“Alarm! Sound the alarm! Assassins are attacking!” While he was still several hundred meters away, Nick was already screaming.

The bored and sleepy guards were instantly woken up. Although they didn’t see anyone yet, they recognized the voice and knew that although this kid liked to joke around and prank, he was definitely not stupid enough to joke about assassins in the palace.

A loud horn instantly broke the sweet dreams of palace residents and a moment later palace bells woke up the whole city. Although Aurora was a peaceful city, the country has been in wars for centuries and almost every family had someone who has been in the army. It was like a huge switch was turned on and not only the palace, even the whole city lit up almost like it was already daytime.

It took only few moments for that to happen, but the palace guards on duty already saw Nick running.

“Assassins in the forest and may be already in the palace. Quick! Help uncle Ben, he is fighting two Qi masters!” Nick shouted, turned around and dashed back towards the woods. He knew the guards would follow or send a squad to follow him. The man who was chasing him most likely had already turned back, and, even if Ben was still alive while stalling the two Qi masters, he definitely won’t be able to hold off three.

What Nick didn’t know was the protocol in Aurora city for such cases of emergency. Although the palace lately has not seen multiple assassins attacking at the same time, it didn’t mean defenders didn’t know what to do. Every military personnel in the city was instantly ready and stationed on their preassigned posts to catch the criminals. Although they were against Qi masters, Aurora’s citizens were in large numbers.

All the palace gates and entrances were instantly sealed, the guards in squads swept the territory and buildings looking for suspects. Suddenly inside the palace appeared the usually invisible Qi masters with swords in their hands. Some already had met the enemy and their swords were dripping with blood.

Queen Hua and his majesty also met in the hallway, both had bloody swords and even some blood was splashed on their clothes. They nodded to each other and darted in the opposite directions. To her big relief Hua saw Ling with his sword drawn standing before Zia’s bed – no one has attempted to near her.

“Mom, help Nick! Please! He is alone in the woods! Please!” Zia’s shouted as she ran into her mother’s arms.

Hua was startled for a second and then smiled.

“Ling, you go and check on him. I’ll stay here.” Queen commanded. She didn’t know if Nick was in danger and if there were assassins in the woods or only in the palace. But if he was in danger, besides her and king Alexander the only person who could manage to get to that kid on time was Ling.

At this moment Nick was almost at the small lake again. He saw in the distance the spot where the Qi master had fallen in and grinned. But then got serious again and focused Qi in his feet.

‘Damn you, old man! You better be alive! If only I was as fast as elder Sonor!’ Nick thought while his feet where knocking on the thin ice. He grabbed his dagger in the hand and tried to run even faster. His feet were hurting, but he didn’t pay attention to it. His only thoughts were about that old man who in this world was almost like a family to him.

When Nick neared the spot he left Ben earlier at, he saw a bloody sight. Ben was still standing, but covered in multiple wounds and bleeding all over. Even his face had several cuts and looked extremely terrifying. His left hand was lifelessly hanging from the shoulder and he barely could hold his sword. The assassin Ben injured earlier in the leg, was now dead on the ground and even their leader had a wound on his chest.

But at this moment Nick saw the Qi master that was chasing him earlier attacking Ben from the side.

“No!” Nick screamed and tried to stab the Qi master although he was almost twenty meters away. The only thing Nick felt before passing out was extreme burning pain in his own feet and his dagger plunging into the Qi master’s neck.

Nick woke up with a loud grunt. His feet were burning with pain, however it was not as bad compared to what he experienced in the Holy Order. He was lying on a clean bed in a bright room with white walls.

“Nicky!” familiar voice shouted and he felt Zia falling on his chest and almost crushing him.

“Are you trying to kill me? You’re suffocating me!” He complained.

“You stupid goblin! I was so worried! When Ling brought you back I thought you were dead!” Zia had tears in her eyes, but pretended to be angry.

“Ling?” Nick got confused, then suddenly remembered what transpired in the woods, “Where is uncle Ben? Is he ok?” He tried to get up, but was unable because Zia was still hugging him while lying on his chest.

“He’s right there, doctor Marbel said he should be fine.” Zia finally released Nick and pointed to the side.

Nick looked to his right and saw Ben unconscious lying on another bed next to him, “Thank god!” he exclaimed.

“Hahaha, Ling, he thinks you’re a God!” Zia started laughing.

Her mood never stopped changing.

‘Ling? Did he save us?’ Nick was trying to gather his thoughts while attempting to sit up.

He looked around – they were in a spacious bright room with a big window. There were only two beds and a couple of chairs. Nick could finally take a better look at Ben who was all bandaged like a mummy. Only his nose was visible and a small opening for his mouth, it was clear that he had a terrifying fight.

Nick turned to Ling, “Thank you. It looks like you saved us.”

Ling just shook his head.

“I know you don’t like to talk, but could you please make an exception this time and brief me on what happened?” Nick asked.

Ling looked at the kid for a moment and then explained after softly sighing, “Nothing happened. I was tasked to make sure you are safe, but when I finally caught up I only saw you killing one of the Qi masters. The other one noticed me and tried to run and after I took care of that I brought you two back to place. That’s basically it.”

Nick’s brain blanked out for a second, ‘What? I killed one of the Qi masters? How? And Ling was tasked to guard me? It was most likely Zia who asked to check on me when she was already safe.’

“How did you do that?” This time Ling’s voice was not that silent, “How did you manage to instantly step behind the Qi master to kill him from sixteen and a half meter distance? I have seen few similar moves, but none were this effective and performed by a puny Qi practitioner. Oh right, the Qi burst that you performed using that move ruptured you feet. It is wonder you even have them and it is even bigger wonder your Qi pathways are only slightly damaged.”

Nick thought for few minutes, “I’m not really sure. I think I used this move I saw in Holy Order, but I shouldn’t be able to perform it before I become a Qi master and practice for a long time. I can tell the details to you later if you like, but it involves practicing several Qi techniques and a peculiar Qi meditation. I don’t think you will want to change the ones you are using now.”

“You stupid goblin! If you can’t use a move, then don’t! Otherwise how can we train if you don’t have any legs!” Zia was angry again.

“Hahaha!” Nick started laughing, “Even if I had to loose my legs again, I wouldn’t even bat an eye if it could save uncle Ben. Thank you, Ling, for bringing him back!”

Nick was really happy. Although his body was sore and his feet were hurting a lot, Ben was alive and they would patrol woods soon again.

“How is he?” Nick suddenly heard king’s voice. To Nick’s big surprise the king himself stormed in, still in a shirt that was colored with a few splashes of blood.

“Stable. Doctor was not certain if he will be able to use his left arm, but we will see it in the next few days.” A guard standing at the door respectfully reported.

“Sigh, it looks like I owe him another big favor … again.” King sighed. Then he looked at Nick, “Since you have woken up, I want to hear your report in detail.”

“Yes, you majesty! Actually there is nothing much to report. We went out for our usual hunt, noticed two dead guards and were surrounded by four assassins. Ben shot one dead on the spot and wounded another. He tasked me to inform the palace and I did so. Then I ran back and now I am here.” Nick gave a short version of transpired events, “Your majesty, if I may ask, Ben is not really a simple hunter, is he?”

“Sigh.” After a long pause King spoke again, “You are correct, Ben isn’t a simple hunter. In fact, our kingdom had a huge debt to him already before this incident.”

King sat down and continued his story, “As you know, we are fighting Sand and Lori kingdoms all the time and the small skirmishes are common. But almost twenty years ago we were in an active war. There is a town, south, close to the border with the Sand kingdom – Lizia – where we had garrisoned several thousands of our troops. One night several dozens assassins of Qi master level sneaked in and stealthily butchered our officers without anyone noticing. Ben was still a common soldier at the time, but since he was a good hunter, he was allowed to hunt in his free time. In the early morning when he returned to the camp he noticed tracks of assassins and sounded the alarm. Several of them were caught, but most escaped and the whole garrison was left without any leadership.”

“At the same time enemy forces made a direct front line attack. It just happened so that Ben Donnel, still being a common soldier, took the command over these thousands of soldiers and managed to hold off the attackers who continuously assaulted the city in waves for over fifteen days. I was still a prince at the time and was on my way with reinforcements. When we finally arrived, there were only less than three hundred soldiers left on the city walls, all of them covered in blood and many crippled. They hadn’t slept or eaten for days and barely could stand. Under the city walls there were piles of stinking, rotten corpses of the Sand kingdom’s attackers. I commanded our cavalry to attack and we managed to clean up the exhausted Sand camp in under an hour. It turned out that, while defending, our side had already driven the attackers into despair and it took very little to break them.”

King stood up and went to Ben’s side, “Of course, all of those remaining men are heroes, but the biggest credit goes to this man who, while being a simple soldier, managed to rally and lead everyone to a victory. Even though he lost his family during the Lizia’s siege, he still didn’t falter and kept going. I would never be able to understand the pain he was in. And now … he saved us … again!”

King looked at the stunned Nick, “It was I who tasked him with the Royal wood’s supervisor’s duties and, even if it was a carefree job for a retired soldier, he knew that his main task always has been tracking of possible enemy movements within the forest. If not for him, well, and not for you as well this time, the twenty odd Qi masters who sneaked in to the palace would have done a terrifying damage. Because you sounded the alarm shortly before their attack had to start, they got surprised, tried to retreat and only few dozen of our people got hurt. Of course, it would have been different if these Qi masters would have gone all out and tried to kill someone before dying themselves. This time they sneaked in the palace not to assassinate me, but to butcher those who don’t cultivate!”

“But how did they get in through the perimeter? Even if they were Qi masters …” Nick was confused.

“They used some kind of paralytic gas to get through the guard squads stationed in the north and their cloth was covered in some powder that seemed to hide their Qi fluctuations, but we are not sure regarding the last one since it evaporated soon after.” King shook his head.

“Oh, I think I can help you with that.” Nick said and both, the king and Ling, got surprised, “I am currently working on this recipe I found in the sect’s books.”

“Alright. I didn’t ask you this before, but situation is a bit different this time. I want you to lend all the books that you have left in your possession regarding alchemy to doctor Marbel and any other to the head of intelligence Den. Let them go through and see if you have missed any valuable information. Looks like besides Sand and Lori Qi masters the Holy Order also had their hand in this.” King instructed.

“Will do, your majesty.” Nick nodded.

“Now then, get well soon. And don’t think you can postpone your task because of this event! Also, let me know when Ben wakes up.” The last sentence King said to the guard at the door as he left the room.