Chapter 72: Assassins

A cloaked figure blocked Rowen’s path of retreat while another man appeared from behind. Their faces covered and their weapons drawn.

“This is her right?” The man in front asked

“Looks like it. Little miss, we’ve been waiting for a chance to meet you. Thank you for coming all the way out here in the woods, it truly makes our jobs much easier”

“You are surprisingly fast, but unfortunately, with my high tier speed enchanted boots and wind attribute, you can’t really outrun me,” the man in front said.

Both men exuded a terrible killing intent, as they slowly approached the cornered target.

“Let me guess, you are from Rizon family?” Rowen asked as she moved to the side.

She tried to positioned herself to face both of them in front. Having someone from behind would easily get herself killed, but the two men would not let her do so; They moved appropriately to maintain their advantage.

The two men did not answer, but she felt that her intuition was correct. She had never left the academy since that incident and never offended anyone at school. From what they said earlier, she deduced that they were indeed from the Rizon family.

Without warning, both men dashed towards her! She quickly dash towards the wind elementalist in front aiming to kill him first.

Rowen knew that Wind elementalist has a tracking method known as [Wind Tracer]. If she could not deal with him first, then she had no hope for escape!

The wind elementalist gave a smirk as he was confident with his speed. While distracting the target, his partner can swiftly finish her off from behind. He moved to dodge, side stepping Rowen’s attack, then threw out a rising diagonal slash.

‘!!!’

His slash flew wide as Rowen barely dodge his attack. Not even his [Wind Blade] could not touch her. He moved to jump back out of her range but something caught his foot and prevented him in doing so.

Rowen’s follow up pierced through the man’s thigh, then proceeded to aim her blade towards the man’s head.

-BANG-

From behind, the man swung his blade at Rowen’s back. A smile emerged from his face, but it quickly disappeared as Rowen’s sword did not stop, and pierced through his partner’s skull.

“Ahh!-”

*Slice*

Blood splattered everywhere, covering Rowen and the dead wind elementalist. Rowen quickly rotated and faced the last attacker. She was unfazed by her kill as this was not the first time she had killed anyone. When competing in the Mirth city arena, she had already experienced killing her opponent during such closes fights.

The attacker from behind was curious to what happened to his partner. With his speed, he should have more than enough time to dodge the girl’s attack, but somehow he didn’t.

‘!!’

The man noticed a silver snake-like movement underneath the plants. He quickly remembered her target being a Metal elementalist and instantly covered his body in Qi.

-BANG BANG BANG-

Several needle that flew towards him from the ground was quickly deterred by his Qi. Rowen dashed forward, using her speed to her advantage. After taking care of the wind elementalist, her worries were mostly gone. If she could not kill his assailant, then she could always run.

A flurry of attacks rained down on the assailant, but he dodge them perfectly. He was clearly the better fighter, but was still surprised that his initial attack did not have any effect on his opponent. He paid attention to his surroundings while fighting Rowen at the same time. He jumped back and made some space.

“I don’t know how you didn’t die from my attack, but if you think you can beat me, you are sorely mistaken”

He dashed forward, and initiated his attack, his sword skill was a level above Rowen and she could barely dodge and block his attacks. Despite controlling the metallic shavings to assault the man from behind, they could not break through the opponents Qi!

“DIE!”

The man unleashed a vertical slash heading towards Rowen’s head!

In a split second, light shone straight into his eyes, briefly blinding him. While the remaining metal shavings started rotating and started drilling into the man’s Qi barrier from behind, Rowen took advantage and dodge the man’s slash while throwing her own sword into his neck!

Blinded and attacked from both sides, the man’s blood spilled across the forest. Despite having such a dense Qi shield, the drilling metallic shavings forced him to thicken some areas than others. It was not enough to defend himself as Rowen’s Qi pierced through his defense, taking a pound of flesh with each attack.

Try as he might, a few injuries caused his battle potential to drop and Rowen continued to whittle down the opponent’s the injured assailant eventually ending his life.

-pant pant-

Rowen breathed heavily as she killed the last assailant. A mirror-like metallic surface reflecting off several rays of light into the man’s eyes was enough to ensure her victory. She quickly spread her shavings around the area ensuring that no one else was coming.

‘This ring is really useful,’ she thought

Being sandwiched by two assailants, Rowen disregarded the one from behind and used her surprise attack to quickly kill the one was more dangerous. By trusting her brother, her life and death bet turned out to be victorious.

—–

Water dripped from the clothes of Rowen. Upon returning to camp, her soaked clothes grabbed people’s attention as she walked by.

Without a change of clothes, she washed all the blood of herself at a nearby river before coming back.

“Rowen? What happened to you?” Gina asked as she saw Rowen’s soaked figure.

“Nothing just accidentally fell into the river,” she said

“Ah! You must’ve tried on these wonderful shoes!” Riss promptly said

While Rowen was away, Riss and Gina both tested the pair of boots they both received. Upon inspection, the amount of speed they gained was astonishing!

“Yeah I did,” Rowen confirmed

“Heh, these high tier speed enchantment is great! I tried it earlier and almost crashed,” Riss bragged

“I wonder how your brother got these, they must cost a fortune.” Gina said aloud

“Maybe he sold more blood? ” Riss said

“No, he asked someone to make them,” Rowen answered

“Someone?” Gina inquired, but Rowen only replied with a smile

“Oh, I see,” Riss replied as a mysterious smile appeared on her face

They somewhat understood that Rowen did not want to say who it was, so Gina gave up but Riss’ interest became intrigued.

“You should go change Rowen, we’ll have a meeting in an hour”

“Okay, give me a few minutes”

As Rowen was leaving to change, Riss and Gina’s expression changed after noticing Rowen’s back exposed by a large cut in her clothes.

—–

After she changed her clothes, Rowen approached her group that was huddled together around a large flat tree stump, using it as a table.

As she sat down, she noticed familiar map on the table as she owned a similar map.

“Good! Since Rowen is finally here, I’ll announce what Aaron’s group as well as two other groups’ proposal,” Riss announced

“They want us to explore this place together,” Riss pointed to a place on the map

“Dagger’s peak?” Tordin asked

“Isn’t that a little too dangerous? Not even bandits would go around that area” Rowen said in response.

Dagger’s peak was a mountain deep within the wild lands. Most teams would choose to spend their remaining years at the edge of these lands where the danger level was relatively safe.

“Didn’t we decide that we’ll be going around Foxtrail lake first?” Gale asked

“Hold on, there must be a reason why they are taking such risks right?” Alex asked Riss

“Correct, there is a rumor going around that there is an ancient ruin there filled with treasure. A few of Aaron’s members are gathering up powerful teams to check the place out.” Riss explained

Everyone’s eyes lit up as they heard the word “treasure”. Many of them were commoners who often wished to strike rich, but Tordin and Rowen stood unfazed by the word.

“How many people are coming?” Tordin asked

“Twenty four, if we include our numbers, perhaps more later on”

“What happens if we encounter a variant beast? If we go that deep, there should be some.”

“We shouldn’t encounter any old ones, maybe only younglings. With twenty four strong, we should be able to kill it”

—–

Upon arriving near the Colosseum, Teo and the others noticed a group of elders huddled together in a wide open space. Several Red Guardians as well as academy guards stood there as if awaiting for something.

Many moved to find out what was going on, but only a few knew about this mysterious event.

Soon, eight bird-like mounts, the size of a horse, appeared in the sky. After circling the air twice, they finally landed in front of the several elders who stood watch, among them, headmaster Elon stood in the middle.

“A variant beast!” a person from the crowd shouted as he identified these winged beasts. Many of them watched from afar; too afraid to go closer. Among them, Teo and the others looked over.

“Look! Their armor looked very similar to the royal guards from half a year ago!”

“It isn’t just similar! Look at that crest! It’s from the Imperial family”

One person from the crowd suddenly discovered two individuals who were neither academy elders nor royal guards.

“Those two, who are they?” the man pointed towards two blonde figures.

One young lady with golden curls on her head, the other and older youth with the same blonde hair as well. He looked proud and excited, as he looked towards the eight escorts.

“Hey, isn’t that Emily?” Windle said

Teo nodded as she confirmed the two individuals; The siblings Emily and William.

“I wonder what they are up to?” Lia asked but not before long, the two youths was led onto the back of two variant beasts.

Emily sat in front of one guard while William sat behind another on a different beast. A third guard attached their luggage onto the back of his sky mount.

After a few exchange of words with the leader of these eight-man team and the headmaster, they all climbed on top of a beast and quickly flew into the air.

Teo looked towards the group of flying birds as they drifted north, disappearing into the horizon. Seeing her leave, Teo was reminded of the buried feelings of guilt he had towards her.

After their departure, many inquired about the event, but the elders kept their mouths sealed.

—–

After the second day of the competition was over, Lia and Windle both felt their blood boiling.

Compared to yesterday’s fighters, today’s were clearly much stronger. They realized that their judgement was too hasty, and both of them felt the pressure building up. They had no time to idle around as they are right now.

They all arrived at one of the Martial faction’s smaller stages.

“We can’t waste any time at all, since there is a large gap between us and the seniors we have to train more than them. So, who should spar first?” Windle said

“Teo, you and me spar first, the winner takes on the other,” Lia suggested

“Alright,” Teo agreed as he pulled out two sticks from his back that he had often carried with him.

Lia on the other hand took a wooden sword from one of the racks as her weapon.

“Teo, why do you insist on using dual weapons?” Windle asked before the match begun.

“Isn’t it cooler?” Teo responded

Windle could only gave a wiley smile, as he shook his head

‘Although it is cool to have two weapons, It is cooler to win,’ Windle thought to himself

Despite his constant losing streak against Lia and Windle, Teo liked the idea of using two weapons. His influence was clearly Gina. As a master of two knives, her attacks were swift and fluid.

Teo tried to copy her style but it was quite difficult.

“Here I come!” Lia quickly dash towards Teo

Teo instantly activated his God’s eye, his main advantage was this heavenly sight. He could see every corner of Lia’s movements and could predict what she was going to do.

-Bang-

The first exchange, Teo gritted his teeth as he required both weapons to blocked Lia’s initial attack. Lia moved to the side, instantly disappearing from Teo’s line of sight.

Teo jumped back, and found Lia moving from the left.

-Bang!-

Another attack blocked. Teo can block and dodge but with Lia’s speed he could find very little opening. She was fast like a breeze in a storm.

-Bang-

The third strike caught him off balance, Lia approached seeing Teo’s position. She unleashed a horizontal strike to keep Teo off balance, but Teo smiled as Lia took the bait.

Jumping on one foot, she took Lia’s side and sliced his weapons vertically towards Lia.

‘!!’

Lie dodge and threw her sword up in the air.

Teo instinctively looked up, but quickly regained himself. He looked around but as he found Lia, a kick was already a few inches away from his back!

-BAM-

A sharp pain emerged from his backside

“OUCH!” Teo screamed in pain as his body jerked on the ground.

“You alright Teo? I don’t think I’ve hit you that hard” Lia asked as she stopped her assault.

After recovering, Teo sat up as his backside was sore from the strike.

‘What’s going on?’ Teo asked himself as he stood

“It’s..no.. nothing.. I’m just feeling a little under the weather”

‘Was I too late?’ Teo questioned himself.

Before the kick landed, Teo braced himself, attempting to activate the defensive array on his chest, but surprisingly, the pain was not weakened.

[Author’s note: Altered a few Chapter 35: Invitation, as the envoy from the was talking to Emily where he says

“Your grand uncle sends this to you, when you graduate you will be sent to our Imperial city, if not sooner” the old man gave the necklace towards Emily

Before it said graduate only (as well as a missing word or so), now I added “if not sooner”

Also, this chapter is currently unedited. If you wish to read ahead, you can visit my website]