(Ariya POV) [The female paladin]

*The previous day*

"Things are going smoothly… Maybe today… Hope for the best…"

I inched a little to the right of my seat, trying to catch more of the words my quarry was whispering to his companion over the noise of the inn's dining hall.

Both Michael and I had marked this shady looking man as someone from the Dark Sect and we had been keeping track of his actions for the last few days trying to find their base of operations.

We have been searching the city for the past few weeks without much success and this person was the closest we've found to be someone of importance so far.

Our cover story for our presence was that we were a couple travelling around and considering on settling down in this city, thus our extended duration of stay.

Our usual armour was snuck in along the rest of our luggage so no one in town should know of our true identities.

So far, we learned that this man was quite important in their hierarchy and had been meeting various people around the city passing what looks like instructions written in a rolled up parchment.

Thanks to Founding God's blessing, the inn we had chosen to stay in was also where this man was currently staying as well.

That told us he was either not a local in these parts or he was not planning to stay here for long. We did keep track of everyone he had met so far but those he passed instructions to left the city soon after. We knew their base was inside the city so those people were not going back to their base at least.

Thus we were quite confident he should be the middleman that was communicating with their higher ups and the ones operating on the outside. That means he would either make contact with someone who came from the base or he would return there himself eventually.

Right now, said person was conversing in low whispers at the table behind us with an equally shady person. 

This was the closest we've gotten to him so far and the content of their talk was not giving me much confidence. What were the things going smoothly? What's happening today?

Michael heard their talk and looked just as concerned as I was, but we still maintained an air of nonchalance as though we weren't paying attention to anything else but our food.

I made the hand signal telling him we should follow him once he was done and Michael gave me a nod.

About ten minutes passed before the shady man and his partner stood up from their tables to move towards the back of the inn.

We waited for a moment more before standing up to follow them, trying our best to look as inconspicuous as possible.

Keeping to the shadows, we followed them at a safe distance where we wouldn't draw attention to ourselves.

Instead of moving up to the rooms, they went further back and left through a side door that led outside the building.

Not wanting to lose them, we sped up and went through the door after them, just in time to see them rounding the corner to the back of the inn.

We did a quick check around our surroundings and found no one around so we dropped our act and raced after them, stopping at the corner to peek over it.

The shady men were moving aside some boxes before disappearing from view behind them. We waited for a minute but they did not reappear so we moved as casually as we could towards the boxes, still watching out for any unexpected surprises.

Peering in that direction they disappeared as we passed by, we found a trapdoor in the ground which must have been where they had gone.

To think the entrance to their base was right under our noses from the start… Our room was literally right above the trapdoor…

Michael looked at me, waiting for my orders.

"Go back to our room and gear up. We'll then write a short message to update on our findings before we head down there," I decided.

He nodded at my order and we rushed back to our room inside the inn to do just that.

However… I never knew we would never manage to get the message sent.

Just as we finished putting on our equipment, the entire city was hit with an earthquake.

The coincidence of such an earthquake happening and the shady guy going underground was not lost on me and I quickly threw open the windows to look outside.

Right as I did so, the ground a few feet away burst open and a giant tentacle sprouted out from the ground, its size comparable to a small building.

In the distance, more tentacles were also appearing from the ground, as though the entire city was built on a tentacle nest.

There was a scream on my left and I looked over to see a woman crying out in fear.

Ah, I know her. That woman came here with her sister to do some shopping in the city. We had some polite conversations before with them.

Right as that thought came to my mind, the scenery in front of me blurred and the woman I was looking at had disappeared, replaced by the outstretched length of the tentacle that had smashed into their room through the window.

I could do nothing but watch as the tentacle slowly receded back, causing parts of the building to break off and drop to the ground below.

Suppressing my urge to scream, I silently shut the window and closed the curtains, turning around to see Michael's shocked face.

"Move," I whispered, gesturing to the door.

He nodded silently and we crept our way out of the room. Right now, putting on our armour seemed like a really bad choice with the clinking sound it made. Thank Founding God it was not enough to attract that monster's attention.

When we descended the stairs, that was when I realised something wasn't right.

The whole place was quiet.

There was a distinct lack of people screaming or even crying out in alarm, something that you might have expected when giant tentacles exploded out from the ground.

But aside from the distant sounds of tentacles smashing around the city, there were no human sounds to be heard.

The answer to why became clear when we reached the bottom of the stairs.

Everyone we saw had stopped moving and were simply staring off into space, none of them reacting to the crisis that was happening right now.

We didn't get the chance to find out what exactly was going on with them as something pushed open the doors of the inn right at that moment.

The something turned out to be a giant monster that looked like the cross of a man fused with a tentacled beast.

It had the figure of a human but instead of arms and legs it had a mass of tentacles instead and the face was lacking any facial features.

I thought about drawing my blade but a shout made me stop.

From the dining area, a few armed men appeared with their swords drawn, glaring at the monster at the door.

Oh, those were the mercenaries hired from the previous city that was accompanying one of the merchant caravans from here.

They gave a roar and tried to charge the monster but before they could even take a step forward, the monster had impaled all of the men in the head with a tentacle each.

The attack was so fast that I didn't even see it move.

What was weird was there was no blood splatter at all, but we figured out why when the men shrivelled up into dried up husks before their bodies flaked away into dust.

The monster then withdrew its tentacles and started shambling its way towards us.

Seeing that it only reacted when the mercenaries yelled, the monster might actually be blind and was using sound to locate its victims. 

There was also no way we could defeat something like this and neither were we going to make it to the door without making any sound with our armour. Thus I nudged Michael and nodded in the direction of our room, signalling a retreat.

Just in case, I took out my dagger and threw it towards the other end of the room, causing it to make a sharp sound.

As I thought, the monster immediately reacted to that and stabbed its tentacles in that direction.

I did not see what else it did as both Michael and I quickly retreated back to our room.

Locking the door behind us, we moved all the furniture in the room as silently as we could to block the window and the door, which really wasn't all that quietly.

I quickly wrote a quick report of what we found and stuffed it in a pouch that I left at the side of the room. In case we were to perish and someone were to be sent after us, they would know what happened here.

Once that was done, we knelt down and prayed for Founding God's protection.

I do not know how long we prayed but nothing tried to come through our door or window… Until we heard the jingling of keys and the sound of our doors unlocking.

Not allowing ourselves to die like cowards, we slowly drew our blades and prepared for whatever was trying to come through that door…

In the name of our Founding God we will fight!

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