CH 12 Assassins and New Friends Part 1

Rudra and Mukti spent the next few days in a routine. They would go out and hunt different beasts and then return to the cozy little home Rudra had constructed by the evening. Rudra had also kept expanding the plant fortress he had begun constructing. He now had multiple sentient plant spirits in the small fortress made of plants.

As another day arrived, Rudra and Mukti went hunting as usual. However, this time they didn't find any beast or weird being anywhere near their fortress. Even after they expanded their radius of search by a few dozen meters, it was all futile.

Suddenly, Rudra started feeling a sense of unease. He felt like all this had been deliberate, to somehow lure them out of their comfort zone. His feeling came true when around seven people surrounded them from a distance, all wearing leather combat outfits and having their lower faces covered and their heads hidden in the big hoods of their outfits.

"Who are you?" Rudra asked sternly, his voice slipping into a low timbre like a beast. He swiftly started activated Prana Manipulation, Force Manipulation, Calculation Mastery, Parallel Though Mastery, and Energy Empowerment.

Making himself ready for combat in a split second, his consciousness expanded, covering each of the enemy's actions. Though the enemy didn't respond to him, Rudra had already sensed the minute hand and body signs the enemy communicated with.

He realized that he wasn't their target, Mukti was their main goal since the beginning. They were trying to distract him so that they could sneak off an attack on her. Angered at their despicable actions Rudra suddenly roared. His sound waves, boosted by his Prana Manipulation, spread off like a shockwave and knocked the hidden assassins from the treetops.

As he looked at the dozen attackers in front of him now, his adrenaline pumped faster as he gave off a bloodthirsty grin. He was no saint in his previous life, getting his hands dirty in his fair share of events. Awakening those memories and instincts brought a cruel bloodthirsty aura out of him.

Under Mukti's Shocked gaze, Rudra grabbed her under his left arm like a sack of potatoes, as he gathered gravitational energy in his right hand. Directing it towards the largest bunch out of the attackers, he let out a massive repulsion wave.

Seven out of the twelve attackers were caught in Rudra's repulsion wave and got sent flown like cotton spores in the wind. Crisp sounds emerged from their bodies as most of their larger bones got snapped and crushed. Rudra didn't realize just how much power his upgraded skill wielded now.

Seeing the result, Rudra stopped using Gravity manipulation, saving it for drastic circumstances. Moreover, that little stunt had already drained over 50% of his reserves, leaving him with around 40%, including the expenditure from Calculation Mastery, Parallel Though Mastery, and Energy Empowerment.

He reduced the effects of Gravity on Mukti and himself, making them lighter. He took advantage of the hesitation of remaining attackers and ran towards his plant fortress.

"He doesn't have any more such attacks!" one of the remaining attackers shouted "just take care of him swiftly and then we can finish off that girl. She is one of the main targets we need to wipe-out."

Rudra could hear all their comments and his gaze became colder. Mukti held his sleeve and shivered as she heard that so many people had come specifically to kill her. She was regretful that she had not told Rudra about herself and allowed such trouble to occur. If she had already told him about herself than maybe they could have prepared better.

The hooded guys tried their best to catch up but Rudra made sure they kept a certain distance. Finally, one of those guys couldn't keep the impatience in check and attacked with a few projectile weapons. These weapons were special as they had been enchanted with various runic inscriptions and could channel energy to display the effect of the inscriptions.

These projectile weapons had been inscribed with wind-based inscriptions; hence they were faster than bullets when charged with energy. Hence although Rudra tried his best to dodge and endure, slowly injuries were piling upon him. As these projectiles were small bladed discs, many had even got embedded in his shoulders and back.

Soon Rudra's enduring gave to fruition as he saw his plants fortress. Making a decision, he applied further gravity manipulation to Mukti to nearly make her weightless momentarily. At that moment, he empowered himself to the maximum and directly threw her towards the fortress. She cleanly flew through the fortress wall, which had opened up in time to receive her, making her safe from the assassins.

Seeing that she was safe, Rudra then landed on the ground and swiftly used Flora Manipulation with his remaining Prana. Two enormous walls sprouted swiftly, one in front of him and one behind him. If the assassins had to get to Mukti, they would first have to get past the first wall then face Rudra, before crossing the second wall and reaching the fortress inside which she was there.

The assassins became furious upon seeing all this. They had not been informed about this at all. During the beginning of the test, they had sent some drugged beasts towards Mukti to ambush her and finish this off cleanly without any trace of their involvement.

Now due to this kid's interference, they weren't even able to kill her despite taking direct action. One has to know that each of these assassins was at least Grade 3-4 Inhumans. They had never before failed at assassinating those below their grade.

"I have had enough of this" one of the assassins screamed finally "screw it, no longer holding back."

He gathered energy in his hand and transformed it to wind energy. The wind energy turned into giant wind blades as they sliced towards Rudra. Rudra communicated with the plant spirits and had them intertwine tighter to resist the wind blades.

Though the wind blades still made it through the plant wall, they delayed the speed of the wind blades enough that Rudra was able to dodge all of them. However, before Rudra could catch his breath, one of the assassins was able to get through one of the weaker sections of the wall, coming towards Rudra with a long-serrated dagger.

Seeing that Rudra had noticed him, the man quickly sliced towards Rudra with his dagger. Leaning towards the side and dodging it barely, Rudra punched out towards the man. Immediately the man crouched to avoid it and stabbed towards Rudra's abdomen.

Though Rudra avoided the stab, he couldn't avoid being completely unhurt, as the serrated blade tore open a long gash. Rudra held the wound tightly and stumbled backward. He checked and found that he barely had enough energy to unleash a deadly attack on a single attacker, of which he could endure for a little while more before getting killed.

While he was deliberating what to do, he found that the other four assassins suddenly fell to the ground while screaming and holding their heads. He turned and saw that even the assassin who was attacking him was struggling to stand while holding his dagger.

While he was wondering what was going on, he saw the plant wall behind him apart on its own. He was surprised to see Mukti float out, however, she looked very different. Her hair floated around her like silver snakes, while her eyes had a black glow to them. Her mind power manifested around her like an aura and Rudra realized that she was the one who had incapacitated the assassins.

She slowly floated to Rudra and asked with a hand to his cheek "Are you okay?"

Rudra nodded in response "I am fine, alive for now."

Nodding back Mukti was about to say something when the assassin with the dagger managed to regain control and attack her. She could only watch in annoyance as she was already controlling the other four to stay down.

Just as the dagger was about to stab her, Rudra managed to tackle the guy from his waist. He gathered gravitational energy with his remaining prana. The gathered gravitational energy swirled around his arm like an aura whirlpool and he struck out at the guy with it. The gravitational energy viciously crumpled the guy's chest like a tin can, crushing all the organs and bones like pulp.

Though he felt slightly stunned on seeing him die, Rudra shook his head and recovered. He looked towards Mukti and found that a trickle of blood ran down her nose. The glow around her eyes was flickering on and off.

"I can't hold them off for long" Mukti said with a slight smile "you should go while I still can."

"It is fine" Rudra smiled back "better we stick together. Whatever happens, we can handle together."

Just as Rudra and Mukti were steeling themselves to get attacked by the remaining assassins, a swarm of arrows struck out like bullets, turning the assassins to a porcupine. This made Rudra and Mukti tense up in preparation for the new threat.

Just as they were wondering what to do, four people emerged from the forest. They were two boys and two girls, with one of the guys in lead and holding a big terrifying-looking bow with multiple quivers on his back.

With a teasing smile gracing his face, the archer called out to Rudra and Mukti, "Hope we are not late to the party? My name is Shyam Yadav and these are my friends Anshu, Gayathri, and Ananta. We are here to help."