Mon'Ter

Chapter 17: Assassin's guild strikes back

During the combat against the remaining seven enemies, three knights each occupied one assassin, pushing them back long enough for someone else to swoop in and decimate them. 

Three such cases ended with Drull, Siya and Jorky ending an assassin each. 

The other four fell at the hand of Elyenora and Trygg, three to the princess and one to the knight leader supported by arrows. 

It was a swift victory despite facing powerful adversaries. 

“Booyah!” Jorky exulted excitedly. 

“Good job everyone, nice fight!” Trygg heaved, wiping some sweat off his forehead. 

“These guys are from the assassin’s guild, no wonder they were so tough.” Drull commented. 

“Aye, but we got em good!” 

“Assassins or not we showed them who’s boss!” 

“Ain’t nothing like a good ol’ round of team work, ey guys?” 

Some of the knights bantered, proud of the achievement. 

Assassin guild members were no joke, their speed and agility in combat is second to none amongst the other factions, they’re feared as silent killers that can murder anyone as long as the proper price has been issues for that person’s head. 

If you took out the surprise factor and Elyenora out of the picture, leaving only the two groups to fight it out head on, then there would be many casualties required to take down the eight assassins. And they knew that. 

It was surely a great victory in their eyes.  

“Don’t celebrate too soon,” Elyenora joined in, “When Assassins group up for their missions, they often use special ways of showing each other how the others are faring, like a sort of link between them. With the fact that we just killed eight of them here, the rest are bound to now know of our little raid.” 

“That’s quite the problem, isn’t it?” Melissa smiled wryly. 

“Ah, what the hell! We’ll just screw them over the same way we did these guys!” Jorky bellowed, seeming to have finally gotten excited over this. 

“Yes, and we have the beautiful lady Ely to support us, you truly are an expert swordswoman my love!” George spoke in a flamboyant manner, playing with his hair all the while. 

“It’s not that easy, they’ll be coming after us now instead of us after them.” Drull pointed out. 

“Siya will pummel them either way! Siya is strong! Siya has axe!” Siya spoke excitedly while raising her battle axe up and down with one hand, earning herself a light pat on the head from Drull as she giggled. 

“...” Shana looked a bit concerned, speaking up in question. “Ely, where to next?” 

“There’s more trails leading over in that side.” Elyenora pointed towards the far left of the room’s three exits, “Let’s get going, we must not waste time.” 

The group of seventeen had little to no wounds after their encounter with combat, a bit of fatigue could initially be spotted on the group of ten knights, however they quickly brushed it off and kept moving. 

The dark halls were again illuminated by Melissa’s spell, this time however the party was even more on edge than before with their weapons in hand the entire time. 

They were also surrounded by a silence spell all over so they made no sounds while walking or speaking amongst each other, it was definitely comforting the anxiety they felt.  

At one point there was a left turn with a long hall leading up to a large opening with some light slowly seeping into the dark, giving away the presence of another room much like the one previously found. 

It was quite a bit larger than the one from before and very much empty in comparison. 

“You think there’s more enemies?” Shana commented as they slowly walked. 

“Be there or not, I shall protect thee, oh beautiful ladies.” George winked to the girl on his side. 

“Thanks...” Shana replied, a bit repulsed by the way the man acted. 

They slowly walked towards the room and across the hall, Elyenora couldn’t spot anyone from this distance still so it seemed to be safe. 

Until... 

“Shush.” Elyenora quieted the group down, trying to hear out anything from the front and stopping them in their tracks by putting her hand to the side as a way to signal them.  

Everyone immediately went on edge once more, knowing full well that the enemy was near. 

A moment of silence passed, before a ceding heat enveloped the area. 

Out of nowhere, the silhouette of a man clad in black garbs suddenly stood at the hallway entrance, he had some kind of creature standing atop his shoulder. 

“... Oh cr*p! A spirit user!” Elyenora processed the information quickly, shouting. “Everyone, get down! Melissa! Wind! Immediately!” She barked orders and the people followed, ducking down and bracing themselves for whatever impact was coming. 

The creature, or spirit, on the man’s shoulder then opened its maw, a bright light shining from within it as it glared through the hallway with menacing eyes. 

“Tsk!” Clicking her tongue, Elyenora shifted her gaze to Melissa who wrote a multitude of runes in the air as quickly as she could, it would only take her a couple of seconds however that was all the time they couldn’t spare.  

The tunnel-like hallway suddenly flashed a bright light as a huge wave of flames passed through the enclosed area. 

Without enough time to spare on the pleasantries of having the wind at her side, Elyenora was about to dash towards the fire with whatever strength her weapon could muster within the deep underground. 

However, before she could, Drull himself ran towards it along with Siya closely following from behind while the two swung their weapons. 

‘W-Wait!’ Elyenora wanted to shout, however there was no time to do so and the two had obviously made up their minds anyway.  

The strength of their swing was entering the champion class of strength, you could say they were already taking half a step into that realm. 

It was enough to cause a gust of wind from the powerful strikes, and Elyenora immediately rushed once she noticed. 

The flames had stopped for a moment, only to advance towards the pair of warriors who would surely be burnt by its advance. 

Drull covered Siya’s with his body, hoping to protect her from the scorching flames as they enveloped the two of them. 

Elyenora found herself only a few meters away as she gathered the recently created wind with her rapier, while Melissa had finally managed to complete her spell.  

The powerful wind magic spell rushed forward from behind Elyenora who took control over the powerful gales that Melissa created, using them to create a vortex around her rapier’s blade. 

She rushed into the fire and pushed the flames away, moving rapidly forward with a charge until she reached where Drull and Siya were and continued to block the sea of fire with her vortex of wind.   

This had all happen within a single breath of time. 

“Are you two okay?” Elyenora asked, holding back the flames with her left hand tightly gripping the rapier’s handle. 

“Siya is okay... But Drull got badly burned.” Siya spoke, looking concerned for her close one. 

“I’m fine...” Drull replied with his deep voice, “Just a few singes... Nothing to worry about...” He said whilst trying to get back to his feet. 

His armor had been charred and his face had many patches of skin burnt off, he most definitely was not fine under that armor either, likely boiled alive inside all of that steel. 

“Siya, take this and give it to him,” Elyenora said whilst taking out a small glass vial from her bag filled with red liquid, “It’s a healing potion. Use it and get him back to where the others are.” she prompted as Siya took the vial. 

“Siya thanks you!” The girl said with a smile, grabbing Drull over the shoulders and pulling him away from the flames. 

Once the fires finally receded, Elyenora glanced back towards where they had come from only to find nothing at the end of the hall. 

‘He went back into hiding...’ Elyenora thought to herself, activating her Soul Vision once more to hopefully find him. 

What she saw however shocked her, as there was a soul rushing towards her group from up above inside the ceiling. 

“No! Run!” Elyenora bellowed as she turned around, running back towards her group as quickly as she could. 

The knights had all surrounded the two archers and the mage, however, despite the neatly tightened formation, the dark figure which had traversed the ceiling somehow managed to get inside the encirclement.  

The assassin managed to cut both George and Melissa’s throats in the blink of an eye, killing them before they could even respond by using a curved jagged dagger with a bone like texture. 

The two people’s entire bodies then suddenly convulsed and burst into all directions, creating blood stains on the walls, floor, ceiling and surrounding people. 

“Wha-!” The knights swung their swords in shock, trying to kill the man whom had taken out their two companions, however they missed completely only to hit their own blades. 

The assassin had vanished, Elyenora could see him running back to where he came from inside the ceiling. 

“W-w-what the hell happened?!” One of the knights screamed in terror, he had never seen someone explode like that. 

“Blughh!” Shana puked at the sight as she and the knights were covered in blood. 

“This is insanity!” Another shouted, fear seeping into their ranks as they looked all around themselves in search and fear of the enemy. 

“Tsk!” Elyenora clicked her tongue, “Everyone run towards the room! We need more space to fight them!” she shouted. 

Without further ado the men and women ran towards the exit, Elyenora at the front by over ten meters. 

Siya had given Drull the potion and he seemed to have healed fully, now running alongside her while Shana seemed to wear a dreadful expression since she was the one most covered in her allies’ blood. 

The princess rushed out, brandishing her blade as she gazed at all directions to find the enemy’s soul silhouettes. 

“You can’t hide forever! Get down here and out in the open you sacks of rat waste!” Elyenora provoked, gazing at the ceiling where twelve souls resided. 

“Oh my, you’re quite good ain’tchu?” A voice spoke from the top of the room, slowly emerging from the dark corners of the ceiling. 

Another twelve figures much like the ones from before suddenly appeared before Elyenora as her group of warriors arrived to behind her back, glaring at their newfound opponents. 

There were both tall and short people among them, the one whom had created the giant wave of fire stood on the far left with what seemed to be a big red lizard standing atop his shoulder. 

At a glance he had no arms, however if you were to look under his garbs you would find that he didn't have teeth and was missing massive patches of his skin. 

He had obviously performed a blood spirit contract at one of the spirit altars, sacrificing those parts of his body to gain that flame spirit, a salamander. 

“How’s the mage girl and the archer boy faring?” A grin could be seen behind the mask of a short man, he held the same dagger that had cut the necks of Melissa and George, flinging it up in the air for a spin before catching it once more to repeat the taunting action. 

“You... Bastard...” Trygg quietly murmured under his breath, killing intent steadily flowing through his gaze as he barely contained himself from rushing at the man. 

“What? Did I kill your girlfriend old man?” The assassin snickered. 

“I’ll kill you, you short pine sized ball of dirt!” Trygg roared, his veins popping on his forehead, however a hand stood before him as if to tell him to calm down. 

“I didn’t think you’d just show yourselves out in the open like this, don’t you people use underhanded methods for battle?” Elyenora asked, glaring at the twelve assassins before her. 

“What point in that? You seem to be able to see us even through walls.” The short one with the dagger spoke. 

“When you can clearly see us there’s no reason for us to hide is there, miss?” The one in the center spoke, he seemed to be the leader. “I’ll tell you what, why don’t you all surrender and we’ll consider sparing your lives?” 

‘That guy... He’s at the level of a Noble Class fighter... But its more so on the lower ends...’ Elyenora thought with her sword at the ready, gazing at the man’s soul which showed to hold great strength. ‘But its not just him... There’s another three who are at least mid Champion Class and the rest are at the peak of Rare...’ 

Things weren’t looking all too well for the group as they had lost their mage, a crucial piece in their formations. 

“Hey, Ely...” Shana spoke, “Don’t you think we should surrender? These guys seem strong and...” She recalled what had just happened, placing a hand at her mouth. “I don’t want to see anyone else blow up like that...”  

“Shana...” Elyenora grimaced as she looked to her friend, “I’m afraid they won’t spare us just for surrendering, they’re not the type.” She spoke whilst turning back towards the dozen enemies. 

“I see...” Shana murmured lightly. 

At this moment the fight seemed as if it was about to break loose, everyone had their weapons at the ready and even the assassins took a battle stance. 

All except for the leader, who simply stood still with his arms cross and seemingly smirked under his mask. 

He spoke, “Do it.”  

Elyenora couldn’t figure out what his words meant, so she simply gripped her rapier tighter and prepared for whatever might come her way. 

In that moment, a sharp pain assaulted her left leg that left her stumbling on her feet.  

Looking to it, she could see an arrow head poking out from the front of her shin, it had pierced from her calf.

The arrow had come from behind. 

Turning around, Elyenora saw the shocked expressions of all those present as she and they gazed at Shana who held her crossbow pointed at Elyenora’s leg. 

“S-Sorry Ely... I... I-I had no choice...” Shana murmured, regret filling her gaze as tears filled the side of her eyes. 

“B*tch!” Jorky shouted in anger, swinging the twin axes he held at Shana’s body in an enraged state. 

“Stop!” Elyenora bellowed, promptly stopping the man’s action, however her little stunt to stop Jorky had nearly cost her greatly as two of the assassins rushed to try and cut her arms off with their short swords. 

Luckily for the princess, Drull and Trygg had mustered the strength to block both strikes with their swords while Siya smashed the place where the assassins once stood with her battle axe, only hitting the air and the floor. 

Four more ran towards them with their daggers lased with poison as they aimed to pierce at Elyenora as well, however they each were stopped by two knights acting together to end their swift charge. 

Metal clashed with metal as the eight knights barely held of the four assassins in two versus one match ups, only surviving thanks to help from the three aforementioned warriors assisting them as quickly as they could. 

Wincing in pain as she stumbled, Elyenora mumbled. “We’ll deal with Shana later Jorky, just restrain her for now...” 

“Wha-! Have you lost your mind?! The b*tch just betrayed us!” Jorky growled in fuming anger. 

“I’m sorry!” Shana bawled as she had been pushed to the ground by the last of the knights, “I’m so sorry!” 

“It’s okay, I’m sure you have a very good reason for this.” Elyenora spoke as she broke the back side of the arrow and pulled the head out. “You’re not the type of person to betray us over nothing.” 

Shana wept softly, she had never done something which she considered as cruel as this. 

“You!” Elyenora glared at the men who still sat in their place, “What have you done to Shana?” She pointed her rapier at them. 

“Nothing much really, you can ask her later after we've captured you.” The leader of the assassin group spoke in a somber tone. “You’ve lost a mage, your group is outmatched in terms of skill and with that leg of yours you’re simply done for.” He smirked under his mask, enjoying the victorious moment. 

“I wouldn’t say it’s over just yet.” Elyenora glared at the man, putting her hand inside of her small bag and pulling out the emerald green orb that Nadia had given her.  

Elyenora then continued her speech with eyes full of confidence as she stomped her wounded leg in the ground to get used to the pain, cracking the floor as a result. 

“On the contrary, we’re only getting started.”