Chapter 82

  Unending Assassins

  A few moments earlier, before Erin had her dream encounter with the shadowy figure, the other members of the group had been transporting the injured redhead towards the place where an actual healer was supposed to be located. From what they had been told, this healer had secluded herself to a nearby hill that had an actual forest.

  While seeing any kind of plants was very rare in the Western Continent, there were areas where grass, trees and other plants would grow. The most likely reason for the healer to set up her home there was so that she could use the plants for medicines, as healing magic wouldn’t always be able to cure the things that might be affecting your body.

  Whatever the reason might be, Erin’s friends knew that if they wanted to save her, they needed to find professional help for her. So far, this healer was the only option they had.

  Having made it to the bottom of the hill, the group began the long climb up. For some of them, the sight of actual natural plants was so rare that they couldn’t help but marvel at the nature surrounding them. This was at least the case with Ryle and Arkay.

  “Wow… You know, I always knew about forests and such, but seeing one for real is different,” Ryle said in amazement. “I guess you can look at pictures and hear descriptions all your life, but it never beats the real thing?”

  “You said it. I’ve lived pretty much my whole life in the badlands, so I never saw actual plants outside of the few that were grown for crops and such,” Arkay said as he knelt next to a flower to observe it more closely. “Do you think the other continents have far more plants than the forests here?”

  “Definitely. My tribe actually lived in a forest area, but there wasn’t much variety when it came to the plants that we had around,” Durge said with a small smile. “From what I understand, only the toughest of plants can survive in these parts. The other continents have much more to offer in terms of nutrition, so there are way more plants than what we have.”

  “I hate to break your little plant club meeting, but can we please focus?” Lexton suddenly said in an irritated tone. “May I remind you all that we need to get Erin treated as soon as possible? Every moment we waste is going to hurt her chances of survival so we don’t have time to waste!”

  While Arkay looked down in shame, both Ryle and Durge glared at the kobold a bit, having found his tone and attitude unnecessary and rude. But while the orc was willing to let it go, the blonde didn’t feel like doing so.

  “Hey, no need to be a dick!” Ryle shouted angrily. “We are well aware of what Erin’s going through, so you don’t need to remind any of us! We were just admiring the scenery a bit and nothing else! What’s wrong with that!?”

  “What’s wrong with it is that we have to focus everything we have to saving Erin’s life!” Lexton shouted back. “Don’t you idiots understand that with every second we waste, we are getting one step closer to losing her!?”

  “We are more than aware of that! It still doesn’t mean you get to treat any of us like shit!” the blonde argued. “Who the hell are you to talk to any of us like that anyways!? You might have a better understanding of the situation than the rest of us, but it doesn’t put you in a higher position or anything like that!”

  “...No. It doesn’t,” the kobold said. “I just know how bad my mistake was. And why it needs to be fixed as fast as possible.”

  Hearing Lexton’s reason took the others by surprise. Despite everything that they had told him, including Erin herself, it seemed that there was still someone blaming him for the redhead’s condition. That was none other than Lexton himself.

  “Lex, I know this must be tough for you, but it wasn’t your fault,” Durge said. “We all know that it was a desperate situation and that you did what needed to be done so we all could be saved. Hell, Erin herself knew the risks, since you told her yourself! No one here should be blaming you for what happened. Okay?”

  “I know that, dammit!” Lexton shouted. “I know fully well that none of you blame me! You all told me that yourselves!”

  “That’s true, but there is still someone who does blame you. Isn’t there?” the orc said. “So now that we aren’t doing that, could you possibly stop blaming yourself? Or at least consider forgiving yourself?”

  “...There’s a damn good reason why I can’t do that,” the kobold said as he grit his teeth, holding back his tears.

  Ryle was about to join the conversation, but she noticed something strange. Her nose had picked up a scent that was not natural and wasn’t coming from any of her companions. It was a bad stench that she was all too familiar with.

  It was the smell of blood and it was all around them.

  “Guys, I think we have company,” the blonde said as she carefully eyed their surroundings.

  The others, now alert to the new threat, were also looking around, wondering what they were up against this time. However, all they could see was the forest surrounding them.

  While the others couldn’t spot anything out of the ordinary, Ryle had managed to use her heightened sense of smell to locate one if their enemies. Without alerting any of the surrounding hostiles, she prepared her body for a quick lunge and began to gather her ki. In an explosion of power, the blonde dashed towards a nearby tree, breaking it in half with a powerful kick that connected with someone hiding behind it. Their body was sent flying to another tree, hitting it with such an impact that it was broken in half as well.

  Seeing as their cover had obviously been blown, the other enemies came out of hiding. Ryle and the others looked around themselves in shock, as they were now surrounded by at least two dozen opponents. All of them were wearing dark cloaks that covered their bodies completely, so you couldn’t tell anything about their appearances. They all also had the same weapons, a pair of iron claws that extended from their sleeves.

  “Well… This isn’t looking good,” Durge said as he set down the stretcher Erin was on and grabbed his warhammer. “Think these guys were sent by the Five Overlords?”

  “Probably. They don’t look like your average bandits or thugs to me,” Ryle said as she took out her whip. “Do these guys have a tracker stuck to our asses or something?”

  “I doubt that. Considering who they’re working for, they probably have a very wide information network,” Lexton said as he took out his pistol and even got a few of his vials ready. “When you take that into account, we have probably gone past at least a couple of their informants, who let them know where we would be.”

  If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  “I guess that makes sense,” Arkay said as he prepared his magic spells to be thrown at the enemies. “I just hope that this will go better than our previous battles.”

  Everyone stood still, waiting for someone to make the first move. The all of a sudden, chaos broke loose, as the battle began.

  Ryle quickly dashed towards the nearest assassin, delivering a powerful punch to his face and sending him to the ground. While she did this, she used her whip to ensnare another opponent around the neck. This allowed her to give him an electric shock and also to flung him at another group of assassins, causing them to tumble to the ground. From there, the blonde proceeded to make quick hit and run attacks on their enemies. Thanks to her fast movements and reflexes, she was able to go in for an attack and leave before she got into any real danger.

  In contrast to Ryle’s more aggressive approach, Durge took a more defensive position next to Erin. Not only did he know that the redhead needed to be watched over as she was defenseless, but he also lacked the speed to fight in a similar manner as his blonde comrade did. Instead, he waited for the assassins to come to him, when he would proceed to either push them away or crush them with his overwhelming strength.

  Arkay took a somewhat similar approach to the battle as Ryle did, opting to go on the offense. Through the use of either the nearby trees and vegetation or by using his invisibility spell, the cat boy moved around the battlefield while firing off spells at his targets. This not only allowed him to offer support to the others, but to also catch some of the assassins completely off guard.

  However, while all the others had figured out an effective way to assist in the battle, Lexton wasn’t able to do much. Due to his lack of equipment compared to what he would normally have, the kobold could only stick close to Durge and try to help him in defending Erin. He fired his pistol at the assassins and threw the few vials he had, but that was the full extent of what he could do. This greatly frustrated Lexton, as he felt completely useless for the first time in his life.

  Despite any struggles they were having, the battle seemed to be going in the favor of Erin’s friends, as they kept beating back the attackers. While numerous, their opponents were nowhere near the same level of ability as any of their previous opponents. At the rate they were going, the battle would be won soon.

  Yet this was only how it seemed, as the assassins seemed to never come to an end. No matter how many of them got shot, hit with magic or was simply blown back, their numbers didn’t show any signs of decreasing. It was almost like they just kept replenishing their forces constantly. This had an obvious negative effect on Ryle and the others. Even if your opponents weren’t too tough, no one was able to go on forever. Eventually they would run out of stamina and exhaust themselves.

  “Goddammit! Where the hell do these bastards keep coming from!?” Ryle cursed as she gave a roundhouse kick to one of the assassins. She was now breathing heavily, as she was starting to get exhausted. “I swear I’ve taken out almost 20 of these guys already! How many could they have sent here!?”

  “Not just that, but they don’t seem to have any kind of a reaction to watching their buddies get killed. You’d think that at least a few of them would have gotten a bit shaken over seeing that,” Durge said, equally exhausted. “It’s like we’re fighting a bunch of emotionless dolls or something!”

  While the others were busy trying to keep up the fight, Lexton was trying to figure out what was going. The whole situation was truly bizarre, like Ryle and Durge had pointed out. Not only did the number of enemies not seem to decrease at all, but they were far too calm considering what they were being put through. There had to be something strange at work here and he needed to find out what that was.

  It was then that the kobold managed to see something that started to shed light on things. He watched as another one of the assassins got hit by Durge’s warhammer and was sent flying, crumbling on the ground away from the group. But as he watched the seemingly dead assassin, his eyes went wide as he saw the cloaked body start moving again and eventually rise up.

  Upon seeing this, Lexton looked around, analyzing more of their surroundings and finding out something else. Outside of the wounds he and his friends had suffered, there was no blood on the ground at all. Their mysterious attackers didn’t bleed at all. Once he realized this, the answer to what was happening came to the kobold like a bolt of lightning from the sky.

  “I understand what’s going on now!” Lexton shouted, getting the attention of his companions. “We aren’t fighting actual people! These are some type of puppets!”

  “What are you talking about!?” Ryle asked as she dodged an attack from one of the assassins before giving them a kick. “How are puppets attacking us!?”

  “There are people who can control man-sized puppets and use them for combat. It seems like you’re fighting a real person, but you’re actually facing just a weapon!” the kobold explained. “The reason why their numbers don’t seem to decrease at all is because they haven’t gone down at all! We have just been fighting the same opponents all this time! Whenever we manage to beat one, they just get back up and continue!”

  “That would explain a lot. This whole fight has felt weird from the very beginning. And the reason Ryle was able to sniff them out was probably due to their weapons having traces of their victims’ blood on them,” Durge said as he thought about Lexton’s explanation. “But how do we beat them? If we can’t truly kill these things, then what are we supposed to do?”

  “We need to find the people that are controlling these things!” the kobold answered. “Once we take them out, these things will stop moving as well!”

  However, this was easier said than done. While they might know what they were dealing with, they were still locked in combat with the puppets. The attackers were so numerous and coordinated that one couldn’t simply slip past them and go look for who was controlling them. This was especially difficult now that the one behind it all was more aware of the abilities if his targets. Not only that, but with their drained stamina, none of them could hope to simply bust through the puppets surrounding them. It looked like all hope was lost.

  But while Ryle and the others were focused on the puppets surrounding them and the one controlling said puppets was focused on the four of them, they all failed to notice that Erin had woken up. The redhead had just come back from her nightmare conversation with the shadowy figure and had managed to learn what was going on.

  After hearing Lexton’s explanation, Erin started to look around for any signs of the one controlling the puppets. While she didn’t spot anyone right away, she did notice something odd when it came to the movements of the puppets. There was one area that seemed to have a couple more of them at all times, almost like the one controlling them was afraid to have fewer of his weapons there. It was almost like they were guarding something.

  With this new discovery, the redhead decided to use the fact that no one was paying attention to her to her advantage. Without anyone noticing, she managed to crawl into the bushes, from where she started to make her way to the place she had spotted earlier. Just as she had suspected, the person behind controlling the puppets was there, not too far away from the battlefield itself.

  The person controlling the puppets was most likely one of the assassins sent by Golorath, much like Dryzal and Goldiana. This assassin was crouched behind bushes in order to hide himself from his targets. He seemed to be a goblin wearing green robes with camouflage patterns on them so that he could better hide himself. There were a large number of extremely thin wires coming out of his sleeves that he controlled through the movements of his fingers and arms, as well as magic.

  With the assassin completely focused on her companions, Erin was able to get close to him. While she didn’t have her sword on her, she had managed to grab one of her knives before going to hunt for their attacker. By mustering up all of her remaining strength, the redhead managed to stand up despite the horrible pain coursing through her body.

  It was far too late for the goblin, once he realized that there was someone behind him. With his weapons deployed to fight Erin’s friends, he had no way to defend himself. The redhead plunged the knife deep into his back, causing him to scream in pain. With her work done, Erin fell to the ground as she no longer had the strength to stand up.

  Once the assassin had been defeated, the puppets he had been controlling fell down lifelessly. Ryle and the others could only stare at them in wide-eyed surprise, as they couldn’t comprehend what had just happened.

  “W-What the hell got into them?” Ryle asked, as she carefully poked at one of the fallen puppets with her foot. “Did their owner just give up and leave or something?”

  “I highly doubt that,” Lexton said, equally perplexed. “Whoever was controlling them clearly had the upper hand. I don’t see any reason for them to give up so suddenly.”

  “...Did anybody else hear a scream just now?” Arkay asked. “I think I heard it right before the puppets fell.”

  Realizing that the cat boy was right, Ryle began to look around, wondering where the sound had come from. As she did this, she noticed something that made her blood run cold.

  “Guys… Where’s Erin?” the blonde asked, upon seeing the empty stretcher.

  Knowing that the redhead wasn’t in any condition to defend herself, the group began to furiously look for her, hoping nothing bad had happened to her. Luckily, it didn’t take long for them to find their missing friend, as she was not too far from their battlefield. However, seeing her laying on the ground, seemingly unconscious next to the body of some goblin they had never seen, did cause them to worry over her again.

  “Erin! You okay!?” Ryle called out as she began to run to the redhead, but didn’t get any kind of a response.

  Just then, the body of the goblin suddenly stood up. As he was coughing up blood, he pulled the knife out of his back and got ready to stab the unconscious redhead.

  “You bitch… For me to suffer such humiliation…!” the assassin cursed as he raised the knife up in air. “Regret what you did in hell!”

  “NO!” Ryle screamed as she tried to run to help her friend, but was too far away to make it in time.

  Just as the assassin was about to bring down the blade he was holding, he suddenly stopped. Everyone present froze in place, as the goblin was now coughing up more blood. This was due to the scalpel that was sticking out of his throat.

  “Geeze, can you people keep it down over here?” a new voice suddenly said, as more scalpels flew at the goblin, hitting him in his throat, chest and face. This finally brought him down for good. “I’m trying to get over a bad hangover here and you assholes are causing an insane ruckus over here. Do you really need to have your little arguments right next to my home?”

  Ryle, Arkay, Lexton and Durge turned to wards where the voice had come from and saw a female elf there. She was wearing what seemed like a nurse’s uniform, consisting of a red jacket that had crosses on the shoulders, black pants, white gloves and red boots. She also had a small red hat on her head with the red cross on it, sitting on top of her silver mane of hair.

  The group immediately knew that this was the healer they had been searching for.