Ghost

With the darkness of night engulfing Aron, he stood on a hill not far from the mansion. The mansion was clearly in sight, and it was surrounded by four stone walls barricading it. With the help of his sight, Aron could look beyond the walls of the mansion's walls and into the several rooms it had. Around a dozen of what Aron assumes to be servants either roamed the halls or was sleeping in their quarters.

What he also noticed, was the many guards walking patrol outside the outer wall. They had torches in hand and a sword at their waist. There was about a dozen of them. Around fifty meters (54,68 yards) away from the mansion was a staple. Aron could see the shadowy forms of the sleeping horses.

He could not discern where the baron was, while being so far away from the mansion.

Looking closer, he could see the form of a small balcony with a view of the courtyard on the first floor (or second floor if you take the ground floor as first).

Aron pondered a while on how he should begin the infiltration.

He could start a fire in the staples, drawing the guards' attention. This would work as a distraction and would mean that fewer guards would be protecting the mansion. The downside would be that the staff would now be on alert. The quit state of peace they were in, could be used to his advantage. If Aron were instead to sneak inside somehow and use his rope to climb the balcony unnoticed, he would be talking a stealthy approach.

Both seemed good taking the cons aside. A last option could be to combine the two ideas. This would make the sneaking more difficult, but if he was to be revealed there would be less to deal with.

Thinking for about fifteen minutes Aron had made his decision.

'I will take the third option, combining the ideas. Since my goal here is total eradication of the guards plus everyone in the mansion, I would have to engage in combat no matter what. If everything goes to plan, then when the guards return from the fire, they would hopefully be the last to go.'

Aron was confidant in that the staples would burn, since he had asked the innkeeper how the weather had been the previous days. He had told him that it had felt like a drought these last couple of days. With this in mind Aron had thought a fire would have optimal conditions.

With a plan in mind Aron began making his way to the staples. He could see almost perfectly in the dark. This meant that he didn't have to hold a torch, possibly revealing his location in doing so. He was like a ghost in the dark, no one could see him but he could see anyone.

When Aron arrived after over half an hour the stench of dung and hay assaulted his nostrils. He took a deep breath in and then blew out. This was a technique he learned whenever he was amongst rotten corpses. It would take the worst of the smell and he could go on about his duties. The first time he did it though, some of his comrades tricked him into it and afterwards had a laugh when he was puking his guts out.

Aron sighed at the distant memory.

*Sigh*

"Good times." He whispered to himself.

Inside the staple there were horses on his left and right. They each had their own stall, though some stalls were empty. There were about one and a half dozen stall in total. Not that Aron was counting, he was simply looking for anything flammable. Lucky for him hay was scattered all over. On the floors and the corners there were strands of hay lying about.

Aron went over to a pile and started to ignite it. He had been given some flint and steel in the case he ever needed to produce a fire.

*SHHD*

*SHHD*

*SHHD*

After a couple of tries the hay finally caught fire. The fire was eager to consume everything in its path and Aron would happily allow it to do so. Before being caught in the fire himself he went on his way. Aron was prepared to go over to the mansion and wait for the guards to come while in hiding. But then a brilliant idea hit him.

'What if I somehow extinguish their fires?' He meant it literally and figuratively.

If he could somehow do that, then killing them would be child's play.

Aron momentarily changed his sight to see just how dark it was. To his delight I was absolutely dark, aside from the raging fire behind him. Deciding to give it a try Aron hid behind a large bush. After fifteen minutes he could see some torches drawing closer. To his surprise it seemed as though all the guards were present.

'Did my sight fail me? Do they know I'm here?'

Aron calmed himself. There was no way they had confirmation of his presence and he was rather confident in his sight.

Yelling could be heard from the running guards.

"FUCK! FUCK!"

One of them yelled and all the others shared a look of concern.

Now that Aron could see them up close, they didn't really look like guards. They had a more crooked look to them.

'Mercenaries?' Aron thought of the guards' origins.

The guards were now in front of the burning staples with water buckets in hand. From inside the staples shrieking screams could be heard. I was most likely the horses experiencing a most excruciating death.

The men tried to desperately extinguish the fire, but there was little hope of that succeeding.

This did make them throw their torches to the ground.

'If only I had drowned the ground with oil. It would have been a perfect plan.'

Suddenly one of the guards asked someone who seemed to be their leader.

"W-was it alright for us to leave the baron behind like that?"

He seemed scared of the one he spoke to.

The leader became furious.

"Fuck the baron! Our horses are fucking burning alive and you're thinking about that stinking baron!?"

The guard retaliated back from that and then continued to toss water at the burning pyre before him.

The torches suddenly puffed out.

This was Aron's signal, so he unsheathed his dagger and got to work.

With the fire taking all the guard's attention none of them was paying attention to their flank.

He slowly walked behind one who was a bit far away from everyone else.

"Like it would do anything you fools. It is obvious that th-"

While whispering to himself he was suddenly cut off by a gloved hand on his mouth. Without giving him time to panic Aron quickly thrusted the cold metal multiple times in his back. He was aiming for the lungs and while it wasn't as fatal as other areas it would effectively shut a guy up.

After about six thrusts three in each lung, he dragged him to the side. No one noticed anything and when Aron had dragged him far enough, he cut his throat and blood started to flow out. Aron had always been fascinated by how soft human skin was.

The guard's eyes moved franticly in panic. He couldn't see what was happening, everything was dark. Then his movement seized.

Aron continued like this with half the group before anyone noticed a thing. He did so in varies ways. Aron had never done stealth assassinations, so this was a new experience for him. Therefore, he tried many different combinations, but he always remembered to cover their mouth, so that they could not scream.

Aron had never known that killing from the dark could be so exhilarating. The constant fear of being found out filled him with constant adrenalin.

When he was finished with his sixth target a guard suddenly spoke. They had actually quelled the fire somewhat, but anything living was for sure dead now. The guard was probably looking back realising there was no hope, and he didn't know just how right he was.

Taking a step back he was shocked.

"Karl!? Math!? Janus!?"

When no response was heard the other guards looked around. The killing had been easy for Aron since the guards had no amour. They had leather pads here and there, but Aron easily avoided them.

"Where is everyone?!"

The reaming guards became alert immediately drawing their swords.

Aron sheathed his dagger after yanking it out the back of his lates victim's head and drying the blood off the same victim's pants.

He then slowly took out his sword.

One of the guards panicked.

"Where is everything?! What hap-"

Suddenly the guard's world turned around, flying through the air.

After decapitating the first guy, the second guy went down easily with a stab in between the ribs and through the heart.

Aron pulled the sword out and then swung it in the air making most of the blood fly off staining the ground. By the time the second guy fell the others had seen Aron. What they saw was a man dressed in black and swinging his blood-stained sword in the air. Aron himself saw perfectly. The light from the fire now offered less light than before, but it was still sufficient for the guards.

"F-fuck! Who is this fucker!"

One of the four guards remaining yelled out.

The guy that Aron had previously thought was the leader took a shaking step forward.

"IF WE ALL ATTACK HIM AT ONCE HE'S GOING DOWN!"

The four guards started to approach with sword in hand a newfound confidence.

Aron wasn't going to let them do such a thing. So, he charged to the one on the far right. Aron swung his sword and I clashed with the guard's sword in front of him. Aron had superior strength, but he didn't want to prolong it for too long. There was still three others coming his way, so Aron quickly forced the guard's sword to the side and then he thrusted his sword into the guard's throat.

The guard fell to his knees and Aron then swung his sword behind him where another guard was, tearing half of the first guard's throat with it. The first guard fell to the ground with the only thing preventing a full decapitation being some remaining skin connecting the head to the neck.

The guard behind Aron had not expected the sword and it was stuck to his side. In an desperate attempt to take his opponent down with him he stabbed at Aron. Aron easily sidestepped the guard's sword and used the momentum to turn around 360° pulling his sword with him, which resulted in tearing the guard's right abdomen all the way through. While Aron rushed to his next opponent the guard, he had just left was holding his own guts in his hands, whilst trying to put them back in place. He fell to the floor wailing in pain.

After seeing his other comrades fall the next guard went into full savage mode. He came rushing with anger filling his entire being. The guard swung a big overhead making the outcome obvious. Aron had learned throughout his life as a knight that smart warriors are superior to angry warriors. Having power but not knowing how to use it probably is one of the biggest disadvantages you can have in fight. Who can save you from your own ignorance?

The guard's sword hit the ground. Aron had once again sidestepped and was now behind him. The guard became furious and tried to pull out his sword. From behind him Aron whispered.

"That sword belongs to the ground now."

And with one slash across his back the guard fell to the ground. Motionless. He was still breathing but could not move a muscle. Aron quickly turned around and looked for his last opponent. He had run away into the darkness.

Lucky for Aron the dark was no obstacle for him. With his sight he could see the leader running towards the mansion. Aron slowly walked to one of the dead guards that had a bow strapped to his back. Aron took it after some awkward positioning of the body.

He took one of the arrows spread on the ground and took aim. He drew the arrow back and took a deep breath.