The basilisk hissed and snarled as it thrashed around wildly, shaking the ground beneath its body. From the looks of it, the rooster’s crow appeared to have some adverse effect on the reptilian creature, causing it a great deal of emotional distress. The longer the rooster crowed, the more frenzied and distraught the basilisk became. Its movements became so violent that Miri and Anne had to step back a bit in order to avoid getting accidentally hit by one of its thrashings.
This went on for quite a while until the basilisk finally colpsed to the ground, its current condition seemingly on the brink of death.
At that moment, a shadowy figure appeared, stepping out of the columns of the second floor while overlooking the first floor of the chamber. The figure leapt high up in the air before nding right on top of the basilisk’s head with acrobatic grace. The figure wielded a pair of dual-wielding daggers—each about the length of their forearm—which they used to stab the basilisk straight through its skull upon nding, killing it in an instant.
As the basilisk began disintegrating into a mist of pink particles, Miri and Anne cautiously stepped forward to try to get a good look at this shadowy figure. It appeared to be a woman in her mid-20s with dark-brown skin and dark hair tied in a short dreadlock ponytail, with a patch of locs stylishly draping over the right side of her forehead, nearly covering one of her eyes. She wore a lean, tight-fitting garb of a roguish assassin—one colored with a mixture of bck and dark-purple—complete with a mask made of bck cloth that covered the lower half of her face. If Miri didn’t know any better, she thought the mysterious woman in front of her was some kind of ninja.
The mysterious rogue turned to look at Miri and Anne with a stern, stoic expression—the three of them sharing an uncomfortable silence. Then, once the basilisk’s body had completely disintegrated, the rogue picked up the two star runes that it left behind from the floor, studying it with passive intrigue.
“I’ll be taking these,” the rogue said, turning back to the two women as she pocketed those two runes in her hand.
“Wait, what?!” Miri excimed, stepping forward to confront the mysterious stranger before her. “Hey, hold on a second! You can’t do that! We got to the basilisk first!”
“Yeah? Well, I was the one who made the killing blow,” the rogue argued with a rather calm tone of voice. “Hence, it is I who is deserving of it.”
“Why do you even need two star runes?! You’re here by yourself, aren’t you?! You only need one to pass the first trial!”
“Yeah, but here’s the thing…I am not here by myself.”
The rogue tilted her head towards Anne’s direction, prompting Miri to turn to look at her as well. That was when Miri’s face went pale with terror. Standing right behind Anne was a man, donned in a simir assassin garb as the female rogue, with a dagger pointed right at Anne’s throat.
“Miri…” Anne whimpered, her body becoming rigid with fear as she felt the sharp tip of the dagger pressing in the skin of her neck.
“Anne!” Miri excimed as she saw her partner being held hostage like that. “Hey! Let go of her, you bastard!”
Miri began panicking in her mind as she saw the situation that they were both put in. How was it possible that they hadn’t noticed that man sneaking up on them earlier? This man must have some incredibly high-level sneaking skills to be able to avoid their detection like that. He was practically a ghost.
“No sudden movements,” the rogue warned. “Or my partner here is going to drive his knife across your partner’s throat. She’s going to end up in the elimination area along with the rest of the losers of this competition, leaving you with one less teammate. Alternatively, you can let us both walk away with the runes and the two of you get to stay in the competition to fight another day. So…what’s it going to be?”
