Reginald was more difficult than usual that day. Maybe he knew that Azemo was leaving or maybe he did not like the presence of the two monster tigers in the room bag. Whatever the case he was constantly pulling like crazy and chasing the slightest disturbance in the desert.
Azemo was continuously groaning under his breath as he did his best to restrain the extra wild Reginald. He also had to constantly keep up his guard so he was not surprised by the assailants.
The combination of the two factors was enough to thoroughly exhaust Azemo, who was already missing around half of his mana. This left Azemo at around twenty five percent of his usual combat strength and when he felt enemies approaching he was a little worried.
It was the end of the walk when the attackers finally made their move. Azemo had sensed them thirty minutes before their attack but it seemed like they were waiting for the walk to end.
'I guess the governor did not want Reginald's walk to be cut short before he cut me down.'
Azemo chuckled to himself and that caused his tired body to lower his guard. An attacker immediately tried to take advantage of Azemo's lowered guard.
A woman dashed forward at such a speed that Azemo could tell he would not be able to protect himself in time. As Azemo braced himself to take the hit, a fountain of blood covered him.
Reginald had lunged forward and swallowed the woman in a single bite. All that remained of the woman was single leg and the blood that now covered Azemo.
'I will almost miss you now Reginald. Almost.'
The first attack had shown Azemo something extremely important, these killers were no common thugs. The woman had seen an opening and would have capitalized on it if Reginald had not been there. That attack helped Azemo understand that he was facing extremely well trained assassins.
"Take Reginald and get out of here."
Azemo threw the leash to Slicker while he was yelling. Slicker caught the leash but he did not move, he was torn between his duty and saving Azemo.
"They are after Reginald. You need to get him out of here and the boss does not want him to get a taste for blood. I will be fine."
This statement made Slicker turn and lead Reginald away, chasing after the already retreating Jin and Glen. Slicker would have stayed and helped Azemo but he could tell that the assassins far outclassed him in combat skills. As he left he said a silent goodbye to Azemo, he was sure he would never see Azemo again.
He was right of course but not for the correct reasons.
As Slicker retreated Azemo pulled out Shining Starlight and put up his guard. The remaining three attackers also stood still waiting for all the witnesses to leave.
The second Slicker had disappeared over a sand dune the action kicked off.
Azemo immediately used (technique) Starfall and mounted his spear as it rushed towards the nearest foe.
Try as he might the enemy could not dodge the attack because the spear followed his every move. In a flash another one of the attackers was dead Shining Starlight stabbed through his neck.
Azemo removed the spear before the others could attack and the two sides sized each other up. Azemo tried to use (technique) Starfall again but his tired body did not have the energy. Normally he could use the technique twice in a row, but he was too tired at that moment in time.
Azemo returned the spear to the room bag and teleported Ceravin into his hand the second his tome started to float thanks to (skill) Hover.
Azemo was not ready to show off his gauntlets in Kclzan so he was going to do as much as he could with Ceravin.
Normally Azemo would say something stupid to the two remaining attackers but he was tired. Thanks to Reginald's antics Azemo was in a bad mood and that was not a good thing for his opponents.
However as Azemo readied his defense for an assault none came. The two assassins left, were not moving forward.
Azemo began to realize something was off, but before he could react a huge fist made of sand materialized under his feet.
The fist struck Azemo and sent him flying before he could do anything. Azemo tried to activate (skill) Retaliate but nothing happened. The fist had already disappeared and apparently the caster of the fist was not considered an attacker only the fist itself.
'If they won't attack me up close then I will have to go on the offensive.'
Azemo threw Ceravin straight at the one who had obviously cast the fist and dashed after it. The caster was a young man who was missing a hand.
The young man reached out and caught the knife with his bare hand while the other remaining assassin, a burly man in his thirties, moved to intercept Azemo.
Azemo blocked the burly man's short sword attack with ease and made Ceravin teleport into the young man's neck.
However, the young man moved on instinct and once again caught the bone white knife. At their skill level the two assassins could easily sense the danger of a teleporting weapon and counter it.
'It seems like just having a weapon that can teleport is not enough against more powerful foes.'
Azemo had already learned this when he fought the Lightning Sword but he had thought that the fight was an exception. It now seemed like there would be many that could counter an instantaneous attack.
Before the young man could examine Ceravin, Azemo kicked off of the burly man and teleported his knife back into his hand.
As he disengaged the burly man pulled out a short crossbow and shot at Azemo's tome. He was shocked when the tome dodged more nimbly than Azemo himself.
Even though the attack on the tome failed it was just a distraction and the sand fist once again attacked Azemo.
This time instead of trying to dodge the attack Azemo faced it head on and threw a punch of his own at the fist.
The two attacks collided in mid air and the fist dissipated, only pushing back Azemo a couple of paces.
"He can face my drive skill head on, we need to get serious." The young man sat down and removed one of his boots, revealing that he was missing a foot. Normally he would have limbs made of sand for his hand and foot but he could not have them when he was fighting.
As the young man sat down the burly man moved to better protect him.
Azemo growled softly as he realized the fight would be much more difficult than he anticipated. He did not want a drawn out fight, he just wanted to have a good long nap.
'Maybe this will work.' Azemo tried infusing Ceravin with (skill) Degrade, he had not been taught this but he hoped it would work.
Surprisingly it did work, it seemed that the daggers skill, That Looks Nice, had a hidden passive that allowed it to be temporarily infused with one of it's owners skills.
Azemo did the same attack once again, he threw Ceravin at the young man and engaged the burly man head on.
The two assassins saw this as a sign of desperation. "He is doing the same attack; we should crush his spirit." The two men moved the same way as earlier. The burly man faced Azemo head on and the young man caught Ceravin.
The second the young man touched Ceravin, (skill) Degrade activated and the young man's life force began rapidly draining. The young man let go of the dagger but it was too late.
Azemo recalled Ceravin, this time by using (skill) Hover, he needed to save his dwindling mana and retreated. He just needed to wait and the young man would die.
The young man could feel his death at hand and unleashed one last desperate attack.
The sand hand and foot crashed down upon Azemo so fast that Azemo barely saw the movement.
Normally Azemo could probably avoid the attack but his tired body was not responding and the last attack the young man would ever make struck true. Azemo took the full force of the attack and collapsed onto the sand barely conscious. The young man keeled over, dead.
"You have done well, but now you will die." The burly man was assured of his victory when he saw Azemo could not even stand and slowly walked towards Azemo discarding his weapons.
"I am going to kill you with my bare hands."
Azemo was too injured to respond and he did not have enough mana to activate (skill) Flames of Death.
The burly man reached Azemo and started beating him to death. The punches rained down hard and fast and Azemo had no way to shield himself.
When one is on the brink of death adrenaline can cause a sudden burst of invigoration and that is exactly what happened to Azemo.
As Azemo's consciousness started to fade suddenly he could feel his mana pool expanding and he was granted some extra mana in an instant.
Without thinking Azemo reached up and grabbed the man's arm. In a split second the arm Azemo was grasping disappeared and appeared in Azemo's other hand. With his upgraded (magycka) Shadows Call, apparently an unwilling object could be someone's arm.
The burly man screamed in pain and shock at the sight of his missing arm. Azemo used this opening to drive Ceravin into the man's head before Azemo collapsed into the sand once again. His burst of strength had done its job and now his body had to face the repercussions.