"They're coming".
"They're close".
Hearing that, Paul's eyes darkened.
He didn't need to ask for an explanation to know who the lean man was referring to. There was only one set of people coming after them this late in the night, only the assassins of the order of the triple six.
They're coming meant that the assassins were close.
Paul felt his blood burn hot instantly.
Finally stopping his action of stabbing his dagger repeatedly, Paul walked closer to the lean man, looking down the window of this room with him.
From the window, Paul saw this ruin in its full ruination again.
At some point in time, it started drizzling.
"What will we do?" Paul asked without looking at the lean man.
The man stayed silent for a few seconds before sighing. "It's too late," he shook his head. "We can't outrun them anymore".
"And the fact that they managed to track us here can only mean one thing, they do have a God artifact for tracking Cosmopolitans, or maybe you specifically".
The lean man paused for a moment before inclining his head to look at the short boy beside him. Noticing his gaze, Paul looked back at him.
"How many times did you stab the daggers?"
"473 times".
"That should be just about enough," commenting, he looked down through the window again. "We already lost our window of opportunity to escape, besides, in the end, it'll all be for nothing since they'll simply track us again".
"Our only way to truly escape their pursuit is to confront them in battle".
Silently, Paul looked up at this middle-aged lean man as he grasped the Stilettos tighter. "Can we win?" He asked.
The man looked at him, smirking. "With 17 awakened warriors the other time, I told you that we couldn't win, what makes you think that only the 2 of us stand a chance against them?"
Paul looked down. "I'm sorry, I was carried away".
The lean man looked outside again. "Our defeat is not set in stone though".
"Huh?" Paul looked back at this lean man with a sharp gaze.
Without turning to look at Paul, he said. "In case you've forgotten, we're no longer in a plain farm. Right now, we're in the Endless Wilderness and not just that, we're in one of the ruins of the wilderness that is infested by demonic beasts".
"There are toppled buildings as obstacles everywhere. Here, vision is obscured, even more because of the drizzling rain".
"1 rule of combat that you should always know is to observe and take full advantage of your environment".
The lean man looked up from the window, observing the dark clouds gathered up in the sky and the drizzling rain.
Then, looking down again, he observed the distant skyscraper that toppled over decades ago, blocking the straight road leading through this town.
"If we play our cards right, we may live to see another day".
Paul paused to think for a moment. "What of their powers? Heimdalls are notorious for their foresight".
"Nah," The lean man waved his hand dismissively. "When your mother fought against them, I already saw their hand".
"The 2 main domains of the Divine God Heimdall are acute senses and foresight. All of them have the God power of acute senses, but only 3 of them have the even more important God power of foresight".
"And even with that, it's not set in stone. At the intermediate rank, foresight is not absolute. It triggering is affected by luck".
"Besides, in case you forgot, I'm also a Heimdall," he grinned. "If we can ambush them and catch them off guard, we may yet survive".
He looked at the boy again. "Paul," he called Paul's name for the first time, making him perk up. "You're a new awakened. You're not supposed to be facing situations like this yet, you should be acclimatizing to your power during this time but we have no choice".
"This time, you may have to kill human beings like you," he paused, looking Paul in the eye. "Can you?"
Paul nodded seriously. "They killed my mom".
That was all the lean man needed to hear. "Follow me".
Paul did exactly that.
…
Paul did not have access to advanced tech yet he knew where the time was because of the lean man. On the man's spatial storage pouch, there was a wrist watch and at this moment, this man finally decided to wear it.
The time read…
{12:47pm}
'F*ck! I spent even longer than I expected swinging the Stilettos, did I really just stab 473 times?'
Despite his thoughts at this moment, Paul did not allow himself to get distracted as he focused on the task that was assigned to him.
Any perceptive person would notice that the aura about him changed. At this moment, Paul circulated his God essence, focusing on executing a task.
He had been doing this for over 10 minutes already, and finally, it bore results.
At this moment, they already relocated from the simple and unassuming 2-story building to the most prominent ruined building in this ruined town, the skyscraper. It took some lethal fighting but they managed to secure a room for themselves inside the building.
There, Paul focused on his task with a binocular optical instrument on his hand with which he looked at the entrance to this town.
About 7 more minutes later, movement was detected.
"I see them," the lean man muttered. "Get ready".
"Yes, boss".
…
After more than 3 hours of pursuit, the 5 assassins finally found their target.
At the entrance to the ruin, 5 assassins in black cloaks that enabled them to perfectly blend with the darkness of the night emerged.
They were trained at hiding themselves in the dark. If you were not familiar with them and knew where to look, you could never discover them.
"He's here". One of the assassins muttered. "We've got them cornered".
"Good, the element of surprise is on our side, let's make sure we stay hidden. Follow my lead, let's find them".
Even as he gave orders, the leader of the assassins could not help but look up, paying attention to the heavy rain.
'This is a rainstorm'. He furrowed his brows. 'Strange, my senses didn't warn me about any drastic weather changes, what's going on?'
This assassin didn't pay much attention to it though. In the grand scheme of things, it was inconsequential.
All that mattered was capturing the Cosmopolitan.
"Spread out…"
"Is that advisable?" Another of the assassins interjected the next moment. "Remember the last time against the boy's mother? That's what happens when you underestimate a Cosmopolitan and his family, none of them are normal".
"I'm not wary of the Heimdall, but the boy, not so much".
"To avoid further casualties, let's be meticulous, let's go together".
The leader of the assassins couldn't refute it as he found reason in the argument, he nodded. "Then, follow my lead".
As silent as the air itself, these assassins moved.
Starting from 1 ruined building to another stealthily, these assassins moved like ghosts, looking for their targets.
About 2 dozen minutes later, after searching through most of the buildings in sight to no avail, they finally arrived before the toppled skyscraper.
"Inside is infested with demonic beasts, they can't be here".
"Let's search it still," the leader of the assassins insisted. "Be careful to not awaken the demonic beasts inside".
And then, they entered. Inside the skyscraper was like an endless tunnel as the rampage of demonic beasts already broke through all the ceilings, creating a tunnel that led from one end of this building to another.
Carefully, these assassins entered, trying not to startle any demonic beast.
A few seconds later, they arrived before the first door to their left. Using hand signs, one of them was assigned to push the door open.
The assassin slowly pushed the door open as they all became tensed, yet nothing happened. There was nothing inside the room too.
One of the assassins stayed outside on watch duty as the others entered the room to confirm. The first one entered, the second one followed, then the third, and fourth but just as the fourth entered, he noticed the silvery edge of a blade.
Ptui!
"Ah…!" This assassin could only gasp.
The sharp blade of the dagger dug into his neck from the side, pushing all the way till it emerged from the other side of his neck as blood gurgled.
The owner of the sharp dagger twisted it.
The assassin twitched, and then, he was dead!