04 DISCIPLES OF DEATH

The thing that came out of shadows suddenly, is fully covered by black clothes, he is almost same height of Alfred. However his physique and face cant be seen clearly due to his assassin robe and the hood on his face.

He had two sharp daggers in its hand and with poison coated on them. He is a rank9 assassin hired from 'DISCIPLES OF DEATH' assassination guild famous in and around Rudra kingdom.

This was the plan Duke olen and the rank9 assassin who is referred as 'no.11' formed in order to deal with Alfred. Even though no.11 can kill any rank9 who is much stronger than him, granted that he get the 1st strike, he doesnt have that luxury with Alfred.

Thats why they formulated this plan. The plan is to attack Alfred with full force from the get go and when he is looks kind of weakened, Alex should jump into fight to create a chance to hit him for no.11 and at present their plan is looking about to become successful.

Thinking like this, Alex slowly started to grin at the thought of the rewards he is going to get from the successful completion of his mission.

As the poisonous daggers are getting dangerously close to him, Alfred has a smirk on his face. He suddenly shouts "Energy sweep" causing a heavy energy come out him and everyone in his surroundings got pushed back for 10 meters.

Alfred stood up and looks at the assassin that came to kill him and says "I am really disappointed Alex, I thought you are hiding something serious but... is it just a rank9 assassin?"

Everyone around has different expressions on their faces due to Alfred's remark. Alex has this unbelievable expression repeating Alfred's words in his mind 'just a rank9 assassin?' 'just a rank9 assassin?' 'how ridiculous is his thinking to think that a rank9 being is a 'just'?'

On the other hand, no.11 is completely shocked for two reasons, first one is, this is the first time that someone has noticed him before he hit his target or else Alfred cant stop his attack that easily and second one is, that even some of rank10's fear him because he killed a couple of rank10s himself single handedly without getting caught and this old man is saying that he is 'just a rank9 assassin? Does he think rank9 assassins grows on trees?'

But Alex and no.11 composed themselves quickly from the shock and the first one to speak is Alex, "who are you kidding Alfred? You are just bluffing after seeing the assassin from DoD on our side". Making no.11 nod to his words.

"Bluffing? Do you think I am bluffing? That just tells me how naive you are" Alfred says while kinda stretching his muscles and gathering his mana in his body readying for round 2.

"Don't talk bullshit you are riddled with wounds allover your body and can barely move, and your mana seems to be less than half. I still cant understand why everyone including my lord is apprehensive of you, you bastard". Alex angrily shouts clearly getting impatient.

"I will show you why" saying this the aura of Alfred gets strong exponentially and the mana gathering around him increasing at a rapid rate.

No.11 squints his eyes, and feels apprehend. His instincts are saying something is wrong. He is first to get this feeling from Alfred since more or less he is also a rank9 individual himself, before he tries to warn Alex and others he hears something and alarms are going on in his head.

After gathering enough mana Alfred mutters "Circular Slash" and he holds the spear with his two hands and rotates 360 degrees. A sharp light starts appearing at the sharp tip of the spear and forms a ring. As soon as Alfred stops, the ring starts to expand at frightening speed, only no.11 has seen the attack or should we say he anticipated the attack had erected a shield.

Fortunately for Alex he is next to no.11 and got covered by the assassin's barrier and saved his life, but the others aren't as fortunate as him. With Alfred as a center and for a 100m radius around him, everything got cut that got touched by the light ring.

Now only Alfred, Alex and the Assassin are the only ones that are breathing in the 100m radius. Clearly Alfred was playing with the others just to see what is the confidence of Alex. Seriously saying he never expected that they will hire a rank9 assassin that to the best on that rank just to kill him. Its too much expensive to even think.

Now Alfred strongly believes that something is going on and he needs to find it or atleast warn the king to get it investigated. Thinking this Alfred says" its over Alex, I got bored playing and amusing you, now tell me why are you guys trying to kill me and what are your plans before dying".

Alex was shocked to core he know that the difference between rank9 and rank8, he himself fought with a few rank9s over his career but never once he was this overwhelmed. Even though he lost a few times that loss isn't this much one sided. Now after knowing the difference between their power he now understands why every noble wanted him under them and also why his lord spent so much to kill him.

All Alex can think now is that Alfred should die now, no matter what. He cant fail this mission. Looking at no.11 and after both their eyes met, Alex nods hid head and says "Fuck you Alfred you don't need to know that, all you need to know is that you are going to only one place today and that is to your grave."

Saying this Alex starts running towards Alfred and starts attacking with his long sword, he hacks at him wildly. Alfred simply dodges all the attacks from Alex and still has time to heal all the wounds he got during his previous 'fight'.

Due to him being a rank9 Alfred can heal much of his wounds. He only let himself injured with wounds that he can heal for himself without a need of a potion or a healer. And now he is healing himself to get into near optimal condition before the assassin joins the fight.

No.11 is just watching the fight between the other two waiting for his chance to strike. He cant do nothing else, his main strength lies in the element of surprise and its gone now and he cant fight head on, atleast not with Alfred, he cant win for sure. So he is just waiting and watching for now.

As the fight goes on Alfred decides to end this and was about to strike Alex but suddenly something happens, he got weakened suddenly, cant move his body freely and coughs blood non stop. At this no.11 smiles and mutters "It finally started working, here is my chance".