Bad Idea

The assassin was quite quick on his feet, but he didn’t have many options. Clearly, he had taken his shot without bothering about finding an escape route, which either showed great confidence or an impressive lack of foresight. Regardless, he wasn’t nearly fast enough to get away from the scion. 

Anoteros turned himself invisible and easily passed the assassin. From there, Edrick merely stood still in his target’s way and waited for the archer to run right into the wolf’s maw. Edrick grabbed the unsuspecting man by the throat and slammed him into the ground. 

The archer exhaled from the sheer force of the impact, and before he knew it, his right forearm had been stomped upon, breaking the bones savagely.

“Nice to meet you too. Who hired you?”

“I’ll never–”

Edrick reached for his belt.

“–Lie to you! I’ll never lie to you, that’s… That’s what I was trying to say”

“As I thought, you’re a Journomanpian, heh? I could tell by the unusual quantity of ki you have–Maybe you weren’t hired, and you are the disciple of a sect instead? Anyway, you better be honest. You have a lot of intact bones, after all”

“I’ll talk, I’ll talk!”

It was clear that the assassin was well aware of his exploits concerning the unfortunate disciples of Shenjian Sect, which was something quite well-known on account of the crest-bearing disciple. 

The news of his punishing ways had spread quite deep into Journomanp. Despite this, this assassin had come alone to try and target him. The man was absolutely terrified to suffer the same fate he had heard tales about, and yet, here he was.

The pay was either incredible, or he simply had had no say in the matter…

“I am an inner disciple of Heiying Sect. I don’t know why the elders sent me to kill you. I swear! I just obeyed their order!”

“Heiying Sect, huh?”

This particular sect is a fairly powerful one, and they maintained a somewhat two-way parasitic relationship with an independent city, which allowed them both to stand amongst the top dogs, albeit on the lower echelon.

They were most known for their pavilion focused on nurturing assassins.

“Where are you buddies, then? Aren’t you guys supposed to act in groups instead of solo? Are you trying to distract me while your friends line up their shots or something? Are you taking me for a fucking idiot? Are you trying to get yourself Viotted to death?”

“I… I swear I am alone!”

“That’s a bit hard to believe”

“...I am not even to your tastes anyway!”

“If you keep the mask on, it doesn’t really matter. You sound enough like a twink from behind it”

The assassin tried to crawl away, but Edrick stomped one of his ankles next, making him cry out in pain as he watched his foot suddenly bend to the point that the tip of his toes nearly touched the front of his lower leg before it went limp.

Anoteros pointed the arrow he had caught earlier at the assassin. 

“There’s still a bit of your feeble toxin on it. Should I test it on you? I hear that assassins often render themselves immune to the toxins they use. I wonder if you take part in this little tradition”

“I swear I am being honest with you!”

“I would have expected an allegedly professional killer to be a better liar. What kind of assassin takes his shot so close to their target, and out in the open? That only makes sense if the shot is expected to fail, and that it is all an elaborate set-up to lure the would-be victim away from the road”

Edrick couldn’t see the assassin’s face, but it was as though the colours draining from his face were an audible action.

Anoteros cast Aura Bash with a smile on his face, causing the arrows aimed at his back and sides to suddenly lose their momentum and be crushed to splinters. The projectiles had been invisible, but to him, who had inherited the bloodline of a champion Underwood Elf and gotten to see the elven invisibility techniques in detail, this seemed like a rather crude attempt.

They might as well have been visible to him.

Edrick kicked the chin of the assassin on the ground and, with a fair dose of Primal Augmentation, went to hunt the other assassins.

While the invisibility of their projectiles was poor in all aspects, they made up for it with the refined cloaks they wore. The invisibility provided by those was much better, but it seemed to work best when the wearer wasn’t moving.

Once again, the version made by the Underwood Elves was way better, but Anoteros supposed that it wasn’t fair to compare these guys to a species that specialised solely in invisibility cultivation specifically.

They were probably considered very good since the Underwood Elves were only present in Eltysia.

The experimented killers scattered, but it didn’t take long for Edrick to catch them–Almost catch them.

“Mmh… One, two, three, four, five… Yep, I am missing one. The sixth guy is smarter. It seems he must have gone still again after moving to benefit from the cloak, and if he pours all of his ki into the cloak, then… Not bad at all”

Edrick rubbed his chin before snapping his fingers, using Beast Lord's Authority to summon all three of his bestial companions.

“Find the last one”

They understood clearly without needing many words. The captured assassins were left gobsmacked. They hadn’t been told about the fact that Anoteros could just summon three ferocious beasts in the blink of an eye–Not that they had been told about his uncanny affinity for invisibility either.

Oswulf and Ansbach went to hunt without delay, but Vulpalis remained by her master’s side, climbing onto his shoulder, looking down on the assassins as if they were insects.

“This pretty girl right here is a Laughing Fox. I am sure at least one of you has heard of this species–If not, I’ll make it quick… She can control your minds and send you back to where you come from, but you’ll come back with the intent to kill…”

“...Alternatively, she could make you all more… Willing”

Without needing more explanations, they were horrified and already begging for their secret caverns to be spared.

A shout emerged.

“Filthy beasts! You’ll never catch me!”

The remaining assassins had been given out by his scent, probably due to sweating bullets from fear after seeing his five fellows be easily taken out.

He pulled out a dagger and tried to slash at Oswulf, but he didn’t expect her to manifest a giant sword out of thin air, grab the handle with her maw, and swing the sword with the finesse of an experienced swordsman.

His arm was severed before he could even understand that he had picked his opponent poorly.

He didn’t let himself be made easier prey due to the pain, and turned to Ansbach instead, hoping that the smaller canine would be easier to deal with as he tried to run away.

…He hoped wrong.

Ansbach lunged and grabbed his intact forearm, biting down hard.

Before the assassin could even try to break free, Oswulf bit down on both of his legs at once, and the two beasts pulled toward opposite sides, tearing the man in half.

His guts and organs were sent flying through the air as both halves were slammed into the ground due to the force Edrick’s companions had exerted.

Edrick looked at the remaining assassins with a neutral expression, pointing at the slaughter behind him with his thumb.

“This guy got the easy way out”