Chapter 1: The Assassination

The night came; the temperature was freezing in the Dzud, a dry land in the northeast border of the Land of the Dawn. Alice, The Queen of Blood Demons, and her most loyal Blood axe follower, Balmond, almost dragged their feet as they strode day and night towards a seemingly darker destination. It is actually their safe haven as it is where their strongest allies and followers are assembled. Together, they would return for revenge against Estes and his armies that have just defeated them in battle at the Moon Elves castles in the enchanted forest - that battle was their first defeat.

Clearly, she underestimated the castle's protectors when she only brought what she considered her low ranked allies. They had not foreseen the castle's impenetrable defenses. On that bloodbath, only she, Balmond and Moskov survived and managed to escape. Moskov took a different path and did not manage to follow them. Alice was not sure where exactly he was but was certain he is alive and will surely get back to their fortress. 

They may have managed to escape but their strength did not. They had been walking for a hundred miles; exhaustion and starvation hit them.

"My Queen, I know that you are as exhausted as I am. I think it is better if you are to take a rest and let this night pass. Let us continue at the sunrise. Here, I found you a decent rock to sit on and lay your back on." said Balmond as he pointed a large flat oval-shaped rock beside a humongous chunk. 

"We need to hurry, Balmond. We need to plan an immediate revenge. This time, I will make our victory certain" Alice clenched her fists as she looked at her broken wings.

"I underst..." 

Balmond suddenly stopped upon hearing giggles and laughs which seemingly coming from everywhere. Both of them got alarmed and instinctively prepared themselves for any possible attacks. They suddenly forgot that they lost their strength in the battle but they were aware that even averagely skilled attackers would be hard to deal with at this point. The giggles became louder; it seemed like the enemies were approaching from nowhere.

 "The enemies are flying around, My Queen" Balmond whispered.

"She's not flying. She's using cables... flawlessly. She does not have magical aura." 

Alice and Balmond quickly jumped away in opposite directions as the attacker's cable swirled towards them. Balmond was dazed when the attacker threw another cable in his direction.

 Balmond summoned his axe and rapidly swung around to avoid incoming attacks. The attacker, then, swiftly threw the cable in a different direction avoiding his defensive action. Though the attacker flies swiftly, Balmond was able to get a glimpse of her appearance. Her attacks may seem like a ferocious beast because of her aggressiveness and swiftness, but her appearance is an ordinary school girl. She threw out cables which drew her to anything that they hit. She was very skilled that she looked like she was flying so fast and effortlessly. She was holding two sharp swords, too. 

"I have never seen anyone who could hold swords and do something else at the same time." Balmond thought. 

He realized that the Queen was also being attacked by someone else - an oriental looking girl in a kimono. The girl threw umbrella to Alice but the latter quickly avoided the attack. The lady then summoned her umbrella to follow Alice in all direction. When the umbrella finally touched Alice, the attacker seemed to teleport to where the umbrella was and stunned Alice. Balmond dashed towards his queen's direction to help her. But even before he reached halfway, a bright magical sphere quickly approached him. Balmond realized that it was too late for him to dodge it and that it looked like it would actually follow him. 

In a few seconds later, he found himself inside it and he was completely immobilized. He moved his eyes and looked at the direction where the sphere came from. He saw a small framed one-eyed creature standing beside a man in a shadow ninja. He was uncertain who casted the magic sphere, but he was sure that it was one of them. 

Meanwhile, stunned Alice began to ooze a creepy magical aura. Blood started to appear from thin air and it moved around her. The blood swayed as the dark magical aura becomes stronger. 

"Kagura! Fanny! Retreat for now!" The guy in a shadow ninja suit shouted and he clearly sensed danger. 

Kagura was about to jump away when a powerful wave of blood approached to attack them. Fanny was able to completely dodge it and Kagura was luckily able to throw umbrella away and teleported to it before the blood attack. Alice did not have the strength to sustain her power any longer and she thought she needed to flee. Alice then shot a blob of blood going to the attackers' opposite directio. Balmond realized that her queen was fleeing; he then used all his strength to break free from the magic sphere and dashed to where his Queen shot the ball of blood. 

The attackers were also quick to realize their target's attempt to flee. The guy in the shadow ninja suit quickly threw shurikens in their direction. Alice could have been hit but she transported to where the ball of blood was. The ninja moved forward and released four phantoms that travelled in different directions, he then teleported to the phantom nearest the target.

 "Let Hayabusa finish them" the one-eyed creature told Fanny as she was about to throw her cable.

 Hayabusa suddenly appeared in front of Balmond through the phantom. The latter halted and jumped back. He summoned his giant axe again, raised and forcefully dropped it to the earth. A large fatal blow went straight to Hayabusa's direction but he suddenly vanished. Balmond looked at his right and Haya was standing there. 

"It's my turn." Haya uttered before turning into shadow and dashing to Balmond's direction. 

Blood is spluttering as Haya's deadly shadows attack Balmond. It is as if countless sharp swords are slicing through the poor creature into bits. Alice takes this as an opportunity to flee. She sped up and exhausted more strength to keep going. 

"Do you really think you can run away, my queen?" Fanny grinned as she was chasing Alice. 

She threw her cable to Alice's direction and was desperate to finish her with one last blow. However, Alice quickly teleported to another ball of blood she sent away. 

"It's far enough. They wouldn't even realize I transported here. All I need to do now is to keep running" Alice thought. 

"Do you really think you can run away, my queen?" The voice seems very near. It sounded like a whisper but it was definitely near. Alice stopped and looked around. She was unable to see anyone. When she was about to continue running, red smokes appeared from nowhere.

 Fanny heard her target cry. She did not know where she was, but she was sure she's dead.

 "It looks like Natalia beat you again, Fanny" Cyclops giggled.  

"That bastard. I will kill her" Fanny looked so pissed off and flew away with her cables. Cyclops followed it up with laughter. 

"Well done, Natalia! " Cyclops shouted.

 Kagura gave a small wave to the approaching assassin. "The enemy was far stronger at her prime. I would say it would not be an easy task for us to beat the Queen of the Demons at her strongest even if we all fight against her."

 "It was very timely for us to carry out this mission. But I think it could have been more exciting if she was in her prime" Kagura blurted out.

"I'm sure there's more to come" Natalia grinned at her. Natalia gets prettier when she smiles. Kagura just smiled back. 

Natalia is one of the newly recruit members of the Phantom Troupe together with Kagura and Fanny. She looks like a gorgeous innocent lady. But many people gets scared just by saying her name. She is actually one of the Land of the Dawn's top assassins. She is literally vanishing into thin air whenever she wants to, and uses this talent to kill her targets. Pretty, but deadly, indeed. Natalia is said to be raised from a little girl by the Church of Light and trained into one of the Church's assassins. This young phenom had risen to become the top assassin for the Church via her outstanding talents, but then on one assassination mission, she failed, causing her companion to meet with unprecedented disaster. To prove herself again, she exiled herself to the outskirts of the land to carry out more dangerous missions. 

"What's new, Haya. What's our next mission?" Natalia asked. "Who would Lance like us to target next?"

"First of all, you better start getting used to calling him master. Be more respectful to master Lance" Haya respond.

Natalia Smirked "That is not part of what I've signed up for." 

Haya just shook his head "Well, to discuss the next mission, master Lance wants us to gather up tomorrow evening. Same place..." 

"We will be there." Kagura interrupted. Natalia smiled goodbye then vanished into thin air.