NOVEL SIMPLE Ch. 82: The Assassin
The time for planning ended as the assassin hissed in surprise.
Cass turned to see Salos phasing out of existence and settling back in his necklace.
A deep gash spurted blood from the back of the assassin’s ankle, her boot heel eviscerated by a set of long claws.
Alyx pressed the advantage, her sword snaking through the woman’s faltering guard to score a laceration across the chest. Her armor took the damage and Alyx’s sword came away with only the barest trickle of blood.
I don’t know how much that will slow her down, Salos said as he materialized on her shoulder.
Hit me with the Fairy Fire, Cass said. And as soon as her attention is on me, tell Alyx the plan.
I don’t know the plan, Salos pointed out again.
Right. The next step is I get her attention and lead her back to the Lord of the Pass.
I don’t like this plan. But the flames erupted from Cass’s skin anyway.
“Hey! Levina!” Cass shouted and leveled her staff at the woman. “I’m going to have to refuse your offer!” Cass manifested a Wind Blade at the end of her staff and launched it at her.
Alyx and Levina both dodged the strike easily, the blade flying harmlessly in the new six feet of distance between the two of them.
Levina snarled at Cass. “What are you doing?”
All three of them held their weapons raised, all three waiting for someone else to make the next move.
Levina didn’t appear to be phased by the injury to her right foot, despite the heavy blood flow still pouring from the wound. Was she bluffing? Or did she have a skill or Concept on Vitality or Fortitude that mitigated the pain or made up for the blood loss?
Was this plan doomed from the start?
“Rejecting your offer?” Cass yelled anyway. Whether Levina was bluffing or not, Cass needed to look like everything was under control. She needed the assassin to take her seriously.
“Why?” the assassin asked. “You can’t be so loyal to this noble whelp that you’d pass up good money.”
“Is it really good money if it's earned by abandoning a—“ Cass faltered. She had been about to say friend, but maybe that was too presumptuous? “—an ally?”
“What?” Levina said.
“So you’re going to have to kill me if you want to get to Alyx,” Cass said, throwing another Wind Blade at the assassin.
The assassin melted before the Wind Blade, her body becoming smoke as it phased through her. She shot after Cass, knife extended. Cass didn’t wait for their weapons to clash, Cass turned and ran, trusting Alyx and Salos to figure out how to follow after her.
Cass flared Sprint for all it was worth, pumping every scrap of Strength and Dexterity and Endurance through it. The wind surged around her, splitting ahead and pressing from behind. She was speed. She was freedom. This was how the wind was meant to be.
That said, her Stamina was dropping fast.
Stamina: 60/69
Atmospheric Sense warned her that the assassin was behind her, dagger raised. Sprint wanted to keep running. Dodge suggested rolling to the side. Wind Step asked if this was the moment.
Cass tried something new instead. As her foot connected with the soft meadow ground, she pushed Elemental Manipulation through it. Stone was pretty far beneath the loamy soil, but she found it all the same. She pulled even as Sprint carried her on. Behind her, where the assassin now stood, a spear of stone erupted from her footprint.
Levina jerked to the side, avoiding the attack with depressing ease. But it had done its job, Cass had bought another couple of seconds of distance between them.
They did that dance a couple more times, Levina catching up, Cass leaving a stone spear in her wake, Levina falling behind to dodge again. Each time the maneuver was easier and faster for Cass, but Levina’s dodge was better timed too.
Then the assassin stopped.
For just a moment, Cass thought she’d given up. Fear and relief hit her simultaneously. She would live! Alyx was in danger!
Atmospheric Sense screamed a warning.
A pair of projectiles flew after her. Dodge activated and she avoided them.
But there had been three daggers, not two.
The third struck Cass’s cloak with a heavy thud. It didn’t penetrate, but Cass staggered under the force.
Cass stumbled.
Levina shoved Cass.
Cass felt herself falling, the assassin a step behind her. She couldn’t dodge. There was only one option.
She Wind Stepped.
She felt herself dissolve as the assassin’s blade found the space she’d occupied and her heart soared as the wind carried her forward. She wanted to ride the wind the rest of the way to the Lord, to ride it into infinity.
Cass nipped that impulse. That wasn’t her. That was the skill and the race putting ideas in her head. She needed to focus.
She materialized a dozen yards in front of Levina.
“Quit running,” the assassin spat.
“Quit trying to kill us,” Cass yelled back as she Sprinted away.
“I don’t think so.” Levina chased again.
Stamina: 38/69
Focus: 176/270
Her Stamina was dropping too fast. Even with an injured ankle, Levina had no difficulty keeping up. She probably had a higher Strength and Dexterity, giving her more ground with every step than Cass. Cass had expected as much but had hoped her Endurance was greater than the assassin’s.
Then again, maybe it was and she was just burning through her Stamina faster to run Sprint at max speed. Or maybe the assassin would run out of gas in the next couple of minutes.
Atmospheric Sense warning Levina was right behind her again dissuaded Cass of that last hope. Once again, Cass drew up a spear of stone from her footsteps, once again buying precious distance.
But it wasn’t sustainable.
Stamina: 34/69
Focus: 169/270
She was going to run out of Stamina before they reached the Pass. Levina was going to catch her sooner than later.
Cass needed a new stalling tactic.
Something cheap, ideally using Focus not Stamina.
There was really only one choice, all she had was Elemental Manipulation. But what to manipulate? She’d gotten good at stone and wind. But the ground was mostly soft soil, she was barely able to pull up the stone spears through it as it was. Could she pull up more? Would that slow the assassin down any more?
It was worth a shot.
Cass reached out with every footfall, grabbing at the stone beneath her. But no, she was running too fast. She wasn’t done with the first spear by the time her second foot hit the ground.
Every other footstep then? She pulled up one, then two. Neither were as tall as the panicked ones she’d made when Levina was about to stab her, but they could have been respectable obstacles, if they weren’t standing straight up and in a perfect line.
Levina sidestepped the first and didn’t have to change trajectories to avoid the second.
Cass saw the issue. Every other step meant only her left-footed steps were creating pillars. It needed to be more irregular than that. More haphazard.
Cass threw up a few more, grabbing at the stone and yanking it at odd angles. Left, right, back, right again. They weren’t coming up as spears anymore, just whatever portion of stone Elemental Manipulation could quickly grab.
Levina danced through the maze of stone, barely slowing, but slowing. Would it be enough? Cass’s Focus was draining fast.
Stamina: 29/69
Focus: 136/270
It was a lot to repeatedly use Elemental Manipulation like that. To do it while running full speed over unfamiliar terrain? Cass was glad she had the Will and Alacrity to handle it, but she didn’t know how much longer she would be able to.
But, Levina was slowing. Cass could feel it.