THE MOMENT
The three girls entered the shadows between buildings. An ancient half-dragon stood at the end of the dark alleyway next to a flaming barrel. The half-human wore ragged jeans and a frayed t-shirt under an elegant, golden dragon-scale cloak that reflected sparkles of flame as he held a loaded stick over the heat. The sun hadn't quite disappeared below the horizon yet; but, the brick walls on each side of the alley rose high enough to block out the golden hour light. The warm orange glow at the end of the back street was the only illumination and the three girls readied themselves as they approached the supposed soothsayer.
"Are you ready?" Alis, the girl with pink hair, turned and asked the blue-haired girl, Liberty. The third girl with them, Valentine, didn't need the question. Alis and Valentine were on the same team and knew each other decently well by now; Liberty was the newcomer.
"Ready," Liberty nodded. She was also the youngest of the group and she wanted to prove she could keep up with their pace. They reached the barrel and spread out to put some space between them as Alis greeted the homeless dragon.
"Hi, the three of us are ninjas, and we were hoping you could tell us something about our next mission?" she asked.
"You came to me because you want to know your future...," he spoke with the raspy, gravelly voice of a heavy smoker who also happened to be a dragon. He turned toward Alis, tilted his head, and shut one eye. The one he left open was cloudy but somehow still focused on her. "...arrogant little nothings that you are, as if the Gods of Fate had nothing to do but think of you," he chuckled with a condescending wheeze. Liberty had a sinking feeling in her gut. She tightened her grip and drew her sword ever so slightly; but, she wasn't the only one. Both the other girls were ninjas too. They were all uncertain about the next few seconds.
"Here it is, then...," the back alley wiseman focused on the blaze and avoided direct eye contact with any of them. "...one of you will betray the rest, one will die, and the last will live to see old age, but still wish that they hadn't."
Liberty was drawing her sword before she had a target. As soon as the urban shaman gave his prophecy, she knew that she had to betray them. She was moving, and fortunately, the other girls did too. By the time the prophecy was given, each of them knew their role and acted accordingly. Valentine bowed her head and took a step back silently as Alis raised her hand and nodded.
[Assassinate] A deep voice announced Liberty's ability to those in the alley who could hear it, and she blinked out of existence. The blue-haired teenager appeared behind Alis. The pink-haired victim stumbled forward, then dissolved into white dust and disappeared.
[Maim] The voice announced Liberty's next move as she drew her sword and vanished again. Valentine collapsed, paralyzed and bleeding out onto the alley blacktop from her wounded spine. As soon as the message appeared in her view, she flicked her wrist up to summon her Slate. The glass pane appeared in front of her and she navigated as fast as she could to finish the task.
[Quest Complete] the message appeared in her vision and she sighed.
"You okay?" she reached down to help Valentine up.
"It didn't hurt," Valentine shrugged at her with a smile. That was an understatement that Liberty might've missed if she hadn't had her turn at being the survivor. Thankfully, this was the last configuration the trio needed, and they'd all had a turn at all three parts. She wasn't enthusiastic about PvPing her friends, and much less about being killed by them. But, the 'survivor' role was the worst. There was no pain, but no other sensations either. She was going to avoid feeling like that as much as possible going forward.
"What'd you get?" Alis had respawned and she joined them in the alley again. Liberty was the Betrayer and that meant it was her quest to be rewarded.
"Oh right!" She was glad it was over and had forgotten about that detail. "NO WAY!" Her eyes lit up, and her head spun around to look at the dragonman. He still looked the same, and she turned to Alis and pulled the reward out of her inventory.
"I got his dragon scale cloak!" She held it up and it seemed to glow brighter in her hands than the one the NPC currently wore.
"Whoa," Valentine smiled.
"I didn't know we could get that!" Alis said. She glanced at Valentine and Liberty was perceptive enough to catch a subtle exchange between them. "We're up for trying it a few more times, if you are...," Alis presented it as a hopeful suggestion. "We could use a cloak too, and you're as fast as us...," she said. "But, if you have things to do, there are other ninjas looking for a group."
"Oh, definitely! Of course!" Liberty nodded. "Happy to join, it's not every day I get to betray people... or be betrayed... I'm having a blast."