Everyone present to watch the duel started to make their way towards the infirmary where Xavier and his opponent were being treated. On the way there one of the other young elves kept throwing looks towards Benedict, clearly looking to return the favor by challenging him. Ajax put a stop to that immediately as he didn’t want to waste any more time and they were going to leave the capital. As soon as the elf took even one step towards their group and mirrored him.

The challenge died on the elf’s tongue as he came face to face with Ajax, his victory over Arianwyn already made the rounds and since the first incident after he exited the primary dungeon everything had been clearly discussed by all the local nobility.

“You mana starved, half orcen cur.” They were close to the infirmary when the obscenities started flying. “That was not part of the wager!”

“Oh please, like you wouldn’t have asked for the next griffin cub had you won.” Xavier's voice wasn’t as loud but had a hint of schadenfreude. “The stakes were clear and concise.”

“What did you bet?” the prince’s voice boomed as he entered the infirmary, finally finding out about the slight mishap it a very unexpected way

Xavier’s smug smile died on his face as he slinked back into the bed to make himself look smaller as he turned to face his uncle.

“It doesn’t matter, it hasn’t come to pass.” Xavier quickly moved to leave the past behind. “I did win us a fortress tree.”

All of the elves from Leafblade’s entourage gasped as they heard that before turning an almost fearful expression on the elf that was still being healed.

“The wager and the duel have been witnessed by agents of the queen herself.” the prince turned towards Leafblade’s guards. “I assume the duke has a specimen on hand?”

“He does.” Lioriel provided.

“Perfect, contact the estate and have it delivered to us as we are about to leave the capital.” The prince didn’t even wait for Xavier to get healed as he dragged his nephew out of the bed slapped him on the back roughly to channel of his healing runes through him and started marching him outside. We will see what your punishment will be later.” After that he wraps one arm around Xaviers shoulder as he gives him an affectionate side hug. “As well as the reward for your spoils.”

Their quick ride through the city wasn’t as peaceful as everyone had hoped. As they were stopped at the checkpoint between the merchant and noble quarter all of them were required to exit their carriage. That’s when the attack happened.

The prince moved to protect Xavier, thinking that this was Duke Leafblade reacting after hearing what had happened but that wasn’t the case. There wasn’t just one attacker either, there were in fact three elves donning fully black outfits, two of them leather and one of them cloth, their target was Ajax.

[Danger Sense]’s warning wasn’t enough for Ajax to be able to react to the first spell that broke all of the shields his enchanted equipment provided him but it was enough to give him time to use [Mana Syphon] on the other two assassins.

Both the leather wearers were using physical enchantment spells but unlike Leafblade’s theirs were much stronger but also channeled. The pressure exerted by [Mana Syphon] was enough to cause one of their spells to break as the user simply wasn’t good enough to maintain it.

Ajax’s first reaction to seeing that was to react to the elf still charging at him but he dismissed that line of thought once he realized [Danger Sense] no longer gave him a reaction to the more skilled assassin. A moment later he could feel the mana coming off of Aranor coalescing in the direction of the assassin so he focused the two remaining threats.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

He quickly discarded the mage, even with a perfect ambush his spell had barely managed to break through the admitted numerous shields he had around himself. While that level of power was a danger to him on his own, he knew the mage wasn’t strong enough to launch any attack with any real strength before the prince took care of him. That left him with the final assassin whose boosting spell he had broken.

Ajax was sure he could dodge the attack but that wasn’t good enough for him, instead he took advantage of the small moment of disorientation the assassin suffered to use every one of mana he had recovered since exiting the dungeon.

In total Ajax spent just a little over one thousand five hundred mana, even with all of the training he had undergone to build his mana veins resistance this was still over what he could handle, Ajax knew there would be a price to pay for choosing this path.

Those fifteen hundred points of mana however weren’t used in a single spell but in multiple. The first had made the earth around Ajax mushy like wet mud, this wouldn’t give the elf anything to find good purchase. The second sent out a lighting bolt towards the assassin. The third infused his own armor with Metal mana to ensure it provided better defense now that his shield enchantments were gone. The fourth and final spell however Ajax was channeling through his dagger, it was a Vibration spell that he hoped would be enough to bypass the assassin’s defenses.

Time seemed to slow down for Ajax as both him and the assassin struck. It was a good thing he had infused his armor with metal mana as while the assassin’s sword still cleaved through it the armor forces the attack from slicing over his heart to a four inch deep gash into his shoulder. The armor and the elf’s failing footwork was all that saved Ajax’s life.

Ajax’s attack on the other hand wasn’t as successful, his dagger shattered as it tore through the assassin’s leather and shielding enchantments. Despite that thanks to the amount of Vibration mana infused into the stab some of the pieces still managed to break through the skin and imbed themselves into the assassin’s flesh, it wasn’t too deep but it was right over his heart.

“Marked!” The word resounded in the wake of the assassin as he dashed straight past to run away, not even giving a thought to his allies or even the condition of his target, all that mattered now was escape.

Ajax felt the mark on himself return stronger than before, he would have to excise curse mana that provided the assassins his location but there was nothing he could do to the vulnerability effect. Right now however he couldn’t care about that, his first reaction would have been to heal himself but he had just spent the last of his mana.

Ajax would have bet anything that there was a powerful poison on the Assassin’s blade so he wasted no time grabbing a small container from his spacial storage and carefulling covering his wound with a layer of magma.

The pain from the burning sludge was enough to cause Ajax to falter, thankfully Lexi was quick enough to react as she quickly scraped the small layer of magma away from his now charred wound and started chanting a healing spell, all the while she was also feeding Ajax a mana potion so that he would regain access to his Life mana quicker.

Both of the other assassin’s had already died. The more skilled leather wearer was encased in a two inch thick layer of ice, as for the mage she sported two of Lioriel’s arrows embedded in her chest as well as having been cleaved in two from her midsection by the prince.

“After him!” Lioriel commanded.

“Don’t… Don’t engage!” Ajax heaved out as he was using every ounce of mana that he was regenerating to heal his wound with Life mana.

Lioriel and everyone else turned to Ajax with shocked looks, all of them silently demanding an explanation.

“Chase him but…” Ajax took another deep breath as he had to focus his mind through the pain that was radiating off his shoulder. “But don’t engage, don’t let him slow down or recuperate but give it ten… no, fifteen minutes before you attack him.”

“You poisoned him!” both Aranor and the prince exclaimed at the same time, remembering what had happened to the first assassin.

“Arrest the perpetrator.” Lioriel shouted after her people that had dashed off not even slowing down when Ajax tried to stop them from engaging. Her command would have the soldiers attempt to get the assassin to surrender first before attacking him, that time was all the leeway she would allow for Ajax’s plan before he people would engage.

“How are you?” the prince said as he kneel next to Ajax who was sitting on the ground while activating a number of runes on his armor, a considerable amount of mana passing through the runes as more healing spell started to take effect.

“I got him right over his heart.” Ajax said with a mix of pride and anger.

“I don’t care about the assassin.” the prince erupted. “You did all you could now forget about him and focus on healing yourself.”

Ajax took the prince’s advice to heart and used [Meditation] to increase his focus while overcoming the pain, two minutes after the pursuit had started however a small smile crept over Ajax’s face as a notification demanded his attention at the corner of his vision. He chose to ignore it for now as he focused on healing himself but a few more minutes later his suspicion was confirmed.

“He just dropped and started shaking on the ground.” one of the elves said as he held the assassin’s corpse. “ A minute later he was dead.”

“Take the body to the royal alchemist, he’ll want to examine it.” Lioriel commanded, the prince turned to object but she cut him off before he could speak. “Baron Hearthbound’s request not to engage was respected, we would however claim the body as the price. He did just get as much of an unassisted kill as is possible on a level one hundred and fifty seven.”

The prince accepted the compromise as fair by closing his mouth and giving a nod.