XXXI. Art of Stealth

...I ALMOST GOT KILLED!"

"Hah?" Endi said as he looked towards Kalios, alongside with everyone else. "What the hell are you saying dumbass?.."

His usual calmness was a bit disrupted this morning, Endi then demanded Kalios to explain further with casual expression.

"IT'S TRUE! I SAW IT MYSELF! IT WAS A BLACK— S- SHADOWY... FIGURE...." Kalios tried to remember the appearance of the one who choked him last night, but he seems to have some struggle with it since it happened so quickly. "S- SHIT.. Who was it again!?... I- im sure i saw his face.."

Hearing his vague respond that basically amounts to nothing, Endi and some of the others in the shack sighed in disappointment, he then said, "You can't even remember the face of someone who almost killed you? Maybe you should've just died last night." While his cheeks leaned on his palm.

"That's not convincing enough, how can we believe you when you don't even know who it is– Also the front door are always locked, no one could enter except that bastard's subordinate, if it's one of us, shouldn't you know who it is?." Carsel decided to get into the conversation, his eyebrows furrowed as if he wants to believe Kalios's story, but he also can't brush off the possibility of it being fake. "You said that 'guy' tried to choke you right? Is there any proof of it? Maybe there's some marks on your neck."

When Kalios heard Deon's words, he quickly showed him his neck as if he had been waiting for someone to ask that question. Scythe also took a quick glance at it, since Kalios's hair wasn't long, his neck can be seen easily, and even just taking a short glance can make someone notice the slightly redder skin that revolves around his neck, it's almost undetectable, but fortunately Scythe had a sharp vision on his eyes.

It seems like, his story might not be a bluff after all.

"I- I know i should've saw his face, but the truth is, that mysterious man choked me until i went unconcious– And i was lucky that he didn't kill me right at that moment— HERE!" Kalios shouted while he pointed his finger at the red mark on his neck.

"What!? That doesn't make any sense you shitfuck, why would that mysterious killer stop? Any normal killer would've finished their target the moment they're unconcious, there's no one that could see them too since we're all sleeping.." Deon suddenlu responded with a bit of anger and confusion.

Swoop!

"That's enough." Scythe suddenly grabbed Kalios's shirt and pulled him closer while sighing. "This is most likely the same perpetrator as Vedra's murder– This might be more serious than i thought, there's no way magic is being used, since you can't identify that mysterious man, he's definitely skilled at stealth."

"Also, this might be wrong, but if he's the same killer who killed Vedra, then that means he probably followed one rule, and that is to not leave any evidence of his involvement, Vedra died without any sign of suffocation, or injuries, and since this guy right here noticed him in the act, he messed up and created some marks on him– This shows that the perpetrator is either a perfectionist, or he has some fear about being caught, after all.. You all know what this place is, right?."

"The same killer? Really?" Said Deon.

"Uhh, it's kind of scary to think that that killer is here right now.. Who do you think is it?" Zayn suddenly spoke up after being quiet for some time.

"How would i know?" Deon responded in a mocking way.

"Hoohh.. Stealth huh, if they can use it without magic then they must have been an assassin before arriving in this place" Endi said, his relaxed voice sounded like he's interested but also not caring, he chuckled a little bit at the thought of someone being an assassin. "Heh, being an Assassin at 16 or 17 years old is quite mad."

"Yeah i know right?" Hughen replied to Endi, being the opposite of him and always putting up a smile on his face, Hughen also seems to be interested with uncovering the real killer of Vedra. "I once heard that you need atleast years to even learn basic stealth that erases your footstep without magic."

From the sound of it Stealth might be a simple concept, but there's actually a deeper and more complex way of using it, all around the world, people usually use magic to be stealthy, it's not uncommon to see someone using a presence erasing magic or ghost footstep, but what about those who can't use magic? For most, magics are nothing but a dream that they can temporarily have with magic crystals, if they want to sneak into dangerous places without being seen or noticed, they'd have to learn something for themselves.

That's when actual Stealth comes in, called Stealth Arts by many, unlike stealthy spells that requires magic and mana, stealth arts can be learned by everyone, similar to Aura.

The simplest way to explain stealth arts is that, someone will have to master various different techniques that uses either illusion, or manipulative way to fool the target's field of vision and hearing, for example the most basic technique in stealth arts is ghost footstep, like the name implies, this technique will allows you to remove the sound of your footstep almost entirely.

Someone with exceptional hearing could probably hear it, but it will be so faint that they might just dismissed it as the sound of leaves falling to the ground. This technique requires you to master how your feets move as it walks or run.

When a normal person takes a step forward, their back foot will most likely stepped on the ground first, even if you try to remove the thudding sound, you can still feel the vibration on your body, that alone is enough distinction from normal sounds you'd typically hear around you, making it obvious that a human was nearby to those who have exceptional hearing.

But if you step with your front foot first, especially the part where your metarsals bone is located, then you can eliminate the thudding vibration, now imagine if you have to do this but with boots or shoes, that'd be much more difficult since those have a much more different texture and properties than an actual foot.

Assassin's who wants to master this technique will have to find their most efficient location to their ghost step, each person's foot is different in size and length, so finding your perfect spot to perform ghost step is necessary, after that you only have to transfer that spot onto your footwears and get a feel of it while walking or running.

This is much harder than it sounds, running while erasing your footstep is almost impossible, yet given enough dedication and practice, people always found a way to break that wall.

"But erasing your presence is a considerably high-level technique, who in the world has that kind of skill in here? We're all only 18 years old at max.." Said Seir, he seems to know a little thing about Stealth arts.

Calea who's been keeping quiet about all of this, decided to also think about any possibilities of someone being the perpetrator, the only question now is, who is it?