(A/N): Oooohhhh! I'm a genius! I recovered/HEH… /GG…
Anyway, here's another one!
Act XVII: The Assailants
Kraveck was walking along an alley. Valcan's so called house, or room, for that matter was in the middle ofthe alley. It was dusk, the day after he caused the mischief on Backblade, he was heading for his temporary hide out. He was walking gingerly while carrying dinner when he suddenly stopped. He was such an experienced traveler that he can sense danger in an instance. He doesn't know it, but perhaps it was the eerie silence in that alley or perhaps he just sensed something was different somehow. Maybe... just maybe, it was just too quiet for his liking.
'Oh great…' He sighed in histhoughts and started talking.
"You can show yourselves now…"
Nothing happened. But this didn't stop his paranoia.
"You gonna show yourselves or you'd like me to help you?"
A dagger suddenly flew from his back, great reflexes enabled him to tilt sideways, but it was a bit late; the dagger created a light cut near his left elbow.
'I should have known… That Vional sure is one uptight guy…'
Kraveck concentrated for a moment and muttered a few words, instantly, a bluish ball of light floated around him. A smirked crept on his face when four men appeared surrounding him. He studied them quickly; two rogues were behind him and two assassins in front. They were wearing Backblade's emblem, thus confirming his thoughts. Vional had sent men to kill him.
"So you boys wanna play huh?"
He threw the bag of food he was holding on the assassin on his frontal right and charged at the next assassin on the left. Kraveck aimed a punch at the assassin, but the assassin ducked and lunged a counter attack using his jur. Much to all their surprise, the assassin, thinking he would have stabbed his target, but there was no one there but air. Instead, Kraveck appeared this time at the back of one of the rogues while lunging an overhead elbow; successfully hittinghim at the back of his head.
'One down, three to go…'
But to Kraveck's shock, the rogue he knocked down slowly got up. Kraveck's eyes widened, even though the rogue was clearly grunting, but still… Kraveck never failed to knock people out before. These were no ordinary henchmen; these were 'first-classed fighters' this time.
"Oh great! Vional wants me dead that bad?"
No response came out from the Backbladers, instead, the four attacked at the same time, aiming their weapons at Kraveck. Kraveck was able to dodge the first few attacks but realizing in the process that this time, these men were too fast.
He back-stepped a horizontal slicing katar by an assassin but it was followed by a slash with a gladius by a rogue behind him. He gained a gash on his lower back. Quick thinking, he used his dashing ability to reappear a few paces behind his assailants. His four attackers just looked at him blankly. He was on one knee to the ground. His left hand was on his lower back generate a greenish light on his would. He was slowly healing himself.
'Damn! I've got no weapon, no armor; I'm no match for them!'
Kraveck wasn't given time to completely heal his wound when his assailants suddenly vanished in front of his eyes. He quickly stood up and got into his fighting stance and assessed the moment. Assassins can attack while cloaking on walls especially dark alleys such as this one. Rogues are far too advanced however, they can cloak anywhere!
He concentrated again, a bluish ball of light appeared floating around him again. This revealed his attackers. As he had guessed, the two assassins were oppositely by the walls but the rogues were much nearer. One of the rogues was a few paces in front of him but the other one was within striking distance on his left. He sidestepped a slash from a gladuis on his left and disappeared when the other rogue followed a forward thrust on his back. He reappeared on the backstabber's back. He was about to aim for the rogue's head when he felt a sharp pain on his back. Blood gushed out when he realized he had been slashed by an assassin behind him.
Kraveck was down to one knee again. They didn't give him time to recover when a rogue suddenly appeared behind him aiming a stab on his back. He quickly rolled down a few paces only to encounter an overhead plunging katar. He caught the katar with both hands only to feel another sharp pain on his back, this time it was a dagger back-stab near his left shoulder. The dagger plunge behind him; instantly making him yelp in pain.
He was down on the ground; his assailants surrounded him with blank expressions on their faces. Kraveck was breathing heavily, but mustered all his strength to push himself up. One of the rogues was about to plunge a gladius on Kraveck when they noticed that his right hand was glowing. He was holding a sphere of light. To the Backblader's surprise, he threw the ball upwards and exploded within their faces. The explosion threw them backwards while emitting a bright white light thus hurting their eyes temporarily.
When theirvision slowly recovered, they saw Kraveck still on the ground with surges of green and white light around his body. He was healing and at the same time casting self enhancing spells!
The attackers quickly lunged forward, thus not giving Kraveck the luxury of continuing his antics. They plunged their weapons forward only to hit nothing but air. Kraveck reappeared behind them, smirking. Five white balls were floating around him.
"You didn't think I'd let you get me that easy did you?" Kraveck said with a smirk. 'This is it… I'll spend my last remaining energy on this… if I'm going down, I'd give them a few things to remember me by…'
He smirked once more and held his hands forward. At the same time, the five white balls flew out towards the backbladers and exploded. When the smoke after-effect died down, his assailants were kneeling on the ground panting with various gashes on their bodies, but much to their surprise, Kraveck was grinning widely with another set of balls floating around his body. Kraveck jumped in the middle of his four assailants and the five white balls seemed to be absorbed by his right hand when he suddenly punched the ground beneath him. This caused a massive explosion that his attackers were hurled on the floor.
After the explosion, Kraveck's body had seemingly turned red a was surrounded by what looked liked, electric surges. He let out a shout of anger and then quickly jumped towards the gladius that one of his assailants have dropped and plunged it directly on the heart of an undefended rogue. He was furious! The rogue let out a shriek of tremendous pain and fell… dead.
Kraveck took this opportunity, the tables have turned and his attackers were now just regaining awareness on the ground. Still carrying the gladius he picked up, he mustered his strength and dashed to one of the assassin and made a quick slice immediately slitting his throat.
He turned back, as he noticed the other assassin grunting and pushing himself up. Kraveck made his way towards his new target; he was raising his gladius in grimace when he to plunge it at the back of the assassin's head. The cracking sound of a breaking skull and the blood that gushed out from the back of the head of his target made him flint a little. But nevertheless, he knew it had to be done, it was either to kill or be killed.
After that, he suddenly heard a small grunt. He turned his head to look when he saw the lone rogue blackblade was lurching a few paces behind him.
With that, he raised his hand forward and concentrated. One by one, small white spheres appeared floating around his body. He then slowly approached his last assailant and said in an angry manner.
"Vional sent his best huh? Big mistake! He should have come here himself!"
When he neared the Backblader, he raised his hand forward again. The atmosphere around them seemed to turn black when all that the rogue saw last, was that his right hand was absorbing the five white spheres.
