Chapter 366: Assassins
“Would you look at that?” Kraven screamed, his throat practically hoarse in disbelief and excitement. “A member from the Menagerie team has executed one of the competitors from the Kererus Coalition, going directly against the Secret Eye’s request to avoid death!”
For the immensity of the situation, Kraven didn’t sound all that bothered by the death. He was practically salivating over the corpse lying at Olive’s feet — and he wasn’t the only one. The entire crowd roared in approval.
When people came to see a blood sport, they didn’t tend to care all that much when someone got killed in the process. That was doubly so when the somebody getting killed wasn’t anyone they gave a shit about.
And, for all the power the Kererus Coalition had managed to gather for themselves, they were not fielding popular combatants. A bunch of assassins were just that. Assassins. Nobody cared if they lived or died. All they wanted was a good show.
Olive flicked the blood from her blade and pointed it at the closest of the two remaining assassins. Her wooden arm throbbed violently. She gritted her teeth as she felt its power worm its way deeper into her body like roots twisting toward her heart.
It could taste the blood on her blade. Could feel the tension thrumming in the air like the whistle of the wind — and it wanted more. The curse within the arm hungered for death. She’d given it a taste. Now it wasn’t going to be happy until its appetite was sated. Olive could nearly feel the bloodlust radiating from her arm like a thick haze.
She tightened her grip on the hilt of her sword. The leather covering it bit into her palm and gave her something to focus on; something to push the arm’s influence back with. She wasn’t about to let herself lose control here, in the middle of a tournament, while Maeve’s life was still very much on the line.
“Is something wrong?” Olive asked, her words curt and measured. “I was under the impression you were assassins. Surely you’re used to death in the line of duty. Or have you decided to surrender?”
“What are you?” one of the assassins hissed. “The report said nothing about you possessing such hatred.”