CH 13 - Death's Hand

Henry

Henry stood at the ready, arrow notched and drawn, as the door opened. He released the arrow, and the man on the other side easily deflected it with a spear. His bloodlust was unmistakable. This was the leader of Death's Hand running this attack.

His uniform was even more of a dead giveaway. He wore black armor with a tattered crimson surcoat at his shoulder and waist that made it look like he was pouring blood. His skull helm with a skeletal hand clutching gave the appearance that Henry was facing a death knight.

Henry scowled, notched, fired. The man ducked around it and rushed forwards, spear dragging behind as he sliced into Henry's hardwood floors.

He went for Henry's throat, and so Henry batted his spear away with his mana bow and with the other hand blasted his helm with radiant light, turning the skull from a steel white to bright red in seconds.

The man screamed, pushing Henry back with enough force to send him slamming into the window overlooking the courtyard, cracking it severely. Henry groaned as he fell to the space behind the bed, barely catching himself. The assassin wastes no time. Going into a flurry of strikes that would kill a troll in seconds.

Luckily, Henry was a trained assassin himself, and was no slouch when it came to martial combat. He dismissed his bow and ducked, dodged, and used Gold magic to enhance counterblows. He noted that it felt like his magic was being messed with somehow, because he was feeling every counteract more than he should have with Gold magic boosting it.

The man tries to go for kill shot after kill shot. A stab to the heart, a disemboweling, a nick of the jugular. Henry avoids death tens of times in a matter of seconds, with nary an opportunity to regain the advantage.

He needed to change things, so he decided to take a risk. Henry ducked, vaulted and rolled behind the assassin, all while gathering his mana. He imagined what he wanted to do, and began applying Gold to the mana pool formed within himself.

"Do you think I'd let that happen?"

The man moves with inhuman speed, and Henry swears as he is forced to release the spell earlier than he wanted. It meant instead of a Royal holy lance spell, he barely got a Master.

A beam of hardened light in the shape of a spear shoots out at the spearman, but Henry could hear him laugh as he easily deflected it and sent it through the cracked window.

The man stabbed at the Lord's heart, but Henry managed to catch it in a web of light strands that he summoned and intertwined between his fingers and the spearhead.

"You're one roach of a Lord! You just refuse to die!" He was cackling, enjoying every second of this.

"Who sent you?" Henry groaned as he struggled against his attacker. He was trying to wrench his spear back. Henry thought it best to keep him talking while he thought of his next move.

"Sorry, but that would be bad form. Can't sell out my clients. Surely you of all people get it?"

Henry smirked. "Heh, you know more than you ought to. What happened to the members of Death's Hand being erased from any and all records upon end of service?"

The man let go of his spear, followed up with a spartan kick directly to Henry's face, cracking his nose and sending him flying back to the ground. His spell was dispelled.

"Rules changed with the leadership. The old way led to our near ruin, but now? Our members are paid handsomely, and we sometimes get to go after you nobles. By the way, where is the wifey? I need to check on the goods."

Henry growled, because he didn't want to believe it. He started to stand, but the killer dashed forwards and grabbed him by the throat. He lifted him clean off the ground with one hand, despite Henry unleashing a barrage of hardened light daggers onto him.

"I guess I should say, I never needed to block or dodge your spells. My armor is completely magic nullifying. My death will only come by steel or someone with the right Blessing. Neither of which are you." He started slowly closing his fist, cackling as there was an audible crunch.

Henry began healing himself, giving a harsh glare to the skull face.

"Where is Sila, milord? I will get tired of asking soon, so hurry up."

Henry spat on his helm. "Screw you, and screw Ares!"

He gasped as he heard Emilia scream. The assassin chuckled coldly in response. "Well, since you guessed it, I'll go ahead and tell you that the Lord's ward is in there right now, making your daughter his bitch. I'm sure he'll have a lot of fun breaking in such a young and supple toy. He even had your little mage be delivered to him, so he could see it all first hand. He'll slice her little boyfriend's throat as he finishes, and make her watch it all!"

Henry knew he was trying to rile him up, but he said the one thing that brought peace to his heart. "Then you've already lost."

"What?"

"That little mage is without a doubt in my mind, a bonafide Miracle. If you didn't kill him when he was vulnerable, then you've already lost." Henry cracked a wicked smile and laughed in the assassin's face. "You idiots! That boy is favored by the gods!"

Dainn

I walked down the hall back to the master bedroom, Emilia just behind me in her pajamas. She had her bow ready, and that made me feel a bit better about what we were about to walk into despite her never having touched one before today. It was in her blood, after all.

We reached the door, and I looked at her. She nodded, confirming she had my back without needing to say it.

I wondered what was going on. Why this attack was happening, though he knew Yanxa had to be involved. Through my investigation, I learned he was a Spear Executioner, and formally a B-rank adventurer.

In short: he was highly dangerous. I knew we had to be careful. Still, there was no other way to start than by entering, so we did.

I saw Yanxa holding Henry up by the throat with his left hand, and had already stabbed him three times with his spear. As much as I hated to admit why I knew this, I could tell they were all flesh wounds. Nothing major was hit, so he would live if given proper treatment.

I saw that Henry was trying to heal himself, though he was definitely low on mana and slowing.

"Yanxa!" I yelled, grabbing his attention, even as Emilia shot an arrow and I sent forth a Master level ember spell. He didn't even flinch as her arrow struck his helm and my flames dispersed harmlessly on his steel plate.

"Huh, so I see two kids, but not the one working with me. Let me guess, you knocked him out? And Sedrik, is he caught as well?"

I smirk callously. "I'm sorry? This is an attack, is it not, on the House of Hera? Forgive me if you weren't aware," I narrowed my eyes with a sick glee so only he could see, "But we don't take prisoners."

He laughed. I sent forth three Royal Green spells, manipulating nature magic to send forth three air slashes that destroyed the floor as they flew at him, avoiding Henry, and slicing at his wrists and jugular.

The air dispersed upon contact with his armor again. Emilia tried shooting him a few times to no avail.

"Try all you want you little psychos, but no children can stop Yanxa the Death Lance!"

"Emilia," I said as a thought came to mind, "fire one more time."

She nodded. Drawing one of her last five arrows, she notched and fired it. As it flew, I used Silver magic to send it to the void. The next part required finesse, but I visualized the exit being put in the gap between his armor and his unprotected torso beneath. I aimed right above the heart, going for a one shot kill.

In just two seconds, I opened the exit, and he gasped. He dropped Henry and fell to one knee, clutching his chest. "You bastards! How is this-" he coughed, and blood began seeping out from beneath the skull helmet. "How was that possible!"

I stepped forward, and he gripped his spear and used it to stand, stopping me in my tracks. "You think that's enough? I am Yanxa!" He started running forwards, and I used Green magic to make the wooden floorboards reach out and grab his ankles.

He stumbled for only a second before he sliced through them with his spear without even looking back. He took a giant step, closed the distance, and slammed the shaft into my gut. I coughed, and went to the ground. I waited for the death blow, but it didn't come.

Why wouldn't he-

"Emilia!" I screamed as it clicked in my head. I struggled to my feet, commanding the floorboards to turn me and face him. He had her by the wrist and was holding her off the ground, his spear held underneath her throat.

He laughed, and I channeled Purple magic through me, activating speedster mode. My mana started burning fast, so I acted faster. I dashed forwards, balled my hand into a fist and punched him square in the nuts, using the speed of my Purple magic and encasing my fist in compacted air with Green magic.

My fist slammed into his armored groin, and I realized my mistake. I had already figured out his armor dispelled magic, so I should have known this would be no different. My knuckles, wrist, nearly every bone in my hand really, completely shattered as I slammed my fist into him with the speed of a bullet,

The pain was… exquisite.

"Hahaha! That was something, I almost felt that blow! You sure got moxie,kid!" He dropped the spear and grabbed me by the back of my collar. "This was fun, so I think I'll give you slow, agonizing deaths!"

He carried us as we struggled to the shattered window, walking around the bed and then let us see into the courtyard below. A pile of corpses lay down there, all the security hired for today's event, save for Yanxa's men who all died in the manor during the attack.

All in all, they had more people left, but this man was truly a monster. Even alone, he was seemingly unstoppable.

Yanxa threw the two of us out the window, specifically through the glass that still remained. We were in a free fall, and I tried to save Emilia by cushioning her fall with wind, but we slammed into the ground before I could.

I groaned, and saw blood pooling around me. I was covered in cuts, my head throbbed. I reached up to touch my head and winced. My skull was cracked open. I began healing, looking over at…

"Emilia?"

She wasn't moving. Blood surrounded her. I saw… "No!"

A large shard of glass was sticking out of her neck, and she was gagging on her own blood. I ran over as soon as I was able, but a kick from a black steel boot stopped me. Yanxa was here, he had jumped and followed us. He was planning to toy with us.

I couldn't breath, I was panicking. His bloodlust was overwhelming, I couldn't look away from Emilia.

He kicked me again, in the jaw. I felt the calling.

"Save your magic to heal yourself, kid. I'm gonna make this last as long as possible." 

I saw his helm hit the ground, and looked up at him. He was grinning ear to ear. He backhanded me, busting open my lip and breaking my nose. The calling was screaming to me, begging me to answer.

As he stepped on my broken hand and twisted his heel, as Emilia struggled to turn her head and look at me, I made my decision.

I answered the call.

Black smoke rose from the corpse pile, and fingers began twitching.