The Master

Among the worgen summoned by Archmage Arugal, there was an exceptionally tall and sturdy one named Worgen. He was the strongest being in the pack. Controlling him meant indirectly controlling the other worgen.

After crafting several armbands imbued with special magical powers, Arugal successfully controlled Worgen while he was satiated, thus achieving his desire. Now that Dustwallow Marsh was becoming increasingly unsafe, he was preparing to move to a new location to avoid the limelight.

Ahri found Arugal's hiding place at this very moment.

Although the other worgen were naturally fearful of her, when hundreds of them gathered together, her power could no longer deter these beasts. Especially these obedient worgen, upon seeing her approach, immediately began summoning their brethren to intercept the intruder.

"Looks like I need to find some helpers too." Ahri quietly retreated and sent signals to the other assassins.

Evelynn was the first to arrive. She had already noticed the anomalies in the surroundings. After finding Ahri, she revealed herself: "I wouldn't have guessed, you're also good at tracking?"

"Of course, I've been here for a while now!" Ahri would never admit that she had just stumbled upon it by pure luck.

However, when she was still a fox, she was indeed very good at tracking prey and the like. But after transforming into a human form, she gradually began to dislike doing those things—she only needed to be a quiet and beautiful girl, and countless 'prey' would naturally come to her door.

"Isn't it just good luck?" At this moment, Talon also sneaked in. He had also found some clues nearby and believed that it wouldn't be long before he could find his way here, but who knew that he would ultimately lose to a 'pretty face'!

Although those who regarded Ahri as a pretty face were all played around by her, Talon was still somewhat frustrated that he was surpassed by the amateur Ahri in a professional field.

If any other assassin had found this place first, he would have only felt that he was slightly inferior or unlucky, but he never expected that it would be Ahri.

"Luck is also part of strength. What do you think, don't you think this makes a lot of sense, Talon?" Ahri said with a smile, her expression as cunning as a fox.

Talon's face immediately darkened. He really couldn't refute this sentence.

Before long, Shaco the Demon Jester, Zed, and Akali also arrived. Zed and Akali, both ninjas, had deep-seated grudges against each other, and neither would admit defeat. However, they were the two farthest from the actual destination, and in the end, it could only be said that it was a draw.

Seeing that everyone had arrived, Evelynn said, "Now that everyone's here, let's each show our skills!"

Talon suddenly said, "How about we make a deal—each person only makes one move, and see who succeeds first!"

Not being the first to track down Arugal and letting Ahri take the lead made Talon feel very unbalanced. He wanted to find an opportunity to prove himself again, so he came up with this idea.

"That suits me well." Zed's voice sounded muffled through his mask.

"Let's make this quick." Talon flicked his cloak, disappearing into the air with a determined look.

"This is going to be fun, let's go!" Shaco turned into a cloud of smoke with his signature eerie laugh.

Akali walked last. She held a pair of kama and, noticing that Ahri was still standing leisurely in place, asked curiously, "Aren't you going in, Ahri?"

As heroes from Ionia, their relationship was quite good.

"You guys go ahead, this kind of fighting and killing isn't for me!" Ahri emphasized the purpose of her trip, "I'm just here for a stroll."

Akali glanced at her with her big eyes, saying nothing. She didn't believe that Ahri would really be so obedient. No one could avoid being deceived by this cunning fox, not even her friends.

"I'm serious this time. Sigh, never mind if you don't believe me." Ahri sighed, stretching languidly, showing off her seductive figure, but there was no one to appreciate it in this wilderness.

"This place isn't fun, I should go somewhere else." Ahri muttered to herself, leaving the place and heading south.

—

Assassins value a single, decisive strike, and unnecessary battles should be avoided at all costs.

The five top assassins who infiltrated Arugal's hiding place all knew this truth. Moreover, there was already a "gentleman's agreement" that each person would only make one move. They each used their skills, carefully avoiding the worgen patrolling the area.

These worgen had keen senses of smell and very strong intuition. Even a slight scent or a faint sound would easily expose them. Even staring at the worgen for a few extra seconds while sneaking around could be sensed by them.

If an ordinary assassin were to come here, infiltrating Arugal's side without alarming any of the worgen would be harder than ascending to heaven. Moreover, the Alliance's search was very tight recently, and Arugal had also set up various magical alarms and traps, which were even more troublesome than the worgen.

But the five assassins from Valoran were all top experts who had experienced countless assassinations and attempts. These things could stop newbies and veterans, but not true masters.

Evelynn, with her unique advantages, was the first to find Arugal's residence. Even demons and undead with specialized anti-invisibility measures could hardly detect her stealth, let alone these worgen?

Just as she bypassed the various dense magical traps and was about to sneak into the cabin to assassinate him, an unusual noise came from inside—just as Arugal was preparing to flee and go elsewhere to avoid the limelight!

He took the werewolf leader Worgen with him as a bodyguard. Just as he stepped out of the threshold, the fiercest wolf inhaled, then bared his teeth and growled threateningly.

Worgen sensed danger!

Although he did not find any definite traces, his intuition, or rather, the gift from the wolf god Goldrinn, made him vigilant.

"What's wrong, Worgen?" Arugal heard his bodyguard's growl. He immediately sensed something was wrong. Seeing the other party baring his teeth and the wary glint in his wolf eyes, he immediately realized that an enemy must have approached!

The days of living in fear had made Arugal's nerves very sensitive. He immediately cast a magical shield on himself. But just then, Evelynn struck. She suddenly emerged from the shadows, launching a surprise attack directly from behind Arugal!

Her sharp claws carried a faint and hidden purple energy, fiercely grabbing at the magical shield. The ground suddenly sprouted a row of spikes, stabbing at Arugal and Worgen.

Evelynn's claws immediately pierced Arugal's magical shield, and with only a slight hindrance, their momentum did not diminish, continuing to claw at Arugal's back.

Arugal broke out in a cold sweat. He could almost feel the pain of those claws piercing his skin, but because he was prepared, he used Flash at the last moment to get away.

"Worgen!" he shouted, appearing dozens of yards away. Although the claws had not actually harmed him, he was still in shock. If he had been half a second slower, or even less, he would have become a corpse on the ground.

The giant wolf Worgen immediately pounced on Evelynn, and the other worgen around also pounced over at the leader's howl.

Arugal saw the figure of the assassin, a blue-skinned woman with fiery red hair, wearing red leather straps that barely covered her shame, revealing an unusually hot figure.

But remembering that claw just now, he only felt that this woman was as deadly as a venomous snake.

Seeing Worgen pounce over, Evelynn glanced at Arugal with her silver-white pupils, giving him a meaningful look, then disappeared into the air again.

She followed the agreement and did not continue to chase.

This glance made Arugal's hair stand on end. He quickly cast a stronger shield on himself and fled into the distance.

The next part of the journey was the most thrilling in Arugal's life. He had barely taken two steps when two throwing knives suddenly flew towards him. A cloaked man flashed up almost immediately, preparing to cut his throat with a knife. Arugal urgently used a life-saving scroll, casting an extra layer of frost armor on himself to barely block the throat-cutting blade, narrowly escaping.

But before he could catch his breath, a petite green figure in the distance suddenly turned into a string of phantoms, rushing towards him. Of course, it was Akali who had appeared after Evelynn launched her attack, preparing to strike.

Seeing Talon fail, she immediately rushed forward. Arugal was caught off guard and Akali entangled him, her pair of deadly kama blades aiming for his throat and spellcasting wrist with precision and lethality.

Arugal had no choice but to discard his spellcasting staff to protect his more valuable hand, and used every trick he knew to evade the attack, but the real "catastrophe" arrived.

"Zed, the Master of Shadows," had learned forbidden techniques and was adept at using shadows and illusions to assassinate his targets, just like his catchphrase—the unseen blade is the deadliest!

Arugal had just approached a tree when the tree's shadow came to life, turning into a figure lunging at him.

Arugal was terrified as a worgen pounced, only to be directly shattered into pieces by the shadow! The shadow could actually kill!

Arugal suddenly felt that every shadow in the dense forest concealed murderous intent, each capable of transforming into a shadow assassin to take his life. Fortunately, Alpha Prime Vorgan protected him with his life, allowing him to survive Zed, the Master of Shadows' assassination attempt.

He ran wildly for a long time without anyone catching up, and he thought he had escaped, but just as that thought crossed his mind, a clownish weirdo emerged from a cloud of khaki smoke, asking in a bizarre tone, "How was my grand disappearing act?"

Arugal was instantly engulfed in despair.

"You didn't like it? I'm so sad." The clown cried exaggeratedly. He suddenly turned manic, throwing a poisoned dagger at Arugal and screeching, "Then die! Those who don't appreciate my magic must die!"

Before Arugal could react and try to escape, the dagger pierced his shoulder. Although it didn't go in very deep, it was coated with deadly poison.

"Farewell, my audience." Shaco, the Demon Jester, bowed with utmost politeness, before turning into a cloud of yellow smoke as he bent over and disappeared without a trace.

A numbing sensation was rapidly spreading from the wound on his shoulder. Arugal was unwilling to die like this, and he desperately ran in fear, all his fantasies and ambitions now turned into a pathetic joke.

In this moment, he felt like he was the real clown.

---

In fact, each of these five top assassins possessed the ability to kill Arugal, but Talon's "gentleman's agreement" increased the difficulty of the assassination. Moreover, Arugal was well-prepared, a mage with endless tricks up his sleeve, and had a large number of worgen protecting him. Therefore, the four of them only managed to exhaust some of his life-saving measures.

The four who "failed" gathered together.

Evelynn chuckled, "What's this, a draw?"

Talon was a little embarrassed, "Shaco is behind us, he should have succeeded."

Akali said, "Let's go check it out. If Arugal really escapes, it won't just be a matter of winning or losing, we'll be disgraced throughout the League of Legends!"

She was right. If five top assassins couldn't kill an ordinary mage from Dalaran, it would be truly embarrassing and they wouldn't be able to hold their heads up in front of the commander.

The four of them gave chase, and soon saw the Demon Jester skipping back.

"He's been hit by my poisoned dagger, hee hee, do you think he can survive?" Shaco cackled.

He became the final victor of the bet, with the assassinations of the previous four all paving the way for his success. He was very happy about this.

Akali was still a little worried and said, "Let's go check it out, what if he has some way to detoxify?"

Arugal actually didn't have any way to detoxify, but someone did help him remove the clown's deadly poison. This should have been terrible news for the five assassins, but the person who helped Arugal detoxify was not his friend, but an enemy.

Because the person who detoxified him was Ahri, who happened to be passing by—she really didn't intend to interfere with the assassination, she was just casually strolling south. But this also happened to be the direction Arugal was escaping—of course, he couldn't go north or west, that would be throwing himself into the net. The east was the Endless Sea, and without a ship, it was a dead end. Although the entrance to Thousand Needles to the south was guarded by goblin mercenaries from Gadgetzan, Arugal alone had ways to slip through.

Therefore, he could only escape south. After being poisoned by the clown, he tried various ways to detoxify, but none of them could stop the spread of the poison, and he didn't even dare to pull out the dagger. Because if the wound was not treated, the heavy bleeding would quickly sap his strength. He was still staggering along, but it was only driven by instinct, because he didn't know what else he could do besides run.

Ahri ran into Arugal under these circumstances.

She immediately saw that Shaco's dagger was stuck in the other person's shoulder, so the identity of this battered mage was obvious.

Ahri almost immediately used her Charm, and the unsuspecting Arugal was immediately hit. The charming Ahri in front of him turned into the woman he had secretly loved for over thirty years in his eyes—

"Modera? You…"

Archmage Modera, one of the six members of the Kirin Tor Council, didn't even know that she had become the object of Arugal's secret love for decades. She wouldn't have known that Arugal had worked so hard to prove himself in order to have enough status and strength to be worthy of her.

Unfortunately, Arugal chose the wrong target to pursue. Modera was the most powerful female mage in all of Dalaran, and her talent and strength were beyond Arugal's reach. Moreover, she was one of the rulers of Dalaran? If Arugal wanted to attract her attention through status and strength, he would at least have to reach a height similar to that of Archmage Antonidas.

When Arugal realized that the gap between the two was getting bigger and bigger, and that it was almost impossible for him to achieve his goal through normal channels, he embarked on the dangerous path of studying the notes of his predecessors on summoning worgen.

In Arugal's eyes, Ahri had turned into the incomparably gentle Modera—although the real Modera had never been like this, and had hardly ever spoken a few words to Arugal, Arugal couldn't tell the difference between truth and falsehood. He almost completely let go of his defenses, and with tears in his eyes, he poured out all the hidden thoughts he had kept hidden for so many years.

In the past half month or so, after the worgen curse broke out, he had been living under immense pressure at all times, worrying every day that an assassin from the Alliance would suddenly jump out and kill him with a knife, or that the Alliance's punitive expedition would surround him and chop him into pieces.

"Oh, what a poor old man!" Ahri was touched listening from the side.

To secretly love someone for more than thirty years, watching her go from a beautiful girl to an old woman without regret, this can no longer be described as infatuation.

It should be described as "perverted"!

Ahri pitied this guy and felt that he still had value, so she gave him the antidote. After all, if Arugal cooperated, the Alliance's operation to encircle the worgen would be much smoother, which would be much better than killing Arugal directly.

When the other five assassin heroes chased over, they saw a mentally and physically exhausted, healed, and defenseless Arugal lying on the ground sleeping soundly. Ahri was bored and staying beside him, teasing the butterflies flying in the swamp.

What kind of scene was this? Their imaginations were not enough to understand it at all.

Talon was stunned—it could be said that it was luck to find Arugal's hiding place by chance, but was it also luck to block him?

When Ahri saw them coming, she breathed a sigh of relief and said, "You guys are finally here—this guy is already my prisoner! He should still be useful, would some gentleman please take him back to the camp?"

"Could it be that Ahri is the real hidden assassin master?"

Talon looked at the innocent Ahri with the eyes of an assassin. If this was true, then Ahri had definitely reached the realm of returning to simplicity—she could complete the assassination without stealth, and the result was even better than killing the other party.

Because Arugal had willingly surrendered and helped the Alliance appease those out-of-control worgen.

Just as Chromie had revealed to Aiden in advance, the worgen disaster was perfectly resolved.