After our little chat, the princess with the old black cat agreed with my tactics.
I’ll protect the princess while Sylvie finds out who the enemies are. As long as this whole ordeal happens and finishes, I’ll get rewarded by the king himself for my contribution. A sweet deal.
There is only one thing the king can give me. Connections! I previously mentioned an organization to Sylvie, something I intend to build.
An organization that will do my bidding, the dirty and the clean. But I have no intentions on hiding it, I’m not one to shy away from attention.
The protagonist in mangas and novels hate this kind of attention, but I enjoy. My ego, my pride are a part of me and I have them since I was born. A mere boost from others won’t change me much if at all.
The princess, Rebecca looked at me weirdly.
“Ah, sorry. I remembered something funny.”
I wiped the grin that was currently present on my face.
“Let’s head home.” Said Rebecca, and the carriage started moving.
“While we have nothing to do, why don’t we play a game of cards?”
It was Sylvie who suggested the idea with a playful tone.
“What do you suggest we play.”
“What else other than poker?”
Sylvie waved her little paw and a set of black and gold cards appeared on top of a little table.
“I’ll join!” The princess didn’t want to miss playtime, so she joined in aswell.
The sudden bumps that the carriage faced didn’t trouble us as we continued to play.
A few hours later.
“It seems you were right demon brat. I’m counting on you to protect Rebecca.”
Sylvie had a solemn expression on her face as she looked at a certain direction and continued to speak.
“The shadow guards are already dead. The rider will also probably die at any moment. It’s best we go outside and wait for the enemy to come out of the shadows.
I nodded my head in approval. I was amazed that Sylvie could detect so much. I couldn’t tell a thing.
The princess just nodded hesitantly and got out of the carriage just behind us.
And as expected, the rider of the carriage died from the dary he received in the throat, his whole neck was colored green, showing signs of poisoning. He was an innocent who was in the way, but I didn’t think much about it and focused on our enemies as I watched them appear one by one.
Six beings came out from the shadows, each dressed in long vanta-black cloaks and had their heads covered. From their build, I assumed they are men.
I watched as one of them stepped froward. He looked straight at Sylvie and spoke.
“As long as you give us the Princess, there will be no trouble, Cat Elder.” The voice coming from the man was hoarse.
I looked at him weirdly. Why would she do that, it’s not like the 6 of them think they can kill her, right?
As if agreeing to my thoughts, Sylvie spoke up.
“You’re a fool if you think you can shed my blood.”
Following her words, her body started to enlarge. I looked in amazement at the sight before me. From a little black cat to the size of a fully grown panther with fangs ready to tear the moon apart.
The aura of Sylvie rose with her size. She controlled her aura to not suppress us and targeted our enemies.
However, the 6 black-cloaked figures stood on the spot as if her aura was just a fresh breeze.
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The one with the hoarse voice scoffed.
“Don’t think we didn’t already prepare for this.”
A circle around their wrist appeared, it was as if something was glowing from underneath their sleeves.
“Aura Negation Artifacts? How fun!” Sylvie seemed excited as she licked her lips with her rather long tongue.
Sylvie roared and pounced towards them as she made space between me and Rebecca from our enemies and took the battlefield elsewhere. I don’t know if she trusted me to protect Rebecca or whether she didn’t want the attacks to go our way, but either way I understood the message ’DON’T DIE’.
The battle had just started but Sylvie had already started throwing giant wind blades at the [Assassins]. I watched the assassins dodge with slight difficulty while also trying to counterattack by launching spells of their own.
”[ Poison Needles ]” Yelled coldly one of the assassins as he launched green liquid needles at Sylvie. The others also followed with their own spells.
”[Zooming Sound]”
“[Fireblaze]”
“[Blindbrought Mist]”
“[Summon: Chimera]”
Soundwaves, poison needles, flames, vision blocking mist and a new dark creature counterattacked Sylvie all at once.
“Tsk!” Sylvie was annoyed. She closed her eyes and voiced out coldly.
“[Wind Barrier: Lesser Domain]”
The transparent air came out of her body and slowly engulfed the assassins. This took just half a second. Just before the attacks reached her, they deflected and went towards the sky, only to be distinguished, leaving only traces of mana lingering in the air.
“So this is the famous [Wind Barrier]? Well it doesn’t matter anymore, we’re not here for you.”
The [Assassin] let out a wicked smile as he looked at Sylvie, who was nonchalantly looking at the assassins in front of them, not caring that one of them had slipped out of the barrier and was currently heading towards the princess.
“Although that brat is currently just a fledgling, he probably has surprises that would shock the both of us.” Sylvie joined the grinning contest with the assassins.
The assassin turned his head towards me and Rebecca and scoffed once again.
“What can a level 31 brat do. Even though he is against our newest member, he isn’t someone every rando can take on.”
I was not much surprised that the assassin could see my level. Afterall, I could tell they were at least 50 levels ahead of me.
I averted my eyes from the battle which Sylvie is facing and instead I focused on my upcoming one.
It was currently night. A beautiful one with a starry sky. The flat land filled with random trees and rocks which we currently resided made it easier for me to see.
I’m definitely not dying today!
I looked back at Rebecca and said.
“I’ll try to make it as warm as possible.”
Her worried expression also had a tinge of confusion as she heard my words and stared at me.
“What do y—“
Before she could finish, I touched her forehead and used my skill [Frozen Sea of Materialization] and made a little barrier of Ice surround her. With my superior control over the ice element, I am able to adjust the temperature of my ice. However by doing so, the ice would start to melt. So I used 10% of my mana to make it as tough as possible, making it very very tough to break.
It was a gamble to take away 10% of my mana reserves before the battle even started, but I couldn’t take any chances. This way the princess can live.
The enemies’ mission is to kill the princess, not me. So who knows at what trouble would they go for just to kill her.
Knowing that the princess will only have enough air for a few hours at most, I can’t afford to waste too much time dealing with the enemy.
*Swoosh*
For the first time. The assassin made his presence known.
“Why don’t you give me the princess and I’ll let you die the way you desire.”
Contrary to my expectations, the voice coming out of the assassin was that of a young boy. But I could feel the emotionless state emiting from him. His voice was monotonous and as if he was programmed.
I smiled wryly, “I’m sorry, but that’s not happening.”
“I guess, I’ll have to add another soul to my sins.”
The emotionless tone once again drifted through the air and the assassin immediately followed after and ran towards me with a dagger in hand.
[ Name - ???? ]
[ Level - ???? ]
[ Class - ????]
Damn it! What’s the purpose of having [Identify] if everyone has an item to hide their information?
I got in a battle-ready stance with my hands up.
The assassin in mere seconds, appeared right about one meter before me and slashed his dagger towards my neck.
I dodged it by lowering my head just little bit and then sideflipped. Getting away from the ice barrier.
The assassin was still in the place I dodged from. He looked at the ice barrier that was surrounding Rebecca, he was probably thinking about the easiest way to complete his mission.
The young assassin seemed to have made his decision. He reached into his sleeves and threw thin needles laced with poison as he ran towards.
“If I kill you, that barrier will be gone, it’ll make my job much easier than having a fly buzzing around.”
I was nonchalant towards his remark. And he is actually wrong about that, but I didn’t have any intention in correcting him.
I also made a dagger with my skill and accelerated towards him. We met on middle ground.
I added a layer of mana on my dagger and tried to push him. Surprisingly we were even in strength.
“You! How do you have such strength? With merely a level of 31.”
It was the first time I sensed emotion from the assasin. We still kept pushing our daggers towards eachother.
I was getting annoyed at everyone able to see through my strength, while I was clueless.
I used my other free hand to create a magic missile and fired it at him.
But just before the missile made contact with his torso he jumped.
“You have high senses for a mere newbie assassin.”
I grinned.
“Tsk. Don’t think you have the upper hand, demon.”
His never changing tone had slight anger as he spoke this time.
I raised an eyebrow suggestively.
“What? Are you mad your seniors consider you an amateur?”
I launched another magic missile as I kept provoking him.
“Shut your trap and die!”