Silence...all 5 assailants went silent after watching the Alpha commit suicide. A man in his 20s among them turned around and burst into laughter. "Hahahaha, there goes both of your bet down the drain". Hearing this, 2 of the men who probably did the betting got their nose scrunched up in annoyance. Seeing the tensions boiling up, a middle aged man interfered "Stop it Le'Zha, both of them haven't been to a real battle before, that's why they treat everything as a joke and can't stop their babbling. If dad hadn't ordered us to mobilize this earlier on the mission, I should have thrashed them properly before to give them some 'battle' experience. Anyways, since I have been assigned as the leader of this expedition, I am briefing about our mission again. I want complete focus, especially from you two."
These 5 unknown intruders were all brothers and the eldest among them was their leader. They were the spearhead of an infiltration mission beyond the east of the ocean, or what they should have been before being discovered. After ditching rest of the team, who were caught and killed as the scapegoats, the 5 brothers escaped further north, and then turned west from the edge of the continent, slowly guiding their submarine to middle of the northern shore of continent, which were filled with steep slopes. After landing on the frozen lands, they were greeted by the Alpha and his pack of wolves, whom they easily dispatched with ease. Now they had to collect intel and establish a base of operations for further infiltrations and wars, expanding it slowly facilitate the process to take over this foreign land.
After the briefing was over, it was already night-time. They decided to travel in the cover of darkness, with that in mind they seamlessly ran westward with an inhuman speed into the forest, occasionally encountering goblins and wolves, which were nothing more than practice targets to swing their blades upon. After running for an hour, they saw a ray of light shine through the dark forest which drew their attention. They eventually came to a stop and concealed themselves among the surrounding wilderness. A remote settlement came into view, with small walls bordering bordering the settlement, it looked an impoverished town where except for 4 watchtowers, nothing particular stood out.
"All four of you, discreetly silence a watchtower each, after which we will assassinate every single native under the cloak of night lest anyone of them escapes, am I clear?" All four answered with a serious look ""Yes big bro". "Good, I will be here in case something goes wrong. Each of you have sword master class, so those backward peasants should be finished in one move, but I will still watch over for any unseen circumstances"
"But bro, what if there are any high level enemies or someone with unique class present? Things could get ugly in case we underestimate this place"
"Good question Le'Zha. You see, we are far away from the Great Empire of Xin, which is guarding against us from the eastern shores along with it's vassal kingdoms. We are probably in a random kingdom of the north and unlike the Empires and Grand Empires of this continent, high levelled ones are only found in or near the capital since levelling up requires lots of resources, money, connections, guidance, training and insight into their class. No matter how you think, even if one has a unique or hidden class, it's too far fetched to imagine any kind of such resistance here. Talking time over now, let's get into it."
On one of the watchtowers, a young man covered entirely in woolen clothes was shivering on his post. He turned around to look at his watchmate who was dozing off beside him.
"Hey get up, my shift is over and now it's your turn to keep the watch. Wake up sleepyhead."
"*Yawn..* Is it morning already?"
"You bas- *slosh* guhh?!!" The guard looked down and saw a sword piercing through it's chest. Watching his friend getting skewered in front of him, the sleepyhead woke up from his daze and scrambled to ring the bell nearby.
"Ohh no you don't" *slash* *thud*. The attacker beheaded sleepyhead in a single slash and in the few seconds it him to do the deed...
*HONKKKKKKKK*
The dying guard used his last breath to blow the horn he was carrying and alert the town, after which his entire body turned cold and his eyes lost it's focus, signifying his end. On the other side of the walls and watchtower, the leader threw his discreetness away and rushed forward cursing under his breath "It must have been one of those shitheads, I swear I will beat them to oblivion soon". After arriving near the walls, he shouted with a domineering tone "CHANGE OF PLANS, KILL THEM ALL!!! NOT A SINGLE SOUL SHOULD BE LEFT ALIVE!!!"
At the same time at Sara's home "Yes mom, If she will be a girl then Martin will name her and if a boy is born, I have decided to name him A- *HONKKKKKKKK* What was that sound??!!!" Hearing the familiar sound which he never thought would hear before his death again, her father's expression froze. He turned to face his family and stuttered "W..We, we are under attack by enemies, the Horn is never blown unless any human force attacks!!". Hearing him, the entire family panicked. Sara tried to calm them down "How can someone attack us in the north, the town is remotely far from other cities and towns, why would someone attack us?!!". But the old man retorted "We don't have time to think my child, starting running quickly!!!".
The whole family panicked and ran out of the house, and what unfolded in front of them was the most chaotic scene they had ever seen in their life. The entirety of surrounding was filled with cries and shouting of the citizens. Buildings near the walls were burning, with corpses of people strewn through the pathway. Then they saw the attackers, who were killing the unarmed citizens who were running like headless chickens to escape. But what greeted them was a cold blade, which didn't differentiate between men and women or old and young.
"Lady Sara!!" granny Venessa emerged from the nearby corner accompanied by the remaining guards, who were lucky to escape through the chaos. "We need to quickly escape, follow us everyone!!!", "But granny, what about other peopl- "We don't have time to save them my lady!! the attackers are too strong and mysterious, we have no prior information or intel on them or their forces, we need to prioritise your escape, let's go now".
'Hey system, they will be safe right? Can I do something to help, anything will be fine. I am ok with dying, but I don't want to lose them I finally have a family now, system suggest something?!!'
[No relevant function found. Host is required to get through with his own effort after birth.]
'F*ck this shit. I can only watch for now.'
Now that Sara and her family was in tow, with the old man being carried by one of the guards and Sara using her mana to create vines to step on which slithered along the path, Venessa ran through the main path towards the exit at west, away from the scene of massacre and burning town of the east. As the gate came into view they sped up, but eventually slowed down on their track. A young man in his 20s, armed with a sword was blocking their way to escape. Deciding not to waste time on the standoff, granny Venessa shouted "I will hold him down here, regardless of what happens do not slow down and escape quickly".
But their hopes were quickly shattered with the arrival of 2 more swordsmen who surrounded them from both left and right. Without wasting any time on dialogues, both party engaged in a fierce battle of life and death. "Clank Clank Clank" the clashing of swords was heard all around the battlefield. Each one of the attacker was a sword master, but the remaining 7 guards formed a formation which was taught at the Zimmerson Barony and held off one of the sword master. This gave Venessa and Sara some room to overwhelm the remaining sword masters with pure offensive magic. Sara, with a simple yet harmonious motion of her hand grew strong and dark vines, which targeted and attacked one of them with sheer power, chipping away at his sword when he defended and destroying the ground when he dodged. And when he tried to counter-attack, the vines rushed to wrap around him, forcing him to retreat. Venessa, who was proficient with nature magic, an amalgam of earth and wood magic controlled the entire terrain, whether it be earth or plants. *Kaboom.. Swoosh..* An earthen wall divided the attacker from rest of his accomplices, with Venessa between him and the wall. "Huff Huff Huff* All three attackers, especially those facing Venessa and the Sara gasped for breath and within first few minutes of battle, the momentum shifted towards Sara's entourage.
'So cooool, is this what magic is??!! The wood magic seems to control the vines which came outta nowhere, I think it applies to all the plants. This is like groot smashing the enemy with it's arms. And that old lady is using both vines and earth, is she a dual mage or what? But from where did these people even came from, it maybe just a speculation but it seems that my family has lot's of enemies. Anyways, cheers mom!!! Beat this piece of shit, how dare he trouble this great Sanu's mom. Nowadays any random bast- *Kchak* huh?'
Few moments ago...Venessa overpowered her opponent with a barrage of vine attacks and sank him halfway through in a mud pit, which she secretly formed using nature magic when he was focused on his defence. She was about to finish him off when she noticed that the earth wall seperating them from others was too thick!! Noticing something off about it, she turned to break it down when all of a sudden, she jumped to her right, dodging a sword attack which slashed the ground where she previously stood.
The balance broke with the arrival of other 2 invaders, where one of them went to hold Venessa back and other to finish the remaining people off.
*Slash Slash Slash* three guards fell one by one. *Kchaak* "Gahh!! *cough cough* sorry my dear, please protect your sisters my daughter" *Slash..Thud*. "NOOOO!! FATHER!!!!" Watching her father's head rolling on the ground, Sara screamed on top of her lungs. She lost control of her emotions and started wildly swinging and smashing vines about in a desperate attempt to hit the enemy. *Slash Slash Slash* ""Thud!!"" three more guards fell at once under the attack of a middle aged man. "Please my lady!!!! Esca- *Pierce (Kchaak)* *Thud*. The guard couldn't harm the killer, but he succeeded in bringing his lady back to her senses before he succumbed to his fate. After coming on terms with her reality, Sara understood the perilous situation she was in, which offered her no escape route.
She turned towards her sisters, who were still griefing over their father's death and told them her heartfelt last words "Leah, Gremma, don't forget this sister of yours, I will always love you both"
"Sob..Sob..What are you saying Sara!!? We are escaping together!!" "Yeah, Gremma is right Sob.. we will always be together. Wait, what are you doing Sara?? Stop it, Nooo!!"
*Rumble*
Another wall of earth rose beside the existing one and pushed them inside the wall made by Venessa, which caved in to accumulate them both, and closed as soon as they went in. Sara's wall merged with it, turning it 5 meters wide, which could temporarily ensure their safety.
Seeing this, the middle aged man ran on full throttle and gave a chop behind her head, causing her to faint on the spot and fall on the muddy patch, soaked with the blood of her guards and father.
"Great job big bro!! This bitch was flailing around a lot haha".
"You bastard, which one was you huh, whose carelessness caused all this? We could have done this all without such chaos and farce, Escaped far into mainland in another kingdom before the authorities or local lord could even reach or in worst case start the investigation on this massacre."
"No no big brother, it was that stupid Le'Nur, I completed the task flawlessly"
"We will see about that. However, you were right Le'Zha, I didn't expect two level 50s neither this wood mage nor that old granny with nature element. Nonetheless, you both did well. Let's finish that oldy and escape from here and before that, Le'Zha!'
"Yes boss?!"
"Your spear"
"Here!"
"Hmm, perfect."
*Swoosh* *Pierce*