Chapter 40: Assassins
The huge alchemic explosion caused massive panic among the masses. Shouts and screams reverberated around as the citizens ran here and there to seek shelter in their houses.
On the other hand, town guards also closed all the entrance gates and sealed the Town.
It seemed as if they had long received the order from Baron to shut the Town if something extraordinary happened.
Meanwhile, Abium glanced at his surroundings and soon found something was odd.
'Where are the Thieves Guild members?' He was startled and noticed that all those stealthily thieves who followed after them had suddenly disappeared.
'Those guys are up to no good.'
At that moment, he tried to recall why the Mysterious Assassins killed Baron Auguinare in the past.
But he found only a few clues in his memories.
When Baron Auguinare got assassinated, Abium was in continuous training under the guidance of the veteran soldier Oliver. He was isolated from the outside world and didn't know much about the assassination incident.
After finishing his three months of training, he came to the Dust Gate Town and discovered Baron had died already. Margrave Eliot even appointed a new governor to replace Baron's position.
Baron Auguinare had no family or relatives to inherit his hereditary title. Because of that, everyone soon forgot his name after the arrival of the Chaos era.
No one knew who killed the Baron. But Abium heard many rumors like it was the Wadel Kingdom's doing; some said it was a demon's plot, and a few even said that his disciple was the one who killed him.
'Tsk. What the hell is happening? First, Thieves Guild members started acting strangely and followed us for no reason. But now, an explosion occurred in the middle of the Town. But what puzzles me is the Alchemic Explosion. Why hadn't I heard anything about this during Baron's assassination?' A frown appeared on his forehead.
'Did I somehow end up changing the future without even knowing?' Doubt arose in his mind.
Abium didn't know how his earlier actions caused the changes, but he suspected that the Thieves' Guild members and Viscount's Lackeys might be involved in this scheme.
'I highly suspect the Viscount's lackeys.'
While Abium was in deep thoughts, Baron had already walked past them and dashed towards the Town's center.
At that moment, a feeling of restlessness appeared in Baron's heart.
He knew that it was an omen.
Baron had felt this feeling a few times when he was in the war.
But all those events resulted in the deaths of countless people, and he was only lucky enough to remain alive here.
Abium and Helena stood near the northern gate and glanced at each other.
"Shall we follow him?" Helena asked, recalling his earlier words about Baron's death.
But before Abium could say anything, he felt eerie gazes from the left side alley road.
He abruptly turned his gaze towards the road and saw a few black shadows moving in his direction.
They covered their bodies with regular black outfits, concealed their faces with some blue masks, and even covered their heads with hoods.
Abium could tell that they were assassins with a glance and appeared organized. Their footsteps seemed more like a cat's one, and they made no sound when moving.
"Helena, get ready for battle."
Abium muttered in a low voice, touched his space ring, and took out the long silver sword from his space ring.
Then, he gripped his sword tighter and dashed into the small gloomy alley.
He chose to confront them first before they could arrive near them.
Shink!
Meanwhile, Helena unsheathed the short sword from her waist and sprinted after him like a cheetah. Within a few seconds, she overtook him and moved closer to the blue-masked assassins.
Her speed was so fast that even Abium had a hard time following her movements.
After her Rank-Up, her strength and agility improved five times higher than an average human!
At the same time, those assassins also noticed them and unsheathed their weapons like daggers, short swords, and even long swords.
Although the assassins got startled by their action, they remained composed and acted calmly.
"I will take care of her."
One of the assassins stepped forward, moved his curved single-edged sword, and greeted her.
The next instant, Helena's short sword, and the Assassin's blade clashed against each other, leaving fire sparks and clanging sounds behind.
Even though Helena had powerful strength and sword skills, she still lacked experience in battles. Still, she managed to block his sneak attacks and stood equally against him.
On the other hand, the blue-masked Assassin seemed to have some experience in group battles and decided to move towards the right side.
"You guys should focus on killing the Half-elf." He ordered the other assassins and tried to imbue mana into the sword to create a sword aura.
On the other hand, Helena sneered inwardly, activated her warrior skill called [Dark Leap], and suddenly increased her movement speed into two folds!
The next instant, she slashed her short sword at the opponent's neck, raised her right leg, and kicked him on his chest with full force.
Although the other party blocked the sword using his blade, he was thrown backward due to the powerful kick and soon crashed onto the nearby building's wall.
A loud groan came from the Assassin's mouth as he fell and spat a mouthful of blood.
At that moment, he noticed that Helena even used some darkness elemental skill to enchant her strength and turned grim!
'She is dangerous!' He sucked in a cold breath.
He didn't know that the [Quick Step] Cultivation that Abium gave to Helena was a top-notch technique in the whole kingdom!
Mages ranked the Warrior Cultivation Techniques based on the uniqueness of the elements.
The first one was Common Techniques. Most of the guards, soldiers, and local goons were the ones who practiced these types of techniques.
The second one was Rare Techniques. This type of Rare Technique can be found only in noble households and some knights' houses. Some low-Rank Nobles, High-ranked knights, and Royal Soldiers were the ones who practiced these cultivation techniques.
The third one was called Advanced Techniques. These Advanced Techniques were precious treasures even for Nobles, and they would even fight to get their hands on these techniques. Legitimate heirs of the Nobles, Royal Knights, and Mages' bodyguards were the ones who practiced these Advanced Techniques. As long as one cultivates his body using this technique, he would breakthrough into Fifth-Tier Warriors in two to three years! Although one's elemental affinity strength also plays a vital role here, these Advanced Techniques would help him breakthrough faster and even reshape his body into a new one.
The final one was called 'Legendary Techniques.' Even Abium knew nothing much about this one.
The Assassin stood up with unsteady footsteps and looked at Helena warily without understanding his situation.
Meanwhile, Abium halted his footsteps, shifted his gaze towards the other assassins, and scanned them using his spiritual scan skill.
A row of notifications appeared in front of his eyes the next instant.
Out of all the remaining members, six were Second-Tier Warriors, while the remaining two were Third-Tier Warriors.
While he was calmly analyzing them, the other assassins got shocked by Helena's strength and looked at each other in confusion.
They instantly knew that the higher-ups had given them the wrong information about their opponents and got anxious.
At that moment, one of the Third-Tier Warriors looked at all the six Second-Tier Warriors and ordered.
"You guys should go and support Sam to apprehend that girl. Meanwhile, Philip and I will take care of this Half-elf."
Saying so, he gripped his sword tighter and sprinted towards Abium. The other Assassin named Philip also grabbed his weapon and followed after him.
Soon, both arrived in front of Abium and attacked him ruthlessly.
Meanwhile, Abium blocked those two swords casually and asked in a cold tone.
"Who sent you?"
Simultaneously, he raised his left hand, pointed his finger at the Second-Tier Warriors moving towards Helena, and cast [Fire Orb] spell on them.
A second later, a reddish fire orb the size of a head came out of his hand, flew towards the Second-Tier Warriors at an unimaginable speed, and finally arrived near one of the Warriors' heads.
The next instant, the reddish orb soon touched the Warrior's nape area and exploded while enveloping the whole surroundings in the crimson fire.
Screams echoed in the small alley as the fire enveloped everyone and burned their bodies like wildfire.
Two of the six Warriors' died instantly due to the abrupt explosion, while the remaining four were thrown away in different directions and were still burning.
They rolled on the dirt road while screaming and trying to extinguish the fire that enveloped their body. If the Assassins had worn some ordinary dress with armor, they wouldn't have ended up in this situation.
But their cool-looking hooded black dress caught on fire sooner and even glued with their skin like some plastic, causing more damage!
Screams and cries echoed in the gloomy hall continuously, but none of the Third-Tier warriors had time to go there and save them.
On one side, Helena blocked the leader Assassin's every attack and even overpowered him with her unique sword skills.
On the other side, Abium confronted the other two Third-Tier Warriors and completely blocked them from moving closer to the burning assassins.
A single Zero-Tier spell managed to flip the table in mere seconds!
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