'Huh, I wonder where he is going?' Thought Alexander with a slight frown as he gazed at Soom, who disappeared into the forest.

I wasn't someone who enjoyed spying on people, but Soom and Lazuli were incredibly suspicious, so I decided to follow him into the forest as I was curious about what he may have been hiding. However, since Soom was a mage with an affinity for earth, I figured it would be best to avoid the ground; climbing a nearby tree, I reached one of its many branches and leaped to the next tree, doing so repeatedly as I quietly followed Soom from a distance.

Soom wasn't going to the bathroom, considering how far away he was walking, and he only continued to distance himself from the camp with seemingly no intention of stopping anytime soon.

'What are you doing, Soom?' Mused Alexander with a curious glint as he stared at Soom through several trees thanks to his [Heroes Gaze].

I continued following Soom for a long time, and only after nearly an hour passed did he finally stop after entering a decently small clearing in the middle of the forest, causing me to frown as he was just standing there with his eyes closed. Sitting down on a tree branch, I stared at Soom for several minutes as he did nothing but stand there, which confused me since he looked like he was meditating, but needing to walk this far away from the camp to meditate was a waste of time.

However, while looking around, I happened to spot a man wearing all black sneaking through the forest, with only slits for his eyes so he could see; he was wearing a coat over his all-black body suit, and inside the coat, there were numerous weapons coated in a dark green liquid, ones that only assains would use. Needles, daggers, throwing knives, small bombs; as I looked at the man, I couldn't help but frown, but my expression worsened when I realized he wasn't the only one; there were nine other men dressed exactly like him within the forest, and they were approaching the clearing from all angles with seemingly one goal in mind.

'Soom.' Thought Alexander with a slight frown as he glanced at the ten suspicious men before summoning Trina and Zartha from his body, silently preparing for battle.

Once all ten men reached the edge of the clearing, they all stopped as only one exited the forest and entered the clearing, prompting Soom to finally open his eyes as he stared at the man.

"I was wondering what was taking so long; you brought an entire crew with you." Said Soom lightly as he glanced at the man with a hardened gaze, before looking at the forest, seemingly eyeing the nine other men.

"Tell us where the items you stole are, and we'll make your death quick." Said the Assassin coldly as he eyed Soom, who faintly smirked before laughing, causing the man to narrow his eyes.

"Hoho, no." Remarked Soom while laughing, only to abruptly stop with a solemn expression as he tapped the ground with his cane, causing the earth to rumble.

After Soom's abrupt response, the assassins wasted no time and lunged directly at him, with a dagger in hand, while the nine others hiding within the forest did the same; however, before any of them could get too close to them, three large, stone hands suddenly emerged from the ground as what looked like three, large stone golems exited from the earth.

'They remind me of when I fought against Master's mud golem; I always got dirty afterward.' Thought Alexander lightly with a slight frown as he glanced at the three stone golems, which began attacking the numerous assassins while protecting Soom.

While watching from the comfort of this tree branch, the three golems Soom was controlling were proving to be pretty strong as they were capable of holding back ten assassins, but around the five or six-minute mark, things began to lean in favor of the assassins as one finally managed to slip through and lunge towards Soom; of course, they didn't make it as one of the golems stopped him, but the act of needing to shift their focus created an infinite loop that allowed at least one assassin to constantly slip through the cracks.

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With the stone golems constantly backtracking it was only getting worse, not to mention it seemed Soom was getting exhausted, which allowed two assassins to run pass the golems and lunge toward him.

Each assassin is already decently strong, comparable to D-class Adventurers; in the grand scheme of things, they're relatively weak, but I suppose that means whoever Soom stole from wasn't all that powerful, or the items weren't that important.

'The items have to be decently important, otherwise they would've just killed him, right?' Thought Alexander with a slight frown as he stood up with both great swords in hand while eyeing the battle below, in which Soom was constantly losing ground.

Although I wouldn't say Soom and I were good friends or anything, but since I was already here, I wasn't just going to watch him get killed, besides, that would be cruel to Lazuli, who really seems to need his guidance.

'Welp, here goes nothing.' Mused Alexander softly as he took a deep and eyed the battle before walking off the tree branch, only for his figure to vanish.

Appearing right behind the two assassins lunging toward Soom using [Teleport], I managed to take them both by surprise and smacked them both with the broad side of my great swords, slamming them to the ground while knocking them unconscious as their bodies went limp.

Glancing at Soom, we looked at each other for a split second, and while I could see confusion in his eyes, he also gave me a thankful nod; nodding back, I turned back around and eyed the eight assassins while swinging my swords downwards, decapitating the two I had just knocked unconscious.

'If I was going to let them live, I should've hid my face. Stupid.' Thought Alexander lightly with a sigh as he gently hit himself with Zartha before dashing toward the several remaining assassins.

I would've preferred to have Soom do everything while I simply acted as a deterrent for any assassins that tried to attack him, but he was looking exhausted, so he must've been close to running out of mana, which meant I'd be surrounded by eight different assassins. To be honest, even if that happened, I was still somewhat confident I could escape alive, but it wouldn't be without getting wounded, which meant they'd see my golden blood, and I really couldn't have that happening.

Raising my swords, I was about to slash down at an assassin in front of me, but before I did, I once again teleported, appearing right in front of a different assassin as I slashed right through him, cutting him into three different pieces.

"Welp, there are no more chances for sneak attacks now." Muttered Alexander lightly as he glanced at the assassins before charging towards the closest one.

Infusing mana into my body, increasing my strength and speed, I swung down at the assassin, who tried to divert my sword to the side with his daggers, and well, I'm sure normally it would've worked, but Trina was simply far too sharp for that to work. Cleaving right through the man's dagger, I saw his eyes widen in shock as he backed away, though he was still deeply cut by Trina, causing him to momentarily falter, which I took advantage of and delivered the finishing blow.

However, almost immediately afterward, I was forced to use [Blink] as two assassins were attacking me; appearing beside one of the assassins that just tried attacking me, he reacted quickly and evaded my attacks rather than trying to block them. However, it didn't matter as I had used [Wind Blade], causing a sharp blade of wind to surge right for him as I gave him a deep diagonal cut along his chest, causing him to collapse onto the ground while I launched another one at him, killing him.

With me having killed five of the previous ten assassins, their situations immediately changed for the worse; of course, my job wasn't over since Soom was only getting more exhausted as time went on, and from the looks of things, the assassins seemed to have no intention of retreating, which was good, I'd prefer if my face weren't known to whatever organization Soom had stolen from.

'Man, I really need to be prepared for situations like this.' Thought Alexander with a shake of his head as he dashed toward the nearest assassin, utilizing a skill he hadn't shown before, which allowed him to kill him without too much difficulty.

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As I stabbed Zartha through the man's heart, he simply lay there with an expressionless face and stared at me with his cold eyes; he didn't look at me with hatred as I killed him, just anger, yet he wasn't even angry at dying which I found to be weird.

'Haa, what kind of crazy organization have I just angered?' Thought Alexander lightly with a sigh as he removed his Zartha from the man's chest before engulfing them both in flames, cleansing them of blood.

Holstering Trina and Zartha onto my back, I turned and glanced at Soom, who was lying on the ground, breathing heavily while profusely sweating; he was truly exhausted after that battle, but I wasn't going to let him peacefully rest.

"Alright, Soom, you've got some fucking explaining to do." Said Alexander in slight anger as he folded his arms and stared at the exhausted Soom.