What A Clown

"How troublesome," Bernard frowned in displeasure seeing his magic wasn't working well as he expected. He never imagined his strongest destructive spell would be rendered useless in the face of an assassin who usually relied on their sneaky abilities.

As the two forces reached into a stalemate, a lion growl echoed once more from Ardelt's direction. With the growl being unleashed, the assassin who was in the middle of blocking Bernard's spell couldn't help but get distracted, resulting in his wall collapsed under Bernard's fireball pressure, "Shi-"

The fireball immediately hits the assassin's body directly and sends his body soar toward the wall.

*Crash*

Crashing against the wall, the assassin spurted out a lot of blood while the fireball kept advancing further, burying the assassin's body into the wall deeper. Meanwhile, the assassin felt his skin burned at a rapid rate while his consciousness slowly evaporated from his body.

On the other side, fighting against a robust-knight, the fatigued assassin could do nothing but get trashed by Ardelt.

Swinging his legs crudely, Ardelt sends the assassin into the same place where another assassin is buried inside the wall.

With a lot of sweat already dripping from his face, Bernard chanted another spell while lifting one of his fingers upward, "Suppress."

From the ground, a two somewhat wisp-existence surfaced and began to float quite slow toward the assassins. Each of the wisps then positioned themselves on respectively assassin's forehead. They remain still for a moment before taking an action that looks like digging.

Instantly, the two assassins letting out a painful shriek while frantically wriggling their bodies akin to receive a horror experience, "Aah!!"

Along with the digging process, a rune dyed in green gradually becomes visible on their forehead. Eyeing the rune thoroughly, Exia realized the word written over their foreheads was signifying suppress, which is none other than the same chant Bernard utter previously.

"Ah, this should be sufficient to seal their power for temporary," Bernard said in satisfaction while walking ahead toward the motionless assassins.

As for Exia, he remained still at his place after getting a gesture of don't move from Ardelt.

Approaching the immobile assassins, Ardelt dusted his clothes and said in a whisper, "What's your plan, Bernard?"

"Get some information, of course." Saying that, Bernard slapped hardly at one of the assassins' cheek, "Wake up! Don't play dead in front of me."

Showing his grey-piercing eyes, the man immediately widened his mouth slightly and looks like about to bit something within his mouth when his action suddenly halted.

"Uh, oh! No more trick today." Bernard smirked while waving his finger.

"What did you do to my body?" The man said in horror as he kept open and closed his mouth akin to a fish.

"Nothing much, just enough to prevent you from moving around for a while," Bernard said with ridicule and draw his own face closer to the assassin, "So, tell me some important information. For example, is there any other assassin besides the two of you?" Bernard paused for a moment as he took a side-glance at Ardelt before asking, "And, do you perhaps have any clue about Thirteen's whereabouts?"

Hearing Bernard mention Thirteen, Ardelt involuntarily clenched his fist.

Keeping his lip tightly shut for a moment, the man then retorted, "Why should I answer your questions? Even if I know, I certainly wouldn't tell you about those pieces of information."

"Because the fact I've defeated the two of you, and I'm the one who could decide whether you'll be dead or alive in the next hour." Bernard flashed a cold smile.

"Just kill me then," The man looked straightly at Bernard without a single shred of fear evident in his eyes.

"As you wish," Bernard replied casually before broke into a dangerous smile, "However, did I mention I was never a kind person before? Well, if I haven't, then let my action talk about it."

The assassin was initially puzzled at Bernard's statement. But, in the next seconds, he understands what's Bernard means after hearing Bernard mumbling a familiar word, "Torment."

That instant, he saw the view before his eyes crumbled down, replaced by the scene of the cemetery where as far as his eyes could reach, only graves are visible. Just as he took a step forward, the ground beneath him shook, and skeleton hands emerged from it. Not having time to react, the skeleton hands immediately clutching both of his legs, preventing him from moving around. As it wasn't enough, he then saw many pairs of skeleton hands appeared from each grave.

Even if he was a trained assassin, facing this kind of horrible situation, he couldn't help but cursed out loud, "Shit!"

...

Seeing the guy ahead of him had a blank look on his eyes, Bernard turned to Ardelt with a smirk, "Now we only need to wait until his mental get tortured enough."

"What did you just do to him?" Ardelt narrowed his eyes in suspicion. He had shallow knowledge regarding sorcerer. Hence seeing the original untamed assassin turned docile in just a few seconds aroused his curiosity.

"Nothing much, I just put an illusion to him. Currently, he must be experiencing the thing he feared most." Bernard briefly explained and chanted the same spell at the other assassin, "Torment,"

Afterward, Bernard breathed out a heavy breath, "Phew~, it's really tiring."

Sheathing his sword, Ardelt peeked at Exia, who remained still under his order before turned to Bernard, "You better compensate that boy. He's almost dead because of you."

"Stop nagging already. I'll give him some money later." Bernard waved his hand helplessly and proceeded to sit on the ground.

"Not money. From my observation, that boy is quite interested in our ability. I planned to teach him a few knight's movements later, but having an ability like mine would probably take years to accomplish. However, a sorcerer is different. They could attain magic faster than us, knight. Thus, it would be best for you to compensate him by teaching him how to control mana flow instead of giving him money." Ardelt elaborated, which is kind of rare for him to doing so.

"What's this? Are you really seriously consider yourself as his father? Look, I'm a scout sorcerer. Why should I busied myself with teaching someone I didn't closely know?" Bernard snorted stubbornly.

"Then I've no choice but to force you to do it," Ardelt said with a deadpan expression as he unsheated his sword.

"Woah, Woah! Are you really willing to fight me for that boy's sake?" Bernard raised his hands in surrender.

"Not really, I just want him to receive the best reward, considering how his life could end today," Ardelt said while averting his eyes somewhere else.

Seeing Ardelt were serious and didn't budge slightest, Bernard remarked, "Alright, alright!"

He then turned to Exia with a warm smile, "Boy, come here."

Seeing how his attitude change from hell to heaven, Ardelt mumbled, "What a clown."

Hearing this, Bernard glared at him while mouthing words, "Shut up!"