Commoners of different ages awoke from their slumber moments after the Worker's bell have been rung, and a few moments later another bell was rung from the center of the capital.

Dong! The sound of the large bell resonated all over the city districts, awaking even nearby wildlife that just started hibernating within their shelter.

In the Capital Center, there hangs a large golden bell, large enough to cover two caravans. Inscribed on the bell are the words 'Duke's Watch Bell', symbolizing the announcement of the shift of guards for the day.

As the capital slowly rose from their slumber, a sound of a horse speedily galloping along the streets of the Skalt District intrigues the locals as they rushed out of their rooms or open their wooden shutters and look for the person responsible for the horse rushing this early in the morning.

"Oi! why the rush?" One local yells out from his room, their eyes still adjusting to the morning light and bits of crust below their eyes.

Atop the dark muscular steed, Jon was unperturbed by the yelling and scolding of the locals. His mind set on finding the group that sent someone to assassinate them in the middle of the night.

He passes various structures and landmarks in the capital, buildings that are built from materials locally made by the locals. One landmark in particular had a tall bronze statue of a bloodied spearman thrusting the spear end into the soil as the banner of the Cristos, attached to the other end of the spear, flows along the wind.

Beside the tall bronze statue is a stone stele with only five words on it, 'To Rise from its Betrayal', the words carry a somber yet patriotic feeling for the people living within the Dukedom. Although if the Dukedom is compared to neighboring countries in the land of Wesout, it can be considered as the youngest country formed all over Wesout.

The Grand Duke toppled numerous difficulties that have gone his way, conquering the lands of what was once an empire of another kingdom, using all kinds of method to take the throne of the capital, and unifying the south after the Southern Empire struggled without their sovereign. Decades has passed and the Dukedom has been too peaceful for so long that attack of the Supriars on its border caused a wave of emotion by the people to once again show the might of the Dukedom that fought against the numerous small, yet, powerful countries able to hinder the Grand Duke's conquest.

Jon has passed through all the landmarks found beside the main street of the capital, brushing over waking locals and marching guards as Ora's light creep further into the depths of the capital. Distant sounds of birds chirping and roosters crowing as if alarming the people all over the land of Wesout about the time of day.

Sometime later, Jon arrives at the main street that split the Garna and Shukrog District, at this time of the day there were tourists and some locals coming out of the public houses preparing to go on about their day. On one corner of the main street a wooden sign hanging from a post welcoming any individual that enter this street and below the sign two large words were carved on the sign, 'Windsor Side'.

Without wasting anymore time Jon immediately looked around the buildings and alleyways by the Windsor Side and while he scoured every nook and cranny by the street, he does not notice a tall man wearing only common clothes following some distance behind him. As Jon goes further into the Windsor Side, the amount of people stalking him from the street and some from the rooftops of each building only increased.

"Third Brother, why is it that we need three divisions to kill this child?" A short man wearing common clothes with a green headscarf, only allowing his eyes to be seen, whispers to a lean figure beside him.

The "Third Brother" looked at the man that asked that question, his gaze making the short man immediately escape his gaze on the lean figure as he feels the sharp gaze from the direction of the lean figure.

"We cannot question the task given to us by the Night Mage, if assassinating an infant requires even the whole of the organization, we must do so effectively." The cold yet silent voice made the short man felt as if he was being chocked by an invisible hand.

He clearly remembers how ruthless the Third Brother is no matter the occasion, he would usually only speak lesser-to-no words with anyone whom tried to converse with him. Only the Night Mage and the Scugia Duke were able to speak to the Third Brother without fear of them annoying him.

Favored and promoted by the Scugia Duke after a long secret selection training by the Niaulmori, the Third Brother would always finish his task effectively without a trace making a name for himself within their organization. The Third Brother was one of the many orphans brought in by the Scugia Duke decades ago, a meek and innocent child he was a long time ago but after seasons of training and completing arduous tasks that had most of the orphans he worked with died along the way.

Being one of the few captains of the Zakelforge First Division, he was one of few of the hundreds of orphans that prevailed the decade long training and rightfully gained the position of a captain and the title of 'Third Brother', removing his commoner name and forgetting his life before the training.

The short man went silent as he senses if he utters any more word, the child would not be the only victim of their assassination after the task has been done.

The Zakelforge First, Third, and Fourth Division continued to tag behind Jon, waiting for the exact moment he enters a marked alleyway where guards and locals do not normally pass.

Sometime later, as Jon enters an alleyway towards the Garna District two thugs wearing a green headscarf, their gaze seething with intent to kill, brandished their weapon as they surround Jon in the alleyway.

"You have messed with the wrong organization boy." Jon hears a guttural voice few steps behind him, sensing a piercing gaze on him.

He calmly looks around him and sees fifteen-some thugs of different shape and sizes, all wearing green headscarves covering most of their faces but Jon only needs to see their eyes to know that he would not leave this alleyway without anyone of them dying.

'This is bad.' He inwardly thought, although his face looked unperturbed by the amount of thugs at present but within him he knows that he cannot handle these amount of people realistically, most he could take out is only a five of them.

However, after being trained by the Pyrlord and his other mercenary companions for over five Northern season he could instinctively sense that all of the thugs are not normal.

Absolute silence! Jon thought of every possibility at that moment where he and Bale could at least leave with little-to-no wounds on them but each thug around him had their own way of fighting as he notices more of the weapons that each of them have on hand.

After what seem like an eternity, a short burst of cold wind brushes through the alleyway and as if the wind was a sign, one thug from each side lunged towards Jon. They ready their short blades and blunt weapons to hit both Jon and the horse at the same time.

Neigh! As the thugs reached a certain distance, Bale immediately stood on its hind legs as its dark mane flow along the air then charged towards the thug in front of them.

Jon in an instant unsheathes his blade from the horse scabbard, that was made for them by the innkeeper of the Shadow Rocks Inn as a sign of atonement for allowing the assassins to enter their room. He sees that the thug in front of him wielded an assegai, a short spear that was used by some of Pyrlord's mercenary companions.

After numerous mock battles with the mercenary companions, Jon has a basic understanding on how different types of weapon work and the short spear he sees in front of him puts him in a disadvantageous position, where the thug could just stab Bale and create an opening for the other thugs to slice and stab him immediately.

Although Jon is fully aware that allowing Bale to charge towards the short spear wielder is complete idiocrasy, but any other attempt would leave him worse than losing an arm or a leg.

"Fool!" The thug cried out, his gaze bloodshot at the horse's neck as he readies to thrust the spear directly at it.

Just when the thug was about to stab into Bale's neck, Bale suddenly made a reversal when it was about three steps away from the thug wielding the short spear and charged towards another thug wielding daggers on both hands, ready to slice into the horse's backside.

This caught the thugs in surprise, however Jon was still surrounded by them which cleared their thought of them failing in an instant. Two of the thugs above Jon threw their chained weapons towards Jon and Bale as several thugs from the rooftops threw sharp needles above them.

Every second at that moment felt like an eternity for Jon, his mind in turmoil after thinking of different attempts to free themselves from this grave predicament.

"Faster Bale!" Jon cried out as he readies to attack the dual-wielding thug before them.

Bale leapt directly towards the thug that lunged himself towards them. This caught the thug off guard as he braces himself from impact, his dagger pointing directly towards the throat of the horse.

Thud! Bale slammed onto the thug as it used its forelegs to push them down, fracturing the thug's ribs. The other thugs grimaced seeing one of their division members toppled by a child's warhorse, their killing intent only increasing but under the orders of the ZakelForge Task Division Leader they were not to recklessly attack in order for the task to be effectively done.

Neigh! As Bale was about to make another leap towards the exit one of the chained weapons thrown by the thugs on the rooftop stabs into Bale's backside, causing the horse to lift its forelegs again in pain.

"Mongrels!" Jon easily sliced through the thin chains attached to the blade that stabbed into Bale's left thigh, the sword he wielded was finely forged by Lahar two Northern seasons ago, a behemite-forged sword.

"Get him ya slops!" A muscular thug, wielding a steel short glaive, yelled out as two scrawny thugs in front of him wielding assegais extends their short spear, ready to receive the full weight of the leaping horse.

Jon in response unsheathes one of his hidden daggers and threw towards one of the scrawny thugs. Ack! Jon throwing the dagger was done hastily that the scrawny thug was not able to dodge the flying dagger and groaned in pain.

Taking advantage of the disturbed thug, Bale lands on top of the injured thug and continues to charge towards the exit, not minding the excruciating pain it feels from its thigh the more it pushes itself to charge onward.

The thug beside the injured thug immediately attempted to stab into Bale's right flank, but to his delay in action, Jon moved faster than him as he lops the short spear into half and barely slicing through the thug's chest.

"Useless bunch!" The muscular thug slams his foot on the ground and raises his steel glaive over his head and prepares to slice both Jon and Bale in one attack.

Four steps away from the muscular thug, Bale used all of its strength once more to make another leap towards the exit. Jon prepares to swing his sword in an attempt to block the glaive that reflected the morning light, but a second later another chained weapon of the thugs grabbed onto his behemite sword catching him off guard.

"Die brat!" Under his headscarf he grins as he swings the glaive downward, the glaive seemingly carrying the world as it cuts through the air.

Jon scowls as he struggles to free his blade from the chain and holding on to his steed's reins. After what seemed to be an eternity and a moment, as soon as Bale's front hooves touched the ground it pushed itself back from the ground, barely allowing the glaive to slice Bale's skull open.

"Nice dodge Bale!" As Bale pushed itself off from the ground again the chain wrapped tight on Jon's blade loosened and took this opportunity to twist his sword and slice the chain wrapped around it.

The muscular thug's glaive digging into the hard ground leaving a meter-long crack. Seeing the thug's glaive stuck in the ground, Jon urges Bale to charge into the thug again and raise his sword aiming at the nape of the thug.

However, Bale suddenly senses danger if it gets into a certain distance around the muscular thug but it was too late, the moment Jon and Bale enter the area of danger the muscular thug suddenly boomed in strength as he lifts the steel glaive from the ground and swings it to Bale's right flank, moving at a faster speed than he previously was.

Surprised by the sudden lapse of the muscular thug, Jon quickly swings his sword in an attempt to block the hastened attack by the glaive-wielding thug.

Clang! Two blades collide as sparks of light fly out of the collision, the weight of the glaive overpowered Jon's awkward position pushing him back without much resistance. Using the weight of the glaive, Jon attempts to divert the swing downwards and momentarily kick the thug on the head.

"Pitiful! Struggling to only a brat." Jon feels a cold breeze brushing past his nape and continues his swing towards his back but he does not feel his blade slicing through a body.

As Bale makes another step towards the exit a tall hooded man appears from its side and kicks Bale on the side, pushing both the horse and the child onto the stone wall on the left of them.

Geugh! Bale cries out in pain as its whole body smashes into the stone wall, leaving a four-meter-wide crack.

The tall hooded man takes out a strange black dagger, covered in magic circle-like symbols and some unfamiliar letters, and gives no time for Jon to recover as he suddenly appears beside Jon and attempts to stab through his skull.

Jon barely saved himself from death as he manages to move his right shoulder in the way of the attack. The Third Brother scowled, disappointed that he missed the vital point of the child but a second later he composes himself.

"Shadows of Zakel, strike thee and cover thee in deathly shroud. Abyssal Pulse." The Third Brother chants and suddenly the symbols on the strange dagger glowed in a faint white light and from the guard of the dagger, black blood traces along the symbols on the dagger as it finds its way into Jon's body.

Jon grimaced as he tries to moves his body but it was as if the strange dagger has paralyzed his whole body, struggling to breathe and not being able to utter a word. A moment later, the black blood enters Jon's body and he suddenly feels excruciating pain all over his body, as if he was being ripped apart and being constantly stabbed on every part of his body.

Jon wants to scream but the paralyzing effect of the dagger hinders him from doing anything. The Third Brother then takes out another dagger from his side with the same strange symbols from his dagger that was on Jon's shoulder.

The Third Brother immediately stabs Bale where its heart is near, not allowing any possibility of the horse to do anything to save both itself and its rider. However, as he was about to even touch Bale's hide an invisible hand grabs onto his neck and flings him back to the opposite stone wall.

Boom! The Third Brother was not the only one that was flung away but every member of the Zakelforge divisions was flung back to the opposite side of the alleyway. Not even one of them were able to see who was attacking them nor were they prepared to escape the invisible hand that grabbed them from everywhere.

Few moments later a large group of Rolguards came running into the alleyway and apprehend each thug that was struggling to move after being flung into the stone wall. Behind the Rolguards was an imposing figure wearing a white armor atop a majestic golden-maned muscular warhorse radiating an immense pressure just from their presence alone.

"Martial Master, the child's condition is worsening by the moment." A knight wearing a black-plated armor approaches the imposing figure carrying Jon on his arms, the dagger still attached to his right shoulder.

"The child fought well, quickly take him to the Royal Cleric, he must not die." Each word of the imposing figure seemed to carry tons of weight as he looks at Jon in awe, although they were late to arrive he was able to see from afar how brave this child was against the large number of thugs assigned to kill him.

'Had that Dihartan merchant named Lohan not report of this event, this prodigy's tale could have ended here.' The Martial Master stares into the group of knights hastily carrying Jon to the Royal Cleric's hospice.

After what seemed to be an eternity, a Rolguard Captain kneels before the Martial Master ready to report about the situation.

"Martial Master, thirty-two of the Zakelforge Division thugs were successfully captured but five division captains could not be found, it seems like they sent the hardened thugs just for this child, I do not understand why they had this big operation for only one child." The Rolguard Captain bowing his head anxiously reports before the Martial Master, feeling an immense pressure just being near him.

The Martial Master only nodded in response and urged his intimidating steed towards the Third Brother and orders one of the Rolguards to give him the strange dagger he wielded.

"Yn obdul exis, akos ymis. Language of the Demonaics." The Martial Master reads the symbols and letters written on the blade of the dagger and creases his brow as he gazes at the Third Brother.