Colt approached first, followed shortly by Nate. As for Jimmy—well, they hid him in a building with Sarah and Julia. The two could keep him safe if a fight broke out. Nick was their eyes above—he found a nearby rooftop, set up shop with his bow, and then signaled the whole thing to proceed. Operation interrupt and interrogate were on.

  They snuck into the building—then up the steps.

  Colt moved silently as they went through the deserted apartments, stepping past broken chairs littering the hallway, avoiding touching any rubble. A tree had sprung through one of the floors, with the concrete around it cracking. The damage to the city was frankly such a range. Some places were preserved and untouched; others were like this, crumbling under nature's wrath and vengeance.

  Still, Colt stopped as they reached the staircase leading to the second level, the fire exit, and the roof.

  They could hear someone above talking.

  Colt looked at Nate.

  “I want to try something.”

  “Oh?” he asked.

  “In half a minute, rush up the steps and join me on the roof.”

  Nate gave a simple nod. Enough communication. Colt braced on the ground and looked at the ceiling. There was bound to be someone watching the entrance to the staircase, so the second one of them approached, they would give themselves away. While they weren’t planning to launch an attack just yet, Colt had a different plan in mind.

  Over the last week, they had been testing their physical abilities in training.

  Colt ran faster; dodged quicker, could move his body in ways scarcely imaginable, thanks to all the dexterity and the little bit of additional strength he’d added.

  Interestingly was the discovery of just how high he could jump.

  Colt braced and then sprang upward with all the force he could muster—his head rapidly approached the ceiling above. Right as the second of impact, he used Phantoms Gambit—passing clean through the floor. He reactivated it at the apex of his leap.

  Just like that, like a ghost, he’d passed through a floor.

  Colt looked around. A burnt orange sofa with dirt and leaves on it, broken windows. The floor had a couple of trash bags and discarded ramen noodle cups. There was a TV all the trash sat by, loaded up with about five different gaming consoles, despite the fact that there was nothing inside of this room besides the sofa. A barren, desolate tomb to someone’s questionable lifestyle.

  There was a pause, Colt braced himself again—and then tossed himself back upward, phasing through the last floor to the roof. This time, the in-between was longer, pushing the grasp of his skills ability. He felt it slip—an overextension, and if he slipped while in the middle of the floor, he knew it wouldn’t look good for him.

  Colt brace, reigned himself in, and pulled on the tiniest bit of his movement Edict—his heart hammered, and cold sweat appeared instantly, yet he retained hold of the skill. The two, in fact, fed into one another.

  In a stunning second, it was like he had teleported back into the sunlight—and another fifteen feet above the roof.

  ———

  *Phantom’s Gambit* (Basic) has gained a level!

  *Phantom’s Gambit* (Basic) has reached level 10! This skill has advanced to *Phantom’s Gambit* (Intermediate)! As this is now at the (Intermediate) level, the time allowable to be incorporeal has increased.

  ———

  Colt had a problem. There is a natural law in the universe: What comes up must come down.

  He hit the roof with a roll—his dexterity and endurance shrugging off a fall that would’ve broken bones. Colt came to his feet, sweat rolling off him, as his heart came to a steady beat. It had been an instant of activation of his Edict. Not enough to heavily tax him, but he did feel like he’d used it. Equivalent to tossing out like five or ten of his cuts.

  The people on the roof had definitely noticed him.

  Colt summoned his knife.

  “I don’t suggest you try to attack me,” Colt said, calming his voice. Pretending as if all of that had been part of the plan.

  There were about six people, all of them on edge. Weapons plenty, a couple of swords, a bat, one dude had a crossbow—he’d gotten a glimpse from below, but this about confirmed everything he’d expected. The one who was watching the stairs had rapidly rounded the corner as they stood at an impasse, not sure what to do.

  He felt their eyes as they inspected him.

  ———

  Hide Status (Basic) has gained a level!

  ———

  Nice.

  Colt spun the knife in his hand and stepped forward. “You see what level I am. I’ve seen you spying on New Nashville—now, I’m not with their guards. I’m not here to come and send you packing. Frankly, I’m just interested in talking and finding out why you’re spying instead of approaching. Are you bandits?”

  There were looks exchanged. A man with long dark hair cleared his throat. The biggest leveled among them—thirty-five. An uncommon class. Not really someone Colt would consider a threat. He was the one with the crossbow.

  Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  “Bullshit.”

  Colt rolled his shoulders. “I mean, even if I’m lying and just attacked you, what would you do about it? I have someone on a roof watching. Close-range, I don’t think any of you are my match.” He gave a wave towards the surrounding roofs—you couldn’t see Nick, but it made them pause. Made them strain and look.

  Second later, Nate scrambled up the stairs on the back. Effectively sealing off their exit.

  The guy seemed to make up his mind, feeling outplayed and outmatched. “Lower the weapons.”

  Colt watched as the nervous men dropped their tools, crossbow guy now pointing his weapon at the ground.

  “Alright, so if you’re from New Nashville, why aint you icing’ us?”

  “I don’t even know who you are. Like I said, I’m not one of the guards. We dive into dungeons, that’s about it.” Colt gave that away, the information didn’t matter much. If it brought the tension down and got answers, it was cheap info.

  “You and everyone else trying to get stronger,” the guy grumbled while glancing at the stadium. “If it weren’t for them pushing us all around.”

  “How’s that?’

  “You get two choices when New Nashville finds you, if you got a group. Either you join in the fold, or you get packing out of Nashville. I grew up here. Spent my whole life here. I aint giving up my life to them.” The guy spat a nice big glob of yellow onto the ground.

  “Why not join them?”

  “Well, I wanna be free, don’t I? You think you’re free in those walls? Think you’re really free? Like that life, we had before it all came down. This is a blessing, man. You don’t gotta bow your head to no man any more. But here you are, acting like dogs at the first chance.”

  “We found a safe position to grow in safety with other people,” Nate shook his head.

  “You submitted to a petty warlord who fancies himself a king.” The guy continued. “I met your Denny. He led a group to mine; I said no. You know what he did?” The rest of the guys in the group began to get a white face at this, some of them looking away.

  Colt leaned forward and frowned.

  “Killed my two friends. Strung’em up. Told us if we aint going to be under the law, then we could get out of his town. Gave me days before he’d come back and trash our base—our base. We killed a dungeon just to get it. And he came and kicked us out like pests.”

  “What were you doing before that?” Colt asked.

  “Looting. Surviving. Not trying to harm nobody, but like… Not helping neither. Unless they were useful. Gotta run lean in times like this. And here we are, taking a look and more of his dogs coming up—we got the message. We’re gonna leave. But we’re gonna do it on our terms.”

  Colt and Nate shared a look. The guy with the long hair spat on the ground again, and started pacing, his eyes locked on New Nashville with a burning hate there.

  “I want revenge on the fucker who killed my friends ‘fore I go.”

  “Don’t know that you’re going to find that,” Colt answered. He believed something happened here; whether or not the guy was being honest about not causing trouble, who was to say? These people didn’t exactly have an innocent look to them. But who did after the system came? That first dungeon had a habit of hardening normal folks.

  “Oh, I’m going to find—“

  There was a pause.

  The man stumbled.

  There was a hole in his chest; his body shuddered as a sudden explosion of blood and insides came from the middle of the man in front of them; a figure hovered off the edge of the building, they wore a billowing cloak and an oversized hat… Colt knew where he’d seen him, one of the White House guards.

  “Give yourselves up. We’ve found you. It is time to face justice.” A voice called from below on the street.

  The voice was familiar.

  “Shit, it’s him.” One of the guards called, and then Colt knew who the voice was.

  A second when Denny landed on the roof, it was clear that the mayor arrived. He raised an eyebrow as he noticed Colt and Nate; then, he turned to the five remaining members of the brigade. “Really? Spying on us like this? Now, we’ve seen a couple of y’all do it—but this is the most brazen yet. If I recall properly, I gave y’all the mandate to vacate this city a week ago.”

  Nate backed away from the group—moving next to Colt. Tense.

  Being caught with outsiders by the mayor probably wasn’t a good look, but the guy didn’t appear too concerned…

  Colt ran an inspect.

  Level 53?

  Denny had leaped twelve levels in the last week. An incredible amount. Was he running dungeons on the side of governing?

  “Well, why didn’tya leave like I told ya?” Denny asked again—the floating man off the roof hovered behind him, his robes twisting. When inspecting him, he, too, had his skills hidden. Though he sat at an impressive level 56, along with a rare ‘Wind-Mancer’ class.

  None of the five responded.

  Denny gestured to the Wind-Mancer; the guy raised his hand, and in a second, another one of the spies on the roof had a hole in his guy; dead in seconds.

  “Keep on not answerin’, and I guess we’ll just have to deliver our justice.”

  “Stop,” Colt said he still had his knife out but made sure to keep the point down. “What kind of justice is this? I don’t think I understand what exact crime was committed here. If you’re trying to run them out of town, then just send them packing. I don’t think any of them stand up to you.”

  Denny lifted an eyebrow. “I was gonna get to you last. Saw you come up and surprise these guys. Appreciate y’all running the dungeons, but should leave government matters with us.”

  Colt frowned.

  “That isn’t a crime.”

  “These folks are bandits. Scavengers are stealing what rightfully belongs to us. Now, if’n they keep on doing that, it’s a crime. They kept on doing that. For a week. Not the only little rats like that, now I haven’t gone and troubled you hard-working folk with this kinda work, but the reality is that if we don’t say what is ours and impress upon others what is ours, they’ll get it in their heads that they can take that which don’t belong to them.”

  It was over resources. Colt looked back at Nate—the soldier had steeled his face. It was a stone mask meant to hide any emotions. The kind he’d worn when talking with Bill at the start.

  Danger was here.

  Colt looked at his knife and looked at Denny and the Wind-Mancer. Thoughts crossed his mind, dangerous thoughts. In the end, though, he spoke and kept his knife still. “I think you took at their leader. The rest of you, will you leave Nashville now?” Colt asked, keeping his tone as neutral as possible.

  There was a resounding chorus of agreement.

  Denny looked at them all and adjusted his cowboy hat. “Alright now. We got us an agreement. Last chance. You’ve got yourself an hour to get. If’n we see any of you scurrying around… Well…”

  He pointed at one of the men.

  A golden sword appeared.

  It beheaded them.

  Colt tensed; everything in him crying out to run and kill the murderer—the entire time, Denny’s eyes were on him, though. Testing him. Wanting to see what he would do, daring him to come and attack the king near his throne.

  Denny cleared his throat. “Now. I think I made my point clear. Go on, rats. Get.” He waved the rest of the bandits off, turned, and jumped off the roof. The Wind-Mancer gave Colt and Nate one last look before following the leader, flying off without a word.

  The three survivors screamed and scrambled for the stairs.

  Colt watched them go, then looked at Nate, running a hand through his hair. “So, New Nashville.”

  Nate worked his grip on his hammer.

  “American dream, huh?” Colt asked.