Way of the Knights

action

---

Called it…

That fatso really planned something to deal with me.

Hmm, how many people are here? I can sense 10 so far, no! There's five more, barely out of reach with my spiritual sense. Wow, he paid 15 people to deal with me? A 13-oh right, I'm actually 14 now, a 14 fourteen year old boy? I guess I left a deep impression in him huh.

Whatever, it's fine. It's only fifteen people, I think I can handle this. Wait, what are their cultivation ranks again?

So, a bunch of Peak Soldier Realm, one is half-step to Warrior Realm, must be their captain. And he's clearly looking down on me, I could tell from that deadpan look on his face and the fact that he didn't bother to wear a mask at all while the others are at least covering their faces.

Is the Mort Family training assassins? All of these people are wearing an insignia of theirs, which often suggests that they're a part of that faction. Huh, I guess they are. Their purpose must be to protect the family from the shadows, since everyone else knew they could hire cultivators using money.

Oh, the leader gave a signal. Two people moved. Hmm, one from the left and one behind me. Alright, let's do this.

As soon as they appeared, I lowered my body right away, I mimicked the action of picking up a coin on the road. These two were wielding daggers which sliced thin air since I managed to dodge. I figured that they're targeting me in lethal ways, well they're assassins so that much is expected.

Moving quickly, I grabbed both of them at the hand where they clutched their daggers and tightened my grip. Don't underestimate my grip strength folks, I could squash a block of iron with this, much less human bone.

I distinctively felt that my grip crushed their bones, they let out a painful scream as their daggers fell to the ground. With a mighty pull, I slammed them together and they almost had their skulls crushed from the impact. The two fainted right away, I checked out the vicinity once more with my spiritual sense, then I saw them gawking at the sight of their fainted comrades. I smirked and said…

"So, that's two. Where's the rest? Come out…"

I looked up and glanced at the places where they were hidden, I made sure to leave the leader out just for the sole purpose of deception.

The deadpan look on his face disappeared and he's now wearing a serious look as he stared at me. Heh, that's the price of underestimating me! What will be your next move then?

Oh? You sent five this time? Why, thank you. Let's see if they're a good sparring partners.

Five shadows emerged and surrounded me, making sure to cover all path of escape. They glared at me grimly like I'm some sort an annoying pest, I'm honestly offended! Which means I get to punch their faces hard. Twice, if I had to.

They charged at me, all at once. From my quick observation, their weapons are covered in poison, I don't need to see the liquid coating on the length of the daggers, just from the scent alone I could tell. Perks of dabbling into some medicine back then.

Neural Paralysis Poison, the type that makes you numb all over and makes you lose bodily function. These must be smuggled, from what I know, any sort of establishment won't make these poisons without the buyer showing a permit from the Royal Army. And I highly doubt that Mort Family has that, since my dad would be the first one to refuse it. And if he refuses, then there's no discussion any further.

Dodge here, dodge there. Tumble here, duck there. They're bad at playing as assassins.

Their movements were way too obvious! It's too predictable. They will either try to strike at my vitals or attempt to decapitate me as soon as they could. And since I've been evading their attacks for a while now, they're being impatient and in turn, their moves are even more predictable. Well, that maybe on top of the realization that a kid like me could dance with them without breaking a sweat.

Oh? They're exhausted now. Alright, my turn.

I lowered my posture and kicked the ground fiercely, I dashed like a bolt, slithering between their numbers. My 'Iron Fists' are charged and ready to kick some ass.

Punch that guy, kick this guy.

I could feel some bones breaking as my blows landed. Like I said earlier, I could shatter an iron block with my bare fists if I wanted to, much less human bones and flesh. And it's a common knowledge that assassins don't really like wearing anything that would hinder their movements. These guys are no different.

Elbow to gut for that guy, break the man jewels of this guy, then a clean chop at the nape for the last guy.

Alright, that's half of their numbers done. This is a bit exhilarating, I haven't had a good brawl for a while now. The institute is too peaceful for my liking so far, I know that there will be events that would make things interesting but the only events that I know of, so far, are the Biannual Examinations, which I have to wait six months for, and the Mission System, which has very random contents. It also doesn't help that I joined the Pill Saint Pavilion since there's little to no combat there. Alas, all of this is for the sake of the greater good. Patience me, patience.

I clapped my hands and started walking away.

No, I am not running away. I haven't forgotten about the rest of them. This is a bait, and since they're still observing me, the leader should make the decision seeing that my guard is down.

Not even five paces later, he already gave the signal. This time, the leader moved as well but he just went closer to observe. Six people surrounded me this time, and unlike their fainted/writhing in pain/crying comrades. They're treating me seriously now.

One guy decided that it would be a good idea to use smoke bombs. Commendable effort, but this is just a minor inconvenience for me, the spiritual feed tracks them well so I could monitor them constantly.

Had to give it to them, fighting inside a thick cloud of smoke isn't easy, much less coordinating with many people.

They moved like slithering snakes around me, often times two assassins will attack me at the same time, sometimes it would be three or so on. But again, their moves are way too obvious, simply dodging their blows in an unnatural angle would make them flustered.

I would catch someone's arm and threw him at the direction of his teammate, then the pressure on me will lessen and I will have enough room to maneuver around.

A punch for you, a kick for that guy. Dislocate this one's shoulders, jab at that one's jaw. Flip backwards, rush, and then kick this guy in the stomach, then punch this guy on the back of his head.

There! Only one man left. During my fight against these six people, I never left him out of my observation. The last thing that I want, is to let an experienced assassin stab me in the back.

Sure enough, I was right.

Not even a second later after I defeated the sixth guy of the second batch, this guy jumped from his hiding location and threw a bunch of needles towards me. I flipped backwards to evade and saw him jumping from on building after another while constantly throwing needles whenever he gets the chance.

If he was throwing plain needles, then I could've just stood here and allow him to shoot till he dropped, but he's an assassin, and just like the rest, he likes poison. Of course he will throw poisonous needles at me, he probably thought that I'm too much to handle in a close quarter combat so he relied on range.

Well, it's not his fault for thinking like that. If I was on his shoes, then I might've thought the same. Unfortunately…

"I'm getting tired of this…"

I jumped from my location and ran to the wall, I could almost feel his shock all the way to my position, but when he saw me running on the wall like I would on the ground, he immediately started panicking.

Yeah, that training with Energy Control is now paying off huh? Bet you weren't expecting me to run on walls did ya'?

He jumped and jumped, doing acrobatic movements just to gain distance away from me while still throwing poisonous needles at me. But I was quick and also nimbler than him, I alternated from running to walls to ground and so on. He tried anticipating my movements but I am proving too much to handle so with a loud grunt, he decided to stop running and faced me head on.

Good call! I thought he was going to run in the middle of the crowd, but it seems that he didn't thought that far ahead.

He took out a long blade, and surprise surprise! It was also coated in poison. He charged at me fiercely but instead of slowing down my momentum to evade his strike, I did the opposite and even went to a full throttle instead.

Yes, I could still move faster.

Because of that sudden change, he panicked and his blade shook. Shame, I guess this ends here.

I quickly closed the distance between us, he grunted heavily and swing his blade at me vertically. With on fluid dodge, my fist met his face.

He tumbled a couple of times before ending up embedded into a wall, his jaw must be dislocated as I used at least 70% of my strength in that punch. I looked at the mess I made and sighed…

"Alright, let's clean this up."