Assassinate Wonderwind [Book 1 Completed!]

The boss’s church had no exits other than the large doorway where we’d entered. Teleporting to the guild hall wasn’t possible with shurikens being thrown at us at every attempt we made. We’d need to fight our way out. Our opponents could have easily left a trap.

Even worse was that our opponent was almost definitely Dragrath.

I didn’t think our chances were very good. Assassins countered [Hex Of Dawnbreak], not only because they could easily dodge it, but because landing the spell wasn’t as consequential. Assassins had low health and resistances regardless. Veyra would have a problem landing anything at all on Dragrath. She knew it as well. The concerned focus was clear on her face. This was not a fight she wanted to take.

As for me, a battle against Dragrath was a skill matchup.

Call me a coward, but I wasn’t confident, especially not when testing new items. The inaccuracies of my build suddenly poked out like sore thumbs. Nothing felt complete. I wasn’t good at using a sickle, I didn’t have enough defence to reliably hold my stance when blocking, and I hardly had any way of getting through opponents’ defences.

In the eyes of a true expert, we must have looked like children playing around on a race track with cars we definitely couldn’t afford. We were the perfect targets for Dragrath.

I subtly grabbed Veyra’s hand and inched toward the nearest column without taking my eyes off of the entrance. We made it behind the column, blocking his view from a direct throw. There, I initiated a teleport again.

Can he curve a projectile? I thought. He shouldn’t have been able to. The assassin skill tree didn’t have anything that could curve or pierce through a column. Dragrath’s items didn’t have anything like that either during Worlds.

He’d probably dash in to cancel the teleport. I held The Immortal and looked for any particles of [Shadow Dash].

Out of nowhere, a blow landed on Veyra’s shoulder, making her stumble. Her health dropped to 86%, and the teleport was canceled. A shuriken was stuck to her shoulder with [Fracture] active.

I gritted my teeth and grabbed her hand, taking her away from the column. Dragrath wasn’t using the system [Throw]. Of course he wasn’t. He could curve the shurikens with just a skillful throw.

“We’ll need to fight,” I said, and revealed myself from our useless hiding spot.

Our opponents weren’t hiding anymore either. To my surprise, there were two of them, neither of whom was Dragrath.

Their nametags were [Suburi] SwordShiba, and [Suburi] Hibana.

I paused. Who the hell were these? I’d never heard of them before.

They approached slowly, letting me study their appearance. Hibana was a young and short Asian boy, maybe even a few years younger than me. Baggy pants made his stance look intimidatingly wide, though his head was shaven and visible, and his katana was short. SwordShiba was older, maybe twenty-five, wearing a black robe with grey stripes, like an off-duty samurai’s. He, too, had a katana. From their step alone, I knew they practiced sword techniques, and they were damn good.

I studied their equipment. Hibana seemed to be an assassin, and the black shurikens were visible on his waist. SwordShiba looked more like a sword fighter, but I couldn’t tell for sure before he used an ability.

Their equipment appeared oddly weak. Nothing shone like legendaries or mythics usually did. Both men were attractive, and their outfits looked good, but nothing about their items screamed value or rarity. Their katanas seemed to be ordinary steel katanas, just enchanted with a few runes that lined the surface of the blade.

I heard a quiet crackling of frost magic being channeled as Veyra cast [Absolute Zero] at SwordShiba’s feet.

Hell broke loose as he cast [Lunging Strike] with an overhead swing, simultaneously dodging Veyra and attacking me. The skill was simple enough, one of the earliest unlocks that the Sword Fighter class got, letting me dodge it easily enough, but now he was within fighting range. He readjusted his sword for the next slash.

With all of my spirits activated, I blocked it and glanced at Hibana, only to see the particles of [Shadow Dash] as he dashed past me.

Anyone could read what his target was; I dashed after him, landing right next to Veyra. He was faster by a fraction of a second, letting him take a swing at Veyra.

My Goddess wasn’t that helpless. She blocked with her new mythic staff. A panic block, leaving her little room to cast a spell, but her staff was more than strong enough to block. Hibana’s stance was wide open.

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I cut him with my sickle, expecting him to jump back in a panic.

The kid dove forward, sliding his katana off of Veyra’s staff to block my sickle. Like a maniac, he tackled me.

He wasn’t strong enough, and I barely felt resistance, but my hands were tied for SwordShiba’s next attack that came from the side. An [Elemental Barrier] landed, blocking his sword.

If that swing had come from Annath, the barrier would have probably cracked to pieces. Right now, however, it didn’t obtain a single crack, stopping SwordShiba’s sword like a solid wall.

Their items didn’t just look low-leveled. They were low level.

That meant they probably wouldn’t one-shot me if I traded a few hits.

I switched to more aggression immediately, trusting the [Elemental Barrier] to hold for a fraction of a second while I [Shadow Dashed] behind Hibana, abusing the fact that my boots gave me a shorter cooldown by one second. I turned around mid-slash and tried to cut him down.

The kid’s katana was in the perfect position to block, having read my mind. He landed a perfect block.

I was still the one putting pressure. I attacked again, fearless of taking a hit back, and slashed at him with The Immortal.

I grazed his side, and his health bar dropped to 31%. Hardly a clean hit, coming from an epic dagger, and he nearly died. He must have been well below level 250, maybe even below 200.

I attacked again, expecting to see pure fear in his eyes. Most people panicked when they were about to die, spamming their system [Blocks] in desperation.

Hibana’s eyes were perfectly calm as he [Shadow Dashed] straight through me, to Veyra.

“Watch out!” I yelled.

His dash ended, and suddenly, my vision was filled with steel. Hibana turned around mid-dash, targeting me.

I flicked The Immortal up, barely managing a regular block. My stance wavered a little, but he was too low level to break through.

SwordShiba came right after. For him, I had nothing.

The ground froze as Veyra cast [Absolute Zero] a second time.

Once again, SwordShiba sensed it with miraculous instincts, jumping back. I was saved, but he lived.

“Who the hell are you two?” I yelled out while slashing again at Hibana. He took a defensive stance, blocking my sickle with relative ease. That left Veyra free, though, and she cast an icicle.

The kid leaned to the side, dodging it without issues.

What the fuck? I thought. Why were these guys so good? Were we getting outplayed by noobs?

The exchange of blades continued, with me fighting Hibana and SwordShiba keeping Veyra busy. Both of them were seriously good. Easily as skilled as Annath, though their gear was much weaker, and their attacks didn’t pack punches. If they had high level characters, there was a chance I’d lose.

As good as he was, Hibana just couldn’t make up the level difference. I feinted him with my sickle, only to drive The Immortal into his neck. All it took was one clean hit, and he died.

Another slash came from behind as SwordShiba took one too many spikes of [Chronorift], unable to defeat Veyra in melee combat. Both of our opponents collapsed, dropping a gear piece, and they began disintegrating.

I grabbed Hibana’s gear piece right away as a habit from my old days. I usually didn’t check the items I received until I was in a safe spot, but I caught a glimpse at what he’d dropped. The item was Steel Katana (Uncommon, Crafted, Enchanted).

A goddamned uncommon weapon?

“What did we just experience?” Veyra asked. She remained wary with her staff up, as if still expecting someone to be lurking within here. “They were running uncommon gear?”

“And they put up a fight,” I said. Despite the gear difference, they survived for longer than some of our opponents in Worlds last year. “Hibana was Annath’s level.”

The air still felt heavy. I feared the elephant was still in the room, completely invisible and unaddressed. We were not safe in the slightest.

I grabbed Veyra’s hand, and we once again initiated a teleport, though there wasn’t a single universe where I expected the teleport to go through uncancelled.

A dagger was haphazardly thrown at us, not with any killing intent, but it was enough to cancel the teleport and place us back to combat.

The third figure walked calmly into the room, alone and with his katana sheathed. He was an Asian man, around forty years old with a face that everyone recognized. His face was stone-cold with absolute confidence, long hair tied to a ponytail. Chills ran through my spine.

[Suburi] Dragrath. The ultimate god of assassins, who appeared out of nowhere to Worlds 2021, defeating SoulShadow in the one versus one finals, before quickly growing into one of the most dominant players the game had ever seen, reaching the podium in literally every tournament he entered.

The only reason his status as the greatest of all time was in doubt was because his appearances in the media were so rare. He played solo and didn’t stream, and he often skipped tournaments, even skipping Worlds if he didn’t feel like joining.

When he did enter, he dominated with half of his equipment slots empty. Even now, he was missing a headpiece and rings. He didn’t even have gloves equipped to grip one of the most legendary katanas in the whole game. All he typically wore was simple boots and his black and gold Chinese hanfu—a cloth I’d learned the name of because of the very item covering the player before us now.

“Hm,” he said, though his attention seemed to be mostly on the corpses of his guild mates. His Japanese accent was much stronger than any other top players’ I’d met. “The good thing about VR. You send your students to die, and you call it a learning experience.”

I kept both of my weapons drawn. “They were good. You’ve trained them well.”

Dragrath smiled a little. “They’re young and weak. Same with you. Could use some training.”

I frowned at him, but mostly, I was looking at exits. Dragrath wasn’t a player who showed mercy in the wilderness. This would come to a fight, and I’d lose almost certainly. No matter how cocky I’d been about my success lately, this was too much. I had to get us out of here safely, or we’d risk losing big money.

Dragrath grinned as he saw me looking around, as if he could read my mind. He gripped his sheathed katana and said, “Assassin. For you, I will go all out.”