Outside the Smoke the Hunters which came with the Nobles were wearing different gear. Googles which made them see through the Smoke, magical Bows and Crossbows, while some of them were holding poisoned swords for the second stage.
“They are too calm. Not even the slightest bit flustered, even the fatso looks like a veteran now.”
“Less talk, more killing. No one is allowed to escape. The Drug should start working, shoot another volley.”
As the next arrows came everyone was prepared. Raja cut the Arrows out the air with quick knife slashes, while Seria created a barrier in front of Drak and herself, Alice just swayed and the arrows missed their mark while Claire dodged and caught the last one.
“Ouch, Acid!”
Hearing Claire shouting Seria created a water ball and shot it at Claire’s palm.
“Careful, they are serious and use all the tricks in the book.”
The reddish palm of Claire started to turn pink again, when the third volley came. Raja noticed something and punched with a shout the ground when a wave of dirt and sand shot up to knock the arrows which flew irregularly and sporadic at her to the side. The Arrows at Seria and Drak pierced effortless the barrier, but were stopped by a green second barrier. Claire evaded the near invisible blobs of liquid jetting right at her which leave sizzling sounds, where they land.
“[...]~”
Alice on the other hand just stood there as some kind of flechette arrows embedded behind her like a dozen porcupines exploded.
“Alice, cover!”
“[...]~”
Hearing Drak’s command Alice created her own smoke, which baffled the Hunters, as their goggles were not able to peek through it.
“Shit! Get personal. All Teams attack at once, just don’t kill each other in the confusion. Use hydra poison, do not leave even the bones!”
Cursing the Leader gave the order to enter the smoke.
—Meanwhile
The Noble youths came out of the Forest in front of their carriages. When their Coachmen saw them, they hurriedly readied the Carriages. At Drak’s Carriage lied Korn with an Arrow in his nose and left chest. The entry points sizzled slightly but no one cared about him. Two persons which had mantles with grass on the back stood a bit further away, waiting for the Kids to leave before doing the rest of their work.
“I am a bit sorry for the guy. He was nice for a Bastard’s Son.”
“Well I met him at a Banquette, but he was like me ostracized. Unlike me he had never any hope to be something worthwhile. Maybe it is better for him to stop struggling.”
“Any Idea why someone would want to-”
“Shut up! We do not ask questions. If you want to ask, go to the bar alone and die by yourself. I am happy if the promise of better chances later on are true. At least we have some Platinum for the trouble.”
“Sure, but-”
“If your ‘but’ is so worthwhile, why did you even come with us?”
“No, I just feel bad for him.”
“I don't care. I just want to have better chances. We Nobles always walk on the bones of other Nobles. This time it is just over some we do not have a grudge on, so what? Survival is hard enough for us, now let’s go home and you better keep your mouth shut!”
“Fine. I am not an idiot. Just sorry for someone I don't even hate, that is all.”
Ending the conversation the Nobles entered their Carriages and left the place. The two Assassins started to finally go forward to assess the state of the Horses and their dead target.
“Blue, you take care of the Horses. The Carriage needs to vanish and I do not want to drag that huge thing anywhere.”
“On my way. You make that meat disappear while I am at it.”
Splitting up the one named Blue got into a slight sprint to the Horses while behind him he heard his Colleague mumbling about how the Merchant sold them diluted acid for it to take so long.
Being near the first horse he came to a halt and soothingly spoke to it while getting slowly closer.
“Hoo beauty. Want some sugar? You need to work in a while again, so here is a treat for now.”
Holding out a bit of processed sugar the horse started to sniff at it carefully. From the Forest he suddenly heard a sound of breaking glass which made Blue lose his attention for just a moment.
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“Aaah! It bit me! How the hell- M… my Hand! It ate my HAND!”
In shock he shouted and stumbled a few steps back.
“This Horse is not normal! I need help! I need-”
His words were stuck in his throat as he turned around and saw a giant white haired Wolfman having his Colleague in his maw, the throat was ripped out and the Head hanging only on a broken spine. Noticing how the Wolfman just ripping out an arroW from his chest his mind got blank and started to shiver.
Feeling a dark presence Blue turned back to see the second Horse having red eyes and suddenly having a black mane waving like black smoke before his own shadow started to entwine around him and hold him in place.
While the third was just grazing like normal and ignoring the matter completely, the fourth started a sprint, head held low and suddenly having two horns with spiral pattern ordered vertically on its head.
Before he could shout again he was gored by the bicorn before the three horses started to eat the mangled corpse. In the background the fourth horse just shivered in disgust and ate happily its grass ignoring the feast of the others a few meters away.
—In the Forest
Entering the Smoke the Assassins were holding different bladed weapons while keeping formation. The place was eerie for them, as no Smoke should be able to stop the goggles from working. Getting closer to the middle a thump was heard on the right side.
“Get that one!”
Seeing the small statue jump away from their Companion which has a caved in sternum they tried to catch her as a thin stream of high pressure water suddenly decapitated the next one.
“Down! They are better than our Information told us they were!”
A scream came from the left side this time but as they looked back the furthest person was just gone without a reason. Before they could reform multiple knives just fell from the sky and skewered three more.
“Not worth it! Escape!”
With the notion everyone started to scatter and run away. With their instincts on high alert they failed to see the illogical scene in front while hearing distant cries every few seconds. As the leader was starting to pant he finally noticed something he had missed in all the adrenaline rush and stopped abruptly.
“Why the Fuck am I still in the Smoke!?”
The smiling Maid with black hair behind him might have been able to answer the question but just grabbed for him before he made a last horrifying cry.
When the smoke cleared the dead Assassins all laid in front of Drak an the Maids. Raja had gone out of the Smoke to take the guards around the area out, to not let anyone escape. Her precision was fast and quick, jumping out like a flash of light, killing the Watchman and entering the Smoke again with the corpse. Even the last ones who wanted to flee were caught before they had a chance.
“How many?”
“Twenty-one, my Lord.”
“They had eighteen with them. Three extra waiting inside. Martin and the other Rats are gone?”
“They left before the fight fully started, right now they might be in their Carriages.”
“Well then for the next nuisance- [Counterspell]”
Cracking glass was heard and a cry from a woman was noticed all around the Forest.
“What was that, my Lord?”
“Farsight. Someone watched everything happening here. Well they wanted to, but the smoke made that impossible.”
Drak answered Raja’s question in a matter of fact speech.
“How much do they know?”
Seria was somewhat worried.
“Well they saw you fight before Alice made the Smoke. Raja was outside getting the watchers, but not much else. They not even know who destroyed the Farsight spell as it has a demerit for having a delayed view of about three seconds, as the Magic bundles the information to be transfered by the connection while also needing to be stabilized by the caster, which makes the flow-”
“Understood, my Lord. Can you say something about who made the Farsight Spell?”
“Huh? Oh, um the only two hints are the user is Female, as that was her cry being echoed right back through the disintegrating Magic. Must have hit her pretty hard. The second hint is she must at least be powerful enough to make this spell. At least slightly above Elly.”
“While that is narrowing it down by a slight margin, nearly every single Noble in the Central Domain would be in this category!”
After the talk between Seria and Drak Claire made her frustration clear by how it does not narrow it enough to know who the culprit truly is.
“Someone from the Imperial Family is my Suggestion my Lord.”
“And why do you think that Raja?”
“While we have multiple Enemies, an Enemy of Drak Berklin is more narrow and also the matter with Princess Eleonora is suspect. Who else would try to frame her for our vanishing?”
Drak nodded. The Letter Drak got from Martin, had small grooves like someone wrote on it before and made sure the original writings had not even an indent. In it was written an invitation from Eleonora to meet outside of the School City as she needed to tell him something in private.
Giving her special drops to induce a heavy fever was thought of by both of them to make sure she would not go anywhere and was seen by many people today.
Drak did not know this for now, but Eleonora got a letter to wait at a secure place for her Servants and Spies were suspected to have infiltrators in them. She was to keep out of visual range for the days to make her unlikely to be in danger of a desperate assassination attempt or maybe a hostage situation.
The Heavy Fever made this even harder and she was to have three people to her side she trusted fully. At first she wanted Crow, but this would be suspicious, so she decided begrudgingly on Miranda, as she could not suddenly unveil her mistrust in her while taking in two young Maids she had with her at the day of the Theatre, Mona and Lisa.
Being locked in her Bedroom, being treated by the Maids she was having an alibi extremely strong, as Imperial Guards were making sure she was okay while all Spies needed to go to the high evaluation.
Coincidentally this meant Drak was for this time not followed by many Spies and those who followed him were still under suspicion and not allowed to exit the School City without getting an execution order pasted on them.
