Chapter 2Chapter 2:Ruin
The night was dark, the sounds of rain hitting the stone slabs mingling with the footsteps of nearby soldiers.
"OVER HER-!" a soldier cried out, but his words were cut short by the assassin's dagger puncturing his throat before he could reveal the intruder's position.
"Seems they've been recruiting anyone nowadays," the assassin muttered. "Now let's see, where was that entrance?" He removed his cloak and pulled a map from his waist. "Ahhhh, over there."
Slowly making his way to the back entrance of the mansion, the assassin opened the door and was greeted by a long corridor. He moved down the hall, eventually reaching a door. He pushed it open while unsheathing his dagger, which reflected off the doorknob and illuminated his face in the darkness. As he crept silently into the bedchambers, he could hear soldiers making their way down the long corridor. He positioned himself beside his target's bed, lifting his dagger upwards. A knock on the door awoke the luminary, who was greeted by a dagger illuminated in the moonlight. Before he could let out a shriek, the assassin's blade cut through the air with a precise downward slice. Blood splattered over the bedsheets, and the sound of bells ringing as the soldiers entered the room was all that could be heard in the still night. The assassin disappeared into the night, hiding his dagger within his cloak.
In a nearby tavern, the assassin enjoyed a drink. Two men in empire uniforms entered, causing the tavern to grow quiet.
"Don't mind us, we're just passing through," the officer said with a fake smile. The two officers made their way to the bar, where the tavern owner was cleaning glasses with a rag.
"Have you seen anyone suspicious recently?" the second officer asked.
"Suspicious in what way?" the tavern owner grinned.
"Anyone you haven't seen before," the first officer clarified.
"A bunch of people I haven't seen before come here all the time," the tavern owner replied, annoyed.
"There was a murder tonight, and we have reason to believe the suspect might be in your tavern. Are you helping a fugitive of the empire?" the officer demanded with a stern expression.
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The tavern owner began sweating nervously. "That guy," he said, pointing in the assassin's direction. The assassin kept enjoying his drink, unfazed.
"You!" the officer shouted.
The assassin remained seated as the officer approached him. A thump was heard, and the other officer turned around in a panic to see his friend's body on the floor in a pool of blood. The assassin, now seated beside the officer, held his drink in his left hand and his dagger in his right, the blade pointed horizontally at the officer's neck. A small cut from the dagger's edge pierced the officer's skin, drawing a droplet of blood.
"W-WHO A-ARE YOU?" the officer stammered in a panic.
The assassin grinned, dropped his cup, and used his power of blink to get to the door. He removed his cloak as he stood beside the tavern entrance. The officer unsheathed his saber in a panic and charged towards the assassin, but the assassin had already closed the gap with his power blink and struck the officer's saber, sending him flying back over the bar counter into the wall.
Suddenly, the tavern door opened, and an elegant man dressed in white, blue, and red attire entered slowly. The assassin panicked, recognizing the attire of a nation's holy knight.
The holy knights, a band of elite warriors directly under the emperor with unrivaled strength. They are the top warriors in the nation. When other nations sent their strongest to clash with the holy knights, it always resulted in the same way: utter defeat at the hands of the knights.
Before the assassin could use his power, the knight was on the offensive, lunging forward and unsheathing his sword in an instant. The knight cut through the assassin's cloak, which the assassin threw to blind his opponent in the nick of time. The assassin's ability restricted him from blinking to another place without it being in his line of sight, so he had no choice but to strike back. Drawing his dagger, the assassin blinked behind the knight in an attempt to stab him in the back.
"I've seen through you," the holy knight Raion said in a bored tone.
Before the assassin's dagger could pierce his enemy, he coughed up blood, looking down to see the knight's blade piercing his chest.
"This was no fun," Raion sighed, towering over his opponent who now lay on the ground beneath him.
The assassin who was once the hunter has now become the hunted. It was as if he were staring into the eyes of a lion and he were the gazelle, soon to be devoured alive by the beast.
In a desperate attempt to survive, the assassin used a smoke bomb, engulfing the tavern in smoke. When the smoke cleared, he was gone.
"Oh well, that was a fatal wound. He'll probably be dead before sunrise," Raion monologued, smiling as he sheathed his blade.
Deep in a secluded forest the assassin crawled, fading in and out of consciousness. In the distance he glimpsed the sun rising behind a group of destroyed buildings.