Assassins? Already?

Staring at the two oblivious figures, Carlos spun the sharp serrated dagger in his hand.

'Now then... what will I do with the money?'

Dreaming of the down payment which was promised to be twenty percent of the full one, Carlos salivated at the thought of retiring from his position in the gang and living a wealthy life on some remote tropical island in the middle of the sea.

Of course that life couldn't be to extravagant as the consequences of killing the prince and princess and gaining the ire of two kingdoms were clear and he had to spend a decent amount of coin to cover his tracks.

But Carlos hoped that the two kingdoms wouldn't know who he was specifically and was hoping for the gang to take the heat for him.

And even though he felt bad for his comrades in the Caligos brothers, it was fifty gold they were talking about!

Of course he had to kill the rest of his gang members to get the full payment and would most likely face the consequences of doing so, but by then, before the gang could get on his ass for betrayal, they would hopefully be occupied with the two very angry kingdoms.

But to fulfil his dreams he had to first assassinate the two royal heirs before making sure to follow all of his plans to dot.

Quickly lining the edges of the blade with a potent poison from a plant called the silent dream flower known for its abilities to dull every sense until one becomes indistinguishable from the other.

It was so potent as to make its target become a confused blubbering mess that would be to confused to scream out for help.

The intended effect that the Assassins that followed Carlos under the allure of the gold wanted.

Finishing their applications of the poisons on their bodies, they made sure to keep the antidote in the fake tooth before slowly slinking towards the two figures illuminated by the moonlight.

---

"Umm..." Scoria awkwardly stared at Ellora before glancing at the dimly lit surroundings.

"I know this is an awkward question but... do you..."

She suddenly burst into a peal of chuckles, surprising Scoria since he didn't know how on earth he was to treat

"Sense the hunters prowling around in the dark? Yes I do."

"Oh" Staring at her with the same look of surprise on his face, the aura of awkwardness which lingered around them slowly dissipating.

"So, would you like to help me subdue them?"

Crouching down and pulling out a sword of earth, the edges lined with iron straight from the earth, he looked at her.

"Yes please."

"Great! Weapon?"

"Spear please"

"Got it"

Pulling up a stone spear coated in iron out of the earth in a similar fashion, Scoria tossed the stone spear at Ellora while infusing his mana straight into the blade, causing flames to rise off the edge of the blade.

Holding it with a standard grip, Scoria reversed it and brought his arm up blocking the knife heading straight for him using the flat of the blade and twisted his grip.

Pulling the assassin closer to him, Scoria utilized his Leverage and pushed the blade straight downwards to the assassin which had over extended their arm.

With a burst of fire briefly revealing the terrified eyes of the assassin, Scoria pushed the sword into the earth, breaking apart the weak enchantments and piercing the assassins foot straight to the ground.

With a suppressed scream, Scoria brought his other arm upwards and used his elbow to smash the jaw of the assassin.

Following the brief gap made by the sudden pain and attack, Scoria grabbed their hand and snatched the knife out of their hands.

A flash of belated realization coursed through their eyes as they forced themselves through the pain and tried to snatch the dagger back.

Sadly for them, Scoria wasn't so kind as to let them.

Awkwardly twisting his arm so that the edge of the blade was now faced towards the hand.

The man, unaware of the danger due to not seeing properly and it being dark, stabbed themselves at the palm.

And it was not pretty.

With the potent poison capable of neutralizing most capable knights wandering the lands.

It was of course capable of neutralizing an assassin with a much weaker body then a knights.

And the affects of the poison was devastating.

Immediately coursing through the blood like the plague, veins of green covered their body as the assassin trembled.

With a wordless scream following it, the assassin collapsed with their eyes rolled up to the back of their head.

Watching the froth come out of their mouth, Scoria stared at the blade drenched in dark blood and quickly encased the blade in a layer of earth.

Having neutralized one of the assassins, Scoria turned his attention to the others lingering in the shadows.

It had only been a few moments since the first assassins attack, ample enough time for the others to back the assassin up and prevent their death.

But as the reinforcements hadn't arrived, Scoria took the chance and killed the assassin with the very weapon that was meant to kill him.

Something he noted with this information was that although they were assassins, they weren't particularly trained ones.

Looking for the princess of heaven.

A fact he still found surprising.

He turned around and watched as she encased the knife in a layer of ice, a similar eye rolling back and frothing at the mouth situation occurred amongst them.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, more than okay, these... ants really aren't enough to make me break a sweat."

Scoria chuckled in reply. "Yeah, I guess that is true, be careful of the poison coated on their blades however, it is definitely the most dangerous facet of their being."

A dark gleam flashed through her eye. "Yes, I am aware of that fact"

Raising her hand she pointed it at Scoria.

[Ice pike]

A pike of ice quickly manifested in front of her palm before being immediately launched forwards.

Staying still, the ice pike barely grazed the tips of his hair and only flew above his shoulder and pierced the figure behind him, eliciting a gurgling noise as blood bubbled up their throat.

 Staring at the pike which dripped blood to the ground, Scoria stared inquisitively at Ellora eyebrows raised.

"Why didn't you dodge?"

"Well..." Scoria pointed at the soon to be corpse on the ground and pointed behind her. "I'm not the prince of hell for nothing, I could tell you weren't going to hit me."

[Flame cutter]

An arc of fire flew forwards while streaking diagonally through the air, lightly singing the tips of her grey hair.

"Just like that." Muttering to himself the face of the person behind her melted off.

The Ground trembled before opening up in several places, displacing the stone flooring and revealing the cracked earth underneath.

Feeling the undulating mana pushing the earth apart, Scoria sighed "Well, I must admit you aren't called the Princess of Heaven for nothing so I'll just leave you to it."

Turning around, Scoria brandished his sword and faced the enemies.

{Volcano Spirit Style: 1st form: Volcano Spider}

Stabilizing himself on his two feet he prepared his blade.

{Spiders charge}

The Volcano Spider.

Being a spider that lived in a volcano, volcanic rock covered the chitinous creature in a layer of armor and protected the insectile beast from the lava upon which it dwelled on.

But that wasn't what the martial arts was trying to emulate in any way as it would be more efficient to emulate a different, more defense oriented creature.

No, the martial arts themselves were not to emulate the creatures armor, but the fangs and legs that it carried as weapons.

The Martial arts wanted to emulate the way the spider could capitalize the most on uneven terrain and attack with full force.

Stepping on the uneven terrain, the remaining assassins leaped from the shadows, having been exposed, they saw no need to hide in the shadows and attacked.

A mistake more learned assassins would not do, but it was a mistake that Scoria would nevertheless capitalize on.

{Crushing Cleave}

Bisecting the three revealed assassins in short order, the blood splattered onto his cheek.

Letting out another sigh he thought 'Whether it be in hell or the mortal realm, assassins are the norm.'

He thought fondly of the past few years in the mortal realm 'At least the Kingdom of Iron and Lava Morgast was fine.'

Letting out another quiet sigh, a sharp look flashed through her eyes before tracing a path straight towards the strong man who had not even moved from his position since the beginning of their encounter.

Glancing at the Heavenly Princess and noting the corpses littered with a series of holes in them, he looked back at the man hidden in the shadows.

"Hey there friend? Why don't you come out of hiding and reveal yourself? We can already see you."

+++

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