The assassin trotted into the village, steely blue eyes staring straight at the group. Cas recognised this particular assassin; Cas had seen him in the last quaint town. The one the demon had entitled ‘Mr. Skull Crusher’. This Skull Crusher bore a rather remarkable resemblance to the quivering demon on the ground beside Cas. He was an equal to the demons towering height, but he couldn’t compete with the demon’s inhumanly bulky muscles. The Skull Crusher was also notably less red.

Cas sighed. This assassin was no raging Tyrant demon, but it would still be a great honour to best him in combat, defending his most noble Princess. He might even get a chance to lay down his life for her. A tingle shot through him at the thought. Surely there could be no greater Honour than loyalty till death.

Cas gleefully walked towards the assassin. No, he strode. Yes, it should be known that he, Cassius Belothas Hart, strode gallantly towards the enemy horde, consisting of the assassin and his horse. The most fearsome assassin and horse the world had ever seen though! There could be no more fearsome than Mr. Skull Crusher and his slightly larger than average chestnut brown mare.

He would have to amend the assassins name to something more sensible when he dictated his memoirs, something like ‘The Skull Pulveriser’ or ‘The Enemy of All Skulls’.

The yet-to-be-named assassin hopped of his horse, barely glancing at Cas. If Cas remembered correctly, the man was a band three Berserker. That could be very tricky to deal with. The Berserker mark allowed its users to use their mana to explosively increase their strength and speed for shorts bursts. If he was band three, he likely could form mana bracers over his fists and feet as well. Cas hadn’t faced those before, but he had been told they hurt. A lot.

No matter; bones heal, but glory, glory was forever.

Cas drew his blade with a flourish, swinging it about in his hand.

“Good day to you sir! I am Sir Cassius of House Hart!” Cas greeted. Manners were important. It would dishonour his family if he was seen being discourteous. Well, discourteous to humans at least. That vile demon didn’t count.

The Destroyer of Skulls grunted in reply. It was terribly rude of him not to offer a name in reply. Not rude enough for Cas to start the fight yet though. No, there were rules to starting a duel that Cas would never dare break.

“I am correct in assuming that you are here to bring harm to my patron: Princess Ell of Yem?”

Skull stomper looked up at that, blue eyes finally focusing on Cas rather than his surroundings. He grunted again, nodding in affirmation.

“So you are then! Ignoble scum, I shall not allow harm to befall her highness! I challenge you do a duel to the-“

Cas’s declaration was cut off when a small knife flew past him, imbedding itself into the wall of a small shack to the side of him. Cas span to see where it had originated from. A small feminine figure dressed in skin-tight leathers with a highly unpractical black cloak that was flapping about in the light breeze. She pulled down her hood, letting loose a river of burning red curls. The woman whipped her head back and forth, trying to get them out of her face, but the mess of red clung determinately to her face. Finally, she got it clear and glared at Cas with her piercing emerald eyes.

“Are you Sir Cassius Belothas Hart? The protector of Princess Ell?

Cas hesitated on answering, too annoyed with her for disturbing his manly challenge to trust himself to speak politely.

“I am he. What is it you want?”

“Then it is time you met your Fate Sir Cas-“

The assassin’s speech was cut off by the wall of the shack she through her knife at falling inwards, smashing apart.

“You are already de-“

The roof of the shack collapsed this time, kicking up a large cloud of dust.

“You your patron’s names have been written in the book of the dea-“

The neighbouring shack fell like a domino after the first. Metal clanging emanated from within, drowning out what the red-haired girl was saying.

“I am the Dread Assassin Ria! You shall be, kuu-“

The cloud of dust had reached them, sending them all into to fits of coughing.

“You shall, *cough* you will *cough*, you’re gonna die.” She managed to splutter out between coughs.

The Bane of Skulls recovered from his coughing first and tried to pass by Cas and the undeserving of being titled Ria, heading towards Princess Ell. Cas ran in front of him, bringing his sword to bear as another throwing knife landed between them. SkullGuy glanced down at Cas before awkwardly shuffling to the side to try and pass him again. Cas mirrored him, blocking his path once more.

Skull Muncher simply glanced at Cas once more before shuffling to the other side, where Cas also moved to, blocking his path. This shuffling dance continued for another few steps before yet another knife landed between them, thrown by a very red faced Ria.

“Stop ignoring me! Fight me! I am the Dread Assassin! You should be quivering before me!” She squeaked.

No, no, no, this was all going wrong! This was supposed to be a heroic act! An epic duel, mano a mano. Just two men beating each other bloody! This little assassin had ruined it! From the looks of her, she probably had an actual Assassin mark. She could use her mana to pull out all sorts of nasty tricks if she had more than one band. There was nothing honourable about fighting someone with an Assassin mark. Everyone would remember it as you having been assassinated, rather than having been slain in glorious combat. They would think that he was stabbed with a little baby knife and bled like a weakling, not even putting up a fight! Cas wanted to be beheaded, or gutted, or even split in half; but he would not tolerate bleeding to death like a lowly pig.

The Anti-Skull moved back, eyeing Cas and Ria warily. He had finally acknowledged them as enemy combatants. Cas moved back as well, not wanting to be caught between the two assassins.

The three circled around in the ring of shacks in the village, keeping at a distance from each other. A silence had settled upon the village, the wind having died down, as if the world itself felt the tension building. Somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered where Ell had gone, but the adrenaline was already flowing through his mind, blocking any thoughts but those of violence.

Cas flicked his eyes between the two, measuring their worth. He knew that the Skuller was a band three Berserker. A Berserker would be able to cross the gap easily before he had time to react properly. Gaining bands on his Knight mark had increased Cas’s reflexes past that of a normal human, allowing him to make quick actions in combat, but he doubted it could bring his sword to bear quickly enough to strike the Berserker.

The De-Skullinator seemed to be paying more attention to Ria, whose hands where twitching at her knife belt. He likely didn’t know what tricks she had up her sleeve, which put him at a bad disadvantage if he ignored her and charged Cas first. Ria herself was flicking her gaze back and forth between Cas and Skulls, weighing them. Would she hold back and use her ranged weapons? Could they even do much to a Berserker and a knight? Those little knives wouldn’t even slow The Skullpocalypse down. The Skull-Fella seemed to notice that as well. A spark ignited on his mark and a glow spread like lightning through his body. This was it.

Cas ignited his own mark. He would have to risk it on a new ability he had learned. He felt the magic flow from his mark on his shoulder down through the rest of his body, but a river of it flowed down his arm, gathering in his hand. The Berserker blasted off the ground, taking great bounding leaps before roaring and smashing a fist into Cas. The fist collided with a great blue light that had formed a large convex shield. The force of the hit was staggering, forcing Cas to one knee. Despite the pain, Cas didn’t hesitate, swinging backwards with his sword hand. As he had anticipated, Ria had used some Assassin ability to get behind him unnoticed. Cas’s sword just barely sliced her armour as she leapt backwards, avoiding the blow.

Cas forced the flow of mana away from his arm, collapsing the shield, and into his legs. With the mana strengthening them, he pushed off, flying back from Ria and The Skull-gruel-maker. The Berserker was already on the move, charging towards Ria. A fierce light came from his fist each time he swung, the force of each swing kicking up dirt. Ria danced back, narrowly avoiding the worst of the blows but still catching some glancing hits. She was not to be so easily killed though. She grabbed a small item from her pouch and flung it at the ground. It exploded on contact and a massive cloud of black smoke shot out.

Cas found himself in a world of darkness. He paced backwards, hoping to distance himself from the Berserker, but he quickly lost his orientation as he twisted to face any sound his band-enhanced hearing picked up. He heard a low whistle coming towards him just as a throwing knife dug deep into his thigh. He bit down hard on his cheeks to contain a cry of pain. Those little knives hurt a lot more than expected. He pulled it out quickly, returning to his battle stance.

A dark shape disturbed the cloud of smoke in front of him. Little green eyes found his. Ria. He charged towards her, swinging his blade at her, but the sword just passed through her harmlessly. Instinct kicking in, he spun around and raised his arm to block an attack from the real Ria. The assassin’s knife bit deep and scraped the bone in his arm, but she made the mistake of not letting go of it quick enough. Using his other arm, he punched with all his might at the woman, who was still hanging onto the knife. The blow connected hard with her stomach. She wheezed, but still had the sense to let go of the knife and move back.

A roar came from somewhere to his left, soon followed by a blast of wind. Cas staggered back as the smoke cloud was blown away with the wind. The now clear area revealed a panting Berserker, an ominous red glow coming from every where on his body. Skull Ripper had entered his true Berserker state, the very thing his kind where known for. He was going to be a lot faster and a hell of a lot tougher, but if Cas could somehow survive the next minute, the Berserker would wear himself out. Feeling the wound on his arm and thigh, Cas was not optimistic about his chances. There were several smokey images of Ria still hanging about the circle. An assassin magic of some kind, Cas assumed. The Berserker had apparently lost some of his cognitive functions as he began swinging wildly at these fake-Rias, each swing disturbing their flickering image.

Ria herself was nowhere to be seen. Had she gone in search of the Princess? Assassin’s never fought fair, why had he expected her to stay here and fight an enraged Berserker?

His worries were alleviated when his patron emerged from a shack just a bit behind him, squawking at the demon.

“For fuck’s sake Bal! Did you even hear what they said! You’ll kill us all!”

“Please don’t worry my dear, I’ll be careful!”

“How can you be bloody careful when you have a barrel full of explosives!”

“The little Miss is right Bal! The whole town is built above that there mine! You can’t detonate all that Brimstone powder here!”

“Sure I can. Watch!”

Cas didn’t have time to turn to see what the damn demon was laughing about, as the End-of-all-Skull-shaped-objects had finished swatting away Ria’s mirages. Cas started to put up his magical shield again, but a barrel with a small burning fuse rolled past him towards the centre of the village.

“Run, Cas! Run!”

Cas didn’t hesitate as he turned tail and ran. It may be dishonourable to leave a fight like this, but there was little honour to be gained by dying to an explosion.

Cas sent mana to his legs again, leaping towards Ell and the demon. A deep boom mingled with a roar pierced the air. It teared at Cas’s ears, but he kept running, even when the pressure wave and the burning heat hit his back. A horrible cracking sound made Cas looked down to his feet, where he saw the ground cracking and fragmenting. Oh, by the angels what had the Demon done? Bal was grinning manically when he reached the panicking group.

Cas barely thought as he forced mana into his shield, covering his group before the ground swallowed them whole.