CCTV Camera Lens

What was she calling herself for this mission again? Serbian? Cyan? Scylla! That’s right! That’s it.

Scylla took a deep breath of the night air, lazily flying circles around the targeted manor She to mental notes of the rotation, those that were coming in and out, how as the night progressed all that was left were the guards, and last-minute mental stock of her supplies. She remembered all the people who were required to die no matter what. Not that anyone would make it out anyway.

She loved nights like this. 

After weeks of what felt like failing upwards, covering for dumbass employees' mistakes, and dealing with ignorant clients, she was already in desperate need of something to destress. How lucky was she for a job like this to fall so graciously in her lap? A job that was more than fine with total annihilation. 

If her luck actually remained this constant then she might start praying, she snorted to herself. 

Never a chance in hell. The gods had never been with her. She will never be there for them.

She did one more lap before deciding it was time for her fun start, she was starting to get hungry. Plus this might be her only night off for who knows how long. She pulled out her bow and her precoated arrows and waited for a while, waiting for the guards to fall into place like the good little lambs they are.

She was going to eat so well tonight.

With the skill that only came from years of agonizing training, she struck. Thirteen men and women died. None never seeing her or having a moment to think of any last words to spew in the night air. She didn’t bother moving any of them as she moved on to the next phase. She laid explosives around the perimeter and extra on the door just for fun. She lead the extended fuse into the wood and lit it. She jetted off as far as she could get. She wanted to watch this place burn, not get caught up in the blast radius.

Here would lie, Sir Donavin and his family. His wife, three children, his four brothers, their broad, and an elderly mother and father. Some of them were mages of some sort, most were brokers and dealers of some type.

From what her intel stated and from what she had picked up herself, they are a powerful family. Old money, good connections, and they were very proud of that fact. Unfortunately, that has made them some enemies. Hell, if this contact hadn’t come in when it did and Scylla need to cut loose as much as she did, she might have tried to become allies with them. 

“Shame really,” She grinned.

She, thankfully, didn’t have to wait long for the explosions to go off. Her grin only widen as her bombs wreaked havoc on the manor. The mess of ash was worth its weight in gold and the numerous screams and the sound of the blast itself were music to her ears. The walls burst apart and the fire spread quickly. She was sure the bombs got a fair few of them, but she inwardly cheered as stragglers started rushing out.

Good. They weren’t as fragile as she feared. This was going to be fun. There were even some guards left! Perfect! She put up her bow and started diving down, she didn’t mind dealing with everyone else by hand. She didn’t even care if the fire destroyed her invisibility.

Once she came in closer to the first guard. Some poor man who just finished patting down the fire, she felt her teeth sharpen. Scylla took advantage of his distracted state and tore out his throat. The man’s dying screams quickly got the attention of the others. She took quick stock. Let her see, one, two, three… five guards left. All in varying states of health. Two irrelevant family members left. Fighter both of them. But only one was in armor. She knew he was one of the last to go in the night. Three relevant family members. Two were mages. She knew one was a very lucky wizard. Granted he could barely stand, but the fact that he was even alive was interesting. Not that it mattered. He had no focus or book so she was not worried. The other one was a bard funnily enough. And the last and biggest of her worries was a barbarian.

Wonderful.

The mages were going to die first. It’s not like the barbarian was close enough to stop her. She swallowed the guard’s throat and sprinted to the wizard, her claws sharpening. She severed his head from his body with just enough time to dodge one of the guards. She picked them off one by one, ignoring their battle cries and insults. Dodging and outmaneuvering their attacks and made sure to stay away from the barbarian until they were all dead, their entrails soaking into her clothes.

Soon all that was left was her and the barbarian. Tall, bloodied, well-muscled, and good with a sword. She chuckled as he swang at her, licking his family's blood off her claws.

“You wouldn’t be acting so high an mighty if you were down here!” He sneered as he waved his sword around, trying to hit her. He was so furious his veins looked like they were seconds away from popping out of his head.

She laughed at him and his current situation. There was no way he was winning this. He would die here, alone, and the last of his name. What a pity. She was half tempted to use her bow to put him out of his misery but where’s the fun in that?

No, no, no, instead she picked away at him. Attacking from above, slicing and cutting away at him before getting away. Dropping some of her small sticks of dynamite. She lets the house fire, adrenaline, and his screams of anger and agony keep her warm. Unfortunately, even with all of her training and experience, she wasn’t perfect, she never was, and he wasn’t as dumb as she thought. 

In his rage, the barbarian manage to nail her with a rather large boulder that sent her careening to the ground, knocking the breath out of her.

His meaty hands picked her up by her neck, “I swore, with the gods as my witness, I will make you pay for what you’ve done, you conviving little bitch,” he quietly sneered as his grip tightened. 

Her hand dug into his arms. She squirmed and fought. She scratched at any part of him she could reach but she knew there wasn’t a shot in all the nine hells she was going to win a contest of strength, no matter how hurt he was. Good thing she didn’t need to. 

All he could do was gasp as she pushed her poisoned dagger deeper into his side. She tried to twist the dagger as best she could until he loosened his grip enough for her to speak.

She glared at him and gathered her magic, upcasting as high as she could, “Fear,” she growled. She watched with grim satisfaction as the spell took hold, though, from the look in his eyes, he was fighting valiantly. He was still forced to drop her.

She watched him stare at her with a frenzied terror she was more than used. As he turned tail and tried to run she took to the sky and drive-bombed him, sinking her claws and teeth in and started tearing into him, never letting up no matter how much tried to push her away. Only once he had fallen, truly struggling with his dying breaths, did he cry out to his long-dead family.  Not that Scylla cared. She had worked up quite the appetite. 

There a couple of minutes she was sure she blacked out. By the time she had come to, most of the bodies were missing chunks and she ached something fierce, but at least she was full and her mind was at peace.

She looked around her, at the burning manor, the blood-soaked and half-eaten corpses The surrounding forest was silent, the moon shown overhead ever bright, and she allowed herself a moment to sit down and breathe. She pulled out a notebook, some old tattered thing she picked up from who knows where, and wrote down each and every one of their last words. She only wrote down the good ones really. Most of them were incomplete and therefore not worth keeping.

Only then did she realize one of them had called her by one of her old names, Chel. She huffed, gods above, she hadn’t that name in damn near ten years. You would think a family with this much prestige would have better intel but, she shrugged, it didn’t matter now. Chel, Griza, Nennari, Falen, whatever other old name they managed to dig up, they were all gone. All dead and buried, like everyone she ever cared for. Discarded, Sycalla had no need for them anymore. She had no real use for any name really. She only reason she kept coming up with more was because of the paperwork. It was so much more of a pain in the ass without one.