Chapter 88 : : Still Worse Than You

They had the same thought 'In case the plan fails, this is my backup!'

Suddenly, an air piercing sound was heard, Kale felt a flying object approaching him from behind, the sound alone was enough for Kale to figure out the details he needed.

He purposely kicked a stone on the way and was about to fall to dodge, when Xaxa who was just behind him reacted. She swung her iron club like it was light as a feather and clashed it with the approaching arrow.

…Clank…

A few sparks flew in the air, the arrow broke from the middle and its pointed hook got deformed, it fell to the ground losing its worth.

Kale raised his eyebrow as he looked at Xaxa 'Though this lass is a little bratty, she knows when to put aside the grudges,'

He didn't depend on her first because there was a chance she would let the arrow pass on purpose to get her revenge on him, but her actions somewhat assured him that she wasn't so petty-minded.

At the same time, everyone reacted, they got into defensive formation and formed a circle to watch each other back, Ajin, Fynn and Elza, three scanned through the surrounding to find their enemy at once.

Ajin's eyes flickered, Kale also sensed it but didn't speak, Ajin shouted "Shield,"

Ryenne reacted, she raised her staff and an Ethereal mastery level, spell activated instantly.

'Water Sphere'

A spherical shield of water rose from the ground and started to surround the group.

Swoosh... Swoosh... Swoosh.. x 6

Numerous, arrows and knives were shot out at from all directions, at once.

The formation of the shield was a little late and an arrow passed through, the arrow was heading towards Kale's direction, but Fynn was at the defence line, he reached out and caught the arrow with his bare hands, the quality of the arrow was barely Tier 3, it failed to escape his grasp.

‹Desolate Sloth Grappling Art› was no joke, it was the technique developed by the King Of Grapplers, the founder of Broken Jade Mountain Pagoda.

Ajin looked at Fynn in slight surprise, he had seen it before too, that how Fynn confronted the Boss monster with bare hands, he wasn't suspicious of Fynn's actions because when he saw the arrows going in Kale's direction, he thought of it as they were meant for Tanya instead. He wanted to probe more but now was not the time, he pushed the thought behind his head and started searching for the enemy.

Kale and Ryenne also activated their spells for searching.

'Life Sense'

'Vapor Radar'

A wave of mana spread in all direction, scanning the surrounding.

Ryenne closed her eyes, the humidity in the surrounding increased, she felt a new sense of her spreading through all the area around, helping her to locate the enemies.

Kale's ‹Life Sense› had a low tier, so he could not detect all but the result still surprised him 'What? 6 Tier 2? It's totally different, the number and strength don't match the information Elza gave, she didn't lie either, so the only possible conclusion is… This cunning old man, he definitely found a clue on us, he must be vary of us, so he decided to use the greed of other adventurers or thugs to get them here, in name of robbing our gains from Boss Room,'

Kale was more careful of the situation now, he took one step closer to Tanya, who similarly did the same, they both looked at each other out of nowhere and spoke.

"Don't worry, I will protect you!" Both of them said at the same time, Kale then stared into her eyes as Tanya stared back at him with a perplexed look, they both looked away, with the same thought appearing in their head 'Are there really so many coincidences in this world?'

"There are 2 Tier 3 at 3 O'clock and 6 O'clock, the rest 6 are Tier 2 surrounding us from all direction with no specific formation, I also felt the remaining aura of Tier 4 but can't find his coordinates," Ryenne said in one breath.

Ajin was about to speak but got interrupted by a horse voice.

"You are talking about me? You can find my Astral Mana traces, seems like you are no simple person, with a companion such as you people, no wonder the price was so high," An old man wearing a black cloak came out of one of the shadows, the long black hood on his head was hiding his face, only showing his chin and mouth, his presence didn't hide his Tier 4 status.

The old man scanned across, Ryenne, Ajin, Fynn, he was still observing and was about to talk but then he saw that Ajin was darting at him.

Fynn and Elza were also approaching from the side to support.

The sudden development somewhat surprised all, Ajin's group was surprised when they saw that Elza's group didn't even try to talk, Elza's group was surprised for the same reason.

Still, reasoning didn't matter at this point, they all had but one aim, to stop the old man from talking, even if it meant taking a risk.

The old man saw them approaching like that and sneered, he muttered "How foolish of you youngsters,"

He waved his hand, two black mannequins like objects came out of nowhere and stood in front of him, their bodies began to move with rattling sound as they intercepted Ajin.

'Space magic equipment too? It's better to finish him without much of holding back,' Ajin thought, he moved his fingers and the daggers flipped in his hand, they were being held upside down, Ajin bent his body downwards, kicked the ground and leapt forward.

Raging silvery Astral Qi covered his body like a flame cloak, a huge illusory silver wolf formed around his body and covered him, the wolf synchronized its movements with Ajin, making them looked like the same entity.

When the two puppets were just about to reach him, Ajin jumped into the air, this time his jump was not simple, as the wolf engulfing him jumped with him, they both covered several meters distance in a second, rising above the puppets' reach.

Ajin made a flip in the air, he then looked at the old man as he made a stepping motion in the air, a circular water shield formed below his feet and supported his step.

The shield was naturally summoned by Ryenne.

Ajin used the shield as a springboard and dashed at the old man, he didn't hold anything back and used his full speed.

Swoosh!

To others, they only saw a flash of silvery light fired at the ground. There was no big explosion sound or groundbreaking phenomenon, the silver light only shined for a moment then disappeared. Subsequently, the light faded and Ajin appeared a few meters behind the old man.

Thud!

A head covered in a hood fell to the ground.

Everyone became silent, their attention fixed on it, Ajin turned back to look, his expression was dark, as the one who cut it down, he knew more than others.

'It wasn't flesh that I cut,' Ajin inwardly thought.

When the head rolled down, the hood covering it dropped, what came into view was the bald puppet's head having humane skin covering it, if not for the joints behind the head and the neck devoid of blood and flesh, one won't be able to tell that it was a puppet.

Earlier the puppet even gave of life aura and a Tier 4 presence, deceiving everyone from the start, if it wasn't for Ajin's display of superior strength catching him off guard then it was hard to guess the outcome.

…Clank Clutch…

Suddenly, the headless puppet standing gave off clutching noises as its libs rotated backwards, its backside turned into its front and it walked like a monkey facing Ajin. In the next second, sharp short swords came out of both of his hands then it rushed towards Ajin followed by the two other puppets.

Once Ajin was engaged in battle, and Elsa was deciding if both she and Fynn should help him at the same time, several silhouettes wearing amour, magic robe, leather jackets, came out from the caves, shadows, shadowy trenches, and surrounded the water sphere protecting the group.

The only thing that all of them had in common was that their faces were covered, either by wrapped clothes or masks.

Once they were sure that Ajin, the strongest person was busy, they took their chance to step forward.

'Those assassins from the groups are using adventurers as a distraction, they are likely to have been mixed into the group pretending to be normal adventurers, hiding their assassination skills, waiting for the right moment to strike,' Xaxa thought as she looked at the hidden faces of the enemies surrounding them.

Elza and Fynn turned backwards, it only took them few seconds to spot out their opponent, it was easy for them to spot the only two Tier 3 people among the group.

Both of them were man, covering their faces with cloth, each having a thin long sword in their hands, their standing posture and every movement were identical.

They both looked at each other, them the left one step forward and spoke "Step aside, our target is only- "

"Die!" Elza and Ryenne shouted at the same time, before he could finish speaking, Ryenne manipulated her spell and the spherical water shield protecting them burst out, turning into small water bullets that targeted the enemies all around, avoiding Elza and Fynn.

Both Elza and Fynn then dashed at the two enemies at Tier 3, trying to finish them before they could speak.

The attack done using the destruction of ‹Water Sphere› weakened all enemies, but only stopped a few, the ones who didn't get their vital places hit, ran towards the Dwarf sisters, Tanya, Kale and her too.

A pure mage was known to be weak in close combat.

Ryenne was just about to relive her successful attempt at stopping the enemy from revealing their target but then…

"Kill That Brat!" A deep hoarse voice echoed in the surrounding, the voice was without a doubt that of the old man but due to the location, it echoed and there wasn't a feasible way to find its source.

The words had a different impact on all, the adventure who only joined to snatch the Boss Room gains glanced at Kale and Tanya, who looked the youngest.

Kale's group thought that Tanya's group will get suspicious, while Tanya's group thought the same about him.

The word 'brat' clearly defined that the target was a youngster but not gender.

Ajin too made some distance with the leading puppet while fighting to glance at Kale and others, observing their next move.

Kale felt the tension in the atmosphere rising 'Not good, with such hints even if Ajin doesn't understand yet, the cunning old man will probably notice. I need to switch to the backup plan, the girl is close to me too, although there is a risk of her having a more strange ability like the ones from before, but I still can't let go of this chance,'

He retracted the staff to his belt of holdings, reached out his hand to the inner pocket and grabbed the poison needle hidden in his robe, he was just about to pull it out but then his centuries-old sharpened instincts made his scalp tingle.

Kale reacted on instincts, he turned while retreating at the same time with his hands moving to counter.

On turning, what greeted him was Tanya leaping at him with the sword in her hand being just a few centimetres from his shoulder.

Kale was slightly surprised in his mind but his body had a brain of its own, both of his hands clasped the sword from both sides, trying to stop its advance, but the strength behind the sword surpassed his expectations and its tip pierces a little into his shoulder, still, Kale showed no flaws as he raised his leg and kicked her using all his strength.

Boom…

Tanya tried to block him using her free left hand, she was confident in completely blocking it using her innate physical abilities alone but was surprisingly pushed backwards for several steps before stopping.

Kale had refined his physique using ‹Snake King Body Toning Art› and had an A+ Grade foundation, such strength was a bonus to him.

But right now, he wasn't in a good condition, because at the same time he kicked Tanya, another man with a bone knife in hand, ambushed him from behind, due to being in the wrong position there was no way to dodge or perfectly counter the ambush. The man that took such an opportunity was obviously no amateur, he directly aimed the bone knife at his neck.

Kale stared at the approaching knife then into his eyes, "You are too young for that," he muttered as he reached out and blocked it using his left hand.

…Pu Chi…

Blood spurted out, the assassin stared at Kale with wide eyes then at his bone knife piercing clearly through the palm of his hand, the bone knife was able to pierce through the defense of «White Plastic Gloves», Kale's hand was bleeding but his expression was calm as it could get, he was tightly holding onto the assassin's hand.

"What are you…," The man grumbled with visible shock in his eyes. Kale sneered, then pulled the man's hand towards him.

With a twist, Kale bent his hand anticlockwise, dislocating his shoulder bone joint while bending his arm behind his head, kicked his leg to break his centre of balance, then held his neck near adam's apple with his free hand.

Everything happened in a matter of seconds.

The sudden development stunned everyone, in the full attention of everyone, Kale moved his mouth closer to the man's ears and spoke in a voice loud enough for all of them to hear "Who am I? It depends on time and place, some call me Undying Devil while some Demonic Angel, for you, it's just Death," Once he finished speaking, Kale pressed his thumb in the area near the left of his adam's apple with a jolt then released him.

The man's body fell to the ground with his mouth wide open, his body twitching, his eyes rolled upwards, he looked like he was trying to gasp for air but couldn't, a trail of blood came out of his mouth, and the man lost all signs of life.

The time seemed to stop, all eyes were locked on to him, it was not every day for even the assassins to see a teenager like that, especially after observing his good side for days.

Kale held the bone knife in his hand then raised his head to look at the person in front of him.

Both Kale and Tanya stared at each other, the former had a touch of amusement in his eyes while the latter of shock. Tanya looked at his bleeding hand then his expression that was now completely different compared to the naïve self from before.

"What a good actor you are," Kale said as he bent, tore a piece of cloth from the dead man's cloth and wrapped it around his wounded hand.

"Still worse than you," Tanya added in a solemn tone.