Alex was planning to use a simple tactic, hunt and kill. He would use the women as bait and allow the tracking talisman to lead the knights there and kill them, group by group. The knights were still preparing and grouping up; there was also the blue pin knights faction hindering the black pin knights wherever they could.
While that was happening, Alex had to make sure he had three safe places to retreat. Alex would use the homes of the nobles that were killed. It was like hidden in plain sight. Alex first blinked to baron Howell's home to make sure it was safe. Alex blinked thru every room; he needed to be quick. Next, he went to Baron Lock's house; this was not his kill, so he entered the house thru a rift. He checked every room just like Baron Howell's home, but he found the killers here in the cellar.
'Truly, a killer always returns to the scene of the crime,' Alex thought.
The killers were still wearing their ninja attire, but there were more than just the two of them; there were six people here in total. All of them wore a talisman that blocked Alex's inspect skill. Since they were here, Alex had no problem using them. Alex wanted to prepare at least two more homes as backup, but he could not push his luck; he had to return to the women then back to the fort.
Back at Baron Rogue's house, the women were covered in sheets and sitting together when Alex just blink in, startling them. Alex briefly explained that they were being hunted and that he would pop in from time to time to move them and prepare for the morning hunt. He advised them not to sleep; they could do that in the morning. Alex went straight for the metal door and welded it shut from the inside with using black fire. This was just for insurance. He could not help thanking baron rogue for such a gift and hope that his soul is being tormented.
Alex then blinks back to the fort to see groups of six, nine, and eleven. The group with odd numbers had knights with blue and black pins, while the group with even numbers had only knights with black pins. This was a twist Alex was not hoping for, but it played in his favor. The captain already said to kill the blue; he was sure the blue pinned knights weren't going down without bringing a couple with them. Even though he would lose exp, this was an acceptable loss. There were ten groups of six, four groups of nine, and three groups of eleven. There total was one hundred and twenty-nine Knights. This was a little more than Alex was expecting; Alex realized his blunder and blinked back to the women and told them to use a conceal talisman. He initially thought that there would only be sixty knights; he needed to tweedle down the number before having the women remove the conceal talisman to draw the knights. Because of his blunder, Alex estimated he could only eliminate one team before removing the women to the next location.
"Remember to collect all the bodies, kill all the witnesses and clean up swiftly," Star said in a severe tone. Alex nodded.
'How can you stay someone is dead if you cannot find a body? Who knows, maybe they just went on an adventure! How can you say there was a fight here? All I see is some damages a drunk did! Where is the blood? Where is the evidence? Are there any witnesses?'
Alex found that Black fire could clean up blood nicely, damaging nothing. He first found out that black fire could do this after inspecting the nether snake venom.
Alex had to do this perfectly. He didn't want this to blow back on Jewel.
Back at the fort. As the first group moved out, Alex followed, hoping to finish fast.
'Inspect'
------
Name: Beauvais
Level: 26
Race: human
Class: Swordsmen and Knight
Element Affinity: earth
Mana core: level 1
HP: 300
Mana: 190
STR: 240
Agility: 330
Intelligence: 175
Stamina: 200
-----
*Ding*
[the skill inspect is being blocked by a talisman]
-------
Name: Carl
Level: 23
Race: human
Class: Knight
Element Affinity: wind
Mana core: level 1
HP: 285
Mana: 190/190
STR: 240
Agility: 130
Intelligence: 50
Stamina: 200
-------
*Ding*
[the skill inspect is being blocked by a talisman]
-------
*Ding*
[the skill inspect is being blocked by a talisman]
-------
*Ding*
[the skill inspect is being blocked by a talisman]
------
Alex could gauge the strength of knights for the first group; more or less. He knew he had to strike them swiftly, and they must all die, or they would be able to inform the others of his skills. Alex was no match for them in any category. The group of six contained five men and one woman. Each dressed; differently, the female dressed in full body armor only leaving her head exposed. Carl had a suit that only exposed one of his arms and head, the other wore chain mail to protect their most vital organs. The female knight would be the hardest to kill, Alex thought; his options were limited since the Raška venom needed to make contact with the victim. The group of six moved to the east of Saint Rothens known for their inns and brothels for adventurers.
Once Alex knew their destination, he blinked ahead. He had a limited amount of time to set up a couple of traps to offset his lack of strength. Alex went to five different inns and rented rooms only on the third floor. Some with four beds while others just the single bed, while intentionally wearing his mask. Alex told two of the innkeepers that the room was for him and three other women. He was practically bragging about how he would love all three women and that the innkeeper should expect to hear them.
Alex used blinked to meet the group again after drinking a mana potion. Once the group was in the eastern district, they further split into groups of two. Alex picked the group that did not select any of the trap inns. As soon as the knights approach the desk to speak to the innkeeper, Alex's strike was like a venomous snake. Alex split the rift with his ghost blade in one flawless motion, cleanly decapitating the female knight from behind.
The second knight, carl, was able to roll out of the ghost blade range by surrounding his body with his wind ability.
*Ding*
[you have received 1250 exp for killing a human 13 levels higher than you]
[You have received 300 sin points (SP)]
Alex was hoping to one-shot them both. Alex leaped out of the void; he did not allow carl any breathing room; with the ghost blade covered in venom, Alex pressed ahead to carl.
Carl was on the ground, and Alex's blade was about to slice the arm that had no armor; Carl had no time to draw any of the two swords that were on his hips. Alex just needed the blade to nick carl.
Instead of backing away from Alex, carl used his wind element and propelled himself forward. Faster than Alex's blade could descend. Carl was hoping to ram Alex with his body, using the wind force behind him; carl leaned his shoulders forward, hoping to knock the wind out of Alex.
Alex used skill ghost fade; the entire left side of his body faded like a ghost allowing carl to pass through him to hit a wall. While Carl was passing through Alex, Alex took out an ax from his inventory with his right hand and threw it at the innkeeper, who was about to exit the room. The ax hit the innkeeper dead center in the back.
*Ding*
[you have received 25 exp]
[You have received 25 sin points (SP)]
Alex did not even wait to see if the ax would have hit the innkeeper or not; he drew the second ghost blade from his side and put them in motion.
One blade was descending vertically, and the other ghost blade was moving horizontally, but there was no one in front of Alex. Carl was six feet away. Carl taught this was his chance to get out and regroup with the other Knights to kill this lunatic, thinking that Alex miscalculated.
Carl used the wind element to increase his speed as he rushed to the door only to see Alex appeared in front of him with a smile wider than the grinch. One ghost blade decapitated him, while the other blade split the decapitated head vertically in two. Both blades performed this action simultaneously. Before carl's death, he understood Alex expected him to run towards the door; the blades were in motion because Alex was planning to blink in front of him. He walked into Alex's trap.
*Ding*
[you have received 1200 exp for killing a human 14 level higher than you]
[You have received 300 sin points (SP)]
Alex did not waste any time; he immediately moved the bodies into a storage ring and purge the area in black flames, removing the blood. Sadly, black flames were not effective at burning the physical body, or he would have burned those too. The fight lasted less than four minutes, three minutes longer than he would have liked, and cleaning up took another 5min. Alex drank a mana and stamina potion before jumping back into the void to find another team. This was the furthest that he had ever pushed himself mentally.