Chapter 119 - The Blue-Eyed Assassin (Prologue to Book 3)

  Donovan:

  "What’s in here? Still that shitty meat?" I asked.

  "That's all we have left, and we ’t risk going out too much," Kinley replied.

  I hate deep rat meat!

  We'd been holed up in our hideout for several days now, waiting for our tae bad pick up the ‘packages.’ We had to be cautious operating in this area because the Evenhart family didn’t tolerate this kind of crime. Doing this on their nd was risky, but the payoffs were huge. Ironically, because they didn’t tolerate crime, the local poputiooo safe, making them easy targets.

  When all this is over, I’m going to have some fun with at least one of the women.

  I closed the dining room door and walked to the bedroom. Our hideout was underground, ected to a work of caves. I had personally worked oing tunnels deep enough with exit points in case we o flee.

  I reached out to a wall, and it opened on its own, revealing several women bound inside.

  Using my earth magic, I had made a name for myself as a notorious bandit, f a gang that steadily grew as we raided vilges along the borders between duchies. That’s where I gained my strength. W the borders was the best decision I ever made, giving me access to other duchies and isoted vilges.

  I’ve done just about everything in this life, and soon I started w for aristocrats, handling their dirty work. After that, my job became even easier and more rewarding. I dealt in all sorts of things, but human traffig? That was where the real money was. Attag small vilges and taking the best women brought me a nice profit. Nobles loved having quality merdise for their brothels, and I helped run destine aus where they could sell these womehey needed quick cash.

  Human goods had to be of high quality, and if they were virgins, we couldn’t touch them. A girl’s first time was worth a fortune.

  I stopped in front of the women, watg them tied up.

  These girls are geous... Ohose rich bastards have had their fill, I’ll get my turn before we ship them off food.

  I lit up the area, turning the light crystal to its full brightness.

  On the ground, five young women y tied up, some of them in just bras and panties. I had to leave them like that so my tact could i and appraise the merdise properly.

  "Still got those sad faces? You’re too pretty to be g like that," I said, stepping toward the most frightened one. When I kidnapped her, she’d been washing clothes by the river, g the whole way here. I yanked off her gag.

  “Sacred Mother! Sacred Father! Sacred Brother! Sacred Life! May your blessing fall upon me, may you bless my future and deliver me from evil," she began murmuring.

  I grabbed her hair, jerking her head back.

  "Shut the fuck up! If you start praying again, I’ll knock you out. Just because I ’t touch your face doesn’t mean yetting out of this unscathed."

  She looked down, but tinued whispering.

  “Sacred Mother! Sacred Father! Sacred Brother! Sacred Life!”

  "Bitch!" I snarled, pung her on the side of the head, sending her sprawling.

  "See that? Just because I ’t hit your face doesn’t mean I ’t hurt you. You’re lucky, bitch. If you hadn’t been picked to be sold, I would’ve had my fun with you already," I sneered, looking her up and down.

  "Sacred Mother… Sacred Father…" she began g harder.

  "No god’s ing for you. You’ve been abandoned, hahahaha!" I ughed.

  The others looked at me, then lowered their heads. They had been here longer, and their minds were already broken. They kheir fate was sealed.

  "It seems your prayers have been answered…" said a voice.

  "What the hell?"

  I looked toward the corridor I’d e from, and it was pletely swallowed in darkness.

  "Kinley?" I called out as I moved away from the room.

  "Kinley’s dead," the darkness answered.

  Whose voice is that? I don't reize it. Have we been invaded? Impossible.

  "Who are you? Show yourself, that’s an order!"

  I drew my sword and poi toward the dark. Suddenly, two glowing blue lights appeared, moving in the shadows.

  "Are those… eyes? How the fuck do your eyes glow in the dark?"

  The light vanished, and something rolled out of the darkness.

  "Kinley!? What the hell!" I shouted as his head rolled toward me.

  "Apologies, dies. I’ll have to lock you up again. It’s better if you don’t see what’s about to happen," said the voice, and the walls shifted, sealing the room.

  A mage who uses earth magieone who use my element…

  "You’ve made the worst mistake of your life. This pce is full of bandits. I don’t know how you got in here, but you’re screwed," I said, running away from the darkness and pulling out a sound crystal from my bracelet.

  "WAKE UP! WE HAVE INTRUDERS!" My voice echoed throughout the hideout, amplified by the other sound crystals.

  I gnced bad threw a light crystal into the darkness. When it illumihe corridor, there was nothing there.

  What? Did he run?

  "Part of me hoped you’d alert everyohanks for that," said the voice again.

  I looked dowh I was headed, and there stood a boy.

  "How did you get there? You didn’t pass me."

  "Teleportation," he replied.

  "Hahaha, funny guy."

  The boy stood still, then drew a sword from his ste bracelet.

  "Want to settle this before the others arrive?" he asked.

  I gred at him and jured sharp earthen spikes, hurling them his way. As I moved backward, I sent more spikes his way—one of my suffog teiques.

  As the spikes closed in, they hit a yellow barrier and shattered on impact.

  What is this? A light barrier?

  "INTRUDER!" shouted men as they appeared behind him.

  "Sir, are you alright?" a soldier asked, ing up behind me.

  "And why wouldn’t I be?"

  The boy was now standing in the corridor, surrounded on both sides.

  "This kid killed Kinley, and there could be more of them. Let’s deal with this."

  "There’s only me… for now," he said.

  The boy raised his strange sword and poi at me.

  "The punishment for human traffig is death," he stated.

  "Hahaha, and who’s going to pass that sentence?"

  "A god," he answered.

  The men looked at me, then back at the boy standiween us.

  "Hahahahahaha," we all burst into ughter.

  "Gods do," I said.

  He sighed.

  "You’re right, I killed them all," the boy moved his hand.

  "Focus, the kid’s a mage! I saw him use earth magid something else strange," I warned.

  The men readied themselves, some gathering mana in their hands.

  "Goodbye, kid," I said.

  "Goodbye," he replied.

  "Attack!" I shouted, and the men unleashed their spells.

  Jets of fire shot toward the boy, while balls of earth were jured in a coorditack. I summoned a massive, sharp stone spear and u straight at him.

  Suddenly, a bolt of lightning shot from his hand, striking several bandits that were surrounding him. The boy then sprioward me with his sword, dodging spells as he sent water forth to douse the fmes.

  Earth, Lightning, and Water? How could he trol both rare and os together?

  A soldier leapt in front of him, attempting to block with his sword, but the boy parried skillfully, sidestepping and spinning to deflect the bde. With his free hand, he sent a gust of wind that flung the soldier aside. , he ignited his hand with fire, sending a fme that formed a wall behind him, trapping the men oher side.

  "You little shit!" roared a man, charging at the boy with an axe.

  The boy caught the axe with his sword, redireg the impact. With a quick riposte, he spun and severed the man’s head in a single, lethal strike.

  "How?" muttered a bandit beside me, stunned.

  The boy blocked another sword and, with one hand, grabbed the oppo's face, detonating a fireball that sent the man flying.

  "Ahhh!" The bandit fell, his face burned beynition, screaming in agony.

  The boy extended his hand and shot a bolt of lightning, sileng the man’s screams forever.

  "That scream was annoying," he said, advang toward us, sharp stone arrows floating around him.

  The bandit beside me jured a high-speed water jet, but the boy dodged with a roll and, in a swift motion, hurled his sword, which spun through the air and struck the man in the chest. The bandit fell to the ground, dead instantly.

  In response, I summoned more sharp stone spikes and hurled them at the boy, but he transformed the stone arrows into a stone wall, shielding himself from the attacks.

  "You’re fucked!" I shouted, toug the ground. The entire corridan to colpse. "I built this hideout, the tunnels are a trap!"

  The floor slowly gave way, and we fell into the work of caves below. When we nded, we found ourselves in a rger, open space, where we would have more freedom to use ic at a distand finish him off.

  The men who had been behind the boy stood up, as did those by my side, readying their spells.

  "You’re unarmed and surrounded!" I shouted, fident he had no escape.

  He only smiled, staring at us calmly.

  Suddenly, the ground shook violently, and a massive hand emerged from the earth. Soon, a burning stone figure began to rise from that hand, revealing a monstrous woman standing three meters tall, her fagulfed in fmes.

  From the wall, water started flowing, f a creature made of earth and water, crawling with a menag presence.

  ‘Boom!’ A loud crash echoed through the cave, and a creature that looked like a mix of a bat and a dog, entirely made of pnts, dropped from the ceiling.

  What the fuck is this!?

  Footsteps echoed behind us, and a being made of yellow light, wielding a sword of fming stone, emerged from the shadows.

  ‘ZAP!’ The crackle of electricity filled the air, and through the hole in the ceiling, a dark cloud desded, its monstrous face crag with lightning.

  Suddenly, something happehe boy’s sword, which had been embedded in the chest of a dead soldier, flew bato his hand.

  "Not disarmed, and not surrounded!" he decred, his tone filled with defiance.

  One of the soldiers beside me colpsed to the ground, terrified as the creatures bowed before the bnizing his authority.

  "Wh-who are you!?" the soldier stammered, trembling with fear.

  "I am the Lord of the Titans!" the boy answered, his voice reverberating with a power that seemed to shake the very cave.