Chapter 3

Opening my eyes, it was a familiar sight. Standing on the fake ground in space where I first met the Phoenix. A circle of weapons was floating around me in a 20-foot radius. Weapons that stood out immediately were the large polearms, and axes. After a brief look I saw the smaller ones, a gauntlet with spikes, a short sword, duel weapons, about every combination you could imagine was all around me. My eyes locked on one, the large two-handed sword, similar to the one I grabbed from Lord Balkor. I walked toward it and grabbed it by the hilt.

In an instant, I was in a large hall inside what appeared to be a castle, around there were people training, people having conversations, and weight exercises. I looked a full 360 around to take in my environment, when I stopped was when I noticed a man a few feet away staring at me. His eyes covered by a white cloth with sweat stains, his skin pale with a blue tint, short brown hair, but with a large wild beard, strange red tattoos all over his bare chest, none of them resembling an aspect. Even though he had a blindfold, it felt like he was glaring at me.

Shocked at first, I was about to open my mouth and ask him who he was when he moved his sword pointing the tip near my head. Just like when I learned my Phoenix abilities my head rushed with information, my muscles in my body twitched slightly as well, as I took a knee on the ground. After a few minutes I recovered standing back up noticing I was in a new environment, I was outside in a castle courtyard, with the man the same distance away as before. He motioned me to pick up a sword that was near my feet, as I did he charged at me trying to strike me overhead. In an instant my feet acted and I side stepped at supernatural speeds, dodging the attack effortlessly. He tried the same thing again and I did it going the opposite direction, we continued this for a few minutes. I felt quite exhausted breathing heavily. He had a look of disapproval and stopped.

After recovering and steading my breathing the trainer motioned to me if I was ready, I replied this time with a voice to see if he would react.

“Before we start can you at least tell me who you are?”

The man did not even respond as he pointed at two men that appeared out of nowhere a few feet away. They were in pain and bloodied, a sudden energy was inside me, it felt foreign. A second later the trainer made a large grunt as he did a large overhead strike on one of the men, sinking the blade half a foot in between his neck and shoulder, the man died soon after. The trainer pointed at me then pointed at the other injured man. I hesitated. The man sighed and twitched his finger as he changed this man into a severely injured monster. The monster had blue skin and a human like body, its tusks were quite large and had the most hideous face, it stared at me with extreme hate.

That’s better

As if I’ve done it over thousands of times, I swung the sword overhead with a strong force slicing through the monster’s shoulder, digging deep into his chest, the monster let out a small gasp and fell over and died.

The trainer walked closer and slightly punched my shoulder with a small smirk.

“That is execute, and the skill before was side step…Congratulations Fighter.” He said in a surprisingly normal voice. Shortly after, I flashed back in town where the big rock was, not a moment in that time went by.

A new burning sensation happened to my body but it wasn’t on my chest or head…It was my hand. Inside my palm was a red sword symbol.

A few minutes later, I decided it would be best to find out what’s the next step. A smell was in the air of something delicious, similar to what he smelled at the small camp in the mountain. It was coming from a store not far away, as if in a trance, I quickly made my way to the door.

*

Raven Issers:

What the hell is going on!

The man she bumped into earlier was no other than the Madman of Stonehelm, the infamous General of King Johannes army turned enemy Warlord. A vicious man she had a few encounters with, but knowing the wit of this man he should have realized who I was just from seeing me, if he so easily spotted me back then, there was no way he didn’t now.

15 years ago

Raven was in her early twenties, she had an athletic body, an average appearance that caught the eyes of some men, she wasn’t beautiful, but she wasn’t ugly either. The years she trained being an assassin there was a thing she learned that all assassins strived for, the appearance of an ordinary person.

The Assassin’s Guild just recently pledged to King Johannes after he took their city, for their own safety and stability it was safer to line with Stonehelm’s expanding empire than to be some sort of resistance, most cities that fell to him quickly adjusted to the new emerging world power.

This was Raven’s first mission from King Johannes…Infiltrate Azgarth’s camp, report news of movements and activities.

This was quite an easy task for Raven; it wasn’t hard for her to blend in with whatever crowd she was working with, whether it be nobles, peasants, or barbarians.

She used one of her usual disguises when dealing with brutes, an escort. Being an escort herself wasn’t beneath her, whatever gets the job done gets it done, she actually quite enjoyed it, if she wasn’t so damn good at killing she’d probably do it full time.

She arrived at the rebel encampment on a wagon with many other escorts as well, this was a common thing for this camp and coming in with a crowd will help her blend in. When nighttime came, there was a large gathering with a bonfire in the center of camp, men were playing on drums, and alcohol could be smelled in the air. She walked around camp taking note of the important people in this camp as she brushed off the men coming up to her, she told them a simple excuse that a man already payed for her services all night.

She finally caught her target coming out of the command tent, the music stopped and everything got quiet. Even though there was no battle in the near future, he had on all his armor and carried his gigantic sword strapped to his back, the sword matched him perfectly, his height and stature made him look like a giant when he stands near an average man. The air around me felt heavy as I stared at him, as if his aura affected gravity itself.

He looked quite annoyed at the sudden interest everyone had of him.

“Look…I wouldn’t have paid for all these fucking whores! This fucking booze! Just so you guys can have a nice quiet night!”

The men all around were quiet, until a random drunk replied.

“I already fucked two of em!”

A roar of laughter followed and Azgarth had an amused sneer on his face that must substitute as a smile. He turned around to walk back into his tent.

Raven figured she might as well find someone with some influence around here and pierce her claws into him gathering all the information she could.

She felt an eerie feeling when she glanced back at the tent entrance; Azgarth with his wild eyes was staring right at her. Raven froze, as she didn’t know what to do, all this training and her mind went blank. Soon after, he took aggressive steps heading right toward her. She still couldn’t move, her mouth was gape. When he got close, a back handed strike hit her face with extreme force, she hit the ground hard quickly grabbing her poisoned dagger that was strapped to her thigh under the dirty dress. She threw it upwards aiming for his throat; almost effortlessly, he blocked it with his bracer.

How does he have such reflexes?

Two of the men grabbed her by her arms pinning her down. He scanned her face as she looked at his, she’ll never forget the face of that monster. His most infamous trait was the extremely large scar over his left side of his face, his wild black hair, piercing dark brown eyes of a predator that surprisingly showed a lot of intelligence, his teeth showed as if they were fangs, they were yellow and some had black coloring.

“Let’s take her outside base for some fun” his amused sneer returned.

He looked at one of the guards behind him and told him to grab the bag on his table and meet him where they were going, the guard nodded and left.

The walk away from the camp was short and we did not wait long for the guard to bring the bag. Azgarth looked into the bag, and then looked back at me with his crazy eyes.

For the first time in Raven’s life she felt something that she haven’t felt before…fear for her life.

“I have a task for you…Return this item to my dear old friend Johannes and I’ll let you live.” As he nonchalantly tossed the bag on the ground, a head of a man rolled out of it.

Raven was confused, how did this man see through her so easily? Her curiosity took over even though she had no position to ask.

“How…How did you…know?” a hint of defeat in her voice.

That annoyed angry look appeared on his face.

“I know everyone…Underestimation is what gets even the greatest of fighters killed on the battlefield. As one of the top assassins out there you should know that already.” He said in a low deep voice.

He turned around and head back to the base camp.

“Oh, you guys can do what you want with her, just don’t kill her…and let her go by tonight.”

The men had smiles on their faces as they looked at me with lust in their eyes.

Current Day

Whenever she thought of that night, it made her angry. She has never failed a mission until then, and she was the best. One of the worst parts is when she came back to King Johannes he just laughed when he saw the head in the bag and dismissed me.

Watching Azgarth now through the window of the store was quite confusing, he was awkwardly standing in front of the counter eating the food he just bought right in front of the storeowner, instead of taking a seat at a table like a normal person. The owner eventually hinted at him that it’s fucking weird to do that, Azgarth eventually caught on and sat down.

What the fuck is going on here?