Transcendence - Chapter 73

***Norfolk, Fellmar***

***The Nameless***

He walks slowly through the crowd of people and searches for his prey. The excitement of the impending kill sends a shiver through his body. That’s what he exists for. To kill his prey silently and watch the life exiting its body is his greatest joy. Killing is his purpose.

And he is good at it. In fact he is the best. The idiots who paid him and appointed his targets called him an assassin. But he thinks of himself as a hunter. He gave up on his name and a normal life to follow his desires.

He gave up on thinking of himself as a man and turned into a hunter, a monster. He got rid his emotions to become the best of his trade. He even cast aside his humanity. Just in the rare moments of the actual hunt, he allowed himself to feel the joy of killing.

That’s why he is here tonight. The crazed maniac who hired him paid well. He had met the man in a dark alley. His informant had decided on it as the meeting place to get his mission briefing.

But the client felt dangerous this time. Not because he seemed strong, but because he seemed like a fanatic. The man talked constantly about gods and destiny. He thought of himself as the hero who’ll save the world.

The nameless was in his business for long enough to know that there are no heroes. Just normal mortal men who had a few screws loose.

But he still accepted the job, even after finding out who his employer was. It was nobody else but the great leader of the Inquisition himself.

Normally the Nameless would have ended the negotiation right then and there. If it wasn’t for the target. The Nameless had long since learned to distance himself from his work and to think very careful about every employment before accepting it.

Otherwise you won’t live for long in this business. The name which the client wanted to remove from the world of the living sent shivers down his spine.

It was a name that became famous in the world of assassins. And that’s because almost nobody who took a job on this name returned. And the few who did spoke of escaping with their lives.

The Nameless doesn’t care about his reputation, but he actually wants to slay this prey. A prey that had taken the lives of so many assassins had to be formidable. What a thrilling hunt it’ll be.

The huge amount of money became secondary as the Nameless accepted. Up until now his strict working ethics had forbidden him to hunt this prey on his own. But with a proper employment it was different.

So he started to prepare. Until he was finally here. Everything lead to this final moment, when he could finally end the life of his prey. It was so close! Just ten metres away from him is Ascathon Asceron.

So close and yet so far! He can’t start the hunt right now. There are too many people around. And the guards around this man didn’t seem like humans. The Nameless knows their scent. He had met prey like them. They were dangerous foes, but only if you met them unprepared and outnumbered.

The Nameless would wait for his chance. Slowly he retreated into the crowd and continued to observe his prey. Actually there were many targets here tonight. The nameless had contracts for everyone with the name Asceron and the white haired woman, who was sitting beside them.

But he would go for the head first. It didn’t excite him to hunt the weak.

They talked until late in the evening and the Nameless waited patiently. His time would come. Waiting was an important part of the hunt. If you attacked too early, your prey might flee. If you waited too long it might spot you. The time and place have to be right.

The Nameless waits as his prey leaves and he continues to play one of the guests. There is time. He already knows where he will find his prey.

A long time later he slips away from the festivity and enters a rest room. But he is in no need of relieving himself. The window is what he is looking for.

He waits until he is sure to be alone and climbs through the window. It’s a long way down because the rest room is in the third floor. His fingers grip the facade like steel and he closes the window behind him.

Then he starts to climb with a steady pace. He did this many times before and soon he reaches the top floor of the building. There he waits for several seconds and steadies his breath.

There is a window above him and it leads to a dark corridor. The corridor itself leads directly to the chambers of his prey. He feels the mana circulating through his body and his senses reach out for the corridor.

Two guards are patrolling along it. They don’t need light, so that means that they belong to the special ones.

Silently the Nameless reaches for the window and places his hand on the locking mechanism. He infuses his mana into the locking mechanism and the window unlocks silently.

But he doesn’t open it. These guards would smell him, or sense him otherwise as soon as he enters the corridor. He won’t underestimate them.

He waits for their return and prepares his body. Everyone of his muscles is tense like a steel spring. The guards have to be silenced without fail. His face distorts into a grin. Soon he will kill again. Once the guards pass the window, there will be no hesitation.

His muscles start to scream as he waits, not moving, not thinking. One of his ears is pressed to the wall under the window and he listens for the closing footsteps.

The steps get closer until they seem to be directly in front of him. He explodes in a flurry of movement. His body is catapulted upwards by his feet as he opens the window and enters the corridor, flying directly into the two guards faces.

A sharp dagger appears in his hand and he slices the closer guard’s throat from ear to ear. Prey with a sliced throat doesn’t scream.

The second guard is farther away and has time to react with his lightning reflexes as he grabs for the hilt of his longsword. But big weapons are a disadvantage in an ambush, as it takes time to ready them.

The Nameless’s next step is placed on the sword hilt and the half drawn sword slides back into its sheath. The prey tries to scream, but he rams his guarded arm into the prey’s mouth and the dagger slides through it’s shoulder into the prey’s left lung.

A muffled voice escapes, but it’s nothing which would alarm others. The Nameless wraps his legs around the prey and pulls himself into the tight embrace of the guard while activating his his battle aura. Both of them go to the ground.

The flailing hands of the prey don’t manage to inflict serious harm on him. A few blue spots will be the worst.

Then the prey’s body starts to change. Hair sprouts, the head grows longer and the teeth grow larger and sharper, threatening to pierce the protecting bracer of the Nameless.

The Nameless isn’t distracted. He knows that his prey is already dead, it’s just a little slow to realize the truth. He presses his ear to the prey’s chest and listens for the slowing heartbeat. “Sccchhhh… don’t struggle. Or I can’t listen.” He whispers and twists the blade.

Seconds later the heart makes a final beat and the Nameless pulls his blade out of his victim. He grins with joy and ensures that both guards won’t rise again. He experienced too many surprises with their kind. Better to be sure.

Then he sneaks silently forward on all fours, like an animal. Like a hunter.

He reaches the door to the private chamber of his target and listens. There are noises coming from inside. So the target isn’t sleeping yet. Too bad, but that makes the hunt more exciting.

The question is if he should rush in and do it fast? Or announce his presence? No, he will do it fast. It will be a shame if the prey dies too fast, but underestimating it may be a mistake. And there are two of them.

There are several strong locking and warning spells on the door. But the nameless has a lifetime of experience in breaking them without triggering an alarm. He proves again what he learned long ago, there are no safe locks.

He turns the doorknob and rushes inside. His target is on a big bed and only partly clothed. He has his half naked woman under him while holding her hands down.

The Nameless pays no heed to their situation and the muscles of his legs flex, propelling him forward.

His dagger flashes down, intending to sever the spinal cord of his main target. The woman starts a scream and pushes the target on top of her. The prey shifts a moment before impact and the dagger is diverted by the bones. The Nameless is still rewarded with a scream of pain, surprise and lust?

A wave of shadows explodes from the victim and the whole room is plunged into a darkness, darker than the darkest night. The Nameless twists his knife and stirs. His target may still die from the internal injuries.

He reacts on instinct. His vision may be obstructed, but he still feels and smells his prey. Something hits his side and the air is driven out of his lungs. He lets go of his dagger and rolls from the bed to propel himself out of the window.

There may be only darkness around him, but he still has the mental image of the room in his head. Nonetheless, he has to get out of the radius of this spell. Glass shatters and he jumps. His vision returns and he finds himself falling with his back to the ground.

Above him the scream turns from pain to fury and pure rage. Dark shadows creep out of the window and start to follow the Nameless. He pushes himself off the wall to slow his fall and aims for a tree in the park under him.

The branches slow his descend and he turns to land on his feet. Without loosing time he starts to run as he witnesses a shadow shooting out of the window. The Nameless grins as he realizes that the prey is coming after him. A mistake.

Quickly he rolls to the ground and dives into some nearby bushes. He crawls a little further and stops. Then he listens. But there is no sound. The upper floor of the building comes alight and dives the park into a strange twilight. Screams and commands are shouted, but nobody is coming down into the park.

Still no sign of the prey. The Nameless closes his eyes and uses his extraordinary senses. He listens, he feels, he smells. There is a faint trace of blood in the air. Slowly he crawls forward and follows the track.

He reaches the centre of the small park where the scent is the strongest. After listening for several seconds he crawls forward. Only to find a bloody piece of cloth on the ground. He picks it up and then he realizes the unnatural silence all around him. Even the insects stopped their annoying chirping.

And that’s when he realizes that right now he isn’t the hunter.

He is the hunted!

Something shoots from the shadows of the nearby tree and he raises his hand, but his bracer is pierced by an ice shard. His hand starts to freeze and he removes the shard by shattering it on the ground.

One of his daggers flies into the direction of the attacker and he rolls, trying to run. Another shadow appears in his escape route and he changes the direction.

Shadows shoot up from the ground to attack him. All of them have strange grey faces, faces of his previous prey! He realizes that he got caught in some kind of mind magic. But since when!? Something grabs his ankle. He hacks with his dagger at the immaterial things around him, screaming in terror before the unknown foe. Then he is pulled to the ground and darkness surrounds him.

***Norfolk, Fellmar***

***Ascathon***

“What a bothersome fellow.” I grin and cough some blood. “I will take my time with you. We’ll have much fun together. Hahahaha.” I cough again. Probably I should get that dagger out of me.

I bend down and grab the assassin at his neck. Then I start pulling him back towards the light of the big building in which the guests of the ball reside.

Celestial appears from the shadows with a bright red and angry face. She is wearing her nightgown and carries a pouch. It took her long enough to get dressed and follow me.

“You got him? Good!” She reaches me and starts to kick the unconscious assassin.

Some unhealthy cracking sounds are heard. “Stop it. I need him alive! And he is unconscious! He doesn’t feel it.”

“But he will feel it when he wakes up!” Celestial screams. Then she bends down and twists his fingers, breaking them and recovering her sexy panties. As a bonus she steps on his hand and another crunching sound is heard.

“And why did you use my panties as a bait!?” She waves the bloody piece of cloth in front of me.

“I don’t know what you are talking about.” I deny it.

“I saw everything from the window!” She calls out and points up to our room.

“Hrm. That’s because I immediately recognized his preferences. He attacked us while we were about to do it and actually jumped into our bed. So he clearly lost his head over you. I deemed that your panties would be best to lure him out.” I cough again and a little blood splatters on Celestial’s nightgown.

“I would break some of your bones if I wasn’t all bloody anyway. It looks like someone butchered a pig in our room. You are sure that you are okay?” She looks me up and down.

“Now that you say it, I may feel a little dizzy. It’s a good idea to pull the dagger out.” I stagger a little and kneel down.

Celestial reaches into her pouch and pulls a vial out. Then she steps behind me and I feel the dagger being yanked out of me. My regeneration spell is finally working without interference. Then a prickling feeling starts to spread and the pain fades away and is replaced by numbness.

There was probably something against the pain in Celestial’s vial.

She empties another vial into the assassins mouth and grabs him at one leg. Then she starts to walk back and I follow her with dizzy steps.

She grumbles. “We have to change rooms.”

“At this time? Can’t we ignore the blood? I just want to sleep!” Everything is spinning a little.

“No! We still have unfinished business from when we were interrupted! I don’t want to stay in that room.” She kicks the assassin in his groin and I wince.

“I don’t think that I can get it up any more. The blood loss is affecting me.” She has to see reason. There are physical limits to healing magic. I can’t restore blood out of nowhere.

“~There are potions for such cases.~”

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