The dragon's harem

Selica walked alone in the middle of the night, treading the dangerous alleyways of Croc City. Unknown to her, five thugs were already tailing her, staying around a hundred meters back and using the houses to hide.

"We'll catch her when she goes near Jhon's house. Make sure she doesn't scream." One of them whispered as they stared and observed her with binoculars.

"I can tell just by looking at her." The fighter, called Henry, stated. "A fighter, a melee one. She's probably a pugilist judging by the way she walks and her arms."

They smiled. "Then she's unarmed, but isn't there a possibility of her being a monk?"

"I doubt it. You won't find a monk walking around like that, let alone buy alcohol or weak normal clothes. They are dedicated people."

"So we'll expect her being a fighter as a primary assumption, but keep the monk in mind just in case." Another one said. "So the plan is simple. Grab her from the back while closing her mouth, drag her into Jhon's house, and tie her down. But make sure the bottle doesn't break. We're selling that for money."

"A quick gold." One of them giggled. "Those clothes are fancy as well, and a woman like her would fetch a lot in the black market."

"Don't touch her." The fighter growled. "We'll have Alex inspect her first. If she's a virgin, we're getting a mountain of gold."

Another giggled, "Humans are nice. Everything about them is worth money. Their possessions, clothes, and even bodies."

"She's getting a bit far. Let's move." The fighter and the rest rushed forward.

A silver string dropped from the house's ceiling, wrapping around the neck of the man at the back and lifting him up into the attic's shadows.

"So you're like all bandits and thugs you find in the street." Jack whispered as he pulled the steel wire tighter, breaking the thug's neck before he could choke to death.

The thugs stopped as they heard a faint gasp behind them. As they looked, they noticed they were missing one.

"Hey! William! Where are you?" The fighter growled.

A wire slowly dangled behind them and snatched the one standing at the back without the other three realizing it.

The fighter heard a rustle in the back and turned in the blink of an eye. "Someone is here! We've lost another one." He growled. ^Damn it, is it a monster? They are picking us like bugs.^

Jack stared down from the shadows, trying to assess the remaining three thugs. Each of them looked to be far stronger than the two he dealt with. That fighter seemed to be the biggest problem, from the way he walked, Jack expected him to be at least around level 18.

To someone like Arad, a level 18 fighter is fodder. But to Jack, it was different. He doesn't have regeneration and is alone and physically weak compared to those beefy thugs.

Jack smiled. ^He mains a sword, has a shortsword for backup, and hides a throwing dagger on his waist. I only need to tank an action surge and an adrenalin rush.^

Jack silently dropped from the ceiling with two daggers in hand, stabbing two of the thugs in the neck in front of the fighter.

As blood gushed out and the two fell down. The fighter unsheathed his sword with a growl, "Assassin?!"

Jack swung his arm horizontally as he threw a dagger at the fighter's face. The fighter easily deflected the dagger with a swipe of his sword, "Petty tricks!" He rushed forward. [Action Surge]

Jack didn't even bother moving, as the fighter charged forward, his neck hit a thin wire that he set in the same motion he used to throw the dagger. The fighter's head rolled on the ground as Jack took the wire down and cleaned it with one of the thugs's jackets.

"When you fighters use action surge, you can't stop it mid-move. Or at least, only the talented ones can stop." Until today, Jack had only seen one fighter able to freely stop his class moves, and that was Alcott. A random thug won't ever match him in skill.

Jack then pulled the wire and put it back into his bag. Its mechanism was simple. A three-meter-long wire with two needles at each end. When Jack swung his arm, he threw one end at the start of the motion and the other end at the end of it, effectively setting the wire between two walls.

Of course, such a weapon would only work if it was the exact same width of the room. Jack had several pre-cut ones, but he usually cut them right before the fight and get prepared. This one he cut when he was in the attic before killing the first thug.

"Loot...loot, I'm a lot goblin…look goblin." Jack hummed as he took all of the thugs' money, weapons, and anything that looked expensive. "Well, four gold coins between five people, make me think how much money the boss is giving me for all the traps. Gotta help with the costs a bit…"

Jack stood after he finished looting. He then dragged the corpses into a nearby trash bin and threw them inside, they should be found in the morning, so there is no fear of disease spreading.

"Now, to finish the rest." He climbed into the attic and rushed above the buildings. Currently, there are seven groups tailing Selica, averaging around thirty-nine thugs. It made sense, as they didn't want such a big fish to escape. He chased them one after another, silently dropping each one of them out of the senses until none were left and Selica safely walked out of Croc City, unaware of the massacre behind her back.

*****

In an abandoned warehouse, the thug's boss growled. "What the fuck do you mean you can't find them?!" He kicked the table in front of him.

"Our people in the silver mug suffered severe diarrhea and some of them died of dehydration. The manager tried his best to help, but only a few of them survived." One of the thugs replied to the boss, looking to the side where the surviving men laid. "Do you think the manager is the one who poisoned them?"

"I doubt it. This is clearly an outsider's attack." The boss growled, "They were targeting a woman, right?"

"Yeah. A woman bought a bottle of expensive wine from the manager and they wanted to rob her, and probably sell her in the black market as a slave." The thug replied.

"If she was that rich, the men should've known she might have guards with her. A noblemaid probably, I guess she had several assassins protecting her from the shadows." The boss scratched his head.

As they growled, a man rushed in through the door. "We found the lost men! They were all killed and thrown in the trash, some with stab wounds and some even lost their heads."

"Are you fucking serious? That's half of my men dead in one night? Lord Jordan is going to kill me," The boss stood, "They were clearly massacred by a group of highly trained assassins."

After about half an hour, a woman rushed to the main door and the thugs let her in. "Boss! Boss!" She called.

"You survived! How come? I thought everyone got killed!" Seeing that at least one of his thugs survived was a relief, having everyone killed was too painful to swallow, and now they could get a lead on the assassins.

"Who did this? How many of the assassins did you see? What did they wear? How did you survive? Can we use that to beat them?" The boss rushed toward her.

"It's a long story, but listen. It's one man," She said with a worried face, "And I didn't survive," She showed the boss a wound on her neck that was just healing.

"He slit my throat, but I remained alive." She smiled. "He looted the two men I was with then looked at me. Said he doesn't feel comfortable searching for a woman with such big tits, even though I'm dead and left. That's how I managed to drink a healing potion and survive."

"If he searched you, he would've felt the pulse and finished you off." The boss sighed, "But what kind of idiot…wait, one person?!"

"That's what I saw." She replied.

"I guess your group was small and they only sent one." He pointed at the couch, "Take a rest and tell us the details. I'm sure they'll strike again."

As they talked, Jack was sitting on the roof listening to them. ^It was worth it letting her live. She guided me straight to their base. But as that boss said, he isn't on the top, it's lord Jordan, whoever was that.^

Jack silently moved around, setting some traps. ^You tend to be that woman with big tits, I'll get ready to kill you all. This at least would make this city safe for us to wander without much fear.^ He could imagine what would happen if Selica got attacked, Arad would've swooped down at full force and would've painted the city red with the thugs.

What Jack didn't know, is that the person coming down would've been Sena instead of Arad, and unlike Arad, she'll be a bit more discrete.

"But…" Jack looked through a crack at the boss. "He looks strong…he looks like a mix between a fighter, a mage, and a rogue…please don't tell me he's over level 40. If that was the case, I'm in for an exhausting night…" He sighed.