Before I leave

Shui's hands trembled with excitement as he looked at the storage ring. With a quick check, he could tell that the space it was connected to was around 125 cubic cales. This was over 250 times larger than the capacity of his sachel! If it wasn't for the five assassins who started approaching him and Cin, he would have surely jumped and cheered in joy.

'I'll examine this further later.'

The spaces wouldn't conflict with each other so since he didn't want to expose the ring he put it in his satchel and turned to face the five assassins. In the fight against the evil spirit, he had used up the majority of his offensive talismans, in fact his talisman stockpile in general was low. And though all he did was activate them, it still took up a sizable amount of his energy. He also felt some mental fatigue from having to set up such a large pseudo array. Fighting not only the assassin who he had trouble with at his peak, along with the scrubs he brought along was the perfect example of a dire situation.

'I need to get rid of their number advantage.'

The five assassins cautiously approached him. They had all seen the destructive ability that Shui had used so four out of the five of them wanted to retreat immediately, but they knew that the remaining one would kill them if they did. The assassin from the Tower of Killers deduced that Shui was the one who fought him through the process of elimination and the sight of Cin. From his confrontation against Shui, the assassin from the Tower of Killers was sure that Shui wouldn't be able to use his powerful technique without any preparation or else he would have used it when he was almost killed by him. If he told this to the other assassins, they would probably be able to drag out some courage, but he didn't intend on babying them that much.

While they came closer, Cin growled at them while Shui selected three 'Light' talismans from his satchel.

"Big bro, close your eyes in two seconds."

"Hmm, got it. Get 'em little bro."

Shui layered the three talismans and threw them out at the assassins. The moment they saw talismans flying in their direction, the assassins raised barrier spells but only the one from the Tower of Killers guarded his eyes as well.

"Shut your-!"

He tried to warn the others, but it was too late. The explosion of light nearly burned their pupils and once they were distracted, Cin roared. This roar along with their lack of focus caused their barriers to shatter and before they could reorganize themselves, Shui sent special-rank daggers through their necks. By the time the light dispersed and the remaining assassin looked around him, the rest were on the ground while blood ran from their throats.

'Tch. Failures.'

He was disappointed by these so-called comrades even though he knew that he had also been caught off guard the first time he experienced it. He was now the only assassin and the mist wall was beginning to thin so it would only be a matter of time before the clan leaders rushed into this space. About thirty minutes, that was the time he had.

Even though he had eliminated the other threats, Shui couldn't feel much relief since had to fight another deadly opponent right after the evil spirit.

'He's the last one. I have to either kill him or stall for time.'

There was no need for conversation. The three of them understood what it was they had to do. Shui took out the twin swords he used as Shin while the assassin took out a pair of daggers with red blades. Though Shui knew there wouldn't be much of an advantage if he fought at close range, it was better than allowing himself to be bombarded by spells.

The two clashed with their blades and the impacts created strong winds that lifted the dust and dirt around them. In terms of physical capabilities, they were about even, to the assassin's surprise. He didn't understand how a child who was a realm below him could match him in strength and speed, but he wasn't worried since his technique was better.

However, with Cin occasionally using its agility that was higher than both of theirs, to bite or scratch the assassin, he couldn't exert his full strength and they were stuck in a stalemate. Additionally since he was under a time limit, the assassin was actually losing.

"Hmph, that's enough!"

After repelling an attack from Shui and enduring a slash from Cin's claws, the assassin used a spell in the form of an enormous green snake and sent it at Shui. At such a close range, Shui knew he wouldn't be able to escape. Cin roared but that only weakened the snake as the assassin had already noticed that as long as he exerted full control over his spell it wouldn't shatter under the effects of the roar.

Shui crossed his swords to use as a shield and was sent flying by the snake which then disappeared. Shui slammed into the wreckage of the mountain and forced out the blood that clogged his throat. If it wasn't for the armour he had on, he was sure this would have killed him. His vision was shaky and his body felt weak at this time, but he had no time to ready himself as several rays of red light were fired at him. He quickly jumped out of the way to escape that barrage, but he wasn't sure if he would be able to escape the next one. Thankfully, Cin bit down on the arm that the assassin had stretched out towards him.

"Damn dog!"

Cin's teeth had begun sinking into his bones so the assassin hastily grabbed it off his arms and threw it in the same direction as Shui. Since those in the Soul Realm could generally only use one spell at a time, he couldn't keep up a barrier while firing at Shui. Once he noticed this, Shui came up with a plan to kill the assassin. In his current state, he would be lucky to last ten more minutes, much less the twenty three that he suspected were still needed until help came. As for the possibility that no one would come to help him, Shui purposefully ignored it since then he could only accept his fate.

"Big bro, I have a plan to kill this guy but I'm not fully confident it'll work."

"Just tell me. I got to get back at that guy for what he did to us."

After quickly telling Cin about his plan through their telepathy, Shui forced himself to stand. This shouldn't have been possible considering his injuries, but by focusing his transcendent force towards his wounds he could forcefully move his body as if he was uninjured. Shui then put on his 'Defense' cloak and walked towards the assassin.

"You should have stayed down. Then I would have given you a swift death."

He didn't know how he was still standing, but the assassin was confident that this heavily wounded brat would die under his blade.

Shui didn't respond to this provocation, he merely changed his motion from a walk to a dash.