I kicked off the ground, flying towards the man that was holding Rubellia. He ripped her shirt off just as I reached him. I deactivated Cloak and everyone's eyes were drawn to me.
I grabbed him by his face, kicked him in the knee, causing him to kneel before me, and looked him in his eyes as I spoke the words: "Burn to nothing!" His entire body was consumed in flame and he let out a scream of pain, but only for a second before it died to nothing, just as he did. Not even leaving ashes behind him.
I took my jacket off and placed it over Rubella, covering her exposed chest. "I'm going to kill you all," I snarled, my hand still burning with fire. "Every last one of you will burn to nothing!"
"He's one man, ATTACK HIM!" At the boss's command, all 29 assassins charged at me. I smiled as I dodged each of them one by one.
For a mage, hand to hand combat was so…easy. Time seemed to move in slow motion for me, or rather all their attack seemed slow as I danced around them. I pulled my sword out, extending it to its full length. My left hand caught fire and soon my entire sword was consumed in flame.
I danced around more of the assassins, cutting open several as I did so, killing them. I had killed seven when they started to take me seriously and backed away from me.
"B-Boss. H-He's using magic without incantation. H-He really is the Demon Ki-"my blade stabbed through his throat, setting his skull and then the rest of his body on fire before he could finish his sentence.
I looked at the man they called "Boss". "So, you were the one who kidnapped the princess? How did that work out for you?" I smiled as I tilted my head. "From what I heard, she's back at the castle with her family, safe and sound."
"Tsk. You bastard. You aren't the Demon King. You're a false prophet who claims to be!"
"And what if I am a false prophet? What are you going to die? Tell everyone?" I shook my head. "Nono. You won't. And do you know why?" He just looked at me with a look in his eyes that had blood lust. I teleported behind him and whispered in his ear. "Because you and all your friends are going to die here, tonight." I stabbed my blade through his torse. Blood spurted from his mouth. I squeezed the hilt harder and stabbed deeper into him as his entire body was set aflame and burned away. I twirled my sword as I looked at the rest of the assassins.
"Now would be a good time, Sarah." At my command, she jumped from a nearby tree onto one of the assassins, stabbed her dagger into his neck, killing him. She jumped back and landed next to me where she looked at me.
"You sure you aren't the Demon King? You're…pretty dark." She chuckled.
"People like them just make me sick," I mumbled as I scratched the back of my head. "Trying to rape an innocent girl…" I felt the rage burn in me again at the thought of what they could have done to the girls had I not gotten here sooner. "Just…hold them off for a second while I free everyone." She nodded and did as told, charging into combat. Rubellia was already helping, having grabbed her staff and casting buffs on Sarah. She held my jacket over her torso with one arm as she casted spells, so as to make sure it doesn't float away.
I headed over to the cage and melted the lock. Han was the first to step out, or rather charge out. He instantly grabbed his ax and ran right into the fight. Sora and Patora both hugged and thanked me before following behind Han, grabbing their weapons.
"So, what now?" Han asked as he put his back to mine. We were still outnumbered, so we were in a circle formation, doing our best to protect ourselves. Rubellia was in the middle while the rest of us formed a circle around her, back-to-back so as to not get flanked.
"That's an easy question," I replied with a smirk. "We kill them all."
"I'm down for that," Han smiled with me. The look in his eyes showed blood lust. He must have felt the same as I did, watching from in the cage, feeling useless.
"Oh, mother of flame, scorching the earth with your barren flame. Give thou flame to me, to burn all to a wasteland of flame before me, and to cleanse this world of sin." Rubellia was casting an incantation. Although I had never heard it before, I somehow knew the spell she was casting. It may have to do with the fact that I'm an arch mage.
"We need to protect her at all costs!" I demanded to everyone. "If she gets interrupted, her spell can have a backlash on all of us."
"Roger that, Captain," Han replied as he swung his ax, cutting through one of the assassins.
Sarah was running in and out of the shadows outside the circle, flanking and killing those that she could.
One of them lunged his spear at me. I dodged to the side and grabbed the Ebu, otherwise known as the shaft, and pulled him towards me. I grabbed him by his face, setting him ablaze not long after.
"You really like fire magic," Patora said dodged one of the assassins and twirled her spear before slashing him in the back.
"Ha-ha, well, it's definitely my most powerful and well-versed magic I have." By well versed, I mean learned. Yes, I have all magic unlocked, but I haven't put any skill points into them quite yet. Fire magic seems to be all I needed, so I invested lots of my skill points into leveling up the skills I could and unlocking the ones I could as well.
One of the new spells I learned I had used in the dungeon. I had created a fireball, though I mixed it with another fire spell called Fire Mine and created a fire ball that exploded at my will. And Fire Mine did as said, it was a trap that I could set, like a mine.
"With thou flame at my discretion, I will cleanse this world of all that seek to bring it life." Her clothes began to levitate in a wind that only touched her, and she began glowing a dark red. "Explosion." As she spoke the words, an explosion the size of a modern sized apartment building exploded in the camp, consuming the rest of the assassins and killing them.
"I think that was the last of them," Han said as he looked around, not seeing anymore.
"What about her?" Sora asked, gesturing towards Sarah, who was staring at us a few feet away.
"She's an assassin, but she helped us." Patora stated. "Why was that?"
"Well…he said that he would help me if I helped him." Sarah replied sheepishly.
"Really? That's all it took for you to betray your comrades? I don't know, Kichichi, I don't trust her." Han stated, his eyes narrowed with suspicion.
"I-It isn't like that. I didn't even want to work for them…"
"Then why did you?" Patora asked. She seemed to be inspecting Sarah. Heh, maybe she'll use some of her elf wisdom and figure something out.
"Because…they have my family held hostage!" The words left her mouth in a panic. I could see the tears running down her eyes as she do fiend speaking.
"I didn't want to kill any of you, or put any of you in danger for that matter. But…that man…he went from town to town gathering the highest ranked assassins in each of them. And for those who didn't want to join him, he forced their hand…." I clenched my fist as she spoke.
"So…he forced you to work for him by taking your family hostage…." Patora spoke softly and sadly. Her ears dropped down as she spoke. Thinking about it, haven't all of us lost family in some way or another?
Han abandoned his Tribe, leaving his family behind. Patora lost her mother in an incident, Sora lost her Brother. Rubellia didn't may have lost someone as well, thought she hasn't said who if she has.
"Well what's going to happens to your family now that all the assassins are dead?" Sora asked. "Aren't they safe now?"
"You think this was all of them? It was more than half of them, but not all. They still have fifteen or so back in Elderidge."