Isekai assassin volume 2.., p.15
Isekai Assassin: Volume 2 (A Gamelit Dark Fantasy Adventure), page 15
I stumbled as I came out of my roll but brought my hands up and managed to nail the last of the torches on the other side of the room, plunging everyone into complete darkness.
The heavy clink of metal told me the crossbowmen were reloading, but even as the noise registered, my eyes flashed with ethereal blue as Aurella’s Light took hold.
Darkness fell away as the room lit up once more, and my eyes widened as my instincts kicked in, and I dropped to the floor.
Air whistled above me as three throwing knives sailed past me.
Three of the assassins were turned toward me, and they’d tracked me because of the single moment that Aurella’s Light activated. They’d attacked me on reflex.
I’d have been impressed if I wasn’t the one they’d nearly skewered.
More of the assassins filed in and blocked off the exit as they drew arms.
I rolled and came to my feet, drawing my crossbows in the process. Both crossbow-wielding assassins had reloaded and were trying to track me in the darkness. I raised both my hands and fired, taking both of the men in the hearts, killing them quickly.
One lurched and tumbled over the railing, landing with a dull thud followed by a sharp crack as bones broke.
A few of my opponents turned at the sound and raised their arms like they were going to attack. But one reached into a pocket and pulled out a small crystal and tossed it into the center of the room.
Mana stone!
It clattered to the stone floor and cracked, sending motes of light drifting from the gem and bathing the room in a soft blue glow. It canceled Aurella’s Light, and I was forced to improvise.
I stowed the crossbows in their holsters, which wasted valuable seconds as it allowed the rest of the assassins to close the distance on me.
Three of them raised their hands, and pitch-black ooze ran from their palms and coalesced into different weapons made from shadow.
The first assassin, who only wore a pair of trousers and no shirt, charged me with two shadow daggers in his hands. He had a rough, brutish face that was all hard edges which matched his dull brown eyes.
He swung at me with two quick swipes of his daggers as his comrades attempted to get around behind me.
His blade arced for my throat, missing my flesh by an inch as I leaned back and grabbed his wrist, stopping his momentum before he could bring his blade back around.
I twisted, locking his wrist up, which elicited a howl of pain as I bent his wrist back.
Footsteps echoed on the stone behind me as the shirtless assassin fought me. He turned, trying to break the leverage I had on his arm as he brought his second blade up toward my heart.
I pivoted as his dagger snagged on my leather, slicing through it and biting into my skin. It was just a scratch, and the minute pain didn’t even register as blood slid from his blade and rippled through the air.
As his dagger cut me, the two other assassins behind me went for my exposed back.
They lunged, one with a short sword and the other with a dirk.
I let go of shirtless and shoved him into the other two as they lunged. They collided with each other and fought to regain their balance while not skewering each other at the same time.
As I tossed the man, the others in the room set up their attacks. I had eight assassins, all trying to end my life at once.
Even with my skills, I couldn’t take them all.
We’d been fighting for seconds, and I’d survived the first round of attacks. I wasn’t so sure about the next one.
As the thought crossed my mind, shadows bubbled up under my feet in a familiar way. Someone was trying to Shadow Bind me.
I had one chance to get away without being trapped.
The three assassins unwound themselves from each other as shadows rose under my feet.
I raised my empty hand towards the three of them.
“Fireball.”
A flickering flame sprouted from the center of my palm and grew as it roiled in chaos, spinning faster as it expanded. In a millisecond, a large, crackling ball of flames fully engulfed my hand before it released.
The mass of fire shot from my hand toward the three unprepared assassins and took the shirtless one in the face.
There was a rush as the fireball struck and billowed out around the assassin. As it struck, a rush of pressure rolled over us as the fireball impacted and exploded in a wave of heat and light.
It crashed over the three assassins and me in a wave of blistering heat. Screams of pain split the air as scorching flames licked their bodies, blackening their skin in an instant.
The intense flames banished the shadows at my legs just as they ensnared me. They dissolved under the light, and I threw myself to the side as soon as I was able, letting the momentum from the fireball carry me along even as voices rose around me.
“Rain of Shadows!” a gruff male assassin called out.
Right where I’d been standing, a black abyss circled the floor, and from within the darkness, thin flechettes comprised of shadows shot from the ground like a hail of arrows.
The edge of my boot wasn’t quite out of the area, and a small bolt tugged at my flesh as I narrowly avoided being peppered with spikes a thousand times.
A peal of thunder boomed through the hall and resounded off the gray stone as the scent of ozone burned in my nose.
I turned as a bright white light filled the palm of one of the female assassins who wore nothing but a pair of men’s britches and a shirt three sizes too large for her.
Lighting crackled in the center of her hands as she aimed at me.
There was fury in her eyes as a bolt of lightning arced off her skin and shot toward me.
I jumped out of the way, but the lightning followed me. I’d put my faith in the laws of physics, and I hung in the air, unable to change my direction as the lightning crashed into me.
There was nothing but pain as my body surged with electricity, and my nerves burned as they were overwhelmed with too much information. I couldn’t move for what seemed like forever as my body tried to figure out how to right itself.
I was blind to the world as nothing but white filled my vision.
Getting hit with lightning was excruciating, but the pain meant I wasn’t dead yet.
I just had to think past the pain before the assassins caught up with me.
It was time to go. If I lingered, I was going to end up dead. There was no way I could take on the rest of the guild and survive.
My pride took a hit, but staying was suicide, so I could live with a little wounded pride.
Three assassins came towards me, blades drawn. One reared back to toss a heavy throwing knife towards me.
There was a whisper of air as someone used Shade’s Rest to teleport to my shadow and come up behind me.
Oh, hell no. That’s my move.
I didn’t turn as the blade snaked around my throat. I leaned forward while tucking my chin. I brought my hand up and pushed my palm against my assailant’s wrist as the knife flashed in the low light.
With a push, I brought the knife away from my neck and gripped the assassin's arm tight in a lock as I lowered my center of gravity and threw him over my shoulder.
He came with a lurch of surprise which was followed by a grunt of pain as the throwing knife from the assassin in front of me reached us and buried itself in his body.
I let go of the bleeding assassin and backed away as more assassins closed in and held up their hands to fire off more spells.
Fuck. Shade’s Rest.
My head swam as shadows prickled over my skin, easing the pain from the lightning strike.
Slowly, my sight returned to me, and the world became inverted once more as I tried to move my body. I was nothing but a pool of darkness on the floor in a room filled with assassins casting indiscriminate magic.
I’d held my own against a dozen assassins armed with skills and magic, which was a compliment in and of itself, but I’d also dealt a critical blow to the entire guild and seriously hampered their numbers.
It wasn’t what I’d come here for, but it was good enough. Besides, the element of surprise was long gone, and I really needed to get away before my limited mana ran dry.
Casting Fireball was taxing. I could use only it three times before I ran out of mana, but I’d already used Shade’s Rest once tonight, and the second time meant I was running on fumes.
I had to leave Crescent Thorn's hideout and quickly.
The world still didn’t quite make sense to me. The bolt of lightning had really fried my brain for a moment.
I tried to reconstruct the room's layout from memory, which was considerably harder with my nerve endings screaming with pain and my head pounding as my limited mana drained with every passing millisecond. I did my best and just rushed toward the light as fast as I could.
I jumped from shadow to shadow as I went roughly in the right direction out of the room and up the stairs in an instant.
In moments, I was up to the third floor and out onto the roof as more and more of my senses returned to me.
I fought to shake off the lingering effects of electrocution and mana depletion as I leapt off the roof to a thick patch of shadow cast by the building one street over.
My mana was nearly out, but if I reappeared right now, it wouldn’t take long for the rest of the assassins to catch up to me.
So I pushed on, hopping from shadow to shadow as I left the street and moved to the next.
A dull, radiating ache spread through my body as fatigue set in, and my heart rate slowed as invisible beads of sweat ran down my face as my breathing increased and blood pounded too loud in my ears.
I’m at my limit.
But I just had to push on a little longer, get far enough away that I could put enough distance between the guild and me so there would be too much ground to cover for them to search it all.
Though it was like swimming through burning sewage the entire time, I continued for another minute, racing past three or four streets until my body couldn’t handle it any longer.
The world righted itself without my consent, and the shadows that gripped me fell away as I stumbled back into reality.
Absolute, bone-numbing exhaustion took away all of my strength, and I crashed to the ground.
Cold, unyielding stone met my face as I fell, shattering my nose as I couldn’t move my limbs enough to disperse my fall. The pain was sharp as warm blood pooled around my mouth, and hot iron teased my tongue.
A subtle breeze washed over me, chilling the rivers of sweat that poured from my body as my heart thudded a thousand beats per minute in my chest.
Though it took every last ounce of strength that I didn’t have, I managed to roll over until I hit a wall, and the bright light of the moon no longer touched my face.
I stared up at the overhanging eave of the building I rested under and tried very hard not to pass out.
I’d trained my body to withstand worse punishment, so I fought to keep awake.
If I pass out here, then I’m as good as dead. Crescent Thorn or some guard will stumble over my body, and that’ll be it.
I can’t afford to die. Not in some alley. That’s not how I’m going to go.
After a time, my breathing stabilized enough where the thought of standing was only excruciating instead of impossible.
I rose to my knees and stumbled back down as a wave of vertigo took my body out from under me.
The second time went as much as the first.
But after ten or fifteen attempts, I managed to stumble up and stand on my own two feet without collapsing.
As I rose, I glanced around to get my bearings, only to discover that I was completely lost. I hadn’t yet learned the layout of Odra, and I had no clue where I was.
A random alley wasn’t much to go on, but I couldn’t stay. I wasn’t nearly as far enough away from the guild as I needed to be.
So, step after shaky step, I left the alley and walked along a deserted road that housed several small shops.
At the very end of the street, given a wide berth by the rest of the buildings, was a leather tanner.
Even though it had long closed, the ungodly scent watered my eyes, and my nose tried to close on its own as I approached.
Though I’ll probably never get the smell out, no one would think to look for me here.
The smell alone kept people far away. Even normal citizens wouldn’t like to go near it unless they had to.
With one last gulp of fresh air, I started breathing through my mouth and entered the tanner's property. I skirted the main building and went around back to where several wooden sheds were located.
I picked one at random and went inside.
It was dark, cramped, and reeked from the numerous hides of animals that were strung up on racks drying, but it was relatively clean save for the spots of dried blood on the floor.
I sat back against the wall and tugged off my stolen cloak. I used it as a blanket and sat on it as I glanced down at my armor.
Blood ran heavily down my right arm from Thorn’s blade that was stuck in my bicep. It’d pierced the leather and my skin with ease and sunk deep.
I gripped the leather of my left hand with my teeth and yanked the blade out, biting back a curse. Spots appeared in my vision as more vertigo caused my head to spin, and a cold chill clawed up my spine.
The knife clattered to the floor as I pulled out a small recovery potion and some bandages. I didn’t have time to immediately stitch the wound, but the potion would speed up the healing, and the bandages would stop the blood loss.
It was awkward, but I managed to bind the wound and then guzzle down the potion.
After that, the pulse of battle left me, and the fatigue from draining my mana caught up to me.
The strain on my body was intense, and I hadn’t even checked on the damage done by the lightning. But I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer.
My eyelids started shutting on their own as I leaned back and let the fatigue and exhaustion overtake me.
Chapter 13- Library of Magic
When I came to, it was only a few hours later. Grayish blue early morning sky peeked through the wooden boards of the shed.
I ached everywhere, and even breathing was excruciating. It was a full-body agony that told me how close I’d come to death the night before.
And I wanted a challenge. Well, I certainly got it at the end.
With a snort, I sat up and gingerly checked myself over.
As soon as I pressed my hands to my chest and stomach, a fierce burn robbed me of my breath.
“Fuck!” I hissed on reflex and sucked in a breath.
It hurt like hell to stand, but somehow I managed and glanced down at my armor. The leather around my chest was cracked and blackened, singed at the edges, and the metal latten underneath was more of the same. There was a hole going all the way to my skin, and though it was going to hurt like a bitch, I needed to see the damage.
Hurt was too mild of a word.
Even with the recovery potion, everything screamed as I began the painstaking process of stripping out of my armor.
By Weilin, it was fucking miserable as I stripped out of my gear. Each motion sent waves of pain through me so fierce I wanted to vomit, but I held it in, and soon, I was out of it. I pulled it off and threw it in a fit of frustration. It smacked against the wooden wall and slid down it to rest on the floor.
As I looked down at my chest, I marveled at the fact I was still alive.
I’d taken more damage than I’d thought.
Where the lightning had struck, right over my heart, was nothing but blackened and pink skin that had been charred as black burns spread over my entire chest.
The healing potion I’d drunk a few hours earlier had started to help, but there wasn’t much it could do in the face of such destruction.
I still had full functionality, though I wished I hadn’t with how much it burned every time I breathed or moved my shoulders.
And then there were the plethora of smaller wounds that I didn’t remember receiving.
A few nicks and punctures along my sides and back, which had started healing, but as I‘d taken off my armor, I’d opened up most of the wounds again.
Blood ran in rivulets down my skin and pooled beneath me.
I was going to have to treat the wounds before I did anything else. I pulled out my medical kit from my dimension ring and downed another recovery potion along with a hint of the Vitae that Angela had given me before I took out my suture kit.
I sterilized the needle with Ember, though using magic brought a fit of coughing, and bile rose in my throat, but I pushed it down and got to work stitching up my wounds.
I put a piece of leather in my mouth to keep from screaming, but a short while later, I’d stitched up all of the wounds I could reach and managed to at least slather some healing salve on the ones on my back that were a bitch to reach.
When I was done, I finally looked at the blinking light in the corner of my vision. I was betting a mountain of notifications were waiting for me, and I was right.
2 Killed: 200 Exp!
1 Wounded: 50 Exp!
Your Hand-to-Hand skill has increased by 1! [Hand-to-Hand: 24 (Novice)] +25 Exp!
Fireball has increased by 1! [Fireball: 3] +25 Exp!
Your Archery skill has increased by 1! [Archery: 10 (Novice)] +25 Exp!
Your Agility has increased by 1! [Agility: 49] +100 Exp!
Your Shade’s Rest skill has increased by 1! [Shade’s Rest: 4 (Novice)] +25 Exp!
Your Wisdom has increased by 1! [Wisdom: 25] +100 Exp!
Your Endurance has increased by 1! [Endurance: 37] +100 Exp!
Your Constitution has increased by 1! [Constitution: 27] +100 Exp!
Your Durability has increased by 1! [Durability: 26 (Journeyman)] +50 Exp!
Your Recovery has increased by 1! [Recovery: 13 (Novice)] +25 Exp!
Your Medicine(Self-care) skill has increased by 1! [Medicine(Self-care): 4 (Novice)] +25 Exp!
Ah. That explains why I’m still kicking. I chuckled, which was agony. I knew my masochistic training would pay off, but then again, I wasn’t expecting to take a bolt of lightning in the chest either.
