The voices grew louder. Two men, maybe more, were stationed in the next room. Their conversation was muffled, but I caught enough.
"…still haven't returned. If they're dead, we're—"
"Shut up. Varian said to hold position."
Damon leaned in close. "Two of them. Should we take them out quietly?"
I nodded. A direct fight would alert the others. We needed to thin their numbers first.
We crept forward, sticking to the shadows. The guards stood near a crumbling table, weapons resting at their sides. They weren't expecting a fight.
Perfect.
I gestured—I'll take the left. Damon gave a slight nod—he had the right.
I moved first, silent as a shadow. My dagger flashed, slicing across the man's throat before he could react. He choked, gurgled, then collapsed.
Damon's kill was just as swift. A clean strike.
Both bodies hit the ground without a sound.
[DING!]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━
▶ [Enemies Eliminated – +1 Strength, +1 Agility]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I wiped my blade clean. "Two down."
Damon searched the corpses, pulling a key from one of their belts. "Might be useful."
I pocketed it. Then, we pressed on.
---
We reached a staircase leading downward. A heavy door stood at the bottom, slightly ajar. Faint candlelight flickered from within.
Damon tensed. "You feel that?"
I did. A presence. Strong. Familiar.
Varian.
I exhaled slowly. "He's here."
Damon's grip tightened on his sword. "Then let's finish this."
We stepped forward.
The hunt was over.