Chapter Three: Prison Break

   In the building west of the compound, the two shadowy figures moved quickly from one torchlit passageway to another in search of their target. They were fast, so fast that even stationed guards saw them as little more than shadowed blurs caused by the flickering lights. They stopped a few meters away from where seven guards sat on benches laughing and drinking together. Behind them was a small dark and dreary cell built into the wall. Its sole occupant was a girl that looked to be about nineteen years who lay horizontally on a small bed in the corner of the cell.

   She had pretty features with an oval face and almond-shaped eyes that reflected the light from the passage's torches brightly. Snow white hair fell in a straight curtain around her head, slightly dirtied by the less than pristine surroundings. Her nose was small and pointed in a manner that that fit well with her soft looking pink lips. But her facial  disposition was quite different from the way she looked. The girl's face resembled that of a prisoner condemned to death, filled with despair and resignation.

   The hidden assassins scanned the area before them and after reaching an agreement, they separated into the shadows. The guards were still talking and laughing boisterously, completely oblivious to the approaching danger. Just like the previous times, a imperceptible breeze wafted through the passageway and one of the two torches went out, plunging them all into partial darkness.

   In an instant, the guards became alarmed and reached for their weapons. One of them noticed movement in the pitch black area beyond the illumination of the remaining burning torch. He squinted his eyes to see better, only to find a concealed face staring back at him. Fear shot through the man and he spun around on his heel to alert the other guards. Before he could get out more than a whimper, a chain sprung from the darkness and wrapped around his neck. His eyes expanded in size as the chain dragged him off into the darkness. A second later, a strangled cry sounded through the quietened passageway.

   Now aware of the threat facing them, the men rallied together and stood with their backs to one another. Uncertainty permeated the atmosphere around them and some clutched their weapons with shaky hands in terror of an invisible danger. Out of nowhere, the chain returned and dragged off a young man with low cut hair to his quick death. They turned their attention to the direction the chain had come from  immediately, a fatal mistake on their part. The other assassin dropped silently in their midst and snuffed the last light.

   With darkness came unbridled confusion. The men scattered apart aimlessly, alarmed shouts and screams ringing out in the passageway. An  individual tried to locate the torch stick and was struck across the face by the blunt hard metal end of the second assassin's staff. The blow was strong enough to crack his skull and he crumpled to the floor in a heap. The assassin spun around and smashed the head of one guard into the wall then bent low to sweep the staff in a wide arc, shattering the legs of another.

   The first assassin was a much more skillful killer. His weapon of choice, a long metal that had a small scythe blade attached to it, moved around like a living serpent, bringing death everywhere it went. He threw the blade towards one of the remaining guards and the man brought up his sword to defend the attack. The assassin then made a swift and subtle  movement with the hand holding the other end of the chain and altered the direction of the blade.

   Deflecting off the the guard's sword, the scythe blade went around him and wrapped around the neck of another man behind. A quick tug on the chain and the blade severed the man's neck halfway, spraying blood everywhere. The assassin then leapt up into the air and in an incredible display of acrobatics, rotated clockwise over the heads of everyone in the hallway with his weapon spinning around him.

   As soon as his feet touched the floor, the dismembered bodies of the slaughtered guards fell to the ground in pieces. Blood dripped from the sharp edge of the blade onto the already soaked floor. The fight now over as there were no guards alive, the assassins went toward the cell with slow careful steps. Inside the cell, the girl stumbled back from the door in an effort to put as much distance as possible between her and the dark clothed men. For the first time since her capture, she was actually glad to have been in a prison cell. Having watched the men massacre the guards who had been watching over her, she eyed them with severe caution and no small amount of fear. For all she knew, they might be worse than her initial kidnappers.

   Unfortunately her plan to hide behind the cell door fell through when the one with the reaper chain swiped the keys from one of the dead guards. With an ominous click, the door creaked open and he slipped inside only to vanish instantly into the shadows. Alarmed, the girl attempted to escape through the now open door. However before she could get farther than a few steps, a gentle yet firm blow to the back of her head knocked her out cold.

   Her eyes closed and she fell back into the arms of the assassin who lifted her up on his shoulder and came out of the small room. The man with the staff was already their recently arrived spear-wielding comrade when he saw them. Both men laid eyes on their acquired target and nodded furtively to the third man. All three slipped away from the passage in quick bursts of speed. Their mission here was over, now it was time for them to leave before things got more complicated.

                           ~~~~~~~~~

   Streaks of lightning crisscrossed the dark sky as rainclouds gathered over Shèngsuo, the accompanying boom of thunder resounding throughout the village and its environs. Below the stormy sky two swordmasters clashed together repeatedly in a fiercely matched battle. Each has their own objective; one to defeat her rival and enemy, the other merely to keep her occupied until his colleagues finished their part of the mission.

   The assassin blocked an upward slash from the woman and shifted her blade to the left, leaving her open long enough for him nearly slice her back open. She placed her sword behind her to block the hit before spinning around to deliver several rapid blows at him, each aimed at debilitating him but he parried them away skillfully and leaned back to avoid one that should have split him in half. All the while he had an infuriating smirk on his face that sent rage coursing through his opponent.

   "You've gotten better, I'll admit. But that won't be enough to best me."

As maddening as she found his words, she could not being herself to refute them. She herself could tell that this fight was going nowhere. Thus she decided to try a different tactic. "I advise you to give up now before my mistress arrives and puts an end to you."

   "She can't exactly do that if she isn't here, can she?" The assassin replied in an amused tone. His smile grew at the startled expression on the woman's face. "Her little sickness has her running around looking for a cure right now. You didn't think we'd ever find out, did you? Why do you think I'm the only one fighting you here?"

   His words resonated inside her head and she frowned as she tried to read meaning into what he had said. It still did not make sense to her. With his skill and strength, he was a definite match for her. If even one of his colleagues were to join him, they would defeat her very quickly. Yet here he was alone fighting her here.

Here.

He was fighting her here...

   The woman's eyes widened as she realized the hidden meaning behind his words. They were not here to kill her, rather they were here for something else.

Someone else more likely.

   "The sacrifice..." She hissed through clenched teeth.

   He smiled through his mask at her and pushed back harder against her blade. "Finally connecting the dots huh?"

   "I won't let you steal from my mistress," she declared vehemently.

His eyes flicked up for the briefest of instances before looking back at her, a hint of amusement clear in them. "You're going to have to try a little harder next time then."

   The woman nearly asked him what he was talking about when a rush of severe killing intent washed over her like a tidal wave. She broke their impasse and immediately stepped sideways, narrowly avoiding the spear that stabbed into the ground where she had previously been standing.

   The assassin who had been her opponent for the past several minutes swiped his katana upwards to knock her sword out of her hand. Then he and the lancer delivered a double kick to her abdomen, sending her careening backwards into a wooden shelf. She crashed into it and broke it into pieces.

   Her eyes glared daggers at the spear-wielding assassin even as pain coursed through her body. At that moment she wanted nothing more than to cut out his tongue even though she knew inside her heart that she was no match for him. Were it any other member of their little group, she was confident that she could hold her own against them. But with someone of his level facing her, she would not stand a chance.

   The lancer held his spear behind his back and attached it to its holster there. "Come on, let's go. Our work here is done."

   The defeated woman's face contorted in anger. They already secured the girl? That would most certainly not please get mistress, especially when considering the amount of effort put into capturing her in the first place.

   "My mistress will learn of this. She does not look kindly on thieves who do not know their place. You have crossed the line this time, Liu Han–"

   As soon as the name left her lips, the assassin threw his spear at her impulsively, barely managing to control himself well enough to purposefully miss her head. The spear embedded its entire head into the wall less than a centimeter away from her face. The lady was momentarily stunned at his action and inaction; he was obviously fast enough to launch the spear at such great speed yet he had not killed her yet, despite her being his enemy. It confused her so much that when he approached her to retrieve the weapon, she had to stop herself from questioning his actions.

   "That was a warning. The next time, I won't miss," he warned her coldly as he took his spear and walked away. Within him, the assassin quelled the emotional storm brewing in his soul due to the young woman's mention of his name. It was one of the few things he truly cherished in his life and was not something to be mentioned  carelessly in his presence, especially by her subordinates. Anger surged through him again at the thought of the person who ruined his life but he calmed himself quickly. Walking past his comrade, he instructed him to meet the other at their rendezvous point before vanishing into the darkness beyond the chamber's entrance. The last assassin gave the downed woman a mock salute with two fingers, then sheathed his katana and disappeared as well.

   Her upper lip curled upwards in an enraged snarl as she got up and took hold of her sword and a short thick wooden stick. Holding it tightly, she went to a circular metal plate suspended in the room by two cords tied to a horizontal bar. It was the bell that would inform every guard in the compound that there was a threat inside the area. The woman struck the bell several times to make sure the sound reached every corner of the place. Her intention was twofold: both to alert the guards as well as to present a form of mental intimidation. The thieves would not have left by now thus she intended to cause them to despair over the futility of escape. Then she turned around and left the room, her coat billowing in the air behind her and a look of vengeance on her face.

   She would return this favor some day. Her pride as a warrior demanded it. They would both feel the cold edge of her blade in death no matter how or when.

   All over the fenced area, armored guards jostled about hurriedly. They had heard the alarm and knowing what it meant, they had reacted instantly. The main entrance and excite in and out of the compound, the massive gate had been shut immediately and the guards had begun searching the buildings one by one for the intruders.

   Above them, four shadows flitted effortlessly across the rooftops with long high jumps whilst yet maintaining silence in their movement. They continued until they reached the edge if the building nearest to the tall walls that fenced the compound. The assassin with the spear stood still for a moment and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath into his lungs in a tired yet satisfied manner.

   Finally he had found a way to cripple his enemy permanently. As long as the girl they had just broken out was never recaptured, she would never accomplish her plans.

   The sound of a sneak attack aimed at him from behind snapped the assassin back to reality and he spun around to catch the arrow flying towards his head. His eyes found the archer instantly as she had not even bothered to hide. The woman he has spared before stood on the corridor of the middle tower's highest floor, her bowstring still vibrating steadily from the arrow she had shot in vain. Her dark eyes were were full of an unforgiving fire and she rapidly notched another arrow to fire again.

   Opposite her, the assassin frowned behind his mask. He was already beginning to regret sparing her life. Beside him, the other assassin made to draw his katana but he stopped him with his hand.

   "No. Not yet at least. There is still time. We will leave with what we have and come back another time to finish this once and for all," he spoke with a note of finality in his voice.

   His comrade obeyed and retuned his half drawn sword to its black sheath. The head assassin then launched the arrow back to the woman and she deflected it with the bow in her hand. When she looked back again, the assassins were already gone. A streak of lightning flashed in the sky above her, the opening sound to a deluge of rain that began to pour down on the village below. She watched a raindrop fall from the roof to the floor before turning around and sauntering back inside, slamming the door behind her in a fit of rage.