Cthulhu Gonfalon

Unlike his slow-talking, Leon was fast with his sword. He focused most of the Dou Qi air onto his sword, brightening this low-class magic weapon given by Viscount Erik. The sword flew like lightning into that “void.”

With a scream, a grey-colored figure of a human arose from nothing. A machete with strong, glimmering magic came out in a flash in “its” hand to stop Leon’s attack.

The two weapons impacted each other and generated light as bright as the sun. The impact created a sound that immediately woke up all the scouts. They were such experienced scouts that they all picked up their weapons right away and stayed alert, yet nobody went over to help.

Both Leader Rien and the assassin were powerful, so none of the scouts would be of any help. Still, they were not about to just stand aside. Instead, they all took out their bows and arrows and took aim.

Although none of them expected to shoot the enemy, the enemy would probably feel threatened when faced with nearly a hundred bows and arrows.

Something as small as this might make a major difference in a battle between parallel powers.

But they were totally wrong. Such a tiny influence wouldn’t make a difference to Leon. His concern was how to hide his power as much as possible when he managed to defeat or catch his opponent.

He already recognized this opponent—mid-legendary level, skilled at hiding and prowling, and a leopard man. These three features clearly pointed to the no.1 assassin within the Orcs’ army—Atel, the successor of leopard man’s “assassin.”

Although Leon was already good enough to defeat a Staff of Imprisonment-holding, peak legendary Presbyter of the Divine Temple, he was only known as an advanced robber and ranger who was not yet in the legendary realm. Could such a person kill a legendary assassin as Atel? Wouldn’t it expose the real me, announcing to all that “my identity was fake and I gave false information”?

No way!

He was distressed and had no idea of what to do. All he was doing was dodging as best as he could as if he were fighting at his limit.

On the other hand, Atel was also shocked. He never ever expected this target, an advanced robber with some ranger’s skills, to suddenly turn into a stunning, legendary swordsman!

Despite Leon’s efforts to hide his power, it was impossible to trick a master of Orcs like Atel who could see Leon’s true strength. From each collision of their weapons alone, Atel could clearly feel the incredible strength from the other’s sword. Such power could only be released from a powerful person, not from luck or magic. How could such a powerful person only be a fresh young robber known to none!

Though an assassin like Atel was usually better at hiding, prowling, using poison and assassinating, that didn’t mean he lacked force. In fact, being the successor of the best assassin of the Orcs, the “Atel” of all generations had a long tradition of face-to-face combat. Today’s “Atel” did not prefer this way, though he was still capable of doing so.

Simply with a machete, he was unstoppable among floods of troops and could defeat all enemies easily.

During the last battle for Orcs in the South, he had rushed into the human troops alone to kill three of their senior generals. He had even chopped down the state flag of the Eagle Kingdom. If the king hadn’t given up his hundreds of years of life in exchange for the great power of the Eagle Sword which swept over the Orc troops, the Eagle Kingdom would have probably been destroyed.

However, this century-famous Atel was feeling difficult now in front of a minor young robber!

The feeling was rather hard to describe, though it’s been there with him all this time and didn’t disappear.

It looked as if Atel was dominating the fight, and the opponent was defending so hard with his superb martial arts and quick reaction speed. In this case, the fight should not last long as simply defending would only make one tired and distracted. As time went by, Atel would be able to find a chance to kill him. In the worst case, if anything happened unexpectedly, Atel would always have a chance to escape for the time being. There would be no reason to lose.

Yet, Atel noticed that this fight was not like that because the opponent didn’t look or behave tired at all. It was him dominating the fight! What’s more, the young robber was rather confident and calm when making each move!

Why? What was the problem?

Atel was very confused and made a decision swiftly.

Go away!

He was an assassin. He would have plenty of time to find another chance. He didn’t have to go head-to-head against this opponent. It would be advantageous for him as long as he hid in the dark. Even this guy, Rien, could escape from him this time; but he would not get a chance to next time!

Therefore, he quickly pushed his machete forward, trying to force Rien to move backward so that he could run away.

But at the same time, Rien also pushed against his sword. The machete and the sword collided with each other a few times, forcing the two people to shake fiercely and slow themselves down a bit.

“Shoot!” cried several senior rangers in the scout troop. When spotting this moment, they all shot their arrows towards Atel.

Usually, these arrows were beyond Atel’s concern. He didn’t care about such minor things at all. However, since he was just fighting against Leon head on and his body had been shocked by the reverse power of Leon’s sword strength, Atel was a bit slow this time.

Just a bit.

Because of this slight delay, he couldn’t hide from all the arrows. Instead, he just barely mobilized the Dou Qi air around him to stop them.

But at this moment, Leon was rushing into him again with his sword.

Impossible! He regained his breath faster than me?!

Atel was really surprised, but he had no other option but to lift his machete in defense.

Leon’s sword attacks were not as haphazard as before. They were so quick and powerful that Atel could hardly catch up with him. Atel couldn’t maintain his previous balance and finally fell short.

Moreover, the senior scouts were making things worse for Atel; without them, Atel would still be able to fight back. Once they saw the opportunity, these scouts immediately took all measures to attack Atel. In addition to the countless arrows, some of them even took out their wands and scrolls, trying to use tracking magic to defeat Atel.

While confronted with Leon’s deadly sword attacks, Atel also had to escape from the scouts’ attack. He kept moving backward. One step, two steps, three steps…at the fourth step, he missed a magic bomb flying from an invisible corner behind him.

This purple magic bomb was much larger and brighter than usual. It was called “Chasing Bomb,” a unique spell for battle mages. It was stronger, had a faster speed and was more flexible in chasing its target. It had a higher cost as a result. While common magic bombs were just basic level spells, this chasing bomb was mid-level. Take the price of a scroll as an example; a chasing bomb was worth more than a dozens of these scrolls.

Atel was shrouded by the Dou Qi air. He wasn’t hurt by that chasing bomb, but he nearly fell down. Right at this moment, Leon saw Atel’s mistake and lifted his sword straight away to hack away at the assassin.

There was nothing Atel could do but stop it with his machete. Leon’s sword—though not as good as Atel’s machete—finally couldn’t sustain the enormous power of the two legendary fighters and broke apart.

His sword broke?! Without much time to think again, Atel seized the opportunity to use his machete to beat down his resistant opponent. But when he wielded his machete, unexpectedly, he saw an insidious smile on the other’s face.

In the next second, an extremely small, long and narrow dagger flew out from Leon’s sleeve directly into Atel’s forehead.

Strong magic shone brightly on the dagger, much greater than the previous common sword. Atel didn’t have a chance to defend himself and was pierced by it. He couldn’t even think of mobilizing the Dou Qi air around him to defend this time. The dagger stabbed through the thin Dou Qi air around his body, his skin and bones and deep into his brain.

Immediately he fell into darkness. He couldn’t even stand anymore, as if he were dropped into water.

Ah, I am dying…

This was the last thought of the century-famous, legendary assassin. He deeply released his last breath.

At the same time, in the capital holy temple of the Orc Empire far away on the grassland, while sitting quietly under a tree, an old man opened his eye, grimly and ferociously.

“What’s wrong?” asked another old man who was lying on a stone beside him. He was watching the stars.

“My student, today’s Atel, just died,” said the first old man in a low voice.

“It’s no news to have people die during wartime now.”

The first old man thought for a long time and nodded at last. Then he closed his eyes.

“Perhaps after the war, if the person who just killed him would survive until then…”