Chapter 5:

“Boss is it time now?”

The black figure wearing an Assassin’s Tunic with his twin dagger sheathed and strapped at his back covered by an unknown type of robe is kneeling.

“Yes, surround the city of Tulan every life form that escape, kill them!”

“Boss, I found a house living far from the city what should we do?”

“Every life form…Besides ” the man stared at the black figure with its eyes giving off a color of a magenta

The figure lowered its head… ”It will be done by your will” and then his whole body immediately melted into the shadow and vanish from the room which was emitting a black aura coming from the man.

………………….

……….

“Mom I found Grae, he was standing several meters from the forest and he-“

“Grae is this true?”

“Yes mom” I lowered my head as I come inside the house

“Toby go take a bath and wash the clothes, I already told you to not wear it casually or it will be torn immediately”

“Okay mom…” Toby then run towards the bathroom and then stick his tongue out towards me while giggling”

“Why did come near the forest little guy? I thought your father already told you that, that place is dangerous and is home to some fearsome monsters?”

“….”

“You’re not going to ans-“

“ruf ruf!”

“A wolf…get behind me Grae..! Gerrit! Gerrit” mom then grabbed my hands and she immediately guard me against the ferocious beast that was behind me.

“What is it dear?!”

“Come down here now!”

“Mom it’s alright”

“No Grae, that thing has mouth even it is small, Gerrit hurry now!”

“Mom I said it’s ALRIGHT” I insisted my mom as father was now coming down from stairs bringing his unsheathed sword “that wolf is harmless it is tamed!” I shouted causing my parents to stop on their movements and they looked at both their eyebrows contracting…

“You tamed it?!” they asked in sync

“Yes dad and mom, I’m a Beast Tamer now” I shyly answered my parents

“You have practiced using a bow since you were 5 years old and after 7 years you suddenly decide to become a beast tamer, why the change?” my father asked inquisitively

“Dad I don’t want to become violent in order for me to be strong, I just admire them but it did not charmed me”

“Beast tamers also use violence in order to tame their targets, right Beatris?

“Yes if the skill will fail then you are going to tire them down but I planned that after my skill will fail, I’ll just run away and besides I’m not aiming for ferocious beasts or the mythical ones” I answered immediately

‘hmmmmm’ my mother hugged me and I was surprised

“Mom you’re not mad at me?”

“It’s alright as long as you don’t become like your father”

‘hehehe’ I smiled at the words of my mother

“But that wolf is a race of ferocious monsters right, how did you got it from its parents? I think you have broken your goal” my father jokingly said

“ It was a reward from the tutorial”

“huh?” my father was dumbfounded after hearing this “tutorials do not reward you after you read it maybe it’s a hidden quest or maybe something else..”

“…I don’t know dad all I did was approving the proposal of taming a beast” I honestly did not know why…but maybe it really was a special one or a hidden quest but the reward was crap

“hmmm…tsk I should have accepted the tutorial and not letting my excitement overcome me when I was about to become a Warrior ‘sigh’… maybe that wolf is a rare one or even mythical or something special right son?

“Nope not even rare dad, it’s a common wolf” and then I let them see the stats of the cub and I can see the disappointment on dad’s face and mom was still smiling knowing that his son is a peace loving boy

‘Mooaaaaahhh!!’ a loud roar has shaken our house and startled all of us in the midst of our conversation its quite far based on the sound of its origin but surely it came from a huge vocal cords of a massive creature.

“Children go upstairs stay in the room and don’t make a sound, now!” our father commanded us five and immediately our mother guided us in the room and she made a gesture in the air like drawing a cube…

“Protection of the Divine King” she muttered the word and suddenly a light in a form cube trapped us inside…

“Cross of Binding, Camouflage” two spell at the same time and a heavy cross with adornments had fallen from mid-air and it firmly rooted itself on the floor “Stay here and don’t make a sound”

……………………..

……….

“What was that? The black figure telepathically questioned the one following him, while they were moving from shadow to shadow

“It must have been the minotaur I have encountered along the way, Enu”

“From the sound of its roar, it’s absolutely mad, you did something wrong Gatura? I asked him as we halted about a few meters from the target location still hiding in a nearby shadow of a tree. It was full moon and the house was not surrounded by trees or anything…

“I killed the mother and the child and when I tried slaying the father I failed horribly, the monster was very strong and every time I slashed my Twin Manticore Hunting Dagger I received some scratches on my shoulders like I was hitting my own self with my daggers, I was surprised, and in that instant he slashed at me and barely survived using Swap the log that replaced me was smashed into pieces and I received a wound starting from my right shoulders down to my chest” Enu explained to me and we then both emerged from our shadow form and I stared at him verifying the wounds but it was not there anymore…‘powerful healing magic huh’

“Why bother killing it?” I asked him while I turn my head to the observe the house

“An achievement Minotaur Slayer would give me an incredible reward and those three are the last of my quota 7/10, unfortunately I only increased it by two”

“Did you report this incident?”

“Nope I would be dead If I did, that bastard Faheem has no qualms on killing his subordinates if they get on his way, he is insanely strong, a few months ago he was just someone a little stronger than us but now it’s unreachable, I don’t know how he did but I am certain that he is an awakened SSS class, and besides he’s busy finding someone in this city”

“hahaha you’re right…” Enu is really a talkative guy and like me I can see that he is not nervous during operations, he just casually talk with me like a kid telling his adventure from a park, he is a young murderer I’m just a little bit older than him but were just the same, we kill people but it did not disturbed us or haunted us it’s like when you have chosen Assassin as your profession the criteria of becoming one, the brainwashing, the perilous trainings, and the experience of first time killing a human was just absorbed in our mind and body just like that and before we knew it we became killing machines.

‘shiiiing’

We were alarmed as the house emitted a light

“Detect Presence” I can see what’s inside now in the house and I assumed the woman was the cause of it and there was a cross standing inside the room “She activated a spell Cross of Binding from the looks of the it safest range will be in the front of the house”

“That’s a particularly strong spell isn’t it Gatura?”

“Yes it is, I don’t know who she is but pretty strong, we must take this seriously, focus your mind Enu…. lets go!”

“Yes!”

……………

……

“Protection of the Warrior King

Boost Strength

Boost Vitality

Blessings of the Parrying Sword

Boost Attack”

I buffed myself with several layers of skills, I mainly rely on my Gladiator’s defensive magic. At least I can endure more for my family and allow my wife and the children to escape…

“Divine Presence

Amplify Recovery”

“Beatris?, I thought you were escaping now”

"Where would we escape Gerrit? There’s a monster roaming on our east side and it’s not like those two assassins are going to let us escape, and who’s going to protect us if you are not around huh?

My wife scolded me while my body is now absorbing the light, she is a powerful Paladin and if she just continued her profession she may have awaken into a fearsome Crusader but for some reason she stopped, she really love peace. The two assassins were detected by her magic items surrounding the house and had warned us about the intruder.it sends her the movements of the intruder and based on her, she telepathically told me that there was an assassins lurking in the shadows, such a fearsome woman even assassins did not noticed that they were detected by her.

‘sigh…and here I am as the father of this family I feel powerless…

‘Clang!’

My body suddenly parried the surprise attack…

“You have been affected by poison”

‘Clang Clang’ Two consecutive attacks were just barely block by my sword and a I felt a little cut from my cheeks and the poison tried to invade my body and a notification popped up, suddenly light emitted my whole body in an instant and it faded. The cut was now gone and the poison in my body was exorcised and then another notification popped up

“Poison was nullified”

“Divine Presence huh….tsk tsk”

I heard the figure clicking its tongue

Suddenly a shadow shoots from the corner of the door and it directed to my wife

‘shiiinggg’

A light enveloped the shadow and was immediately stopped from its intention on hurting my wife.

‘Clang’ I parried again the surprise the attack right after I looked at my wife

‘This bastards…they really don’t allowed any opportunity to slip, I can see they are experienced with these things ’

“Arena of the Gladiator” I invoke a buff that will boost my senses as well as striking fear to my foes, effective when the enemies are within the range

“…ugh”

“…tsk”

I can’t see the expressions on their faces but from what I heard the skill was effective. ‘I can’t miss this chance’ I thought then I used dashed to move forward quickly but suddenly the two melted into shadows and both of them attacked me from behind, the attack was not as fast from the first surprise attack but still it was deadly so I parried it my sword and kick the smaller one.

‘Crash’

The strong one then exert more force to my sword and so I also pushed him back but at that moment he eases up his strength and I was carried by my force moving forward…

‘Slice’

“Ugggh…hah…” it was painful but I bit my lips and focused again the fight and I tried slicing his hips but he acrobatically jump backwards. I also back myself and I can see the severed arm lying in the floor, fortunately I was using my right hand in gripping the hilt of the sword. When I lost my balance, my increased senses noticed the incoming attack to my right hand and I tried blocking it with the edge of the sword by rotating the hilt but my left hand was open.

“Be careful Beatris this guy is a veteran!” I quickly warned my wife

“Divine Healing, focus on the fight Gerrit!” my wife retorted at me

The now severed arm and the blood gushing out from my left shoulder were gone like nothing happened. Then I see the smaller one standing up from the crash and then tilted its head and I notice his eyes were surprised, and then I adjusted my arm quickly.

“As a reward, I’ll give you a quick painful death”

The veteran guy muttered a word and both of them lunge at me and I quickly stepped backwards near to my wife and they were hesitant to move forward.

………………………………………………………….

“Huhuhu Are they fighting someone Grae? Toby is now asking with a tearful eyes after they heard father screamed in pain my two little siblings are starting to cry.

“Shhhhh!” I silenced them. I’m also suppressing my emotions, I don’t want to disobey mom as I know it is for our own good. I can see Tessa is also making a nervous face she was just silent and I take the lead in calming the situation. The checked everyone’s faces …

“Don’t worry mom and dad are strong it is going to be okay…mom told us to be silent and we must follow it okay?” I assured them to ease the panic that is about to erupt from my siblings and Tessa was still silent but I can see her nodding at my words. At the corner of the ‘cube’ I can see the cub was also scared from the sounds of metals crashing and the scream of my father, I crawl near to the cub to calm it also…..

‘Boooom’ suddenly an object flew into our room and hit the cross along with the barrier and we flew outside the room, blood was splashed at me ,my legs were torn off and my stomach was pierced by a wood and the cub I was holding was nailed into the ground by debris, the cub was instantly killed. I look with the blood inside my eyes and I see my siblings were torn to pieces. The three younger ones Toby, Jerome and Anna were unidentifiable, their insides were scattered around. I tried to crawl, to get near to them with my eyes tearing with mixture of water and blood

‘tsak’ I noticed something soft was throbbing in my palm and I look at it and it was a tiny heart pumping blood without its owner. And I start crying loudly ‘why did this happened to them, why?’ questions were running on my mind “Tessa?” I can’t see my sister here, I look around again and there she was in the wall, her head was hit by the huge axe and her body was pinned to it. Some of her brain tissues were splattered at the walls and some were visible from his broken skull.

“Tessa, Toby, Jerome, Anna!!! Huhuhuhu why….no no no no no no….Te…ssa To…totoby..Je..Jejerome…An…na huhuhuhuhuhu….” I cried bitterly from the horrible fate that my siblings encountered. Then instantly after I shouted I vomited blood and look at my pierced stomach and look around again…everything is red and there I can see mother’s horrified face she quickly ran towards ‘us’ and I fell down to the ground...”..uggh” the wood dug even deeper to my stomach, and I lay down with my body facing the ceiling, it’s hard to open my eyes as the blood was starting to dry up and then..I lost my consciousness.

“Boom!”

“Moooaaah!!!”

“Gerrit our children huhuhuhu…our precious children no…no…no…no…”

“Beatris look out!” I warned my wife as the minotaur has suddenly crashed into our almost destroyed house. I looked at the direction my wife is staring and immediately tears drop on my cheeks and then it continuously flowed and my heart was like being gripped and twisted and then torn apart. Our children were killed!”

“AAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!” I lunge at the minotaur with vengeful eyes

“Boom!”

I was hit by its hands and I flew towards my wife and both of us crashed at the corner. My body was numb from the attack and I can see that my left arm again is broken, my wife’s right shoulder was splintered and starts bleeding…

I gaze at the minotaur who ignored us after the attack and pick its axe and removed the object that was hit by it, the body of my daughter and throw it aside. I was furious from the sight and I tried standing up but was immediately lost my balance

“You have been affected by Shock”

“Noooooooo!!!” I shouted out of frustration and tried to stand again but to no avail, the negative effect was fairly strong and then I see its massive body moving forward to the two assassins as they tried to assess the current situation. Instantly, the veteran guy sprung up in action and sliced the monster with its dagger that is now glowing with color green and emits a corrosive aura, the minotaur blocked it and overpowered him and threw him outside the house. The smaller one was taking steps back and he shouted from the top of its lungs, cursing the monster and lunge at it. The minotaur sliced his right shoulder and then grabbed the other hand and screams were echoing the place, the minotaur then raised the guy and then it bite on its waist and a huge chunk of flesh was torn and even bones were bitten off and it made the victim scream horribly. The veteran then pounced at the monster with its corrosive dagger and it used his comrade as a meat shield, the guy’s hand was sliced and there was a small cut on the right hand of the minotaur.

The minotaur’s right hand then starts to change color starting from the wound on his wrist then slowly climbing up to his shoulder and then after observing its hands it then decided it cut it clean

‘Thud’ a huge muscular arm dropped on the ground

‘moofff…’ the minotaur angrily stared at him

“..uggghhh..” the veteran guy was making a sound and his right hand was bleeding all of a sudden..and I can see his eyes confirming something….I was puzzled at the phenomenon

“Shock was now nullified” alright…Divine Presence took a little time to removed it and after the notification the veteran guy lunge at him with a blinding speed like he is pouring everything to this strike and the minotaur accepted the challenge. The minotaur swings the axe and the assassin dodge it by jumping and with the opportunity to cut his neck the minotaur was raising its right hand was holding his torn off hand that was still gripping on the sliced hand of his comrade, 'Force Recovery!' I was surprised, the skill was like healing but it sacrifices half your hp, and then it tried to counter the assassin but suddenly…

“Divine Binding”

The monsters right hand was tied by a light and was held in place before it could reach the assassin

‘Slice’

‘Thud’

Blood spurted out and the minotaur head fell to the ground, the assassin instantly drop dead

“Divine Presence”

“Why did you buff the monster?” I asked my wife dumbfounded and she was still bleeding, the wound on the minotaur's neck started to change color and then was suppressed by a light

“There’s no time to explain, go quickly remove its heart”

“Wh-…”

“Gerrit please quickly now!” my wife was pleading me and tears were falling on her cheeks and I immediately and surgically removed the heart like I was dismantling a beast corpse

“Here’s the heart, why do you need it?” my hands were full of blood and were trembling not because I just dismembered a corpse but the horrifying death of my kids were attacking my nervous system.

“Carry me near Grae”

“..!” surprised by her statement I immediately brought her to Grae and there our son bleeding profusely, legs are missing blood covered his whole body and he had a wood struck in his stomach. I cried at my little boy who suffered from this dilemma he was just 12 years old, brilliant and kind. My wife then told me to lay Grae on the ground and remove the wood on his stomach, she then tried healing him and nothing happened and I stare at my wife with her expression that she confirmed something she then carefully took the huge heart in my hand and a notification popped in front of me

“Beatris the Paladin offered you to give your life, Do you accept?

It was straightforward but nonetheless, I stared at my wife and I can see her resolve. She is using a forbidden skill and the payment is our lives.

“You have accepted the offer”

And then my wife frowned and was thinking deeply and then yelled at me

“Gerrit go remove the heart of that veteran assassin now quickly!”

I immediately run and did the same thing on the assassin and returned to my wife and give it to her, she now held two hearts on each hand we both stared at each other…

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“I love you so much Gerrit, and I will still love you in the afterlife, thank you for giving me a happy family” her eyes were not showing signs of any regret but the resolve to save her son

“I love you too Beatris, thank you also for letting me experience this blissful life with our children”

We both are now at peace unlike from earlier. I kissed her lips and then she muttered the spell

“Forbidden Skill: Revival of the Dead”

A huge magic circle appeared below us and then light envelop both our bodies I stared at our son and suddenly my wife hugged me and tears run down my face, it was not tears of sorrow but joy.

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"Three Hearts had been successfully merged"

"Revival is complete"