Stay was all settled. But that didn’t mean Michelle didn’t have to do odd jobs to get some cash for her food expenses. So, there she was, early in the morning like always, standing in front of Crocus’ bulletin board looking for something that she can do for quick cash. After all, she can’t spend the entire day on this. She had other more important tasks to complete in the capital. Thanks to the recent attack, most of the jobs on the board were concerned with rebuilding and required her to help someone out for the whole day. Just when she sighed and was about to give up, she heard footsteps behind her. The assassin quickly turned on her heels to see who it was and found a blonde-haired girl with a weird eyepatch. She seemed to be approaching Michelle and she waited, ready to jump into her defensive stance if required. Paranoia was part of the job description.

“Saw that you were looking for a job. If you’d like, I’ve got one. I’ll pay you well,” the blonde girl said once she was within Michelle’s earshot. The assassin relaxed and crossed her arms. “Depends on what you got. I would prefer it be something quick,” she replied. “The quicker the better, actually,” Luciel said before giving the details of the mission. Michelle didn’t ask any questions. She couldn’t care less about who mutated the rat and why. If the job paid well, was something she could handle and was quick enough so that she can get back to her mission, she was ready to do it. So, she simply nodded and followed the blonde girl to the abandoned house in the outskirts.

Crocus seemed to be bigger than she anticipated. And a lot messier now thanks to the recent war. Thanks to all the mess, many roads were blocked for repair and renovation. As a result, the walk was long. “How long do you think that rat is gonna stay in that abandoned house?” Michelle asked, a little concerned that they might have already lost their target thanks to all the detours they were forced to take. “While it is powerful, it is still scared. I believe it will stay away from trouble for now. Nevertheless, we must hurry,” she responded, before picking up the pace. Michelle followed, getting into a jogging pace and rushed to the abandoned house.

When the two were about twenty meters away from the building, Michelle could hear a huge ruckus from within. “Still in there, alright,” she muttered. “Wait here. I’ll let you know once I’m done with it,” Michelle said, looking at Luciel and then tip-toed into the building. The rat was making such a huge commotion inside the building that she was sure it couldn’t hear her enter. She carefully snuck to the closest window and peeked inside. The rat was humungus. The blonde girl wasn’t kidding when she said it was at least one meter tall. And this one seemed to be running amok, hitting anything and everything in its way.

511/2000

Michelle knew she can’t do this without having a plan. So, instead of jumping in and taking it head on, she decided to lure it out into the open field and nuke it when it least expects an attack. The assassin kept close to the wall and crouched. Picking up a pebble from under her foot, she made her hand sign with the other hand to cast Trick and then tapped the wall next to her with the pebble, making loud thuds. Thanks to her spell, the sound would appear to come from the other side of the window. The rat, hearing the noise rushed out and turned towards the opposite direction from where Michelle was standing, exposing its back to the assassin.

Being on its blind spot, she wanted to make the best use of it. First, she kicked the rat really hard on its back, making it roll away from her a good two meters. Once it was on its back and still shocked by the ambush, she made an arc kick, casting her Cut, immediately punched in the same direction with her Pound spell, sending an arc of thin wind blade and a round wind bullet soaring towards the disoriented rat. Both her spells hit the target and the assassin thought that would do the trick. However, it barely scratched the skin of the rat. It flinched when the wind spells hit, but the rat endured it without much trouble.

Now that she had executed her plan and didn’t manage to finish the fight as fast as she thought she could, Michelle was panicking. The enraged rat was ready to charge at its dark-skinned attacker and it surely did the moment it got back onto its feet. When she saw that the mutated rat was much faster than it looked capable of, she knew this was going to be a long fight. Quickly rolling to one side to dodge the incoming bash, she made her hand sign twice, one after the other. The first was for her Tailwind spell, and the second was for the Acrobatics spell. She knew she will need to sustain both of these if she wished take down this monster.

The rat was extremely quick on its feet even after Michelle’s boosts. Once it realized Michelle had dodged its attack, it immediately changed direction and came in for the next. Because she was busy casting her spells, she couldn’t dodge it in time and the rat managed to pounce on her. She fell back onto the ground with the rat on top of her trying to overpower and take a chunk of her face. There was no way the purple-haired assassin was going to allow this mutant rat to end her life. The huge rat had extremely sharp teeth and its saliva gave an acidic smell as it oozed out of his mouth. Knowing nothing good would come out of it if the saliva managed to reach her skin, she quickly dodged moved to the side while still on the ground, dodging it.

1021/2000

Struggling to hold the rat away from her face with one hand, she used the other to punch its face hard to make it loosen its grip. When that worked, she immediately kicked the rat away from her hard and quickly got back to her feet. Promising herself to never let that happen again, she charged towards the rat. It was her time now to get on top and dish out damage. She stomped the rat’s long tail to prevent it from escaping and quickly got on top of its back. Pinning it down, she immediately started pounding its head, where she knew she would be doing the most damage. One… Two… Three… While she would have loved to keep going further, the rat had had it and decided to push her off with all its power. However, after all those punches and kicks, it seemed to have taken quite the beating.

Michelle had a feeling if she could manage one more round like that, the rat would be down. But that last round had taken its toll even on her. She wondered if she can pull it off without succumbing to its attacks. Thankfully, all the attacks have slowed down the rat and she had enough time to react and dodge it in time. However, despite being slower, the rat did not give much opportunity for Michelle to pounce on. It always kept attacking quickly and directly, barely giving her any time to dodge and pin it at the same time. After trying to look for openings for over a minute, she finally realized she doesn’t need to do the same trick again. Instead, she decided to hit it once every time she dodged, slowly stacking up the damage instead of dishing it all out at the same time.

Her plan seemed to work. The rat was fast and strong, but not intelligent. It never caught on to her patter and kept coming at her with the same ferocity. Every time she dodged its attack, she managed to kick it close to its face or legs, thereby either dealing damage or slowing it down. After a few rounds that way, the rat was finally losing its balance. The assassin jumped at the opportunity and did a final full power kick straight to its face, knocking the monster out. Once the monster lost consciousness, she quickly stepped on its neck and pushed hard, snapping it. Hearing the snap and then feeling the rat’s tense body go limp gave her a sense of relief. She sighed softly and sat next to the dead mutated rat for a moment, catching her breath.

Michelle knew her job wasn’t done. She needs to dig deep and bury the thing so that nothing else gets mutated from eating it. The purple-haired woman wasn’t sure if she had the strength to dig, but it wasn’t like she had much of a choice. So, she dragged herself into the abandoned building and searched for a shovel. When she finally found one, she walked out and began digging at the backyard.

1534/2000

Frankly, the digging took longer than the fight. She had learnt all the lessons about hiding and disposing of bodies from her master. Dig at least five feet into the ground to ensure scavengers don’t dig it up, he had told her; and so, she followed the advice. With this one, especially, she went the extra mile and dug deeper than five feet. Nevertheless, she had to wonder about mutated worms. Wouldn’t it better if I burnt it instead of burying it? By then, she had already dug the grave and couldn’t care much about worms being mutated. If such a crisis began, by that time, she would be long gone from Crocus. She will simply do as she was told and let her client deal with the consequences.

Besides, having been in such close contact with the mutated rat, she was a little worried that she might have caught the mutation herself. She checked her limbs for any deep cuts the huge rat might have landed. Luckily, there weren’t any. Despite its aggressive efforts, the assassin had managed to avoid any major injury. Satisfied with her examination, she climbed out of the pit she dug and walked towards the dead rat. Then, she held onto its tail and dragged it to the pit. The large rat fell in with a loud thud and Michelle got to work again. This time, she filled the pit with all the mud she dug up. Gravity helped in this case and it took much lesser time to bury the rat than it did to dig the pit.

When she was finally done, she exited the abandoned building’s compound and walked to Luciel who had been patiently waiting for her to finish the task. “All done?” she asked, with her usual expressionless demeanour. Michelle simply nodded and dusted her hands. Luciel pulled out a bag of jewels and handed it to the purple-haired lady. She took it, happy that she found a mission that she could finish quickly. But this was definitely not easy money; that rat made her work for her money. Thanking the blonde, she pocketed her reward and began walking towards the centre of the city again.

Now, it was time to find the Rune Knight miracle girl. This time, she wouldn’t be caught off guard and lose the fight. The assassin was tired of losing. This time, she would take her down, tie her up and carry her to her master as a present. Maybe then… he might use that artefact of his on her. Make her more powerful. She could dream. The long and lonely walk back to the urban region made her think. She had been with Benjamin for more than a decade now and she was yet to accomplish anything great for the man. Just listing the recent missions… The gang war in Oak was incomplete; recruiting the light dragon slayer was incomplete; she got beat by a random stranger in Oak, and now by a mere Rune Knight in Crocus. No wonder he doesn’t use it on me…

2046/2000
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