Tennebris pulled out the short bow she had taken earlier to get ready to engage. She had a modicum of talent with a bow, showing good instincts at a young age while attempting to defend herself from local thugs with nothing but a slingshot. Sadly, she could never afford to keep one. Not that maintaining and owning one was particularly expensive, she just preferred to have food.

  As Tennebris raised her bow, two guards appeared and engaged the insects, not from the front, where she was standing, but rather, from the sides. She had been spotted by the bugs obviously but was unsure if the guards had seen her as well.

  Tennebris wasn’t under any illusion of grandeur that she could serve as someone’s hero, guardian angel, or ancestral spirit. Regardless, she had already made up her mind. Temporarily stowing her weapon, she climbed onto the rooftop to gain a better view and a more advantageous location to fight from.

  Tennebris felt like she was gliding up to the rooftop, guided by an unseen force. She had done this multiple times in the past. This was typically how she performed her role. Distract the guards, lead them away from the point of interest, then disappear to watch from the rooftops to make sure the rest of the job, if you could call it that, went smoothly. This time, she was using those skills to help others. Even though the goal was to escape the city, she found herself compelled to help here.

  Taking to the shadows, Tennebris hid in its darkness and assessed her enemies. She had looked at these bugs before, but she never studied them. Soon she had realized that there was something distinctly wrong with these bugs. Something unnatural and out of place. Something was infecting them.

  Their chitinous form had black, obsidian-looking plates in places where it would normally be weak such as its underbelly. These plates weren’t identical on both bugs. They seemed like they could be growths. As if a magical parasite had attached itself to the exoskeleton of these insects. The uneven obsidian plates caught the light, shimmering with a twisted purple reflection. Their forms were more like those of an ant, with their segmented bodies and incisors. They didn’t have anything that would suggest they could fly, so she knew it would be safe to stay up here for the rest of the fight.

  Tennebris then turned her gaze to the guards that had moved into the fray. They wore matching armor, their weaponry the only key difference between them. One of them had a shortsword and a shield, the other wielded a greatsword with a measure of comfortability and ease. They both swung their arsenal with practiced skill. She wanted to believe that they could handle this on their own, but the scattered bodies down in the gate’s square led her to know that if she left, the fates of these guards were sealed.

  Twang.

  The sound of the bowstring snapped to a halt as it released the arrow Tennebris had notched, loosing itself at the bug engaged with the two-handed sword wielding guard. She was already on the move to the next shadow. While the bugs couldn’t fly, she had seen them climbing up the sides of buildings and wanted to remain undetected as she fired her arrows from a safe distance

  Pulling an arrow from the quiver as she ran with a feeling of satisfaction as the insect screeched. “One,” she said to herself counting how many hits would be needed to kill the bugs, while also getting a rough count of how many arrows she had left, “18.”

  This was a skill that Tennebris picked up running odd jobs with more experienced fighters. As an archer, your only resources were your arrows. Keeping track of them was the difference between life and death.

  Tennebris hadn’t counted on missing. Even considering her targets were over 100 feet away, she had confidence in her abilities.

  Twang.

  Another arrow launched from her hiding spot, emerging from the darkness that she had become one with. The arrow made a slight whistling sound as it sailed through the air almost imperceptibly.

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  It struck the bug, making a loud hollow sound. Purple ichor spilled onto the ground below it. The bug screeched loudly. It wasn’t the color you’d expect a bug to bleed, but there wasn’t time to think about that now. Flailing as the arrow stuck into its body, it swung wildly trying to find purchase on something, anything, trying to exact its revenge on whatever it could find. She slipped into another shadow, becoming an embodiment of darkness itself.

  Twang.

  “Three.” No screech came after the third and final arrow struck the bug’s body. Already on the move to the next location, Tennebris didn’t know if the bug had fallen. Throughout the entire combat she had completely blocked out the guards and their movements, only briefly peering at them as she took aim, being careful not to accidentally strike them with her shot. Ducking behind the cover of another rooftop, she surveyed the battlefield once more.

  A purple pool was laying under the now-fallen insect, its still, lifeless body coming to rest as its black multifaceted eyes stared into the sky. It had the scars of battle on its body, two wide gashes from where the guards had struck it, as well as three arrows in a tight cluster on its back. Who got the final blow on the insect was unknown. Tennebris would, however, like to assume it was by her hand that the insect fell.

  The guards seemed relatively unharmed save for a wide, sweeping gash on both of their sides. The bugs clearly found weaknesses in their opponent’s defenses, yet neither of these battle scars were life-threatening. Tennebris was glad they would be safe, and moved onto the next target, dashing to another shadow. It was farther away this time, due to the increased ground coverage of two guards trying to slay a single bug, which made getting a good angle to fire from difficult. She heard the hushed rush of wind as she sprinted, hopping from one rooftop to the next before settling to a position sidelong to the accursed bug.

  Twang.

  “One.” Tennebris restarted her count on the new target, hearing the bug cry out like the bug before it. It was enraged by the sudden pain and the additional combatant. Lashing out wildly and full of rage in a fight for its life, it was clearly devoid of any strategy or sentience. Twang.

  “Two.” The creature fell silent with a thud as it went limp, its body kicking up dust, legs flailing as the last sign of life left its body.

  It was only now that the battle and immediate danger was over that Tennebris regained her awareness of the situation. The city was in utter chaos. Screaming civilians, piles of rubble, buildings that had burned down to nothing but ash. And the smell? It was unlike anything that Tennebris had ever experienced.

  She peered around the top of the rooftop she had been hiding on. Its sharp peaks and splintered wood peaked out from underneath its shingles. The guards were frozen in shock by their victory. She moved in closer, remaining glued to the shadows, trying to overhear their conversation. She was hoping for intel on the situation, survival foremost on her mind.

  From her vantage point, Tennebris could barely make out what was being said over the now cacophonous sound. People crying out for help, the roaring of the fire, guards shouting orders, and the insects seeming to screech back in response.

  She only caught fragments of what they were saying to each other as she listened in on their banter. “…lucky break…” “…another wave?” “…those things…” Their voices, barely a hushed whisper, drowned out and lost in the pervasive city that may have shown the first slivers of hope for victory. Tennebris continued unseen, unheard, even with the immediate threat of the skirmish in the square now over.

  Empathy overtook her, the weight of everyone’s feelings being lifted off her shoulders and she embraced her role in it. She was no righteous avenger. She had no role to play in this game. After the She began the slow, methodical retreat to the rundown dock area. It had a merchant square attached to it. Not many workers populated the area, even during prime hours.

  It was a dangerous area for someone looking to make a living selling to the public. The area itself was populated by sell-swords and cutthroats. The guards didn’t patrol often, outright avoiding it if they could. Tennebris figured that if anywhere was safe for the night, it would be there. No one looking to cause trouble would be found in this dangerous place. Not when better undefended loot lie elsewhere in the city.

  She found an overturned bread cart along the way. Combing through the blood, dirt, and soot covered loafs, she found one that was relatively unharmed. There was a slight dent here or there, but overall, it was edible. She scarfed it down, ravaging it like a starved dog.

  Having eaten, it was time to find shelter. She remembered the safehouse she would use when a job went wrong. An alcove at the end of the docks. It was a quiet little hiding spot that she would go to if the guards were on high alert and she needed a place to wait out the search.

  As she made her way to the alcove, Tennebris stopped at a merchant’s stand that usually sold cheap weaponry, hoping for a restock on her weapons. She did find a quiver, but one that only had seven arrows left.

  “Lucky break for me in case things get interesting. It’ll have to do for now”.

  Finally, she found her ‘safehouse’ in the same condition it was always in. Hidden along the rocky outcropping at the end of the sandy beach just beyond the dock was a cave that formed a horseshoe shape. Because of this shape, you could light a small fire without being visible from the outside.

  It was a place that she had found while hiding from someone who wanted her dead many years ago. It was a safehouse, a place of temporary refuge. She tried, if she could help it, not to use this location as her permanent residence. People sometimes watched her, following her movements.

  It was a safehouse and was only to be used in times of emergency. This, she thought, would constitute one. As she lay down on the bedroll she had unfurled, fatigue started to overtake her. Tomorrow would come, promised to no one.

  Those people are going to need help cleaning up.