The large expanse of the playground, filled with hooded assassins felt suffocating, some could even be sensed in the high ceiling above.
'How does one even get themselves in this sort of situation?'
It felt unreal to be outnumbered by this much. In front of me, the voice of the presumably leader rang out
"Negotiations? Fine, I will do the courtesy of hearing you out"
Seems he will play along well with my bullshit.
"What is it that you want? we will give it to you in exchange for the woman"
All this for just a woman? isn't your manly pride even a little wounded from having to endure your woofing?
"I don't know if I can do that, giving her to you wouldn't mean you'd be giving me what I want, right?"
At the center, the burly man sighed. Pressing a thump at his temple.
"To let you know your situation, we are being very generous to you by not overwhelming you with numbers, we could kill in an instant if needed—"
"But you won't"
My voice cut through his, the giant smirk that marred on my face flatlined completely, voice steady and eyes solemn on the man before me.
"Fighting me means using your strength to kill me, you don't know the full extent of what I am capable of and wouldn't want your forces to weaken before the eventual big fight that is currently happening above"
"...."
"That is why you activated the fire alarm and sprinkles forcibly, to put yourselves at an advantage before coming to fight me"
The leader looked at me with a stoic face. Unfazed by the words uttered out of my own mouth.
Drip!
Water rained down and jetted at the crevice of closed lips.
Pursing the soaked lips, the feeling of water tasting way sweeter than normal water filled my tongue and taste buds.
'Is it perhaps mana infused?'
Them purposefully turning the water sweet didn't make much sense, so it was likely mana infused.
'What can mana infused water be used for?'
There were many uses, but the one that stuck out to me first had to be artifacts. The only subject I was extremely confident in. If they were using an artifact that absorbed only dense mana to make up for their low mana regeneration, then.
'Do they perhaps want to avoid using their mana?'
Mana did take a long time to naturally regenerate, so using it efficiently was a must for any lone mage with limited spells and mana pool.
'Archmages don't really have a problem with that though, they are like the top martial monst—I mean masters overseas'
Meeting them once before.....they had rocked my entire insides and most elaborated no further than that. The memory of getting mistaken for a vagrant and a punching bag still haunted me to this day.
'Weren't they supposed to be calm and tranquil as a lake? All I saw when on the run were monsters with no empathy, no pride and absolutely corrupted individuals'
Shaking my head full of backstabs and disrespect, my eyes fell on the current situation.
'One dropped down and is sneakily making his way towards me'
From the people that chased the tail remained 14 people. One person was missing from the pack.
'When did he leave?'
It seemed like a spell had been used, not that it mattered much though, since their location still stayed compromised.
The burly man extended a calloused hand to me.
"I understand"
You don't.
Raising his voice in an energetic way, he avoided the steps of his subordinate from being heard.
"Then, how about we talk nicely and calmly about this!"
Tilting a head, it cracked with stiffness.
"No"
Replying, the girl left my tight grasp and fell to the ground, albeit in a soft way. By lowering myself to the ground as well.
'An opening!'
Seeing the one they believed to be a scout leave the girl down on the ground, the hooded assassin saw it as a chance to steal her away.
Step!
A muddy step sharply jolted instinct to look at my right, around five paces away, a figure rushed at me.
"Huah!"
The assassin jumped and threw his body to gauge the strength, critical thinking and to reveal whether or not I was a warrior or a mage.
However, contrary to his expectations. I remained deadly still.
He stabbed at me, but the blade of his dagger only passed right through me.
An illusion spell.
Peeking back, the same man stood with his comrades. A face full of shock and fear stubbed him in the eyes.
"What a lowly trick"
Witnessing the perplexity forming in all of their faces, a satisfied smile stitched on the handsome face I felt proud of having. Even when they insult it.....
"Did you have fun evaluating my strength?"
Clearly taken aback by my action, the burly man spoke.
"Yes"
"Glad it was satisfactory then"
Answering with sarcasm, absolute cold silence followed.
Leaning against the wall, my hand glided through the wet wall.
My mouth moved before my thoughts could.
"Quite the low-level illusion magic, did you learn it in the slums? thinking it would give you better stealth?"
"You!"
The assassin growled and as he was about to bolt right through me and tear me apart. A hand stopped him, slaughtering any movement he would have made otherwise.
"Stop"
"But!"
The burly man glared at him, he slowly shrank back and calmed the frustration welling up inside.
"We don't know exactly how powerful he is, I mean think about it. Why would those imperial dogs send a scout here all alone?"
"..I don't know..."
Shaking his head, the subordinate expressed his inability to understand what his leader said.
"Obviously because they believe he is enough to handle us"
"...!"
He clenched a fist and spoke more logic into his arrogant comrades.
"Hasty moves will only strangle us slowly to death, he could do anything if provoked, in fact he could even be—"
C-L-I-C-K-!
A door's knob turned and clacked it right open. Breaking the flow of deep conversation the assassins had.
Everyone broke their attention away from the two and stared where the girl and the scout was.
Blank.
They veered their vision to where the door was and had clicked right open.
There, the scout could be seen throwing the 'product' in the staffroom that supposedly should have been locked.
"Whew~ took a while to lockpick this, yeah mana is no joke when used on locks"
The 'scout' looked back at them and smiled, raising a thumbs up as well.
"Well, you can have your lover's quarrel, I'll just go find the restroom, you all don't mind right?"
Slipping into the now narrow slit of the door, he looked at them for the final time with a ridiculously creepy smile.
Thud—!
The door smashed shut against the hinges.
Wheeee!!
An emergency alarm shrieked, defensive mechanisms inside the room cried danger as it locked the entire place down shut.
Wondering what in the world they had just witnessed happening live, one comrade of theirs could only exclaim a couple of words out.
"Ah, aren't we...fucked?"
They all looked at each other, then.
"....Are you serious!?!"
"...AH! NO!"
"BULLSHIT!"
Every single one of them darted to the door and slammed on the mana reinforced wall that held the same principles as the illusion magic Naphel encountered prior.
The only difference was that.
It locked everyone out, and refused to let anyone inside go out on the outside.