The Last Primal

"[Reptilian] C-captain… I… The enemy…" After about a minute of tense silence one of the guards could not hold himself back anymore, and with a trembling tone, he voiced the concerns of the entire group with a stuttering tone.

"[Reptilian] W-where are they? W-what are they doing?" Another one joined in, completing the question of his partner whilst keeping his eyes on their surroundings. 

However, their captain did not respond but kept his attention at the rocky formation closing in on them. His eyes were nervously darting at both sides of the obstacle, hoping to find some clues of the enemy hiding in the shadows.

Unfortunately, their opponents were highly skilled in their art, giving their opponents no chance to spot or sprung the trap in advance. Their unique set of skills made sure that even the famed [Battle Sense] that the most gifted, Weapon Masters had used, were unable to find them. Unless they wanted their stealth skills made them basically invisible to their opponents. The twelve daughters that were already waiting as well as Madam Dara and her four elites that were following closely behind managed to keep themselves hidden. 

The sole dagger that Madam Dara herself threw has only served the purpose to spew some distraught, spread some unease amongst the enemy ranks, making them alerted as well as agitated, and make them slightly more vulnerable to the imminent ambush.

Though the attack was lucky enough to dwindle their ranks, making them lose one even before the battle even started, the girls still kept to the silent plan, following closely, but at the same time, keeping out of their vision or sensory ranges.

…

With their vigilance raised to its maximum, Captain Ixorak's group slowly resumed their journey, slowly reaching closer to the intersection. After the first attack, there was absolutely no trace of the attackers. Even though their instincts were screaming at Captain Ixorak and his elite force of now 19 warriors that their enemy was close by, they couldn't find any trace of them. 

No matter if they shouted, or yelled and exclaimed, they couldn't get a response, nor could they see any movement, no matter how hard they scouted their immediate vicinity, thus slowly making the atmosphere heavier and heavier as the seconds kept passing rather mercilessly.

Eventually, the group slowly shifted some of their attention to the path ahead. Each grabbed the handles of their spears, lances, and swords so tightly, that their palms long since went pale due to the lack of blood circulation, causing their limbs to slowly grow numb.

Large, fat beads of sweat kept perspiring and glistening on their foreheads, slithering their ways, carving a path towards the ground as their jitters, their anxiety reached its peak.

…

Whilst his men were nervously swaying their gazes to all directions, Captain Ixorak retained his attention at the shadowy corners of the formation stretched out in front of them. He squinted his eyes, gazing at the arching dome looming above and just a couple of steps ahead of him. 

'[Reptilian] Huh?'

Suddenly, something caught his eye. A small blur, a distortion that appeared at the corner of his eye. For most, it would have been accounted as simply a revenant, a creation of his mind that was slowly ground up under the heavy, unbearable weight of this nervous pressure. The knowledge of the doom they were willingly walking up to.

Just as his mind began to process what he had seen, and Captain Ixorak was about to exclaim to warn his troops, the shadows all around the natural monument became blurry, distorted. The slender shapes of masked figures appeared in an instant, baring their daggers like fangs of predators upon their prey.

Just as he opened his mouth to shout, the silvery, metallic glint of a blade shined, sailing across the air, slicing with an incredible speed towards the small empty crevice connecting his shoulder plates to the upper section of his chest plate.

Without wasting any further time analyzing the situation. With a sudden flash, he swiped the air in front of his chest, catching the incoming sharp blade in the air and hitting it, blocking the otherwise dangerous attack with swift, semi-conscious action.

Captain Ixorak snorted coldly as the throwing dagger landed on the ground with a metallic clink.

"[Reptilian] We are under attack!" He shouted with an ugly, angered expression in the next moment, shattering the tense silence in an instant. Reacting to his sudden exclaim, each member of his small troop jumped to action, trembling with the shock that they all have kept pushed down so far. Weapons were raised almost instantly, the gazes were focused from the sides towards the barely visible dark body shapes slowly revealing themselves in front of them.

Just as their minds have managed to process the situation and send their electric signals to alert the bodies to jump into an alerted state, several blinding glints sparked amidst the darkness. A dozen whistling sounds filled their front, like sharp blades of death, daggers were unleashed, thrown at their direction. Each sharp glint carried a threatening aim, swooshing the space towards the small, minuscule cracks, openings between the plates in their armors. Each projectile was aimed with a terrifying precision and aim, revealing a dangerous fact to Captain Ixorak and his team. 

These people, these girls were professional assassins!

"[Reptilian] Madam Dara…" Ixorak sneered as he realized the news. Only the famed madam, the uncrowned queen the undisputed ruler of the slums had such a force. This whilst, wasn't public knowledge, wasn't that much of a secret either.

After all, even the Temple Guard officials requested her services from time to time. For the longest time, she retained her neutral stance towards both sides, only turning a rebel after the higher-ups wreaked havoc in one of her safehouses searching for that brat.

Captain Ixorak cursed his luck under his breath upon realizing the graveness of the situation. Why did he have to suffer so much? What did he do to earn such a miserable fate?!

Suddenly the thought of turning around and running back resurfaced in his mind once again. Yet, the prospects of willingly failing that monster's orders would have resulted in an outcome worse than death itself…

In the end, Captain Ixorak could only grit his teeth in his own helplessness, and focus his attention on the situation at hand. Though barely a few seconds have passed, a fight with an outcome he couldn't predict has already broken out. The dark shadows have materialized, a dozen cloaked and masked bringers of death, Madam Dara's assassins lounged at them from the stone monument.

Blades flashed as lightning-fast strikes sailed across the air.

Yet, that wasn't even the worst. Just when they were about to forget about the attack from before, they suddenly felt several presences emerge from behind.

---

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