"Yeah, let's go…" Lydia then led her team following the markers and directions placed in the Foggy Mountains for the Adventurers.
They were going towards the deeper parts where the markers are pointing away from, since most markers were just warnings to turn back as the Wildlands were beyond that place after about five kilometers.
The three teams has split up after they passed by the Two Cliff Fort and was subjected to great pressure being attacked by lost beast in the Fog as well as these Assassins trying to kill them every second of the way.
Lydia and Henry had taken down a few already but they have no time to interrogate the enemies. Since they will kill themselves anyways, like the ones Marc had captured.
After they were subjected to face horrifying caged beast in the Pit some assassins lost hope of ever escaping. They had thought that maybe with a brute like Marc they could still complete their mission of killing Lady Janice but they were wrong.
So after they were asked by the knights and interrogated they finally decided to kill themselves with a secret technique their guild knew to prevent info leakage.
They had tried to think of ways to escape but they were distraught to see how hundreds of beasts live in harmony within the small town.
So the assassins that Lydia tried to interrogate also killed himself since he saw Henry was a Paladin of the Altford church and it was really hard to lie in front of a paladin of the Church of the God of Truth.
This made the three adventurer teams stop trying to capture some assassins and go in deeper. Because they had thought that since there were people trying to stop them then there is something there they should not see or know deep inside.
But deeper as they go the more assassins try to stop them, it wasn't' until the three teams met up again in a path that converged as the road forward is about two kilometers close into the Wild Lands.
"Assassins?" Lydia asked Axe face making him nod as well as Pang Hu on the side. They all looked disheveled and obviously missing a few members.
"If I ever get my hands on who is responsible then I will tear that guy a new one myself!!" Axe Face growled as he had lost a few men of his from the sneaky attacks.
"You and me both." Pang Hu was furious even with the soft effeminate face of his. He waved his fan to splatter away the blood on it and took out a kerchief to clean it fully.
"Did you find any indication of who they might be?" Henry asked as he looked at the others.
"No, they killed themselves as soon as he captured them." Clarisse the elven archer shook her head as she too felt tired.
"If they are intending to stop us the up ahead is where they will wait." Lydia swung her sword around to warm herself up and walked forward without hesitation.
"Then they will regret trying to stop us…" Axe Face gripped his two handed axe as he too walked forward in anger.
"Whoever they are, they are only dead men in my eyes…" Pang Hu also followed forward as his brow furrowed in irritation.
"Hah… I guess we are charging with no plans then." Henry sighed as he looked at the three leaders.
"Them we would have to charge along with them…" this time the silent slightly skinnier bald member of the DCB said as he pulled out praying beads from his thick cloak.
"A monk huh, never knew you people were the kind to like battle." Clarisse counted the arrows left in her quiver and looked back to her teammates.
"Let's go cover our little brother shall we?" Clarisse smiled as she saw the determination of the other members to fight as well.
"Fuck this… let's go grab our little leader." Henry walked forward then looked at the monk making a prayer motion but his words made him almost trip.
"Amitabha, Skinheads for life…" this made the other bald dudes behind him roar and charge forward.
But it was then they were met with a battle going on with a group of soldiers defending from the attacks of hundreds of assassins.
Their three leaders were fighting an old man alongside another warrior woman who swung her saber with great force. The three teams did not hesitate to charge into the ranks of the assassins as they lost members to this unknown force.
"Argh!!" Axe face chopped with great force making the old skinny man dodge his strike but even then he looked at ease as he fought back nonchalantly to his enemies.
"Die!" the other woman with the Saber slashed to kill the guy but suddenly the saber seemed to have hit something solid in the air.
"Ohoohoo!! Quite Feisty you are Baroness, who would have thought a small noble on the edge near the Wildlands is a top notch A-ranked blade warrior. It seems our intelligence report was slacking a bit in this regard." The old man laughed as he weaved about the four attackers like he was playing a game.
"Shut up and die!" the woman with the saber was the Baroness of Mogard, she had brought her private guards here to look for her friend and she was suddenly assaulted by the hundreds of assassins.
She had lost a few dozen of her men already and she was fuming angry wanting to kill the leader of the other group. This slippery Old man that seems to be toying with all their lives.
"Hehe, I really want to play more but who would have thought that the three pipsqueaks to be able to survive the ambushes. I really underestimated the descendant of a Hero…" the old man chuckled as he weaved about to dodge the flurry of attack coming from Lydia.
"Shut you old creep, you look like you are one step into the grave so just drop dead already." Lydia cursed as she attacked with more ferocity.
"Duck!" Pang Hu's voice sounded out making Lydia roll away from her initial position. A rain of needles flew towards the old man but all it took to stop it was a waved of the guy's palm.
"Hoo hoo, your reputation precedes you Scorpion Pang Hu. Who would have thought these idiot princes could hire such an astounding group of heroes? Except for you, you are too old already. Hoohoohoo!!" the old man jumped around laughing in a creepy manner.
"Fuck you! Look at yourself in the mirror before you call me old, stay still you bag of bones!!" Axe Face reddened in Anger as he became faster and stronger swinging his axe.
"Hoohoohoo! It's so good seeing good seedlings about to go to waste." The old man looked around and saw his men are getting pushed back, ten A-ranked fighters on the adventurer's side made the eight lieutenants he brought with him tied and the rest killed the shadows he brought.
If this goes on then they might not have enough to survive in the Wildlands, he had received word from a single survivor who was ignored since he was injured on the side.
There is a horde of monsters that captured their target as well as the shadows sent to kill them. They had initially sent a lieutenant and dozens of shadows since it was enough to handle the small retinue of the Lady Harleigh.
But looking at it maybe they did not factor in that the Baroness of Mogard was somewhat close to the target and might have helped her escape.
A hidden A-rank that still seems to have a potential to become an S-rank, their intelligence really was not able to pick this up but once he goes out it will surely bring him a lot of rewards for killing a future obstacle.
"Enough games, I still have business to do." The old man was getting serious but Lydia suddenly said something that made him confused.
"Watch out the old fossil is going to breath out powder!! Send word to retirement homes, wait more like send word to the cemetery because a dead guy is going to get buried!!" Lydia looked proud as she tried to diss the old man while Henry and her teammates were covering their faces feeling embarrassed.
"I am not related to her in anyway." Henry said to the monk besides him with a dead pan face.
"Urghk, teenagers." Axe face shivered as he went on guard seeing the old man finally take out a weapon of choice.
"Daggers? No metal threads…" Pang Hu looked at the hands of the old man where dagger dangled on metallic threads and said this while getting more serious.
"Hoohoo, quite an observation young man. Too bad this will be the last time you see my battle arts, since you'll be dead by the end of the day." The old man then swung his hands and dozens of daggers flew towards the four men and women.