"You really made me put some efforts,"
The words rang in Tanya's ears, giving a chill down her spine, she looked back at him in anger.
"Why are you so intent on killing me? Even if I die, you won't leave this place alive," Tanya screamed back, at that moment, she completely ignored the pain her body was going through and the noise caused by the miserable howls of adventurer that had their skin torn or ripped because of the friction caused by the pulling of the threads.
Kale threw a glance at Ajin and Ryenne, the formed just returned a quick peek while the latter looked back angrily at him, Ryenne stared at him as she waved her hand and a curved moon blade formed from the blood sliced off an adventurer stuck in the thread web near her.
"Hehehe… Killing you? Trying to buy time, you still don't get it, do you?" Kale said to Tanya while spinning the bone knife in his hand. Suddenly, he stopped playing with the knife and his expression became serious, his hand flickered and when it reappeared, the tip of the knife was just a centimetre away from her neck "Here's a hint for you, why did I let you turn your body into metal?"
Tanya narrowed her eyes at him, she just started to think when she heard a miserable scream followed by a coughing sound, which made other people turn quiet for a second.
"Ahhhh… See him- Ughhh Coughhh," The robust tanker who was trying to break free from the trap, suddenly opened his mouth and coughed out of a big amount of blood from his mouth.
The blood that fell on the ground was somewhat thinner and carried a pungent smell to it, once the tanker spurted out blood, he didn't stop coughing, his eyes turned red and trails of blood came out from his nose and ears too.
His state made the other panicking adventurers freeze in their places, but before they could see his final end, more men trapped in threads started coughing blood.
Tanya stared at the dying people, her eyes traced the threads binding her then she suddenly came to a realization 'Poison? Or whatever it is, it definitely has something to do with these threads, but I don't feel anything wrong with my body, the only difference between me and others in the current state is, the threads are not penetrating my skin or entering it, now that I see it, the places these threads are binding me are not injured… They are not in contact with my wounds?'
When she was thinking, Kale slowly reached out his hand and traced it over a thread, he lightly flickered it with his finger and it vibrated, a faint wisp of grey smoke came out of its surface and disappeared in the air.
The appearance of the grey fog was the same as the one from ‹Grey Fog Assimilation›, one of the signature killing WitchCraft technique of Kale.
"Ahhhh Help, help me…"
"Potion I want potions,"
"Ughhh… My Detoxication Potion isn't working, save me,"
"Everyone calm down, we ca- Blurrrpp, Cougghhh, help,"
"My legs! I can't feel my lower body,"
"Thi- This, I feel crawling sensation in my stomach- Ughhhh,"
The whole area was soon filled with miserable howls only filled with pain, the spearman leader had his whole team caught up in the trap, right now he was in the safe distance but was surrounded by Xaxa and Zalie, who were safe because of Kale secretly alerting them in advance, the spearman leader looked at Kale and shouted "You! I surrender, spare me and my team, we will compensate you for all this,"
'Surrender? Spare? Does he think it's a game going on here, if you win, we die and if we win, you surrender?' Kale didn't even bother turning to him, he just sent a message to dwarf sisters {Are you waiting for his last words or something? Finish him,}
After sending the message, Kale glanced at Ryenne and Kale "I will say it once, so listen clearly, attack my team even once and I will make it even," Kale said as rested the bone knife on her left shoulder.
Ajin heard his words and frowned his brows, still, he remained silent and kept fighting.
Unlike him, Ryenne gritted her teeth tightly, the blood sphere above synchronized with her emotions and the blood inside it sizzled like it was boiling. She shouted at Kale in rage "You little shitt, who do you think you are? You believe you will tell us to bark and we would bark?"
Kale looked at her like he was watching a clown, then casually swirled his hand around Tanya's neck.
Tanya's pupils shrank, a very bad premonition struck her, she didn't wait to see what would happen next and scolded Ryenne without a second thought "Shutup, do what he says,"
"Haha, you are smart," Kale chuckled at her words.
'Shit, ‹Life Cycle› is useless here, ‹Eye Of The World› is still can't be used because it hasn't been 24 hours from its last use yet, my third Gift is useless in a battle such as this. If I don't comply, this man can really leave an unforgettable wound if not kill me, once I go against him. It's better to comply, my life is more important, I can't waste my second chance like this,' She inwardly thought.
Ryene was stunned by her words.
Kale looked mockingly at her "So now, would the dog bark?"
When his words entered her ears, Ryenne's eyes turned bright red glowing like gems, deep killing intent was filling them, she glanced at Xaxa and Zalie fighting the spearman leader from the corner of her eyes.
Before she could think more, Kale interrupted her thought process "Want to kill them? Sure do, the missy here would lose one hand for each. You see, I don't like it when someone messes with my pets,"
Ryenne hesitated.
The whole battle got into a deadlock.
The two Tier 3 assassin confronting Fynn showed panic in their eyes.
Suddenly the voice of their leader echoed in their ears {Catch that boy alive at any cost, even if you have to kill that girl,}
The two assassins glanced at each other, in the next second, they turned and dashed towards Kale at full speed.
'What?' Fynn realized their motive and wanted to chase but his speed was his not best point. Elza too was busy keeping a watch on Ryenne, her battle style was mostly focused on close combat so she could not intercept from distance.
Kale narrowed his eyes, he lightly pressed the tip of the bone knife at Tanya's neck "Let's die together,"
"Stop!" Ryenne screamed seeing his actions, with a wave of her hand, an instant change occurred in the blood sphere, several blood arrows shot out from it towards the assassins.
The assassins were prepared for that, they were about to get out of the way, but suddenly, several sharp rocky spikes grew out of the place they were about to step on, breaking their balance, the assassin at left glanced at Ajin who was staring at him.
The black puppet behind him found an opportunity and kicked Ajin, making him crash into the wall.
The assassins didn't have time to rejoice as numerous blood arrows struck them back at the same time, throwing them to the ground.
Once they fell, both Fynn and Elza dashed at them for the kill under Kale's commands.
Kale scanned through all the dying or dead adventures then stopped at the three puppets surrounding Ajin, who finally suffered the first lethal hit in the battle 'Unless I find the old man controlling the puppets the fight won't end, now that I have the control over the situation…'
Kale reached out to the «Ghost Beads» in his pocket, all the «Ghost Beads» reacted, all the Ghost Spirits came out and surrounded him at a moments notice. Kale peeked at Tanya from the corner of his eyes, she wasn't looking at any Ghost Spirit at all.
Although she was like that, Kale didn't fully believe that she couldn't see them because earlier even he acted like he saw nothing, but in truth, Tanya really couldn't see them.
Kale was just about to relax when he saw a certain person staring at him and the Ghost Spirits around in shock.
"You are-" Ryenne looked at him in shock, his eyes were trembling with uncertainty.
"Some words are better-unsaid woman," Kale interrupted her in a cold tone, his tone made Tanya narrow her eyes at Ryenne, it was the first time she saw Kale's tone turning so cold.
Ryenne became quiet, she was shocked, although she couldn't see it clearly, she could still see blurry silhouettes floating around in the air. It was easy for her to tell that Kale didn't want her to speak about it just like how she was hiding her Blood Magic from others.
'Is it due to Blood Magic? Noted,' Kale thought, he then commanded all the Ghost Spirits to search around for the old man, physical objects provided no resistance for Ghost Spirits so it was easy for them to search around the area.
While the Ghost Spirits were doing their work, the two Tier 3 assassins were pushed to their death door, surrounded by Elza as a lizardman with high regeneration, Fynn as a stoneman known for their toughness, and finally a Blood Mage such as Ryenne who were feared by the masses.
Once the assassins were taken care of Elza quickly moved to help Xaxa and Zalie taking care of the adventures fighting them.
Elza easily took care of the remaining Tier 2 with the two dwarf sisters supporting her, now the only main enemy left for then was the hidden assassins group leader.
While she was doing that, Fynn and Ryenne were carefully observing the fight between Ajin and the puppets but no one stepped in, against a Tier 4, even one wrong move could take the lives of normal Tier 3, although all three of them were above average but the enemy's real location was still a mystery to them.
'Blood Sense'
Ryenne activated a Blood Spell, hoping to find the enemy but Tier 4 have their own means, especially when it was an assassin, so she failed.
Kale slightly frowned 'Why aren't they able to find him?'
Earlier he didn't even bother to Soul Search the two Tier 3 assassins before their death because Kale was sure that with the old man's nature he would probably keep such a secret to himself alone, that's why he didn't want to exhaust himself from using Soul Search.
'Why can't they find it, he should be around here, after all, he had used the Space Equipment to take out the other two puppe- Wait, how did I miss it?' Kale's eyes gleamed brightly, he suddenly got a wild idea and sent a command to Ghost Lady.
Ghost Lady acted on a moment's notice, she turned and went to the three puppets fighting Ajin, she ignored the two puppets working as support and dashed into the headless puppet that was once acting as the real assassin group leader.
But suddenly, when she tried to pass throw it, she was pushed back by a mysterious force.
Kale's lips curled upwards 'So that's how a puppet was able to use a Space Equipment,'
He then sent a message to Ajin {Listen clearly, the enemy is standing in front of you, take the opportunity....}
When Ajin started hearing his words, he was dissatisfied from inside, and couldn't help it because Tanya was taken hostage, but when he heard the latter words, he was shaken from inside, he looked around again, glancing at the headless puppet.
Kale then also sent a message to Ryenne and others. He asked several questions before forming up a quick plan, although they couldn't reply to him using sound transmission but they could still nod and shook their heads, or blink their eyes as signals.
{Humph, you people were lucky today, this time, I accept my failure, there is no use fighting anymore, let's stop here,}
A hoarse voice rang into everyone's ears.
The puppets fighting Ajin slowed down, Ajin likely slowed down, both parties stopped.
By now both of them had a basic idea of each others' strength and knew that a frontal battle can't solve it, especially when both of them actually didn't want to fight each other, both of them wanted to kill Kale, which was what the old man thought.
The puppet remained motionless for a few moments before they turned around and started walking on one of the freeways, but just at that time, a red sphere was shot at one of the puppets from behind.
{Despicable!}
The three puppets instantly turned around to fight, the puppet on the rightmost side jumped and punched at the sphere.
The second the sphere came in contact with its fist, the sphere exploded throwing it backwards, the whole area was then covered into a blood mist, hiding all traces of life.
The headless puppet and the supportive puppets were engulfed in the red blood fog together with everyone.
The connection between them turned a little faint.
'Is it some kind of mana jamming spell? Does that woman think by using that she could sever my connection with the puppets? What a fool,' The headless puppet tried to look around, it was having a hard time sensing its surrounding, in the end, it used its memory to remember which direction had the exit and started running.
The headless puppet was none other than the assassin leader himself in his disguise.
He could actually use an investigative spell as Martial Mage but, according to him, it was a trap and Ryenne was waiting for him to do that so Ajin can find his location from the energy fluctuations when he activates the spell, that's why he didn't use the spell. Furthermore, he was confident that if others tried to use an investigative spell to find him, he could sense them too.
He was thinking he was safely hiding in the red fog, what he didn't know was, several Ghost Spirits were keenly observing him.
His location was clear as a day!
The leader, as a puppet, had just taken a few steps when he felt his scalp turning numb, he hastily bent his body backwards to avoid the attack.
Swoosshh!
A spear flew past him by a few centimetres distance.
He was just about to relax when he sensed something again and tried to turn as fast as he could, the old man only saw the shadow of a silvery wolf pass from his side before his chest felt cold and a sense of dizziness hit him.
The assassin leader reached out to feel his chest and realized, two daggers were thoroughly stabbed at his heart and stomach area respectively, his defence became useless against an all-out sneak attack of Tier 4 pure Martial Artist, blood was leaking out of the metallic body.
Thud!
The headless puppet got on his knees, with a 'clank' sound the metallic body of the puppet started to get dismantled, its joints got undone, the shoulder part, stomach part and back fell off.
A dwarf old man with a thin skinny body and wrinkled face was present inside the hollow area of the puppet.
The dwarf was very short, even among dwarf standards, it was hard to tell if it was due to some forbidden technique, «Pseudo Life Potions» or inborn dwarfism.
The dwarf looked around, the red fog was settling down at a visible pace, the faces of Ajin, Ryenne, Kale and others became clearer.
The old dwarf first looked at Ajin, then others and finally stopped at Kale, he opened his dried lips and spoke in a dry tone "This old man's name is... Mikol Vorus, may I know the name... Of my killer?"
It was quiet for a moment, then a message that only Miko could hear rang in his head {This world shall know me as Kale Oshwatt!}
Mikol looked at Kale, he slightly nodded, his eyes seemed to carry deep fatigue and stress that was slowly fading away, dizziness filled his mind as he finally closed his eyes for eternity.