Might as Well

Against four people while the fifth one was still lying in the dirt, breathing heavily, Sam didn’t feel much fear. Granted, they were no doubt enhanced by whatever demon they pledged themselves to, but Sam was confident in his and Lucky’s prowess.

The four assassins fanned out, and despite the hood covering them, he could see that their aim wasn’t him, but the fifth person trying to swim in the dust.

They all unsheathed daggers, all covered by dark miasma that radiated the same stench he sensed from them. ‘I really need to learn some anti-demon spells…’ Sam mused as he covered his own sword with a layer of shadows, hoping that it would work better against demonic mana than wind mana.

Meanwhile, Lucky prowled at the back, ready to strike. Over the time they spent together, the clever wolf had learned to wait for the opportunities that Sam created to strike instead of charging directly at their opponents. Plus, it was rather intimidating to face your opponent while a giant shadow wolf was waiting to jump on you if you showed any kind of weakness.

Not even slowing down, one of the assassins attempted to speed past him on his right side – probably counting on Sam not being able to react with the sword in his hand – while the other three raised their daggers and shouted almost at the same time.

“ “ “Corruption Pulse!” ” ”

Sam took in all of these actions and reacted.

Within a blink of an eye, he simply swung Moonlight to the side and used the shadow mana around it to conjure a simple Shadow Shield in front of the speeding assassin, while also using his Shadow Burst ability in conjunction with his Wind Movement to jump upwards, avoiding the trio of corrosive projectiles that slammed into the ground a little behind him. To no one’s surprise, the ground instantly began to sizzle as the mana began eating away the material it was made out of.

The assassin that wanted to avoid him couldn’t evade fast enough and slammed into the conjured shield that held just long enough to stop the man’s charge – no doubt enhanced by some manner of skill – and crumbled into nothingness as the man staggered around attempting to recover from the collision.

Making a quick decision, while the three other assassins tried to find him (nobody ever looked up) he used a few gentle wind bursts and altered his course as he reached the zenith of his jump and gravity began to reassert its cosmic given right.

BAMMM

CRUNCH

“Aaaargh…”

Sam stepped forward, ignoring the broken body of the assassin, and took up his fighting stance as the remaining three enemies gaped at him and the remains behind him. Unfortunately for them, Lucky used their momentary confusion to strike.

The shadow wolf charged forward, his deadly claws slamming into one of the assailants, sending them to the ground amidst a cry of pain. Lucky tried to lash out at the other two, but they were faster than that.

They both jumped away and cried out.

“ “Corrosion Aura!” “

Apparently, their new demon overlord was rather generous with their power. Sam watched as the grass they were standing on began to sizzle and then vanish, while the ground turned brown, then a disturbing shade of black.

‘Couldn’t they have used a skill that told me what demon they were following?’ Sam complained to himself as he considered how to deal with the two of them, now that they were wreathed in caustic magic.

Lucky growled in disappointment, shook his head, and then refocused on the man on the ground who was trying to get up.

CRUNCH

Ignoring the sounds coming from those two, Sam raised his sword and made an inviting motion with his other hand while smirking at the assassins.

“Not what you expected, boys?”

One of them growled in anger, but the other answered.

“You stand no chance, fool!”

“We shall see!” he replied while preparing his mana.

His two enemies glanced at each other and then nodded. Both of them jumped in a different direction – no doubt trying to confuse Sam – but in the end, they pivoted once again, both of them rushing toward Sam as he seemingly stood there waiting for their attack.

“HAH!” one of them exclaimed, slashing down with his dagger while the other one slashed at Sam’s midsection.

However, Sam just smiled as the daggers found no purchase in his body, which dispersed into shadow particles a second later while the assassins regained their balance.

Proving that they were not complete morons, one of them looked up, straight at Sam, who was once again falling down at them.

“Scatter!”

They pushed away, launching themselves away from the epicenter as Sam landed, kicking up dust and slightly cracking the blackened ground.

The next few moments were rather hectic as the two assassins fell on him. He used his sword to parry their strikes while keeping his body away from their corrosive auras.

At this point, it was just a waiting game. They had much less mana and much weaker mana regeneration than he did. And he barely used any mana-intensive spells while they were using some big ones after a chase that lasted who knows how long.

Sam kept a slightly arrogant smile on his face, just to make sure to anger them as he dodged, parried, and redirected their strikes, while his two enemies grew increasingly tired and exasperated.

“Why!” A strike parried. “Won’t!” A slight dodge to avoid that nasty strike. “You!” turning sideways to avoid two decently coordinated strikes. “STAY!” A Shadow Shield allowed enough time to parry the other strike from the opposite direction. “STILL!!!”

Proving that fate had a sense of humor, at the exact moment the assassin seemingly became lost in anger, the aura around the two of them began to sputter and then vanished. Leaving them standing in an area with no grass, only blackened and cracked ground.

Not far away, a rather brave but foolish bird flew down, no doubt to rest their weary wings, and as soon as their talons touched the cursed ground, they let out a panicky chirp and fell over, dead.

The two assassins stood opposite Sam, breathing heavily, and through his Mana Sense, Sam felt that they were also running on empty tanks.

“Uh-oh…”

“This is not good, right?” The second one asked, while the first one scrambled for a mana potion.

Sam just gave them a sardonic smile and shrugged.

“No, it’s not…”

Sam walked away from the rapidly dispersing bodies and approached the last assassin that was still lying on the ground, his face turned in the direction of the fight. Granted, the fight barely took a minute or two, but Sam expected a better recovery from an assassin.

He crouched down next to the man after sheathing his sword and began poking and prodding him.

“You all right there, champ?”

His answer was a tired groan.

Sam continued his prodding.

“Come on, get up. Your friends are no doubt on their way. I don’t want to fight all of you guys, no matter how easy it is…”

The man mumbled something but still refused to move.

“Excuse me?”

“Not my friends anymore,” came the still mumbled, but better understandable, answer from the man.

“Right, right… Let me guess! They decided to summon a demon, and you didn’t agree. Demon didn’t like that, and ordered you to be hunted down?” Sam asked with a smirk. It was such a cliché development, that it almost hurt him.

Thankfully, the man managed to react to that. He turned to Sam, while reaching out with his trembling hand to push himself up, and stared at him with wide eyes.

“How… How did you know?”

“The stench of demonic mana is rather unmistakable, you know…” Sam said while offering a hand to the other man, helping him stand up.

As the probably ex-assassin gathered his wits, Sam asked a few questions.

“Why didn’t you head to the nearest city?”

“They blocked the route… and by the time I realized they were herding me… it was too late…” came the slow answer.

Sam nodded. “Makes sense. Next question: Why me?”

The other man, still leaning on Sam, managed to shrug his shoulder. “Luck. Saw you and recognized the wolf. You defeated us when we tried to take you out, hoped you got stronger.” The man reached up and removed his cowl, revealing his ordinary looks. Brown hair, earnest but tired eyes, and a smirk on his face. “I even got a luck increase from it…”

Sam opened his mouth to answer, then closed it without saying anything.

Lucky walked up to them and began sniffing the assassin.

Finally, after a few seconds, he sighed.

“What’s your name, assassin?”

“Tim.”

“Ever thought about taking up enchanting?”

“What?”

They spent a few minutes getting themselves in order. Using Sam’s minimal healing skill and judicious use of healing potion got Tim in proper shape, though the last skill the man used left him with a debuff so he wasn’t really battle-ready.

But with the help of Lucky, they were soon on the road again.

A little slower and it took more mana to replenish Lucky, but Sam could handle it.

An hour later, they reached a small town that was basically just used as a stopover for travelers on their way to the capital. This could be seen from the dozen inns and pubs and a very nice hot spring bath.

Deciding that he needed a longer talk with the man, Sam simply dragged Tim to the hot spring and rented a private area.

The two of them luxuriated in the feeling of the virtual hot spring while Lucky paddled around them, clearly enjoying the new sensations that came with a giant hot water bath.

“So, not that I’m not thankful, but shouldn’t we, err..., get away from the area?” Tim asked, clearly confused a little.

Sam just chuckled. “That’s what they’re expecting. Never do anything that the enemy wants you to do…”

“Still, they found me pretty easily before…”

“Don’t worry, I can sense if they are near,” Sam answered with a smirk. “Hell, there were already a few of them around the town. None of them came close to the hot spring.”

“Huh, well that’s… something…”

For a while they stayed silent, each of them enjoying the experience or watching Lucky fool around. Then Sam let out a small sigh and posed a question that had been bothering him for a while.

“What’s the name of the demon that you guys summoned?”

Tim flinched a little but readily answered. “I don’t know the proper name, but the texts I saw called it The Shadowed One, master of shadows. The boss thought it would suit the assassin skills set…”

“Hmmm…”

The Shadowed One…

Sam had to really flex his mind to remember that one. It was a stealthy type of demon, preferring to skulk in the shadows as its name implied and set up ridiculous plots. But according to his inherited memories, it was only summoned much later by another group of people down south in the marshlands. A perfect area for the demon to take root…

Not that it mattered. According to Tim, while the summoning took place in the mountains to avoid attention, it was still within Ironwood’s sphere of influence. And he knew a rather aggressive group of druids who really didn’t like demons…

Opening his message screen, he wrote down the basics and sent it off to Lucy with instructions on where to deliver the message. The Silent Steps was a useful guild, but if they decided to summon demons, then Sam felt no remorse for siccing the druids on them.

‘Git better guys for next time…’

Returning his attention to Tim, who was watching him awkwardly as he sent the message away.

“What are your plans after this?”

“Huh?”

“Obviously, you’re out of the Silent Steps by not participating in the ritual, right?”

“Yes…” the other man answered, a little confused.

“What are you planning to do? I mean, from what I remember, you got some skills…”

Tim let out a sigh. “I have no idea, man… I really like playing Assassin. You know, sneaking around, getting into places that one shouldn’t be, taking out the target, and things like that.”

“You any good at it?”

He looked affronted at being questioned. “You kidding? I’m one of the best! I actually took some security classes at the local college to be better at games,” Tim explained with a proud look on his face. “I was best getting in and out of places in the guild…”

“Sounds fun!”

“It was! We did so many things… Get this…” The other man leaned forward and began excitedly weaving a tale of a daring infiltration, wrought with awake dogs and sleepy guards.

Sometime later, after Tim finished his story, and all of them, including Lucky, were looking rather wrinkly, Sam finally spoke up.

“Want a new job?”

“What?”

“I mean, it seems you’re out of a contract, and I seem to find myself needing a security expert,” he explained. “We have excellent healthcare…”

Tim opened his mouth and then closed it. Then opened it again and spoke up, his voice incredulous. “What? How? What if I’m just a cleverly planned plant?”

Sam just smirked at the guy as he began getting out of the hot spring.

“Don’t worry, the person who you’ll be working with can smell shit like that from a mile away. ” He began toweling himself off while throwing a rather evil smirk at the gobsmacked assassin. “Plus, imagine how easy I could destroy you if you decide to betray me…”