Amidst the noisy ruckus and rumblings of the building, the inn keeper's daughter emerged bleary eyed from a room at the back of the first floor, the first thing she saw in the lobby were two naked people drenched in blood screaming at the top of their lungs running frantically out the exit and disappearing out into the moon lit night. Thinking the old and poorly-maintained inn was finally going to collapse, she dashed for the exit in panic, after three strides she tripped over a dark figure laying face down behind the front desk.
As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she could somewhat recognize the prone figure, she quickly crawled over to the figure on all fours on the slippery and wet floor.
She slipped around on the wet floor before she finally managed to turn over the figure....she screamed in terror at her shocking discovery, the wetness she had felt and was wallowing in was the blood of her father whose lifeless eyes were staring towards the ceiling, she could not see his injury but the chest region of his robe was soaked, even though she couldn't see clearly she knew it was his blood. With wide eyes and in shock, she wept and screamed as she shook his body as if she was trying to wake him from a deep slumber.
In disbelief she crouched down hugging and weeping over her father's body, suddenly there was a loud boom, dust filled her mouth forcing her to cough involuntarily and by reflex she used her bloody hands to cover her ringing ears. A dark blur flew over her head, the wind it generated fluttered her night-robe and exposed her pale legs. Confused and panicked she whipped her head around just in time to see the blur crash into the front wall with another ear ringing boom! opening up a ragged hole beside the exit letting in more moonlight into the building. The thing that crashed through the wall was a man dressed fully in black including a black ninja-style mask which hid all his features except for his eyes. He pitched violently on the cobble stones outside leaving a bloody trail and rolled around a few times like a rag-doll before coming to a stop... an eternal stop, the man didn't move again....
Sat in his dark room across the hall from Hartley and Zhi Ruo's room, Qin Li gripped his ax tightly, he had picked up the fluctuations of the two approaching assassins and sat calmly as they breached the door and entered Hartley's room, he paid them no mind and sat at ease. Earlier Hartley had instructed him not to intercept any assassins trying to enter his room, instead he should concentrate on the experts outside. After two huge explosions that wobbled and rattled the old building down to its foundation, the hostile fluctuations in Hartley's room blinked out of existence like flipping a switch to turn off an electric lamp.
Qin Li then rushed into the dark hallway that had a thick bloody odor and made his way towards three dark figures ascending the stairs. A bright green aura lighted up the hallway and wrapped around Qin Li legs, he cannoned forward reaching the first figure in no time. Qin Li's ax glowed neon green as he delivered an overhead strike from high-middle to low-middle at the dark silhouette in the lead, a silver sword burst into bright yellow flames, further illuminating the hallway, the lead figure silently pushed his sword wrapped in fire upwards horizontally to meet the swift ax... The two weapons collided with a boom, sparks bloomed upwards and outwards hitting the ceiling and rained back down around the combatants like colorful green, orange and yellow confetti, the walls cracked, the ceiling creaked then a section of it fell down between the two as they separated producing a screen of dust.
Qin Li stumbled back three steps, the assassin wasn't weak but he was forced back a step too, the other two dark figures behind moved smoothly around the lead figure like water flowing around a rock and entered into the curtain of dust. The experienced experts wanted to take advantage of Qin Li's stumble and limited vision to end the confrontation with one strike then move on to the next target...
Hartley ushered Zhi Ruo down the dark corridor and was just in time to see the green explosion of light produced by Qin Li, Hartley didn't increase or decrease his speed, he kept a steady pace and remained vigilant, after a few seconds there was a loud sound of weapons clashing and yellow and green sparks flew everywhere then dust shrouded the scene. Seeing Qin Li stumbling backwards, a black leaf-blade throwing knife appeared in Hartley's right hand, even though he couldn't see the attackers clearly, he could read their intentions and fluctuations.
A black light thrummed past Qin Li's shoulder and darted into the haze of dust, one of the dark figures broke protocol and roared brandishing his daggers and was about to lunge towards Qin Li, he was still roaring and took a step forward, when a black light flew past him in the thick milky dust, the assassin's roar turned into a surprised welp similar to a frightened puppy as his determined roar went quiet just a fast as it had started. The black light turned tightly in the narrow confines of the hall making an invisible semi circle, producing a whistling sound as it slowed just enough to arch and avoid hitting the walls.
The black light returned to Hartley and the form of the leaf-blade throwing knife floated in front of him, there were three dull thuds within the dust and a spray of red. Hartley stretched out his hand and retrieved the blade back into his space ring. Hartley and Zhi Ruo reached Qin Li's side as the dust began to disperse, he could hear an audible sigh of relief from Qin Li who still had a funnel shaped green lights dancing around both legs...by coincidence a sixth assassin ascended the stairs just in time to see the dust give way revealing the gruesome sight of the three assassins separated into six pieces laid at the top of the stairs like sodden red sacks.
The masked man soon realized what the almost unrecognizable lumps on the floor were, every hair on his body stood upright in fright and his eyes enlarged to the size of saucers, these were top notch experts that had been slaughtered like common pigs, he was then distracted by a loud female scream followed by moaning and wailing downstairs, that made the atmosphere even more spooky. He turned to try and escape, the men laying on the floor in pieces were much stronger than him, if they could be dispatched in such a manner he knew he had no business even thinking about fighting these people, he was half way down the creaking wooden stairs when space distorted around Hartley's body after another two blue flashes the assassin was sent flying over the head of the mourning inn keeper's daughter and through the front wall.
There were only two assassins left outside and if they knew what just took place inside, they would both grow wings and fly away.