Assassin

As the child lie there in the arms of a stranger, she couldn't help but cry more. She used to think she was a strong person but now this world was nothing other than a whirlwind of pain and suffering revolving around her head. Listening to her attempt at comforting words, Assassin would quietly sit there in her wallowing. "I don't want to die... I want to feel strong again... They won't leave me alone and I can't find Nee-chan... She disappeared..." The girl would whisper to herself.

"They want to kill me and I keeping running and hiding. They keep finding me." She would add. "They won't quit until I am and I don't know why." A painful quiet continued for a moment nearly as sharp as her dagger. Assassin didn't know what to say so she started speaking her mind without thinking. "B-But, what if I killed them... they... they would leave me alone... finally. Then I could find Nee-chan... and everything would be nice again."

The girl continue to lay on the ground, no commitment to make any movement for any reason. Hyou was visibly tense, obviously on edge of a stranger touching her immobilized master. Bright green eyes peered at her, no emotion beyond a saddened, blank expression. "Does it really matter?" She asked. "Even if I remove the blade and try to fight. I'm going to die. They won't leave me alone. Nee-chan isn't here to help me. No one cares about a lonely orphan child, so why should I care about her too."

Her words were as sharp as her dagger. That considered, the girl tried to roll to the side but her body refused. "The blade is Shadow's Infection. Nee-chan gave it to me. One small cut will make an enemy completely helpless." A silent pause fell between them as Assassin picked her next words. Her eyes began to well with tears, an emotion she hadn't felt in so long overtook her almost instantly. "I don't want to be here anymore."

Assassin would begin to cry into the snow. Hyou, on the other hand would roll her master over, laying her on her back and step back so that Nari could aid the child with removing the blade stuck in her stomach.

As the child lay there helpless in the cold embrace of piling snow, she could do nothing but sit with her thoughts while the paralysis ran it's course. Hyou, the massive leopard that weighed more than herself, would do her best to keep her master warm until then. It wasn't long before she heard a voice: A woman, one she didn't recognize. The familiar stood up instantly and growled at the encroaching on her masters space. Assassin would speak up.

"Hyou, quit it." The girl would say. The familiar looked upon her master then back to her query before giving up on it. However, it was clear that wouldn't allow Nari to get very close until the paralysis wore off.

Looking upon the girl, the violet tank could see a plunged weapon sticking from the opposite side. She was quite literally laying on her own blade, stuck in a perpetual paralysis lock. Assassin's head would slowly turn, trying to get a view of the girl above her. The child's eyes glowed a wonderful emerald as they peered into her soul. "You don't look like them. If you aren't just leave me alone. Otherwise, just get it over with."

---

"I'm tired." A quiet plea would escape the girl's lips, almost like a request. She made no attempt to resist the paralysis she was under but couldn't escape it if she didn't try. If Nari did nothing, she would lay in this snow until a mob came around and finished her.

Cold.

An empty vessel ripped of flesh and given temporary existence in this digital nightmare. One who could not even understand their plight even if they attempted it. Nothing but a lost and forgotten child, a premade headstone in a graveyard of living corpses. Depression had sundered this soul's living body. All that awaited her was the promise of oblivion.

---

Once a challenger of this brutal hell, nothing was left in Assassin. The child had lost everything she cared about: Her sister and friends. The only one that remained with her was Hyou. The white leopard was quiet as her master inspected the blade she held. Snow daintily lay on the blade as well as the girl covering her in a mound of freezing pain. A metaphor of her existence.

What meaning did this life hold? Suffering. Nothing else. What was it worth? Absolutely nothing.

Twisting the blade in her hand, Assassin would plunge it into her stomach. Hyou would whimper in response as the child fell forward onto the blade, it's paralysis overtaking her by the time it wore off, her health would return to full. The young rat would sigh quietly, face first in the snow impaled with her own blade. "Failing in both life and death. What would Nee-chan think of me?" She would ask no one, her familiar adjusting it's position to lay with her master and keep her warm.

Current Level: 38
Current SP: 137
Link to SP Tracking: [link]
Item Upgrades:

2.6 | PRE-CONVERSION	3.0 | UPGRADED
ITEM #1 Item Name: Shadow's Infection Item ID: 78935 Item Tier: 2 Item Type: Dagger Item Rarity: Perfect Item Enhancements: BLD I; Para VNM; Phase Description: A Solid Black dagger with a glassy feel to it. It has two blade attached to it with a hole in the center. Occasionally if lucky, the blade shifts through armor and paralyzes the foe.	Item Name: Shadow's Infection Item Tier: 4 Item Type: Dagger Item Enhancements: BLD I; Para VNM; Phase Description: A Solid Black dagger with a glassy feel to it. It has two blade attached to it with a hole in the center. Occasionally if lucky, the blade shifts through armor and paralyzes the foe.
ITEM #2 Item Name: Dark Cloak Item ID: 145816 Item Tier: 1 Item Type: Light Armor Item Rarity: Perfect Item Enhancements: MIT II; EVA I Description: A cloak designed to hide 2/3 of the already tiny body that belongs to Assassin. Purposefully big to hide the location of her core, making it even more difficult to discern where she actually is underneath, concealing a set of simple clothing and leather fittings tailored specifically to the users small frame.	Item Name: Dark Cloak Item Tier: 4 Item Type: Light Armor Item Enhancements: MIT II; EVA I Description: A cloak designed to hide 2/3 of the already tiny body that belongs to Assassin. Purposefully big to hide the location of her core, making it even more difficult to discern where she actually is underneath, concealing a set of simple clothing and leather fittings tailored specifically to the users small frame.
ITEM #3 Item Name: Fastening Belts Item ID: 148359 Item Tier: 1 Item Type: Trinket Item Rarity: Perfect Item Enhancements: ACC II; EVA I Description: A plethora of belts meant to hold various kits and fittings to Assassin's body. They ensure that movement isn't prohibited from loose clothing or misplaced items.	Item Name: Fastening Belts Item Tier: 4 Item Type: Trinket Item Enhancements: ACC II; EVA I Description: A plethora of belts meant to hold various kits and fittings to Assassin's body. They ensure that movement isn't prohibited from loose clothing or misplaced items.

Again and again her blade sank into the skin of Risque, doing virtually nothing if the affects of phase wouldn't proc. Assassin's blood was curdling. Nothing ticked her off more than this person, this monster. She wanted him gone. She wanted him to leave Nee-san alone.

Suddenly, she was grabbed and thrown to the ground by her hair. As strands of her lost locks litter her face, Assassin watches the blade sting her chest slightly with every thrust into her body. There's no pain when even on the verge of dying. Curling in her vulnerable state, the orphan wants to reach and nail his foot to the ground. If it weren't for the fact that her arm was still re-digitizing into existence, she would have. Though, soon, the blue blur that had found them as allies was healing her again. How much hit points has she melted through in this fight?

With her arm ripped asunder, Assassin's eyes grew wide. The pain was non-existent. An entire arm removed from her body and it felt no worse than getting pinched. She turned just in time to watch her appendage flail against the ground and her dagger plink against stone.

Nothing could have been worse than the words he spoke, though. Losing an arm was nowhere near as rage inducing has just hearing Risque's stupid voice. "'Pretend family'?" She repeated under her breath, scooping up her weapon. If there was one thing Assassin was good at, it was playing pretend. She would know if her love for her sister was fake or not. Spoiler alert: It's not. This was about when the child started regrowing her arm and Setsuna's bloody attack had gotten his attention. Assassin charged the moment he focused on the other girl and clung to his back with her legs and the nub of an arm that was slowly growing back.

"You picked the wrong 'pretend' family to mess with. Was worth the fact that you'll die here by the hands of a twelve year old girl?" 

Clung to him, the girl would stab like a maniac into the chest and neck of the man. Maybe even try to cut off his own arm.

Assassin moved to dodge the strike, unknowing that it wasn't even meant for her. Risque's blade had plunged straight for her sister. Nothing woke her senses more than that. Hidden fell to the floor falling victim of the venom of the snake that was his familiar. I quick blur rusted through the door in the moment, a massive leopard cub. "Ryou, fetch!" She called out as she herself rushed the man who dared fuck with her sister. Still assuming her guise of her sister at this point, Assassin's white clothing frolicked behind her. The darkened blade slashed through the back of her opposer. "If you think I'm going to stand watch, you're sorely mistaken. You've fucked with my family, I'm going to kill you." She stepped back quickly, throwing her dagger straight at him. Ryou had returned to her side with Shadow's Infection. Since the item was locked to Assassin's inventory, Hidden was unable to pocket it into hers. It was surely strapped to her somewhere and Ryou had fetched it. The familiar grip of the blade in her hand was refreshing.

"Let's see how smug and confident you are when you're stun-locked forever." The form of her sister disappeared, meeting it's time limit to reveal the tiny child of a girl she was. A blur of speed that may have been hard for even him to track circled him like a wildfire. "Ryou, attack." The leopard did as it was told, reaching out for Risque's snake familiar. In the same moment, she began to slice at him with every pass of her circling strike around him. Assassin was becoming a massive whirlwind of steel and rage. The moment her paralytic venom took his body, he would be done.

As the girls moved into the inn, Assassin just couldn't get the thoughts of her missing parental figures out of her mind. Something so deep was practically impossible for a child her age to have to deal with. Snow's hand found it's way to Assassin's shoulder and she asked if she would here for a moment. The orphan did so, likely so that the men wouldn't tease her the way they did. After a moment of waiting, Snow came back and told her that she snagged them two beds this time. 

Leading the way through the upstairs, the blonde Valkyrie pushed open the door and closed it when the both of them were inside. Assassin took a seat on one of the beds, falling back into the sheets quietly and Snow took a seat in the chair. Once her breath was calm, she spoke to the girl.

Assassin said nothing to start. Anytime she thought talking might help the image of that girl and her mother smiling returned. "I'll never experience that feeling that girl did. When I leave this place, I'll get yelled at by the caretaker and she'll be more strict with me." The girl finally blurted out without even moving from the bed.

As the fight went on, the child felt the energy leaving her body, but she couldn't just allow herself to fall asleep in this situation. Hidden would hate her for that. Slowly, she would sit up, looking at the chains holding her down. Which ever one on her hands looked weaker, she would place bother feet against and push as hard as possible with her back against the wall. The moment it broke free, she would open her menu and pull out her teleportation crystal.

"Floor Thirteen: Angel's Point!" She called out and with a whir of colors, she was gone from the battlefield. The iron clasps that were attached to her limbs clanked against the stone. The moment that she was on the teleportation pad, she would start running. The flash of colors had woken her up enough to get her feet moving. With her blinding speed she would return to the fight within an instant.

Over the shroud of darkness, a figure would emerge from the mist. Her hand outstretched, with a fierceness in her eyes and a dagger in her hand. "I won't stop you from helping anymore. You are around the level of being able to decide what you can and can't take on." The familiar words repeated from the third copy of Hidden, word to fuel herself. The child struggled to reach a similar tone of her sisters.

"I'll kill those who dared to touch you." Words to fuel the original Hidden. The dagger is one that Hidden would recognize, the dagger that her little sister had used long before she was gifted Shadow's Infection.

 

Even the uplifting tone of Snow's response wouldn't change much of Assassin's tone. Watching the scene of mother and daughter had really gotten to her. The subtle reminder that she had nothing to look forward to in this death trap of a game. Why was she even trying to do any of this? Was it better that she just give up now?

Snow would ask if she wanted to go a different place than they did last night and the child shook her head in response, still the dull drag in her voice. "I don't care, let's just go somewhere." The girl said quietly as she started to make way to the inn that they had stayed at the night before. Honestly, if that man treated her like a lost orphan again, she wouldn't really even resist. When it came down to it, that's all Assassin really was: A deceitful child with no one to go home to. No one she could ever call family.

Assassin smiled as Snow's hand rubbed across her head, a weird feeling to be sure and she wasn't totally sure how else to take it as anything other than praise. Soon, the group would start making their way back into town. The girl would call her Ah-sis. An odd play of words of her unwanted name. Though, she wasn't going to show that sort of weakness to anyone here so she just kept quiet.

Assassin managed to keep herself quiet on most of the way back. She realized that once this walk was over and the day was done, at some point her and Snow would have to part ways. This little girl was being brought home to her mother: Something that Assassin could never, ever experience in her life.

She was so lost in thought that she almost missed it when they passed through the safe zone and the girl's mother was waiting for them there. "You're okay!" The mother screamed in joy as she wrapped her arms around the little girl. "Y-Yeah, thanks to them." She said, pointing to the two of them. "Thank you so much! I cannot express how much I owe you two!"

Once their interaction ended, Assassin sighed quietly, watching her experience go up. Soon her stomach would give a hearty growl. "Well... wanna get some food?" It was clear in her voice that something was on her mind, but she wouldn't make it clear yet.

Assassin struggled with the chains attaching her limbs to the wall. After several seconds of flailing and trying to break them, she resigned to the fact that she wasn't going to break free. Not only were they too durable, but she was too tired to even come close to getting them off. With her energy completely depleted, the child collapsed on the ground with a soft thud. Her rasped breathing could be heard between the song of singing steel.

Witnessing the battle was difficult as she was continuously phasing between total awareness and her brain just completely shutting down, Assassin laid there quietly rooting for her sister's victory. She couldn't really even tell if the second Hidden that she was seeing was real or if it was her seeing things.

Soon, her sister would get rid of this guy and the both of them could go home, the she could spend a week in her bed sleeping forever.

The girl rushed her and the child out of the cave as quickly as she could. It would be bad if one of those bats attacked her when Snow wasn't around to keep their attention. Thankfully though, they made it out with much resistance at all. Soon, the indicator of Snow's health not going down showed her that she was able to take it down. The younger girl had her suspicions

"Sh-Shouldn't you have stayed to help her? We just left her alone in there." Assassin shook her head and looked the girl in the eyes. "If we'd have stayed there, we probably would have just gotten in her way more than anything. Getting you out was the most important thing and there is no way that tank-lady would lose to a meanie like that."

Soon after, Snow would emerge from the cave. Assassin would smile at her, glad that she made it out without having any other enemies jump her. "Let's get her home then. You're mom is probably worried sick about you."

Assassin's body was starting to calm down enough to fall into slumber. With everything happening, the fatigue she felt was hardly noticeable. The moment that she was chained down to a wall and unable to move, she realized just how worn out she was. Just as she was about to drift off though, the sound of clashing steel and fighting woke her into alertness.

"N-Nee-san?!" The girl said, sitting up slowly with blurred vision. She could barely lift herself up. "Nee-san, help me.. I'm strapped down and lost my dagger... I'm sorry, I got captured..." The girl apologized, tears starting to well in her eyes. Again she was causing unnecessary distress for her older sister. "I'm still not strong enough.."

Soon, she would attempt to remove the shackles clinging to her limbs, if she could get free and equip one of the daggers in her inventory, she could help her fight. Though someone else was here, a blue blur slashed open tears Risque's back open. Who was this?

Assassin watched as tank-lady made her move to engage the enemy before it got ahold of the young girl it was chasing. Just in time too. As she connected an attack to the bat, Assassin moved past it and to the girl. "Don't worry, we're here to help you. Stay behind tank-lady and she'll make sure you don't get hurt." The dagger wielder said before turning to the combat happening behind her. After a deep breath, she threw her arms up to remove her cloak from her front side and assumed a fighting stance. The blood-red dagger sword art pierced the darkened cavern momentarily until it tore through the thick hide of the bat's bloated body.

She would gauge it's remaining health and call out to Snow in response. "You can finish him off! I'm out of energy again, so I'll start getting her out of the cave!" The child called starting to lead the daughter out of the cave as quickly as possible.

---

 

With the threat taken down, Assassin could relax a little. She would cover her cloak over her body to hide her weapon and walk with Snow. As much as she wanted to hurry this along, she wasn't really in the position to be leaving Snow's side. Hopefully they would be able to find this girl soon, before she was eaten by one of those giant bats.

Just as the child was about to try and respond to her question, an ear piercing scream filled the cave. A young girls voice sounding as though she was in danger. "Tank-lady, we have to go fast! It sounds like she's in trouble!" Assassin said rushing ahead.

The blinding darkness was difficult to see through, but as they got closer the duo could see the girl being chased around by another one of the giant bats that they just finished off. "A-Another one! My energy is still recharging, I can't attack..."

Assassin was unable to move for the entirety of the trip. The paralysis lasted so much longer than she thought it would. The moment she had the chance to break free she would. Though before she even had the chance to, they would get her into their hiding spot and toss her onto the floor. She groaned as she collided with the ground coughing as dirt entered her nostrils. Her eyes looked at the remaining time of the status.

Before she had the time to react, the man would get her chained to the wall. The stun would wear and Assassin would snarl at the man before collecting all the saliva in her mouth a spitting it full force into his face. She said nothing in return, yet was left to dwell on how this man possibly knew her and Hidden's names and why he wanted her. She knew that Hidden would tear this man into shreds for what he did. 

The moment she was left alone, she would attempt to bring down her menu. No luck as her hands were too wrapped up to get the motion right. The best the girl could do was lay down on the ground. After all of the work they were putting in to finish that quest line, Assassin was tired. She didn't like being here, but she didn't have the energy to even be fighting back.

 

The shock of being slammed into a tree put Assassin into a daze. Sure there was no actual sense of pain in the game, but her vision was blurred and spinning. Thankfully, her attack sent the stallion packing back into forms of data. With that done, she could finally just relax. The girl dropped her head to the ground and just breathed.

Until the massive two handed hammer collided with her back. "Kah-!" Assassin spit on contact. Her health bar slowly dropped into the yellow and she could see the status marking her stunned. Her vision was still blurry. As she was picked up from her prone state, the child let her precious dagger slip, sinking into the dirt. She couldn't move no matter how hard she tried. Hidden would attempt to make a move to save her, but there was more than one. The woman paralyzed her. Weakly, she would hold out her hand to her sister as the goons began to walk off with her. "N-Nee-san... H-Help me..." And then, they were gone.

 

Though the jungle was silent, the child's mind was not. Cluttered with thoughts and doubts beyond what her barely teenage mind could handle. An overload of things that she hardly understood herself pelted her skull like stones.

The girl dropped on her hind-end, staring at the dirt. Focusing every single thought away so she could think clearly was becoming more and more difficult. Freyd was pushing her against a wall that she couldn't escape from. She wanted help, but she couldn't take it. Her hands held her head, shifting her hair from her face as tears fell between her legs.

"I'm only a child, why should I be forced to worry about death in my daily life?! Why am I strained to be an adult by this stupid system of a game?! I DIDN'T WANT TO BE HERE!!" She started screaming uncontrollably loud. "This world is a piece of shit and I want nothing to do with it!!!"

"There's nothing you can do." Assassin says rather quickly in response to Freyd's plea. She stopped for a moment and looked back at him. "We are on good terms, and I value you as an ally, but what's happening now is something that only I can deal with. I need to prove something to myself."

She wasn't lying entirely. The problems that she was having with Laughing Coffin were her own business, endangering other players and possibly getting one of them killed was something that she didn't want on her conscience. Hidden still didn't even know what was going on and she had zero plans of telling her what was happening, at least for the moment. The help her sister had given her saved her life. It was hard to ask for more than that.

"We're still allies Freyd, but this isn't something you need to concern yourself with." Assassin stood, waiting for his reply before she decided when she was going to walk away.

With the situation under control, Assassin was finally able to calm down enough to think reasonably. The girl took a deep breath and adjusted her eyes to be less stab-happy. "I am young. People look at me and think that I need to be protected, that I should be coddled and treated like I can't do anything for myself. Before I started leveling up, so many people would treat me like a baby." She would quietly continue talking while beginning to walk back to the teleporter. "I'm not a baby. I've been training my speed for months in this stupid game. I've slowly been getting stronger thanks to Nee-chan's help." Her eyes would look down at her sister's dagger gripped between her fingers. They narrowed as she thought more about what she wanted to say. "Everyone on this game is on equal footing. A child is no more different than an adult here."

Her mind trailed off to the situation at hand: Laughing Coffin. "Though now maybe I'm a child with adult problems... If I don't get stronger, I won't be able to keep myself alive."

The battle was drawing to a climax. Just as it seemed Nee-san was going to put an end it, the lightning horse was able to give her a rough kick right back into the water. The moment that it was able to breathe some fresh air from being surrounded, it looked like it was going to sprint off. Hidden called out to her younger sister, pressuring her to make sure that it didn't get away. If she didn't hit it, it would run. If she did, there's a chance she could get stunned.

Panicked and on a short time limit, her body moved before it could think. A quick burst of speed assured her that she would be able to mount the beast. Shocks flew across her body, jolting her from every angle. "You're not going anywhere!" She quickly raised the dagger as the horse sped off at high speed. Just as the dagger plunged into it, her body froze, the boss exploded into blue crystal and Assassin was flung at high speed directly into a tree. The prompt for immortal object appeared shortly as her limp body crashed into the ground. She laid there quietly, unable to move.

---

 

Taking a second to recover from the shock of the explosive lightning, Assassin picked herself up off the ground and dusted herself off. They were almost done, then finally they could go home and relax for once. Well, uh... hopefully. Tightening her grip on her dagger, she would make a slash at her target again. The red beam of light was just short of coming into contact with her enemy.

"H-Hold still will you! I just want to activate the freeze!" The girl complained. "Gah! This weapon sucks so much. I miss Shadow's Infection!" It was clear that she was growing used to the paralytic venom that coated that dagger. It was an extension of Hidden's protection that she had relied on since the moment she got it. Without it, she felt completely powerless.

She quickly backed off again, making sure not to get caught in the sudden lightning striking. With any luck, by the next time she attacked this thing would be dead for good.

---

 

The inaccuracy of her attack annoyed her to no end. Assassin hated missing more than a lot of things. Watching Freyd struggle landing his hit on his target made it even worse. She needed to continue to get stronger even if it killed her.

Freyd made a small, touching comment about how he knows what her worth is in this game. Something she wasn't entirely sure that she knew very well up to now. More things to annoy her.

The Monkey King loomed over her. The last thing that annoyed her.

"Get out of my way." The child growled angrily as her blade mocked the color of crimson blood. With a quick flash and a stream of scarlet, Assassin's blade dug directly into the ape's forehead. Her force sent the boss to the ground where she stepped off carefully. The boss exploded into pixels. "I am strong and I will survive." She said, staring over at Freyd.

---