mouth and tried to bite down. Noa dodged the attempt and headbutted the Drow.

  “For kicking me!” He growled.

  The Drow spun his dagger and gripped it sideways, and was about to jam it into the Warrior's neck.

  Suna fired at the same time. His arrow whistled through and took the Drow by his head.

  The Drow head snapped sideways, and his life was gone–his body was still pinned to the stone.

  [You Have Slain Rogue Drow. Lvl 15]

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