I’ve Stolen A Fake Raid Pass

That night the inn's bar was very busy, half the people didn't have chairs as they downed beer after beer. Arlo watched his future raid team gossip about nonsense as they continued being hyper about their exp gain.

Arlo ignored the alcohol, with luck the guards would still be half drunk tomorrow. He smirked leaving them behind when the clock struck 10. This would work to his advantage.

"Hey Blacky, don't forget the set up I mentioned for tomorrow." Arlo said.

.....

"Hey time to get up Gayla." Arlo shook the passed out demon on the table. His so called raid team hadn't managed to leave the table last night.

"ive ore mintes" mumbled the assassin.

Arlo pulled the chair out from under her, thinking oops my bad. Apparently it still wasn't enough though because she continued her sleep from the floor.

"Blacky, it seems we may need some water buckets." Arlo said. Before they had decided to leave by 9 the next morning. It was already 10 so it wasn't like Arlo was being too mean. Although the decision to dump ice water on a demon with an hangover was questionable.

"Whoops" whispered Arlo over turning the bucket.

"Yeahdisfnh" gasped Gayla moving at last.

"Apologies" said Arlo, "But are we still planning to leave today?"

The demon blinked a few times looking up at Arlo, "Ooooh right that." She jumped to her feet surprisingly nimble after just waking up.

She looked at Arlo's bucket, "Can I barrow that?"

Five minutes later one dry Arlo, and three soaking wet demons headed out of the inn. Arlo paused as the others greeted a demon with a long sword waiting near the guardhouse.

"Oh right, this is our warrior Kai" Gayla said. The team turned into two dry demons and three soaked.

They really did seem a bit like idiots but Arlo realized he kind of liked them. Pity he'd have to drop them soon after entering the west. The warrior even had a Japanese type name. He would have made a great manga character.

The guardhouse, time for the real test.

"Passes please." Stated the guard.

Arlo placed himself last in line behind Gayla.

"Check" the guard let Toryo pass.

"Check" in went the rogue who was still unknown.

"Check" Kai passed.

Then it happened. The seven Camelto's from yesterday suddenly ran down the street in different directions from a back alley. The very stupid monsters ran into walls and into a person selling goods knocking over the cart and sending items flying all over.

"What! How did these dumb creatures not only avoid us but also get inside the city!" someone yelled.

"It must be the work of a higher up!" yelled another.

"Who cares!" yelled a third.

Nearly everyone turned to look at them except for Arlo whose hand slid over Gayla's raid pass.

"Duplicate" he whispered as an exact copy landed in his hand. The weird skill he had gotten when Sho claimed him. Any basic type items could be copied. He breathed out a sigh of relief. Seems paper of raid pass quality still was a basic type.

"Here" said Arlo nudging Gayla as she and then he also held up their passes. The guard hardly looked at them before waving them through. After they were all through Arlo smirked as the guard went for one of the last remaining Cameltos.

Free exp did work as a distraction. Arlo glanced down where a wolf the size of a teacup pawed his ankle. Arlo bent down pretending to tie as shoe as he slipped Blacky back into his hoddie.

"Well weirdness aside, our group trek is after wilderhorns from the Raveouns. So we will be making a loop starting to the south west edge of dark stone area then we will head back up toward the north." Toryo stated.

Dark stone area? That's where the dark caves were supposed to be. Great they were making Arlo's job easier. Ravenouns were decently common, and they were basically giant ravens with sheep horns.

Why don't they train these and ride them? Arlo wondered.

Brinnng, Arlo shot one through the eye and it fell to the ground. Toryo happily cut off its horns and put them in his bag while Gayla and the rogue de-feathered the poor creature and took the other things classified as useful.

Two days of traveling later they had killed six of them.

"Alright this is the edge of the dark stone land so now we shall head north, starting tomorrow." Said Toryo as they started to set up camp.

Arlo sighed slightly, pity it was time for him to leave. The company for once hadn't made him want to kill them. He'd leave at midnight once they were all asleep.

"Oye help me with this tent" said Kai struggling slightly. Arlo grabbed the loose pole and stuck it in the proper place. He looked at the lopsided tent, Kai had put the poles in wrong.

To his left Toryo snickered, "Good try but we want a tent."

"You do it then" growled Kai shoving the tent to him and wandering off into the trees a little ways. Two days and he had failed the tent a few times now.

The four ate a soup tasting somewhat like chicken. Hmm it was pretty good. The Arlo learned it was raven-al-a-soup. Still way better than the leopards he had eaten in the past.

"I can take first watch" said Kai standing up. The others agreed and went to sleep. Arlo pretended to be asleep for a little bit then paused, time to go. He slipped to his feet. The place was dark, the only light was the moon and the fire. He should be glad this place even had a moon dreary and pathetic as it was.

Arlo could make out Kai's form at the edge of the fire. Would stealth be enough to get by him? Or would it be better to pretend to use the bathroom and just not come back and hope he forgot. He pondered for a few seconds on the matter.

Then he saw another shadow creeping up on Kai. It launched toward him and Arlo let out a yelp. Kai blocked the hooded figure with his sword and turned toward him. He shot a glance at Arlo as well. The figure wrapped and arm around his neck trying to strangle him while Kai dropped his sword and punched at the figure.

The scuffle woke up Gayla and Toryo who poked their heads out of the tent.

"Aliktoa what are you doing!" growled Toryo. The hood fell down and Arlo saw the rogue's face below it.

"I told you not to use my name!" hissed Aliktoa.

"That's our teammate you are strangling." Toryo growled again.

"Hardly" the rogue hissed, "In case you didn't notice he's Kai Whitewolf a person who is supposed to be dead."

Arlo froze, he was related to Sho? Was he like a cousin or something? How big were demon family clans anyway?

"Yes I did notice, and to be honest I didn't really care, but now that you've made it a point we are obligated to turn him in." Toryo looked annoyed.

"We could just kill him and solve it that way." The rouge said his eyes glinting with malice.

Kai backed away from the group his guard was up now.

"Well now we don't really have a choice." Toryo got to his feet and started toward him. Arlo on the other hand just sort of froze watching them.

"Good bye Whitewolf." Said Aliktoa smirking as they surrounded him. "We could throw his dead body off the cliff into the river." He added. "It's only about a 100 yards from here."

Kai took that moment to run. The other three launched themselves after him. Arlo finally came to his senses and leapt after them. Another Whitewolf, he couldn't just let Sho's cousin die.

Arlo caught up quickly enough. The three had Kai pinned against the cliff.

"Night night Whitewolf." Laughed the assassin moving forward with his blades out. He launched toward him.

Kai dodged the blades and hissed as one foot slipped over the edge and he barely caught himself. Then out of nowhere he got shoved backwards and fell over the edge.

"Well close enough he should drown in that rapid." Laughed the rogue. He looked over the edge for a minute. After not seeing Kai he turned away.

"Always causing trouble aren't you." Muttered Toryo.

"Hey where did Hill go?"

"I don't know, does it matter, I'd leave to if I saw my teammates suddenly get bloodthirsty."

The voices wandered away and Arlo released his stealth. He had one hand firmly grasping his dagger which was embedded in a root while his other hand was wrapped around Kai's wrist.

"Why?" said Kai watching him his eyes slightly narrowed, "I can promise you I will kill you before you get the bounty."

Arlo snorted, "Let's just say I used to have a friend in the Whitewolves and I owed him some favors. I haven't managed to pay him back yet."