Is this really a Game?!

Shadow was moving slowly through the dimly lit parts of the castle. After spending more than 30 minutes watching the soldiers and captains from a distance he was able to figure out that captains were not allowed in the castle either. He used his daggers to swiftly climb the wall surrounding the castle as he then slowly made his way inside.

He wanted to find a guard inside to kill and impersonate but he gave up on that quite quickly as he saw the guards never leaving their posts. It would be too weird if one was suddenly walking everywhere in the castle, not to mention that the disappearance of one of them would make everyone alarmed as they all switched around every 30 minutes or so. That was probably something they came up with to prevent something like Shadow killing the guards off slowly while impersonating them. He had to agree that the tactic was quite good.

He took the captain's armor off as he was now dressed in his usual armor, it was custom made for him after all and was much harder to spot in the darkness. That, and his ability made him quite adept in sneaking around and preventing anyone from spotting him. He was still careful though as he remembered the general that attacked him in the hall, the man was strong and that one blow Shadow suffered made him understand how dangerous he truly was.

The biggest problem for Shadow right now was locating the king. The castle was massive and it would take forever to scout it whole. Shadow also thought of climbing it from the outside, the same way he did with the outside wall, but he gave up on that as well as it was too risky as there were barely any shadows and dark spots on the walls of the castle. It would be enough for one person to notice him and his plan would be a failure, not to mention that the whole castle would be alarmed that he was there.

Shadow spent the next 30 minutes in the castle. He made sure to walk carefully and to evade any patrols and servants that were inside. From time to time he would stay close and eavesdrop on their conversation in hopes of finding out about where the king or any notable characters were. He soon found a clue as a couple of soldiers were talking about the recent situation.

He learned from them that the king was in his quarters in the highest point of the castle. He was guarded by the general that attacked Shadow previously while the last 3 floors were completely filled with soldiers to defend against any intruders.

"It seems I will have to climb the outside of the castle after all," Shadow said while taking a blanket from the servant's quarters. He first moved higher to the upper floors of the castle. He was almost spotted a couple of times before finally being spotted by a servant. He made quick work of the servant, plunging his dagger deep inside his chest while he used his ability and a free hand to stop him from struggling or letting any noise out. The lifeless body of the servant wasn't bleeding as Shadow cut a part of the blanket and stuffed it in the chest wound.

He knew that it was time to act fast now, even though he made sure to hide the body it was only a matter of time before someone would notice the man missing and perhaps even find the corpse. Shadow went up until he finally reached a floor that was littered with soldiers, he knew now where he was and he went towards a window.

Using the blanket to cover his back he slowly made his way up. The blanket would hopefully act as a good enough cover to fool anyone that would look up. He made sure to move slowly as to not make anyone suspect the shadow on the castle wall of being a person that was actually climbing it. He still needed to move a bit faster than he wanted to as he didn't want to risk the body being found before he managed to get to the king.

He finally managed to get to the top of the castle. There was a small tower located on the top. There were no windows on the tower, it seemed the only purpose of it was to act as a place of refuge for the king in case something like this ever happened.

Shadow looked around the tower, thinking of how he was going to enter it. The general was inside with the king and it would be hard for him to kill the king if he was spotted right away. He gets on top of the tower, being very careful with his footsteps as to not alarm them. He uses his daggers to slowly lift a couple of tiles from the tower before slowly cutting a part of the tower ceiling with his daggers.

The tower was made from incredibly tough stones as even Shadow's daggers had difficulties when cutting them. The acid however still worked and slowly he was able to cut through it. He worked slowly and carefully. His plan was to cut a big enough hole from where he could enter, after the stone falls down he would immediately use his shadow body to get down and kill the king before the general could react.

Bam!

The stone falls inside the tower as both the king and the general stand up in shock. Before either of them could react Shadow was already inside as he had activated his shadow body, falling down straight towards the king, with full power he stabs at him with both of his daggers while simultaneously using his shadow servants to attack the general.

Clang!

His daggers were blocked. The king had a smile on his face as a longsword was in his hands. Before Shadow could react he was pushed back, a bit further away from the general who was surrounded by the shadow servants. The king's face slowly changes and Shadow was able to see a completely different man standing in front of him, it was the general.

"We had a feeling you might try to assassinate the king again, so we had our wizards mask my appearance, I am thankful that it worked." The general smiles at Shadow before attacking him. His blows were fast and precise and pressured Shadow immensely. He dodged and blocked as he looked towards the armored man, he was now certain that that was the king. It seemed that he was quite weak as the shadow servants were hitting him without him even defending himself effectively. Unfortunately, the armor he wore was strong enough to protect him.

"It's no use, my armor will not be broken so easily by your minions, in moments the soldiers will come in and you will die!" The general shouts as he continues attacking Shadow. Shadow was fighting against the general while simultaneously thinking of how to get out of this predicament, he knew he had to kill the king now, if he missed this opportunity he would probably never get the chance again.

Shadow Burst

Shadow uses his skill to make the general back off while he also jumped back. They were now both leaning against the wall as Shadow commands his summons to attack the general while he throws his blood dagger that was notched on his waist towards the general while using his Shadow Daggers skill.

"Oh no, you don't!" The general swiftly dodges Shadow's daggers and uses a skill that makes his sword shine a bright gold color. He attacks the shadow servants and blows them back while his body turns golden. In a blur, he appears in front of Shadow and slashes down with his sword.

Shadow bind

Shadows suddenly spring up from beneath the general and tie his body up, they don't last long as only a second later many of them were torn apart by the general's ferocious strength. But that was enough for Shadow, he used a huge amount of mana to activate the strongest form of the skill possible. About 50% of his mana was spent on it, immediately he used shadow body once again to charge towards the king, it was a reckless tactic from Shadow as shadow body was not a skill that should be activated multiple times a day. This was already the third time and his body was in incredible pain from it. The bones in his right leg were fractured from the lunge, but he didn't care.

With full force, he plunged his daggers through the eye openings of the helmet. The smaller dagger successfully passes while the bigger one gets stuck, but that was enough. The king had no other defensive item on him as Shadow broke the strongest one previously. He screams in agony as the dagger plunges deep inside while the poison gets in as well.

The king was dead, it was only a matter of seconds now, but tens of soldiers were now entering the tower as they arrived to help out. They froze in place after seeing the display in front of them. The kingdoms strongest general was ripping apart strange dark tentacles while the king was down on his knees with two daggers plunged through his eyes. They suddenly shout with anger as they attack Shadow.

Before he could even take his daggers back a sword pierces him from behind. It was the general, he had finally managed to destroy his shadow bind and was now behind him.

"You bastard!" The general screams with fury. "I won't kill you, no, you will face a much worse future in our dungeon, we will make sure to interrogate you thoroughly and find out everything you know!"

Shadow laughs before coughing out blood. His mission was finished, he had finally managed to kill the king. A couple of seconds later he was teleported out of the tower.

In another place, Beast was leaning against a tree while he bandaged his arm. Blood was leaking from it as a monster had managed to ambush him and slash at him with its claws. After a long time of fighting, he had managed to kill it. It was a high-level monster that would give him a good amount of points. But now Beast was in a predicament as he could hear monsters nearby, he needed to take care of his wounds before leaving this place, otherwise, he might die against the multiple high-level monsters that were nearby.