CHAPTER 48: THE DARK CREED MASTER
Aelita struggled against the assassin that held her down while he twirled the dagger in his hand, playing with her. She did all she could to hold back tears as she tried to scream through the assassins gloved hand.
"You got quite some lungs on you. Too bad this will soon be your last breath today." The assassin said as he got ready to stab her in the throat.
Aelita continued to struggle against the assassin on top of her as she finally got her right arm free and grabbed some dirt and threw it in the assassins masked face and covering his eye hole lenses with dirt, making him get off her with a yell.
She then quickly rolled out for under the assassin and ran back to where she was sitting before and grabbed a rock and threw it at the assassin and hit him in the side of his ribs. He yelled in pain as he began to charge after her.
"Stay away from me!" Aelita yelled as she threw another rock and hit the assassin in his masked face, breaking off a small chip as he still came after her.
She threw a larger rock and struck the assassin in his leg, making him stumble a little as Aelita threw two rocks and hit him in the chest and shoulder as he finally reached her and slashed with his dagger as Aelita managed to get out of the way in time, but the assassin grabbed her left wrist hard, making her yelp from his grip.
"Let me go, now!" She yelled as she turned and lashed at him with her free hand.
No one would have guessed what happened next, as soon as her hand slapped into his masked face, a burst of pink energy shot out and hit the assassin like a sucker punch to the face, making him fall back in pain from the force of Aelita's Energy Field attack while letting her go.
"You little witch! So you can use magic too?!" The assassin yelled as he clutched his masked face. It was more cracked up and damaged then before, and even one of the lenses broke. "So you got some fight in you after all, my pink haired friend. I'm glad about that, it's been a long time since I had fun. So give me all you got!" The assassin yelled as he lunged at her again.
Aelita launched the Energy Field from her hand at the assassin, but he dodged the pink orb in time and lashed at her as she tripped over a rock and fell down to the ground as the assassin missed her by a hair. She quickly rolled out of the way as the assassin took a stab at her, only to hit the ground
"If you don't get away from me, I swear I'll hurt you!" Aelita warned as she raised her arms and created another Energy Field between her hands, ready to fire it.
The assassin just chuckled as he tossed the dagger up and caught it and tossed it up one more time and caught it as he looked right at her. "I would actually like to see you try, my little pink haired friend. You don't have any choice, kill or be killed. That's the way the world is. So give me your best shot!" He hissed as he came after Aelita with his dagger.
Aelita's heart beat in her chest as the assassin came after her at full speed, she made her Energy field disburse for a moment as she jumped out of the way of his blade and quickly created another one and fired it with a yell, hitting the assassin in the chest and sent him flying into a tree with a loud slam. He yelled in pain as his back hit the tree hard and then fell to the grass ground with a loud thud and laid motionless with the dagger still in his hand.
The assassin was down, and Aelita fell to her knees panting, happy that she won against the man that was trying to kill her, and even more so on the fact she was able to summon her Energy Field again and stop her attacker. But then a thought sunk in as she realized that she had struck a normal person with her power, a power that was able to destroy Xana's new body with ease, so then surely an attack to a persons body could be far worse.
She quickly scurried over to the assassin and carefully kneeled down and touched the assassin on the shoulder a few times. He didn't move or make a noise as her worse fear came to mind...she killed someone.
Tears fell freely as she quietly sobbed at her fallen enemy. She didn't want to kill him, despite the fact she had every right to defend herself from her from the assassin. But she still felt a painful stab in her chest as she got up and began to head into the forest to look for her friends, because she just couldn't stand being near the dead assassin lying on the cold ground. She did all she could to make sure she wasn't seen through the thick forest as she begin to search for the others.
A few minutes passed as the assassins eyes fluttered open and coughed loudly as he struggled into a sitting position and coughing harder as he took his mask off to breath better. He was a human boy, only a few years older then the gang, his eyes were a very light green color, and his hair was a very dirty blonde, with slightly pale skin. He twirled his dagger around as he continued to cough.
"Well, that hurt like hell..." He muttered as he looked at his damaged mask. "Well played, my pink haired friend. Now the hunt is on for my little target. I will have you soon." He said to himself as he put his mask back on and sluggishly got back up and staggered into the forest to look for her.
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The gang stayed in the shadows as they begin to come up with a plan to fight the assassins. They quickly stopped for a few minutes to dress the wounds that Kairaree, Aracane, Sam, Bel'la, and Miodelus got from the arrows that hit them a little bit ago since they didn't have a chance until now. They patched their friend's wounds, and were ready to go, the ones that had backpacks on them tighten and secured the straps as they began to search through the forest without making a sound. Even Alpha was able to move around low and quiet around, his parts seemed to tighten up and lock in place, making every step quiet as they all spread out in the bushes and tall grass.
The sound of assassins searching through the forest caught their attention as they all stopped moving around and watched from their hiding spots. The assassins were walking silently with all kinds of different weapons in hands. From swords of different shapes and sizes, a wide variety of battle axes, daggers, chain weapons, maces, spears, staff weapons, bows and crossbows, and other forms of weapons that were lethal and dangerous. With the assassins unaware of the gangs position, they knew it was time to attack and narrow down their numbers.
Three assassins looked through the forest as Ulrich quietly came out from behind them and quickly ran his sabers through the back of their heads of the two on the sides as the one in the middle turned, only to see the tip of Ulrich's saber go through his eye and dropped him quick.
Two assassins were together, not really putting much effort into looking for the gang. Yumi dropped down from some trees with her tanto in hand and ran it through the assassin that was farthest from the two and dropped him quick as she then threw her fan-blade at the assassin in front of her, the assassin turned just in time to see the flying weapon cut through her neck as it flew back to Yumi's hand as another assassin came charging out, but Yumi quickly countered with her tanto and finished off another assassin.
Seven assassins with bows wandered around as Odd crept out from the bushes. He fired two arrows at once and got two assassins in the neck and then fired two arrows again and got two more in the backs through their hearts. It was then the assassins noticed what was happening as they turned around as Odd placed his bow over his back and charged with his claws out. He leaped out of an assassins blade and slashed with his claws as the other two came after him, but Odd quickly did away with them in only two lashes and made the claws retract as he gave a small growl from his throat.
Four assassins with large weapons were following a trail that Aracane left on the ground, but what they didn't know was that the Sparvaxin actually made the trail on purpose. He came out from behind them and grabbed one and snapped his neck quick as the others turned around from the bone breaking noise, only to see him swing his axe blade into one assassin's chest, killing him quick as Aracane then lunged after another one and grabbed the assassin by the top clothes and threw him against a tree hard as the muscle bound warrior pulled his axe out of the fallen assassins chest and decapitated the fourth one and turned back to the stunned assassin that hit the tree and grabbed him by the back of his masked head, and slammed the assassin's face forward into the tree, breaking the mask as Aracane slammed the man into the tree one more time, thankfully killing him quick as Aracane then retrieved his axe.
Six assassins were in a circle as Knulgen watched them from above in a tall tree, he saw an opening and leaped down while drawing his sword and slashed an assassin in the back, all in one motion as he then turned and strike down three more as the last two tried to attack him. The assassin behind Knulgen swung his sword down as he quickly dodged out of the way and the assassin ended up killing his comrade instead, his sword was stuck deep in the others assassins shoulder with blood pouring out as Knulgen looped around and drove his curved blade into the last assassins side, killing him painfully quick as the wild molnuck ran off into the forest.
Four assassins were looking around in a straight line as Kairaree watched them from high in the trees, her tribal training was kicking in as she spotted one of them alone. She quietly took out her chain weapon and held the heavy end and some chain length in her hands and threw it down at the assassin that landed around his neck and quickly pulled it tight and lifted the assassin off the ground without a sound as he dropped his weapons, trying to undo the chain. He could only make very quiet choking noises as the other assassins didn't even notice as the assassin finally died from a lack of air, and Kairaree dropped him and gave a quick tug that undid the chain around the assassins neck and dropped down to the ground and charged after the next assassin and kicked him in the back of his knees, making him fall to the ground as she drove the bladed end of her chain weapon into the assassins throat as the other assassin turned around as Kairaree threw her main dagger into the third assassins chest as the last one got ready to attack, but thankfully Kairaree threw the heavy end of her chain and managed to wrap it around the female assassins neck as she tried to struggle against it as Kairaree gave a powerful pull and broke the assassins neck with a snap and flicked the chain to unwrap and pull it back as she retrieved her dagger.
Nine assassins with long spears were poking the bushes in one area, looking for anyone that could be hiding. One assassin poked his spear in a lone bush a few times as a butcher sword burst out and stabbed through the assassin's stomach, making him cough blood as the sword was pulled out, and William leaped out from the bush and charged after the last eight assassins. Four of them charged after William with their spears, but he quickly swung his butcher sword and struck them down as the last four tried to get him from behind as William turned his blade and struck three more down as he ran his blade through the last one and pulled it out quick.
Six assassins spotted Sam and chased after her as she ran with her bladed tonfas in hands as two of the assassins caught up and grabbed her by the arms and stopped her as she struggled against her captors as the other four came after her, ready for the kill, but Sam quickly jumped in the air and landed backwards as the two assassins holding her lost their grips and met Sam's tonfa blades that struck across their chests as she blocked the two assassins that were coming after her as she quickly deflected their attacks and strike them down while the last two tried to get her from the sides as Sam flipped the weapons longways and drove the blades into the last two assassin's chests and pulled the blades out quickly as they fell to the ground dead.
Ten assassins that were in groups of two were caught off guard as Bel'la leaped out from the bushes and attacked the first group of five, she twirled her glaive in a wide arc and slashed down each assassin with ease as her long light blue hair flowed about from her movement. The last five came after her ready to kill as Eli'ton came out from the bushes, the faceplate of his armor covering his face as he came after the last five assassins. He drove his blades into the sides of two assassins while the other three turned to see his gauntlet blades run into two more assassin's chests as the last one tried to attack him, but only to get Eli'ton's blades slash him across the neck, the assassin clutched his bleeding gash in vain as he fell to the ground dying as the twins ran off into the forest.
Seven assassins were in a line looking around as Z came out of the shadows with his handguns that had suppressors attached to the barrels. He fired at each of them in the head without a second thought as they fell to the ground, unable to even fight back as Z dropped the last one through his mask and between the eyes. He looked around to see if there were anymore, and just as he thought, seven more came charging after him as he pulled out his other handgun and fired seven suppressed shots in the assassins heads and chests, ending them in only moments.
Five assassins found Jack leaning against a tree as if he was waiting for them and attacked him without a second thought. Jack quickly grabbed his sword and slashed down one, then followed by felling two more as he then raised his hand and blasted the last two in their chest's with a burst spell that sent them flying and crashing into a tree, dying quickly.
Twenty assassins surrounded the Surfane brothers, ready to pounce at any given moment. The brothers held their weapons tight as the assassins lunged after the aquatic brothers. Leadonus twirled his scythe and slashed three across their bodies leaving fatal gashes as he lopped off another ones head, and finally drove the blade into another assassins body and pulled it out with a spray of blood.
Ralfaius charged with his sais and drove one point into an assassins neck, as another one came after him, as he then turned the other sai in his hand around and stabbed the assassin in the chest where the heart. He pulled the weapons out and caught two weapons of his next attackers blades, he struggled against the two until he managed to get out of their hold and stabbed the assassins through their eye holes as another one came after him, but Ral threw the sais at the assassin and got him in the neck and chest as he quickly ran over and took the weapons back.
Deotalus tossed his trident and sent the three prongs into an assassin's chest that made him fall to the ground dead as Deo ran over and pulled the trident out and stabbed another in the stomach, followed by a swing and slashed a charging assassin in the neck as he turned and rammed the trident again into another attacking assassin's stomach as Deo rolled to the ground and flung the assassin over him while still impaled by the trident. He got up and swung his trident and hit the staff part into another assassins chest, making the assassin fall to the ground as Deo drove his trident into the back of his enemies neck in one quick thrust.
Miodelus attacked with his nunchakus as five of the assassins attacked him at all angles, he did all he could to keep the assassins back as Mio made the blades of his weapons spring out from the handles and managed to stab two in the chest and pull the blades out as one assassin kicked the youngest brother in the back and sent him to the ground, but Mio quickly rolled and swung his nunchakus at the assassin that kicked him down and nicked the man in the knees and sent him to the ground in pain as Mio jumped in for the kill by stabbing the assassin in the neck as two more came after him while Mio rolled out of the way and threw both his weapons at the assassins, but they knocked the flying nunchakus out of the way, only to see Miodelus leap at them with the blades sprung out at the ends of his three-section-staff and killed them by stabbing them in the chest as they yelled in pain and fell to the ground dead. The four brothers were able to defeat the assassins almost at once with amazing skills of their training.
Ten assassins scrambled through the forest as Alpha watched them through the bushes with his round eyes turned to a dim green to prevent being spotted. He then came out with his arms raised and his laser guns coming out of his massive armored forearms. The long rectangle shaped barrels aimed at the assassins walking through the forest as the tips of the laser gun barrels extended out round tubes and began to open fire at the assassins. The round tubes were suppressors that muffled the laser shots. He dropped all ten of the assassins quick before they could even fight back, when all the assassins were dealt with, ten more came jumping down from the trees and attacked the tall robot as Alpha turned to them as his guns retracted back in as his hands came back out made his red blades spring out from above his wrists and ran the deadly blades through each of them as their own weapons didn't even bother Alpha as he impaled the last one through the stomach and tossed him aside into some tall grass.
"Great job, Alpha. If we keep this pace, we can be done by the end of the day." Jeremie said from within the robot.
"It would still be a difficult task. There are still many roaming around, and we can only take out so many at a time, and if we are spotted, the assassins will alert the others and swarm the forest." Alpha responded as he scanned around.
"Hey Alpha, your scanners are showing a lone person wondering through the forest a few meters from us. It might be another assassin scouting around." Jeremie said to him.
"Our maybe one of our friends lost or hurt. I'll head there right now." Alpha responded as he began to walk in that direction.
Alpha slowly walked through the forest as he kept his motion tracker locked on the person moving through the forest as the moving seemed to stop, which made Alpha pick up the pace, in case the person was an assassin and was about to alert the others nearby. He made his guns come out again as he burst through the bushes ready to fire as he locked on the target, but his targeting system flashed red as he identified the person was Aelita leaning against a tree as his guns retracted back in and his hands came back out.
"Aelita?! What are you doing out here?! We thought you were an assassin. Alpha had his targeting system aimed at you and ready to fire, you could have been shot!" Jeremie said to her from within the robot.
"Not possible. My targeting system can aim and fire, or abort attacking within 1000th of a second. I can identify a large group of friends and foes and fire without even hurting friends when I'm attacking." Alpha explained to him about his targeting system.
"Anyway, Alpha...what are you doing all the way out here? We asked you to stay in the bushed area, and would come get you when we were done." Jeremie said to her as Alpha leaned down to her level.
Aelita choked on her words as the two waited for her to talk. "I was...I was waiting in the hidden place where we were a while ago, and after some time past, I was suddenly attacked by an assassin, the very one that almost killed me the first time we got attacked by them." She began to explain. "I tried to fight him off as best I could, but he was just playing around with me. But then he managed to get his hand on my wrist and was about to kill me as I hit him in the face with my free hand, and then what happened next, I created a burst from my Energy Field, struck him in the face and made him let go of me." She went on.
"You were able to use your Energy Field on him?! That's amazing, Aelita." Jeremie said to her from within Alpha.
"No it's not..." She shook her head slowly. "After I was able to create my Energy Field, the assassin still kept trying to attack me, and eventually I was able to hit him, he then flew into a tree hard, I went over to him and he wasn't moving or breathing. I think I...I think I killed him!" Aelita said as her voice began to shiver.
Alpha's chest plates opened and a beam of light materialized Jeremie back to normal. He went over to her as Aelita began to tear up again, he held her hand as she shut her eyes with tears coming down her cheeks.
"I'm so sorry, Aelita. I can't imagine what you're going through, but we'll help you in any way we can. But we need to get out of here first, we're too exposed, and this place is crawling with assassins. So stay close to us, and we'll join up with the rest." Jeremie said as he helped her up.
Alpha then opened his chest plates again and returned Jeremie into his systems after wrapping the cables around his body. "The others shouldn't be far. I will use my scanners to track them." He said to the two.
"You don't have to look very far, we found you instead." Aracane said to them as he walked out from some bushes.
"I'll bet I killed more assassins, then all of you put together." Knulgen said to them with a grin as he walked into view.
"These assassins are like a plague, they just keep coming." Z called out to them as he joined up. More of the others finally came in and talked about the amount of assassins they killed.
"Hey guys, we're still missing, Ulrich, William, and Odd. They must still be in the forest." Sam said to them as she looked around for them.
"She's right. They might be in danger, or worse." Yumi added with concern.
"Let's head back into the forest, this time we stay together so we don't get caught off guard." Bel'la said to them.
"Yeah, we've all spent enough time apart taking on groups of assassins, but now is the time to take the fight to the leader." Eli'ton chipped in.
"I just hope those three don't find the assassin leader before we all do." Leadonus commented.
"What's the worse that can happen? I think three to one is a good chance for them." Miodelus said to them.
"Because that assassin leader is obviously a dangerous person, and for all we know, they could be walking into a trap." Deotalus pointed out.
"Then let's get going before anything happens to them." Ralfaius said as he took his sais out again.
"Where should we even begin to look for them?" Jack asked them.
"The only thing we can do is look for a trail and go from there. Now let's hurry, guys." Kairaree said to them as they ran off into the forest.
Aelita stayed close to Alpha and Jeremie as they ran deeper into the forest to look for their three missing friends. Her mind was still fogged as the thought of the assassin she killed still bothered her greatly, not knowing he was alive and well, and looking for revenge on her as they began to follow the three boys trail.
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Ulrich, Odd, and William met up some time ago and worked together on taking out a few dozen assassins. Odd took some arrow quivers from some of the assassins that had bows with them, giving plenty of arrows to use. Suddenly they spotted a clearing up ahead and approached with caution. The three peeked over some bushes and saw an unexpected person. Near the clearing edge was the assassin leader, sitting on an old fallen tree, hunched over with his elbows on his knees, and his two large swords against the body of the tree.
The three ducked back down into the bushes to come up with a plan. "We found the assassin leader. If we're carful, we can sneak up and take him out. But we only have one chance." William whispered to them.
"I can fire an arrow and get him in the head. Easy quick." Odd said as he grabbed an arrow.
"We can't take that risk. If you miss, we'll lose our chance to take him out. I'll sneak up behind him and lope his head off." Ulrich insisted as he took his sabers out.
"Why should you attack him?! And on top of that, you still have that injury across your chest." William replied as he raised his voice a little.
"Because for starter, if I didn't jump in and stop you from swinging your sword, Odd would have been cut in half when we found you!" Ulrich said as he pointed to Odd. "And also, my injury has been healing up nice. I know it's only been a few days, but it doesn't hurt as much. So I'm doing fine." Ulrich replied as he got ready to attack.
"I'll watch your back, and if that guy spots you, I'll fire an arrow at him." Odd said as he got the bow ready to fire.
Ulrich nodded as he got up and walked around the bush and towards the assassin leader. The walk towards the assassin seemed to take forever as Ulrich kept as low as possible to the grassy ground while he took caution with each step, worried that a single sound would alert him to the assassin leader. The wind blew gently as Ulrich was only a few feet from the man as Ulrich came to the conclusion that it was now or never as he ran and jump at the assassin leader with his sabers raised.
He thought victory was his, he thought he could have ended this battle with the assassins and their leader. But instead, the leader turned around and grabbed Ulrich by his neck and left wrist and threw him over and onto the grassy ground. Pain shot through Ulrich's body as his back hit the ground hard, and even thought one of his stitches broke. Ulrich forced his eyes open to see the assassin leader's boot over his head and rolled out of the way just in time and grabbed his sabers as the assassin leader stomped his boot down. Ulrich got up, ready to attack as the leader leaped to the tree and grabbed his two large swords and pulled the blades out of the sheathes. The blades of the swords were notched, giving it a saw like look that would rip and tear against his opponents.
Deciding that they waited long enough, William and Odd leaped out from the bushes, William ran with his butcher blade ready to strike as Odd fired off an arrow. The assassin leader knocked the arrow out of the way and countered William's sword as Ulrich charged from behind as the leader kicked William away and counted Ulrich's blades in the notched parts as they pushed against each others weapons.
"You had a good plan there boy...too bad for you all, I was planning on being in the open and have you guys try to attack me. And you stupidly walked right into it my trap without a second thought." The leader sneered at him through his mask.
"You're kidding, right? You thought being out here alone was a good idea for a trap?" Ulrich asked him with a frown as the two held their blades against each other while Odd and William began to close in.
"And you actually thought I would be out here alone?" He responded with a chuckle as he looked to the forest behind them.
All three of them turned to see almost all of the remaining assassins come creeping out of the forest, they were all waiting for their leader to draw them out as the assassins came charging in.
"Dammit! They were waiting for us the whole time! I knew this was too easy!" William shouted as he countered several assassins attacks with his butcher sword.
Odd grabbed an arrow and fired off one that hit a charging assassin in the chest, he kept firing arrows that hit their marks until the assassins were too close, and Odd countered with his claws, but he was still surrounded by too many of them.
Ulrich groaned in frustration as he began to lose his footing against the leader, who was far stronger then he thought. They were completely surrounded, and none of their friends were near to help.
"Give up boy, you've impressed me and my assassins, but now it is over. So just die already!" The assassin leader said as he only pressed harder against Ulrich's blades.
Ulrich fell to one knee as the assassin leader was about to give the finishing blow while some assassins surrounded the two to watch their master kill him.
Suddenly shots rang out as some of the assassins fell to the ground dead by being shot in the back of the head. Everyone in the clearing turned to the sound to see the rest of the gang come charging out of the forest with a yell. Alpha rammed down any of the assassins that were in the way while shooting them with his laser guns. The others attacked any assassins that tried to jump them as they got closer to their missing friends. They first came to Williams aid and took the assassins down quick as they then helped out Odd as the assassins began to back away.
They were on their way to help Ulrich as the assassin leader jumped out of the way, just in time as Z fired several bullets that struck down a few assassins. Yumi helped Ulrich back up while the others kept fighting the assassins back, Alpha then began to fire in all kinds of wild directions and gave them an opening that allowed the gang to run away and into the forest as the assassins recovered from the surprise attack.
The leader stood near the fallen tree as he looked over how much assassins he had left. Their numbers took a drop, but they were still not even down by half, which was good on their part. The assassin leader then spotted the assassin that tried to kill Aelita a while ago.
"Looks like I've missed quite the party. Those kids sure know how to throw down." The assassin with the dagger said to his leader.
"Enough is enough. It is time to end this battle. We will chase them through the canyons and rivers, and then we will slaughter them all, and bring their heads back to our guild." The leader said with anger in his voice.
"Then perhaps you would like your other favorite weapon, my master." The assassin that Aracane injured said as he approached his master with a long item wrapped up in a cloth.
The assassin leader took it and unwrapped it to show a large bow in his hand. The weapon was black with red streaks, the bowstring was thick and powerful, and the parts where it bended were incredibly powerful, and can launch arrows with incredible force.
"Good suggestion, my second in command. My bow will bring them down with ease." The leader said as the large assassin with the big repaired sword, and the female assassin that spotted the gang earlier approached their leader.
The assassin leader was given a quiver full of long black arrows with jagged arrowheads that could penetrate deep. The assassin leader took an arrow and drew it back as he aimed for a tree and fired it. The arrow flew with amazing speed and hit into a tree, piercing through with ease as the head stuck out the other end.
After demonstrating and testing his bows power, the assassin leader looked to his four higher ranked assassins as the other remaining assassins gathered around and began to follow their leader into the forest to hunt the gang down.
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The gang got further into the forest as they finally came into the area where it was filled with many fast moving rivers that they spotted earlier, and either carefully crossed the slower ones, or leaped over the small gaps to the next riverbank as they kept trying to put as much distance as they could from the assassins tailing them. As the gang got to the middle of the river paths, they decided to stop and catch their breath and come up with new plans on how to defeat the assassins.
"So what were you three planning when you decided to take on the assassin leader, despite the fact you guys were walking into a trap?" Z asked the three as he sat on a small rock.
"Wait, how did you know we walked into a trap?" Odd asked him.
"I didn't. I just assumed you three did. Considering the fact that you were surrounded by almost all of the remaining assassins, and the fact that the leader was with them." Z answered him.
"Sorry. Next time we'll wait for you all, despite the fact we had a possible opening against our enemy." William grumbled to him.
"Just forget it, William. We made a mistake and walked into a trap. Nobodies perfect." Ulrich said as he sheathed his sabers.
"I don't know how much more we can take. Those assassins won't give up. We need to think of a way to end this now." Yumi sighed as she glanced over to Aelita to see her looking upset with her head low. "Aelita? Is there something wrong?" She asked her.
Aelita looked away from them as if she was too ashamed to tell them. Alpha stepped in front of them as Jeremie spoke from within the robot to explain.
"When we left Aelita in that clearing, the assassin that tried to kill her on our first day on this planet found her and tried to kill her." He began as the others gasped, angry at themselves for not having one of them stay behind to watch out for her as Jeremie continued to explain. "She fought him off as best she could, but the assassin was about to kill her as she somehow managed to create her Energy Field again like she did during our first encounter with Xana. She then at some point managed to hit the assassin with it and...well, she killed him with it. Or at least think she did." Jeremie finished.
The others looked to her as she turned away from them, ashamed to face her friends. The girls went over to comfort her, they gave her gentle hugs and assured her that everything would be alright and that she did what she had to do to survive and that they were happy she was still with them and their group.
"Poor Aelita. I can't believe she was forced to do that like us." Ulrich sighed as he thought back when he was forced to kill for the first time.
"She'll be fine. I know she will be. But for now, we need to keep going. Anybody got a plan?" Odd asked them.
"Keep heading into the woods. That's all we can do for now." Leadonus said to them.
"Oh real go plan, Lea." Ralfaius groaned. "And on that note, maybe we can-" He never got to finish as a black arrow flew by and hit into an old tree next to them.
They all looked over to see the assassins heading their way as the assassin leader drew another bow and fired. The arrow flew and barely missed Ulrich as the gang knew it was time to get moving again.
The assassins were crossing over with ease as the four higher ranked assassins stayed close to their leader as he fired off another arrow that hit into a tree as the gang kept crossing over gaps in the rivers until finally reaching into the forest again and ran as fast as they could.
"These guys just don't know when to call it quits! They're not going to stop, but it would be foolish to try and take them all on at once!" Jeremie yelled out to them as Alpha charged through the forest.
"Jeremie has a point. We need to finish them all off in one attack." Z responded to him.
"And how the hell are we going to do that?! Lead them into a big ass crevice in the ground?!" Knulgen asked as they came into a new clearing and all gasped at what they saw.
"Or better yet, a high waterfall leading down into a rocky bottom." Deotalus answered as they all looked to see a rushing waterfall going over a few hundred feet down with a wide bridge built over the fall, and between two small mountains.
"You guys aren't actually thinking of taking down the assassins by destroying the bridge? Are you guys?" Sam asked the three.
"It's the only option we have. It's long and wide enough, and if we get them all halfway across it, then we can take them out in one blow." Bel'la said as she looked to it.
"But how are we going to destroy it? We don't have anything powerful enough to break the support beams." Eli'ton pointed out to them.
"I might actually have a solution. I've been saving these for awhile." Z said to them as he began to fish something out of his backpack and showed it to the gang. "I suppose now would be a good time to use these grenades to blow the support beams of the bridge. We get up there and pull the pins and time them, and then throw to the support beams on the left side, that part will go first and we'll make a run for it. I have over a dozen, so it should be enough" Z explained to them.
"Good plan, Z. Now it's just a matter of luring them in." Odd said to him. Suddenly a black arrow flew by and hit into a tree, alerting that the assassins found them again already.
"Can't you assholes leave us alone for ten minutes?!" Knulgen shouted as he flipped them off, only to have another arrow fly over head, followed by more from the other assassins.
"Split up! Head for the bridge! We'll meet there and fight them!" Z ordered as they began to run.
The Surfane brothers took off as the twins took their own path, Ulrich, Yumi, William jumped down to the lower clearing as Aracane, Knulgen, Jack, Z, and Kairaree ducked back into the forest as Alpha picked Aelita up and ran as the arrows pelted his armored back without even bothering the robot as Odd and Sam ducked down and began to run in the direction of the bridge.
The assassins were not fooled by their plan to split up as the assassins began to tail their groups as they got deeper and deeper into the forest and clearing with the assassins following them close.
"So do you have any plans on losing these guys, Odd?" Sam asked him as she dodged an arrow.
"Right now I'm wondering how they still have arrows and throwing weapons?!" Odd said to her as a arrow flew by his head.
The two got into the forest and managed to lose the assassins as they ran around a large rock and spotted a small cave.
"Sam, look! There's a cave opening right there!" Odd said as he pointed to it.
"Good idea! We can wait for them to pass us, then head to the bridge." Sam praised as the two ducked into it.
There was some moss and tree branches near it and the two quickly covered the small hole they were in enough to at least keep anyone passing by from spotting them. The two looked through the small openings as they felt the assassins stomping by, their running making the ground shake as Sam put a hand over her mouth to help keep quiet as they began to see the assassins run by. Odd looked down to see that Sam's other hand was over his, making him blush a little as the assassins began to fade away into the forest. One assassin that had red streaks on his clothes looked around the area as the two got ready to spring out in case the assassin found them. The assassin thankfully gave up his search and joined up with the rest of his comrades. The two waited several minutes and got out of the small cave hole.
"That was a close one. I thought we were gonna have to take him down." Odd sighed as he looked around to make sure it was clear.
"The assassins seem to have gone into the woods. I can see the bridge from here, the others should be close." Sam responded as the two ran to the bridge in the distance.
The two finally got near the bridge and began to walk on it. The bridge was made of hardwood with metal supports built in between the mountains with a wide rushing river near it that was too powerful to swim in. They began to walk across it while keeping an eye out for their friends, or any of the assassins that could be lurking about as they walked towards the middle of the bridge with a heavy cloud of mist over the middle of the bridge from the rushing water going over the falls.
"I don't like this. The others should have been here by now." Odd said to her as he looked around for them.
"They can't be far. We'll just wait until they show up, so we should watch both ends of the bridge." Sam said as she looked to the other end of the bridge.
Odd looked around as his ears began to flick, his sharp hearing picked up a sound and turned to the noise to see the last person he wanted to. The assassin leader was at the other end of the bridge where they entered and already had his bow drawn back and pointed at Sam. He had no time to even warn her as the leader let the arrow go and sent it flying. Odd could feel his heart pounding as the black arrow flew through the air, the head shining in the sunlight as it passed through the light mist as Odd pushed Sam out of the way.
Sam was completely caught off guard on why Odd pushed her as she fell to the ground and turn to see a horrible sight. Odd yelled out in pain as the arrow hit him in the left shoulder with blood pouring out the wound. Sam got up and grabbed him just before he fell to his knees and tried to get him back up as the sound of another arrow hit him in the back again, this time two arrows, one in his lower back, and another in his right side, missing his bow and stolen quivers. He coughed up blood as tears began to fall down Sam's cheeks as yet another arrow hit him in the right shoulder.
"No Odd, please! Please don't die on me, not like this!" Sam begged as she tried to keep him up on his knees.
"Sam...run...now..." Odd pleaded as he coughed up some more blood.
"No! I won't leave you like this!" Sam yelled as she held him in his arms.
She tried to get him up, but he was bleeding bad as his dark purple jacket and under clothes began to stain red with his blood. She then remembered that the assassin leader was still there and looked up to find him, only to gasp as she saw the assassin leader was almost halfway across the bridge with an arrow in hand, ready to pull. And to make it worse, all the other remaining assassins were behind him, filling the other side of the bridge as they followed their leader close by. His four higher ranked assassins were at his side. The one with the dagger twirled his weapon while the assassin that Aracane injured had a large mace in hand. The female assassin that spotted them had a bow, and the large assassin with the long fixed broadsword all looked at Sam as their leader began to draw his arrow.
"You and your friends put up quite a fight, and you managed to fell many of us. But now it is time to end this, we will wait for your other friends and show them your heads." He said to her as he was about to let the arrow fly.
A laser flew by and hit the arrow, shattering it as the leader and his assassins stumbled back as a chain flew out and wrapped around the bow, tangling it up as they all looked over to where the chain came from.
The mist that was made from the water faded away, and showed the rest of the gang. Jack used his magic to create a shroud of mist to hide them as Kairaree pulled her chain and took the massive bow out of the assassin leader's hands and over to them as he yelled in anger over his lost and prized weapon.
Several of them ran over to Odd and Sam to check on him as Z took out his handguns and began to fire away to make them back up while killing a few in the process.
The four elite assassins decided to charge after the scattered gang to bring them down. The female assassin tried to fire an arrow, but Z shot the bow with incredible accuracy and broke the top part. The assassin with the mace came charging with a yell as he held the weapon back, and just as he was about to attack, Aracane jumped in and knocked the weapon out of his hands and grabbed the man by his collar.
"Well this feels familiar! Don't it?" Aracane asked him with a smile as the assassin trembled, and Aracane head butted him again in the face. He yelled in pain as he fell to the bridge clutching his bleeding face in pain while screaming.
William jumped in front of the assassin with the long broadsword and to both their shocking surprise, William broke the broadsword as their blades clashed together and making the assassin run away after having his weapon broken twice.
The assassin with the dagger spotted Aelita alone and ran right for her, ready for the kill. "You're not getting away from me, my little pink haired friend!" He yelled as he leaped after her.
Aelita saw him coming, but didn't even move as he got close to her, he was about to hit his mark as Alpha jumped in and grabbed him by the neck. He was unable to struggle out of the robots grip as Aelita walked up to them while Alpha held the assassin to her level, but still kept him at a safe distance.
"I'm glad that you recovered from my attack, but I was hoping you would be smart enough to stay away and go on. But I see that you need a little reminder to stay away from us." Aelita said to him, her voice wasn't cold or mean, but still made the assassin yell as he tried to stab her, but still unable to reach. "Throw him, Alpha." She simply as Alpha nodded in response.
Alpha grabbed the assassin by his waist belt and lifted him up as he still kept yelling as Alpha turned to the crowd of assassins and threw him with ease into the middle of them as the other assassins that tried to attack the group retreated and joined up with their leader.
"Do you all think we're gonna stop after this?!" The assassin leader yelled to the gang as they all got back together while Aracane picked Odd up, being careful of the arrows while Yumi helped Sam up. "We are the Dark Creed! And we never give up on our targets! So this bridge will be where you all die, and your blood will spillover this fall!" He yelled as he grabbed the handles of his swords and pulled them out as the other assassins yelled and got ready to attack the gang.
"I wouldn't be too sure about that my friend." Jack called to him as he held up his hand and showed a small magic orb that had several rings spinning around it. "You see this thing in my hand?" He asked the leader.
"I don't give a damn about what you have in your hand! Your spells against us wont save you forever!" He replied in annoyance at his smugness.
"Oh this isn't a spell against you. This is a type of magic that stops time around an object, and keeps it that way until I destroy the orb in my hand." Jack smiled as Z stepped in.
He held his hand up and dropped a number of grenade pins to the ground. "We planted a number of grenades onto the support section of this bridge, thanks to our friends, the Surfane brothers who are quite good a climbing around." Z began as he turned to the brothers. Miodelus waved to the assassins in a mocking manner. "Those grenades should be powerful enough to blow the supports and send you all to a watery death at the very bottom of this several hundred foot waterfall." He finished to them.
"So let this be a lesson to you all. Never mess with us again!" Ulrich yelled as they began to run.
"Let's get out of here now!" Yumi added as the assassins began to run.
The assassins were in the middle of the bridge as Jack broke the magic orb in his hand as it disappeared. The people on earth were the only ones who would see the orbs of light around the grenades disappear and blow up the supports. The bridge on the left side began to buckle and break away from the center as the assassins began their long fall to the rocky bottom of the waterfall, their screams of anger and fear was loud as the gang finally got to the other side of the bridge and turned to see their pursuers fall to their deaths as the assassin leader was the last one to fall after losing his footing on the breaking bridge and fell to his death as he stared at them with hate in his masked eyes as he disappeared into the rushing waters and down to the bottom.
The gang looked to see none of the assassins left on the destroyed bridge, so they sighed a breath of relief. Aracane placed Odd down on the ground as Sam kneeled beside him with tears in her eyes.
"I'm so sorry, Odd. If I realized that assassin leader was there, then you would have been okay too." She said to him as more tears began to fall.
"It's no big deal...even he caught me by surprise." Odd responded as Sam looked at him. Odd had his usual cocky grin on his face, despite that he had some blood covering his teeth as he regained consciousness.
"It's nice to see you're still in good spirits, despite the fact you have four arrows in your back." Z chuckled as he kneeled and took out a med-kit in his backpack and opened it and took out a small looking syringe. "This is a adrenal shot that will slow down your heartbeat and blood flow so you don't lose anymore then you already have, and make your body less likely to hemorrhage from your injures until we can get you to a doctor." Z explained as he injected the shot with a quick jab to Odd's arm.
"Oh goody, but I still hate needles!" Odd shouted as he winced from the shot.
"Shouldn't we get the arrows out?" William asked them.
"No! The arrows are jagged, we'll need someone who is experienced in taking out bullets and arrows. We just need to patch the wounds around the arrows and get him to the town and take it from there. I'll carry him." Aracane said to them.
Aracane and Z quickly closed up the wounds as best they could over his dark purple jacket and then Aracane put Odd on his shoulders and began to walk away from the collapsed bridge and finally head to the town without any assassins trying to kill them.
"I really do hope that bridge isn't in use anymore. I really hate the idea of destroying someone's property." Yumi said to them as they lost sight of the bridge.
"Well tough titties if it belonged to someone. It was either the bridge, or our heads." Knulgen simply said as he had his hands behind his head.
"So anyway guys, if you were hiding in the mist from the falls, why didn't you help our asses!" Odd shouted, which surprised the gang. "Sorry. My body has always reacted weird to medicine, and this shot you gave me, Z, is really messing with me." He chuckled as Aracane shifted him on his back for better hold.
"We're so sorry about that Odd and Sam. We were so focused on setting the bridge up and staying hidden because those assassins have a nasty habit of sneaking up on us when we least suspect it." Leadonus began to explain.
"It wasn't easy to climb around the supports and place grenades in the corners and then set them off as Jack placed his magic hold on them." Deotalus continued.
"And it took all my concentration to keep the time hold on the grenades, and to keep the mist from the rushing water over us. But thankfully I used my magic to slow the arrows down by using the very mist I was controlling to keep us hidden." Jack finished explaining.
"We waited for you, but you never came, and we were running out of time." Miodelus added.
"It must been when we hid in a small cave to lose the assassins tailing us. We stayed in it for quite a bit, so I guess that must have been when you guys rigged the bridge to blow." Sam said to them as she thought of the cave again.
"Tell you what, Odd. Once we get you patched up and back on your feet, we'll have a big feast to celebrate yet another major victory." Aelita said with a smile to Odd.
"Sounds good princess." Odd smiled back as they continued through the forest.
The gang walked for another hour as they finally came into a clearing and spotted the town they were looking for down a slopped hill. They all smiled at the sight of their finally found destination as Jeremie was materialized out of Alpha, and then put his mask cloak over his body to hide.
"It's nice to see civilization again. It's a few miles down this slope, so let's get moving." Ulrich said to them as they all began to walk down the hill.
The assassins were no more, and they could finally get back to looking for Xana after they fixed Odd's injuries. They have faced yet another hard battle, and grew stronger from their experience which will serve them well in the many battles ahead.
()()()()()()()()()
At the bottom of the high waterfall, where nothing but jagged rocks lined the bottom of the river. There was no sign of the assassins anywhere as debris from the left half of the bridge floated by.
Near a riverbank, many feet away from the fall, bubbles began to form on the water surface as something headed to the shore. The assassin leader burst out of the water yelling in anger as he crawled onto the shore. His mask was cracked, and his black and red clothes were ripped up.
Not far from him down the bank, a dagger burst out of the water and stabbed into the shore as the assassin used it to help pull him out as he coughed up water. The assassin that tried to kill Aelita was still alive.
Another person came out of the water and quickly took off his mask and coughed up water and blood. It was the assassin that Aracane head-butted in the face again.
Two more assassins came out of the water coughing, the female assassin, and the tall assassin that got his long broadsword broken again.
The assassins continued to cough as their leader looked to the water. He watched his fellow assassin brothers and sisters float by in the water, dead from either the fall, their injuries, or from drowning. Their leader began to growl as he raised his fists and yelled in pure rage that echoed throughout the bottom of the crevice that made his remaining assassins tremble.
"My lord, master Hikal, what should we do now?" The assassin with the dagger asked while bowing on his knee and fist.
The assassin leader, Hikal turned to them with a growl that made them cringe back. He then took a deep breath and took his mask off to show that he was a molnuck. He had no hair, his skin was a dark red color, and his eyes were black.
"My brothers and sister. We faced a humiliating defeat at their hands, but we will not waver from this. We will regain new numbers into our faction, and hunt them down! Even if we have to chase them to the bitter ends of the world! Are you with me, my legions?!" Hikal asked them with both new found pride, and anger towards the gang.
"I, Yenno, will stay by your side, master. I want that pink haired girl! I want my Aelita!" The slightly older teen boy said to his master as he rubbed the blade of his dagger.
"Once my sword is repaired, I, Coljill, will fight for you master." The tall assassin with the broken broadsword said to him as he took his mask off to show that he was a aquariora with tattoo markings going down his cheeks under his eyes.
"That unracanid warrior has damaged my face twice! I want his head as a trophy! So I, Aitax, will chop off that muscle bound warrior's head with his own axe!" The bruised up human assassin yelled as he got a little dizzy from his facial injury.
"A I, Taluno, will put an arrow in each of them. I will hunt them like animals, and they will never see me coming." The female, catashire assassin said as she took her mask off to show some lynx like spots on the sides of her face, and lightly colored red eyes.
"Then it's settled." Hikal said to them as he turned to the waterfall in the distance and looked up to it. "Enjoy your victory while it lasts, young warriors. Because for each assassin of our creed that was lost here, we will see that each of you suffer for each of them. You all will finally fear the Dark Creed, once you die at our hands." He said out loud as he began to laugh viciously over the crashing waters of the falls as he planned their revenge against the group.
The gang have unknowingly made new and dangerous enemies today, and will now be in the sights of the Dark Creed assassins, and one day face their new hated opponents, and the five survivors at the bottom of the waterfall will be the ones to lead the charge with their replenished numbers as they count the days until their next encounter with the young warriors.
END CHAPTER.
