Assassin System in a Magical World

The boy who didn't die

"Take that, you little shit."  The speaker had a loud and high pitched voice, the kind that set your nerves on edge just hearing it.  The man was on the short side, with fat cheeks, and a round belly pushing the front of his rich green robe forward.

He waved his hand and the teenager in front of him was knocked back into the alley wall.  A groan escaped his lips as a puff of dust billowed away from the brick surface.  His long dirty hair fell across his face, but he still looked up at the mage who was hurting him.

"I don't know why all of you zombies haven't been sent to the mana stone pits.  What is the point of living without magic?" the chubby man said.  He snapped his fingers and the air shimmered around the boy, as if from a great heat, then the boy's clothes lit on fire.

"Arrrgh," he yelled, not looking defiant any longer.  He rolled on the dirty cobblestones of the street, through puddles of questionable origin, but the flames didn't extinguish.  He started tearing off his clothes and flinging them away.

"Hahaha, oh, that might be the most clever use of the targeted burning spell ever performed.  Dance for me, zombie!"

Red welts and blisters covered the teen's chest and legs. He was jumping in pain, naked, and oblivious to the fat mage.

"How did you think robbing a mage was going to end boy?" A cruel smile curved his lips as he beheld the lean muscles of the teen.  "You're stronger than you look, maybe I could find a use for you..."  The chubby man got closer, his tongue darted out as he reached his sausage link fingers to touch the youth's shoulder.  "You know, if you treat me right, I could make the pain go away and heal those scars."

At the Mage's touch, the boy went still.  Perhaps sensing the greater danger he was now in.  'This is what I get for trying to feed my little sister,' Shinra thought, a tear of frustration, pain and fear snaking down his cheek.  'Tardel is truly a hell hole for zombies.'

Shinra knew it wasn't always like this.  His parents, before they died, used to tell him of the days before Emperor Zeltak came to power.  Back then, non mages were just called people.  They weren't equal to mages and wizards, but they could practice trades, join the military, and even engaged in commerce and politics.  Shinra found it hard to believe, but his dad said his own grandfather was a famous warrior back then, and even owned a small house and a little land.

'The only thing my parents left me was training in how to fight, how pointless was that?'  His father said it was proof of their warrior tradition, but skill and muscles could never overcome magic. Not even the magic of this fat pathetic mage about to kill him.

Almost everything in Tardel was now done with magic, and Zombies either became slaves, prisoners, or lived on the fringes, trying to survive however they could in the mage dominated empire.  Shinra usually stole to feed his sister, though he did a few odd jobs for the Zombies that still managed to run businesses.  Free zombies did the worst sort of jobs, like cleaning sewage pipes, running slaughterhouses, collecting garbage and other hard labour.  Shinra didn't mind hard work, but there wasn't a lot of work, and even less money and food to go around.

'Now my clothes are gone, and this mage is going to violate me.' Shinra thought, his fists clenched unconsciously.  Shinra spent his whole life being afraid of the power and violence of mages.  Zombies had almost no rights. If a few died, or many, the sheriffs didn't care. 

His own father was killed in front of him for being too close to a Sorcerer Princess.  No warning, he was just turned to ash by a bolt of lightning from a clear sky.  The Princess' guard then told the crowd of zombies to "Make way. Her Highness is offended by your stink."  One moment he had a father, and the next he was orphaned.  His mother’s end years before was even worse, though his father had gotten a small measure of revenge for it.

Shinra remembered when his father returned to their tent that long ago night, covered in blood.  “Son, violence isn’t the best answer to life’s problems.  Sometimes though, it is the only language some people understand.”  He had started to remove his blood soaked clothes then, preternaturally calm. “I didn’t teach you and your sister to fight so that you could hurt people.  I taught you so that, when it is important, you will be heard,”  Then his father smiled.  It was one of the last smiles Shinra saw him make, and it was, strangely, one of his fondest memories of his dad.  At that moment, Shinra could tell he was at peace with himself.

The rage at this mage built within Shinra, so did the fear of death and the sadness that his sister would be alone now.  It was a storm of emotion he had never felt before, so deep that his body vibrated with the fury of it. 

‘Violence is a form of communication, right dad?’ he thought, even as the pudgy fingers pulled at his shoulder to turn him around.  ‘Well, listen to this, you fat fucker!’

“Arggghaaaaa!” Shinra screamed.  He spun towards the green robed mage, his hand flying forward in a tight fist at his nose.

“Huh?” the mage said.  He didn’t even move as the fist approached, then stopped nearly 3 inches from his face.  A faint shimmer was the only tell tale of the low level melee shield spell that protected him.  “HA! Did you really try to attack me?  Oh child, I am going to take my time with you.”  His cruel smile returned and he moved his hand in a complicated circle, then pointed at Shinra’s leg.  An arrow of light shot through the meaty part of his thigh, leaving a smoking hole in its wake.

“Unngh,” Shinra grunted, but he didn’t fall down.  Instead he released a flurry of punches, blade hands and elbow strikes at the mage’s head. Each one stopped short, the shimmer of the shield flashing each time, but he didn’t care.  He sped up.

The attacks couldn’t reach the mage, but the intensity of the boy was unsettling.  “Stop it. What is wrong with you, you vile animal.  Is your body worth more than your life?” Even as he spoke, the mage took several steps back from the flying fists.  “Stop!” He raised his hands for another spell, but felt heat at his back.  “What the hell?”

The mage had stepped on Shinra’s burning clothes, the magical flame still burning long past a natural one would have.  

“Whoosh,” was the sound as the back of his robe’s caught fire.  His robes were spelled to protect him from the elements, but he wasn’t so rich that they had strong magical protections woven into them.  

“Shit, my targeted burning spell was too good.” He started trying to beat out the flames at the bottom of his robes, the boy not warranting his attention right now, he had a lot of magical items stored on himself for the Great Market Fair, and some were very flammable.

Shinra kept punching at him, thinking this distraction was his chance, but the shield kept him at bay, even when the mage was distracted. ‘Dammit. He needs to pay!’  Tears of frustration rolled down his cheeks, as his hands nearly blurred with the speed of his punches.

‘What is that?’ Shinra thought. He saw the glint of something beneath the mage’s robes, as they opened while the mage was stepping on the back.  It looked like a large knife or dagger on a belt around the mage’s waist.  ‘Mages don’t carry weapons very often, why bother?’  Shinra couldn’t take his eyes from it though.  Though sheathed, he could see the blade had a gentle curve to the sharp side, and still finished in a straight point.  This made it suitable for slashing and stabbing attacks.  The blade looked to be bigger than his hand, and the handle was wrapped in well worn animal hide and topped with a rounded end that looked like a skull.

Unconsciously, Shinra reached out and grabbed the blade, sliding it out of the sheath.  The blade looked wickedly sharp, but somehow did the opposite of shine. It looked like part of the darkness.

“Does your lawlessness know no bounds! You have taken something from my person.  The punishment is death.” The mage yelled.  His robe was smoking still, but the fire was out.  “I’m surprised you can even hold an enchanted item, though that one is all but worthless.”  The mage smiled again.  “A dagger is as effective as your weak fists on someone with my power.”

‘I’m going to die. I may as well die fighting,’ he thought.  He launched himself forward, the smug evil smile of the mage enraging him further.  Without thinking, he reversed his grip on the dagger with the point down towards his elbow and the sharp curve facing out.  He swiped his arm as fast and hard as he could at the mage’s throat, hoping that this extra effort might somehow defeat the magic shield.

The mage stared at him for a moment, his smile fading.  Then a fountain of blood erupted from his throat.  Shinra could see cartilage and bone as the flesh gaped wide open and blood spurted more from the sliced blood vessels.

“What the hell!” Shinra yelled, surprised, despite this being what he wanted.

The mage fell to his knees, but started to make signs with one hand while fumbling in his robes with the other.

“Oh no you don’t,” Shinra said. He knew the mage was looking for a restorative item while trying to cast a healing spell.  The mage probably should have focused on one at a time instead of both, but this was likely the first time he’d been dealt a deadly blow.

Shinra jammed the blade deep into the mage’s chest.  He felt it knick a rib, and then keep going.  He pulled it out and plunged it in again and again.  When he was finished the mage lay on his back in a giant pool of blood, but no more leaked from the wounds.

He panted in spent rage and bloodlust, the strength seeming to leave his muscles all at once, and he fell to his knees in the pool of blood beside the mage.  ‘I survived.  How?’ he wondered.  He didn’t feel guilt for killing the monster, but his mind was having trouble catching up to the fact that he was still alive.  He really was resigned to die.

“Shit.  I’m going to have to get away unnoticed somehow. This is not the kind of thing the Sheriffs ignore,” he said, still panting and naked.  He still had no strength.  Suddenly, staying alive was possible, but it was going to make more effort than he could muster right now.

[Ding] Sounded off in his head.

“Huh? What was that?”

[Achievement: Mage Level 2 Defeated]

[Initiation Requirements Met]

[Assassination System Unlocked]

“What the...” was all Shinra could say before a scream of agony escaped his lips and he fell into the pool of blood.