Committing crimes and sabotaging the enemy were part of the Medjay ways. Of course, stealth and discretion were key to such a rogue organization.
Through the remainder of the night, Leon changed his appearance multiple times as he traveled through the Fort. He killed all the guards he could by breaking their necks in order not to spill too much blood, and he hid the bodies in all the locations he could.
What seemed to be a problem to him were a few Knights that were gathered in the courtyard while being ready for mobilization as soon as they got a message from the Baron.
Leon didn't know what to do with the remaining servants in the castle. Mostly innocent people, Leon didn't like to get people like those involved in his killing sprees, so he made the decision to lock them in their rooms as they slept. He knocked out a few of them in order to be safe and made sure nobody was left on the third and second floors except for a certain person.
Meet Earna Marth, the Baroness and the wife of Baron Conri Marth. She seemed like a typical cranky old lady who wasn't anything significant or even a threat to be taken seriously. Still…
"That ropes it all together." Leon said as he was done tying the lady with a rope and gagged her mouth well, "Sorry about that; you're husband and son seem to have the terrible habit of forcing my hand." Leon said as the woman looked at him with reddened eyes, full of hatred and streaming with tears.
She seemed to be trying to scream, but in reality, she must have recognized his face from the posters and was cursing him with a thousand curses.
Leon ignored her as he shut the door to her quarters. What was left now were the Knights and the guards in the courtyard, and he had no idea what to do with them.
"Alright, let's start a fire." Leon said so as if he was trying not to use this method from the start.
He looked for the kitchen, which happened to be on the first floor of the fort's southern wing. He cast the "Flames" spell and started to burn the kitchen furniture and tableware before rushing to the other side of the building.
There, he lined up all the crossbows he had, including the Goodnight, the high-power crossbow that can shoot projectiles as powerful as a siege ballista.
As soon as the fire started to spread and the smoke appeared in the courtyard, a small commotion happened, and a lot of guards and some of the knights went up to investigate and put down the fire.
Leon remained in hiding and kept the goodnight aimed at the kitchen's door. Three of the knights were already approaching the kitchen while keeping their focus at its peak.
The first one approached the kitchen and looked inside to see nothing and no one in the fire. He signaled to the other two, and they all came towards the kitchen door.
At that time, a guard came from the place Leon was hiding and could see a strange handballista being aimed at the kitchen.
"Hey! You!" The guard took out his sword and wanted to rush at Leon but without even looking…
*Click* *Swoosh* *Hit*
"Argh!"
Leon used a common crossbow from his Storage and fired it at the center of the guard's throat. The sound alerted the knights, who looked back immediately, but it was too late.
Along with a few guards, they have all lined up for Leon in a straight line…
*CLICK* *SWOOSH* *HIT*HIT*HIT*HIT*HIT*
The three knights, along with five guards, were all hit by the special projectile Leon shot at them.
< LEVEL UP! >
< 21 → 22 >
It was a destructive projectile that ripped through everything in its path without remorse. As it hit the first guard, it split him in half and continued to the knight behind him. The knight had an apple-sized hole in his armor, which the projectile went through to take down the following knight and the one after them. The sheer force of the projectile carried the knights and the guards from where they stood and threw them into the kitchen's fire.
Now this was no small communion; it was a straight-up alarming event. The guards who were still covering the floor where Leon was noticed him in an instant, and the cover provided by the Chameleon Cloak was no more.
On this floor, there were 7 guards remaining. In the courtyard, there were 2 Knights and 5 guards. Only the seven up with Leon were alert to him.
Then it turned into a shooting action scene. Leon discarded the Goodnight and held a crossbow to shoot a charging guard dead.
The second guard came charging with a spear ahead, but Leon had a second crossbow, which he aimed very precisely at the guard's heart.
"Assassin!"
"Killer!"
"Sound the Alarm!"
Leon threw the two crossbows and took out two more loaded ones to shoot the third and fourth guards. Before he could take on the rest with ranged attacks, he was finally cornered in melee by a guard.
Without even taking a weapon, Leon used the Air Magic spell "Cutting Wind" and beheaded the guard before taking his spear and killing another guard with a spear throw, then using the last crossbow on the last guard.
Now he was exposed to the guards and the knights in the courtyard, and it seemed that the knights were already on the stairs while one of the guards was rushing towards the Alarm in the middle of the courtyard.
Leon ran and jumped off the rail before using the "Double Jump" technique to extend the distance of his jump and land right on top of the guard like death from above.
The knights rushed back down towards Leon, using their Combat Magic skills to reach him as fast as they possibly could. However, there were still four guards who were panicking and trying to alert the fortress. Something had to be done.
"Rhyme!" Leon spoke.
{As you wish!}
Rhyme, who was previously out of the Book of the Dead, rushed through the guards and put her spells on them. She was unseen for the most part, so the Knights couldn't tell what was going on, but Leon was already within their reach.
One knight rushed with his axe, catching fire as Vadim does, while the other was using a sword and casting a Wind Magic attack toward Leon.
Leon only had one answer for that.
"Vacuum Blast!"
When two opponents come at you with rock and paper, you would normally choose scissors to cut the paper and deal with the rock on the second exchange. Leon, however, would cut the hands of whoever came at him this way.
Vacuum devastated both Air and the Fire Magic without remorse. The shocking implosion of the spell caused the two knights to lose footing simultaneously and crash into one another at the center of the vacuum implosion.
That was how unorthodox the Vacuum Blast spell was.
< "Air Magic" D → C >
Even at this time, Leon's growth never halted, and he was growing his proficiency with the Air Magic. Now it was as good as his Earth Magic.
As for the fallen knights, Leon didn't give them a second to breathe and took out a spear to stab the first through the armor gaps while Rhyme passed through the next knight, causing him to suffer from her "Life Leech" ability, which made him drop to his knees in agony while feeling like his heart would burst at any second.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
"Any last words?" Leon picked up the axe used by the knight he just killed and stood in front of the last remaining combatant in this whole Fort.
"You cunt!" The knight started using insulting words
"These are your last words? Really?" Leon asked.
"Motherfuc…"
Leon swung the axe, roughly removing the entire jaw of the knight along with a chunk of his neck.
"Sigh! The easy part is done." Leon dropped to his knees and took a long breath, as he was dripping with sweat.
{What is the hard part?}
"Cleaning… I hate cleaning after killing."
Leon stood up and started moving the bodies before the blood spread to the ground. This would ruin the coming part of the plan, which is the most sensitive bit.
He started carrying the corpses all to the upper floor, and after putting down the fire, he started using another "Vacuum Blast". After that, he grabbed the knights and shoved them into the chamber of Baroness Earna Marth.
"My lady, I've brought you some company, albeit not the entertaining sort."
As he dropped the knights inside, the Baroness' eyes widened in horror, and she started rolling to the ground while wiggling like a worm towards one of them, exactly the one that Leon cut his jaw with the axe.
She was crying and wailing even though she was gagged, and it seemed like she had been possessed by madness.
"Oh, boy!" Leon realized instantly what this meant, "That's another son of yours."
Using Knowledge Magic, he figured out that this was Edgar Marth, brother of Eric Marth, the knight whom he killed at the bridge.
Even though this is a military base, it seems that the Baron and his wife and other son came here to enact revenge for Eric, only to lose the foul-mouthed Edgar.
"Well, here goes my plan to the wind." Leon made a tired face, then held Lady Marth by the head and snapped her neck.
Baron Conri Marth just lost all of his family, if that was just them, and if he didn't kill any other Marth along the way.
Now, along with the servants whom Leon locked in their rooms and who seem to have been alerted to the violence going outside, he has captured an entire fortress on his own.
"Rhyme, a question." Leon spoke.
{Yes.}
"If I make Willy the Wisp here possess a corpse, will it be obvious that Death Magic was practiced?" He asked.
{Yes.}
"Here goes Plan B." Leon looked down at the dead Baroness and made an angry face, "For fuck's sake, Plan C it is."
***
As the light of dawn illuminated the blessed sky, the pilgrim caravan was already up and awake. For the followers of light, it is sinful to sleep as dawn comes up since it is the time of work and action, and they must keep themselves busy until the sun goes down. It is also considered sinful to conduct any business after the sun goes down as it becomes unrewarded and unblessed, such as the work of prostitutes and thieves.
And for a pilgrim who just came back from the great journey to St. Lanus, their lives must represent the Light and never lax in the morning. So just as Dawn broke, the caravan was once again ready to move as Minister Minerva had made a deal with Baron Marth.
Still, the Baron was nowhere to be seen, and he seemed to have gone back on his word. Still, that was about to change.
With the patrols coming and going in front of the fort, it is difficult for even Minerva to talk them into letting them pass without someone of authority, but the moment the situation between the pilgrims seemed intense and they started to sound their protests, the gatehouse of the Fort opened wide.
Even the patrol was confused, but up there on the top of the fort, right above the gatehouse, emerged a figure wearing a black dress and a large black hat, many of the soldiers recognized it to be the Baroness.
The pilgrims' caravan advanced amidst the confusion of the guards. Some of the guards ran towards the gate, but the baroness waved her arm for them to stand down.
The Baroness herself opened the way for the Pilgrims.
A moment after the leader of the caravan passed through the gate leading into the Fort, the other gate was opened, and the Baroness emerged on the other side of the Fort as if she were watching over the caravan as they passed.
It has to be that the Baron has left word to the Baroness to let the caravan pass at first light by the next morning. Minerva was happy and decided to take the advance in order to personally thank the Baroness, yet as soon as she entered the Fort, she found not a single guard or knight inside.
The air was ominous, but the caravan didn't stop and pushed forward through the other gate.
The other side had almost 200 guards stationed between the fort and the fortified wall that was erected against the Godfrey duchy. As those guards and the knights overseeing them saw the gate open and the caravan come out, they almost went to investigate, but the baroness raised her hand to halt them and let the caravan pass.
From that point, there was a distance of 50 meters between the Fort and the wall at the end of the bridge. The caravan kept moving and never stopped until they reached the fortified wall, where the Knight in charge of the wall stopped them, and an argument broke out between the Caravan's Leader and the Knight.
All eyes were going back and forth between the Baroness and the final gate that leads to the Godfrey duchy. The knight was very upset and finally decided to walk to the baroness and speak with her.
There was no one of the Baroness' attendants with her, which seemed rather ominous for the woman, who was in grief over her son, to act so independently, but as the Knight approached the Fort, the Baroness returned back inside. The Knight just had a very strange feeling and decided to walk into the Fort right away, but a second later, he heard someone screaming.
He looked up and could see the Baroness falling from Fort's Wall.
The Knight panicked; he shouted and ran towards where she would fall, but just two stories before she crashed into the ground, the Baroness' fall came to a stop by a rope tied around her neck.
"Light's mercy!" Minerva shuddered at the sight of the motionless woman who was hung on the Fort facing east as the sun came up.
As for the knights and the guards, they all ran like crazy and entered the Fort. They started scaling the stairs up simply to get to the baroness, but as soon as this happened, the sound of breaking metal was heard, and all of a sudden, the portcullis (the castle gate's sliding grill) fell to the ground, shutting the gate as the knights and many of the guards were already inside.
Castles of this type had two layers of gate, one that slides down like the portcullis and one that opens normally. The portcullis was mostly meant to be used in times of war because of its sheer weight, but now, this portcullis has crushed many guards beneath it.
At that moment, a figure appeared from under the battlements, just behind the rope from which the baroness was hanging. The figure was wearing a black dress similar to that of the baroness, and as it immediately jumped on the rope, it slid down on it.
Once that figure reached the hanged baroness, they cut the rope, which was actually two ropes, and their momentum helped them to descend down while the weight of the baroness kept them from crashing to the ground.
As the first knight reached the roof of the castle, he quickly held onto the baroness' corpse and looked beneath to see what sort of shitstorm they were about to be dragged into.
To those who were watching the situation from the caravan's side, they saw a figure descend in a similar dress to the baroness, and once it reached the ground, the dress was torn apart and a figure of a male young assassin was seen.
This wasn't the end. No, this was far from the end. Leon was covering his identity with a sheer mask, but he was still outnumbered and wide in the open. All he needed to do was make a bigger scene and do a bigger stunt than the one he had already done.
Luckily, he was prepared, and what other thing is better than a Molotov Cocktail to heat up the scene? Leon had prepared a number of these cocktails, but he only had a few of them around. He used the alcohol and any burnable material inside the Fort to prepare for the big fire.
And he threw the cocktail up at one of the lower battlement windows.
It didn't seem like anything at first, but soon after, fire was everywhere inside the eastern part of the castle, and he still had a few cocktail bottles to go.
The guards that still hadn't entered the castle rushed him, but he threw the Molotov Cocktail like crazy and burned them with Fire Magic to increase the tension.
"You, stop!" But at that moment, Minerva came running like the wind in a dazzle of Light Magic.
Leon sensed that this woman was powerful, but no matter the situation, he was ready for it. Minerva was driven with righteousness to stop him, but as soon as she wanted to subdue him with her Light Magic, she was hit from the back, where she least expected.
"Diesel, GO!"
Leon came running from the flaming mess he caused towards Diesel, which rammed Minerva as it ran towards Leon. He linked Diesel by magic the moment it entered the Fort and ordered him to hide close by to be ready to escape.
The assassin jumped on the Bison and the Minsteress fell to the ground. A bison is not the fastest creature there is but it is still a power of nature that can push forward through anything. Diesel rushed through any remaining guard and Leon protected him with a bow and arrow from any potential threat. They reached the outer wall quickly and decided to scale it up in order to open the gate and the ramp.
Leon could finally see his way into freedom and just at this moment, the guards started falling around him with a barrage of arrows that came from a direction which he didn't expect.
Most of the pilgrims, especially the ones who were riding horses and especially the caravan's leader, were taking many different weapons from hidden storage units. These people started to rush immediately behind Leon as he scaled the wall, and their eyes were priming with bloodthirst.
This was no simple group of fanatics; their weapons were things Leon couldn't believe he was seeing.
Khopesh swords, Serpentine daggers, and even Rope Darts. Those armed pilgrims rushed behind Leon as he scaled the stairway on the Bison.
His aim was to open the gate and escape, but having so many enemies wasn't something he prepared for. Even if they were the bodyguards of that Minerva woman, they let her act on her own but only acted in offense rather than defense.
And just as he was surrounded by them up on the wall, the Caravan's Leader came leading the armed pilgrims, holding what Leon recognized to be Fan Axes. This weapon he simply recognized too damn well.
He recognized the combat stances, the weapons, the techniques of moving, and the battle formation that was meant to isolate the target in the middle of a relentless barrage of attacks.
The hard truth slapped Leon right in the face.
These are Medjays!