As the sea of red-tinged grey luminous metal kunai flocked into our ghastly silhouettes, a city of mushroom clouds rose from the ground, illuminating the entire forest in an austere light.

The formless cage rattled for deafening seconds that seemed like hours.

I felt my mind slip in and out despite my constant pushing for succession.

I had no time to even acknowledge the others in my cage as my mental restraints were pushed further and further with every passing second.

Although the initial blow had been dealt, it had heavily weakened our defenses.

As the inferno rose into the clouds a new layer of gas erupted from underneath it, subsequently taking its place.

A huge storm of smoke blasted all around us, concealing our figures as well as the tens of figures that moved into the grim grey gas.

It was an odd sight as the smoke pressed against the barrier before me, a small layer of smoke crept its way inside inciting me to cough and irritating my eyes successfully.

The nearby forest region had been set ablaze by this explosive assault and trees burned into blackened trunks before me.

The barriers on my side held out but I could not say the same for those behind me. Halfway through the hell-blitz I felt deathly ardent and realized that the worst must have ensued. Fortunately, It was Ken's side so he shouldn't have died.

I hoped that much at least.

I looked with fearful eyes at Ken's figure.

His entire front was charred. His entire body was an audacious red and only his eyes remained unchanged.

His skin was twitching and throbbing, his hands were slippery and crimson from blood.

His emotions were a swirling mess as I had a one-sided gaze into his eyes.

As he unsheathed his katana, his muscles raged as he yelled and screamed so loud that every Assasin in the smoke-mist could hear his emotions through their thick ragged masks.

"ASSASINS!"

His figure broke out crazily as his pained figure swept at the smoke desperately.

The force and pressure were so intense that for a few seconds he parted the smoke sea in a Moses-like fashion, it was only when it began to press back in that he regained his calm consciousness. His anger gradually settled down, being replaced by a deathly calm corrosiveness.

The Count had kept his mind together and pulled Audra behind him who was still crouched and trauma-wrought.

I tried to hold onto the numerous materializations for as long as possible but I was well over my limit in that sense.

I could only grimace as my tight and once unmatched grip on my materializations was released and deep, heavy, and ghastly smoke skulked into our forces.

It rose and choke us, the only thing keeping us sane was our primordial instincts and the occasional fwooshes that would surface from all around us.

And before I knew it, I had been separated from the group.

I felt a shallow wail form at the tip of my tongue.

The fact there I could only hear the sound of smoke seeping merely exposed the professionalism of those around us.

I resisted the impending pressure to cough as the smoke marauded my figure. I kept my hands in a cone shape around my mouth to hopefully dilute the air in some shape or form.

I closed my eyes since I wasn't seeing anything anyways.

As I pushed and gripped as much smoke as I could out of the way, the ground below me seemed to represent a crater.

The crater went on and on before I reached the turn-off point for the smoke.

My body was of an unpleasant warmth as the heated smoke engulfed me.

I prepared as many lotus steps and sources as I could whilst I scouted the grey fog.

I groped around in hope of a platform or solid object of some sort.

It was then that I realized truly how large the area of impact had been.

A ring of flames that roared above my eye-sights current capabilities blazed ahead of me.

The smoke had thinned and dimmed yet it was still just as deadly.

Although I could not see or hear a thing but a complacent hissing from the smoke, I was certain that in that smoke sea, Ken was fighting for Audra and The Count's life.

My fears became realities as a faint and dusty explosion sounded behind me.

It was the fattest evidence one could put up to their faces as the assassins flocked around the group.

I had a general idea where it had sounded and as I moved towards the edges of the smoke extremely faint and light clashing sounds came to flourish upon my ears.

Ah.

I had a choice.

I could leave right now, and most probably survive. I could put the past behind me and live a new life.

And all witnesses would be ashes in the time-lost smoke.

Or I could save my saviors and possibly die in the act, if not get extremely internally//externally injured.

I don't know what choice I would have made in that suffocating haven had it not been for the two panicked darting peachy eyes that met mine in a horrified state.

It was Audra.

She was alone, there was no sign, sound or sight of the Count and Ken.

Her dress was covered in mud stains and her hair had become messy and unladylike.

I noticed her trembling state and offered a hand which she slowly took.

No words were spoken, and I doubt I would have received a response had I asked a question.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Her sweating, pale and trembling hand gradually settled as she retracted it shamefully.

Her mouth moved a bit emitting an untellable sound. I assume it was thanks or a sound of gratification.

I had another thought for a second. I thought that I knew I would think upon shamefully in no less than a day's time.

What if we ran away? Right there? Away from the blazing flames and clashing steel?

But I took one close look at Audra's deplorable state and shook my head.

Losing her father on top of this tragic experience would be the end of an innocent girl.

I had also taken notice the lack of a Countess.

Cheating scandals or widowing I did not know. But it surely was a not a topic for this moment's ears.

I took her by the hand as we swept ourselves deeper into the thick layers of smoke.

She used her other hand to mask her mouth from the intoxicating smoke.

Her emotions and expressions mixed into a misunderstanding mess. The idea of seeing her Father's well-being and the idea of getting away from there as soon as possible strangled each other in her mind before she just followed the boy before her.

His Clothes were ripped and dirtied and his freshly cut hair had dried in the smoke.

Yet he had confidence. He had spirit. And he had a job to fulfill.

I continued sending us forward before the assassins clearly No.1 Favorite weapon once again returned.

A blazing kunai thrashed right into my materialization that I had been hesitantly controlling during our strides.

A strong sound broke out as a shaky impact coursed through our bodies.

Fwoosh.

Boom.

A red sun-cloud implanted right before me, it pressed down as firmly as it could before giving up and spreading into sulky smoke.

Hot smoke blew past our sides as my materialization took the brink of the force.

Embers flew like fireflies as I worked out where our enemy was.

My emotions closed for a second as I realized that had I been a second too late or complacent that my life could've been cut away right there.

I calmed my mind and kept the pale hand that clung to my wrist desperately near me.

Had I let go then, I might've never found Audra again.

Not in this lifetime at least.

My emotions turned and furled within me uncomfortably as there was still no sign of the assaulter.

I hated this scenario.

The idea that a blade would pierce the skin that flapped over my back in a mere instance was spread all throughout my mind.

I tried my best to remain calm as my mouth quivered and my world-energy sources began to tremble.

I was beyond tempted to blast them all over the place to crush this weasel's body into a crumpled mess.

I let out a loose and long-expected cough that caused me to gain an ungainly fowl. My thoughts were halted for a split-second while I underwent this action.

As if waiting for this very moment, the smoke to my right split and curled.

It's not like I was going to let him get close anyways...

I felt a Caucasus-like smile curve upon my face.

My eyes gleamed with victory as the fish stepped on the bait, well-timed and expected.

Boom.

Instantly, a beyond super-charged and compressed source of world energy uncurled and released a clenching and crippling impact on my enemy.

He was tall and lightly toned, he wore similar black rags but they were of a higher quality.

In his hands were two simple silver daggers that he had pointed upwards.

His eyes merely looked at my apparatus blankly and dully as he continued driving himself forward without hesitation.

He was, uncomfortably unfazed.

I felt confused and out of place by these reactions and decisions but thought nothing more of them. Another enemy gone was another enemy to blast, after all.

But something that killed off the adrenaline and excitement in my very core occurred.

With a sullen and almost unbothered face, his two daggers throttled forward and met with my blast.

They sat there for a second and clunked as his hands rocked back and forth before a large spurt of air blasted backward before shifting into the atmosphere.

My attack. He had resisted it completely and almost deflected it, to put the icing on top.

I don't think that a human before this man that I had seen, had ever just casually taken a full-powered blast of world energy so naturally and casually.

All I knew was that I was next.

World energy wouldn't save me so what would?

This was an opponent just above my capabilities. I could almost tell. He was just beyond my reach. I wouldn't have the time for a lightning blast with this distance, I wouldn't the freedom for a sword-bout with Audra. And I wouldn't the capabilities to beat him with a world-energy blast.

So what must I or how must I consummate this situation?

I felt the time ticking abnormally fast as his mirage flashed and skulked through the sulphury smoke. He was a shade darker than the smoke and his blades, I now noticed had been unaffected by my previous attack.

Wait.

In that short interlapse, before his blade was to meet my neck, I came to a realization.

So what if he could resist my attack?

He was a stranger. A nobody. He had no clue about the functions of world energy.

He probably assumed I was using some form of incantationless wind magic.

I formed 3 sources of world energy by his sides and back.

His blades traveled in a cross pattern as his lightly toned body instantly became refined as it flourished under the smoky cover.

They left no silver or magical trail for he had no intent. Emotions. Dreams. He was seemingly lifeless with his muscle-powered strikes.

His eyes were still dull as his body completed each and every action in a trained manner.

3 light booms sounded as his body jerked reflexively forward.

Boo-Boom.Boom.

They fired in such timing that it sounded like 2 booms.

His eyes showed no emotion to this development, but luckily his body did.

Rolling forward at an intense speed, his back muscles instantly tensed as they tanked the shot.

I turned as fast as I could with the knowledge of where he ought to end up I slashed downwards with my blade.

A dulling clash was all I was met with. No sparks flew. Just a clanging sound that rang throughout the smoking silence.

He displayed unordinary and inhuman flexibility.

His two arms lay behind his knelt position as they shook and spazed slightly. The pressure of my blade and superior positioning was getting to him.

Although it was two-on-one, I felt that one more push was all I needed to throttle through his defenses. Yet that one push never came.

Just a trifling back and forth that occurred between our blades.

His superior physical state allowed him to push at an equal level to me despite the advantage that I had gained with effort.

I placed another source of world energy by his right. Compressing it to send him at least rolling again I released it whilst his arms were occupied in our blunt clash of steel.

Bo-OOM.

It took an odd second for the most explosive part to release. My control was weakening due to my awful mental state.

His toned body ricocheted to the left and he was left in a flipped turtle position.

Had he not been so inanimate mentally then perhaps he could've reacted. Perhaps I could've died.

But he had not so therefor.

His knees were turned upwards as the smoke filled the gaps where his eyes should've met mine.

His body couldn't react in time as his arms had only begun to jolt as my blade crashed down.

I traveled faster than his sunken eyes could follow using the lotus step.

My blade cleanly cut through a good part of his neck before it was halted by two silver splints.

But it was too late.

A huge semi-slit had formed and a dangerous amount of blood was forming a small pool on the ground.

We stood there in silence and realization as my battle had been won.

The incorporable strength halting my blade soon ceased to exist as my blade cleanly sunk through his neck.

His body slowly slumped to the ground as his eyes stayed the same.

He had been dead from the start in a way.

I covered his face with his rags, he had never displayed evil intent. Just a man doing his job.

Whilst I was thinking this, a soaking waterfall crashed into my mind.

I had just killed a man.

People were dying.

These people-. These people would never taste a hot meal, experience a good emotion, or live for another laugh ever again.

I didn't even feel sad or remorseful. Just scared for myself.

What was going on.

As I looked at my now sweaty and shaking right hand I looked back.

Audra's state was even worse.

Her eyes widened even further somehow and her breaths had become inaudible hyperventilations.

She was a child. A child who had seen it all just now.

I put my hand on her forehead and supported her back.

I tried my best to calm her down. She was taking in way too much smoke. Her hand had long left her mouth and she was at breaking point.

"H-hey calm down. Relax. You're alright. You're saf-.You're gonna be okay. He's just sleeping and you're okay. You're... okay."

My voice bounced around rapidly before it slowly faded away. It's tones and pitched changed abnormally but I made sure to put my hands on her shoulders firmly.

Her breathing sequence slowly normalized as she released the smallest nod I had ever witnessed.

Her eyes stopped darting around and locked in with mine, cautiously they settled.

I took my eyes off her distraught state and cut off my mental attachments. She was struggling a lot more and I was somewhat better due to my childhood in a somewhat smoke-like environment but that wasn't important. Neither was this whole killing dilemma.

Morals could come later.

Audra could come later.

My degrading physical condition could come later. If it makes it that far.

Now was the time to fight for my life.

And so I clenched the silver blade by my right.

The feeling was cool to the touch and like rough plastic.

And it would be the abrogation of those who stood in my way for the rest of this story.

I sheathed my blade as I abondoned the lifeless corpse by my hind.

The first of many.p