In the safety of the forest, positioned high in the trees where any attackers would have difficulty reaching them, the members of the HellRaisers guild - which they spelled H3llRazers - cackled to themselves as they loosed arrow after arrow.

Not all of them were skilled with the bow, Half of them could barely hit a still target even at a moderate range, but skill was never a factor in this. That is why they set traps.

It was the genius idea of their Captain DarkS1de, after he studied the habits of the NPCs. They were incredibly well programmed, with some very adaptable AI, but even then they were predictable.

Lead a monster into the road and keep it there with some food. Let the targets stumble across it and force them into a fight with it, then pick them off from a distance. They couldn’t leave to attack them, because they were forced to defend their employers from the beasts, and they couldn’t focus on the beasts because the H3llRazers were there picking them off like more targets to practice against.

It was truly perfect.

Drawing back his bow, one of the H3llRazers cackled to himself as he picked his next target, zeroing in on the one merchant that wasn’t hiding behind some kind of magic shield. A scrawny, homeless looking kid on some dinky looking cart.

He could tell already just from how calm he was being that this was a player, but that just made him cackle more. He couldn’t wait to see this little baby whine on the forums later, like a bunch of their other victims. It was even better when they got them multiple times. Maybe they should camp the graveyard next, just spawn kill for some fun.

The archer was just about to loose his arrow, then the shadows in front of him created by the trees canopy darkened ever so slightly and stirred with a pure black smoke. A pale white hand lunged from the shadows and clamped around the archers throat.

He let out a strangled whimper, his grip loosening on the arrow and sending it flying harmless into the air where it arced clean over the ambush site.

He was forced back by the hand, which had an iron-like grip, as a woman with a devilish smile that overflowed with sadistic glee.

"B-baroness..." He managed to say, causing the woman in front of him to pause and frown slightly.

"Oh? You’ve heard of me. That’s cute. I guess I do have a bit of a reputation now, don’t I?" She said, regaining her shark-toothed grin as she cackled to herself.

The strangled archer nodded quickly, smiling warmly as he hoped that maybe she would come over to their side and she would work out a deal with the boss. If anyone could convince her to turn on them, it was definitely the boss.

It was a strange hope that he held onto, right up until he was stabbed in the stomach.

He frowned in confusion, coughing up a lungful of blood as his eyes trailed down, to see the woman’s other hand against his stomach. From each of her fingers grew vicious, pure black claws that were buried deep in his guts.

She laughed again, twisting her hand and ripping apart his stomach before yanking her hand back. His stomach opened, spilling his guts down the tree, as the woman lifted her hand up to inspect her black claws.

"Hmm, they don’t get stained with blood. Not sure if that is a good thing or not. Oh well, Not like I want any of yours anyways." She muttered before laughing wickedly, tossing the Archer’s body out of the tree and to the ground.

The splattering thump of his body hitting the ground gained the attention of his guild mates, who looked over in confusion at the dark figure in black and white armour, with glowing red eyes peering out of the darkness.

"It’s the Baroness!" One of them shouted, clearing up the confusion of the others and immediately sending a wave of fear throughout the entire guild. Arrows were quickly turned in her direction and bows were drawn back as Belladonna laughed to herself.

"Shut up and keep your cool!" The leader, DarkS1de shouted from amongst the crowd, "I don’t care who she is. There are twenty of you and only one of her. So just shut up and shoot her already!"

Obeying their leaders orders, an arrow left a trembling bow. It flew through the branches as it soared straight towards Belladonna’s head, only for it to redirect itself at the last minute. Its glinting metallic tip sliding off the invisible field that surrounded her body before the arrow thunked into the tree behind her.

"Twenty huh" Belladonna muttered to herself, her voice coming out like a predatory growl, "No... No that won’t do at all. Let’s fix those numbers."

She crouched down on the branch as lightning crackled around her body before she launched herself forwards. The branch she had been standing on exploded into splinters that were launched across the forest like shrapnel, and in the blink of an eye she was already in front of one of the other archers.

He let out a panicked yelp, trying to draw back his bow only for it to shatter and collapse in his hands as black claws tore through its wooden body. Those same claws sliced clean through his head a moment later, separating it into five different slices that slid off of one another like sections of a poorly stacked burger.

"That’s one." She growled as the man-burger collapsed to the ground.

More arrows flew towards her only to curve around her body as if they were scared of offending her by marking her skin.

Belladonna turned slowly, flexing her claws either side of her as her glowing red eyes scanned over the fearful and enraged faces of their ambushers, and couldn’t help but lick her lips as she smiled in sadistic glee.

"So... Who wants to be number two?"