I charged towards the two lizards and went for a diverging claw.
They both easily dodged the attack and went straight for Violet.
"Life Saver!" Violet pulled me close to her.
Not bad, Violet! Using the attack for offensive means instead of defensive! As expected of the marauder of white's healer!
As I went flying towards Violet, I prepared my next attack. I need to make it an attack that stops both of them in their tracks but vital puncture can only be used at one instance at a time. I have an idea to overcome this though.
"Vital Puncture!" I stabbed the monster to my left and it came to a paralyzing halt.
I wasted no time and pressed the monster to my right's neck to the floor.
"HA! Easy enough!" I praised myself as I swung the lizard around between the walls and the floor.
With each hit against the walls of the room, it got weaker and more limp until finally, it dissipated into a blue crystal.
Violet was already working on the last one and did considerable damage to it. I simply walked over and finished it off. As it died and became a blue crystal, I walked over to the stairs ready to descend the steps when Violet stopped me.
"We need to loot the crystals. Otherwise, they'll just be used by the assassin's again."
"Well that makes sense-WAIT! Does that mean Origami Kami was lootable too?!"
"Yeah..."
That's not good. That means there's a good chance we're seeing the paper warrior sometime in the future. If I knew I could've done that, I would have done it a long time ago!
"Why didn't you tell me!?"
"I only found out the other day! I don't really pay that much attention to other classes." Violet looked to the floor in defeat.
I can't really blame her. I didn't even know that the monster trainer class existed until our run-in with Petal.
"I guess it doesn't really matter all that much." I digressed and checked the items.
They were both items for the priest class that were locked at level 30. I decided to hand them to Violet because it only made sense, and we descended the steps once again.
===
We kept walking down the stairs of the estate for what felt like forever. As we did so, I pried Violet for more information on monster trainers.
"Can monster trainers have members of their party command their monsters?"
"From what I can tell, no."
"Then that means their DPS is roaming around somewhere. We need to take care of these guys and find them."
We descended these steps until we reached a large hallway. As we stepped into it, at the opposite end there were the two masked assassins.
"SO WE MEET AGAIN, FOOLISH FOOLS!"
"Can you please stop shouting, Garthorn?" the assassin's assailant cowered behind Garthorn as he warned him.
"Pleasure to meet you again. I didn't get to 'axe' you that many questions earlier!"
...
I looked over to Violet to get her opinion on my pun.
"That was one of your worst ones yet..."
"Oh come on! Don't sit here and act like you haven't made terrible jokes! I didn't forget that Optimus Prime joke-" as I was grilling Violet, Gathorn rushed towards me with a greatsword and made a deadly swing for my neck.
I quickly dropped to the floor and made Violet follow suit. A few of my hairs were split, but I managed to dodge that swing.
"Garthorn, they killed my Molts. These guys are way stronger than we've expected."
"NO WORRIES, BROTHER! I'LL DISPATCH OF THESE TWO WITH EASE!"
Let's see what these guys got.
Garthorn charged me and did a vertical swing towards my shoulder. I successfully dodged it and prepare for my counterattack, but before I knew it, I felt a sharp pain in my side as I went flying into the wall. As I spat out blood, I looked to my HP and realized I already went down almost 50%. I looked over to Garthorn and found that he wasn't wearing any shoes. On his knees, he had bracers with spikes on them. Not only did I have to look after his sword, but I had to pay attention to his feet as well. I was going to use my labrys again, but I won't be able to counterattack fast enough.
I used Deathly Lunge to close the distance. Once I got up and personal, I used vital puncture to try and end the fight quickly. Before I could do so, Garthorn planted his sword directed in the path of my attack. As my attack bounced off of his sword, he retaliated by going for a roundhouse kick to my chest. Before he could connect it, I grabbed him by his spiked shin. Although it hurt, I gritted my teeth and threw him towards the window.
"Life Saver!" He was going to go flying out, but Lance saved him.
"Greater Healing!" Violet used greater healing on me and I was almost brought to 100%.
I grabbed Garthorn's sword and used threw it is way. As it sped towards him, I paced myself right behind it. As he dodged the sword throw, I went for a blow to his stomach. It perfectly landed, but I looked and found that he was barely phased from the attack.
"Allow me to return the favor..."
He wasted no time and punched me in my stomach. This punch was stronger and faster than anything I have ever seen. Even faster than a Repeller's pistol whip.
I was going to fall backwards and expose myself for more attacks, but I stood my ground and went to bite him in his neck. Before I could do so, a slapped me with a resounding force that sent me into the wall right next to us and as I rebounded off of it slightly, he took his sword and attempted to cleave me in two. Luckily, I managed to move out of the way so he only got to cut my arm off.
I gritted my teeth once more and equipped General Slayer. With all of my strength, I brought the labrys down onto his head, but barely missed him. I managed to split his mask in two, but that was about it.
As the two halves of his stone mask fell from his face, the true identity of the assassin was revealed!
"I...have no idea who you are." I commented.
"I WOULDN'T EXPECT SOME RANDOM TO KNOW OF MY STORY!"
"IF ANYTHING, you're THE RANDOM!"
===
"Man. All that action down there sounds fun. I sure wish I could join along for that..."
"Are you still mad at the result of the plan?"
"YES!"
"Look, we could play a game if you'd like. I'm really good at rock paper scissors."
I rolled my eyes. If this keeps up, I won't be able to do anything. I know that guarding Elizabeth is an important part of the quest too, but I feel like I've been shafted for a bit-
CLANG
I blocked a dagger that was flying towards Elizabeth.
"Show yourself so we can both make this faster." I yelled out to the dark portion of the room.
"Your reactions aren't that bad!" The assassin said as she stepped into the moonlight.
Her outfit was a scandalous one that revealed a lot of skin. Most parts were black, but there were accents of gray.
"I'm pretty well-known for my defenses." I readied my weapon as we stared into each other's eyes.
As soon as she made a move to attack, I'll be certain to block it, stun her, and make a fatal move to end her.
Before either of us could act out our intentions, Elizabeth stepped directly in between us and made a vertical swing down her chest.
The assassin was surprisingly acrobatic. She contorted her body in a way that completely dodged Elizabeth's attack while also taking advantage of an opening Elizabeth had. She just barely grazed Elizabeth before Elizabeth disengaged from the girl.
I didn't give our guest a minute of peace. I charged her and immediately went for a stun.
"Shield Bash!"
Before my shield bash could connect, she dodged the attack and was readying a strike to my ride side. Luckily I was able to manipulate Shapios to cover that opening I made.
Elizabeth was making her round to deliver a fatal blow to the assassin, but something came over her and she completely froze. Don't tell me...
Her daggers have numbing poison on them?! Of course they do... she's an assassin.
She went directly for Elizabeth's throat. I'm not gonna make it with Shapios. I've been practicing with this move, so I haven't used it in a battle scenario. There's nothing like a trial by fire to test your skill, right?
"Loving Lights!" I called the name of the skill into existence.
Loving Lights is a skill that acts like a barrier "between the good and evil of this world." At least that's what the description of the skill says. It's a clear wall of yellow light. The only problem is that you have to direct each one of the four lights that make up the wall. I didn't want to use a move like this as soon as I got it, mess up, and have someone lose their life over that.
CLANG
The assassin's dagger met the wall of light just before it could pierce Elizabeth's neck.
As I charged at her, I yelled "GAZE OF PITY" and she had no choice but to look my way. Once she way looking at me, I prepared a wide swing right across her abdomen. She began to contort her body... for an attack that never came.
Instead of doing that wide swing, I instead stunned her using shield bash and cut vertically down her face.
Surprisingly, she was able to move out of the way just in time. I only managed to cut her mask in two.
When the two halves of the mask fell onto the floor, what was revealed was the face of a beautiful young girl with a mole directly under her right eye.
"Sa...rah?" Elizabeth wore a face that looked like she was reuniting with an old friend.
Don't tell me...
"Elizabeth, you know this girl?!"