Chapter 47 – Fear the Night, Unsheathe the Saber, Thread the Fate (I)
The cold nightly wind blowing against Aiden’s face.
From the moment when Aide left the bar, he had been running at full speed towards the house. His mind was completely filled of worries.
When the strange man told him that Lia was in problems and showed him the image of her fighting and using the powers of her second soul, a bad premonition assaulted Aiden mind.
He wasn’t sure how the man knew about Lia or why he had waited until the last moment to tell him, but for some reason, he was certain that the images showed for the man were real.
It was only a presentment, but strangely he was sure that it was true. It was as if for some reason, he was able to feel Lia’s predicament.
Now he thought about it, Aiden noticed that his body felt different for some reason. Not only were his senses sharper, he also felt his body moving faster and being able to exert more strength. He was not sure about the reason, but Aiden suspected that the strange man he met before and the amulet that destroyed the sabretooth beast soul were most likely the responsible of it.
Of course, he could not care less about it currently.
“Dammit! I was too careless!” Said Aiden, trying to suppress his impatience and calm his thoughts.
It wasn’t very hard to determine the origin of the attackers. After all, the list of suspects wasn’t big.
Aiden only knew of three parties that could have a motive to act against Lia.
The first was obviously, God’s Hand, but Aiden knew from Lia that the organization had been destroyed, so he thought that the probability of the attackers belonging to them was the lowest.
The second party were the members of his family. Aiden could not dismiss the possibility of them attacking Lia to threaten him, but he thought that such modus operandi wasn’t typical of his family, so he almost immediately discarded this possibility too.
As for the third, Aiden feared it was probably the members of the family belonging to the two servants he beat before.
If for some reason there were members of the family nearby when Lia was fighting the two robbers, it was possible for them to recognize Aiden, and consequently, his relationship with Lia.
In such case, it was possible for them to send someone to follow the pair and learn where Aiden and Lia are living.
For Aiden, it was probably the worst situation.
Of course, he couldn’t deny the possibility of someone taking an interest on Lia after seeing her fight and coming to take her now, but the probability of it was probably nil. Aiden doubted that any family would send such person to do something so important like searching for the supreme emptiness flame.
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In such situation, Aiden was almost sure of the answer being the third.
Though Aiden was conscious of such possibility after he appeared during Lia’s fight, he subconsciously thought that it was impossible for them to send someone so fast. In reality, he thought that they would be careful of making a commotion inside the town, after all, it was rumored that the city lord was pretty frightening.
Because of it, when he learned about someone fighting with Lia, besides worry, the thing that Aiden was feeling the most was doubt.
Why have they the courage to attack someone inside the town so boldly? Don’t the fear the retaliation from the town hall?
One must know that when the two robbers only fought Lia because she discovered them. Originally, they were planning to follow her and attack when the opportunity appeared.
Of course, it was impossible for him to know that, though there was a group spying them, they had not planned to attack so soon. It only ended in such way after Lia, in her bad mood, took the initiative to look for them.
Running furiously his mind in search of an answer, Aiden almost didn’t notice when someone appeared in front of him.
When Aiden saw a man in black standing before him, his first reaction was to ignore him and continue his path. But when he felt the killing intent directed towards him, he knew that things were worse than he thought.
Stopping abruptly, Aiden looked the man searching for any clue about his identity, but at the end, he was only able of notice the different enchantments in his clothes.
The man was completely cloaked, using the black of his clothes to camouflage his presence inside the darkness of the night. Around him, dim and almost invisible glows of stealth enchantments flickered indistinctly indicating the purpose of its owner.
“Who are you!?” Said Aiden immediately after stopping.
The man didn’t answer. Instead, he slowly took a knife from his clothes. Then, without speaking a word, he attacked.
Fast! Thought Aiden, evading the attack with difficulty. Obviously, the man wasn’t planning to entertain him.
Aiden moved his hand towards his waist, only to remember again that the saber wasn’t with him. Clicking his tongue, Aiden jumped backwards to avoid the next blow of the man.
I won’t leave my saber behind again! Swore him.
The man was obviously surprised after seeing Aiden to evade his attacks twice in a row. Apparently, he didn’t understand how a spiritless boy in the core-forming realm was so fast.
To be sincere, Aiden was equally surprised about his reaction speed. Though he thought that he would have been able of evading such attacks normally, he knew that it shouldn’t have been so easy. Aiden was evading the attacks almost effortless.
Apparently, the condition of his body was better than he thought.
Suppressing his doubts, he looked towards the attacker. The man also looked pensive about the situation, because he stopped after the second attack.
“Boy, you are pretty strong.” Said him in a neutral voice. “I didn’t think that you would be able to evade me twice.”
Aiden kept silent after hearing the attacker words. The man, ignoring it, continue speaking.
“Such a shame that young master ordered us to kill you. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have minded if you stayed alive.”
“We?”
“Yeah, thee of us. Though you don’t have to mind about the others two, they are fighting the girl. I was the only one that came for you.”
Aiden furrowed his brow hearing the words of the cloaked man, but knowing that his situation was equally dangerous, he could only suppress his worries and pray that Lia stayed safe.
The man seemed to understand Aiden’s worries, because when he saw his expression, he sighed.
“I don’t have anything against you, boy; but you offended someone you should not. Don’t worry, I will make it fast if you stay quiet.”
Aiden snorted before the words of the killer. Then, taking a deep breath, he drew all the energy of his body.
The man, seeing it, only shook his head and sighed again. Then, playing with the knife in his hands, he also called his energy.
To Aiden’s horror, when the energy was withdrawn from the man body, an invisible pressure surged in the surroundings.
In that moment, he understood the strength of his enemy.
The strength of a late core-fusing cultivator.