Volume 1 Chapter 8: Part 2: You Need To Die

"What am I doing with my life?" Onyx grumbles as he looks up at the sky. Right now, he's holding onto a box of sweets, walking down the streets of the royal capital. The reason for all of this was a few hours ago,

...

"Onyx, can you go out and get some sweets for me?" Irene was leaning on Onyx's back, using it as a chair.

"Don't we have sweets here in the castle? Can't you ask the maids to get it for you?" Onyx doesn't look at Irene as he continues to read his book.

Irene shakes her head, "The sweets here aren't as delicious as the ones at the stores!"

"Then ask the knights to do it for you."

Irene pouts before she turns over and stacks her head on top of his, "But it isn't the same. And you aren't doing anything right now."

"I am. Don't you see the book in my hand?" Onyx waves his book lightly to show her and goes back to reading. It has been a few weeks since Onyx woke up from his sleep.

The number of bandages on his body decreased by a lot. However, he still wasn't cleared for training. Vargar was not going to allow it.

"Do you really think you recovered fully after such a battle?! Who do you think you are?! Your body may be healed for the most part, but your mind, on the other hand, is a different story. Mental fatigue is something you can't recover from without rest. So go take a break, my damn student."

So here he is now. Even though Onyx can't practice, it doesn't mean he should be sitting around doing nothing. So he decides to read a book.

"Pretty please, it will only be a few minutes."

"I'm reading right now." Hearing that, Irene looks down at his book,

"Monster ecology." One thing Onyx realized as he fought with the monsters was that he was clueless about them. Especially against monsters like a chimera. The magic and beserker state took him by surprise.

If it was just a little better with its aim...

Onyx doesn't need to finish that thought as he knows Irene and him would be goners.

That's why he needs to learn more. Enough for him not to be taken by surprise by these things. But Irene, on the other hand, thought differently,

"Please, you can come back to finish reading it then." Irene begins to shake Onyx by his shoulders.

Onyx makes a weird expression.

"Pretty please. With sugar on top."

"..."

....

And that's why Onyx is carrying back sweets with him. He cannot say no to those eyes. But more than that, Irene was the one who took care of him for the entire week. He was forced not to move, afraid that his injuries might open up. So,

"Open up, Onyx." Irene would be the one who would feed him his breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She stayed by his side all the time until he recovered.

So the sweets are more of a thank you gift and a treat. As Onyx walks down the street, the only thought in Onyx's mind is,

So peaceful. People are laughing and having fun with each other.

It's a relaxing sight to behold. Maybe I should be relaxing more. With what happened to me, taking a break should be fine. But that thought is quickly thrown out the window.

"Kyaa!!! Somebody help me!" Hearing that, Onyx doesn't know what to say. That came from the alleyway. Me and my big mouth. He curses at himself before he runs towards the alleyway.

It's dumb. But that's the best option possible right now.

The knights would take a while to hear it. Let alone come here, so Onyx is the only one who can do it. And what he sees when he gets there is a bunch of thugs surrounding a girl.

"It's useless to shout so much. Nobody is going to come and save you." One of the thugs says as he pushes the woman against the wall. The look on his face says it all.

"Hey, let that woman go now." Contrary to what the thugs thought, one person came over.

"So there's actually some stupid enough to come over here. What do you want, brat?"

"Let her go." Onyx continues to stare at them. But that just makes the thugs laugh,

"And why should we listen to you? Get him, boys!" The moment the leader says this, the rest of the thugs charge at Onyx.

Sigh, putting the cakes on the ground, he cracks his knuckles,

"Alright, then. This is my light exercise then."

...

"What are you?" One of the thugs says as he looks up at Onyx on the floor. The fight didn't even last a minute. Onyx took out the thugs in a matter of seconds.

A blow was all he needed for them to go down.

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"Do you guys know what you are doing?" Onyx shakes his head at them. Despite being injured, Onyx is more than capable of handling a bunch of thugs.

"Don't you dare look down on us, you punk!" The thug's leader glares at him. He couldn't believe a child was looking down on them.

"Then you want to have another go with me?" The moment Onyx says that, the thug's expression pales. Want another go with him? Of course not! Why would they want to have another go with him?

"Just scram before the guards get here." Hearing that, the thugs quickly ran away from Onyx, not wanting to get another taste of his fists.

"Are you alrigh- Woah!" Onyx turns over to ask the girl. Before he can finish his sentence, the girl hugs Onyx's arm.

"Thank you for saving me." The woman snuggles up to Onyx's body, all teary-eyed and scared.

"The knights will be here any minute. You can tell them all about this." Onyx was going to leave. But the woman continues to hold onto Onyx.

"Huh? Can you let go of me?"

"Can you bring me back to my home? I don't want to be alone."

"Can't you ask the knights to do it for you?" Onyx pushes the girl off his arm and grabs the bags off the floor. He needed to go home. Who knows what will happen if he leaves Irene alone for too long?

"Please! I'm begging you. The thugs might come after me after you're gone. And the knights will not help me after this!" The woman latches onto Onyx's shirt. The teary-eyed expression she had was saying to save her.

"Just tell them about what happened, and you'll be fine. I have to go now." Onyx makes a weird expression as he leaves. But then the girl latches onto Onyx's leg.

"No! Waah! Please stay with me. This happened to me before, and the knights didn't care!"

"Fine! I'll do it. So stop grabbing onto my leg like that. I'll send you to your street, and that's that! So stop crying."

Hearing that, the woman changes from a tearful expression to a gentle, seductive one, "Thank you so much!" She then latches onto Onyx's arm and drags him away.

"..." Onyx was speechless when he saw the 180 change.

...

"Good, she got his attention." On top of the buildings, a couple of hooded figures look down at Onyx and the women. Despite their faces being covered, they couldn't hide the smirks as they watched Onyx. Him being dragged deeper and deeper into the alleyway.

"We did as we were told. Can we go now?" With them, surprisingly, are the thugs who fought with Onyx. Their faces sweat as they look at the hooded figures.

"Now that phase 1 is complete, we'll move onto phase 2."

"..."

The thugs can only look at him with a blank expression. They're treated like air. Well, it wasn't surprising as they were the ones who forced them to play the fools.

"Understood!" As the leader says, the rest of the cloaked figures jump off the roof and begin to jump over other roofs. The direction they're going in is none other than where Onyx and the girl are walking.

"What do we do about them?" One of the figures stays behind with the leader and looks at the thugs. Finally, they were acknowledged.

The thugs thought they were free. But the captain spoke,

"Kill them." There is no use for them now that they have done their part. Leaving them alive will just be a nuisance.

The thugs' expressions turn pale as a sheet of paper. And that's the last expression they will ever have.

Their heads went flying off before they could say anything else.

...

"Hey, are we there yet?" Onyx grumbles. They have been walking for a while now.

They're even out of the alleyway. The area Onyx is led to is another part of the royal capital. But it's much more deserted compared to the place he was at.

No stalls and little to no people walking around.

"We're almost there at my home." The woman says with a smile plastered on her face. She continues to lead Onyx deeper into the street.

He was eventually led to the girl's house.

"Thank you for taking me back home."

"...It's ok."

No, it's not ok. Onyx didn't expect there would be so many turns just to get to the women's house. And it was her house, not the street too. Onyx had ideas about leaving her in the alleyway because of how long it took.

But that was too harsh.

"I'll be on my way now." He was already too late. Onyx can already imagine Irene doing something reckless.

"How can I let my savior leave just like that? Won't you come in and have a cup of tea?" The woman says, continuing to have a smile plastered on her face.

"Thank you for the offer, but no. I have to return home now." Onyx turns his back, ready to leave. But that's when everything changed.

The smile on the woman's face completely disappeared! What replaced it is a dark and sinister sneer!

"That's too bad. I wanted you to stay here forever!" As she says this, a short sword pops out of her hands. She drives it straight towards Onyx's chest!

"Women, you are playing with fire." Before the sword can strike his back, Onyx quickly turns and grabs the woman's arm. His grip was tight, making the woman drop her weapon, catching it with his other hand.

The woman went wide-eyed, surprised that Onyx caught her blade. But then a smirk forms on her face again, "When did you realize it?"

"This moment." Onyx was suspicious of her forcing him to come all this way. But the thing that made him realize it was,

"You should have hid your bloodlust a little better." The moment Onyx rejected her, her bloodlust was released. It was that of a killer. That's when he knew that something was wrong.

The woman laughs, "As expected of the hero."

When Onyx hears this, he frowns, "How do you know I'm a hero?"

"It doesn't matter whether or not I know. You're a dead man, pretty boy." As she says this, two shadows charge toward Onyx!

One came from the side, while the other dropped down from the roof. Both have the same goal in mind; to cut down Onyx!

"!" Onyx quickly dodges the one coming from the skies, and then he uses the short sword to block the one coming from the side.

Through sheer force, Onyx pushes back the assassin with his sword. And then he kicks the other one out of the way!

"Who are you people?" Onyx looks at them with caution. He couldn't understand why he was getting attacked.

"You don't need to know who we are, demon!" The three jump together, ready to take him out together! The woman takes out another short sword, and the other two bring their blades down on his head!

But Onyx blocks it with the blade. His strength is better than the three combined as he pushes upwards, blowing them away again!

Onyx points his blade at the three, "What do you mean?"

Demon? Onyx tilts his head. Why would they call him a demon? How was he a demon? But before he has any time to process it anymore,

"!" Danger! Onyx quickly rolls away from his position, dodging the swords coming down on his head.

More of them? Onyx's expression turns grim when he sees an extra five figures.

"What do you think you're doing?! Why didn't you stick with the plan?!" The captain says as he glares at the woman. The plan was to make Onyx lower his guard and lure him into the house. Then, all of them would attack him at the same time, killing him.

But that plan's in the garbage now.

"I'm sorry." The woman quickly bows, "It seems he was sharper than our intelligence informed us."

"No matter. The demon is still injured from the last fight. This is still the perfect time to end this once and for all." He turns back to Onyx. But then his eyes turn wide.

Onyx wasn't there at all!

"..."

"WHERE DID HE GO?!" The captain shouts out, surprised that Onyx would run away so quickly!

Why are those guys after me? Onyx thought as he ran away. They kept calling him a demon which was so confusing. While the group was talking, Onyx took the chance to quickly run away.

I need to fight in the open or get to more people. If he was somewhere with more people, he could just blend in with the crowds for safety. Then he could go to the guards.

I'm in no condition to fight. Even if Onyx looks fine, he knows it isn't enough to deal with those assassins. Not when all eight are charging at him and going for the kill.

And Onyx wasn't prepared for a brawl right now. The only weapon he has right now is the short sword he stole from the woman. As he continues to run away, Onyx can hear the shouting coming from the back!

"He's over there!" The moment he hears that, Onyx can see the assassins chasing him down! They are a bunch of bloodhounds wanting to take him down!

But then something worse came at him.

"We caught you now, demon!" One of the assassins is in front of Onyx! He jumped over the buildings just to get ahead of him.

"Crap!" Onyx's face darkens. He went back into the alleyway, leaving him no option but to go left and right. There's no way he can go back. Not unless he has a death wish.

Alright then. Onyx grits his teeth and picks up his pace. There is only one option he could pull off.

Seeing how Onyx increases his pace, the assassin pales, "Stop right this- Argghhh!"

Too late.

Onyx smashes into him like a raging bull, and he isn't planning on stopping either. But the assassin got lucky.

"I'll be taking this." Onyx steals the sword from the assassin's waist. And there's no need for him.

The assassin slipped off of his body, dropping to the ground. He looks so lifeless.

"Damn, why is he so fast?!" The leader shouts out. Shouldn't he be injured? How is he outrunning us?!

Garbage cans and other objects. While Onyx ran, he kicked them down, making it difficult for the assassins to catch up to him.

But then, Onyx stops and gives them a grin, "This is the perfect place for us to fight now."

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