Surrounded

Quinlan was nervous, but at the same time, his heart was filled with excitement. He took another person's life directly for the first time, but he wasn't as bothered by it. Yes, the sensation of the blade cutting through meat and bones was left in his senses, but the feeling of nausea or dread after the deed, which he had seen happen a lot in dramas and novels, didn't really occur to him.

'Maybe I'm just that heartless?' he thought to himself while blending in with the crowd.

He managed to eliminate a total of three assassins, but there were still five of them remaining. He still needs to reduce their numbers a bit more before he can feel a bit safer.

"Damn it! Three more of our guys died!"

One of the assassins shouted in anger, looking around with bloodshot eyes. "Who cares about causing a scene? Anyone who comes close will die!"

And true to his words, when a panic-stricken civilian came a little too close, his sword waved, cleaving the man in half and splattering his innards across the ground.

"N-Noooo! I, I don't wanna die!!!"

This caused even further panic, which caused several more to die.

The assassins weren't taking chances anymore. Anyone who approached them was given death in the fastest way possible. Just a couple of seconds later, the several dozen civilians running around were reduced to just a few, scattered around and spread wide.

In short, Quinlan was slowly losing his cover.

"Found her!"

And just as he was planning to slip out between their defenses, a voice came from above. Quinlan turned to look toward the roof of a nearby house and found the last assassin standing there, watching over the scene with a bird's-eye view.

"...!"

As soon as he was found, the four who were on the ground jumped in without hesitation, heading for where Quinlan was. He had no idea how they exchanged information that fast, but he had to move quickly, or else only death awaited him.

Just as he was about to turn around and run, he felt a chill on the back of his neck. Reflexively, Quinlan waved his sword at his back, causing sparks to fly.

*Ting!*

Two swords met, causing a loud ringing sound to spread. 

However, although he did manage to block it, his hand went numb from the impact. Quinlan was surprised since the power of the sword attack he blocked was beyond what he was anticipating!

Just as he was taking a step back, trying to gain a little more distance, another sword came slashing down. Half panicking, Quinlan moved his hand and parried the attack. He was worried that if he blocked it like the previous one, then he would end up dropping the sword.

*Sching!*

The blade slid along Quinlan's sword's edge, falling to the side far from his body. Using the power of the enemy, he managed to fall back a few steps too, gaining some distance.

"You should've just stayed put and let us kill you, bitch!"

But the one staying on the rooftop suddenly jumped down, throwing several projectiles at Quinlan.

He was in an open space with nowhere to hide, so he had no choice but to try and deflect the daggers. Changing his mindset in a blink, he took a hard step forward before bringing down the sword in his hand, following a path that cleared the projectiles that were aimed at his body.

*SCHICK!*

However, he's not some Sword Master who could perfectly block projectiles with only one sword. Two of the daggers, far from the sword swing, went past his body and suddenly turned around, piercing his back.

"Ugh...!"

A short groan escaped his lips as the taste of iron spread in his mouth. The two daggers hit his right lung and liver, both important organs, causing practically fatal wounds if not treated in time.

"Now, die!"

"For the Kang Sect's glory!"

As Quinlan stood stock still from the pain, the last two assassins finally came close enough, plunging forward with their swords aimed at his vitals. Quinlan knew that he'd die if he didn't move, so through sheer willpower, he managed to twist his body and wave his sword, pushing one of the two assassin's swords to interfere with the other, giving him an opening to take advantage of to dodge both attacks.

Taking another two steps back, Quinlan's vision suddenly widened.

Before he noticed, all the civilians had already escaped far away, leaving only him and the five assassins in the middle of the road, lit by the neighboring house, still burning fiercely, right behind him.

His shadow flickered as the flames undulated, causing his slowly failing vision to blur even more. The blurring vision wasn't just caused by the pain from the two piercing daggers on his back but also by the slowly spreading poison coating them.

Not only his vision, but even his senses were slowly getting more and more vague. His hand, holding the sword, was trembling like an old man's hand. It was to the point that he was unsure if he could even lift his sword arm anymore.

"Haaa... Haaaa... You all want my life? Then come and take it, you suckers!"

Although even his tongue was getting numb, he dared to shout those words out loud, enough that it caused the pebbles around his feet to vibrate. The assassins frowned, seeing the fierce glare within Quinlan's eyes, like a cornered rat, ready to fight back.

A mix of anger, doubt, and hope mixed in Quinlan's heart, causing a miracle to once again occur. The Qi inside his body, as if reacting to his being near death, started rampaging without warning.

*CRACKLE!*

The road, the houses, and even the flames burning behind him got frozen solid. The legs of the assassins, which weren't fast enough to react to the spreading ice, were rooted on the spot, unable to move an inch.

"...!"

A chance!

Quinlan didn't miss this god-given opportunity and quickly raised his sword, dashing forward. Five steps away, the two assassin's eyes widened as they saw Quinlan approach with a fierce scowl.

*SLASH!* *TING!*

With a clean swing, he aimed for the neck of one of the assassins but was blocked effortlessly. Still, as the force from the strike wasn't absorbed well enough, given that he couldn't correct his posture due to being frozen, he got off-balance and slowly fell on his back.

Quinlan took a step to the side away from the sword, and instead of a swing, he thrust his sword toward the assassin's heart. Of course, he couldn't parry the sword away, given that he was currently falling backward.

*SCHICK!*

A clean hit, skewering the assassin's chest!

He didn't want to take chances, so as an additional measure, he twisted the sword once, ravaging the wound, before pulling out the sword. Blood flowed out of the wound on both ends like a waterfall.

Another assassin died!