[center]Night had already settled in, bringing all the nocturnal creatures out of their hiding. A whole new world with new rules came with the night, a dangerous world, a treacherous one where no rules applied. There were no winners and losers, only survivors and corpses. The aureate warrior silently walked down the path to the designated meeting place. He was far out of the village by this point, at least 9 miles away on the north side. Different flora dotted the place but high trees prevailed overall with little to no low level vegetation. In places where the trees and branches were sparse a peculiar family of thorn plants had taken root. In the middle of the organic structure a marble-like object with a bright light blue shine seemed to levitate up and down in the air. The thorn vines surrounded it on all sides except below and above.  
No time for that the assassin thought as he turned his head forward and continued towards the location. Upon arriving there he was met by a cloaked figure, face shrouded in darkness. Knowing the drill, Light took out his ring and passed it to him. The ring was golden, adorned by many black marbles circling it. Lines and strange writings could be made out on its surface. After passing the ring, the dark figure rummaged through one of his pockets, finally fishing out a pouch of 100 gold pieces and a small bar of pure gold. The exchange being finished, with no further business there, the cloaked figure dissipated in a burst of black smoke. From the smoke only a letter remained floating in mid air.[/center]
[color=696969][i]"We have a traitor amongst our ranks. They are leaking information about the jobs we take and the target's identity. Only in the past week, 53 assassination attempts remained just that, attempts. All the targets, surprisingly, knew that their life was in danger, when it was going to be endangered and who was going to be their assailant. We've lost 37 members of our EDGE Corpse.
You should lay low for a while. Until this is sorted out, all assassination missions have been suspended.
M.P."[/i][/color]

[center]This was troublesome indeed. As the golden terror turned back, the letter turned to smoke, no hint of it ever existing remained. This being the first time he was without a job, a mission. Was this what.. vacations were? While he was in deep thought about the recent events, still walking back towards the village, something creaked. Like the noise you hear when you break a finger then forcefully rip it apart from the hand. Well, not many people know that noise, just things people on his line of work hear and see a lot of. Looking down, the fighter saw one of the thorn vines crushed beneath his heavy golden boot. He had gotten alarmingly close to this strange plant while lost in thought. Stepping away from it, a green ooze started pouring from the crushed part. The damaged piece separated itself from the healthy one leaving a perfectly cut circular shape on the severed place. The whole thing seemed to..shudder? for a few seconds before going still, or was it still? Inspecting the vines revealed that they were connected to the surrounding trees. Certainly the little light and minerals they got amidst this dense forest wasn't enough so they were leeching from the trees. Getting closer he saw that the vines were moving up and down, even if barely noticeable the movement was present. Almost like it was..breathing? The thing had a sickly green color with the thorns protruding like sharp needles the latter which leaked a dark green fluid. Suddenly a faint flapping sound could be heard. As soon as he turned back,the giant silhouette of a bird could be seen diving from the air with the Moon at its back. With no chance to even think, reflexes took over allowing him to dodge the diving bird. The flying creature, carried by momentum and certainly not expecting the blitz-like evasion, plunged claws first at the thorn plant. No sooner this happened when all the vines moved and surrounded the flying predator, sticking their needle like thorns into it. At first the giant bird of prey put up a wild fight, clawing at the plant shredding vines to bits, furiously flapping it's wings and screeching like there was no tomorrow. But in the end..after 1 minute to be exact it went limp. The vines were radiating with a green color, pumping it through the needles that were implanted deep and all around the bird food which also started radiating that sick light green radioactive color. A hole opened beneath the marble object which the bird was dragged through and out of sight with the rest of the predatory plant. The vines that were attached to the tree blended well with it, following the trunk down and underground. No one would suspect that they were part of a parasitic meat eating predatory trap plant. The hole seemed to close itself ultimately erasing any signs that the thing was there. And to imagine that our warrior was thinking of acquiring that strange mesmerizing orb not only a minute ago. Free time was bad, free time was more dangerous than his usual work. He proceeded returning to the inn fast paced, now treading the path more carefully and keeping an eye out for anymore surprises. There was also a tale about that forest having acidic leaves.. To his relief he made it back to the inn without so much as a scratch. 

After arriving, he removed his helmet's mouth piece and ate and drank the most expensive food and beverage, for free*. A perk to converting the inn owner. A perk which also included using the VIP suite. After eating and drinking to his heart's content, all the while being masked by the Stranger's Cloak, he went upstairs, used cleanse one more time before dropping into bed, armor on like always. The wooden bed structure broke dropping the mattress on the ground. Good thing the room was on the first floor. As the tiredness of the day finally got to him, he drifted to sleep, his last thoughts about the identity of the traitor.[/center]