Chapter 32: A Fire Burns
The door opened silently, the lack of sound betraying Nathan’s expectations. The hinges had squealed loudly every other time somebody had entered the storeroom. Nathan was on the wrong side of the door to see the people who'd opened it, but he could feel the enchantments on the weapons and armor of five assassins as they slipped through the door quickly and without a sound.
Nathan disabled all of their enchantments with a second of focused attention, then stepped into view. The assassins, again clad in dark red, were focused on the bunker and the faint light enchantment the Heirs had left within, but they pivoted smoothly towards Nathan as he appeared.
Aarl melted out of the darkness behind them and attacked with inhuman speed, invisible dagger leading the way.
The lead assassin responded like lightning. He twisted to the side in a sinuous motion, his own weapons flickering out to slash at Aarl’s armored throat. The move was fluid and fast, equal to anything Nathan had seen Faline perform. But the weapons weren’t magical anymore. They scraped across the metal of protecting Aarl’s neck even as the invisible dagger grazed the man’s arm. He collapsed without fanfare. One moment the red-hooded man was a twisting wraith, the next he was sprawled awkwardly across the floor like a discarded puppet.
If the sudden death of their leader bothered the other assassins they didn’t show it, throwing themselves to surround Aarl and attack him from every direction. But without enchantments their weapons did no better than that of their leader. Aarl accepted hits to get in blows of his own. Over the course of mere seconds he seemed to figure out a new style, going for grazes and light injuries that his weapon translated into instant death.
The other Heirs watched as Aarl cut his way through the assassins. Any of them could have helped, but it didn’t look like Aarl needed any assistance. Besides, most of their help would have been louder than the brutal knife-fight happening before them, where the only sounds were heavy breathing and the sound of bodies hitting the floor.
The last assassin turned to flee, but with one smooth motion Aarl whipped the invisible throwing ax out of his bag and into the assassin's back. Aarl stood in the center of the ring of corpses, armored face turning to survey the bloodless carnage. Then he turned back to the other Heirs, helmet peeled back from his face to reveal a sheepish expression as he touched the spot on his throat where the first man had tagged him. “I am not a master of knife-fighting."
Spellslayer has leveled to 513! Your party has counter-ambushed a group of Zhark assassins!
“Better than I could have done.” Nathan said, stretching his magical senses outwards to check on the rest of the building. “I don’t feel any more enchanted weapons around. Or enchantments in general. We might be good to just leave?”