The Confrontation

The night was cold, and the moon was bright, as the cloaked figure entered the outer walls of the city. Dante quietly past down the streets like a shadow, he had been here before, on countless missions. After his father's death, when he was twenty years old he had moved from place to place looking for a purpose, he had found it when he had visited Hill's Summit, the city next to the royal capital, at the age of twenty-one. The old man had been in service of King Celmont's father, in a special division, used for disposing of the assassins that were hired to kill him. When his son Celmont had become King, the assassins and their employers had been dealt with, so there was no need for the special division, and it was disbanded. The old man recognized that he was young man without purpose, and took him in as his pupil.

Dante had been a quick learner, and a thankful student. He had given up on life, crushed, with no guidance, the only light he had, had been snuffed out in front of him. The old man was a new light and he trained him well. The man taught him that he should trust his instincts, nothing was more important, and that practice, trial and error were the best teachers. He molded Dante into a strong, stealthy, quick thinking, young man. The old man told him that his best assets were his mind, his kindness, and his innocent looks. He taught Dante everything he knew, knowledge of blades, poison, strategy, people, fighting styles, ways to disable and kill, knowledge of most other weapons, and more. On the second year he was with him, when he was twenty three, the old man got sick. It was a common fever but he was old. His name had been Lem, he had revealed on his deathbed. He gave Donte a list of people he could trust, and go to if he ever needed help, all he had to do was say Lem sent him. With that the old man had closed his eyes and breathed his last. Dante had cried that night away, everyone he ever knew and loved had died. He thought of that now, his past. He smiled grimly, he was used to it being alone for the most part, although he liked it more with someone watching his back. He reached the street with the tavern on the corner and stole down it. Keeping to the shadows all the while.

When Dante reached the main gate, there were only a couple guards, these he easily avoided, and he quickly scaled the far side of the wall. He never liked heights, but he would ignore it for a mission. When he was near the top, he waited for the guard to pass before he got on the ramparts. There were only four guards that night on them, so his rumor had paid off. He had whispered in a crowd that Sir Jacob was going to be hit that night, so the guards would double security, and when nobody showed they would assume it was false, and be lax the next night. The rumor had spread like wildfire, making his job easier. When the sentry passed he quickly climbed up, and over. Then he crouched, and snuck behind the sentry, stood up, covered his mouth with a cloth soaked in trazine, a drug that puts people to sleep. When the sentry was knocked out, he lowered him to the stone floor and proceeded to the next one.

Dante took out the rest of the sentries with ease, and started climbing down the other side of the wall. There were five guards in the courtyard, so Dante climbed down near a small corner of the inside wall and waited for a guard to pass by.

The guard wasn't long in coming, and Dante used the cloth covered in trazine and drug the body around the corner and set the man down, and picked up the mace that the unconscious guard had on his belt.

Then he took the guards helmet off, hid behind a stack of wooden barrels, and tossed the helmet into the corner. The guards immediately came over to see what the noise was, and when they all were in the corner, Dante came out and used the mace to knock them unconscious while their backs were turned. The castle was an imposing sight. It was shaped like a large loaf of bread with rails on the top, and three, tall towers protruding from it. One on each side, and one in the middle. Sir Jacob lived in the tower on the left, Dante knew, his employer had informed him through a message left for him at an inn. He scaled the wall, and waited for the sentries to pass. When they passed him, he silently vaulted over the wall, and ran quietly to the left tower and scaled it. Coming to the window of his target, about four stories up, he slipped quietly inside. The bed was fifty feet from the window on the opposite side of the room, positioned near the right corner of the room, with a bit of space between it and the wall. Dante let out a quiet whistle, this Sir Jacob must be important to have such a large room, he thought to himself. He surveyed the room and saw it was barely furnished. Besides the bed, there was a large fireplace, and a small table with a single chair. Beside that the room was empty. Dante quietly walked over to the bed, there was a shape of a man underneath the blanket.

Dante pulled back the sheet to reveal a straw stuffed outfit. Dante figured as much security had been too lax, even with a false rumor it shouldn't have been that lax, and an old man would have things of sentiment on the mantel of the fireplace. Now he only needed to know who wanted him here and why. He saw movement in his peripheral vision and spun around. There was a man in the window with something pointed at him. His instincts screamed at him and he ducked behind the bed just as an arrow slammed into the wall above him.

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Luke cursed, the assassin had ducked behind the bed and his arrow implanted itself harmlessly in the wood. Luke moved forward out of the window frame and drew the bow back to full draw. He cautiously moved forward till he was near the bed, then he moved back a few paces to the left of the bed, and forward till he could see behind the bed. There was nothing there. Luke was confused, and in that moment of confusion, a dark figure rose silently up from the opposite side of the bed and launched a small knife from it's hand. It severed the bowstring and caused the bow to spring back to it's original form, the arrow clattering harmlessly to the floor. Luke cursed again and cast the bow aside. He drew a short sword from his side, it wasn't the weapon he preferred but he could use it. The cloaked figure drew two long daggers in response and charged. Right before they met the cloaked figure sheathed his daggers and pulled his cloak off. Then Luke saw his face for the first time. He looked in his early thirties, and had long black hair, blue eyes, and a kind face, that disarmed Luke. Before he knew it the man had wrapped the cloak over his arm and sword, he then grabbed Luke's sword and twisted it out of his hands, and in one fluid motion he pulled out one of his daggers out, and pointed it at Luke's throat.

The doors burst open and soldiers streamed in, surrounded them, and drew their swords. A man stepped forward from the group of soldiers and said "Sheath your weapons and please remove your blade from our Archer friend's throat, Mr. Assassin. We can't have you killing him, the King would be very disappointed.