Nirpendra unsheathed his sword and took a battle stance that he knew from his inherited memories. This was the swordsmanship practiced by the heirs of the Kantipur kingdom. To prepare for their time in the throne, best tutors from all around the world come to teach them swordsmanship along with several other things. So the previous owner of the body had a lot of experience with swinging the sword.
However, Nirpendra did not know how to swing a sword. Although his body might remember how to swing the sword, his mind did not. Due to which, when the closest assassin jumped at him with incredible agility, his mind was blank and his body was unmoving, until the final moment, where his natural reflexes from the body kicked in and parried the knife away.
A sharp clang sound dominated his ears as he quickly stepped behind a few steps awkwardly.
After this, the same assassin relentlessly rushed towards Nripendra, not letting him time to breathe as he swung his dagger dangerously close to Nirpendra's face, slicing a bit of his cheek in the process. Nirpendra tried his best to anticipate the attacks coming at him, but since he was inexperienced, he heavily relied on pure reflexes from his body.
Soon enough, this interaction was over when Nirpendra made a single mistake, making an opening for the opponent and he kicked the defenseless king on the stomach.
Nirpendra was launched behind a few meters and his momentum stopped after colliding with a nearby tree. The collision would have hurt under normal circumstances, however in this situation the adrenaline coursing through his body prevented the pain.
The current situation was really bad. Nirepndra was not a good fighter so he suspected that he wouldn't survive no more than two barrage of attacks from the extremely agile assassin after him. That leaves him with around 30 seconds of time alive in this situation. Although that is considering if his friends do not interfere.
Nirpendra cast a glance at the other assassins who were all returning the gaze with wry smiles as if they were enjoying this.
What could he possibly do? Scream for help? Make a run for it? But considering how fast his opponent was, it would be a matter of time once he caught up. He needed a distraction. What could act as a distraction here?
A hint of realization flashed across his mind as he took support against the large tree and stood up with some struggle. He would then focus on his Mana from within the body and Funnel as much as he could into his left arm.
Once he felt a warm sensation appearing on the tip of his palms, he just had to take the image of the specific magic he was casting: Fire magic.
In this world, magic was primitive and could only serve as a party trick or for ease of access like burning candles with a flick of the finger. But what if he used the same magic for igniting candles but with a hundred times more mana? Theoretically, instead of just a small candle fire, it should set fire on the bark of this tree and it would spread to the entire forest. This was the exact same method he used to increase his distance for the Vision Projection.
Nripendra stood up with some struggle and wiped the narrow line of blood forming on his previously clear skin.
"You bastard! What did you do?"
The assassin who was after him spoke as a large fire ignited behind the defenseless king, originating from the point of contact of his left hand and the tree.
"Is that magic?"
"That must be it!"
"This filthy king! Get him everyone!"
Immediately after, the entire group scattered and ran towards the young king who was also running as fast as he could. Luckily, at this moment, a large portion of the ground was already covered with fire; they wouldn't dare to cross this fire unless they wanted to burn alive. However, unluckily, there were two assassins who were able to cross the fire and give chase to the King.
***
A soldier who had removed his helmet wear was sniffing around the air.
"Sniff, sniff… What's this smell?"
"Yeah, I can smell something in the distance."
"Is that a fire?"
"And what's up with this fog?"
"Cough, cough, cough. Yeah, something must've been set on fire up ahead."
He and his four other comrades were talking with each other while walking to follow Nirpendra Malla, the king of Kantipur in this ambush expedition. The king had apparently seen something up ahead using magic he called 'Vision Projection' and left ahead to scan the area. Ofcourse, none of them actually knew what it meant. It was for the Royal blooded only.
"Hey, I'm getting a bad feeling about this. What if his highness encountered some enemies up ahead? I mean, he did go ahead with only the Commander for protection."
"You fool. Our commander wouldn't let the king die so easily."
"Okay. But what about this fire? Did the enemy make this fire? For what reason?"
"I don't know. We should probably hurry to figure it out."
"Okay guys go tell your men to hurry up."
All four of the captains went behind to order their men to speed up. However, at this moment one of the captains spoke as he watched something in the distance.
"Hey guys. Can you see that? Something is moving there."
"Huh? Don't try to fool around at this time."
"No, I'm serious. There is someone running towards us."
At this, all four of them were looking closely as a dark silhouette inside the fog was running with two other silhouettes following very closely.
"That's the king! Everyone! Protect him!"
One of the captains realized the situation and screamed at his comrades to protect him from his two pursuers.
Almost immediately after, All four of them launched into action, unsheathing their swords and rushing inside the fog.
What the guards saw was the king running away from two assassins clad in black carpets and minimal chainmail. One of the assassins threw a small dagger towards the king which scratched past his left stomach.
When all guards blocked the path for the assassins, with swords pointed at them, the assassins stopped in their position, unwilling to face four at the same time. Perhaps if they had a chance to catch them off guard like ambushing them from the bushes. In such a case, the assassins would've enjoyed the chance to pounce upon a larger number of enemies.
But this was a different situation. Their comrades were left behind and they were deep into enemy territory. So they put their daggers behind their waist and ran behind from the direction they came from.
"Your highness! Are you fine?"
"Can't you see? He's not fine. He's bleeding from the stomach. Someone get him a bandage!"
"No. You need to command the men to hurry back and meet up with Ivan's force before he attacks the southern wall."
"Yes, your highness."