“It seems the other squad has been wiped out.”
“Hm… I’d feared as much.”
The men were talking in hushed tones some distance away from where the gray guild and knights had encountered Yerkchira. This second group, however, wasn’t another group of lowly criminals—they were highly trained assassins, and thus specialized in a different approach altogether. They moved cautiously to avoid attracting any attention as they closed in on the dark guild’s headquarters. They were lucky to have made it so far without any difficulties. The other squad must have been an effective distraction. Their foes evidently weren’t expecting a second attack.
“They were nothing more than tools to an end,” the squad leader said unaffectedly. “Forget about them. Our goal is Yerkchira’s guildmaster, and we won’t settle for less.”
“Sir!” his subordinate replied with a curt nod.
They were a highly capable bunch, and they were prepared for a deadly mission. They wouldn’t stop until every one of them was dead. Perhaps, that was the key to their lengthy list of successes.
“We’re here.”
Before them loomed the dark shape of Yerkchira’s headquarters. It resembled an old castle, or maybe an abandoned mansion. They stopped for a moment, not expecting such a massive structure, but resumed their approach without issue.
They did not, however, notice the young man watching them from the second-story balcony.
“Can I help you?” came his placid voice.
The assassins froze in their tracks. The smile on the youth’s face almost made them forget they were on the battlefield.
“Is that… a civilian?” one of the assassins muttered.
The leader shook his head firmly. No ordinary man could be in a place like that. “He has to be our mark… the guildmaster.”
A ripple of tension ran through the assault force.
The youth only smiled. He asked them offhandedly if something was amiss—the night was oddly loud.
An assassin scoffed. “His underlings are monsters, but the man himself is nothing impressive.”
He didn’t seem to realize the danger he was in, but the leader was unconvinced. The master seemed… off. Something wasn’t right. He couldn’t believe that any leader of a dark guild could be so incompetent.
“We’ve been commissioned to kill you,” the bold assassin announced, despite a chastising look from his squad leader. “Surrender now and we’ll make it painless.”
The young man finally seemed to understand their purpose, but he only grimaced as he scratched his head. He couldn’t just die. He still had important business to attend to.
“Your funeral,” the killer replied, and the squad readied their implements of death.
Of course, he wouldn’t just roll over and die. Nobody in their right mind would.
“W-Wait.” The leader held out his arm to stop his men. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
As the words escaped his lips, a light breeze stroked his cheek. It was unsettlingly warm, and the leader tensed with unease. He clamped his eyes shut in discomfort, but he knew it would be foolhardy to stay blinded and readily pried his eyes back open.
“Damn! What is this wind…? Is everyone all right?!”
The leader’s eyes went to the guildmaster, but the youth was smiling just as he had before. For a moment, he nearly believed that the man was as powerless as he seemed. Maybe his unease was only his imagination.
It was another few seconds before he realized his subordinates hadn’t replied.
“I said, are you all ri—”
—I’d give up if I were you.
“The hell are you saying?!” The leader whipped around to face his men. “I told you to answer…”
He trailed off. He was completely alone. As he widened his eyes in shock, a beam of moonlight gave him his answer—the vegetation was drenched in fresh blood. With horror, he spied the bodies of his men. They were carved up into disturbingly small pieces.
“Wh-What…? How is this…?”
He couldn’t think clearly. What happened? Were they attacked somehow? It couldn’t have been the wind’s work—could it?
His gaze snapped back to the young guildmaster. The full moon was at his back, his lips still curved into a peaceable smile. It was anything but the face of a murderer.
As the leader watched, however, something black snaked out of the guildmaster’s body. It should’ve been hard to spot such a shadowy shape in the night, but the thing was far darker than the gloom surrounding him. It continued to grow for a moment before lashing out at the leader.
“Aaaagh?!”
His scream pierced the night, but all that replied was the silence of the forest. Only Master was left, his smile colder and crueler than it was mere moments before.