Perhaps he had hurried too much, because Count Bled and the knights had not arrived yet.
‘I got here much earlier than I expected…….’
Having slipped close to the Assassin Guild building, Lloyd peered inside.
Perhaps because Count Bled and Duke Roderick had publicly declared war not long ago, the assassins were highly tense as they stood guard.
‘……Should I not wait and simply take them out first?’
Honestly, hiding in the back and secretly helping someone little by little did not suit Lloyd’s temperament.
After briefly considering whether to wait for the knights or deal with the assassins first, Lloyd made his decision.
He would eliminate the assassins before Count Bled and the knights arrived.
He had concealed his identity with ‘Ludella’s Mask’ and ‘Ludella’s Robe,’ and since Count Bled and Duke Roderick had stepped forward, there would be no problem even if Lloyd killed the assassins himself.
Having decided that, Lloyd moved.
***
Concealing himself with the [Mimicry] skill, Lloyd entered the Assassin Guild building and first determined the number of assassins inside.
He had not yet checked the second floor, but there were eight assassins on the first floor in total.
The assassins did not relax their guard for even a moment.
They probably knew that Count Bled and Duke Roderick were heading this way with their knights.
Yet even so, they still had not noticed Lloyd’s presence.
‘Good. I’ll deal with the bastards here all at once, then head upstairs.’
Lloyd immediately used Telekinesis to break the necks of the assassins present.
“Urgh.”
“Gah!”
The eight assassins on the first floor died in an instant, unable to let out even a single scream.
Without even knowing who had killed them, or how.
‘One minute until the [Mimicry] skill wears off. I’ll go upstairs and take out the assassins on the second floor the same way!’
Just as Lloyd was about to head up to the second floor, dozens of assassins came down to the first floor, each carrying a weapon.
Soon, assassins filled the first floor.
Among them, a man with an extraordinary presence stepped forward.
He looked at the corpses of the assassins who lay dead with their necks broken.
Despite his comrades’ deaths, the man’s expression held interest rather than anger.
‘All eight of them have their necks broken. What method was used to kill them?’
As the man stared at the assassins’ corpses with curious eyes, he looked directly at the spot where Lloyd stood and spoke.
“I know you’re there, so stop hiding and come out.”
At that moment, the duration of the [Mimicry] skill ended, revealing Lloyd’s figure.
At the same time, the eyes of countless assassins focused on Lloyd, who had suddenly appeared.
Behind his mask, Lloyd frowned.
‘Tch. With this much attention focused on me, the recognition-impairment effects of Ludella’s Mask and Robe have become useless.’
The set effect of Ludella’s Mask and Robe prevented others from recognizing the wearer.
But it had little effect once the wearer had already been recognized.
‘It doesn’t matter. I only wore the mask to conceal my identity. More importantly…….’
Lloyd observed the well-built man before him.
The atmosphere he exuded, along with the magical power leaking from him like water overflowing from a vessel, made it clear that he was no ordinary person.
“……Are you the leader of the Jackal Assassin Guild?”
Due to the effect of Ludella’s Mask, Lloyd’s voice emerged cracked and distorted.
Perhaps because it was a mask worn by Ludella, a boss that had spoken the language of curses, Lloyd’s voice was utterly horrifying.
Some of the assassins even covered their ears.
The man seemed to find Lloyd’s altered voice unpleasant as well. Frowning, he answered, “Yes, I am Duke Avalon, the leader of the Jackal Assassin Guild. And who are you?”
“You don’t need to know.”
“Heh. It has been a long time since someone acted so arrogantly in front of me.”
As he spoke, Duke began observing Lloyd as well.
He wore a mask with strange patterns and a black robe, making it difficult to discern any physical features. But his height and build could not be concealed.
‘Hmm, he is quite short and slight, almost like a young boy. But that can’t be the case…… Could he be a mage?’
If that was the case, it made sense.
With a build like that, he could not have broken the assassins’ necks through physical strength alone.
‘If he is a mage, I only need to kill him before he casts a spell.’
Without letting Lloyd see, Duke gave the assassins standing behind him a signal to attack.
After confirming Duke’s signal, the assassins threw daggers toward Lloyd.
Every dagger was coated with a powerful poison. Even a graze would make death unavoidable.
But such a paltry attack could not possibly work on Lloyd.
When Lloyd extended his hand, the daggers stopped in midair.
At the unbelievable sight, the eyes of Duke and the assassins filled with shock.
“T-That’s impossible!”
“How can this be……? Is this magic too?”
While everyone else believed Lloyd’s Telekinesis was magic, Duke was different.
He looked at Lloyd with excited eyes.
‘It isn’t magic.’
Magic was practically magical power itself.
Yet even now, with the daggers stopped in midair, not the slightest trace of magical power could be felt from Lloyd or his surroundings.
‘It seems he used this power to break the assassins’ necks…… What kind of power is it?’
Curiosity and astonishment struck Duke at once.
He was somewhat flustered by this power he had never seen before, but his curiosity was far greater, and a laugh slipped from his lips.
“Heh heh heh.”
After reaching the Master realm, everything had become boring.
Assassination was his family business, so he continued to manage the guild, but even that had become tiresome.
Everything bored him.
Assassinations, alcohol, gambling.
More than anything else, he needed a new stimulus.
And now someone who wielded a power he had never seen before had appeared in front of him. How could he not be delighted?
The laughter leaking from Duke’s mouth gradually grew louder.
“Khahahah! Now this is interesting. Go on, pour all the power you have into me!”
“I was going to, even if you hadn’t said so.”
As soon as Lloyd finished speaking, he moved his hand.
The daggers that had stopped in midair changed direction at Lloyd’s gesture and flew toward the assassins.
“You can do something like this too? Interesting. Truly interesting.”
Duke laughed heartily as he knocked away every dagger flying toward him.
But the other assassins could not do the same.
“Gah!”
“Aaagh!!”
A considerable number of assassins were struck by the daggers they themselves had thrown and collapsed.
Before the powerful poison on the daggers could spread through their bodies, the fallen assassins hurriedly tried to take out and drink the antidotes they carried.
But Lloyd had no intention of simply watching.
“Mad Dragon’s Intimidation.”
It was an area-of-effect skill that paralyzed beings below S-Rank for a short time.
The bodies of the assassins who had been trying to drink antidotes froze.
“My body won’t move!?”
“N-No! If I don’t drink the antidote…….”
Despair filled the faces of the assassins, who could no longer move their bodies.
The poison coating the daggers was extremely powerful.
It had only been a brief moment, but that was more than enough time for the poison to spread throughout their bodies.
“Uuugh……”
“Gah.”
In the end, a considerable number of the assassins lost their lives to their own poison.
“What is this? The daggers keep moving! What kind of ability is this?”
Duke was moving alone, seemingly unaffected by [Mad Dragon’s Intimidation].
Completely unconcerned by his comrades’ deaths, he merely laughed as though he was enjoying himself and deflected the daggers.
‘If he can still move even after I used Mad Dragon’s Intimidation…… Does that make him an S-Rank individual?’
That meant Duke was a Master.
Though it could not be seen through the mask, the ease vanished from Lloyd’s face.
‘Why someone who has reached the Master realm is merely acting as the leader of an Assassin Guild, I don’t know, but…….’
If his opponent was an S-Rank Master, this was no time to conserve strength.
Lloyd took out a sword he had frequently used when he had still been Lee Hyeon-uk.
‘Sword of Ruin.’
It was an S-Rank weapon that had a set chance of destroying an opponent’s weapon whenever weapons collided, while increasing the power of swordsmanship skills by 1.5 times.
After awakening in Lloyd’s body, he had been unable to use it due to his insufficient level and physical abilities. But he had finally become able to use it recently.
‘Of course, I still can’t use it properly.’
With his current level and physical abilities, Lloyd could only use the Sword of Ruin for around twenty minutes.
But that was enough for now.
His goal was not to eliminate Duke, the Guild Master, but to reduce the number of assassins.
Holding his sword, Lloyd immediately used a skill.
“Sonic Blade!”
A blue blade of energy began to ripple from Lloyd’s sword, drawing a crescent shape as it flew toward Duke and the assassins.
Even Duke, who had been looking amused until now, could not keep his expression from changing this time.
“Th-That’s…… an Aura Blade!?”
It was a technique that only Sword Masters could use. Did that mean the masked bastard was not a mage, but a swordsman?
And a Master-level one, just like himself.
Mistaking the [Sonic Blade] skill for an Aura Blade, Duke hurriedly raised his magical power to protect his body.
At the same time, the blade of energy Lloyd had released struck Duke and the assassins.
CRASH-!!
The Aura Blade collided with Duke’s aura and dissipated with a deafening roar, but the assassins were sent flying from the impact.
Now, only Lloyd and Duke remained standing on their own two feet.
But Duke was not entirely unharmed either.
Having taken Lloyd’s skill head-on, he had suffered a considerable impact.
For a moment, the shock caused his legs to lose their strength, and he staggered.
It was an extremely brief moment, almost an instant, but Lloyd did not miss it.
Using Telekinesis to bind Duke’s movements, Lloyd began twisting his neck just as he had done to the assassins on the first floor.
“Th-This is a little dangerous, isn’t it?”
Duke spoke as though he were in danger.
But his words and expression did not match at all.
Even in a situation where his neck might break and kill him, Duke wore an expression of enjoyment.
“……You’re a crazy bastard .”
How could someone enjoy a fight with his life on the line so much?
Shaking his head as though he could not understand, Lloyd released an even stronger telekinetic force.
Judging that he would be in danger if things continued like this, Duke squeezed out even more magical power than he had when blocking the Aura Blade.
“Urgh…….”
Lloyd felt his ability being overpowered.
He had intended to finish things here somehow, but a Master-level opponent was on an entirely different level.
“Haaah-!!”
In the end, with a powerful shout, Duke succeeded in breaking Lloyd’s Telekinesis.
‘My Telekinesis was broken…….’
His opponent was an S-Rank expert.
Lloyd had sometimes wondered whether it was still too early for him to face a Master, but he had not expected such a difference.
It was somewhat shocking, but now was not the time to be shocked.
Duke’s counterattack had begun.
“Now it is my turn!”
Oddly enough, Duke charged straight at Lloyd with his specialty, dual blades.
That was far from an assassin’s usual combat style.
Of course, a frontal battle was more comfortable for Lloyd, but that did not mean he could take Duke lightly.
Speed so fast that it was hard to see, and power raised to its limit with magical power.
Lloyd was hard pressed just to block Duke’s attacks.
In terms of swordsmanship alone, Lloyd was only B-Rank.
“What happened all of a sudden? I have finally gotten fired up after so long. Surely this is not all you have?”
Although Lloyd was compensating with Telekinesis, he could not ignore the physical gap caused by their difference in age.
“Tch.”
As Lloyd was gradually being pushed back by Duke’s fierce assault, he heard the sound of numerous horse hooves from far away.
The knights of Count Bled and Duke Roderick had arrived.