Assassin's Chronicle

Anfey’s friends had already recognized him as their leader, and his words were valued more than anyone’s. However, this time Suzanna did not follow Anfey’s order. She knew him well and she knew he had another mission after she talked to Black Eleven. She didn’t listen to Black Eleven’s warnings and left the property. After Suzanna left, Christian felt compelled to join her and left with Blavi and Hagan.

Suzanna did not venture into the forest. She arrived at her appointed position and waited for Anfey’s signal. Anfey had the Heart of Nature and could sense danger very well. All she needed to do was to wait for his signal.

A man was lying low among the grass a few hundred feet away from where Suzanna was stationed. The way he hid himself was very strange. His back was arched and his body was almost parallel to the ground as if he was a wolf waiting to strike.

A breeze blew through the grass and the man lifted his head to sniff the wind. He was a Wolf Guard, and his senses were much stronger than a normal man’s. He decided that it was too dangerous to advance, so he started to retreat.

Before he could get far, however, he found his path blocked by another man. He lifted his head and found himself staring into a pair of calm eyes. The man took a step back and his body began to grow. Dark fur covered his body and obscured his face. He knew that the people he was following were powerful, but he did not want to be defenseless.

However, the druid was too distracted by the upper body of his opponent and did not notice his legs. Anfey lifted his leg and kicked the druid on the nose. The druid grunted as his body was thrown backwards by the kick. The weakest point on the face of an animal that relies on smell was its nose. If the animal was struck hard enough on the nose, it would lose its will to fight.

Anfey reached over and stabbed the druid with his dagger. However, he felt as if he was stabbing a suit of armor and not a living thing. Only the tip of the dagger entered the druid’s body. The druid jumped back towards a nearby bush. A transformed druid had enhanced strength and was much harder to harm than a normal person. A druid like Bruzuryano was practically impossible to kill in combat. As long as he was not surrounded by people as powerful as he, nothing on a battlefield could harm him. Even if anyone could harm him, it was not possible to kill an archdruid with one blow. A blow like the one Anfey had just dealt was usually enough to kill most of his opponents, but clearly the druid was not one of them.

Anfey frowned. He jumped up and chased after the druid. Then he held out his left hand and reached towards the druid. When he was only a foot or two from the druid, his hand clenched into a fist and punched the druid’s stomach.

The wound on his stomach widened and blood poured out of the cut. The druid slumped to the ground, blood gushing from his stomach. If one looked closely, the man’s entrails were visible through the wound.

"Anfey!" Suzanna scolded when she arrived on the scene. She had already heard the fight and wanted to stop him, but it was clearly too late. Anfey was washing away the blood on his hand with some water elements he had just summoned.

"Is it a druid?" Christian asked.

"It is," Anfey said. He was cruel and coldblooded, but he did everything for a reason. He liked the sensation of killing but he knew when to hold back. He did not want to let the man go just because he was a druid. He needed to send a warning.

"Are you not worried about Bruzuryano?"

"He doesn’t work for Bruzuryano," Anfey said. "He would not send people after us."

"That doesn’t matter," Christian said, shaking his head. "He’s still a druid." He sighed and then said, "He works for the Wolf King. Hopefully he won’t send more people after us."

"What’s done is done," Blavi said. "We have to get moving."

"We have to do something else before we go," Anfey said. He closed his eyes and listened carefully to the faint sound of hooves beating on the ground. People in the mansion should be on the move already.

"What is it?"

"Christian, do you remember Baron Fruz?"

"Fruz? No. Who’s that?"

"Blavi, do you remember?"

"Not really."

"You don’t remember the sisters in Lagan City?"

"You mean...the guy Niya slapped?" Christian asked, shocked.

Anfey nodded. "I had Black Eleven do some investigating. I’m fairly certain that he was the one behind those girls’ deaths. The man who did it was a man they call Mad Dog. The girls weren’t the only people he had killed." He retrieved the document Black Eleven gave him from his dimensional ring and handed it to Christian. "This details some of the atrocities he committed."

When they first fled Sacred City, they all practiced very hard in order to improve themselves and stay alive. Anfey knew his friends were still all very hardworking, but after their return to Sacred City, everyone had relaxed and was not as keen on getting more powerful as before. Sacred City was like a little paradise for them. They were comfortable and the lifestyle was very relaxed. For old people it was the ideal place to live, but for young people it was not. The comfort would erode away their will to fight. Anfey did not want his friends to waste away in comfort and he knew he needed to do something to remind them of the need to become more powerful.

Christian took the document and began reading. The longer he stared at it, the deeper his frown became. Mad Dog was a madman who never thought of consequences for his actions. He had been a wanted fugitive until Baron Fruz took him under his wings. Since Mad Dog was protected by Baron Fruz, the police could not arrest him.

"Do you want to kill them?" Christian asked.

Blavi moved over and grabbed the document out of curiosity. Anfey nodded.

Anfey had killed a lot of people before, and he knew that killing could bring joy. However, he would not focus on his own emotions when he killed, instead focusing on completing his mission. He would finish his job quickly and immediately flee the area. Sometimes, though, he would stay and kill his target slowly. Especially the ones that deserved it. One time he was hired to kill a mob leader who would sometimes smuggle immigrants into the country. He treated those immigrants as if they were his property instead of as people. Anfey had spent an entire night slowly killing the man and felt immense joy in doing so because he knew just how evil the man was.

Unlike Anfey, Christian was very kind. He was not used to killing, but he knew that killing Mad Dog was necessary. He wanted to give those poor girls the justice they deserved.

"Our mission is to go to Forest Clarm," Christian said slowly. "Wouldn’t this delay us?"

"It’s up to you," Anfey said. "You’re making this decision."

Christian closed his eyes and recalled the horrific scene they had discovered. Before that, he had never imagined how horrible people could be. He had never witnessed real evil.

Anfey remained quiet. Christian was very passive. Anfey did not make the decision because he wanted Christian to be more aggressive. Christian needed to learn how to be more decisive. His decision at that moment would dictate the fate of Baron Fruz and his men.