“Hoods and masks being used by killers and assassins to hide their identity is a habit as old as time itself. Usually, the only killers or assassins who does not hide their identity while doing their grisly work are the ones who wanted to get caught to begin with, for whatever reason.” - Goran Vasilev, criminal psychologist from the Elmaiya Empire, circa 429 FP.

At the moment Kino wished that she had not lazed about during those couple decades where Eilonwy had called her “going soft” and instead kept up with her training more diligently instead. The slave trader and his guards clearly kept their skills honed, as their cooperation was nearly seamless, with the three repeatedly covering for each other as they made a daring attack at her.

She did have an idea on how to beat them, since they wouldn’t know that she’s an unliving, but that still required the right opportunity, so she had been patiently waiting for that moment even as she fought hard against them. Since she was outnumbered, she ended up having to almost dance around her opponents’ attacks to avoid those she couldn’t block or parry in time, even while already using both ends of her weapon to do so.

Kino twirled around to the side in order to avoid a slash from one of the adamant steel sabers her opponents were using while using her own weapon to strike away the other two sabers during the movement. The guard whose attack missed pressed his attack harder, however, which prevented her from attacking the other two.

But that left him closer to her than the other two for that brief moment, which was the opportunity she was waiting for.

Rather than completely avoid the guard’s strike – one that was likely meant to drive her away more than anything – she leaned into the slash, allowing the blade to slice into her left shoulder, right at the base of her neck. The guard clearly had not expected her to do that sort of thing as he looked baffled for a moment despite landing the blow, and before he could react, Kino’s own void-clad weapon flashed past.

Her slash neatly bisected him from waist to shoulder instead, and she heard the cries of dismay from the slave trader and the other guard when they saw what happened.

Kino leaned into the movement as she struck hard against the slave trader’s blade and threw it off its trajectory, exposing her back to the other guard in the process. The other guard took the opening and stabbed with his saber. She had to admit that he was skilled and accurate, as the blade cleanly slipped between his ribs and through her heart.

Stolen novel; please report.

Too bad that she doesn’t exactly need her heart to live anymore.

Even as the guard’s blade pierced her back, Kino shifted her weapon and thrust its other end towards her back, between her arm and torso. As a result, the guard groaned as all of a sudden the void-clad weapon pierced a hole through Kino’s cloak and went through his groin region. Then Kino shifted the blade upwards with a slight twist of her hand before she retracted it.

The guard collapsed to his knees, cradling the severed pieces of his internal organs that fell out of the gaping cut that nearly opened his abdomen from bottom to top.

Which left the slave trader on his own now.

The man took a step backwards with some hesitance. He saw that his guards managed to land blows on KIno, but he also saw how she pretty much shrugged them off as if they never happened. He was uncertain whether those wounds meant that he would be able to deal with her one on one, as it was already hard enough to fight her three on one.

“I have money! I can give you however much you want!” he yelled at her while still pointing his blade threateningly. Perhaps in his mind money could indeed be the solution to every problem. It was what allowed him his current life of opulence. It was also what allowed the authorities to turn a blind eye to his more illegal activities.

“Apologies, Ghoulam Al-Surad,” said Kino, noticing the change of expression on the man’s face when she used his full name, which pretty much confirmed that she had the right person. It would have been embarrassing if it turned out that this man was just another guard or something while the actual slave trader was amongst the shivering pile behind him. “I only came here for lives, yours included.”

Her point made to the now despondent slave trader, Kino stepped forward as the man moved back, clearly wary of her and not interested in tangling with her any further. She caught the glint in his eye when he glanced towards a large window to the side of the room, one that would be large enough to let someone even his size through without too much trouble.

Even as the slave trader dived towards the window, Kino reacted quickly and formed a thin sheet of void which she placed in his way. Ghoulam Al-Surad either never noticed the void working before him or noticed it far too late to stop, as he ran headlong into it and dropped to the floor with his upper body bisected vertically a moment later.

Which left only the trembling and shivering group of half-dressed old people who the slave trader had been entertaining prior to Kino’s arrival. The naked slaves that used to be in their grasp had taken the chance to distance themselves by then, huddled in the corners of the large room, clutching what pieces of clothing they could find to themselves.

That was fine, since Kino did not plan to hurt them at all. The old men before her was a different case, however, and she assumed that they were likely close associates to the slave trader, or else were part of the officials he bribed to turn a blind eye to his activities. There would be little reason for the slave trader to entertain them so lavishly otherwise.

Some of the old men even soiled themselves out of fright as she loomed before them like a death god, and Kino wrinkled her nose under her mask as she lifted her weapon and started the grisly slaughter.