Alan Assam moved stealthily through the shadows in the castle, his dagger gleaming in the darkness. Honestly, it was a stupid move – if he was trying to sneak around, he would have failed the moment someone caught sight of the light reflecting off the shiny blade of his treasured weapon.
It didn't matter to Alan, though. He had absolute confidence in his skills. Even if someone was unfortunate enough to see him, he knew he would be able to kill the poor witness and silence him or her before he or she could scream out a warning.
That was how good his murderous skills were.
On the other hand, he wanted his target to know he was here. He wanted to drive fear into his target's heart, to pretend to give his victim a fighting chance before snuffing out all hope and drowning him in despair. Perhaps he was being overly dramatic and needlessly reckless, but he didn't care.
It had been a long while since Alan had fought against a worthy opponent.
"A worthy opponent, huh? I hope he won't disappoint me."
Alan ran a thumb along the gleaming blade of his dagger. The lower half of his face was covered in a black mask, concealing his features. But even though his mouth was far from visible, it was clear that he was smiling.
He couldn't wait to assassinate his the target that the League of Shadows had designated him.
Honestly, Alan had never imagined that he would be recalled to the League of Shadows. He had been excommunicated by their leader once before, but when he triumphantly returned with the strongest Hero party, as part of the team who slew the Demonic Emperor, they had welcomed him back. They had honored him, reinstated his rank of Master Assassin, and even requested him to instruct a new batch of disciples.
For now, he would play along with them. The poison he had slipped into the glass of the current leader, Ralph Da Ghoul, was slow-acting, but it would slowly spread across his body. Within a year, Ralph would have fallen ill, his body wracked and destroyed from within by the virulent toxin. Yet, nobody would suspect that he had been poisoned. It would only look like a sickness from the outside.
Perhaps the priests and priestesses of the Holy Church might be able to heal Ralph Da Ghoul, but they wouldn't. The League of Shadows was condemned as criminal zealots, an underground organization who dealt in assassinations, terrorism and mass murders.
And Alan liked it that way.
After the death of Ralph Da Ghoul, Alan would be next in line…with his reputation and achievements, he would take over as the new leader of the League of Shadows.
Then…he could begin his plan to destroy Havan Kingdom. To plunge the human kingdom into anarchy and watch the hypocritical and weak citizens tear each other apart. He would show the whole world just how frail the foundations of civilization were…that humans were actually monsters deep down inside.
"I've been expecting you."
Alan stopped idly, staring silently at the man before him. The knight was dressed in obsidian armor and carried a sword that seemed forged out of onyx. The Dark Knight, Bryce Wayne. A duke of the Gottfried Province.
Bryce pointed his sword at the stationary Alan, his expression furious.
"So the League of Shadows has finally sent one of their assassins after me, huh? Should I be honored that they sent their strongest? The one who was previously a member of the strongest Hero party?"
"You should feel whatever you like," Alan replied with an indifferent shrug. "It makes no difference. You'll be dead anyway."
Bryce's lip curled. "The League of Shadows won't get away with this."
"Oh…" Alan grinned underneath his mask. "The League of Shadows has gotten away with far worse things than this. We've been eliminating anyone who got in the way of our activities and philosophy. You're just the latest target on a long list of usurpers."
"Usurpers? Is that what you see me as?" Bryce snarled. "I'm just protecting innocent people from you lowly killers! What makes you think you have the right to take the lives of so many?"
"Strength," Alan replied coldly. "The fact that I'm stronger than you. The strong eat the weak. If you're weak, you have no right to live."
"…how did someone like you even become a part of the strongest Hero party?"
Bryce couldn't conceal his astonishment. Opposite him, Alan threw his head back and burst out laughing.
"Are you stupid? What do you think the Hero parties are? We are all groups of killers. We murder. Just because our victims happen to be monsters instead of humans, you think our massacres are justified."
Then he shook his head and chuckled.
"Also…to answer your question, I was part of the strongest Hero party because of my strength. My assassination skills are second to none. When your goal is to slay the Demonic Emperor, wouldn't the first person you approach be the world's most renowned killer?"
Bryce didn't say anything. He had clearly believed that the Hero party's goal was to save the citizens of Havan Kingdom. Killing demons was just means toward that end. However, Alan's goal was just to kill. If the targets happened to be demons, then so be it.
"I see." Bryce finally sighed and raised his sword. "It seems like there will be no negotiating with you."
"Hah! Ever since you opposed the League of Shadows, the writing was on the wall for you! You must die!"
"You'll find that I'm not an easy person to kill." Bryce charged and swung his sword. Alan parried the obsidian blade with his dagger. The two of them traded fierce blows, with Alan using his superior speed to dart around Bryce's clumsier attacks.
"Ugh!"
Bryce grunted as he was knocked back. Alan's dagger left long scratches against his armor, but the duke knew he wouldn't last too long at this rate. With one hand keeping Alan at bay, he fumbled at his belt and threw a few explosive boomerangs.
Alan immediately evaded them, disappearing from one spot and reappearing in another. He slashed a dart with his dagger and watched curiously as the explosion dispersed harmlessly in front of him.
"Theatricality," he said, sounding amused. Then he whirled around and intercepted a strike from Bryce, stopping the obsidian blade just an inch away from his neck. "…and deception. Powerful agents to the uninitiated. But we are initiated. Aren't we, Bryce?"
"Why are you ripping off lines from a villain?" the dark knight demanded as he staggered back from a blow. Alan shrugged and slashed at his neck, forcing Bryce to deflect it.
"Because I'm a member of the League of Shadows. And you got in our way."
He ducked under a swing of Bryce's sword and kicked him in the gut, causing the heavily armored knight to stumble a few steps back. Before Bryce could right himself, Alan thrust his dagger at his handsome face.
"Yes…" Bryce heaved as he barely knocked the dagger away. "You were excommunicated…by a gang of psychopaths!"
Then Alan delivered a roundhouse kick so powerful that it sent Bryce hurtling into the wall after the former's foot connected with the latter's head.
"I am the League of Shadows," Alan proclaimed dramatically, raising both of his hands. "I'm here to fulfil Ralph Da Ghoul's destiny!"
The Dark Knight rose to his feet groggily, gaping at his opponent. "…huh? What destiny?"
Alan replied by kicking Bryce in the face. The duke managed to block his foot with his sword, but the blow sent him skidding across the polished floor of his own castle.
Coughing and choking, Bryce spun about and forced himself to a halt. He finally fell to a silence and cast a shadow spell. Immediately, the entire room was plunged into darkness.
"Ah…you think darkness is your ally."
Alan sounded amused as he looked around. He shook his head in disapproval.
"You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it. Molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man. By then it was nothing to me but blinding!"
Twisting around, he caught Bryce's arm just as the Dark Knight was about to swing his obsidian sword downward, and then punched his dagger into his breastplate. Despite the heavy armor, the dagger punctured the thick metal and gouged out a chunk of his chest.
"Ugh!"
Blood spewing from his mouth, Bryce fell backward, dropping his sword and clutching his wounded chest. Alan slowly approached him.
"The shadows betray you…because they belong to me!"
Alan kicked Bryce while he was still down, and then hammered his dagger into the latter's collarbone, eliciting a huge spray of blood and an agonized bellow.
"Dude…" Bryce heaved, shaking his head. "Can you…just stop ripping off…lines from a movie? As much as I loved that trilogy…your attempts to…parody it…is making me hurt more than…your actual attacks…"
"Aw…you're such a spoilsport." Alan shook his head. "That guy is like my favorite villain, you know? The director did an amazing job fleshing his character out for the third movie. Of course I wouldn't be able to resist the chance to pretend to be him!"
"…and you think an assassination attempt is the best time to be playing a villain from your favorite movie?" Bryce's voice was filled with disbelief.
"Assassination attempt?" Alan shook his head and wagged a finger. "This isn't an attempt. Because I'll succeed."
"You…!"
Bryce charged at the assassin, but Alan sidestepped him and slammed a knee into his midriff. The Dark Knight doubled over and fell to his knees, but Alan delivered an axe kick from above so powerful that the floor under the both of them shattered. Both men crashed into the level below.
"Argh!"
Bryce hit the ground and rolled about, half-buried in debris. Coughing from the clouds of dust, he tried to throw the rubble off himself and get back to his feet. As the Dark Knight rose, he froze.
"No…" he whispered. "This…this can't be…!"
In the first level of his castle, he saw his servants spread out. All of them butchered, their bloodied bodies draped over the pillars and staked into the stone.
"How…how…?"
"Ah…yes." Alan strolled toward him, spinning his dagger about. "That's right. You had your staff leave your castle, didn't you? Told them to return to their homes. Thanks to your stupid kindness, I had to waste a lot of time tracking each and every single one of them down, and then drag them back here after killing them. You caused me a lot of trouble, you know?"
"Why?!" Bryce roared, slamming his fists against the ground. "They were innocent! They have nothing to do with this! I'm the one the League of Shadows want! Not them!"
"Why indeed?" Alan cocked his head to the side. "Simply because they were unlucky enough to be related to you. Oh, and…" he toyed with his dagger. "…also because they are weak. And the weak don't have the right to live."
"YOU BASTARD!"
Howling in rage, Bryce charged at the assassin, swinging his sword wildly. Alan practically danced away from his frantic swings and cleaves.
"Oh, yes!" Alan crowed happily as he dodged a swing. "I was wondering what would break first."
Then he twisted around and stabbed Bryce's collarbone with hi dagger, causing another shriek. Twisting the blade in the dark knight's neck, he caused Bryce to drop his sword and to his knees.
"Your spirit…" Alan continued. Grabbing the segments of Bryce's armor, the deceptively skinny assassin lifted the heavy Dark Knight into the air. "…or your body!"
Then he smashed Bryce's back into his knee. There was a thunderous crack as the duke's spine snapped from the blow.
In a single motion, Alan dropped Bryce's motionless body on the ground.
Retrieving his dagger, he then left the bleeding and broken Dark Knight on the ground. Wiping the blood from his dagger, he then proceeded to unfurl a banner that he had left on the first level, before he went upstairs to challenge Bryce.
"From today onward," he proclaimed. "The duchy of Wayne ceases to exist. So says the League of Shadows."