15 Chapter 15: A Urban Legend Is Born

The men and woman stare at the corpse as the smell of blood forces their faces to scrunch up. They stand still in shock until a balding man swallows his saliva and creeps forward. He starts to walk, his legs brushing past blades of grass until suddenly a sharp pain engulfs the right side of his arm.

He quickly yanks his head down. But he doesn't see his arm instead he sees a frail bloody string. He stares at the string before realizing his arm was chopped off. His eyes widen while stumbling back. Blood pours out of what is left of his arm. He drops to his knees in pain until suddenly his head is chopped off.

The woman stares at the headless dead body on its knees, terrified. She stares at the body until in the corner of her eyes. She sees one of the men behind her start walking towards the body. She stares at him until the sound of wind approaches him and in a single swift motion, his body is cut clean in half. 

Fearing for her life. The woman quickly dashes back skidding her shoes across the grass coming to a stop and standing directly next to two men. They look around paranoid until they hear the sound of footsteps approaching them. 

They looked over towards the sound before seeing a small figure wearing a cloak covered in blood. Strings pour out of his oversized sleeves. 

" Who are you? And where is Geto? We want no problems with you. "

Screamed out one of the men. Mute doesn't respond to the questions. Growing annoyed the man is about to ask another question until his tongue is severed and falls out of his mouth. The man looks at his tongue falling onto the ground in shock as blood leaks down his chin. 

The man lets out a blood-gurled scream before a string slices his head off. His lifeless body drops to the floor as the two remaining people stare at it in horror. The woman's legs start to shake while her eyes scan around looking for a way to escape.

After looking quickly she did find something but it wasn't an escape. It only reassured her of death. She saw a single long string wrapped around trees. The string surrounded them. As soon as the group entered the forest they were trapped like an insect in a spiderweb. 

Seeing no opportunity to escape the woman only had one more option. 

" Hey, we can make a deal. I'll tell you who hired us and- "

Before the woman could finish her sentence a pool of blood covered the right side of her face. The man standing next to her, head was sliced in two. The woman watched in horror before her life was quickly put to an end.

Mute stood coldly as five bodies lay on the ground surrounding him. He looked behind him and saw 20 more bodies. The sorcerers that have entered the barrier have all been extremely weak. Mute has barely broken a sweat slaughtering them. 

But that is soon to change as five more sorcerers are approaching Mute. The sorcerers quickly enter the barrier and instantly Mute senses the amount of cursed energy pouring out of them. The group of people are strong. 

The group of people were all men wearing dark cloaks with hoodies and cloth masks. They were clearly assassins as well. Without wasting a second. The assassins lunged forward towards Mute. Mute squeezed his fight together causing the strings wrapped around the trees to move slashing through the air towards the charging assassins.

Unlike the previous sorcerers, the assassins effortlessly dodged the incoming slashes catching Mute off guard as he entered into a stance while one of the assassins leapt up into the air throwing a kick. 

The assassin twirled his body in the air his cloak flying wildly in the wind. The kick slams into Mute's forearm as the two men lock eyes with each other. Mute twists his forearm grabbing onto the assassin's ankle. Cursed energy starts invading the assassin's ankle as Mute tightly grips onto his ankle.

A loud snap is heard before suddenly Mute's grasp loosens and his hand is shot back towards his face. The assassin lands awkwardly on the grass before painfully dashing back. The cursed energy that invaded his leg shrunk his ankle only slightly but it still caused the leg to snap away from his ankle. 

The assassin looks at his ankle confused and in pain while Mute stares at his palm. Mute's palm was burned as steam leaked off it. Mute would soon realize a weakness to his technique. If the person or object had similar or stronger control of their cursed energy. The technique would backfire causing damage to him instead of the intended target. 

Luckily for Mute. The assassin had similar control of his cursed energy instead of greater. If he had greater Mute's entire arm could have shattered. Mute twists his palm with an annoyed face under his mask. 

Mute listened to the sound of several footsteps rushing towards him. He watched as the four other assassins surrounded him before lunging towards him. One of the assassins had a knife while the other three were barehanded.

The assassins appear next to Mute in a split second throwing a variety of attacks. Mute eyes tracked the assassin with the knife. He swung his blade towards Mute. The blade inched closer and closer until Mute ducked. The knife went over Mute's head narrowly missing while Mute kneeled on one knee and tapped onto a pebble on the ground.

The pebble rapidly grew. The pebble grew into a large brown pillar that slammed into the assassin. His body is flung back slamming off the ground repeatedly, coming to a grinding stop.

Mute leans back dodging a kick before rolling back while pushing himself off the ground, flipping up into the air. Mute twirls while waving his right hand in front of his face. Causing a web of sharp strings to slash toward the assassins.

The assassins dashed back dodging the attack except for one. The assassin with the broken ankle couldn't move in time as his body was sliced into cubic pieces. Mute landed back on the ground, exhaling. 

" The rumors weren't false. He's extremely skilled. He targeted Aoi because his ankle was broken and he knew he couldn't move in time. "

Said one of the assassins glancing at the other. The other assassin nodded their head before they both dashed back hiding deep inside the forest. The darkness of night made them impossible to see. Mute eyes tracked through the dark forest trying to find them but instead, he heard the sound of footsteps approaching him. 

He glanced over towards the sound and watched as the assassin with the knife gingerly walked toward him in clear pain. His slow footsteps increase rapidly as he enters a full sprint. Mute watches as the assassin lunges towards him before he dashes back standing next to a headless dead body on its knees. 

Mute reaches down and places his hand on the corpse. Cursed energy invades the corpse until the spine of the body increases in size piercing out the body. Mute grabs onto the spine before violently yanking his hand to the left snapping the spine, creating a sharp blade.

Mute twirls the spine using his fingers as the assassin using the knife appears directly in front of him slashing towards the spine. Mute watches the blade approach the spine. The blade slams into the spine causing a loud screeching noise. 

Mute's biceps bulge out as he uses all of his power to hold the assassin's blade back. They glare at each other until Mute and the assassin throw a barrage of slashes at each other. Their weapons clash repeatedly and Mute is forced back. 

The assassin swings his blade, but Mute narrowly dodges the slash as it grazes his jugular. Mute shuffles his feet throwing a spinning kick that slams into the assassin's body. The assassin notices that the spine is starting to chip away. Cracks are starting to form all over the spine. 

The assassin slams his blade into the spine again as a piece of vertebrae cracks off dropping onto the ground. The assassin's new goal has become clear. He is going to shatter the spine by snapping it in half. The assassin starts repeatedly slashing into the spine causing more and more cracks. 

After one more slash Mute's grip on the spine loosens. He's barely holding onto the spine using his middle and index fingers. A grin forms on the assassin's face under his mask as he slashes towards the spine. The blade inches closer and closer. The blade is about to slam into the spine until the spine shrinks causing the blade to miss. 

The assassin's eyes widen as he glances over at Mute watching him hold the tiny spine, aiming it towards his neck before the assassin can react. The spine rapidly grows shooting forward. The sharp spine pierces through the assassin's neck like a spear. 

Mute exhales loudly as he walks forward grabbing onto the middle of the spine before jerking the spine right causing a loud snap. The sudden movement snapped the dying assassin's neck. Mute lets go of the spine letting the assassin's body drop to the floor. 

Mute starts looking around the dark forest before he reaches into his cloak and pulls out a glass jar. The glass jar has a cursed spirit in it. It was the same glass jar that Mute's sister had given him on his birthday. He twisted the metal lid open as thousands of fireflies spewed out of the jar. 

The fireflies fly up into the air reaching the top of the barrier before shining beautifully illuminating the entire forest. Mute stares at the fireflies shining squinting his eyes before he notices something. 

He saw the two other assassins but they weren't alive. There are two massive holes in their chests. Mute stares at the assassins confused until suddenly a wave of powerful energy engulfs his body. Mute jerks his head over towards the energy before seeing a woman with bright blue hair wearing a purple outfit, and holding a axe. 

" How romantic, you made our battlefield more pretty for me. " 

Says the woman, Mute quickly recognizes the woman from the grade 1 sorcerers list, Mei Mei has arrived to battle Mute...