The bosses of Underworld, Adel, Eric, and Neo came to the aid of their leader. The mood changed completely. Thanatos's doubts and worries disappeared as soon as he saw them.
"Sorry for the delay, Master. I came as soon as I understood your message."
"Don't say it like you were alone. I was right there with you. I only needed a little more time to get the reason why the bastard was moving."
"Man, you guys just got warned early. I happened to run into Castess. He was scared and told me the situation. I came to help you deal with these guys. The rest of you can go back to the base." Neo said with total confidence.
Thanatos grinned; the message he sent was found. He ordered the undead executioner of the Red Dragon to move and made noise inside a room to call attention to himself. He ordered him the moment he saved Castess from the explosion. Adel and Eric found him and deduced correctly that Thanatos was in trouble or needed help with something.
"Hahaha, you guys know me well. Come on, let's show these little assassins from the Hand that you don't want to mess with Underworld!"
"YES!" All answered in unison, not a single trace of fear in their voices or faces.
The assassin stood silent for a moment, studying the situation. They recognize them all. The members of the upper echelon of Underworld. Adel, the man with a fire sword, is a fighter without magical abilities. Eric, a brawler specializing in a type of attack that can generate a lot of power in three hits. Neo, the demi human cat woman, is rumored to possess shamanic powers. They spent a lot of time studying them. The Hand always takes his time before carrying out their mission.
"Jakov, I'll deal with Thanatos; you kill the other three." Agatha spoke her orders, but Jakov didn't answer.
He stood watching one of his rainbow daggers. The green was broken. Thanatos managed to break the blade with his claws before he retreated. He moved his eyes to the hand of his opponent. The green blade was still in Thanatos's fingers, shattered and broken. For the first time in the fight, an angry expression formed on his face. "How dare you break one of my daggers. If it weren't for your subordinates, I would have poisoned your body and sent you into a painful death."
"Are you mad about this little thing?" Thanatos threw the blade away like a piece of garbage. "Was it expensive or something."
"Don't even try it. I could never lose my calm for something so insignificant like this. Even if all my daggers were destroyed, I know how to repair them. But after doing this, I'll make sure your deaths are extremely painful." He gave a nod to Agatha, he was focused on the fight.
"Listening. The woman is a blood mage. I'll fight her alone while you deal with the man."
"Hey, I came all the way here because you needed help. Now you say, you are going to fight alone?" Neo was the first to disagree with the plan. Eric soon followed her.
"Boss, I'm not sure if that is the best plan."
"You two are still dumb as bricks." Adel interjected and explained. "If that woman can use blood magic, that means every time we get hurt, we're giving her more power for her spells. The best course of action would be to have someone who can't be hurt fight her. In this case, the only one is Master Thanatos."
"Exactly, Adel. She's strong, I can't promise to make it unscathed. The other guy has daggers with different powers depending on the color. I destroyed the green one. Red can make fire, orange gives him speed, yellow can teleport, blue is a giant shield, and violet can absorb and bypass magic. Be careful with that one, Neo."
"What about the cyan one?" She asked.
"I don't know. He hasn't used it yet."
He had to convey as much information as possible in the least amount of time. The assassins also made their preparations. As soon as they finished speaking to one another, they attacked.
Like two bolts of lightning, they jumped at tremendous speed to kill. Agatha went straight to Thanatos. She made a gesture with her hands, and the blood orb transformed into a giant mace. She moved the weapon right on top of Thanatos.
CRASH... the ground broke and a curtain of dust was raised. It wasn't over. "[Blood spears]" The mace changed form again. It exploded into dozens of spears. Thanatos jumped toward Agatha, before the claws reached her, she used another spell. "[Blood shield]"
The blood returned to protect her in a flash and formed a sphere around her. Thanatos' hand got trapped in the blood.
"Boss!"
"Idiot, don't let your guard down!" Neo yelled at Eric, losing concentration for a second could be lethal. Jakov appeared from the smoke and attacked Eric.
An orange flash cut Eric's cheek. A second later and his head would have been severed in half. A red flash followed it. Neo jumped and blocked the strike with her claws. The fire burned her hands. She and Eric tried to attack, but he disappeared along with the yellow light.
Adel was still kneeling. The blood spears reached him and pierced his right leg. He saw as the blood came out of his wound and floated toward the woman. He was already being a nuisance to his Master. Without letting his inferiority and uselessness get in the way, he cauterized the wound with his fire sword. The smell of his own cooked flesh made him laugh. This was the cost of being weak.
Adel jumped toward Jakov with a mighty swing. He raised the flames and struck at his opponent. Before he could reach him, Jakov grabbed the cyan dagger and disappeared in front of Adel's eyes.
Invisibility? It only managed to reach that conclusion as he saw the orange dagger in the corner of his eyes. It was aimed at the back of his neck.
"[Speed]!" Eric reached just in time to save Adel's life. Unfortunately, he had to use his own hand as a meat shield. He gripped the blade in his bloody hand and with the other he attacked. "[Speed]!" His fist crashed in the face and broke Jakov's jaw, sending him flying to the other side.
"He lost the orange blade! Finish him off!" He screamed while taking the blade out of his hand.
Jakov was taken by surprise by Eric's new special ability. When the hell did he learn that? He was supposed to only have a three-hit attack. As Jakov fell on his own feet, a shadow appeared on top of him.
"Give me your strength, oh mighty beast. Black bear." Neo's body transformed into an apparition, a spectral and enormous bear, was about to crush Jakov with his claws.
Combining the violet and cyan daggers, he vanished as he slit the bear in half.
"Shit, he discovered the plan." Neo screamed as she landed. Adel and Eric were already hitting Jakov's spot a moment before he disappeared.
"Using a strong magic attack like distraction is very intelligent. I didn't take you as the type to strategize in a fight, Neo?" He showed up away from the three of them, playing with his daggers. He smiled with a few teeth missing.
"Neo, can you tell?"
"Of course I can. The reason he didn't use the cyan dagger is because he's still in the same place. Thanatos and I can smell his scent; turning invisibly wouldn't do any good against us."
"So that's why he uses it now. OK, I'm ready to beat him now." Eric cleaned his bloody fist.
"Still thinking you have a chance of victory?"
"I broke your jaw, didn't I? I'm guessing we almost got you right there."
"How confident. Sorry to say this, Eric, but only the strong can back up claims like that. It is time to end this."
SSSPPPPLLLAAAASSSSHHHH... They looked at their backs for the sound of water coming at them. A massive wave of blood was filling everywhere. They jumped into the air to escape from the powerful torrent. At the same time, Jakov launched the red and yellow dagger against Eric.
The fire slash exploded, revealing Jakov's fearsome smile. He teleported in front of Eric and, with a cut, he slashed half of his face, including his right eye. As they both fell into the sea of red, Eric raised his fist and struck. "[3 Points] One!"
His fist crashed against the blue shield. The shield took the impact without a single crack. Neo tried to bite Jakov's arm with her fangs, but he teleported to her back. With a swift strike, he plunged his dagger into Neo's shoulder, crushing her into the bloody sea.
The sounds of splashing stopped as Adel evaporated the blood with the heat of his sword. More fire, more flames, more heat. He turned the sword into a fan of flames. Jakov used the cyan dagger and disappeared, leaving the wounded Neo.
That moment of hesitation was enough for Jakov to strike Adel's chest. A deep cut and the blood poured toward Agatha.
"Two!"
"Blue shield!"
The shield stopped the second strike. This time, however, a single crack appeared in the shield. It was reaching its limit. Adel was still hurt by the cut on his chest, but he attacked with his fan of fire.
Once again, Jakov vanished without a trace. He aimed at Adel's head...
"Down left!" Neo yelled from the back. Only trusting in her sense of smell, she told Adel the direction and he followed it without question.
"AAAHHHHHH!" An inferno fell on Jakov. Twisting his body to the maximum, he managed to escape with only a few burns.
He cut Adel's left hand. The battle was almost over, he only needed to finish him. Neo jumped at him. With her hands together, she concentrated on the mana left inside her.
"It's over…!" Jakov's mind froze for a moment as his hand failed to grab the violet dagger. Impossible! Where is it? He looked frantically everywhere until his eyes spotted it flying in the air along with Adel's sword. He wasn't aiming for me, he was aiming at the violet dagger to let Neo use her magic!
Adel didn't intend to defeat Jakov with his attack, he was just helping his allies have an easier time defeating him.
"Show him the danger of the hydra!" Neo's skin became like a reptile, and from her back, eight hydra heads attacked Jakov.
For a few seconds, Jakov was defenseless due to the missing dagger. He cut the heads with the blue dagger, six of them. The remaining two pierced his armor with their fangs and injected the poison.
"Ugghhhh!" Hydra poison was very potent. Even an assassin who received training to withstand poison like Jakov couldn't brush it off. He wasn't completely paralyzed, he sent his yellow dagger and teleported far away from any attack.
None of them could reach him that far. He saw Eric charging the last attack of his special ability.
"[Speed] plus three!" Eric flew across the room and punched the blue shield with everything he had.
Jakov did well. His reaction to putting the shield up even after being poisoned was amazing, but he was out of tricks. The shield collapsed and Eric's punch broke his ribcage along with his lungs and heart…