3rd person POV
"I could say the same for you, Lady Nyx."
A deep, low pitched voice spoke from behind Nyx.
She turned around quickly as did her subordinates.
In front of them, a player levitated in the air dangling his limbs as a spear pierced right through him and pinned itself to the ground.
The man skewered on it slowly turned into ethereal particles, his eyes bulged in horror from the painful experience.
Beside him stood him, a man in full armor. His eyes looked calmly at the disappearing figure as if appreciating his own handiwork.
Then he turned towards the group that demanded his attention. Raising his hands, he unbuckled his helm and smoothly removed it.
Adrian came into view. His eyes had turned shallow, his posture relaxed and his gaze emotionless. He stared at them like they didn't exist, as though they were but mere creatures in front of him.
Nyx returned the gaze. Her low braided bun bobbled as she titled her head slightly. Then she asked with a tone full of curiosity, "So you have come... But tell me why be so foolish and do something so obvious? It's no wonder you got stuck in my trap."
She was indeed confused about his choice to not escape with the citizens that came before him.
The first batches of the migration didn't even contain enough security and thus, it made the company of the guards the safest option...and the most obvious choice.
And yet, he chose this leaving her perplexed.
Adrian glanced to the battlefield. The encirclement had started faltering under the tactful attacks of the union of players. He turned back and replied, "It was your master's suggestion to ambush the last group that would depart from Trios, wasn't it?"
Nyx's eyes quinted a little and Adrian took that as a sign of confirmation. He continued, "In fact you were probably planning on ambushing the very first batch itself, maybe even thinking that I would have disguised myself as one of the subordinates of the City Lord."
Nyx looked impressed and again being confirmed of his theory, he added "You try to think out of the box, each and every single time. And thus you even imagined me doing the same. Now I ain't telling you that your way of thinking something unique is wrong but I just molded your strength as the element that would have given me victory in the form of my escape.
That is if your master hadn't intervened."
Nyx gulped down the damp of uneasiness, her heart beat erratically. It wasn't out of fear but rather from the way he stood there, casually seeing through her, dismantling her way of thinking as if she was just an object for his study. She still remembered the humiliation she had faced earlier at his hands as she was thoroughly defeated despite her level advantage.
Nyx turned to her subordinates who were rooted to their positions, their bodies shaking uncontrollably from the stench of death that she and Adrian were instinctively releasing.
It wasn't a skill, neither an ability nor a technique honed through years of training. It was just the intent to kill, a sharp looming presence that grew the more you shed blood and quenched the lives of living beings.
And Nyx and Adrian? They were both the epitome of murderers, the vilest of them yet worshipped as war heroes by their worlds.
Calming down herself, she raised her fingers and snapped them. A sharp, cutting sound echoed through the entire forest.
The battlefield paused for a moment. No clanking sounds of swords, no war cries, no howls of agony as all eyes darted towards Nyx.
Her own subordinates snapped out of their own stupor as the auras of death vanished instantly.
Then fixing him with a death glare, she ordered.
"You see him...I want you to kill him by any means. Don't let your guard down. Forget the guards that are fighting for their own lives, focus on this guy alone. Remember he is the mission given to us.
All of them leaped into action as they fell into a pattern, one that they rehearsed countless times before now.
One even gave a thumbs up to Nyx as he smirked at Adrian.
Nyx recognised that look instantly. How could she not when she was probably just the same a few days ago, when she didn't realise that this Adrian wasn't much different from her lady...both monsters in their own rights.
Who would in their right mind even think that a lvl 0 would take on a bunch of lvl 40s?
Well, she certainly now did.
___________
Adrian's POV
"[Death Mark]" Nyx had whispered it a while back.
I didn't really hear anything properly after that.
Every single moment spent was me dodging something I couldn't even see. I felt myself on the verge of death when it got close, I felt the anxiety within me lessen when the presence got away from me...but it kept on coming back and forth.
And as if I wasn't in an enough precarious situation, those guys surrounding Nyx also lunged at me.
Meticulously dodging their advances, I slashed at them whenever I got my chance.
Dodging the skill's presence again, I rolled sideways and drove the tip of the spear through a reckless saviour chargjng at me.
Turning my attention back to the cohort attacking me, I took a stance and rushed...my physical form barely visible to them as I used [Double Penetration], a sword technique without any mana usage. My right and left hands moved simultaneously, never stopping as it easily broke through the defences of one...then two...and advanced more to deal a significant damage to the underbelly of the third player. I summersaulted forward as i dodged the looming presence again.
'This is bad...I can't endlessly keep on dodging the presence.'
Glancing around, I saw an injured Housten engaged in a fierce swordplay with Nyx.
'Nyx...' I needed to get to her to stop this deathly aura.
'I can't exactly be fighting something by myself that I can't see, can't hear and whose presence feels like its all around me.'
The deathly dance began once again. I killed one saviour, then received an injury in another exchange of blows.
Two went down, three, four...eight saviours went down. Yet their numbers didn't didminish by much.
Swords, spears, arrows, spells, combat arts, a shuringen...all waved, slashed and flew towards each other.
The living decreased as the dead increased on the battlefield, every few seconds.
Thirty minutes....one hour....time flashed by, but my hands didn't pause... couldn't pause.
Two slashes from the sword, then shuringen sent flying...this combo has been repeating itself for all this time with occasional mixtures of Double Penetration in between it.
7 guards remained. And 43 players. This battle isn't ours and I knew it...but running away wasn't even an option.
All this time, i had been inching slowly towards Nyx, the source of the deadly aura around me.
Yes! I have been dodging those endless strikes for all this time.
I struck down the last of Nyx's cohort. The red-haired went down with a grunt as he soon dissolved.
'How tiresome...'
Shaking off the remnants of the glowing embers from the spear, I turned to Nyx. A little distance away stood Housten, his battered form somehow holding on. Blood trickled from countless injuries on his body.
Honestly it was even surprising that he survived this for so long given the way he had almost died at Nyx's hands.
Looking around me I found it was all me, Housten, Nyx and some 14 players. Not that any of them looked any better.
Suddenly, I felt something familiar stir within me...
'Not now, don't come out now...' Hearing my plea, the presence within me hesitated but relented to my words and calmed down.
A smirk tugged at my lips as I felt the deathly aura around me annihilated.
'So much care for me... thank you.'
Nyx raised her blade and pointing it towards me, she spoke huskily, "You...shall be my 10th kill here and...the end of my mission."
I chuckled dryly, "For sure dear~"
"Before we engage, care to tell me who is the one sending you after me?" I asked, mildly curious.
Nyx's lips twisted into a sinister grin.She replied, "Dead men don't need to know things they can no longer use. "
I won't die...No, dear that was never a part of the plan, and if my guesses are being correct, I am not dying...not today.
My life might not be of much value to me,but I still have something important to accomplish before i can rest in peace...or whatever Hell awaits me.
I threw the spear on the ground. A dull thump resounded on the ground as it rolled, its metallic sting being padded by the soft ground beneath it.
Stretching my figure to shake off the exhaustion, I smiled at her and said with a voice full of surety.
"If I kill you, you shall actually die this time."
Her body stiffened as she finally looked at me with fear in her eyes.
[A/N: So did the fight scene improve in its writing? Comment and let me know]