A Thief in the Night

Just peeking over the edge of the bluffs so as not to be spotted by the goblins below, Gantz suddenly turned back, stalking out of the copse of tough stunted trees.

He didn't have to worry about being quiet, since the goblin camp forty feet below was pure cacophony. The little buggers wouldn't hear a bloody thing he did up here.

Once out of the trees, Gantz sat with has back against one of the toughened trunks, able to feel its bark through his light leather jerkin. He sat with his head back, one knee tucked, the other leg extended across the ground. He closed his eyes. "Can I really do this?" he asked no one in particular.

Selena of the Glade came to stand over him. "What do your instincts tell you?"

The thief opened one brown eye, looking up at her. "Don't got a bloody clue." He paused, raising both his gloved hands before him. "But if I can summon blades from nowhere, if I can really use some kind of magic now, maybe its not so far fetched."

He suddenly put his legs under him and hopped to his feet. He raised his hands again, looking at them, his eyes narrowing. "Alright, let's give this a try."

The gray wolves Palom and Porom suddenly came up. One of them sat rather primly at her mistress's side while the other gave a yawn and laid down on the ground, resting his head on his forepaws.

Gantz eyed them warily. "Make sure you keep your slobber fiends at bay, elfy, I gotta feeling I'm gonna need a lot of focus for this."

"Oh, they will not interrupt – will they," she announced sternly glaring at the male wolf laying to her right. The animal raised his head, tongue lolling out, but stayed where he was.

Gantz suddenly shook his body to limber himself up. "Okay, doing mage stuff - head, shoulders, knees and toes, do a little dance like I got ants in my pants."

The elf tilted her ram-horned head. "What in the realm are you doing, Chosen of Wind?"

Gantz gave her a grin as he bent his upper body this way and that, stretching his arms. "Just psyching myself up, elfy, you know, summoning the thing… the magic thing."

The elf merely pinched the bridge of her nose with a sigh.

"You're always such a bastion of support, elfy." He suddenly rubbed his hands together. "Alright, blessing of the big gassy Dragon King don't fail me now!"

All kidding aside, the thief went still, closing his eyes. Almost immediately he felt a breeze begin to stir about him. A soothing coolness began flow from his skin, adding to the breeze, turning it to a true wind that swirled about him. There was barely any noise, however, the winds cool and quiet, rustling his hair and clothing only slightly.

When Gantz slowly opened his eyes, he saw a black smoky vortex swirling about him, silent as a whisper. Experimentally, Gantz reached his right hand toward the black winds. His arm went up to the elbow and suddenly the smoky air seemed to be sucked into his body. When the young man looked down at himself again, he was transparent. "I can still barely see myself."

Selena did a little walk around him. "Yes, you are still there, but very faint. I doubt anyone more than a few feet away would be able to see anything. Also, your voice is muffled but I can still hear it. Are you trying to whisper?"

Gantz shook his phantom head. "Nope, talking normally."

"Ah, then the sound you make is being dampened as well."

Overwhelming implications struck Gantz immediately. "Ye gods, I only thought I was a great thief before. Imagine what I can bloody pull off now! I could steal the crown off the king's bloody head and he wouldn't notice for a fortnight – nothing could bloody stop me!"

"Please, Chosen of Wind, your ego is inflated enough as it is. Remember why you are here."

Gantz gave her a phantom glare. "Such a killjoy, just like Valor bloody Loftlan."

The beast mistress folded her arms. "The Chosen of Earth? I see then why you need him."

Gantz snorted derisively. "Need him, ha! - I don't need that mopey blue blood! I don't need any of them anymore, destiny be damned! I am bloody invisible, do you have any idea what this means? I've spent nearly my whole life being as quick and quiet as I could, trying to pass for invisible, and now I can do it for bloody real! There is nothing stopping me now from abandoning this whole foolish escapade. I never wanted anything to do with it from the start!"

The elf's aquamarine gaze hardened. Her wolves suddenly stood at her side, both of them growling at the thief. "My wolves can still smell you perfectly fine, human. You might be invisible, but invincible you are not! And abandoning this 'escapade' would see the world to its death. Stealing every crown on the planet will not save you from that."

Gantz suddenly growled to match the wolves, balling his phantom hands into fists. "Gods bloody damn it to the bleeding Abyss!" He then gave the heaviest sigh he could ever remember. "Of course, you're bloody right, elfy. I wish to Bahamut it wasn't true… but it is. Ye Gods, I hate being responsible for other people, makes me feel bloody noble or something."

"Very well, if you are past this personal crisis, can you get on with it. I do not relish spending all night so close to the filthy beasts below us," Selena announced haughtily.

Gantz looked down at his phantom self again, grinning. "This is pretty bloody amazing. Can't wait to see what I can really do with it."

"Well, human, that particular test is at hand. I will be awaiting your return up here, good luck."

Minutes later, Gantz was alone, skirting the edge of the bluffs, trying to spot the way down. Despite being invisible in the night, he kept low and quiet, unable to simply ignore years of trained instincts. Selena had been right anyway, invisibility was not invincibility; it was merely a tool. Like always, he still had to do most the work himself. Besides, ever since becoming invisible he could feel a strain on his stamina. Using this ability was like tensing a muscle; he wouldn't be able to do it forever.

Gantz went somewhat slowly looking for the crumbling series of switchbacks that would lead down from the bluffs into the breadth of the pass below. It was the same route by which the worg riding vanguard had ascended the bluffs in the first place and it was near to where the bulk of the goblin horde resided down in the pass. Selena had said that the trail was well integrated into the bluff wall, difficult to spot. It had even taken her eagle two passes overhead to discover it.

As if reading his thoughts, a sudden piercing cry came from above. The thief wasn't surprised; he figured the beast mistress would be keeping an eye on him through her eagle companion. Honestly, Gantz couldn't think of any better method of scouting than being linked to an animal that could fly.

Regardless, the thief remained vigilant, slightly increasing his pace until he managed to stumble upon a separation in the dusty stone ground. Only seconds passed until this split became the first of the switchbacks and Gantz was descending. The trail was exceedingly narrow and Gantz had to watch his footing. He wasn't certain how the worgs had even made it up, being much larger and heavier than the thief, though as he continued to descend he noticed the bodies of three worgs below at the end of the trail.

So there had initially been fifteen worg riders in the vanguard, but three had fallen to their deaths here. That had been lucky.

Despite being well into the night, the half moon and vault of stars gave a decent ambient glow to the world below, enough that, had Gantz been visible, he would have been spotted easily by any goblins looking his way as he descended the switchbacks. There was no cover on the trail at all. He was, for all intents and purposes, in plain view of his enemy, something that had the thief anxious despite his invisibility. He continued to move on cat's paws, making certain he wasn't kicking up any dust during his descent on the rocky trail.

The cacophony of the horde became louder as he came down closer to it. As well, about half way down, an air of revolting odors became prominent. Gantz had to stop for several minutes, breathing through his mouth until he was able to deal with the miasma. Nearly down into the pass proper, Gantz could make out what appeared to be midden heaps of various sizes scattered about the camp as haphazardly as anything else. Goblins swarmed over the heaps, some seeming to be scavenging while others added to the piles in a variety of ways.

Disgust and loathing roiled throughout the thief at the vile activities of the little blighters, but he kept his cool, coming down off the trail to skirt the bluff wall, trying to find the path that he had spotted above. He edged south, knowing it had begun somewhere in the middle of the camp and he had moved slightly north of it.

The line of the camp started only a few yards away, and Gantz saw plenty of activity as he sidled along. Screeching little goblins milled about performing all kinds of acts, some sitting around campfires relatively calmly as they gazed greedily with their beady little eyes at haunches of meat roasting on spits. Others shrieked at each other menacingly before fighting erupted, others gathering around to watch, cheering shrilly. The battle didn't end in a death unfortunately, just the loser scuttling off like a whipped dog. Such fights seemed to erupt often, one even turning into a full blown melee before a massive troll wondered up and bellowed harshly at the combatants.

Nearly fifteen feet tall and heavily muscled, the scaly green creature had a bald head with broad pointed ears and a lantern jaw to end all lantern jaws. Huge tusks jutted up from its drooling maw, its beady yellow eyes set under a brow so heavy it was a wonder the monster could even see at all. Its sudden displeasure caused the ratty little goblins to scatter like cockroaches before torchlight. They were all long gone before the brute even managed to brandish its huge wooden club menacingly.

Gantz had actually paused when the troll had trundled up. He had never seen trolls so close before and had never fought one. He had no experience fighting any of these creatures really. He had only once sneaked around one of their ramshackle villages during his wandering days before he had set up shop in the City of Dreams.

Regardless, as the troll moved off, the goblins coalesced again in its wake, and more fights started. Gantz, however, was sidling again, keeping as quiet as possible. He knew only the general things that everyone knew about goblins, having had so little experience with them. He knew their big ears gave them better hearing than humans, though apparently their eyesight and sense of smell was nothing special. If the little beasts had possessed the discipline to post guards, goblin guards might actually have been pretty effective, but it was beyond apparent that discipline was one thing goblins would never possess.

Gantz's heart beat rigorously this close to so many foes. He expected to be spotted at any second, ready to run with all his considerable speed. With enough of a build up, he would even be able to move up vertical surfaces like the bluff face if it came to it.

But his foes remained oblivious with their flyspeck attention spans and wanton actions. The inane little blighters continued to fight, eat or dance wildly about bonfires waving crude little spears above their heads with no thought to ever being infiltrated.

The thief merely moved on.

He reached the way in to the camp only minutes later and was forced to stifle a sigh of relief, though it was soon apparent why there was an open path here. It was an established patrol route for enforcer trolls, and the goblins kept clear of it even when there was no troll immediately apparent, probably for fear of being spotted and facing some monstrous wrath.

Here Gantz took a deep silent breath and moved in, passing milling clusters of raucous little goblins by only five or six feet to either side of him. The constant presence of fires made him nervous since light sources were always the bane of stealth. And despite that their light was passing through him, or bouncing off him – or however invisibility worked – his heart kept a rapid pace, his whole body tense and ready for flight.

The thief followed the trail like a wraith, until it split off at a fork caused by a midden heap. Again, the thief had to take a few minutes to keep from gagging, before taking the meandering northern path, which he knew would eventually lead him to the ogre camp situated roughly in the middle of this whole slipshod endeavor.

He sneaked forward passed more fires, more fights and so much screeching and shrieking that he wondered whether he would make it out of this with any hearing left, let alone a sense of smell.

This was not the entertaining kind of stealth, but a constant assault on Gantz's stamina and senses. Each minute that passed caused the thief's ire to rise until he was actually commiserating with Robin Magus. Her absolute hatred for goblinkind was perfectly understandable and becoming even more so every second Gantz had to endure this vulgar little trek.

Forcing his thoughts and actions to retain precision despite the assault, Gantz slowly moved his way along the winding path, remembering the layout he had gleaned earlier from overhead. Finally, he reached a rough halfway point marked by a rare stack of pillaged crates and barrels that the greenskins had not yet managed to tear apart.

Gantz shuffled behind them for a much needed reprieve. He sat close with his back to the pile, walled off by tattered tents on all other sides. Here at last, in the shadow of containers and tents was a tight little spot bereft of any goblin gaze. The pervasive stench was not so bad here either, and Gantz took as many deep silent breaths as he could. He was also incredibly tempted to drop his invisibility, for the wear on his stamina was starting to get painful.

He couldn't, of course, re-summoning it might be beyond him if he dropped it now, and he was still a ways from his goal.

Gantz grit his teeth. They are gonna bloody owe me for this, he thought angrily, before feeling the ground shudder. He peeked back over the crates and saw another troll trundling up along its patrol route. He figured he would let it by and then follow in its wake. Doing so would undoubtedly allow him to move a bit easier, since the troll's mere presence would push goblins back averting their attention even further from him. Still, he would have to match his pace to the troll's and Gantz wasn't certain he could handle that for long. Despite their long strides, the monsters were slow as bloody molasses.

With his patience fraying, Gantz doubled down on the discipline that had seen him through hundreds of heists. He then waited for the troll to wander by before slipping back around the crates and coming onto the trail again.

He moved on, following the trundling troll, the clusters of goblins to either side of the trail shrinking back as it passed by. Now sore from keeping traditionally low and quick, Gantz grew bolder, trusting more to his invisibility. He stood upright and walked almost normally, still keeping his steps light, but foregoing full-on stealth. He was too on edge and fatigued to listen to his instincts, which were screaming at him, but at this point he was almost wishing he could be discovered just so he could try to escape. He knew his chances of making it out were slim to none, but he was starting not to care.

Still, Gantz kept on until the trail split again, one going straight north, the other meandering off to the west around two large midden heaps to a sort of muddy hill where the ogre command camp resided. Wriggling his nose in disgust at the smell of the heaps, Gantz could see some of the gray-skinned monsters from here. They were similar to trolls in build just not quite as tall or broad, and they actually wore armor. It was poorly made, the thief could see it from here, but still, ogres could work metal, something that eluded the greenskins they lorded over.

So ready to be done with all of this, the thief pulled his long knives from their sheaths and sneaked up the winding trail that led passed the heaps and up the shallow hill toward his target destination.

As he moved, Gantz could see that the ogres didn't seem to be keeping any kind of watch. In fact, most seemed to be gambling with large dice. Others snoozed dutifully, snoring like localized earthquakes. It seemed to Gantz that ogres were rather lazy. Still, there were a good half-dozen of them dicing before the entrance to the largest tent in the camp, and Gantz knew he wouldn't be able to take out all of them. Still, if he could kill a few of the sleeping ones before sneaking into the main tent and assassinating the warlord, then all this would have been worth it.

Gantz looked at his phantom hands as they gripped his now invisible knives. He went low now, going forward as quickly and quietly as the ghost he now resembled. He ascended the shallow hill into the ogre camp proper, coming up behind the huge lump of the nearest ogre sleeping on its side. The thing actually smelled a little less worse than the greenskins, but only just, and with wicked glee, Gantz jabbed one of his long knives silently into the back of the ogre's thick neck, severing its spine and killing it instantly.

He was off immediately afterward, heading around the perimeter of the main tent to find another monster sleeping on its back. Gantz glided up and cut this ogre's throat before it could even manage a gurgle.

He was then moving again, circling about to a part of the tent where there were as few eyes as possible that could spot his insertion. He then quickly cut a line down the cloth before slipping into the tent, fully prepared to strike…

Yet being entirely unprepared for what he found.

The tent contained fine furniture, and was lit by four brass lanterns of no ogre make. Gantz came in and dropped his invisibility, no longer able to sustain it.

Yet the creature that he saw was certainly no ogre, its back to him as he entered. It seemed to be pouring over maps upon a fine wooden desk, when it suddenly must have sensed his presence despite the thief's silent entrance.

Ready to strike, horror washed over Gantz when he suddenly realized that he couldn't move.

The creature then turned, roughly two feet taller than the thief and cadaverously thin, draped in elaborate black robes.

To Gantz's utter shock, the creature's head resembled that of a mottled gray squid, its lower face filled with a plethora of twitching tentacles. Yellow, inhuman eyes narrowed viciously at Gantz, hardening the thing's alien gaze into something nightmarish.

"Ah, what is this then, an assassin sent by the humans to foil my conquest?"

It hadn't spoken aloud. Instead, an invasive whisper had slid across Gantz's mind like a tongue licking his brain. The thief would have shuddered in revulsion if he'd had any control over his body. As it was, he couldn't even move his eyes in their sockets.

The thing glided silently across the ground, stopping only several feet before the thief. "Let us see what we can extract, shall we?"

Gantz's voice suddenly activated on its own, utterly emotionless. "Gantor Raz, human male, sixteen years of age, Chosen of the Wind Crystal, sent here to assassinate the warlord of this horde in an attempt to create infighting, possibly inhibiting the attack on Truce."

"Ah, Chosen of the Wind Crystal, how fascinating, you would certainly make a fine trophy for Lord Garland."

However, a sudden roar filled the tent, as Selena's panther companion seemed to materialize from thin air, lunging at the aberrant creature with fangs bared.

The creature's alien eyes widened in shock and Gantz suddenly found he could move, but instantly turned and ran, his heart beating so wildly in his chest that all the moisture left his mouth. He ran and ran, blasting through the camp with all the speed he could muster, running faster than he had ever run before, winds whipping about him with gale force. He leapt far over the heads of hundreds of goblins, coming down on another part of the path and rushing through like a blur.

And yet the camp was roused, countless shrieking little monsters pointing and trying to give chase. Massive trolls spotted him as well, attempting to intercept. He blew by them all but there were always more ahead, and they were starting to converge.

Then the cry of an eagle sounded above and Gantz saw it swoop down from the sky. He leapt up, grabbing the great bird by its huge talons and was carried off, a fortuitously strong updraft lifting him and the great eagle up and away from the shrieking horde below.

His heart in his throat, Gantz let go once over the bluffs, gliding down into a roll - yet as soon as he was up, he was running again with all his might. The terror driving him was so complete that he had lost nearly all conscious control over his body.

The young man didn't stop running until he was upon the ramparts of Truce once again. Here his body refused to go any further and he fell to his knees, soaked clear through with clammy perspiration.

Utterly spent, the thief collapsed into darkness.