In very short order Alex found himself slipping out of the manor in the pre-dawn light with his friends just behind him, grateful that Ya Ling took so well to the idea of them forming up as a party even before leaving her family’s domicile. He momentarily smiled in memory of her awed look of delight when her mind joined theirs, even if only in the tiniest periphery of their shared psyche, such that she did naught but sense where they were in relation to one another
Alex found it telling that she was also able to sense both Hanz and Lieberman summoning the tiniest swarm of ice crystals in their hands and Linnea’s tiny candle’s worth of flame on the tip of her finger, just as well as she could sense Alex’s swirling Water Shield, for all that three were mana manifestations, and one comprised of pristine spiritual energy.
Then Alex’s combined awareness snapped to the moment as they slipped past the garden and were in position to directly cross the property boundary into the school.
He could sense it so clearly, the heat signature of three nighttime sentinels that had taken full advantage of the pre-dawn gloom.
Alex flashed a fierce smile, bracing himself for what was to come.
The wind’s whispers hadn’t been false.
A certain young master and his father really were conspiring to take out any Ruidian they could get away with murdering. Even if they would only strike when opportunity presented itself, even if they knew better than to do anything but fade into the rustling leaves of the date trees they perched themselves upon when Alex and his gestalt showed themselves en-masse, it didn’t change the fact that assassination was on their minds.
If Hanz had been enticed by a midnight rendezvous, or Lieberman had gone out to clear his mind and focus on the possibilities of the present while finally daring to dream of starting a family of his own again… their lives would have been snuffed out in the blink of an eye.
Their bodies claimed… and no trace of them to be found anywhere.
Alex felt a sudden surge of killing fury.
To think that predators had once more caught his scent.
And worse, were now looking the Wu clan’s way.
He exchanged glances with Linnea, but their thoughts were already one.
He then turned to Ya Ling, his racing heart making him bold as he did what was needed to entice and distract their prey from the threat soon to unfold.
To his shame and delight, Ya Ling actually gasped when Alex turned around to lock lips with her, kissing her fiercely before clasping her in his arms.
She sobbed against him. “Fine, you bastard. I’ll be your second wife! Just don’t you dare break my heart.”
Her words cut off when Alex whispered in her ear. “Three assassins are drawing a bead with crossbows. The trees are kind enough to rustle and wind just enough that they don’t dare shoot, even if they just serve as scouts for now. But rest assured, if you or I or Linnea had taken an evening stroll… quarrels would fly and the shock of piercing steel would be the last thing our Ruidian friends would ever feel.”
Ya Ling froze, before locking him in a kiss once more. “What do we do?”
“I’m going to take care of it. You’re going to listen to the wind while summoning the most powerful shield you can. See if any scout has their eyes on our assassin. If so… we’ll handle that as well.”
She flinched him his tender embrace. “Alex?”
But he was already moving.
Bullrush. Bullrush!
Forest flight allows effortless use of Spring Leap in all directions!
You have successfully surprised your prey!
In the blink of an eye, Alex was right behind a man dressed in midnight leathers, the would-be killer not even aware of death perched right behind him.
Not until steel flashed as death snarled, the night awash with a spray of crimson rain as the assassin’s mouth opened wide in a silent scream as his head toppled to the ground.
Yet death’s deliverance flashed along the trunk of grass and trees faster than a shrieking soul trapped in a dying head could fall, two other targets only now reacting with wide-eyed horror at what they struggled to make out in the pre-dawn light while their would-be targets were suddenly surrounded by whirling maelstroms of Wind and Ice.
One killer had time to curse softly before pivoting to descend the date tree he perched upon, only to shudder against the hot bit of bitter sharp steel as a dao blade erupted from his chest.
He couldn’t move… couldn’t think… eyes wide with horror the equal of his agony. And then death was gone before he had even gotten a good look at the furious blue eyes that had heralded such a jagged sharp end to his life. Only then did he finally leave the treetop, body toppling over to crash to the ground in a motionless heap as his soul plummeted straight into the eternally frigid waters waiting endlessly far below.
“Yuren! Benzhuo!”
The final would-be killer had time enough only to process a head and a body falling from separate trees before his instincts took over and he was scurrying down the trunk of his perch as fast as his hands and feet could manage, not hesitating to spring down the final ten feet and roll with the impact before springing to his feet once more and racing for the boulevard, desperate to flee now that he was the target.
He didn’t even register that he was airborne until he had crashed upon the ground, desperate for air that just wouldn’t come as his back erupted with horrific pain and an awful numbness that filled him with monstrous dread.
Sure enough, when he tried to regain his feet and flee, not even daring to face the monster that had killed his allies and struck him before he could blink… he found that he couldn’t move his legs at all.
The man gave a desperate whimper, all the more so when he felt a powerful killing aura suddenly behind him. And before panicked fingers could reach for deadly gifts that might give him a chance… his arm was already wrenched back, and a fresh scream erupted from his lips as his wrist was twisted as far as it would go before tendons were ruptured and ligaments torn. Then a scream erupted from his lips when his nemesis blasted his palm right through a hyper-extended elbow, the air resonating with a sickening crack when the joint was ruthlessly forced the wrong way.
A horrific shriek burst from the man’s lips before his jaw was ruthlessly clamped shut. He felt himself being smothered by a dark deadly presence so terrible that his scream turned to a panicked whimper.
“Please… mercy! Mercy!”
“Like the mercy you were going to give us?”
“We weren’t going to kill you. Just keep watch. That’s all!”
Alex chuckled coldly. “And that’s why each of you fools had crossbows?”
The man froze.
Alex’s voice became an ugly snarl. “I already know your orders, asshole. Keep watch. If any Ruidians are foolish enough to go out alone, out of the sight of others… that’s when you take us out.”
The man’s flinch told Alex all he needed to know as he pressed steel behind the man’s ear. “Your spine is shattered. You’ll never use that arm again without a Silver-tier healer which we both know gutter trash like you will never have access to. It would be a mercy if I took you out right now.”
“Please!” The man whispered. “Please, don’t kill me… take me to a healer… I can make it worth your while. I swear it!”
“Where were you going to meet your contact?”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
The man flinched. “Please, I gave an oath!”
His plea turned to a shriek when Alex’s thumb tore into the would-be killer’s eye socket, splattering the grass in fresh blood and gore.
Before slamming shut the man’s shrieking mouth with a palm strike that shattered teeth and bone.
“You have one eye left. Unless you wish to be both crippled and blind...”
“I’m JiangHu, you fool! You’ve just signed your death sentence… Aah! Mercy!”
The man didn’t dare bluff any further when Alex wrenched back his left arm and ripped the middle finger right out of its socket in a fresh spurt of blood.
“Where were you going to meet your contact?”
“Please… just let me go. Please don’t kill me, please!”
“Ah well. Crippled and blind it is, then. I’ll give you a life expectancy of under two hours when I leave your broken body in the poorest part of the western quarter.”
“In the back of the Heron eating house an hour after dusk! We’re to give our benefactor a daily report of the Ruidians’ comings and goings and make a note of whoever they make contact with!”
Alex nodded. “I see. And considering that all four Ruidians were at the Wu residence...”
“Yes, our master knows… please, I can help you! You don’t know how much danger you’re all in. Our master’s already taking steps! You need me to help you—“
The slightest pressure on tortured limbs instantly jolted the man to silence, panicked plea cutting off to an agonized whimper.
“What’s your contact’s name?”
The man gasped. Alex could sense how the panicked man’s heart was pounding. Understanding that his cultivation base would crack if not outright rupture under the strain of a shattered JiangHu oath. Yet they both knew as well the most agonizing death imaginable waited for the man if he dared hold back.
Alex spoke before the man could prevaricate or lie.
“Is it Dui Zhong? Is it Instructor Rah? Is it Luo or Xiao? Is it Lu Gang? Is it Su Rin?”
Alex carefully measured the man’s body language as he glared into the face of his shattered target, refusing to register Ya Ling’s horrified gasp of dismay. He bombarded the man with a stream of names he suspected no reaction from at all, beyond the agony and despair the man was clearly already feeling.
“Is it Te Chang?… is it Tan Yi of the Duo Li clan?”
The last pair of names alone earned a flinch and tremble. Alex’s lips curled in a fierce smile. “Bingo. And that confirms it.”
The JiangHu assassin visibly crumbled, somehow looking even sicker and weaker than he had moments before. “You’ve shattered my foundation.” He gave a bitter laugh. “Congratulations, asshole Ruidian. You’ve managed to cripple me, half-blind me, and destroy any hope of advancement. You might as well just finish me off and end my pain, because now I have nothing le—“
You’ve Critically struck your target!
The man’s words died off, eyes widening in shocked surprise as if unable to believe Alex would actually follow through when he jammed the hilt of his blade into the would-be killer’s skull and twisted, the man’s final desperate plea transforming into dying grunts and death spasms before the body collapsed entirely.
And then there was silence, and an awful tension in the air that Alex alleviated in the only way he knew how.
By making it all go away.
Before anyone could say a word, before Ya Ling could give a horrified cry or scream or accuse him of being a savage, bloodthirsty barbarian… Alex having embraced murderous ruthlessness so quickly, so utterly, especially considering Spirit Qi’s sporadic ability to grace, or curse him with his foe’s final thoughts... the body before him disappeared.
Because the stakes were too damned high for any other path. A city was in peril by monsters happy to gamble with the lives of half a million souls, to further their own twisted schemes.
The blood sloughed off both his features and his once more pristine changshan tunic and ancient hose as he flitted to each of the other bodies, gathering them all up with a single gentle touch of his palm. For storage devices that could never take hold of a sapient creature had absolutely no problem storing and preserving freshly made kills.
Only then, after closing his eyes and bidding the date trees and grass to drink deep of crimson sustenance, did he open them once more and give a curt nod, with no trace of blood or gore to be found at the scene of the incident, or upon his person.
Ya Ling opened her mouth, but no words came out.
Alex sighed, giving her a sad shake of his head. “Make no mistake, they were here to pick us off and take us out, just as ruthlessly as the assholes who tried to ambush and slaughter us on the caravan. And now we know that my dream was real. Which means that two delves really were contaminated with black formations, and that our enemies are maneuvering themselves for a bloody coup that will at the very least end with the death of all Ruidians and those that support them. So how about you judge my methods when your life, your grandparents lives, and the lives of all our friends and everyone who would otherwise die of dehydration or starvation aren’t being imperiled by the Duo Li clan playing their sick games?”
Ya Ling swallowed, lowering her gaze. “I know, Alex. Just… let’s go. It will be light soon, and best no one associate us with what just happened.”
Alex nodded. “You’re right. Best it seem as if the three had disappeared to the night winds, and that our enemies gain a newfound respect for crossing the house of a Deep Silver.”
In short order they were cutting across the academy grounds, making their way to the prestigious on-campus dining hall where they were to meet their noble acquaintances and where Alex and Linnea still had rent free accommodations for a full moon’s duration.
Yet despite the tight knot of anxiety in the pit of Alex’s stomach slowly unwinding, he grew increasingly uncomfortable with the tension he felt from the first friend he had made here. Forced to see him far more savage and ruthless than he ever hoped to have her see.
“Ya Ling?”
She abruptly turned his way, her face now an expressionless mask.
He sighed. “I’m sorry.”
She blinked, her face running through a gamut of emotions. She slowed down her pace, Alex and the others happily letting her do so as she rubbed her temples and shook her head. “You shouldn’t be. No, Alex. Were it not for you, we wouldn’t even have realized the danger. Because your hunch was right. That bastard Tan Yi and his father really are out not just to hinder us, but to outright eliminate us. They’ll happily kill you, if they think they can get away with it, and no doubt want punish me and my family in the worst possible way for daring to give you shelter and treat you like kin.”
She turned, glaring back the way they came. “They were hovering over us like jackals. They might not have dared a killing shot as we were together, but if they had caught me enjoying the garden alone with my grandparents off doing their duties… they would have happily taken me out and put my body in storage device to smuggle out just as easily as you did to them.”
Her eyes flashed with sudden heat. “Because those Duo Li bastards would happily destroy the entire pristine valley below, providing food and sustenance for over half a million people… if they thought it would secure their dominion over us all.”
Alex’s relieved smile wilted under her measuring gaze.
“But you enjoyed taking them out. Don’t pretend you didn’t.” Ya Ling shook her head and sighed. “Just like a desert cat stalking his prey.”
Alex flushed, unable to deny that despite the tension and outraged fury he felt when his friends were put in peril, he did indeed revel in showing his enemies just how far he’d come since the days he’d been an easily broken young disciple with a single digit Strength.
“There’s nothing wrong with reveling in the hunt,” Linnea declared, locking gazes with Alex. “Especially when you’re removing a threat to those depending on you to protect them.”
Ya Ling gazed at Linnea for long moments, before flashing an ivory-white smile. “True. Some hunts are righteous.” She locked gazes with Alex. “And some prizes are more than worth the bittersweet struggle of obtaining them.” She gently stroked Alex’s cheek. “So long as one remembers that there are other things… precious, beautiful things… are just as important to life and happiness as taking down choice prey.”
“Oh she’s right, Alex! Dual cultivation is every bit as important as taking out our enemies!” Linnea said brightly, effortlessly hopping in and out of the gestalt to a degree that surprised even Alex. Because she really did have full autonomy. A truth that wasn’t lost on Hanz or Lieberman either as they shook themselves free of their daze as they approached their destination, Lieberman giving Alex an odd look.
“So righteous, feeling such fiery wrath at the thought of strangers killing my niece… killing me.” Lieberman solemnly bowed his head. “I now both fear and respect you, Battle-leader.”
Alex winced. “I don’t want you or any of my friends to fear me, Lieberman.”
“Too late for that,” Hanz said with a sigh. And something in his gaze made Linnea pale, taking a step back.
“Oh Hanz, please tell me they didn’t.”
Hanz swallowed, lowering his gaze. “I’m afraid they did.”
Lieberman blanched, clasping Hanz’s shoulder. “Son, what happened?”
Hanz flashed a sad, sad smile. “The final man Alex, our battle-leader, so ruthlessly dealt with. Let’s just say that I recognized his face and his voice. In fact, I know him on a very personal level.”
Alex winced, stomach twisting in knots. “Hanz, I didn’t… I’m so, so sorry.”
This earned a bitter laugh. “Are you kidding? You saved my life, Alex. Who cares if that asshole thought me handsome enough to fuck a time or two? He was just setting me up to discretely take out after having his way with me yet again. His words proved it. Your Soul Sight skill that we were all attuned to through our gestalt left no room for doubt or error.”
Hanz shook his head, wiping away a bitter tear. “You saved my life from a two-faced bastard playing with my heart. I knew he was just having his fun and would leave me in the end. But if I had known his goal was to cut my throat while I was lost in the rapture of his gaze...”
He trembled. Linnea didn’t hesitate to sooth him, wrapping her arms around him like a mother hen.
“Thanks for saving my life again, Alex. That’s really all I can say.”