Nilus had been walking towards the assassin guild branch for ten minutes before he started having an uneasy feeling. No one would mind his attire. Assassins and those who like to keep to themselves wore the same attire to move around the city even in daylight. It was a common sight.

The city’s early birds were already bustling about and he was one of the few who was in a hurry to reach their destination.

He had felt at least 3 presences that kept following him around, ever since he had left the brothel. Two of them turned at every corner he turned into. The third silently jumped from building to building.

His ability to sense the souls inside each human helped in these kinds of situations.

“On a normal day I would not be so alert, but now that I know that I have a contract on my head, it is quite fortunate that I thought about putting my supernatural senses to good use.” He picked up his pace. Almost running towards the assassin guild.

The three immediately understood that they had been found out. They stopped for a few seconds, before finally going after him with the intention of making contact.

“It seems that they are somehow sure that I am their prey. Or is it that they are only suspicious of about my identity?” Thought the sprinting Nilus. ”It is impossible to find a quiet place to dispose of them during the day. I guess losing them in the crowd of the next city square will do.” He sprinted madly towards the next city square not far from the Assassin guild.

The other three had become five by the time they reached the square. They were wearing cloaks and masks that covered the upper half of their faces. When the five arrived, they saw their target leisurely waiting for them in the middle of the square. They were all looking at the square from the top of a five-storey building.

“Is he not scared of being encircled?” one of them asked.

“Maybe he really is our target. If we are not careful we might die this morning.” Another said.

“He might be the Silent owl. Or not. We’ve been staking out every inn and brothel in the city for a while, looking for a place that he might hide after his late-night incursions. This man is the most suspicious so far.”

“We even went as far as playing victims during nights, hoping to identify his face under that black cloth of his, but it never worked. As for his green eyes that John witnessed under the mask, it might just be his aura. A signature move to show off in front of the victims he saved.”

“What do we do then? We can’t just ask him who he really is and expect him to tell the truth. How do we even get the reward for capturing a man that no one can identify?”

“We follow the plan. There are not many known aura users with a green aura in this city. The Silent Owl is one of the few. When he saved me while I was playing a victim, I smeared invisible crystal sand that was fed with my aura all over him. He is covering his face with the same cloth as that night. All I need is to be close enough to feel my aura on him. That is why I am ninety percent sure this is our man or he got that mask from the real Silent Owl. And since he likes to play hero, he will not let us kill a single one of these.” the leader of the group said as he looked at the crowd of people who were happily minding their own business. He then added: ” If he ignores us, kill one and go to the next. If he still ignores us keep killing until he admits he is the Silent Owl or where the real one is. He will not let people die in his name with all the efforts he makes to rid this city of all its scum. That way we will capture him alive and get the full reward.”

“Do not worry boss, we’ve been on this since the contract was put on his head. No other team’s got something as substantial as this. He is most likely the Silent Owl.” The shortest of them all said before heading down followed by the three others. The leader stayed behind for a moment surveying the rooftops before he unsheathed a short sword and headed straight towards Nilus.

Nilus could only see their mouths moving. The five had hidden their eyes under a cloth. His tracking ability only allowed him to see and sense souls in a radius of at least 200 meters. He could not hear the content of their conversation.

“Well, they sure are taking their time, I wonder what they want. They have no business with me since no one even knows me in this part of the city. They look too organized for just a simple murder and their suspicions must have some ground. I wonder which one they think I am. Nilus or the Silent owl? From their numbers, I guess it is the Silent Owl they are after. On any other day, I would’ve left the brothel without any disguise on, but today both my identities are wanted. I must’ve spooked them today, trying to hide in broad daylight, especially if they’ve been staking out every inn and brothel for a while.” Nilus thought.

He saw four of his pursuers head to the area around him and the last one who appeared to be their leader head for him directly.

“This is weird. Why are they not attacking together? No, wait ...this…” Before he could finish he watched as four hostages were captured by the four assassins who had entered the crowd.

There were three women and one young man taken hostage, a dagger threatening to slash open their necks.

The surrounding crowd did not scatter as they watched what was happening as if it was a common sight. Some shop owners had already activated their auras ready to pounce on the assassins.

Nilus who was watching the whole scene suddenly felt bad for himself as he watched the mercenaries and shop owners making their way towards him: “ Even these people have a warrior’s aura when I was born without it. If it wasn’t with the intention of feeding on souls, I would not be even needed in this freakish city in which aura users are a common sight. ”

The leader of the assassins had arrived and said as he pointed at Nilus: “ Good people of VioletMill city, we are just here to capture this person. No need to worry, we will release the hostages soon.”

A stout mercenary made his way out of the crowd and said:“We always turn a blind eye to your actions, assassins. But if you dare to harm innocents in broad daylight you better be prepared to go through us all first.”

“You have some gall to cause problems in front of my clients.” The nearest shop owner said as his blade was being covered by a burning red aura.

The other good Samaritans had arrived and formed a barrier in front of the bewildered Nilus. They numbered at least twenty. One of them turned around and said to the face covered Nilus: “Don’t worry, It will all be over soon.”

The self-proclaimed leader of this troupe of aura wielders, the shop owner with a red aura angrily said to the leader of the assassins: ” Release them and scram before you all become minced meat.”

The leader of the assassins then started laughing. He stopped after a minute and said:” I am an A rank assassin, I am not scared of untrained talking dead meat like you. I can kill you all right now and you’d only find out that you are dead in the afterlife.” He laughed then added:” Why do you think I took hostages to capture that man? Now you lot are a part of the hostages as well. ” He turned to look at Nilus in background and screamed:”I wonder if the Silent Owl will let these poor men and women die in front of him.”

A huge commotion then broke out inside the spacious square.Almost everybody turned to look at Nilus. The rest were trying to squeeze a glance between the dense crowd.

The news started traveling and it would not be long before the whole city knew.

Nilus felt like his heart was going to burst. The meticulous planning that they had devised with Cale the night before was being thwarted by an unknown party.

“Damnit…How is he so sure that I am the Silent Owl. Even if he is just speculating, he can’t just make it public without proof. Either way, I am fucked. There is no getting out of this even if I deny his accusations. The longer I stay here, the faster the other assassins make their way here not to mention the city guards who cannot wait to capture me.” Thought Nilus.

“Let them all go. There is no need to do this.” Nilus said.

As they all heard his young voice, all the assassins and the closest crowd were surprised.

“Then do you admit you are the Silent Owl?” Asked the leader.

“Just let them go. Yes, I am who you think I am. I assume that you want this over before all the assassins in the city get here. Well, so do I. I have some things to do. Hurry up.” Nilus said as he prepared for battle.

The leader of the mercenaries laughed and said:”Look at us old timers who think we can protect the Silent owl himself. I feel ashamed that the hero that gave this city hope is but a young man. What have we been doing all this time to let our children keep this city safe under our noses? It should be our duty to show the example not the other way around.” His level 2 aura sword was ready to strike at a moment notice.

“You seem to forget that we have hostages old man. Pipe down.” One the assassins holding a hostage said.

“We will release them like I said in the beginning. Just let us deal with the Silent owl now that we know it’s him.” The leader said before the hostage were released one by one until only one remained. The young man.

Nilus slowly walked towards the leader while saying to the army of mercenaries, shop owners, and crowd:” Please let me take care of this. Nobody else has to get hurt.” His words were followed by cheering and encouragement from the ever-increasing crowd. Some were even watching the whole scene from the surrounding rooftops. They could not wait to see their hero in action.

Assassins and the likes coming for the bounty on the Silent Owl’s head were already heading towards the square. Turns out the news had made it in half the city before the fight had even started.

All five assassins had augmented their bodies to the first stage. Their aura weapons were at the second stage and their aura was at the second stage as well. It was the required standard to reach the A rank at the assassin guild. They were a team of A rank assassins and their leader had received the title of Shadow child because his aura was about to reach the third stage.

Many chose to balance their attributes and it was the best possible choice. The limit for a human was the third stage for augmenting a weapon, the second stage for augmenting their body and the fifth stage to strengthen their aura. Over those stages, it took enormous resources that only the nobles could afford. The king and his knights were the only ones who had plenty of resources to try and max out their attributes.

The aura could add a layer of protection to the body and the aura weapon or aura armor during a fight. The more concentrated your aura the longer you could hold on. Reaching the fifth stage allowed human to battle without fearing being hurt.

The augmentation of the body was just the process of imbuing the body with aura for an extended amount of time. The body would absorb it and become stronger. The second stage was the last a normal human could easily reach. Beyond that, it required a huge amount of aura that no human could possibly procure without enormous resources. The second stage was already satisfactory as those that reached it were five times stronger than normal human beings.

As for augmenting objects, it was the same as the body. It was imbuing aura inside the object of choice for a long time. Reaching the third stage allowed for the object(weapon, armor, etc) to become ten times as resilient as its base form. Making it a trusty and feared weapon.

Only nobles could afford to reach higher stages.

Most aura wielders could train by releasing their aura all the time even in their sleep. They could train all three areas to the best possible stage in less than thirty years.

There was also a possibility of selling one’s aura by storing a determined amount of it inside an aura crystal. The higher the stage the aura you sold the more gold you got for it.

Nilus had made sure that no one intervened in his fight. He glanced at the young man that was still taken hostage and said:”I know that he is one of your accomplices, there is no need to waste time with this. All six of you can fight me.” The young man just looked too calm for a hostage. His soul showed no distress at all compared to the other hostages. Nilus wondered why they even bothered in the first place. Using a civilian to attack him and use that moment to strike a decisive blow?

All five assassins had no time to act surprised as they pounced on him with the 350,000 gold coins of reward in their minds. Even the young hostage had taken a dagger out of nowhere and joined the fray.