"Attack!"
The lady's scream interrupted Luther's attack as it caused a momentary distraction for Luther. Although it was only for a moment, it was enough for her to dodge Luther's attack.
At the same time, four figures blasted into the room from different directions with daggers in their hands. One of them had lunged in through the door while the other three broke through the walls to enter the room. Their target was all the same; the young lord of the Arnhaunt family, Asher. It was then that Luther realized something; the waitress wasn't the only assassin sent after Asher, with the other four having hidden in the neighbouring rooms.
Luther had already been drawn away from Asher by the waitress and the assassins disregarded him for Asher. Even if Luther turned around to interfere, he could only stop one or maybe two of them, but not all four. Just from their energies, they were all second-stage Guardians and this meant that it would be difficult for Asher to survive the assault.
"Young master!"
Luther roared as he lunged toward one of the assassins while throwing his dagger at another.
Despite his advance, none of the assassins flinched as they pushed with their attacks at Asher.
'You've finally appeared.' Asher smirked.
While Luther and Raven were probably surprised at the assault, with the assassin revelling in what looked to be a successful ambush, Asher remained calm. Truthfully he had expected all of this, including the four attackers. One should recall that Asher's soul prowess surpassed that of any mage in the kingdom. Although he had yet to fully integrate it into his body, during the five months, Asher had made that his focus in training. With a simple scan using a mental technique, he had managed to pot the four men hidden behind the walls after he had noticed that the waitress was suspicious. Ever since then, he had already made preparations for them.
In one swift motion, Asher buried his hands underneath his outfit and withdrew them almost immediately, tossing a few glimmering objects at the four men.
As they believed they had the element of surprise and that their target was simply a weakling, the four men didn't keep their guards up against Asher but instead, focused more on Luther. For these reasons, they never expected Asher to launch such a vicious yet sneaky counterattack at them and the silver objects Asher tossed all found their targets.
"Ugh."
"Argh!"
Two of the men screamed while another two grunted before they all thudded on the ground. As they had now gone stiff, the objects Asher tossed at them were finally visible for all to see. They were silver needles Asher had forged long ago and kept hidden under his sleeves and robes. As they were pretty thin, it was hard for anyone to notice them even if they scanned him head-to-toe upfront.
Of the needles, four had penetrated the eyes of the two of the assailants while a total of eight had stabbed in each of the vital points of them, accounting for four on each of the two men. For the other two assassins who grunted in pain, one of them was struck by Luther's fist as well as two needles from Asher that targeted his vitals. The last one got stabbed in the lung through his back by Luther's blade and suffered two needles to the neck as well as another two at his shoulders. Eighteen needles from Asher, a dagger and a fist from Luther were all that it took to take down 4 second-stage Guardian mages.
Logically, firing eighteen needles from two hands would be a difficult task to pull off, but thanks to his fast reactions, extensive battle experience and formidable awareness, as well as his skilful control of his mana, Asher was able to do so.
"Damn."
The waitress couldn't help but curse. At the same time, a flash of confusion passed through her eyes as she glanced at Asher.
"What? Oh, yeah. You are probably wondering why the drug isn't kicking in yet?" Asher turned to face her.
"Such a cheap little trick. You think I didn't notice it from the start? I simply isolated it from the meal once it entered my mouth using my mana. I thought you guys did your research well. My mana's elemental nature is wood, a classic for healing spells. As long as I notice it beforehand and make the right preparations, isolating any poison in my body and preventing it from having any effect on me is a piece of cake."
Asher grinned at her, but to the eyes of the waitress, it was the devil's smile.
"Devil!"
Asher's explanations might sound logical, but in that case, for what use was poison in the world?
Most poisons were developed to counter mana and prevent the victim's man from easily repulsing them from their body. Even if Asher did what he said, the poison should have reacted fiercely and countered his mana, after all, this was a poison meant for weakening Guardian mages; the effect should have been far greater on a Human stage mage. To even reduce the chances of anyone discovering the poison, they only added it to Asher's dish as there was a chance that if it was also in Luther's, he would have noticed it beforehand. Despite that, it was all for nought.
"Take her down. I would like to ask her some questions later." Asher spoke.
"Alright." Luther nodded before turning to face the waitress.
"Tch. It's not over yet." The lady spoke before dashing straight at Asher.
Asher raised an eyebrow at this development as he expected the lady to try to escape, but that didn't mean that his body remained in the same position. In the end, she was still a peak third-stage Guardian mage and Asher was still a Human stage mage. Without any element of surprise or any other advantage, Asher would lose to her hands down.
Asher kicked the chair beside him towards the girl before turning around and running to the door.
The chair broke to splinters, but it managed to stop the waitress momentary, just enough time for Luther to close in on her.
"Die."
The waitress growled as she threw her dagger at Asher.
This time around, Luther was able to react in time and punched at the dagger, sending a burst of mana right at it.
Clang.
The dagger was pushed off course and ended up inserted into a part of the wall. As for the girl she grimaced before biting her tongue, thereby committing suicide.
Once he was close to the body, Luther frowned as he felt that he was a bit lacking.
"Don't blame yourself. They were probably ordered to not reveal their roots no matter the circumstance. Even if we caught her, I doubt we could make her talk." Asher turned around and calmly walked back to the spot.
"They have become more daring. Are they not scared of a war?" Luther's eyes turned red with anger.
Even though he mentioned no name or family, the two of them knew who Luther was talking about.
If not for Asher's coded message, which only he and Asher knew, Luther would not have known about the assassination. The words 'red duck meat' was a secret code Asher had made with 'red' meaning blood and so an ambush while 'duck meat' represented the strength of the ambush. Red duck meat was a popular cuisine in Red Maple province that was known for its unique flavour as well as its toughness. When Asher had also told Luther to go to the carriage, he meant to leave the room and create the scenario where it cooked like Asher was without any security, giving the assassin a false presumption that their ambush would be successful and pre-empting them to strike. Simply put, Asher had turned himself into a bait and created an advantageous situation for the attackers, but in truth, Luther was actually close by, prepared for any odd situation. Sending Isabella away was to make the ambushers feel more assured of their success as well as to notify Luther to get ready.
"It might not be them."
Asher explained.
"If it were them, they would have picked a better spot than here as attacking out here would cause a disturbance and the news would easily spread. It would have been better if they did so at the manor or the gates of the building. Also, they would not use such weak assassins. Others might not know, but they should already be aware of your breakthrough. Sending only a peak third-stage Guardian mage would be foolish and lessen their chances of success. Considering that they control the roads, it also should not be difficult for them to send higher-ranked mages than this.
"Lastly, just like we have been suspecting from the start, they don't want a war. An assassination on my head, if linked to them, would have disastrous results. No matter how sure they are of success and confidentiality, they would still not go ahead. This is especially so, after they learned that I am a null. In the eyes of all practitioners, a null's future is limited and next to nothing."
Asher then bent down and tugged at the collar of the dead waitress, bringing it down and exposing her neck to reveal a strange black dot. At first, it looked like a mole, but if one looked closer, one would notice that it was a black circle tattooed on her neck. It was drawn so well that the space in the middle was barely obvious at first glance and one would simply take it as a mole, but Asher had noticed the difference.
"This is most likely the work of someone fishing in troubled waters."