After the Fight

Dante sighed in relief, That was a close one," he said

"Also does anyone know who that was?

The others were stunned as well ,the figure was only there for a second before it disappeared, but it had been there, the assassin's body was proof of that.

His throat had been sliced, with a pool of blood around his head, and the still loaded crossbow had fallen harmlessly to the ground about a foot from the corpse.

Dante recovered quickly, "As much as I hate to say it, we should see if David is okay, also, someone see if Thomas is injured."

That snapped Liam, and Luke out of it. "I'll go see if Tomas is okay " Luke said.

"Liam, you see if David's alive, I'm going to see if I can get some information from one of these assassins."

"Aren't they all dead?" Liam asked inquiringly.

"No, I scratched one with the stud in the middle of my gauntlet."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Liam questioned.

"I put poison on the studs of the gauntlet, nothing special, it mostly just knocks out and immobilizes, but it kills if you don't get the antidote within a couple hours."

He pulled out a vial from his cloak, "Luckily I always carry the antidote with me ,it might take a few minutes to work though. I'll probably be back before he's awake."

"Well, I'll leave you too it then." Liam said, as he walked toward David's still body.

Dante moved to the assassin, and turned him on his back. He then uncorked the vial, opened the man's mouth, and let two drops fall from the vial into the man's mouth.

"There," He said to himself "He'll recover in a few minutes, until then I better make sure you can't run away." Dante pulled off the assassin's long cloak, and cut it into strips with his dagger.

He then used the strips to tie the man's hands behind his back, and his legs together.

Dante drug the man over to the wagon, and propped him against a wheel, then went over to check if David was still alive.

He arrived in time to see Liam pouring the contents of a water skin on David's face,

Dante grinned, David got what he deserved.

"Is he alive?" Dante asked, as he watched Liam continue to pour water on David's face.

"Yeah," Liam said. "But I think he need a bit more than water."

Liam then covered David's mouth and nose with the collar of David's chainmail shirt, so he couldn't breathe.

David's eyes flew open, and he started thrashing, trying to get a breath. Liam let go, and he gasped for air. when he recovered, he rounded on Liam.

"What's the meaning of this? Trying to suffocate me? I'll have your head for this!"

Luke appeared behind David, and hit him over the head with the hilt of his short sword.

David collapsed again, onto the ground.

"That deals with him for now, Thomas got grazed in the shoulder, but I cleaned out the wound, and wrapped it up." Luke said

"Thank goodness, he's alright. His attitude counters David's. If he had been like David I think I would have killed them both. Also Luke, thanks for solving our David problem." Dante replied.

"I'm going to check on our assassin." Then, Dante turned, and walked back to the wagon.

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The assassin was alive, awake, and angry. These few men had slaughtered them, all except him. After that man he had been fighting scratched his face, he had felt weak in the knees, it had begun to get hard to breathe as well. Before he knew it, he was unconscious.

He subconsciously remembered someone prying open his mouth, and felt something sliding down his throat. Soon after he felt his cloak get taken off, and his hands being secured behind his back.

Followed by his feet being tied together, he was then dragged, and propped up against what felt like a wagon wheel.

He had fully regained consciousness a minute later, and opened his eyes. He knew he had been caught, and now he was furious. But he knew what he had to do, he used the ring on his finger to work at the cloth binding, it was a special ring with tiny, concealed knife.

The man, who had no doubt poisoned him, came back, and approached him.

He knew why he was alive, so this man could get information, he knew he couldn't run, he had only managed to cut the cloth binding his hands, and his legs were still tied. He resigned himself to his fate.

The man started speaking, and he kept his hands behind his back.

"It's nice to see that you're alive and well, let's get to the point, I want information, and if you don't give it to me I'll kill you." The man said

The assassin spit on the ground, and said,

"No need."

And with that, he pulled his hands from behind his back, and in one fluid motion he pulled a capsule out of his pocket, put it into his mouth, and swallowed.

"It doesn't matter now." He said.

"That was a special poison that works in minuets, now I'll die quickly, and painlessly"

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Dante looked down at the assassin without pity.

"Or not." He said, and slashed the assassin's throat with his dagger.

Then he turned on his heel, and walked away, leaving the assassin to drown in his own blood.

Dante approached Liam and Luke as they dumped the unconscious David into the back of the wagon. "Our assassin friend is dead, he took a poison capsule, and I sped up the process, so I didn't get any information from him.

I think we should set up camp early today though." Dante said quietly. "I know we've only been on the a few hours, but we should stop early, if only to bury the dead."

He gestured to the bodies on the path behind them.

"They may have tried to kill us, but it's disgraceful to leave them to rot."

Luke, and Liam nodded agreement, they put the limp David into the wagon, and then started to dig the graves.

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They finished the graves in the evening, ten of them by the side of the path.

David had woken up a couple hours after Luke had knocked him out. He was confused and disoriented about what had happened, and didn't seem to remember what happened from the time they crossed the bridge forward.

Luke had told him what had happened, leaving out the part where Liam had revived him, and when

Luke had knocked him out again.

They insisted he got some rest, and set up his tent for him, he was soon asleep.

He was still asleep when they finished the graves, and ate dinner, cold leftovers from the previous day.

They all ate their fill, and went to bed, except for Dante.

He waited in his tent, until he thought that everyone was asleep.

When he thought they were, he got up, out of his tent, and slipped into the woods.

He shortly came to a clearing. The moonlight flitted through the gaps in the trees, creating patches of moonlight on the ground, it was a beautiful night, Dante thought

A cloaked figure rose out of the ground behind Dante, unsheathing a long dagger.

Dante heard the noise of steel on leather, making a slight hissing noise, he ducked, and rolled throwing a knife it the direction of the place he had been in.

The cloaked figure sunk into the ground and Dante's throwing knife sliced through the air where the figure had been.

The figure appeared behind Dante, dagger already drawn, but he was ready.

He turned around quickly, and pointed his dagger at the cloaked figure's throat.

And looked into their face, at the same time he saw the figure's own knife, pointing at his throat.