"Hmph" the master snorted, pushing Theron back. "Don't go getting any funny ideas"
His body was riddled with cuts from Ezra's sword, from which he bled onto the battlefield.
But all that mattered not. 'I can't die here'
He slashed faster. "Die!"
"No thank you"
Theron matched him, dodging and blocking most of his attacks, rarely counterattacking.
But that was all. Rather, it was impressive he even managed to do this much.
The more Theron endured, the fiercer the attacks became, because time was running out.
Injuries came upon Theron, but he didn't flinch.
When it dawned that he couldn't defeat Theron with just his weapon, he changed his approach.
Slashing to the side, Theron moved his Halberd in that direction.
'As expected,' the man kicked him and before Theron could react, he fell to the ground with a thud.
Spitting blood, Theron tried to stand but the man stepped on his shoulder.
"I've got you" unable to stand, Theron withstood his saber with the halberd before kicking it away.
He raises his saber for a final strike, when…
Shin!
A thin silver line swept past his arm and cut it off.
"Ahh!"
His arm fell to the floor with a thud along with the Saber, hot blood pouring out on Theron as the man held the stump.
He looks to the side. The culprit smirks at him.
"WHY? You promised-
"And you actually believed it?"
The man was on the verge of insanity "Where is your pride as a knight?!"
"Where was yours when you decided to take my head?" he snickered. "You expect me to show courtesy to those who have come for my head? You're even more delusional than I thought"
He turns to Theron. "Engrave this in your mind" his gaze cold. "Never spare enemies, they'll only come back to bite you"
The master staggered in retreat, his face pale with fear. "No! No, wait! You can't do this!" Deeming it ineffective, he switches to threats, "You can't kill me. You won't get away. My clan will track you down!"
"I'll be waiting"
Ezra struck, and the master was cleanly beheaded.
Thud*
The head fell to the floor with a thud, holding an expression of despair and so did the body.
Ezra started without any particular emotions, swiping the blood off his sword.
Theron stands.
"How is your body?"
"I have only scratches"
Ezra almost laughed. "Sure" he looks afar, "Shall we check on the others?"
*Kuhk*
Number 2 spurted blood. His body lay on the soil, both skin and clothes torn.
Just then, a woman came close. "Hmm, Ezra said he was weak, but like…aren't you a bit too weak?"
He wanted to scream, but the poison in his veins didn't allow it, so he simply glared.
Roxanne huffed, folding her arms while Velora growled, "Look at this guy" , stepping his head, and subsequently his glare into the ground.
Even with but a single arm, number 2 caused them sufficient trouble.
But Velora scales allowed her good defence while Roxanne attacked from a distance with her elongating whip sword, allowing them to bag an easy victory.
A voice rang out. "I see you're done here"
The girls turned to see Ezra with Theron by his side.
"Why is he still alive?"
"That, um…We thought you might want him alive"
"Kill him"
They swallowed hard, looking at each other.
"If you don't kill him, he'll come back to kill you" Ezra toned. "That's just the way it works. So, Kill him"
They stare at number 2, who seemed to mumble something, but it couldn't be heard with his head trenched in soil.
Roxanne points her swords downwards while Velora places her dagger by his neck.
"On three" says Roxanne.
Roxanne and Velora: "One. Two...*Chuk!*
Silence reigned for a time as the sisters took heavy breaths, understanding the significance of their actions.
"Don't nurse any useless feelings, you simply killed someone trying to kill you. Now get over here"
They reach Ezra with slow steps.
Approaching the site where Johan and Ashton, they found them sitting on a body run through with a saber, both boys had wounds at multiple places.
"Seems you went through a bit of trouble"
Johan smirked, kicking the corpse "Ha. Trouble? I barely stretched my boy. This guy was too weak"
The siblings face palmed, Ashton giving his account. "Too weak my foot, we almost died, multiple times!"
"Whatever"
"In any case. He's dead" Ezra spoke. "Wait here"
He jumped into a tree before they could give any questions.
The whole battle, from meeting to confrontation took no more than twenty minutes.
Weiss was heading to the site of the battle when a consecutive blast resounded.
He threw himself to the ground with hesitation, raising his head and straining his eyes to see what happened.
With effort, he makes out the figure of the master assassin at the end of a trail of broken trees.
'What! Someone pushed a master that far? Who? I was sure we had no masters among us'
He was the one who provided information about the route the carriage took and what sort of guards were hired.
Right now, he was running like crazy.
'Damn!'
His eyes shook watching Ezra decimate a master with ease.
'He's been hiding his strength all this time!'
It was both terrifying and exciting news.
'A master at twelve' he shook his head, and so, he took the opposite direction. 'I have to make sure the world knows'
But the sound of rustling grass forced him to a stop.
The forest suddenly seemed ominous.
The moment he sought to run; his senses rang out as a sword came flying at him.
Deflecting it, a voice resounds. "You have good reflexes"
A person walked out of the bushes, a child in fact.
To Wiess, it was the visage of a demon.
He immediately lost all will to fight and plodded to the ground. "P-Please don't kill me!"
Ezra reached him, "And why so?"
"I'll give you anything! Please!"
"Seeing as you're so desperate. I'll give you a chance"
The man nodded.
"Who sent you?"
The man paled, "Please anything else, they'll kill me"
"Oh? And I won't?"
"Hik!" he gasped in fright. "I'll tell you"
"It was Marquis Erington. Technically, it was one of his knights, Sir Mateo"
"Marquis Erington?" Ezra frowned. "Who is he?"
The knight looked surprised that he didn't know such a person, but quickly got to explaining.
"He is a widely known wine seller, and the Empresses cousin"
Ezra's eyes shined, he'd found a point of contact.
"Which Empress?"
He swallowed over and over, before muttering "The third"
'Gwendolyn'
Ezra smiled. He had a hunch it was her, but only with confirmation could he be sure.
'I'll remember this!'
He looks to the knight, "Anything else?"
"Well…
After that, there wasn't much he actually knew, but a few details were still useful.
Once done, the knight pleaded, "I've told you everything I know. Now let me-
Ezra blade passed through his neck so fast, he was able to mutter 'go' before his head slid to the floor.
He snorted, 'People are the same wherever you go'
He'd dealt with such people too many times in his past life.
From the start, Ezra had sensed them approaching the camp, but said nothing so that they would reveal themselves once and for all.
He certainly hadn't expected a master to come. But things seem to work out fine.
'Now to clean this place up'
Naturally, he could not leave such blatant traces.
First, he stripped the body of anything useful.
Looting was an essential skill, and Ezra had mastered it.
Within minutes he was done.
Thereafter, he sucked both the body and items into his space ring.
After that, he lifts the residue of blood with his blood affinity and disposes of it.
With speed, he arrives at the site where the siblings waited.
They were sitting in silence but stood the moment he came into view.
Roxanne spoke. "So…how did it go?"
"Well. It went well"
Knowing Ezra, they nodded. As it didn't seem he was going to share what happened.
Ezra looked at them. "I assume you all packed more than a single pair of clothing?"
They took glances, what was this about?
"I'll take that as a yes. Change those clothes and hand them over"
The request had the siblings startled.
"And be quick. Unless you want them to find us and kill us?"
They didn't understand completely, but Ezra wasn't one to do pointless things.
Going into the deep bushes, they were quick to change and handed Ezra their bloodied clothes.
"Good," he nods. "Go and stand by the cart while I clean things up"
Again, they obeyed.
With the siblings out of sight. Ezra got to work, stripping the bodies of all they're worth.
Thanks to Wiess's miscellaneous information he avoids traps on their bodies that might have been activated otherwise and once that done, placed them in his space ring.
Of course, he couldn't pretend nothing happened since the old man and the guards were dead.
'So, I'll give them a scenario'
He didn't take away the body of the master, that was to crucial to the setting.
Instead, he took out his sword and destroyed a wide range of trees and then, with blood affinity, planted blood all over the place.
Also, he didn't to touch the bodies that lay at the campsite-that of the guards and the old man.
Well, he emptied the space rings the guards wore, but took only the not-so-important stuff.
Then, he cleaned his prints, such as the palm print as the campsite.
The initial rumbling that woke the guards up was as a result of him slamming his palm-after amplified it with mana-into the ground.
While doing this, he spun his narrative for the siblings to memorize, "When you're asked, we were ambushed while sleeping and so we ran. Remember, you saw a single person"
They nod, "The guards and the coach sacrificed themselves to help us escape, Then I took reins of the carriage and rode off. Of course, it was not enough, the attackers soon caught up with us. But 'luckily', a stranger passing by helped. Creating time by fighting back the bandits while we rode off. And because we so 'scared', we didn't look back once till we reached a small town"
"Engrave that narrative in your mind. It's what you'll tell those who eventually come"
The siblings were left flabbergasted.
Theron was most impressed. "How do you know someone will come?"
Ezra turned to him with a smile. "Trust me. They'll come"
An hour went by with him destroying the landscape. Creating an image for those to come.
While fighting the master, he didn't use elements because they would have larger traces.
It was far too early to be discovered.
Once finished, Ezra wiped the sweat on his forehead.
Looking at the result, he felt proud. 'Now this is what you call a work of art'
As a knight who's dabbled in the art of assassination in his past life, that experience let him create a scenario based on what he knew assassins would look for.
"Get in the carriage. You'll memorize the narrative as we go"
With that, the carriage rode into night, leaving behind a bloodied forest with many trees destroyed.
He had to make the 'battle between their saviour and the master assassin' believable enough for visitors.
Such matters had to be handled carefully to avoid a bevy of future troubles.
