Swhoosh!

Fluorescent powders hit the ground, and both high-level assassins entered stealth at the same time. They were clearly plotting to assault me.

I strode toward them while carrying the unassuming Chill of the Nine Provinces. The rain pitter-pattering against the grass[1] made it much harder for me to distinguish their movements and trajectory. Thankfully, my Domain gave me a vague sense as to their general location.

Whoosh!

The sharp blade of the Chill of the Nine Provinces sliced through the rain and rattled against a burning dagger, causing Leaf of Autumn’s beautiful face to appear in midair. She looked astonished, but she fell forward as if she was slipping on the grass and thrust her left dagger at my heels. What a devious woman!

At the same time, Flame of Summer struck me from behind. Still invisible, he swung at my back three times in a row.

Their timing was impeccable, and their speed, considerable. It took a significant amount of training to reach such a level of cooperation, and even then not many people could pull it off on demand. The benefits were substantial though. A player with less-than-supernatural reaction speed would be chain-stunned and killed unless they possessed an unnatural amount of Defense and HP.

Slide!

I moved my left foot half a step backward and half-turned toward Flame of Summer, driving my shield into his daggers and successfully canceling the Ambush skill with a bang. Then, I used the rebound force to jump forward—dodging Leaf of Autumn’s assault in the process—and kick out!

Bang!

My Ghost Spirit War Boots slammed into Leaf of Autumn’s waist and elicited a dull groan. Both her and her dagger rolled away from me.

The moment I regained my footing, I charged toward Flame of Summer and brought my sword down in one mighty swing. He tried to parry, but our Strength gap was so huge that the attack blew his guard open completely. I was able to follow up with a pommel slam into his neck!

90872!

Flame of Summer lost almost 20% HP as he staggered backward. As expected of an elite assassin, he had HP equal to an average metal-armor player at the same level.

……

Swhoosh!

Leaf of Autumn tossed a dagger at me, but I easily blocked the projectile with the Cyan Dragon Shield before continuing forward.

"How… how is this possible?"

Leaf of Autumn said while supporting Flame of Summer, "Xia Ge, this man… this man is no simple warrior at all. He’s pushing us back even though he hasn’t used a single skill up until now. There are only a handful of players in the China server who can boast this level of skill, and they were all titled Heavenly King. I’ve fought Candlelight Shadow in the competitive arena before, and even he wasn’t as skilled as this man…"

"That’s not possible!" Flame of Summer cursed.

Leaf of Autumn asked me while holding her daggers defensively in front of herself, "Who are you? Why are you hounding Blood Alliance? What do you want?"

I smiled. "I don’t want anything. It’s just that you’ve gone too far with your PKs recently—ambushing innocent players and all that—so I’ve decided to remove your guild from Sky City."

Flame of Summer wiped the bloodstain on his mouth. "Words are cheap. You really think you can remove us from Sky City single-handedly?"

I lifted my sword a bit and said, "Well said. My sword will be the answer to your question. Flame of Summer, you murdered Chance Meeting and stole her Dragonbone Whip. It’s time to spit your ill-gotten loot back out!"

Flame of Summer uttered hatefully, "Come and get it then!"

……

Pa!

A puddle on the ground rippled as my Ghost Spirit War Boots left it. Before Flame of Summer knew it, he was skidding at least a dozen or so meters to the back. I gave my sword a lazy swing before saying, "Do you know how clownish you look just now? I don’t even need technique to defeat you!"

Bang!

I rushed toward him and kicked him in the underbelly. Then, I stabbed him through his chest—

390287!

The Summer Elder of Blood Alliance was finally dead, but he didn’t drop the Dragonbone Whip. Has he given it to Assassin’s Creed after all? And was he smirking right before I ended his life?

Alarm bells rang in my head as a chill touched my skin. I was so focused on killing Flame of Summer that I had forgotten about Leaf of Autumn!

I reacted instantaneously and without hesitation. Right before the stun took effect, I bent my knees, covered a large majority of my body with the Cyan Dragon Shield and Guarded. I also activated Battle Astral Wind.

MISS!

MISS!

MISS!

MISS!

……

The series of misses caused Leaf of Autumn quite a bit of distraught. Even if she was capable of penetrating my Defense, there was no chance in hell an assassin could ever destroy my Battle Astral Wind in 1.9 seconds. It was impossible even for Warsky with the Immortal Blade or Candlelight Shadow.

"Goodbye!"

After I broke out of the stun, I bashed Leaf of Autumn with my shield and ran past her, stabbing her through the chest in the process. The nice thing about dueling assassins was that they died really fast if you managed to land a hit or two.

I picked up the equipment they dropped, tossed it all into my bag and left their bodies behind without hesitation. It wouldn’t take long for them to revive, and I didn’t want to waste my time with them. Neither Summer of Flame nor Leaf of Autumn had dropped the Lower Divine Armament despite my 109 Luck and the early drop rule, so it was most likely in Assassin’s Creed’s possession right now.

I continued to stroll through the rain with the onager and Xinran behind me. It was like I hadn’t left behind two elder-Level bodies behind me. On a related note, Dark Pupils had an activation and turn-off cooldown of 1.5 seconds, so it took me 3 seconds in total to reactivate it. I had to do this all the time so that no one could sneak up on me. Both martial power and patience were extremely important when fighting against assassins.

……

After I had traveled about a thousand meters, Flame of Summer and Leaf of Autumn revived behind me. Then, they both crouched and vanished into the air. There was no telling if they would continue to stalk me and leave to find easier prey, but that was fine. All I needed to do was to wait for the enemy to come to me.

The sound of distant battle cries entered my ears, and a lot of red names appeared to my Dark Pupils. They were the Japanese players of Swallow Ear Canton. If I had to guess, they had finally run out of patience and made up their minds to chase us out of their borders. It wouldn’t be easy though. Everyone who came to hunt down Blood Alliance was the elite of a super guild in China. They must be prepared to pay the price of blood if they wished to annihilate us all.

Pa pa pa…

More unnatural ripples appeared on the ground. The signs revealed that at least dozens of assassins were running toward me, even though I could only see a dozen of them with Dark Pupils. Most, if not all of them were eighth-promotion assassins. Finally, the real fight is upon me.

Smiling, I looked back at Xinran and said to her, "This one’s going to be a real treat, Xinran. Just sit tight and watch me, okay?"

"Mn!"

Xinran nodded and beamed at me from beneath her hood. "I may not understand why humans desire conflict so much, but I at least know that anyone who wants to kill you is a bad person. Do your best and don’t lose, big brother…"

I stumbled. "Don’t worry. The word ‘lose’ doesn’t exist in my dictionary!"

……

Swhoosh!

A single assassin raced toward me from the front. More were running toward me from three other directions as well. All of their daggers were glowing red; the color of a stun skill to be exact. If even one of them managed to land a hit, there was over a 50% chance that I was going to get stunned.

Whoosh!

Cyan-colored energies surrounded my Guardian Dragon Armor as I activated Battle Astral Wind. Even if I wasn’t quick enough to dodge all of the attacks coming my way, Battle Astral Wind should at least mitigate a ton of damage. It also lowered my chance of dying after a stun to a minimum.

Here they come!

I surprised the assassins charging directly toward me by taking a step to my 8 o’clock at the last possible moment. While we were passing by each other, I thrust my Cyan Dragon Shield into his flank, turned around, and cut him down with a slash to the back. Not done yet, I zigzagged toward the remaining three assassins, changed both my direction and speed at the appropriate times to avoid their attacks, and scored a hit each. They all died in one hit because they were much weaker than the four elders of Blood Alliance.

……

Chiang!

After the enemy’s vanguard was dead, I returned my sword to its sheath and pulled my hood up. Then, I walked toward the army of assassins about a hundred meters in front of me with a smirk on my face.

Buzz!

Suddenly, the air in front of me distorted as if someone had caught it in a vice grip, and an icy dagger zoomed straight for my eyeball. How cruel! How unexpected! Whoever this assassin was, they must be a super expert!

The only thing I could do in this situation was to throw myself backward in an uncontrollable manner. I managed to parry the first dagger with the Cyan Dragon Shield, but there was nothing I could do about the second one as it had come at me from a completely different angle and with a completely different speed. As a result, I lost over 90k HP. Sometimes, there was only so much you could do.

After the initial surprise was over though, my body immediately came up with the appropriate reaction. I launched a powerful kick at the thin air in front of me!

Bang!

The incredible assassin was immediately knocked out of his stealth.

……

Assassin’s Creed LV-223

Main City: Sky City

Guild: Blood Alliance

Position: Leader

It was as I thought. There were only a handful of assassins in Sky City who could ambush me like that, and right here and now that person could only be the guild leader of Blood Alliance, Assassin’s Creed.

……

In the rain, I saw Assassin’s Creed lifting his dagger to his concealed face and licking the blood on the blade. A cruel smile crossed his lips as he said, "Fruit Knife Guard Captain, is it? Interesting! I did not know that Sky City had an expert like you, but it doesn’t matter. You’re going to die for killing three of my elders!"

1. T/N: wait what? Their outline doesn’t show when it’s raining? Then why can leaves hit them and reveal their location? This should be easier, not harder