FRIEND, PHILOSOPHER AND GUIDE (4)

The Masked Jackals though being a shadowy group had quite the reputation in completing their missions. They were involved in quite a number of assassinations in recent days but their trail was erased very efficiently.

The group assigned for the mission to kill Noah was paid a hefty price. There was no way they would leave the mission half-way after the waterfall incident. They tracked their way down the waterfall and searched for the body of Noah to confirm his death. However, what they found was the body of A2.

They found several gadget parts but no trace of Noah. They even searched almost all places in Zone C for 2 days and finally came to the conclusion that they have to follow the stream into Zone B. But that was a dangerous place having evolved beasts. They cannot enter with just the two of them. So they signaled for reinforcements and waited.

A team of 3 arrived as reinforcements within 3 days. Together they ventured into Zone B. Immediately they got attacked by wild beasts. The level of these beasts was quite high and their strength was on par with all the assassins combined. So they had a hard time.

Fleeing from a beast they entered the area where Kane put up his signal dampener. They safely evaded the beast but could find that their devices were not working. After a long search, they found the source, the signal dampener machine and destroyed it.

The assassins then found the trail to the house and captured Lucy. Though Lucy was not good at fighting, she also felt the alarm and immediately hid all important stuff in the cellar beforehand.

When Kane arrived, he found Lucy in bondage. To ensure the safety of Lucy, he had to surrender.

Noah, who arrived late, found both Lucy and Kane captive. The Masked Jackals found blood patches and bandages which clearly confirmed their suspicion that Noah was staying here.

"Damn, this kid. 10 days. I had to spend 10 days in his god-forsaken wilderness", uttered an angry A3 who lost his companion during the waterfall incident. "Let me end this quickly for him", he uttered.

"Hold on. If we can wait 10 days, we can wait a little while longer also. But we cannot leave our bonus in a haste. Now hand over the medicinal flower." smirked A1.

Noah had taken the flower with him while going for the Rautt Crystal. He will leave directly for his academy if it takes more time. That was the initial plan. Noah gripped his bag tightly.

A3 picked up the sword from the ground that Kane dropped. "I will kill this girl with her father's sword. So hurry up..." said A3, unsheathing the katana.

"Poor souls, they will die for your transgressions..." said another assassin. "No, leave the girl, she is quite young. We can get a good price at the Black market..." said A1.

Noah was getting angry at the comments and he looked at Kane. He was shocked to see such a calm expression from a father whose daughter is captive. Kane batted his eyelids and signaled him to calm down. "Right, calm down and think of a solution. This is not the time to panic." Noah slowly calmed his mind as he started thinking.

Noah reached into his bag to see what he could use. But there were only smoke bombs. In a state of distress Noah looked at Kane again, who gave a faint smile at one end of his lips. Kane had planned this from the time he surrendered. He knew Noah had the smoke bombs with him. Now he only needed a distraction.

..and that came rather sooner than expected.

A3 was elated to find such a nicely crafted katana. He was gazing at it when he noticed some ancient symbols below the hilt of the sword. Let me remind you that with the fall of nations and boundaries, some languages were also lost to time. They were regarded as ancient languages and only a few knowledgeable people could understand them.

A3 asked another assassin who was knowledgeable in ancient languages.

Meanwhile, A1 was waiting for Noah to hand over the flower. He heard a sudden thud sound and saw one of the assassins fall on the ground at his back.

"What happened?" asked A1. "He was looking at this symbol on the sword and fell", replied A3.

"What symbol?" A1 looked at the fallen assassin.

"Whi….whi...whi.." he kept mumbling.

"Whi...what?" asked A1 again, this time angrily.

"Whisper of Death", said the assassin as he took a deep gulp.

The name itself struck fear in all the assassins. A1 went and snatched the sword from A3 to look at it himself and confirm. He thought to himself, "That sword...it can mean only one thing."

He had previously thought these father and daughter to be some poor and miserable peasants who were living in this wilderness. But the very presence of this sword and its owner had caused a chill down their spine. In a state of shock A1 looked at where Kane was being held captive. But wait, where is he?

Right at this moment, Noah threw all the smoke bombs he had. Chaos followed. The assassins who were still in shock took time to process that their captives were gone and the smoke had hindered them in finding their positions.

The other assassins were still in dismay. A1 shouted at them. "What if that sword is the Whisper of Death? What if he is Kane Calderon? He is living here in the wilderness. He may have lost his touch. Also, we are more in numbers. So get to work. We need to find them. Think of the bonus we would get for capturing 'The Kane Calderon'." A1 tried to raise their morale.

The assassins, though not fully convinced, were roused by the thought of a bonus. They spread into the area and started searching.

Meanwhile, it was Noah who got Lucy out of the captivity with his disguise tactic. They met at the back of their house with Kane. "Well done Noah", whispered Kane. "Lucy you go and pick the necessary things in the back cellar. Don't let them find you. We will lead them away. Then you pick the right time to head down the hill from the hidden passage. You know where to meet."

"Will you leave this place? But you built so much.." Noah could not finish his words. "If they have found our identities, others will follow. We cannot stay here anymore..." replied Kane.

"Let's head out and pick one at a time." Kane left.

The assassins were searching for the 3 of them. One of them sat at the top branch of a nearby tree to find a vantage point. Suddenly he felt an immense pain in his neck and touched it. A dagger had been inserted from the left. He didn't even hear a noise. When did someone climb to his back he thought, as he died. Kane was not only a master swordsman but talented in disguise and surprise attacks. He could appear behind the enemy with swift foot movement and surprise the enemy. "One down 4 to go..." whispered Kane.

Noah led another assassin into the forest. Seeing a bush movement, the assassin followed him. Noah was still hurt from his previous engagements with the viper, but he still managed to run somehow. After running a while, Noah stopped at a place. The assassin caught up to him.

"Wait, let me hand this to you..." Noah reached into his bag and threw something. The assassin thought it was the flower and carefully caught it. "But what is this? This is not the flower. It is corn..." said the assassin as he looked towards Noah.

"Bye bye…" said Noah with a smile as he used his grappling hook to jump to a tree branch.

The shocked assassin was about to follow as he heard the bushes moving and something rushing towards him. Before he could move, a wild boar attacked him. The assassin flew towards a tree trunk and lost consciousness. The boar dragged him into the forest.

Noah, who had planned this whole thing, was smiling from the treetop. While leaving Kane's place he took the corn from the garden and soaked it in the wine Kane drinks. The sweet smell mixed with corn attracts wild boars in the forest. Another of Kane's survivalist tricks Noah had inherited. The wild boar will attack any and everything that smells nice.

On the other side, Kane had also taken down another assassin who went looking for the one Kane had killed earlier. This one was also a swift cut from the back. The throat of the assassin was slit swiftly and precisely.

Now only A1 and A3 remained. Kane returned to his house and appeared in front of the last remaining two.

"Surrender yourself and we will not harm your daughter", said A1. "The kid will be caught soon. So even if you had taken down a couple of us, we still outnumber you."

Noah arrived at the spot soon after A1 finished his words.

"You were saying something about outnumbering us?" Kane mocked A1.

"You are nothing without your katana. It is in my hands now..." ranted A3.

"Well, do you have experience in wielding a katana? Do you know the precise foot and body movements to make the impact? I guess not, right..." laughed Kane. "So it doesn't matter if you are wielding the katana or the mightiest of weapons if you can't land a proper strike." Kane uttered, changing his expression to a grim look. The atmosphere had suddenly changed. The four of them looked at each other. Noah felt that the air became heavier. This was a known feeling to him. Kane is exerting a tremendous amount of pressure as if the Grim Reaper himself has descended to pick his target.

The assassins were wary enough to make the first move. Kane Calderon was a person revered and at the same time feared for his decisiveness. If he decides to kill someone, that person is as good as dead. Then again A3 has pointed the sword at the daughter of this great being. But he cannot lose his life here. He needs a chance to flee and report this.

A3 quickly went and attacked Noah. He was an easy target. But Kane was an experienced campaigner. He had been through countless life-and-death situations. He could read any situation wisely. He anticipated the move and blocked A3 before reaching Noah.

With Kane engaging A3, he could understand well enough that A1 will be coming after him. A1 had the ability of Chahoua Gecko. Geckos are masters of disguises, especially in the forest. He disappeared from the scene or rather blended with surroundings all this while and waited for the perfect opportunity to strike.

Noah measured his surroundings to check any blind spots from where he may get attacked. But A1 instead attacked Kane. The Masked jackals calculated carefully that it was Kane who was the threat. If A3 gets beaten by Kane, they will be at a disadvantage. Rather it is best to tag together and deal with Kane first.

A1 attacked Kane from the top of a tree. But Kane stopped the attack only to be approached by A3 from behind. It was a battle worth praise as Kane took on 2 assassins single-handedly.

Noah tried to work out a plan, as he can't be an onlooker much longer. He needs to support Kane. But how? He can't even take on a single one of them. "Only if there was a surprise opening.." wondered Noah. Seeing Noah immersed in thought, it was on Kane to help his little prodigy. He dodged a heavy blow from the katana and his dagger flew to where Noah was. It seemed natural to everyone's eyes as Kane backed up a little showing his helplessness without his weapon of choice. But that was only what Kane made it look like.

The art of war was not doing what was expected during a tough situation. You have to improvise. So Noah did not reach out and pick up the dagger, which would have alerted A1. Instead, he stepped back and ran towards the forest. The assassins thought he ran away seeing the current predicament of Kane, but in this wilderness where can he go. So they concentrated on Kane.

The fight went on for another 10 minutes as they did not let Kane reach his dagger. He was managing using broken branches and dodging. To any bystander, he was losing the battle. But in actuality, he was giving time to Noah for his plan. Noah who had left the scene was actually memorizing the movements of A1 from afar. He was now ready. He knew how and from where A1 could attack.

As usual, A1 had vanished from the scene after each attack. He would attack whenever he saw an opening. A3 hit Kane with his hidden needles. Kane took a hit and fell down near a tree.

Exactly at this moment, A1 had attacked Kane. Only to find being attacked by Noah instead. He hung from the tree with his grappling cable to land a fist on A1's mask. The power was not much so it can only crack a bit. A1 retreated a bit, but before he could move a dagger came rushing at him. Noah had picked the fallen dagger earlier and handed it to Kane without anyone noticing.

Kane's throw was precise, at the crack of A1's mask. It would have been a death blow if not for A3 who dodged it with the katana.

Noah launched an attack at A3 now, which came as a surprise to them. But they got the opportunity to finish the weakling first. A3 prepared for a top-down heavy slash and aimed it at Noah. Noah, who had anticipated it, dodge it swiftly by moving to the right. His speed had increased after practicing in 2x gravity.

As A3 missed the strike, he was out of balance for a second. It was enough time for Noah who kicked the hilt of the katana and it flew out of A3's hands. With the same momentum, he turned and hit an elbow strike on the left side of A3's head. This hit was hard as A3 fell on his knees to maintain his balance.

But before he knew it, his view got rotated 90 degrees until it was all black. The katana that Noah had kicked earlier was picked up by Kane. He was waiting for the opportunity and rushed towards A3 at tremendous speed. On the way, he caught the katana and used his momentum to deliver a yoko giri which chopped A3's head off in one clean strike.

Seeing this A1 fell back in terror. Kane Calderon was standing in front of him wielding his katana, the Whisper of Death after beheading his companion. It was his turn next.

His body froze. It won't move at all. It was as if his nervous system had already surrendered to this apex predator. A1 could only stare at Kane. In desperation, he moved his hand and pressed a switch under his arm. The next thing he noticed was that the arm was missing.

"You shouldn't have done that. Sending the alert was unnecessary." Kane spoke softly.

A1 squealed in pain. "They will find you and hang you. They will sell your dau.." No more words came out as the head rolled down. Kane sheathed his katana.

"I know it is hard for you to see this. But this cannot be helped. These were the scum of society. They had no morality whatsoever. They only knew money. Also, it is better to kill righteously than getting killed." Kane tried to console Noah who was shocked at the heads rolling often.

Noah composed himself and said, "It is not our job to decide who is righteous and who is not. Everybody deserves a shot at a second chance. Everyone makes mistakes, but to redeem yourself is to be human."

"What if he doesn't deserve a second chance. What if he takes the second chance to kill you or someone close to you? Mercy is good only if you have the power to control the situation or take responsibility for your actions. Idealism is for the powerful."

"Then that is what I will do. Be powerful enough to take responsibility."

…