Ray glances around. "Come out. Or I will wipe this entire forest from the map."
Three masked individuals comes out of the woods. Ian quickly stands in front of his mother, trying to protect her.
'No trace of mana. That unsettling calm expression, they are no amateur assassins.' Ian thinks.
One of the masked people steps forward. The ring on his hand glows and reveals a long spear. He points towards Ray and one of the two assassin disappears. Before Ian could react, the assassin had reached him. The assassin pulls a dagger and tries to stab Ian.
Drip. Drip.
Hestia screams.
Ray appeared out of nowhere and caught the hand of assassin. The dagger pierces through Ray's skin. Still his expression doesn't change. Ray tightens his grip which easily crushed the assassin's hand.
"Ian. Protect your mother." Ray pulls his hand and rips the assassin's entire arm off.
Screaming, the assassin falls on the ground and tries to crawl away. Ray glances at the remaining two assassins. "Not trying to save your comrade?" The assassin with the white mask snaps his fingers and 7 more figures reveals themselves from the woods.
Ray smiles. "That's more like it."
The lion of Dadelion summons his white magic circle. It looks similar to Ian's magic circle. 4 assassins summons their respective magic circles. A faint white glow appears on Ray's left hand. He relaxes his entire left arm and slaps the air like a whip.
The assassins quickly create a large wall made of rock. A loud noise like a whip hitting a semi-solid material was heard. The wall was sliced like butter and the road now had four partitions created on it. The wall served it's purpose and protected the assassins.
But before they could act, Ray dashes towards the assassins and slaps one straight on the face. The assassin's skull was instantly smashed to bits and he died on the spot. Everybody is frozen on their place. They knew that if they move their death is inevitable. Ray crouches down and removes the mask from the dead assassin.
'Beastkin?' It reveals the face of a young man in his 20s. He has wolf like ears and a lot of facial hair.
"Who hired you? Who is your master?" Ray slowly stands and steps on the corpse that he killed.
"Tell me that and I won't kill you." Even a toddler could tell that Ray is lying. His bloodlust is leaking too much.
The white masked assassin steps forward. "My apologies." It bows.
"I can't reveal that. But I can tell you that today is your last day, successor of Dadelion."
Ray realizes that this all situation was a misunderstanding. But doesn't bother to clear it. Because he is also the member of Dadelion sentinel family and as the knight of the Dadelion family it is his duty to eradicate all of Dadelion's enemies.
Again, he summons his magic circle. "Atleast struggle a bit."
Ray dashes forward and slaps two assassin's chest. Breaking their ribcage and spine entirely.
"Don't fear. Create a circle around him and trap him." The white masked leader barks orders. All the remaining assassins creates a circle around Ray. 2 assassin's summons their magic circles. A hand made of mud comes out of ground and grabs Ray's feet. Just then, a huge flamethrower hits Ray.
"Keep the fire going. 39, go and kill that kid. Take the woman." The leader points at Ian and Hestia. Last remaining assassin flies towards Ian.
BOOM! A huge guest of wind comes out of nowhere which extinguishes the fire.
"YOU DARE TO TOUCH MY FAMILY!"
Seeing Ray is unscathed, the leader cowers in fear. "You two! Keep him occupied."
"But lead-"
Before the underling could finish, his body is chopped off in countless pieces. Ray points his finger at Ian and creates a small vacuum of air at his fingertip. 'Air bullet.'
He shoots it.
The bullet flies past Ian neck and hits the assassin who was flying towards him. The fire elemental assassin cries in fear. The leader drops his spear in fear and falls on his knees. 'Do I have to use that?'
Ray walks pass the crying assassin. He stands before the white masked. "Any last words?"
The assassin takes out a glass bottle from his ring. "GLORY TO THE DADELION FAMILY!"
"What-" The leader removes his mask and bites into the bottle. In instinct, Ray smashes the assassin's head. Blood and pieces of brain is scattered everywhere on the ground. Ray turns around and walks towards Ian and Hestia. Seeing his father defeating the assassins with ease, Ian smiles brightly. Hestia also looked relieved.
'Another beastkin. Maybe I should have kept him alive and interrogated him later.' As Ray is regretting his decision making, the smile on Ian's and Hestia's face turns grim.
'Hmm?' Ray looks back. The leader is standing. Ray's eyes open wide. Without the head, the leader is standing.
'Necromancy?' Ray wonders as he summons his circle. He moves his hand in the air like a whip and cuts the leader into half. The body falls on the ground. Ian and Hestia breathe in relief. But Ray is till on guard. After few seconds, the corpse stands up again. This time only with it's lower body. A white worm like thing comes out of the corpse. It sprays blood everywhere.
The fire elemental assassin who was not too far from the corpse screams in terror. The corpse twitches in an obscure way. Sound of multiple bones breaking comes from the corpse. The corpse moves turns and moves towards the screaming sound. The assassin tries to run away but his body is already exhausted due to excessive use of mana. Not to mention the fear taking over. Suddenly the corpse jumps on the assassin. The assassin struggles to get away, still screaming.
"HELP! HELP ME!" He is looking towards Ray. Just then, the worm wraps itself around the neck of the assassin, choking him.
"HE-HELP ME!" Ray doesn't move an inch.
Few seconds later, the worm goes into the open mouth of the assassin. It wiggles around breaking the neck and chest of the assassin. Hestia screams in horror as another worm comes out of the corpse and pierces the assassin's stomach. Ray snaps out of his delusion and turns back.
"IAN! RUN!" Ian quickly grabs his mother and runs away. Within seconds the assassin's body is eaten by the worms. The ring on Ray's hand flashes and a sword appears in his hands. The Gale rapier. It looked too small in Ray's hands, until Ray started to insert his own mana into the sword. The rapier started to enlarge itself. Till it reached the height of Ray's shoulder.
'What is this already extinct ancient parasite doing here?' Ray curses his fate that he has to fight this beast. The worms already ate both of the corpses. For now, it is just wiggling on the ground. 'Looks like it was just born. Maybe I can kill it without much hassle.'
Ray carefully takes a step towards the parasite. Immediately the parasite senses danger and hundreds of worms jumps at Ray. But they are too slow. Ray cuts all of the worms like paper. The parasite is now in form thousands of small worms. They slowly move towards eachother and began to eat eachother.
'What a disgusting regenerative ability.'
Soon the worms take their original shape. They try to mimic Ray, forming a human like structure made of worms. 'It's better to finish them now.'
Ray summons his circle and moves his hand like a whip. In under two seconds Ray slashed the parasite 600 times. The worms are in smaller pieces again. The cycle repeats as the worms form a human shaped body again. But this time it oddly looks more stable, more flexible and more humane. Then, it moves. Like Ray, few worms in the arm section moved in whip like shape and slashed at Ray. Of course, the attack was weak and less destructive.
But the fact they copied the form in just matter of seconds horrified Ray.
Ian on the other hand is running at his full speed. "Can you call the knight captain?" Hestia asks who was just behind him.
Ian taps on his watch and it shows a red screen. "No. It is jammed."
Hestia bits her lips in frustration.
"Mother, don't be worried. Father is strong. He easily will defeat that thing and come back." Hestia smiles at her son's confidence. But inside Ron's surprised face keeps flashing which makes her worried.
Suddenly, Hestia grabs Ian's arm and stops. "Mother! Wh-"
A dagger comes flying and hits Hestia's shoulder. Ian quickly looks for the enemy.
"There!" He points at a nearby tree. On that tree, an assassin is sitting who is missing an arm. His arm is no longer bleeding. The assassin jumps down.
"Hand that woman to me kid and I will give you a painless death."
"Never!"
"Wrong choice." The assassin disappears and appears behind Ian. Just as he is about to stab Ian Hestia sprays the assassin with some water. He jumps back.
"Heh! It's just some water. You had me worried for a second."
Hestia crouches down as her shoulder starts to hurt.
"Mother!"
"Don't worry about me. Your father will be-" The assassin dashes forward and kicks Ian away.
"Oh! I am sorry were you having a moment?" He grabs Hestia's hair and forces her to stand up.
"UGH!"
Ian summons his circle and creates a 'Air bullet.' He fires it. It hits the assassin's waist, but it quickly dissipates into thin air as it is not powerful enough to pierce the assassin's armour. The assassin laughs at Ian franticly.
"RELEASE MY MOTHER!" Ian yells.
"Or what? You are going to hit me with your puny spell?" The assassin tights his grip. Hestia struggles to break away. Ian fires another Air bullet. It does nothing.
He fires again.
Nothing changes.
Fire.
Nothing.
Now, Ian is panting heavily and his vision can't focus. He struggles to summon his magic circle.
"IAN!" Tears forms in Hestia's eyes as she watches her son struggle.
"Come on! Don't give up! You can do it! That's what your parents told you till now right?" The assassin laughs.
"Don't worry! I give you proper motivation." The assassin stabs Hestia in stomach. Ian tries to summon his circle but fails.
"Need more? Here!" He stabs once more.
"D-Don't." He stabs her again.
"What? I can't hear in between your mom's screams." He stabs again.
"P-Please. Don't." He stabs again.
"I beg of you." Ian loses it and bows.
"Please. Spare my mother."
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" He stabs again and moves the dagger. "I wish your father was here to see this."
BOOM!
The ground shakes. Suddenly the sky and ground splits in two. A huge body fell from the sky near Ian. Ian looks up and smiles. "F-Father."
This huge body is none than Ray. He is currently unrecognizable, there are numerous holes in his body. His clothes completely tattered and a huge claw mark on his back. Ray slowly turns towards assassin.
Just then another object fell from the sky. The parasite, currently it is in perfect human form. It's arms quickly moves forming a blade. Ray also summons multiple circles on the Gale rapier. The parasite strikes first. Ron deflects it.
Assassin who has taken Hestia as hostage couldn't even see the attack.
The parasite slashes Ray millions of times in the span of ten seconds. At the tenth second Ray changes his attack and stabs the parasite instead. The parasite couldn't predict the attack and gets destroyed by the barrage of attacks.
The parasite is in millions of pieces now. Ray grits his teeth.
"D-Don't come closer or I will kill her." The assassin is scared of the monster that he is facing.
SLANG!
The assassin's head gets chopped in half.
Ray quickly grabs his wife. "Hestia. Hesita." He shakes her.
Hestia's half dead eyes moves and she moves her dried lips. Tears fell on her lips as Ray leans in to hear her word.
"I. HATE. YOU."
Ray breaks into weeping. "Don't say that. Please."
"YOU. PROMISED. ME. THAT. YOU. WOULD. PROTECT. YOUR. FAMILY."
"I-I know. I am sorry. I am sorry."
Hestia somehow moves her hand and brings it towards her stomach which has countless stab wounds on it. She grabs a wound and opens it. Revealing her insides.
"TODAY. YOU. LOST. BOTH. OF. US"
Ray's heart sinks as he sees his own dead offspring. It has numerous wounds on it's head.
"I. SHOULD. HAVE. NEVER. MARRIED. YOU."
On her last breath, she turns her head away from Ray and looks at Ian.