Assassin Obstacle Course

The next day, Emily, Shui, Alicia and Alex met up in the lobby. The siblings were glad that Emily had recovered, but expressed concern when they saw the fatigue in her eyes. She told them that she had stayed up all night preparing for the final, but neither was quick to believe that. Even so, there were bigger problems ahead so like Shui, they had to hope that she would be able to keep herself together.

The finals would begin later than on the other days, but the four were preparing to leave early because they knew that the road would be busy. They went over their respective routes once more in the lobby, before stepping out of the inn together. As expected, the moment they were in public, cold eyes from all over were drawn to them, hidden among Emily's fans who cheered and wished her good luck. Although she wasn't in the best condition and knew that she was in danger, Emily tried to hide her discomfort in front of these people who were looking forward to her performance. Shui wondered if their support would bring a smile to her face, even if it was fake, but that seemed to be asking for too much.

Considering how popular Emily was and the amount of people coming out to see her, it didn't look like the assassins would have a chance to take action, but they knew not to be so optimistic. It would be one thing if they could trust the administration, but since she had enemies among them as well, especially those managing the city's detection array, it was best to think of Paraj like any other city. In other words, the assassins would have no reservations about attacking in broad daylight.

Before the attacks began, Shui sent off Alicia and Alex who would deal with any hidden traps up ahead while he stuck with Emily and protected her from the direct threats. As usual, he was suppressing his presence, but this time he only made sure to muddle his facial features so that strangers could still recognize that he was there, but not remember his face.

The two continued on their journey without trouble, but when they were about to make the first turn, an arrow appeared in front of Emily as if it had teleported and was about to pierce her brow. Naturally, the protection array in Emily's clothes activated and blocked the arrow, but then it began to leak a dangerous light. It would have released an explosion that caused lethal collateral damage to the bystanders on the road, but Shui captured it in a barrier so it had no effect. However, he purposefully allowed the sound to escape so that innocents could evacuate.

While people ran away from the commotion, men and women, some still hidden and some out in the open, surrounded them. Furthermore, this was just the appetizer. With his speed and power, Shui could break past this group and into the amphitheater in the blink of an eye, but there were too many Masters in the city so he didn't want to alert them and draw their attention to Emily.

"Are you ready?" Shui asked.

"Yes."

Even Emily in her downtrodden state, narrowed her eyes and sharpened her senses when hit by their killing intent. This time, when Shui stretched out his hand, she grabbed it without hesitation and the two moved forward together. With their first step came a barrage of spells from every direction, but Shui's barrier was enough to defend against them while they ran forward. The ones in front of them created walls and barriers to trap them, but that did not slow their footsteps.

Emily didn't know how they would overcome this blockade, but without questioning it, she allowed herself to be pulled forward.

Shui went straight for the combined barrier with speed that made their enemies wonder about his intentions.

'Surely they won't crash into it', they thought. If such a thing did happen then it would be to their benefit, but it was unlikely so the ones responsible for the barrier heightened their guard. Still, it was a futile attempt.

Due to his overwhelming power that could dominate his peers, Shui rarely encountered situations where he needed to focus on learning more techniques. However, he never forgot the techniques he did know.

The combined barrier was not only larger than what a Earth Realm cultivator could produce, it was also several folds more durable. Even so, Shui didn't think it would give them any trouble despite him holding back. As he was finally close enough to touch it and the suspicious gazes intensified, he placed his palm on the barrier and agitated it with a ripple of his divine energy.

'Amplify. Vibrate.'

He hadn't needed to rely on this trick since completing the trial of the Primordial Library, and he knew that it would be useless against enemies with more refined control over their energy, but against this mixture of assassins, it was perfect.

The vibrations he caused disrupted the balance that had been created by the nature energies of several persons, and once he took advantage of that moment to force open the barrier, naturally the ones responsible had to face the consequences.

"Guh!"

"Ahh!"

At the same time as the barrier shattered with a high-pitched crashing sound, the ones who created it were sent flying with blood spurting from their mouths. Shui didn't have the leisure to stay back and eliminate everyone here, but all who revealed openings due to backlash from the barrier received stakes pushing from the ground through their chests. Despite the brutality, Emily raised an eyebrow in astonishment at this skill which required not only excellent control of the spell but also a strong soul and sharpened perception to use it against so many people.

She wondered, what was the limit of his strength, and was she truly worth being protected by it. However, such ideas were fleeting during an emergency like this.

After breaking through the blockade, the enemies that remained chased them, but Shui had a plan ready for this.

'It should be around, here.'

When he made a particular step, he sent a brief burst of his energy into the ground, awakening the array that was beneath his feet. This array created a solid, transparent wall behind them that sealed off their pursuers, marking their triumph over the first obstacle.

"How did you do that?" Emily asked.

Thanks to her level of skill in arrays, she knew that this was a tier 4 imprisonment array, but not only had he been able to activate it with minimal procedures, this array was drawn to capture a designated space, so it was hard to believe that it had been prepared beforehand. But it was.

"I asked for help from Sir Astar. We knew that the city's administration couldn't be trusted, which meant it would be harder to set up arrays to help you on top of the city's arrays, so he volunteered to handle that part. It would be difficult even for him to do anything major without revealing it, so we predicted the three areas you were most likely to be attacked and decided to border them off so that once you broke through one area you couldn't be chased by pursuers."

"Wait, Grandmaster Astar, is helping me?"

'Shui is one thing, but why is such a powerful figure trying to help me?'

"Of course he is. We both- watch out!"

Hastily warning her mid-sentence, Shui pulled Emily closer to him, fortunately getting her away from a flash of light that burnt a hole in the ground.

They had just made it out of the first ambush, but the second was far more dangerous.