Yarya was on the horizon now, the village more than visible to Jacob's naked eye as he rode across the dirt road between settlements, flat plains and dense forests surrounded the village, making it look small in comparison to the towering trees and the wide, open ground. People walked between buildings with walls of stone and roofs made of wood and thatch with tenseness in their gait, even from here, Jacob saw that they went to and fro, never resting as they made their way around each other with clear purpose, he saw that swords were passed between people as he got closer.

Getting nearer now, Jacob noticed a few craftsmen standing at the edge of the village, directly facing them were men and women making spears and arrows made of rock and twig, they looked unified with their movements, seemingly content on making those two items for who knows how long as the items get collected far faster than they could be made, animals were herded at the back, Jacob saw, and when the farmers taking care of them made eye contact with him, they waved their hands upwards and started yelling something.

The village went into a frenzy as Jacob neared, men and women alike getting faster and more urgent with their tasks as the mayor made his way to the back of the village, noticing Jacob, the man sighed in relief and told the rest of the villagers that things were fine, then, as they all calmed down and waited for him to arrive, conversations started to move between them and when Jacob finally got to them, they immediately told him the bad news-

"We're gonna get attacked by Bandits," Heas said, the mayor looking much more grim than before.

Jacob sympathized and cast [Locate] while telling it to find 'enemies' and immediately, his surroundings went mute as he focused on the presences that his spell was telling him about- most of them were in the forest but Jacob- for all he couldn't understand why people would willingly do this, - found out that there are traitors within the village, enemies lurking amongst the villagers while waiting for the most opportune moment to strike them unaware.

Relief came over him when he saw that Alexi wasn't among such people.

"I got that," Jacob held back his anger as he stepped down from his horse, "and I'm guessing that all of you have been what? Preparing for the attack?" He said while looking around, the people didn't stop crafting weapons and ammo even with his arrival, which Jacob both commended and felt thankful for, really, if everyone reacts like this during times of attacks, then there might be a small chance of them surviving in the long term even without him, "is everyone helping?"

"Yes," Heas answered, "even the merchant's guild and their bodyguards have chosen to willingly stay," the mayor turned to look at something behind him and pointed at a group of Orcs carrying large lumber on top of their shoulders, the large, brown-skinned creatures seemingly no worse for wear even with the weight of the wood, "because of that, we have an abundance of materials and workers helping to fight against the attack, we've already set up walls and defenses against them,"

"And the Duke? Isn't he suppose to help with this stuff?" Jacob asked and went back to looking around, as far as he's aware, there were no Knights here. Just villagers and adventurers working together to stop the bandits from razing the place to the ground.

The grim answer came quickly, "We've sent a messenger but we do not have any fast stallions within us, just a capable man that can run large distances though... I'm afraid he wouldn't be able to make it, there are signs pointing to the fact that the bandits would attack tonight, and the best estimate of our [Scholars] would be that our messenger would get to the city in five more days while the knights would reach us in two."

"Okay- fuck. This is pretty bad right?" Jacob cursed and asked before thinking things through, a second later and he's pretty much determined to use [Nuclear Blast] to stop the bandits before they can attack. He locked eyes with the mayor, first things first though, he's gonna need to take care of the traitors. "Can you tell everyone to go to the plaza?" He asked, his mind already planning on how to expose the traitors in their midst without any casualties or compromising their position to the bandits.

When the mayor had a thoughtful look, he turned to Alexi, "And Alexi?" The Assassin hummed in response, "Meet me outside the windmill,"

"Windmill?" She asked.

"It's somewhere on my land," Jacob said, gesturing in such a way that his hands mimed the height of a towering object, "it's pretty tall so you can't really miss it," he explained, "and also very decrepit," he said before adding, "it's in the river."

Jacob rubbed the back of his neck, stressed, this is gonna be one hell of a test flight for [Semi-Nuclear Blast] and he's already feeling uneasy at the thought of the consequences of using it.

"I see, then I'll see you there, master." Alexi bowed and said no more, moving out of the way and into the general direction of the windmill.

Jacob sighed in relief and turned to the mayor, "Tell everyone to meet up, I think I have something to wipe them without killing any of us."

But will probably destroy the environment - would be words best left unsaid.

"Really?" The man looked skeptical but nevertheless nodded and left for the plaza, presumably to do as he was told.

Jacob sighed but it did nothing to relieve the tension because his hand still went to touch the mouth of his Port, he definitely has answers to the current problem, and putting more thought into it led him to realize that there's more than just the simple "blow them up" solution to the problem, he can definitely not use a literal nuclear explosion to clear the bandits and instead, try to fight them using the other spells that [Radiation Mage] would give him but the question is though, is he willing to accept losses when he can save everyone instead?

Can he even accept that? That's basically murder isn't it?

'But then so is literally ruining the environment with radiation.' Jacob thought grimly before shaking his head, walking away, and moving to where the windmill should be.

The road to his plot had changed considerably from the time he had first stepped foot onto it, where it was once a barely maintained dirt road overtaken by nature, now the overgrown shrubs and other plants have been trimmed to be replaced by two lines of wooden fences on either side of the road, Jacob spotted a metal lamp at every 10th fence row, and stepping closer and placing his hand on the palm shaped dent at the bottom of the lamp gave him the impression that the thing was asking for his amp, which he assumed feeding it would light up the lamp, and seeing no reason to do it, Jacob removed his hand from the dent and continued making his way to his farm.

Jacob quirked an eyebrow when his eyes landed on his house- if the path leading to this place had been trimmed and cleared out, then his house and the surrounding plot has been drastically altered to the point that he could barely recognize the place for what it once was: His house, which would be the first thing that he laid his eyes on, had been changed so much that Jacob doubted that it was even the same thing anymore. The only thing that had been kept was the circular shape of the building but other than that, everything was changed, there is now another floor added on top of the first and a balcony ran in circles around the outside of the second floor, windows tinted in black were also built on the walls, each one possessing four panels and a cross-shaped frame at its center, giving it that odd modern look.

Walking a bit closer now, newly refurbished wood was used on the beams that supported the second floor's balcony, and much like the balcony, the rectangular wood ran around the entire house a wooden railing ran between the beams, cutting off anyone from entering the open space behind them. Jacob stepped into said space and smirked when he saw a rocking chair right next to his door, a thought about an old version of him rocking it back and forth while holding a cigarette.

Shaking his head at the image, Jacob walked back outside and looked at the massive plot of land surrounding his house, it was, for the lack of a better term, clean. Fences were placed in circles in some areas, the dirt at the center free of grass and completely black, ready to be tilled and farmed on in the next hour if Jacob wished. Little shacks made of wood were also spread around the place, but the most eye catching out of all of them would be the massive barn that is now on his plot, the red building faced his house directly while the large farming land was adjacent to it.

"They really overdid things huh?" Jacob murmured, a brief thought about giving more Gold to the merchant's guild crossing his mind. It was like they broke the house and everything around it and just decided to replace them all, and they did such a great job at it that the place didn't even look abandoned at all. "Jesus," Jacob muttered as he made his way to where Alexi is.

Standing there beneath the towering frame of the windmill, Alexi wasn't exactly that hard to spot, her brown silhouette didn't really blend in with the gray stone that was the windmill's lower walls and the way she impatiently threw her knife and caught it gave out her position the moment that Jacob laid his eyes on the structure, when he reached her, the assassin looked impressed, and tilting her head, she asked, "are you gonna be the mayor of Yarya soon?"

Jacob shook his head in response, "No?" He replied quizzically, unsure if he can do anything if the current [King] decided to just "order" him to take it or something. Come to think of it, how does medieval fiefdom work? Jacob shook his head again, both to stop his current train of thought and to emphasize his denial, "I just want to live as a normal farmer,"

"Is that so?" Asked the maid, nodding back when her master answered her question with a nod, she didn't believe him, of course, because what [Mage] forsakes their pursuit of power? "Then, why did you bring me here?" She asked, wondering what the actual reason for all this was, if he didn't want her to assassinate the current mayor, then why did she get taken away from the group?

"There are traitors inside of that village," her master replied with confidence, "and I want you to kill them silently,"

Ah. So it is assassination after all. Nodding while hiding her suspicion of just how her master had come about such knowledge, Alexi said, "Then I will do so to the best of my ability, do you know their names?"

"No, just their general location," he replied, making it clear to her that he was using some sort of spell to find them. Hm. Odd. No one has spoken of this, though it wouldn't really surprise Alexi if her master decided to hide its existence. Having the ability to know who traitors are is something to best keep secret, that type of information is simply too valuable to spread out without care.

"Hmm." Alexi hummed, thinking. "then, where are they?"

In response, Jacob pulled out a piece of paper from his Port and using one of the enchanted quills with neverending ink he bought from the city of Lezatian, started writing things down, "this," he drew a massive circle with a... tower that spouted water at the top? "Is the plaza," Ah. Alexi nodded to show that she understood while Jacob started drawing squares around the place, those must be houses then, "and these are the houses that you need to target,"

Jacob started crossing out some of the boxes, "There are people hiding there and I want you to kill them, they're making stuff I think? Poisons and things like that," He guessed, making a so-so gesture, "and they're going to use them to sabotage the villagers when they defend against the attack,"

"I see," Alexi replied, taking the piece of parchment, "they will all be dead by the end of the first hour," she said confidently.

"Good, good." Jacob nodded, storing the quill inside his Port once more, "I'm gonna distract the villagers by telling them about my "plan" and when that happens, I want you to assassinate all the other traitors while I keep the ones in the plaza occupied, when you're done, walk into the place and I'll call them out so that we can finish them," Jacob explained.

Her master had a great plan, Alexi deemed, and nodded, "I'll kill them as quickly as I can."

"I'm sure you will," Her master smiled.

----------------------------------------

As she perched atop the branch of a tree, Alexi found herself scowling at the man on the window, the first thing that she sought after her master had given her his orders, as well as information, was to confirm if the latter was true, and, of course, seeing that her master is a [Mage] who was confident in his spells, the information given to her had been accurate.

Really, she never should've doubted the mage, he did have a reputation for being strong despite his current age and that should've been enough for her to be convinced of his competency in matters of the arcane, and Alexi simply confirmed the truth of the information due to her wanting to do her task thoroughly, for it to be seamless and perfect, much like the job of her ancestors.

The man she was scouting though, didn't have any other reason to betray the Kingdom of Anektian let alone doubt the power of the mage on Yarya's side, really, the man shouldn't be so calm with the current situation, the way he calmly concocted a brew of poison with a smile on his face infuriated Alexi, causing her grip on the branch to tighten.

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She heaved a deep breath, forcing calm on herself as she tensed her legs and jumped down from the crown of the tree, a gloved hand went down and took hold of a blade, gleaming metal the color of shining silver glistened under the sunlight, with careful steps, she made her way across the grass, silently stalking the window of the house with the grace of an [Assassin] that had been trained in the art of death for their entire life- she moved, stride wide yet soundless, and the man was unaware as she grabbed the ledge of the window and hoisted herself up.

He was in front of her now, his smile unwavering as he continued to brew the poison, Alexi raised her knife just as her shadow came upon the man, coloring him black and taking his attention away from his craft.

They met eyes and Alexi didn't waste a single second as she thrust her body forward with the tip of her blade at the front, the man didn't have time to scream as her blade sunk deep into his throat, choking him on his own blood. He garbled something that Alexi couldn't understand as she grabbed his head and placed him down on the floor, she then proceeded to use the potion he brewed to create something deadlier, turning the slow acting poison into a flesh eating acid before pouring it onto the lifeless body, both blood and flesh disappeared as the liquid ate away at it and when everything was gone, Alexi finished the job by disposing of the clothes and putting them inside one of the cupboards.

She left the way she came and the window nor the house held no sign of her ever being there.

Merciless.

That's what the people of the Kingdom commonly called their family- they are, by all estimates, a noble household with the appropriate titles behind said title, they are a banner within this Kingdom, and they are capable enough to earn the trust of their [King] despite the initial betrayal that had led their family into seeking refuge within the walls of Anektian in the first place.

Alexi tries to uphold that ideal, and even more so during her duty as an Assassin. Such as right now when she glided down the roof and down to the streets, her cloak spread out behind her when she was in the air, allowing her to glide before tightly wrapping around her body when her feet met the ground. The house in front of her is simply one of the five- now four given that they are down one member, - people her master had asked her to kill, and kill she will.

Unlike her first target, this one was located inside the inner parts of the village and thus, there is no tree she can perch to stalk her target, no first floor window to properly see him, and no ground to silence her footsteps.

The last part didn't really matter because she is as silent as she is swift, and those two factors didn't wane even when she climbed up the walls of the house and into the window, she landed on her feet, eyes steady even when she was greeted by darkness. Underneath, Alexi heard the sound of footsteps, calm and steady, though not hasty and certainly not silent. Though he was undoubtedly done with concocting his brew of poison, her target was patient to wait things out it seems.

That patient will be his downfall.

Alexi went out of the doorway and into the empty hallway of the second floor, empty bedrooms on either side got ignored as she quickly made her way downstairs where her target was pacing back and forth. Hm. Not as patient as she deemed, though instead of fear, the man seemed eager, excited at what he was about to do.

That excitement faded when Alexi buried her blade at the back of his neck, the dagger easily piercing through scalp and skull alike, he was out before he even knew it.

Once again, she cleaned up the place using the poison that the man had painstakingly brewed, turning it into flesh eating acid that cleaned the corpse from the floor.

She left the scene just as quickly as she had come.

She hopped down onto the street with a beat on her step, humming, she put her right leg forward and started running, her steps as silent as ever as she made her way out of the open and into the dark, narrow paths between buildings. She kept going with that method of travel as she cut through streets and passed through long corners without needing to bother about distance, occasionally, she'd jump up to rooftops and make her way with that, and bit by bit, she made her way across the village until she was standing next to the house of another target.

Compared to the last two, this one looked ruined, and ugly, and was located on the outskirts of the village, it didn't look like much and Alexi deemed that the motivation for betrayal must've been something related to finance.

But whatever the traitor's reason, she didn't care and slid inside using the front door, the lock the owner used was rudimentary at best and even then, it was as simple as sliding her blade into the side of the door and moving it up.

The home felt warm, at least. That much Alexi gave to the owner as she cut through room after room, trying to find the owner until-

Her nose scrunched up at the stench, even with a leather mask covering the lower half of her face, the smell still managed to find its way inside her nose, whatever this disgusting scent came from, Alexi didn't plan on seeing it- "or it's the very poison that you're making," she said in tired exasperation, causing her target to flinch up and almost yell but she threw her dagger at his throat, one because she didn't want to touch him or the poison that he's making and two because she didn't want to get near... whatever is inside of that bucket.

She didn't even bother turning the... poison into something else, she simply laid a small amount of ember underneath one of the beds, it would burn by the time she's done killing her targets and besides, removing his house from the village sounded like a good favor for the rest of the people living here. Including herself.

Holding back a gag, Alexi got out of the front door and started making her rounds across the village.

Two more.

----------------------------------------

"And I'm telling you, someone's coming for us," Tabble groaned as his ally repeated that sentence for the second time in a row, he eyed him with disgust before looking away and staring at the open window- at the place where the "assassin" would be according to him, "I know you don't believe me, but I'm a [Mystic] and I know these things!"

"Yes, yes," he rolled his eyes, "you have a class that's literally considered as a cheap [Mage] so I believe you," he replied while waving his sword around to test its weight, he's at least gotta give it to the man, he had a fine collection of "enchanted" swords on his personal chest, "But do they really exist? I've never heard of an assassin coming to Yarya,"

"I... don't know," he said, uncertain, making Tabble roll his eyes more. "My spells are pretty weak," he says as if the two things in his arsenal are even remotely useful. An impression of what kind of danger he is facing once a day is good for keeping their identity hidden but sometimes, Tabble had to wonder if the spell just breaks apart for some reason or the other- no really, it happens from time to time, for example like last week where it warned him that a Warbeast of all things is going to kill him.

How... where would a Warbeast even come from?

"That's great," he replied without really thinking about it, "but what's up with that leak over there?" Relief flooded him when his attention got taken by anything other than the man kneeling on the chest right next to him, "I thought you kept repairing this place?"

"I didn't have the time to or the reason to for the past week," he said amidst the sound of items, "we're gonna leave soon aren't we?"

"Yeah, that's not really a reason to let yourself live like Arvan-" He frowned as he cut himself off, "weird." He murmured while taking a look around the room. It was dark, with the light coming from the closed window but Tabble could feel it, something in here is watching him. "I think, your words may have merit,"

"Y-yeah?" Right next to him, the man uttered words in fear, his feet taking a step back with each passing moment while his body tried to hide all the quivering, "Wh-what made you say that?"

Tabble let his eye "look" at his friend while keeping his senses on the right side of the room, it's right there, whatever it is. He just needs to bait it out, so he spoke, "Because-" and that was when it- no- she took the opportunity to strike.

Grinning in pure satisfaction because he finally got to know what it feel to use his main class again, Tabble blocked the dagger aimed at his ally with his sword while parrying the short sword going for his gut with his leg, those two attacks were done seamlessly but he was a [Back-Guard], allowing him to easily block the two attacks nigh-simultaneously with the Class' unique, once a day spell, [Defend].

Tabble didn't have the time to comfort his ally as he pissed himself, no, the woman in front of him required more of his attention. And it isn't just because she was a deadly assassin either. She was shapely, with nice curves that shaped her body like an hourglass and two nicely shaped pair of mounds on her chest, and from the looks of it, it feels like she was glad showing all her assets off with the tight suit she was wearing.

While Tabble was busy ogling her, her hand flickered far faster than he could see and react and his ally was soon impaled on the chest, but not before activating the Call Stone that their Fratenian hirers had given him 5 years back. The message was sent and the people on the other side would know that things have gone to shit for him and his group.

Good, it'd look great if he returns with the defiled corpse of the bitch in front of him.

Maybe he can even get some sort of high ranking position, who knows?

Tabble dodged to the left the moment that he saw the assassin's hand move and from how she had to grab another dagger from her belt before throwing it, he thought that it would've just been better if he jumped forward and overpowered her instead- which really is just kind of fucking annoying given that the split second where he jumped when she grabbed her dagger was enough for her to redirect her aim and hit him.

He blocked it with his hand, obviously, being a [Brawler] means that close combat is instinct to him and blocks are pretty simple, it's just that instead of a fist that wouldn't make him bleed, it's a knife.

He pulled the weapon from his hand and just as he predicted, the assassin jumped forward and when she got to him, she was already dual wielding, a sword on the left and a knife on the right. He blocked repeatedly, both his classes doing wonders for his defense as she gracefully danced around him while trying to find a spot that he didn't guard on, each attack hit lower and lower, then, when he got comfortable enough and thought that she would continue to go downwards until she'd stab his groin, she would feint an attack and he would block with both hands with a panicked face, and when his guard on his upper body was down-

Her dagger moved back as her short sword cut his belly, then the dagger would proceed to his diaphragm-

It was at that moment that Tabble remembered he had feet and using all the reflexes his panicking mind could muster, he kicked to the side and let the dagger take a stab at his rib. Better than his fucking heart, that's for sure.

He felt blood come up his throat and into his mouth, when warm liquid touched his tongue, he spat it at the assassin.

She dodged.

"I'-Ifm gwonna wenjoy yho." He said as he moved forward, going for the attack and pushing the bitch into defense. His words were deliberate, knowing that most women just wouldn't keep their cool when something like that is said to them and as he punched forward, Tabble flashed her a bloody grin and began speaking profanities.

He punched, and she dodged and tried to sweep his leg, but she wasn't strong enough and his foundation was simply too solid to sweep him off his feet. Her outstretched leg met the ground and when she bent it, she did so just in time to dodge a punch before jumping away and doing a roll, a dagger came for him just as she stabilised herself.

"I'hm gonha mhake yhou scheam!"

He ran again, ignoring the way the knife was poking at his gut, it was painful, but pain was natural, it clouded his mind, gave him adrenaline, made him stronger- He punched again and again and the assassin dodged the attacks relentlessly, clearly content on dodging until she found the ample opportunity to strike and when it happened, she tried to bury a knife into his neck which Tabble tried to block with his hand but- but-

Why did he feel so weak?

Why does his hand feel heavy?

His eyes stared at the bleeding wound on his forearm didn't it bleed too much?..

Oh. Of course the assassin would know where to strike and find vital arteries that's what they do.

He laughed.

Guess he really is stupid.

Everything went black.

----------------------------------------

Alexi stepped out of the dark alleyway and into the open space of the plaza, here, she noticed, the people looked uneasy. The cause of which is probably the corpse lying at the center, directly facing Jacob. It had a hole in its chest, blown open and splattered with crimson blood, if Asya had to guess, it is from his [Bolt] spell, which had earned its reputation as being rather dangerous and people have whispered something about the spell being her master's specialty.

"Alexi," her master said to her with a curt nod, "if you're here then that means other traitors were cleaned out?"

She nodded, bowing in preparation for her apology, "Yes, though I'm afraid that one of them may have had the capacity to tell our enemies that we know of their existence,"

"Nah, that's fine," Jacob waved her off, much to the surprise yet concerned emotions radiating out of most of the people surrounding them, "pretty sure they already know that we're gonna fight back," he shrugged and kicked the corpse once, it didn't twitch, as Alexi expected. It is a corpse after all.

"So... when do we fight back?" Heas Yarya, mayor of this village as well as a possible target for Alexi asked while wiping his sweaty brow, looking at his red face and ragged breath, Alexi could almost feel the fear that the mas trying to hold back though for her master, it seems that it only made Jacob frown, followed by an expression that Alexi found rather hard to read.

Jacob looked away from the intensity radiating out of the mayor's eyes and looked towards the direction of the bandits, "I... can probably wipe them out." He said, concern in his voice, "But uh, it'll destroy the environment, and... the place may or may not be livable for a while after I do it." An expression of discomfort crossed his face before he roughly scratched the back of his head, "So I think it's not really a good idea to do it so we can just fight them normally-"

"I for one, would love to see what you mean by this," spoke a voice, prompting Alexi to look away from her master and one of her- as well as her family's, - potential targets in the future, Geran, the leader of this village's merchant guild subdivision walked from behind of the group of muscle orcs and into the open, unlike the large, fatty look that is usually associated with merchants, Geran was muscled and bulky, a rather strange thing to see for first timers, especially to those who cannot consider the possibility of someone being rich enough to alter their body drastically and in such a way.

Alexi though had seen worse, far worse in her time as an assassin in training. She has hunted down men much larger than the one standing before her, though those had defects in their mutations whereas Geran's altered physiology was nigh perfect.

Everyone's eyes were on him now and the merchant, knowing what that entails, smiled shrewdly, "I can take responsibility for what happens here," he explained, walking over to where the mayor is standing and crossing his arm around his neck, "and you too right?"

"Y-yes." The mayor stammered, face red from anger.

Her master looked away, expression uncomfortable before saying, "If you say so," he said, walking away from the group and heading to where the forest is located. Alexi was confused, what is he planning on doing that he needs to go near it? She wondered as she and the rest of the villagers followed after Jacob, some had trust in their faces, others curiosity, and in the case of the merchant leader, he looked pensive and yet also shrewd, it is expressions like that which makes Alexi consider his assassination and thus, she mentally saved the man's existence in her mind, carving his face for future observation as well as potential assassinations.

When they reached the edge of the village, the sight of all the trenches and pikes made Alexi quirk an eyebrow, what did the villagers of Yarya think when they were building this? Did they seriously consider if it was possible for them to be able to pull off the defense of the village against 300 bandits using such primitive and ultimately, futile defenses?

The bandits could just run around these things and be no worse for wear.

Her master heaved a deep breath, "Okay, just to make sure, you guys are gonna take responsibility for any damage that I cause?" He asked and Heas as well as the merchant branch leader nodded, "Good, because honestly, I don't know what this will do."

Jacob closed his eyes, and Alexi tilted her head, is this how he uses the spell that was responsible for finding traitors? Can it be used to track people? Or maybe he was just thinking? She did not know until her master-

Opened his eyes again and the world turned white.