Assassins Ambush(ed?)

Ch 16

POV Charlotte

The crescent moon provided a small amount of light in the dark night. Me and Leon were sitting around a fire in a cave with the sounds of running water of the river. We had finished the task before phase 2 even started so we didn't need to go around killing and looting for tokens anymore.

I was holding a throwing knife in my hand and staring at the blade out of boredom. The only speaking happening was Leon casting his detection spells every few minutes.

"You could have done this on your own as well. What was the need to ask me to team up?" I asked without looking up from my blade.

He didn't reply immediately, but I could feel his eyes staring at me. After a few seconds of silence, he replied, "I am being pursued by some people."

Oh. So that's why he was so much on edge when he interacted with me.

"You thought I was an assassin after you?"

"I did."

"I am not."

"I know now."

An awkward silence followed.

His situation was not really rare. There were so many noble families that were destroyed due to infighting and wars. An escaped noble scion was nothing too rare. For such people joining the College would provide them with great protection and give them time to grow. What was rare was Leon's talent. He was the best Expert Magician I had ever met.

"Do you really think whoever is after you will be able to send assassins till here?"

"I do."

With that our small talk died down again.

After another few hours when the moon was covered by clouds outside the cave was pitch black Leon suddenly stood up and started to cast a spell. I thought he was going to attack me and was ready to pierce the knife into his throat.

"Condense~"

A bowl-sized water ball was formed and dropped on the fire we had going. With the flames going out and the moon hidden by the clouds, it was completely pitch black.

Was he trying to attack me in the darkness? But doesn't he know that to a Weapon Expert Assassin a little bit of darkness is nothing? The doubts in my heart held me back from attacking. But after seeing his actions I realized he wasn't looking at me but outside the cave.

"Are they here?" I asked him.

"They are and they are approaching straight in this direction. It seems they can track me."

"They can track you? Have you been marked by somebody?"

"I don't think so."

"How far away are they?"

"75m and approaching. There are 5 of them and all are rank 3. 4 High Warriors and 1 Expert Magician."

5 people? The person after him managed to sneak in 5 people in this test? And all are rank 3? Now I understood why he asked me to help. But trying to turn the tables when they know your location perfectly is an easy task. Not to mention I wasn't going to use my real strength. I made a quick decision.

"Ok, we have enough time then. Turn this way."

"What?" Leon asked confused.

Before he could react I looked into his eyes and used a combat art.

""

The view in front of me changed. My surroundings turned pitch black, much darker than the moonless night from before and Leon instead of a regular flesh body turned into a white soul body.

There really was a marking. In that white soul body there was a very tiny spot of red in there. With this size no wonder he didn't detect this himself. But smaller markings also mean that the range of detection is smaller.

Without wasting time, I used my qi to wipe it off.

"What did you just do?"

"Removed the marking on you."

He looked at me for a moment before replying, "Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet. We still need to kill those guys." I said, as I started the flow of battle qi in my body.

Leon nodded and started casting a few spells.

"Fleetfoot~ Weak Aura~ Quieten~"

Instantly I could feel my presence changing into that of an Adept Warrior and additional strength in my legs.

""

I rushed out of the cave we were in. And sure enough, after travelling 50 meters or so I started picking up presences.

"" I sat on a branch of a tree which was right above three of the assassins. I was close enough to listen to their voices.

"Why was the signal lost suddenly?"

"How will I know? But seeing the response before it went out our target has to be somewhere nearby."

"It was in the direction of the cliff as well, so he can't even escape."

"I don't know about that. You never know what a spell caster can do."

I gathered battle qi in my hand holding the knives and swooped down.

"Who-" At such close distance I was bound to be found out, but before he could utter a word there was a hole in his neck and a dagger stuck in a tree behind him.

The other two managed to react in this time which was impressive. These guys are not off the road assassins. They are professionally trained. Well, managing to infiltrate this test already shows their skills.

But even so, it was too late.

"" My body moved behind them and with two slashes on his back his lifeless body fell on the ground.

Unfortunately, this gave the third one the time to escape.

""

So he decided to run instead of fighting.

"" If I used higher level arts by using my weapon aura I could have easily killed him, but I had a feeling that I was being observed at the moment. Because of that, I was fighting very carefully. The which I used before was also higher-level art, but it wasn't one that an observer could see your true strength.

As I followed the assassin through the forest I suddenly felt another presence which was radiating mana waves and the body of the assassin in front of me suddenly fell limp. The next moment Leon appeared from behind a tree and finished him with an ice splinter like before.

"Charlotte you there?"

I also didn't hide and revealed myself.

"Where are the rest?"

"Life Detection~"

Leon once again cast his detection spell and after a few seconds, he opened his eyes.

"The other two are together as well but the problem is that magician was able to sense my position again when I used my detection spell on him so they must be coming here."

"That makes it better. They are not expecting me to be here so we can ambush them with you as bait."

"Alright. Minor Protection~"

While Leon cast his spell I went back and hid in the branches.

Soon I could feel the aura of two people rapidly approaching.

"Finally found you." The magician spoke before the assassin slashed Leon.

When Leon didn't react to the oncoming attack, I was going to save him but when I recalled the spell he had just used I went back to my crouching position. It was the same spell the first spell caster I ever met used. Although it could easily protect against an attack of the same level it would have to be cast again after one use.

As I expected the assassin's blade bounced off of Leon's skin as if it was covered with metal.

The instant that happened Leon used his spells.

"Sleep~ Ice Splinter~ Accelerate~"

A piece of ice with a sharp point instantly zoomed towards the neck of the assassin while the sleep spell although didn't manage to make him unconscious delayed his reaction time. The other spell caster was not just a sitting duck however and used his own spells.

"Push~"

With a small wind blowing from the direction of the enemy spell caster the aim of the ice projectile was changed and instead of hitting the neck, it pierced the assassin's right shoulder.

While the assassin was stunned because of his injury Leon didn't wait and started casting and sent projectile ice shards toward the Magician instead.

"Protection~"

The magician managed to cast the spell in the nick of time and the ice shards bounced off his body. This was the perfect chance to strike.

"Charlotte now!" With the confirmation from Leon I swooped in.

" "

The Magician's eyes were filled with disbelief as his body collapsed due to a punctured heart.

I turned in Leon's direction only to see him looking at me while the assassin was lying dead at his feet.

"I kept my end of the bargain. You have to keep yours now."

"Ah. Yes."

His expression just now was a little weird but I attributed it to him thinking about his circumstances and ignored it.

In the next few minutes, we gathered all the five bracelets that those guys were wearing. It seemed like while making their way here they had to fight quite a few monsters seeing that each of them had more than 300 lines on them.

Unfortunately however after reaching 1000 the bracelet stopped taking in tokens. Leon was facing the same situation.

"It seems there is an upper limit."

"Makes sense. No way the institute would allow anyone to gain too much of an advantage right from the get-go."

We made our way back to the cave we were in before and started the fire again. Maybe because he was free from the threat of death but Leon was visibly more relaxed than before. But although I say that I could feel his guard was still up and would retaliate in a second if I tried to do anything.

After a couple of hours more of sitting in the same spot with little bits of chit-chat interspersed in it dusk finally arrived.

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