Chapter 38: First is the Hardest (Part-2)

"Hehe." He chuckled. "Anyways master, are you sensing that outside?" Zen smiled demonically with his teeth on full display.

"Haha… some people cannot wait to meet grim-reaper." Shreya replied, matching Zen's face.

"Huh? Master, what are you talking about?" Evelyn asked, her face bouncing between Zen and Shreya.

But both of them ignored her and continued, "How many do you sense, master? I sense 28, no 29 in total," Zen asked.

"Ahem. Master, Zen?"

"You still have a lot to learn, stupid disciple; there are 32 in total."

Before Zen could retort, |BOOMMM| A loud noise startled both Zen and Shreya.

They turned around, only to find Shreya with a ball of fire around her hand.

"Thank you for your attention. Now, what the hell are you talking about in codes?"

Zen and Shreya, after recovering from their surprise, exchanged a look.

"HAHAHA," they both started laughing menacingly.

Evelyn looked at Anna, who was equally exasperated by these antics. She shrugged, as if to say, "Don't look at me, I've given up!"

"Daaarlingggg!" A melodious voice came out of Evelyn's mouth. "How dare you ignore me!" Saying this, she attacked Zen. Of course it was not a serious attack.

"HAHAHA," Zen continued laughing and caught Evelyn gently, sitting down on the ground with Evelyn on his lap. He then started caressing her cheeks.

"Stopp," Evelyn whispered but didn't make any attempts to get away.

"There are some people who have surrounded this building. I think they don't even know that this is the master's area, or they would not have come here.

"Oh!" Evelyn gave a weak response. She was enjoying the caresses.

'If you didn't want to know, why did you ask?' Anna wanted to scream at the top of her lungs but forcefully stopped herself.

"Are we gonna leave them, brother?"

"Hmm… of course not!" Zen replied, continuing to spoil Evelyn. "Let's wait for a few minutes and then we can go. I need to recover my energy."

After a few minutes, Zen and Shreya decided to leave and take out the infiltrators. Zen gently put down Evelyn, who had a highly dissatisfied face.

'Can you be any more shameless?' Anna rolled her eyes.

"Disciple, I will take everyone on the front, you go to the back. There are only 8 in the back but this is your first real fight. Still, I don't think I need to worry about your safety."

"Yup! I will see you in a few minutes." Zen gave a casual two-finger salute and disappeared from his spot.

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"When would they come out? I am getting hungry here." A slender man was sitting on the top of a tree and was talking to the woman beside her. They both had weird, skin-tight, black costumes which seemed to absorb all the light around them. 

"Shut up! When are you not hungry? We are on an assignment." The woman replied curtly. She continued to look towards the front gate using her glasses which seemed to have some kind of reconnaissance device.

"Sigh. Our target are two powerless commoners. What can go wrong? Even the professors here can't detect us." He moved his ass to sit in a more comfortable position. "Just how much money does one need to have to put 1 million on the head of some commoners?"

"Don't overstep, owl!" The woman scowled, "You know its a taboo to even think about the client."

"Yes, yes" 

The man took a small twig and put his back on the tree trunk and closed his eyes. He was not looking tense at all. This would be probably the easiest target they ever had.

"You look like you are at a party my friend!" An unknown voice came from behind the man. Caught off guard, he immediately opened his eyes and tried to move his body.

"Too late, bud!" The voice came again and a heavy punch striked his nose. He immediately fell off the tree.

The woman beside him was stupefied. How can someone intercept them so easily? Zen immediately jumped towards the woman, and delivered a kick right at her cheek. She tried to defend but the speed was not something that she could contend with.

"AAhhhhh" She screamed as she also fell down.

Zen didn't even look behind. He already sensed the assassins returning to check. It was no surprise that they knew something was not right. Purposefully starting from the back, Zen ensured even if the assassins wanted to run, they couldn't.

"What?!"

"Fuck! Who is there?"

"Don't let them run, we can't let this leak!"

Zen could clearly hear them panicking.

"Calm down, Parrot, take a look."

Zen didn't wait for them to come near and set off. His gaze stopped on the closest assassin, who approached wielding daggers. Zen ran towards him, using his momentum to strike.

"Hah, ah… Guh?" The assassin tried to react and thrust his dagger, but Zen skillfully avoided it, twisting the dagger-holding hand. "Urghh" The dagger fell, and Zen caught it, delivering a strike to the assassin's head with the blunt part, rendering him unconscious.

'That's three.' Zen looked towards the three others catching up. Using energy, he arrived near the left assassin immediately.

"What?" The assassin was surprised and reflexively swung his dagger towards Zen's throat. Zen crouched, dodging the swing and attacked the assassin's lower body. Already unbalanced, the man toppled. Zen stood up, delivering a kick to his head, and he passed out with a shriek.

'Four.' Seeing the state of the two of her colleagues, the woman in the center faltered a bit. Zen took advantage, delivering a hard punch to her solar plexus. "Gah!!" She folded and flew away like a ball.

The right assassin instantly turned around, trying to go back to the other two who were now running towards Zen. They were waiting just beside the gate so it was taking them time to arrive. 

Zen, who saw through the assassin's intentions, threw the dagger towards the assassin's legs.

"Arghhh…Fuck!" The assassin fell. Trained to endure pain, he tried to stand and run again, but Zen jumped, arriving beside him. Zen grabbed his face, delivering a powerful knee to his nose, knocking him out.

'That's five and six.'

Now only two of the assassins were left. Zen observed them as they ran towards him. Upon arrival, they surveyed the scene, finding six of their colleagues already down on the ground.

"Damn! Who are you?" one of them asked, "Are you one of the professors here?"

"Dafuq? You can't even recognize your own target? What pathetic assassin group are you?" Zen mocked them.

"What?" They squinted their eyes. Finally understanding, one of them replied, "You are Zen Ashford? How is it possible?" The other assassin gasped. Weren't they supposed to kill a weak commoner? What the fuck is going on?

"Yes, I am Zen Ashford. Nice to meet you!" Zen replied, and lightning appeared all around him. He swiftly closed in on the two assailants and delivered a palm attack to the one on the right.

The two assassins in front of Zen were 6th outer ring, so they were more resilient than the others. The assassin desperately tried to stop the attack using the dagger. Zen changed the trajectory and now aimed his palm towards the throat, "Shit!" He shouted and retreated.

"Aren't you supposed to be a normal human?" He shouted, and this time, both assailants moved forward. It seemed like they both were wind elemental users. Since these both were 6th rings, Zen took out his halberd. As they approached, they crossed each other and positioned themselves on either side of Zen, attacking simultaneously. One aimed for the face while the other targeted the torso. Zen used the shaft and the blade to parry the attacks and then used his skill, infusing the lightning.

"Guh!" One of them groaned and retreated a bit while the other desperately attempted to attack Zen. Stab, stab, stab, he thrusted. However, Zen could accurately see through all these attacks and parried them.

Finally, he used his lightning to attack the assailant, "Arghghhh" he screamed in pain, getting unconscious.

Immediately, the other assassin used the dagger to attack Zen from the back, but Zen went around the attacker. He took advantage and kicked the attacker on his feet, toppling him down. Finally, he landed a sharp chop to the assassin's abdomen while he was falling.

"Gahh…" The assassin's body hit the ground, knocking him down with a groan.

"Hahh…Hahh" Zen breathed heavily from exhaustion. Although he had trained extensively, this was his first time in a group fight with professional killers.

'What should I do now?' He pondered. He needed to immobilize these assassins inside before they woke up. As he pondered, his chain of thoughts was abruptly severed by a blood-curdling scream.

"ARRGHHHH"

He turned around only to witness one of the assassins engulfed in red flames, writhing and screaming for his life. The sight was unimaginably horrifying, watching someone burn alive.

"Zen!" An icy voice cut through the air. "Why are these assassins still alive?" Shreya's figure materialized from the shadows with a chilling presence.