Chapter Nine

Al Kharid

While Zanathir fought the noobs, traveled to Camelot, slept and witnessed the council, Kysin had received a killing blow from a dragon battleaxe, respawned at Lumbridge and was attempting to make his way back to safe territory again.

Kysin remembered being inside the heroes guild, then the sharp pain through his back, then... The moment he arrived at the site of the late village Lumbridge, he heard shouts. He opened his eyes, and saw the same darkness that had aided him in Burthorpe. The shouts he had heard, and was hearing; they were not friendly he knew. He dropped to the ground and began to move quickly, snake-like, away from the ruined village.

He had died. Of that much he was sure. He checked his belongings, and inwardly he cursed. He hoped that whoever had killed him got poisoned somehow and died a long painful death from the darts he had left behind. His dagger was there, and so was Zanathir's pendant. Around him, he heard the thrum of bows, then the clatter of arrows hitting stone, hitting the place where he had just recently respawned.

He moved east.

Al Kharid gates were down, and guarded. Several noobs had obviously plundered Falador, or somehow gotten full initiate armor that was normally worn by the white knights of Falador. This, in the pitch darkness, made them as luminous as the moon itself. (Which was hidden behind deep clouds this night.) Dodging them easily, Kysin dashed through the ruined fence and into what was once the capital town of Al Kharid.

He knew where the bank should be, and surprisingly it was there, lit up from the inside illuminating the gold sand around it. Further away from the light, the sand grayed until it was the same shade as the air around it. Obviously the noobs had to bank their stuff somewhere. Kysin had spare darts in his bank account, he knew that. Getting closer, he saw that, predictably, the banks were guarded. By noobs wearing an assortment of robes and armor, patrolling the perimeter of the bank. All of them had the lurid pink H.A.M hood, effectively hiding their faces from view. He crouched in the ruins, resting against a marbled chunk of stone that once supported the palace roof.

He was facing the bank doors now. Through the doors, he could see only one noob inside... noob? The girl inside was no noob... she was almost as good a fighter as he was. Which brought attention to the levels of the four patrolling guards. Combat levels 34, 28, 31 and 30. These weren't really noobs, these were pretty good fighters.

The level 28 noob marched past, intent just on completing his watch. In just another hour of boring marching, he could rest. He could go camp with the others in the old H.A.M. (Humans Against Monsters) headquarters that they had cleared out. His friend Jhonny would've cooked him dinner. He would eat, and sleep. All he wanted to do was finish his rounds so he could go and eat, sleep. Patrolling the bank was the worst...

He didn't get to finish his thought. A dark shape appeared out of nowhere. The level 28 opened his mouth to scream, and a sharp blade entered it. He tried to pull away. The dagger went straight through the back of his mouth and into his neck. 28 tasted blood, and something else... He was in Lumbridge before he knew that he had tasted poison.

Kysin pulled his blade free, and shrank against the bank wall. The steady sound of heavy feet on sand was coming. In a moment another noob would come around the corner and see the armor his friend had left behind... Kysin left it as long as possible, then darted into the bank and over the counter. He fell noiselessly onto the floor and held his dagger against the startled banker's leg.

"I'm not here." he breathed, holding his dagger steady to emphasize the point.

The level 49 noob inside would've seen him, but she blinked. Instead, she felt a breeze as he passed her. The night had been still before. She shrugged. Just a change in weather... She looked around at the only banker on duty that night. Hang on, this wasn't right...

"I want to access my bank account" Kysin told the banker, by mouthing the words and hand gestures.

"Cer...certainly s..sir" gulped the banker.

He opened Kysin's bank account, from which Kysin withdrew several poisoned black darts. He closed his bank account, and swapped his dagger for a dart. With the dart pointed at the banker, Kysin made to jump over the counter and sprint out the way he had come.

BAM!

Kysin was frozen with shock. He knew what he heard; the double doors of the bank closing... Cautiously, he rose and took in the bank's interior within a second. There was only one person in the bank besides the banker and himself. The level 49 noob. She was holding a vicious curved scimitar, its blue rune metal glowing a deadly white against the bank's lighting. Upon sighting Kysin, she barked some orders. Kysin understood what she had said, and hurled himself at the nearest window.

A two-handed sword entered the window from the outside. Kysin gracefully moved to avoid it, pressing himself up in the corner. There were two windows, now both had a hooded noob guarding it; his two-hander poking through from the outside. There was no way anyone was getting out through those windows, even one such as Kysin.

"Captain Leafdarking, what's happening?" asked one of the noobs outside, his confusion hidden behind his bright hood.

Leafdarking didn't answer. Instead, she lunged at Kysin, her gleaming rune scimitar slashing the floor where he had been. She lifted her weapon, swung it in an arc (almost chopping off the banker's head as she did so) and brought it down into the chair that Kysin had been crouching behind. As she struggled to pull her sword free, Kysin saw his chance. With all his strength he pulled the doors open, and ran. He didn't stop running until he was through the northern entrance of Al Kharid.

Leafdarking stared into the darkness where her enemy had disappeared. Taking out her friends list, she messaged Luthandros. Luthandros was a powerful noob, about as good a fighter as herself. He was easily more powerful than those he fought with, more so than some he fought under. He could've been a captain, commander, a leader in the army... if he were more responsible and less lazy. Instead, he was a thief. Someone who took other people's hard earned goods, and lived off that.

"Luthandros, there's this guy who just robbed the Al Kharid bank. How long til you can get here?" she messaged.

His reply was instant, "I'm in the wildy now...hang on... be there soon..."

He was there soon. Very soon. In about two minutes soon. Leafdarking's eyes narrowed as he approached.

"That's a bit to fast for someone who can't teleport." she greeted him suspiciously.

"Ah well... you know how touchy the others are. Geeze, I just shoved this one down a slope, no injury or nothing, and that was excuse enough for his friend to poke me guts out."

"I see..." she said. "Well, there's this guy who just broke into and robbed this bank. He ran off, north. He's pretty fast, and almost invisible in this darkness so you might want to wait until morning. But he's really gotta be caught... can you do it?"

"You let him get away?" Luthandros asked, incredulously.

Leafdarking didn't bite. "This guy's like smoke I swear. He ran straight past me when I blinked, like he was waiting for it or something. And he got out past me and four elite guards, killing only one of them... man, good luck if you can catch him. I think you can though. It's not like we got much better in this army."

Luthandros looked out at the dark, intimidating night. "I'll chase him in the morning."