The Master of Assassins watched as the swordsman sat down once again to prepare his cure. He and his men had only recently caught up to the party of adventurers, fanning out around the edge of the cliff overlooking the clearing below. Their cloaks were magical items that concealed them from the dragons overhead and the adventurers below, blending in perfectly with their surroundings. The swordsman’s allies had circled around him, preparing to defend him from any incoming projectiles, but the assassins could handle that. They’d used knives before, but they had poisonous smoke bombs they could hit this group with that would likely pollute whatever cure the swordsman was attempting to create. There was also the chance to poison his allies, thinning his protection and wearing him down. Despite their loss of Torran, the assassins had every advantage. The Master gave a non-verbal signal to the others, and they all took out their bombs. As he threw the attack, however, the Master felt that something was wrong. That feeling was confirmed by a scream from the man to his left.

  Whipping around, the Master saw the man clutching at his throat, where he was bleeding from a wound with no visible cause—an Invisible Blade. His death was the only warning the Master got before Adama appeared right in front of him. Yet, the ‘swordsman’ seated at the table below hadn’t even moved.

  The Master brought up his blades to block, grimacing at the force of Adama’s attacks. His subordinates were fortunately quick to back him up, throwing daggers at the swordsman’s back as he pressed in for the kill. In response, Adama’s blade rang out softly, deflecting the daggers and knocking the Master’s swords away from his body. Adams’s emerald eyes were icy in their focus, Hearthblade cutting through the Master’s waist and cutting the man into two pieces. Adama whirled around, meeting the strike of another assassin and knocking away another dagger with his fist. He exchanged a flurry of blows with the assailant, dodging a ball of dark magic thrown by another enemy. He used another limited Endless Sword to put his immediate opponent off balance, but unlike with the Master earlier, there were two other enemies to jump in when that man stumbled.

  One of the assassins used a chain sword, while the other two used normal longswords. The other longsword man jumped in with a stab, his body glowing red with the light of an ability that boosted his attack power. The tip of the other man’s chain sword hurtled toward Adama’s chest, but he sidestepped both attacks. He shot out a Rippling Sword toward the chain sword man, fended off the glowing man with a few sword strikes and a well-placed kick, before zoning in on the man he’d knocked back before. That man had begun a chant, but Adama was ruthless in his renewed attack. The assassin couldn’t defend for long before Hearthblade found his throat, turning his chant to a gurgle and forcing the man to experience backlash from the failed magic. This success was not without cost, as Adama took some cuts from the chainsword man, and the other longsword assassin also returned and re-engaged, but it was worth it.

  Even with these new injuries, Adama was confident in his imminent victory. Only two assassins remained, and he heard the rest of his party climbing the cliff behind him. Lilli had used her magic to disguise herself as Adama and pretend to brew the cure, prompting the assassins to lower their guard. In the meantime, he’d hidden himself among the elves, striking the moment the assassins had revealed themselves. As Adama had jumped up after the assassins, the elves had put up protective cloths around their mouths to ward off the gas. Emi had erected a shield, defending the fighters from the poison and allowing them to take some antidotes and jump up and out of the canyon. Valar and Theresa had been buffed by Emi’s magic, the latter sporting the only remaining arrows their party had managed to scavenge from their earlier battles. With all these advantages, Adama’s success seemed inevitable. And yet, Theresa’s shout was all the warning he would receive before twin swords sprouted from his chest

  The Master of Assassins had one skill and one spell. His skill, Lurk, allowed him to capably conceal both his presence and bloodlust even without his magic cloak. But the real star of the show was his magic. Death’s Door allowed him to cast a spell on himself, creating a bead of sanguine light that dwelled secretly within his heart. It required a continual stream of Mind to stay active and served a single function. It could restore the Master after any death blow, even one that sawed him in half. Adama had obviously been too distracted to notice the Master’s revival, and he’d been totally surprised by the man’s attack. The assassin’s blades pierced Adama’s lungs, and the Master was about to drag the blades through the swordsman’s body and finish him off before being forced to jump back. Theresa had fired off a flurry of arrows, enough to threaten the Master, so he was forced to withdraw before completing the killing blow. But he didn’t mind. His blades had certainly imparted a lot of poison into the swordsman, and the man was under assault by two other assassins. The glowing red assassin brought his sword up for the killing blow, eyes shining with malice.

  Those eyes were met with the cold eyes of a Sage.

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  Despite his injuries, Adama executed a perfect parry. He surprised the glowing assassin, sending the man’s attack off course and bringing his fist up in a counterstroke. He punched the man in the face with inhuman strength, sending him tumbling away unceremoniously. With him taken care of, Adama shot toward the chain sword man, apparently oblivious to the blood leaking from his mouth and eyes. The assassin’s eyes widened as he watched the swordsman approach, lashing out desperately at the terrifying specter of death. Adama deflected some of these attacks, but he didn’t have the strength or focus to deal with all of them. More red gashes were scored across his unarmored back and arms, Adama’s simple black cloak torn beyond recognition. He still managed to draw close, putting all his strength into a blow that knocked the blade out of the enemy's hands. Adama’s following strike tore the assassin’s head from his shoulders.

  Unfortunately, the assassin who’d been punched was still very much alive. He pounced on Adama, refusing to give the man room to breathe. The enemy drove the swordsman back, cutting into him several times and dominating the fight with every swing. Adama, for his part, had hit his limit. He managed to use a limited Endless Sword to keep from being killed in the first few exchanges of blows, but now his Mind was all but tapped out. His limbs had grown cold from the blood loss and the poison, the strength draining out of them as he fought with everything he had just to stay alive and retreat. As a last-ditch effort, he’d taken his right hand off Hearthblade and conjured a Hidden Blade, planning to take his adversary off guard, but the assassins knew about this magic. The man knocked Hearthblade out of Adama’s stiff fingers and kept his eye on the Hidden Blade as he brought his sword forward in a powerful stab. Adama also stabbed forward but lacked anything near the assassin’s speed and strength. The assassin watched his movements as if they were in slow motion, contemptuous as he brought his own blade around to knock Adama’s attack off course.

  Then, he felt his throat split open.

  After all this time, through this entire journey, Adama had kept one aspect of the Hidden Blade secret. Whenever he’d summoned the Blade, it had always been around the same length as Hearthblade, the optimal length and balance for someone of his size. And yet, Adama was capable of changing the blade’s length on the fly, adding or subtracting magic when appropriate to lengthen or shorten it. Here, as Adama stabbed, he poured every last drop of Mind he had left into the sword. The enemy couldn’t see the blade lengthen, so he’d practically impaled himself on Adama’s outstretched sword. It was a gimmick, a final gasp of a man who’d been pushed well beyond his limits, but it worked. With a final twist of the blade, Adama decapitated the man. Then he fell over in a bloody mess.

  Meanwhile, the elves were in an epic duel with the Master of Assassins. Two of their number were already lying bloody on the ground, and Valar was fighting with all of his might to hold the assassin at bay while the others tried to exploit his openings. He could only go toe-to-toe with the man because of Emi’s buff, and even that was wearing thin. Still, the aforementioned mage had also made her way to the top of the Valley. And she hadn’t been idle.

  “Cornerstone!’

  She cried out, thrusting her staff vigorously at the enemy, but he was wily. The Master dodged the attack at the last second, the boulder smashing impotently into the ground, and he sprinted quickly at the mage, dark blades flashing in the harsh sunlight as he dashed past the elves. Theresa fired off a rapid stream of arrows at him, but he deflected those attacks with consummate skill. The elf dropped her bow and drew her sword, yet even with her buff, she knew it was hopeless. The assassin knocked aside her sword, entirely focused on killing his opponent and going for the mage. At the last second, however, he noticed something odd flying through the air out of the corner of his eye. Was that-?

  Then the whole world went white.

  The man whom Adama had killed at the beginning of the fight had happened to possess a rare specialty item, a high-powered stun grenade that worked on powerful adventurers. He’d been saving it as a trump card against Adama, yet he’d never had the chance to use it. Lilli had rifled through the man’s pack for something, anything she could use to help the others, and had chanced upon this discovery. She’d found and thrown it at the critical moment, knocking the Master off balance and creating an opening. Valar, who’d been following the man, moved to capitalize, scoring a large cut across the Master’s chest. The assassin was driven backward, the other elves also jumping in and capitalizing on this opportunity. They hemmed him in, hounding him as Emi began another chant.

  Now, the Master tried to run. He staved off the attackers around him, dashing away in a zigzag pattern to keep from being an easy target. Theresa shot at him, hindering his speed as he was forced to block, but the Master was confident he could dodge another spell from Emi. He waited for the attack to come, listening for Emi to finish her chant, but the end didn’t seem to want to come. On and on she chanted, and as he continued running away, a realization steadily dawning on him. The mage’s Chant Connection. It increased the power of her magic the longer she chanted. The memory of a scoured mountaintop reached the assassin’s mind. How had her Chant Connection changed her attack magic? It had increased the size and speed of the boulder she produced, hadn’t it?

  Oh no.

  “Cornerstone!”

  The meteorite rumbled outward, closing the distance between Emi and the assassin in a heartbeat. It cast a shadow over the man as he looked up and realized, with a cold thrill, that there was no dodging this attack.

  There, on the hot sands of the Valley of Dragons, the Master of Assassins met his end.