Characters

Titles and Abilities

****

Two long hours passed before Ace could meet his followers. He had hoped to see them at once but apparently they needed time to assemble. And find a place that was eerie enough.

“You got to be kidding me,” he muttered rolling his eyes as Mirage passed the fallen in gates.

The place was a large noble house that had been abandoned for a couple of ages. It was surrounded by a twenty meter high crumbling wall. Vines had made their home between the cracks, hurrying the process.

Nearby the wall oak trees rose, covering the sky and turning the evening into night in an instant and throwing a shadow over the mansion. One side of it had fallen in and a tree now grew from the inside. It towered over the other trees in the vicinity even though it was dead. Not a single leaf or green part could be seen on it.

“They sure chose the nicest of places.”

Mirage walked forward and they were under the canopy. The trees surrounded them from all sides as if they had entered a dark tunnel. Wind rustled the leaves, brushing his red hair at the same time.

There was only silence but Ace could feel presences around. Three people were hiding in the trees, waiting for a good opportunity. ‘A test?’ Ace wondered as he let Mirage continue on the path.

He didn’t fear it but found a bit annoying. It made him choose what to do with those that annoyed him and in that reveal something about himself. Or, well, the persona he was pretending to be now, the infamous killer.

A neigh came from Mirage as he jumped forward, evading a shower of daggers thrown their way and almost losing Ace in the process. He really needed to learn more about riding if his horse wanted to pull tricks such as this.

But he had stayed up this time and that was what mattered. He activated [Radiant Step] and moved to where he felt the people with [Instincts of a Predator].

They had separated and masked themselves, going as far as wearing clothes matching the surroundings. Yet it did little to help them since Ace knew their exact positions. He pretended to look around in the air for a bit, listening to the silent breathing of the nature.

And when he thought they had calmed down, decided he wasn’t going to find them, he struck.

[Void Step] activated and he was behind one of them. There was no way to tell if it was male or female but he didn’t really care. His daggers easily found their target. Death was upon the person when a barrier of blue light surrounded him.

It lasted barely for a moment but Ace had been distracted and moved a considerable distance away. He didn’t like surprises, especially ones that made his targets become invulnerable and survive.

“Please, forgive our brother in his wish to test if it was really you,” came a voice from the path and Ace walked there. A person stood at the entrance of the mansion with what seemed eight more people in grey cloaks behind him.

Ace lowered himself and dropped on Mirage’s back. It wasn’t in his nature to forgive but this was his future students and it wouldn’t be good to start by killing them. He didn’t want another fiasco like with what had happened with the rogues.

“Does he feel satisfied?” Ace asked when he was before the steps. This close up he could recognise the spokesperson. “So it was really you...” Fenek heaved a sigh. “I was hoping that it was only a rumour.”

Even though Ace had been the official rogue leader in the quest to retake Vascas castle, it had been Fenek who ordered everyone around. He was the recognised authority figure and the person that despised Ace’s guts. He wasn’t going to be an easy one to win over.

“Do you have some complaints?” Ace asked, jumping from Mirage and walking up the stairs. He was a head and a half smaller than the guy but didn’t really care. There was more power in posture than actual height if one only knew how to use it.

He eyed the man through the mask’s slits and the guy was the first to shift his gaze away. “No. Everything is okay. Shall we go inside to talk?”

Ace nodded at that, passing through the cloaked figures that made a path for him. He could hear some of them take a breath or a step back after brushing against him. A smile manifested on his face at that and he made his way forward.

The inside was as run down as the outside. Furniture was broken down, rotting or eaten away by time. Any valuables had been stolen away and empty walls and ground met his eyes.

Everything was covered in a layer of dust and dirt but there was a path that was cleaner. It was clear to have been used often and he followed it with the group following him behind. He had heard others join them, the ones that had been hiding in the trees but didn’t turn back.

Giant doors were in front of him, similar to the ones in L’s castle. They were slightly ajar so Ace went through and found himself in a humongous room. He felt like an insect standing in there.

Pillars that would need five people to enfold them rose to the sky. Ace raised his head but the ceiling was shrouded in darkness so he couldn’t say how far away it was. But one thing was clear, it was high and this place took over most of the mansion’s space.

It was dark everywhere but for the scarcely used lanterns. They were on the ground and few so it was hard to say whether they helped any or just made the place worse. Shadows danced from their light and Ace activated [Mystic Eyes] to escape their annoyance.

The skill made the room brighter or more like drew the place in sharper colours. Every pillar was more pronounced and people too. It felt like someone had come and highlighted them with a black marker on a greyish page.

When they were all in, Ace leaned back against one of the pillars and turned towards the group of cloaked figures. They all wore the same greyish outfit that made them identical but for the difference in height. “So, what do you have to say to me?”

There was a collective murmur as they stopped in their tracks. “Say to you?” Fenek asked, moving to the front. This had to be beaten out of him. He was no longer the leader, just one of the many.

“I’m a murderer, a killer, a monster.” A few in the group took a deeper breath as he mentioned that. ‘Where had L collected these newborns?’ Ace wondered as he continued. “Yet knowing that, you still wish to be trained by me. So tell me, what do you plan to learn? What do you think I can teach you that no one else can?”

Silence lasted for a long while after his words and Ace wondered how he looked to them. White glowing eyes, small figure in a dark cloak with admission of being the worst of the worst on the lips. What did they think of him? Did they wonder if he was going to just kill them all and leave?

“We ca-” Fenek started but Ace cut him off. “Shut it. There’s no we among the killers. You help the other only as long as it doesn’t endanger you.” He straightened then, moving closer to the group. “I hope you don’t expect to become best friends with me? I’m not going to save your petty lives if you get caught.”

“It’s not that!” someone from the group shouted out. Ace turned his eyes to the guy. His eyes widened at that for a moment, mouth hanging limp but soon he took control over himself. “You’re the survivor! No matter how horrible the situation, you always come out ahead! I wan to learn that too!”

This prompted another person. “Yes! You’re also so unpredictable yet consistent in your strategies! It’s amazing!”

Ace almost laughed out at that. He and strategies were at war. Not once in his life had a plan of his worked out the way he’d wanted it to. Admiring Ace for his strategies was the same as idolizing turtles for their speed.

Stupid and absolutely wrong.

“I love the way you never get caught! Whenever I try for an assassination something goes wrong and I end up dead or worse imprisoned...” a female voice said. “I want to learn to expect any kind of situation as you do and counter it before it happens!”

There were a couple of blinks from Ace at that. ‘Since when did he expect everything and countered it? Didn’t he just look at the guy who had praised his strategic skill like he was an idiot? Wasn’t that obvious enough that he found this praise unwarranted?’

It was Fenek who spoke next. “You live when you shouldn’t. Your blade goes where it should be impossible for it to reach. You’re a living legend, few ever get the chance to learn from one,” he said grudgingly, his mouth set into a firm line.

“A living legend, huh?” he asked without expecting a reply. He looked over the group, seeing a mixture of emotions in their eyes. They were afraid of him, it was obvious from their defensive postures, but there was more to it. Wonder lay close by, it filled their muscles with nervous energy and made their eyes shine.

Ace wanted to shake his head in wonder himself but stopped. He was Silver Wing now. The guy who was a killer, not a child any longer. “Fine. Let’s see what you’re all made up of. Divide into pairs and go kill a person.”

“What do you mean?” asked Fenek instantly. There was a furrowing to his eyebrows and his left hand went to the hilt of the dagger at hist waist. “You want us to take an innocent life?”

“You want to learn from me or not?” Ace focused his look on the guy, his voice sharp as an ice shard. “If not, leave. I have little tolerance for fools.”

No one did but neither did they do as they were told. Ace watched them shuffle their feet for a moment. “Four hours. That’s the time limit. If you don’t return with a body in that time, you should make sure never to meet me again.”

“But it’s an hour and a half long journey to Lasran!” someone complained. “We’ll have only an hour to find a target and get him.”

Ace smiled cruelly. “It takes but a second to rob a man of his life.”

The speaker gulped at that and turned towards the girl that had praised Ace’s clairvoyant skills. They exchanged a few words and were out the next moment. This snapped into action and soon they were all away but for Fenek.

“I knew you couldn’t care less for the lives of your subordinates but why kill innocents? Those five people are going to die without any reason.”

The smile on Ace’s face thinned out, disappearing. A tired sigh escaped his lips. Fenek might have been someone that hated him but the guy was honest and he had known Ace. He wasn’t disillusioned by the legend of Silver Wing.

It made him somehow closer, like there was some strange connection between them. They knew stuff about the other that they would both prefer to keep hidden. “Have you ever killed an innocent?”

Fenek looked surprised by the question but answered none the less. “Yes. Why do you ask?”

“Do you think they had?” Ace asked without answering. He watched as the puzzled expression was soon exchanged by an understanding one. “You want them to see it for themselves? The life of a monster?”

Ace smiled at that, sliding down to the ground with his back to the pillar. “When I was still unknown, an old guy suggested for me to become his student. He asked me only one thing. Kill a man and bring him to me, he said. I was level three then, innocent and stupid so I agreed.”

This seemed to intrigue Fenek. He sat down a couple of steps away, watching Ace who had closed his eyes. “You didn’t set out to become a rogue?”

“Not at all,” Ace said with a laugh. “It was the opposite actually. I had sworn to myself to choose anything but the mage or assassin class.” “And now you’re both,” Fenek concluded remembering the stories about the kid Ace he’d heard around the camp. “Aye.”

Neither said anything for a moment then. “You know I hated you from the moment I saw you?” “I guessed,” Ace said a smile, opening his eyes. “You weren’t very secret about it.”

Fenek smiled dryly at that. “True. I thought you were mocking everything that we rogues stood for. You were rich, spoiled and good only at making others’ lives hell. But that all had been a lie, hadn’t it?”

“Not the last part. It’s my speciality.” “You’re an amazing liar. We all believed that farce for a long while until you turned our lives into a nightmare. If not for the fear of losing the quest and having all that effort go to naught, we would have killed you at sight. Or tried to at least.”

He waited a moment, collecting his thought before continuing. “We had thought you just wanted to kill us all, to get rid of us, but now I think it was your way of teaching. You wanted us to become your tools instead of weights pulling you back. Though you’ve used the cruellest of ways to achieve it. And your tendencies haven’t seem to have changed.”

“Cruellest of ways?” Ace asked incredulous. He hadn’t seen anything wrong with his methods. It was simply the easiest ways to get the needed result, pain had never been a consideration of his. That’s why he had never thought that for others it might rank high on the priority list.

Fenek was saved from an answer as two figures rushed through the entrance. They were both cloaked in grey with daggers at their sides so Ace guessed they were of his students.

“We-we are done,” the taller one rasped out. He was breathing hard and his face was flushed red. On his sign the other one opened the bag menu and took out a body.

They watched for his reaction but Ace cared little for the dead man. He was more interested in the fact that one could stuff bodies in his inventory. That was something he had never considered before and it could prove very useful when trying to infiltrate an enemy base quietly.

“Is-is this oka-okay?” the smaller person asked in a feminine voice. The stutter brought Ace’s attention back to the people. “How did it happen?” he asked coming closer to inspect the body.

The female instinctively moved backwards at his approach so the guy was left to answer. “We used a teleportation scroll to get to the city. There we chanced upon the lone guard and took his life as asked. Another teleportation scroll was used to get back here.”

“You say we yet there’s only one stab wound,” Ace noted crouching beside the body and smoothing the clothes to see the place better. It was a direct hit by his estimation that ended the man’s life instantly.

“We both worked to present you this kill,” the man said in a steady voice, looking Ace straight in the eyes. It was commendable but did little to raise the youngster in his mind. Hard headedness and lack of situational objectiveness was added under his name tag for him.

He remembered then that he did not know their names. “What are you called?”

The question threw the guy off for a moment. “Razvan, sir, and she’s Lara.”

“Take off the hoods and come closer then Razvan and Lara.” This made the two glance at each other, take a deep breath but move to him still. Courageous fools.

Without a warning Ace jumped to attack Lara. He didn’t use any skill but it didn’t change the outcome. His dagger passed through her right shoulder, earning a scream from her.

That was weakness enough but instead of fighting back she called for her friend. “Razvan!” she screamed out, her face pale and eyes trying to jump out of their sockets as she stood deathly still.

They stayed in that stasis for a moment longer before Razvan regained his wits and attacked with a feral scream. It was a dead give away.

Ace rolled his eyes at that and took his dagger out of her body. It made a sickening slush leaving her flesh but Ace couldn’t have cared less. He turned and blocked her hero’s dagger with his own, one stained with blood.

The sight of it seemed to enrage the guy even more, clouding his mind. “You’ll pay for this!”

Ace only smiled at that. “By the way you’re going now, it’ll be a thousand years before you’ll even consider as an opponent in my books.” This added fire to the youth’s anger and his attacks doubled in speed.

Yet there was little to no forethought to them. Each strike was onto itself with little to no follow. He didn’t use any stance or anything just letting his anger control him. It was a good way to fight, Ace had used it a couple of times himself, but one needed at least a drop of mindfulness when using it.

Blind rage never helped anyone. One had to reign it in, control it to some extent so all his knowledge and energy wouldn’t be wasted on swift, strong but meaningless strikes that were easy to dodge.

Ace didn’t even need to try to evade. One dagger was more than enough to stop two of his opponent’s without losing any ground. Ace truly hoped it was only anger moving the guy around and not his full skill. If the latter was the case, he would have to consider taking a leave.

Students were fine and all but he didn’t want to start from zero. In his mind they were already accomplished rogues, maybe more used to hunting monsters than people but still full of promise.

Not something like this, an angry, flailing youth.

“You sure this is one of my students?” he asked Fenek over his shoulder. “He looks thoroughly lacking in both skill and brains.” He could hear the ground of teeth as he blocked another slash.

It was growing boring and Ace decided to finish it off. There was nothing more he wanted to see of this guy.

He evaded one of the daggers, blocking another with his right hand and moved in. They stood chest to chest now, the guy towering over Ace a whole head. It did little though as Ace got out a dagger in his left hand and plunged it into the man’s side.

The youth howled in pain, jumping backwards but Ace gave him no time to recover. He went after with a kick and a punch on the injured side. Temptation to kill was there but he refrained. It was bad manners to kill one’s student.

Beating them to a bloody pulp was not, however, so Ace did just that. He punched and slashed till the guy fell and then kicked him a bit more for good measure.

At one point he had looked up to see the girl staring at him but she didn’t move. Her eyes followed his every action, the slightest of movements but not once did she raise up from her sitting position. All she did was hold her bleeding hand close to her chest and watch.

‘Pathetic little thing.’

“Are you done?” Fenek asked from the side, his voice cold and eyes narrowed. Ace glanced down to the blooded boy and after a last kick, moved away. He cleaned his dagger with some cloth and returned to his previous position, sitting with his back to the pillar.

[Flare] left his from under his cloak and he watched it dance around his head. It was much more interesting than seeing Fenek giving potions to the two youths and whispering something to them. Something he was sure he didn’t want to hear and that’s why [All Ears] were turned off.

Half an hour passed and he was dozing off when he felt someone approaching him. It held little threat but he opened his eyes to stare up.

Razvan stood before him with his hood down. The guy was around sixteen with dark hair and forest green eyes. They shone with barely contained anger.

Right behind him Lara watched with a tremor to her lips. She was shorter than her friend but of the same age with shoulder length blonde hair. Her eyes were dark brown, almost black.

They waited for a while, expecting something from him but he stayed quiet. There was nothing he wanted to talk to them about.

“Why did you do that?” Razvan asked in a soft tone, his hand clutching the dagger hilt. It was so obvious what he wanted to do but didn’t dare. “Why attack Lara without a reason?”

Ace let his eyes fall to the ground, then closed them. “She’s no rogue. You were lying to me.” It wasn’t a question. The female had no practise in fighting, even when she wanted she had no way to help her friend.

He heard two intakes of breath. “You-you are mistaken!” the female said from the back, still stuttering. Yet her voice lacked conviction. She was a horrible actress.

“Do you want me to test you again?” Ace asked, opening his eyes that he was sure had turned bright red. Or well, white glowing orbs as [Mystic Eyes] were still active.

“Test?” Razvan asked. “You were testing us?” “What did you think? I left you alive because I was incapable of taking your lives?” he asked with a malicious smile appearing on his face.

A shadow passed over Razvan’s face, his eyes losing their previous shine. “We failed, haven’t we? You’re going to throw us out?”

Ace looked at him, meeting his eyes and then the girl’s for a moment. She had a stronger gaze, there was worry there too but less of it. No darkness for being found and having to leave.

This made him return his eyes to the youth. He had most likely been the initiator, wanting to study under Silver Wing but not ready to separate with his friend or afraid to leave her alone. She was a lovely girl for sure with her large eyes and delicate nose.

For that he was the one losing now. The girl without a doubt felt little regret because of it and might have been even relieved to be found out so quickly and released. That didn’t sit well with Ace. He didn’t want her to have the easy way out.

“Is that what you want?” he asked with his eerily white eyes directed at Razvan. The guy lowered his gaze to his feet but didn’t step back. “No. I do not want to leave.”

Ace smiled. “Then stay,” he said raising up to his full hight up to the youth’s neck. “But if you dare lie to me again...” His quiet words echoed softly in the large room, gaining a ghost like feeling to them. It felt as if the walls themselves were whispering them, passing the word around.

“Thank you,” Razvan said falling on his knees, tears in his eyes. “Thank you very much! I promise to be the most dedicated of students.”

“Make sure she learns the art then,” Ace said motioning towards the girl. “Next time when I test you, I expect to see some progress.”

The girl trembled at his words, not meeting his eyes. She even inched to hide herself behind her friend’s back, though his kneeling form did little to conceal her.

Tears also soon dried up on Razvan’s face after hearing the news. “But she’s a scribe! She can’t use any weapons!”

Ace sighed. “Can’t or doesn’t want to? I will have no cowards or weaklings in my group. Make sure she learns self-defence for now and then we’ll think of her assassination career.”

“But I don’t want to be a monster like you,” the girl said, finally speaking up normally. Her voice was soft and chime like, one could listen to it for days without growing tired.

The words made a smirk come to Ace’s face. “I don’t care, girl.” He moved around the guy to stand in front of her. “You either do it or leave, it’s all the same for me. I don’t get paid anyway.”

That said he returned to the pillar and sat down with his back to it. This time, however, he chose to cross his legs in a meditating position and closed his eyes, pretending to be deep in thought. It prevented any more questions from being asked and he had a moment’s respite.

He wondered where L had collected his group. First it was Fenek, the guy who hated him, then these two idiots. They were quick to follow his orders for sure but it didn’t compensate for their actions afterwards.

Liars and pretenders.

That was all they were. They had come only to learn from him but held little respect for his person. True, they feared Silver Wing, the notorious killer, but close up they had found him lacking.

He might have looked imposing on Mirage but here on the ground he was just another kid. His shining eyes and the mask made him a bit more mysterious, more unnatural but it wasn’t enough.

They feared the legend, not the man.

It was stupid to have been expecting more but Ace had. For once he had hoped to have it easy, he already had a legend created long time ago. But it wasn’t so. If he wanted them to follow him, he would have to constantly remind them of who he was.

He was half asleep when the next pair returned, dragging a guy by his hands. They breathed heavily as they dropped the man before him but their eyes shone with pride. “We are on time.”

“Yes,” Ace said simply, glancing over the wound. He turned the body over to check and he was stabbed from the front. “Why is that?” he pointed at the wound.

“What?” one of them asked uncomprehending. “We were told to kill him!” Ace nodded. “That you were, but what assassin stabs a man from the front?”

The other guy, one that stood to the right straightened out. “The man was to the wall, we found it a waste of time to struggle with him simply to stab him from the side that assassins should use.”

Ace stood up then, moving close so his dagger’s point lay against the man’s heart. “You want to tell me that you not only let him see you but fought with him?” Now that he was looking, Ace could see cuts and red stains on the man’s clothes. They were hard to see in the darkness, but not any less true.

“He noticed us... There was no other way...” the first said, his head held low. Ace gritted his teeth. “How did he manage to see you?”

It was the second one, the guy with a dagger to his chest that elaborated. “We followed him for some ten minutes until he left the main streets. Then we jumped on him but he wasn’t alone. Three of his friends were around and we had to fight our way out!”

Ace’s hands quivered. The idiot not only didn’t repent for his mistakes, he was proud of them! His voice was high and eyes shone as if he was to be praised for such actions.

It was madness. Had these people even been approached with the subject of sneaking and working in pairs to make sure the target was alone? “Take off your cowls.”

They did as told and Ace was met with two unruly heads of light brown hair and eyes that were light green. Those things were identical but the faces were nothing alike besides that. The left guy was rounder and more puffy while the right rigid and angular.

“Names?” “Thoran.” “Rock.”

“Well, Thoran and Rock, you are pathetic excuses for rogues. You can neither sneak, nor collect information about your surroundings.” His voice was ice cold as he said that, returning the dagger to his side and finding another pillar to lean against.

There was no point to sit next to a dead body. They started to stink quite soon.

“What? You mean we failed?” Rock asked, his hands forming fists and relaxing them in repeat. “You can’t say that! L said we can’t be thrown out!”

Ace turned to them before sitting down. “Does it strike you that I care much for what L thinks?”

“Ahh, so you do know him!” Rock said gleefully. “You’re his puppet!”

He took a deep breath, tried to control the mounting anger but it was too much. His students were stupid, useless and even tried to mock him. That wasn’t going to cut it.

There might be a chance he could teach them from zero but not if there was no respect. They were going to see him as a being they were unworthy to even look at or they were dying and he leaving.

His daggers flashed silver against [Flare]’s light and he was on top of Rock. The guy tried to defend himself but to no avail. He didn’t even get to take out his dagger before getting stabbed, slashed at and having the ground kicked from under him.

Brother tried to interfere and help him but Ace made short work of him too. In moments both of the guys were lying on the ground motionless but for shuddering breaths and a soft whimper coming from Thoran.

“If I ever hear you say that again, you’ll be dead and copperless as on your birth day.” He cleaned his daggers then and sheaved them, coming to sit next to another pillar.

From the corner of the eyes he could see Fenek helping the idiot duo but didn’t concern himself with that. Fear to see the other students was at the front of his mind for the moment. How worse could they be?

However, his fears were unfounded. The next two pairs, Ilyan and Merick, Furor and Beofen managed to do their task without much problems. Hits were clean and lacked any noticeable problems.

It was like a gust of fresh air to Ace. Maybe this wasn’t going to end up as horribly as he had started to think. Maybe, just maybe, there was a chance for this group of his.

That was too much to hope for, though.

A few minutes left before the end of given time two females entered the room. They had their hoods down, revealing their natures.

One had cropped blonde hair, small eyes and a mouth that was accustomed to a smirk. Even now without any reason she had that expression on her face.

The other was more reserved, she had black hair that fell to her shoulders, dark eyes and a serious expression on her face. A man was on her shoulder and she dragged him towards Ace.

“Here,” she hissed, throwing the body before Ace. “Hope you’re satisfied.”

Was that disgust in his voice? No matter, Ace turned to look at the corpse.

The wound on the heart looked to be a clean hit but before he could heave a sigh of relief, the wideness of the wound caught his attention. “How did he die?”

Blonde stepped over to answer. She crouched next to Ace, brushing the victim’s hairs from its eyes. “I lured him into a dark street and Muriel stabbed him from behind. The poor guy didn’t even know what hit him.”

Ace looked back at the silent female. “Show me your weapon.”

“Why should she do that?” the blonde asked instantly, her smirk losing a bit of its shine. “You never told us to prepare our weapons for inspection.”

“Do it,” Ace said without sparing a glance at the bumbling female on his side. It was obviously clear something not right was going on here and he wanted to make sure of what he saw.

He could feel the girl next to him shaking her head wildly as the dark haired one moved forward, taking out her blade. “I told you it’s going to end up this way. He only looks like a kid.”

Her words held more meaning when she might have wanted to. Ace was on his feet the moment he heard them with his own daggers in his hand. Noticing his moves, she tried to rush while he was still in preparation but it wasn’t to be.

Ace never held his weapons far out of his reach.

Their daggers clashed and he found himself evenly matched. No, after a few strikes he had to say she was better at him in dagger play. He’d never done more than learn the basics from Sedgart and that was showing.

Silver Wing was one that killed from behind in a few well placed strikes instead of fighting duels.

That was why Ace didn’t play fair now either. Since his both images had been matched, he could even use magic unlike before without endangering himself. He was found out already.

[Radiant Step] took the female by surprise and he got a free slash on her shoulder, slowing her movement speed a bit. She recuperated quickly, pushing forward and slashing at his torso but Ace was faster.

By now the fields were like his own limbs, familiar and not requiring a thought to be used; so the attack that should have opened his belly for he had no armour, hit against a field, throwing the girl of balance.

It was more than to be asked for and Ace used [Void Step] to appear behind her. She was still off balance so she couldn’t turn away quickly enough and his daggers passed through her leather armour with ease.

A hiss of pain escaped her lips as she turned, slashing wildly. Ace jumped backwards, a field catching him in the air. He circled her then, watching as she followed his every move, every twitch.

That was to be used and he lunged forward. The female entered a defensive position but Ace had little interest to fight her fair. [Void Step] and he was behind her again, slashing, kicking her feet from under her.

She hissed in anger, trying to turn but her feet gave in and she fell. Ace was on top of her the next moment, his dagger at her throat. “Want to continue or are you satisfied?”

“Bastard! You didn’t fight me!” she said, glowering. There was spit collecting in her mouth so he punched her with his free hand. “Do that and I won’t care if you’re the most promising of this sorry lot.”

“Promising?” the female asked, her voice lacking the characteristic strength from before. “Aren’t we kicked out?”

Ace stood up then, cleaning his dagger. He was doing a lot of that today. “You killed monsters, humans aren’t that much harder. Easier if you asked me for they are worse.”

The blonde rushed to her friend then and helped her stand up. The girl was favouring her left leg and he wondered if he had broken the other. Well, whatever. This was a game, it was going to heal soon enough.

“We’re not going to become heartless murderers like you! Our mission was to find and kill you!” the blonde hissed, her voice a lot stronger than before, the smirk gone. Had she only been pretending? Apparently yes.

Ace didn’t pay her any mind and motioned for everyone to come closer, examinations were done.

“You all came here for different reasons but I don’t give a damn for either one of them. If you want to stay and learn, stay, but know that this is what it’s going to be like. I won’t play games with you.

“If you want to work under me, you have to follow me to the letter. I won’t care for your excuses or pride, you do as told or are out. Simple as that. If you don’t feel like you’re up to the task, go and leave. It’s your choice.”

“Are you going to let us leave just like that?” Muriel asked in a tired voice, her tone saying that she didn’t believe it in the least.

Ace smiled at that, remembering having to make the same choice and twirled his dagger that gleamed dangerously in the blueish light of [Flare].