Here I am facing someone who is definitely strong and dangerous, still something annoying, my plan which was already quite complicated became even worse now.
We are in the middle of a street, an assassination is not likely to work as he spotted me with ease just a few seconds ago, so I would have to fight him directly.
??? : "An assassin who got spotted, you seem to be afraid"
Lucian : "Why would I be afraid of a kid"
Darthos : "This kid have a name, Darthos, and he killed a lot of you guus before"
Lucian : "But they were not as strong as me"
The case turns out to be quite unplayable, if I use mana, there is a way that I will be spotted, if the fight lasts a long time, the same problem arises, and that's if and if only I manage to win, which is still to be determined.
The only weapons I have on me are the knives of the assassin I killed, I prepared some other things but he took me by surprise by using his mana.
So I thought he wanted to fight me discretly and that somehow I could quite get away with a head-to-head fight that I would win.
Darthos : "Not a bad posture, you look less bad than the others I was sent, so you're not trying to murder me discreetly, these nobles must have paid you dearly to not have abandoned directly"
I'm not saying anything, there was nothing to say anyway, a race against time was imposed against me and I had no choice but to win it.
I lightly coated my blades and my body with mana and went forward to start attack, using all the hand-to-hand techniques I knew to attack him and try to win.
Darthos : "Particular as a style, definitely not something that comes from the army, rather from the arena, you would be a former champion maybe ?"
Lucian: "No you're wrong"
Darthos : "Not like I care anyways, I will just beat you and get on with it"
Lucian : "Try me little boy"
Darthos : "It's you who is trying to kill me, I can just wait for the guards"
He was not wrong so I attacked him as fast as I could with my blades and my mana and just hoped for the best.
He had stopped my attack with just a piece of wood filled with mana without much difficulty, his control of mana is clearly not inferior to mine, there is only the quantity that differs, by the many murders that I perform I clearly had a fairly clear advantage in this regard.
As for his style, very academic, close to a normal soldier atleast form what I knew, still a little wobbly but clearly able to match mine.
Darthos : "An assassin with such a large amount of mana and such control you are not ordinary, who exactly are you to find yourself having to kill a simple peasant's son like myself"
Lucian: "Would a simple son of a peasant manage to counter me and use his mana perfectly, I don't think so"
Darthos : "I'm starting to doubt more and more that you are really at the orders of these idiots, there are not twenty ways to find out"
He then pushed back our blades that had been clashing until then and made a small water spirit appear, he began to use even more mana but not on him, on the spirit and then launched his attack.
With his little piece of wood he was kinda pushing me out of line with his strength, he was not making any real threat to me yet but his mana attacks are a real hassle.
Darthos : "So what are you going to do now, your knives will only protect you very little from that"
Lucian : "Thanks for your little advice but its not like you are close to killing me"
Darthos : "For now but am I really trying ?"
He putted more mana into his attacks and probably expected me to come out with injuries due to his water blades and his mana attacks, but he was quickly surprised that I didn't have a scratch.
That an assassin can use a little mana is not strange but that he knows how to use the aura and defend himself with mana, it was clearly different from a little practice.
Lucian: "Well then what were you looking for with that type of weak attack"
Darthos : "It is now certain, you are not their doggie, you are clearly here to kill me, but I don't see why"
Lucian: "I can tell you anyway it won't do any good for you to know"
Darthos : "So what is it ?"
Lucian : "If you die I can take your place at the academy and kill the hero"
To shiwed him what I was talking abojt I disguised as him using my mana to cover myself, I was just a little taller than him but appart form that the illusion was clearly working.
He was very surprised, already that I could disguise myself to look like him, he didn't say anything for a moment, didn't move, was thinking about what I had just said.
A very bad idea, it was not necessary to leave such big doors open for me, I was not going to pass up the opportunity, so I launched myself on him.
Lucian : "You should not look away from an ennemy"
Darthos : "I will not give you this chance, I wanted to test you, but it seems pointless, I will never let a vermin try to kill the hero in such a cowardly way"
Lucian : "Oh you finally seem motivated to kill me"
Darthos : "And I will kill you"
His mana exploded, creating a sphere around us, a sphere that changed into a sphere of water, so a place where I normally couldn't breathe.
Being already limited in time before because of the potential arrival of knights or magician or guards, whatever it may be, it became once again much more complicated.
Darthos : "Here is my most powerful spell: 'the sphere of the ocean knight', an art that I developed just to beat the hero, me Darthos, his most powerful rival, in this place all my faculties are boosted, you who claim to be able to kill the hero, just already try to survive this"
Lucian : "..."
He could talk and breathe underwater thanks to his great cohesion with his spirit of water I clearly didn't have that luxury, especially since he didn't give me a second to think, which made that I had little air in my lungs.
He launched water attacks on me, underwater, so as much as to say invisible, my mana guard could not completely repel them, their powers clearly exceed all that I have seen before, mini water bombs were coming at me.
I then had no choice but to concentrate my mana on all my body for the defense part, I didn't think that against a 3-star I would have to use so much mana and concentrate it to do something.
Darthos : "If that's not enough I'll finish you off myself"
Lucian : "..."
Darthos : "Prepare yourself, either you will suffocate or die of my hand"
He threw his mana-filled body at me, creating in his hand a spear of water with which he intended to impale me, but that only touched me on the shoulder, the only way I had to avoid it was by feeling the fluctuations of mana and watching his posture, even if underwater I could not see much.
(For those who are wondering, he can't breathe but any human body can see underwater, anyway if you have any doubts his body is protected EVERYWHERE by mana so even his eyes)
He continued to hit me while I was having trouble moving because of the whirlpools and other attacks but far from me the idea of losing, I charged him and put a lot of mana on one end of the blade, pushing him with all my might outside the bubble, making it disappear at the same time.
Lucian: "Pff, I almost died right here"
Hopefully I did manage to make the bubble disappear, I was really struggling to stay alive with my little quantity of air, if the fight had continued a little longer, I would have been a dead man.
Darthos : "With this level you won't get far, I studied day and night to perfect my techniques, just to have any chance, and yet I had none"
Lucian: "The only one who will decide this is me, no one else"
Darthos : "Your shoulder is already telling me, just by entering the academy the hero's companions could already stop all my attacks without problems, so imagine the power of the hero"
Lucian : "I am not you"
Darthos : "Then I will show you again"
He launched himself at me again, full of rage, all his mana on his aquatic spear, in his eyes, jealousy for his rival the hero and at the same time a weird thing as he was protecting him from an enemy.
Which seems kinda weird as he argued that the hero was very very strong so why protect him, well its not my problem.
Whatever he may think of the hero and his friends, even if he is as strong as what he said, even if he is unkillable, I don't care, I will still try to kill him.
Lucian : "You are mistaken if you think that I am interested in your stories, you are you, I am me, I will kill him, by any means, with any methods, no matter how long it takes"
Darthos : "He may be too lucky, he ignores me, makes others miserable in comparison, but that gives you no reason to kill him"
Lucian : "I don't care about your reasons for being a teenager in need of recognition"
Darthos : "Why then are you trying to kill him?"
Lucian: "Because it's funny"
He was silent once more while I blocked him, such an answer was clearly not what he expected, did he think that I had some reason to kill the hero, but I have none.
Survival, even if I survive nothing awaits me after, glory, the demon king will reap all the benefits and maybe even get rid of me at the end.
Is there even a single reason why I have to kill the hero, the only excuse I have is the demon king's spell on me and that it's the only future I can atleast imagine.
Darthos : "You know what will happen to humans if you succeed"
Lucian : "Yes I know that very well"
Darthos : "I definitely can't understand you, but I have to eliminate you"
Lucian: "How ironic that the one who seems to want to beat the hero more than anyone else finds himself in front of me trying to protect him"
Darthos : "Maybe but enough said"
He loaded even more mana into his blade, clearly starting to put his last strength into it, my mana countered him all the same, why, simple, the concentration of mana in one point.
Yes, even if our amount of mana is not that far away, by concentrating it at exactly one point, it makes it extremely powerful, with that, I could block blows much more powerful than mine, again one of my weapons against the hero.
This battle put me in danger and showed me the big gap that I have to cross between me and the hero, but it's nothing, I'm on the right track, here I am thanks to my training which beat a three star, student of the academy and genius of mana.
Darthos : "How can I lose? »
Lucian : "My weapons against the hero are just more powerful than yours"
Darthos : "Impossible, you won't be able to do it, never"
Lucian : "That, you will see when you are dead"
Darthos : "The hero will never die of your hand"
With his last words, I broke his spear and cut him very deeply, he didn't have time to react before I finished him once and for all.
Our entire battle and noises with a lot of mana being used clearly had to alert guards and even bring back knights and magicians, I have to leave quickly before that happened.
Lucian: "Thanatos we're leaving"
Thanatos: "Well it was quite a fight, now I imagine the academy is the next target"
Lucian : "Yes you are right, by the way I am taking the corpse with me"
I did not really want to let his corpse here, he was a very worth opponent and I didn't want to let people figure out I took his identity.
Thanatos : "What are you gonna do with that corpse"
Lucian : "He deserve a good tomb don't you think"
Thanatos : "I didn't think you would be that kind"
Lucian : "Well, I am not, but why not, it doesn't cost me much"
Clearly I could just bury him somewhere where the humans would never find him, or just too late but I didn't really want that, so I knew where I would put him, on the island just at south of the demonic castle.
It's a good islands where nor demons or humans live and I knew their was some really good sceneries here, I hope he could rest in peace here, maybe when I conquer the humans kingdom I would move him, but not now.
Lucian : "Move me at that Island
Thanatos : "So that's where you will bury him"
Lucian : "Yes"
I quickly found a good place, near the ocean on a wood forest, a calm place, a little pound of water close to it and even a waterfall, it would be perfect.
I dug a hole some of the adventurers boat wood to make him a quick coffin and burried him here.
Thanatos : "Are you finished"
Lucian : "Yes, let's go to the academy"
Thanatos : "Sure"
Here I am on my way to the academy, finally, where I will be able to observe the hero, let's see if I will be desperate to see the difference between me and the hero or if what I will see will allow me to beat him, you will see Darthos, I will beat him, I will beat this hero and with your identity.