DD 203 Ch 17

Chapter 17

The blurring world halted in its tracks as the 32nd floor stopped moving. "Des is going to be pissed at you," I warned, glancing at Neldra who had stolen me away.

"She can be pissed," the elf retorted. "But if she had her way and came with you, it would have been that much harder to convince Ely to stay put. I will not have the princess in danger." 

Professor Sai joined us a moment later.

"Go ahead and use your ability," Neldra instructed. 

I activated Eyes of Wisdom, asking it to reveal the assassins' location. A line appeared, leading us further away from the encampment. I pointed in the direction, telling Neldra which way to move. 

Professor Sai looked at me curiously. "Can you keep the ability up?" she asked. 

I shook my head. "It fades every time I blink, and the mana cost is quite large," I explained. "Crimson has a ridiculously large pool of mana, because she enjoys having more stats than the rest of us. It's not very useful in combat. Using it three or four times in a row is enough to deplete my mana." 

Neldra nodded and handed me two mana potions. "Then you'll need these. The last thing we need is for these assassins to escape us." 

I took the potions and tucked the vials into my belt. "Then let's go deal with them." 

Neldra grabbed me and the world blurred again, moving at an incredible speed. She stopped and put me down, nodding for me to use my ability again. This time, Eyes of Wisdom didn't give me a line, but instead placed four dots on the horizon. 

"I can almost see them," I said. 

Professor Sai took a few seconds to catch up to us. Neldra was already moving in hurried steps forward. "Try not to blink," she advised. 

I was holding my eyes open as we went, but not blinking was always harder than I anticipated. I certainly wasn't going to make it all the way. Neldra's sword flashed, and a nearby monster puffed into black smoke. 

"I don't see a camp," the professor said. 

"Neither do I. In fact, I don't see anything else out there." Neldra kept a hand on my shoulder, and unfortunately, I blinked. The dots vanished, and I quickly downed one of the mana potions to replenish my energy. “It’ll be incredibly suspicious if we just waltz up. Neldra, would you like to have an impromptu training session out here?”

The elf smirked at me and drew her sword. “I thought you’d never ask.”

My blades pinged off her sword a moment later. I had to really go at her to get [Liminal Speed] to activate. With this level of fighting, I’d seriously injure someone from the class, but Neldra could hold out against me easily.

"They are fanning out around us," I told Neldra, checking on the assassins again. "One of them is perhaps a hundred yards away. To our left. There, a hundred yards." 

Neldra disengaged from me and moved like a rocket, closing the space between where we were and where I pointed in a flash. She drew her sword in an arc, and the dungeon in front of her exploded in a wave of sand and shredded shrubbery. Her blade cut an arc through the air that grew to the size of a house and shot out to blanket the area.

A figure appeared in the air, blocking as blood splashed out from his arms. A moment later, Neldra had practically teleported behind him, her blade cleaving down from above and cutting him from shoulders to hip in a single motion. She landed, spun, and shot another wave to her side. 

"There's nothing there," I told her and pointed. "The other three are running that way." 

The high-level elf moved so quickly it was like she teleported six times in quick succession, carving up large areas with wide-sweeping attacks every time she appeared.

She caught another.

This one seemed more prepared than the first, blocking her slash and rushing towards the professor and me.

Professor Sai drew a longsword from her back. "Stay back, I've got this. I owe them at least one stab," she said. The professor rushed to meet the assassin.

Meanwhile, two more reappeared on Neldra.

Both of them were incredibly fast. She blocked one and spun to kick the other, only for them to bury a knife in her calf. If the wound bothered Neldra, she didn't show it at all.

She continued to fight off two of the assassins, both of whom fought in a flitting style as they disappeared and reappeared around her. The movements caused her enough trouble that she wasn't able to instantly end them like she had the first. 

My attention was drawn away from her as a slimmer assassin, this one I assumed to be a woman, struck at the professor's side. I had not been aware of what kind of class the professor had before, but now it was clear she was some sort of magical swordsman.

Goldfire erupted from her hands before she spun with the large two-handed blade and tried to cut the assassin in half, only for the assassin to flip past and come straight for me. 

The assassin's disappearance caused me to blink, once again losing my [Eyes of Wisdom]. My weapons were in my hands a second later, as I blocked and pushed off the ground.

Despite the woman clearly being an agility class, there was enough strength in the blow to knock me backwards.

I quickly took my feet off the ground to not take that blow head-on, letting the blow move me.

It was more important that I protect my body from a direct hit from their blades. I still did not know exactly what abilities this assassin used, but I knew they could likely shred me.

Dark blades activated and a purple sheen wrapped around my weapons as I squared off against the assassin, only for her to disappear from where she stood. I twisted to the side and blocked with an [Elemental shield] as a dagger pierced into my ability.

The move bought me enough time to twist my weapon into the way. What was technically a parry ended up pushing me out of the way rather than the assassin's blade. 

In that moment I activated [Triple Breach], my other weapon striking three times along the assassin's shoulder. The first two hits barely scratched past the high-level armor, but the third punched through.

The assassin hissed, twisting to throw a glob of darkness at my head.

I used absorb, sucking the hit into my hand before I switched it around using spell mirror, throwing it back at the assassin. But the assassin was too fast to get caught by the hit, once again vanishing and reappearing behind me. 

Professor Sai threw a bolt of golden fire that was so bright I had to close my eyes and roll, hoping for the best.

The afterimage of the assassin burned into my eyes by the blinding blast. I heard metal on metal and knew that thankfully Professor Sai had matched up against the assassin once again.

Their weapons were ringing out in a rapid staccato to my right.

Blinking my blindness away, I came back up and joined the fight, coming for the assassin's back. But she was quick, her booted foot going for my chest without even looking behind her. 

I sidestepped the attack, getting two shallow scores with my weapon.

From the fight so far, purple lightning had started to race around my hands with a buzz of static, helping level the playing field as far as speed went.

I used shadow ambush to reorient myself based on her shadow, coming up on her left, swinging as Professor Sai had already been mid-swing on the right.

The assassin ignored me, focusing on blocking what she considered to be the larger threat. My daggers weren’t able to penetrate her high level armor.

On the third strike, I managed to nick where triple breach had already made a cut and she spun in a flurry of darkness before reappearing on the other side of Professor Sai to escape me.

"Fucking assassins," the professor spat, before stabbing her sword into the ground. A blast wave of golden fire erupted out from her in every direction. The assassin dodged, only for Professor Sai to bring her hand down and a column of fire slammed down on top of the assassin.

My instincts kicked in and I struck out to the professor's left, my blade meeting the assassin's and buying the professor enough time to dodge the sudden ambush. Whoever this assassin was, her kit was completely full of movement techniques as she flitted around the fight with incredible agility.

"Now would be a good time to pull some trick out of your hat, Professor Sai," I said, meeting the assassin's gaze and pushing the woman back. She watched the two of us, spinning a knife in her hand.

But I didn't have the luxury of a pause mid-fight; I needed to keep up my stacks of [Liminal Speed]. I rushed the assassin, even as she wove to the side to dodge my attack and come in from my side.

She was fast, her blades pushing me back even as I scrambled to block each attack.

I was out leveled by the assassin; that much was clear. Using Dark Strike, I altered my attack at the last second and meet her blade with my own. I only caught one of them with my second knife, scoring a nasty gash along my side. But the attack at least kept up my stacks of [Liminal Speed]. The assassin wove behind me, only for Professor Sai to cover me. 

"It might be best for you to get out of here and let me deal with her on my own."

"I don't think she's going to allow that," I shot back at the professor. 

I wove around to attack the assassin again. This time, just before she reacted, I activated the second phase of [Liminal Speed].

The world around me shattered and everything froze. I finished the attack, cutting through the mask and straight into her throat. The stop time only lasted long enough for me to finish the attack, but it was enough. 

The assassin reached for her throat, stunned by my attack, only for me to follow up with two more strikes from my other weapon.

Professor Sai capitalized on the moment, sweeping the assassin's legs.

She tumbled in the air and tried to catch herself, but I used [Ground Stomp] as soon as her hand touched the ground.

The ripples of earth stopped her from getting a steady purchase, and she fell on the ground, only for Professor Sai's sword to cut deep into her leg as she tried to roll away. 

I wasn't about to let her escape and recover. I pressed the assassin further. She was bleeding badly from the throat and the leg. Even if she was at a high level, there was a limit to the human body.

She blocked my next attack with her forearm, the hard vambraces were tough enough to make my weapon spark before Professor Sai grabbed and jerked down on the high-level assassin with enough strength to force her to a stop. 

After that, it was up to me to weave in. Triple breach was available again, and I used it this time on her chest plate. This second instance of attack pierced through and made the assassin cough up blood. I pulled back just in time to lose half an inch of hair as the assassin tried to take me down with her. 

Professor Sai threw out an ability that took several seconds, but a ring of fire encased the assassin, followed by chains that pinned her down. 

"I've got this from here," the professor said, walking over the assassin an axe now in her hand. She swung with all her might and dealt a finishing blow to the assassin. 

I stood up, wavering on my feet. Though I'd only received one attack from the assassin, it was a rather deep wound.

Professor Sai saw me inspecting the wound, and flicked a hand at me. Motes of golden fire seeped into my skin and burned the wound closed. 

I hissed under the pain, "Warn someone before using an ability like that." I quickly turned, remembering that Neldra was still fighting the other two. One lay dead, and the other had clearly tried to run. Neldra was a hundred yards away, finishing him off. The elven censer pulled a blade out of the assassin's gut, and picked up the body to drag it back to us. 

"Professor, do me a favor and revive this one, he seemed like the leader," Neldra threw the body down in front of the professor, before pressing her sword into its gut. 

"You want me to revive him with your sword in him?" 

Neldra gave a vicious smile. "Yes." 

"Ken, can you check to tell me if there are any more?" The professor asked. 

I asked [Eyes of Wisdom] to show me where the assassins were, and the four bodies in front of me lit up. There was no other indication in my vision. 

"I think this is all," I said. 

"You think?" Neldra asked, raising an eyebrow.  “I’d like to be more sure than that.”

"This ability doesn't come with an instruction manual. It, however, does say these four are the assassins, and gives no other indication." 

Neldra's brow pinched down, and she turned her focus back to the professor. "Revive him."

The professor seemed somewhat uncomfortable with the request, but fire shot out from her hand into the assassin's body.

He gasped and sat up, only to scream as he clutched the sword in his gut. 

"Who sent you?" Neldra demanded. 

"I think we all already know the answer," I told her. "It was Prince Albar," I said, staring down at the assassin.

The man grimaced but said nothing.

I reached down and ripped the mask off his face, only for a blade to try and take my arm off.

Neldra, however, was faster and knocked the weapon out of his hand. 

I got a good look at the man and held up my CID to take a picture. I would be able to ask my grandparents later for information. 

"He's clearly not answering," Professor Sai said. "Just kill him and be done with it." 

Neldra, however, was still fuming like she hadn't had enough fighting to take her stress out on. She stabbed the man several more times in the gut. 

"Answer now or you are dead." 

The man gave her a bloody smile. "I already am." 

With that, Neldra killed him and flicked the blood off her sword. "Alright, that's it. I am going to go kill that Prince and the whole fucking Royal College." Neldra turned like she was going to do just that, but I grabbed her arm to stop her. 

"Look, I feel the same. We have already given the Prince too much leeway." 

Neldra narrowed her eyes, but she urged me to continue. 

"But if you go and kill 25 students right now, you're going to cause panic in what is already a very tricky situation." Putting a knife through the Prince would be oh so sweet. However, then it would be impossible to get Pendulum and Trusk to work with us.

"I'll be able to sleep at night," Neldra said without an ounce of mirth. 

"I would be able to too," I told her frankly. "But if you would, allow us to do this a little neater." 

"And how exactly would you propose that?" 

Neldra at least no longer looked like she was about to rush off and slaughter people.

"We have dwarves, we have Naga, and we have a raid that they should be in theory dying in," I told her. "We use one of those three so that everyone can't accuse you and I." 

The Professor cleared her throat, "Have you forgotten that I'm here?" 

Neldra gave the Professor a very unfriendly smile. "I can make you disappear if it's a problem. This man has now sent people after the Princess multiple times now. That is unacceptable." 

Neldra grabbed Professor Sai by the lapel and lifted her off the ground, reminding her who was the strongest present. 

"So get on the same page as us," Neldra scowled, "because he is not walking out of the dungeon again." 

The Professor tried and failed to brush Neldra off, realizing now how serious Neldra was in her duty to the princess.

"I won't get in your way, but I will not participate in the murder of students." 

The Professor moved away from Neldra the second the elf put her down. 

"I'm not murdering a student," Neldra said. "I'm executing a criminal. Turnabout's always fair play, or what is it humans say? What happens in the dungeon stays in the dungeon. Time to live up to your motto." 

"This is different. This is a college-sanctioned event." 

I held my hand up, "One that is currently faced with a considerable amount of turmoil," I reminded her, "turmoil that he is clearly using to further his own agenda. Do you think, for a second, that if he successfully killed Elysara and myself, that he would leave the rest of them alive? Didn't he leave you for dead with the Naga?" I pushed. 

It seemed Professor Sai had a little streak of righteousness in her, one that was currently ill-placed if you asked me.

She huffed. "Like I said, I won't get in your way." 

"Good," Neldra said, "if you rethink that, remember, you're currently trapped in this part of the dungeon with me and someone who can always find you." She put a hand on my arm, smiling threateningly at the Professor.

Professor Sai put her weapon away before dismissing her armor with her CID. "I'm heading back." She shot away towards the encampment outside the raid. Neldra stood next to me for a moment with her hand still on my arm. 

"Is she going to be a problem?"

"Not if I can help it," I told her. "I think the prince, for once, had the right idea." 

Neldra frowned at me. "What?" 

"We were surrounded by professors all the time. There was nothing I could do to strike at the prince. But just as he concluded that we were alone, and used that as an opportunity to prepare, I think it is completely within our rights to strike back. However, Neldra, I would ask that you let me be the one to kill the prince." 

She gave me another humorless smile. Then, her expression changed and she gave me a brilliant smile. "I'll do you one better. I, Neldra of the Royal Censors, wish to hire Ken Nagato for a job."