It was another beautiful morning in Martial Citadel, and I had planned to head to one of the surrounding hills to continue my practice of Yupows new technique.

I only had 2 days left in Martial Citadel and I was determined to make the most out of them.

Soon I arrived at my spot and took a moment to appreciate the gorgeous wilderness that surrounded the City.

I very much enjoyed being outside, and this kind of training was like honey to my lips.

Eventually I got into the rhythm and progressed deep into my training until I was on the verge of making another breakthrough.

But suddenly I felt like something was terribly off.

The surrounding wilderness had gotten too quiet, and the Inner Energy, both outside and within me, had gotten awfully restless and more difficult to control.

Out of nowhere I felt the urge to duck away, and as I did, some of the Inner Energy I was manipulating outside my body, moved in a direction where it seemed to have deflected something.

I was being ambushed and they were going for the kill.

Soon with my crisis amped up senses, I managed to catch more shadows coming at me from the corner of my eyes.

I immediately used as much Inner Energy as possible to jump away, and simultaneously used whatever Inner Energy outside I could control to swipe away in a defensive motion.

The maneuver seemed to work as I emerged unharmed from my compromised position.

But my newfound safety didn’t last long, suddenly even more projectiles were fired towards my direction, and this time I had a harder time evading the shots.

I was being attacked, and as my mind raced to find ways to deal with the situation, I became aware that I only had my Slingshot and some Yellow Inner Focus Seals that I was planning on using to improve my training speed.

Noticing that the situation was dire I took out one of the papers and ripped it up.

Soon I was able to see more clearly the trajectory of the projectiles.

The ammo that was being shot at me was of the Inner Energy type, I was able to discern that with my enhanced senses.

Suddenly I actually started to feel sweat run down my back, I had just escaped death by the skin of my teeth, Inner Energy Projectiles and Weapons were nothing to joke about.

After skillfully dodging the last set of projectiles aimed at me, I positioned my body to grab my Slingshot and respond with a counter attack, but suddenly I heard a scream.

“STOP!!”

I suddenly looked up, and saw a man emerge from the shadows dressed in gray, blue, and black Martial Robes.

His face was scarred, and his hair was thin, but his appearance gave him an aura of a dangerous Expert.

Just as how the man had screamed, so had the attacks on me ceased.

But I knew that was only temporary.

“GUSO!! I Zigif, Advanced Master of the Inner Blade School, Challenge you to a Ranker duel! Get ready to die you scum!”

Suddenly I heard the voice I had heard before in such situations.

“Ranker Guso, you have been Challenged to a Ranker duel by Warrior Zigif, Master of the Dark Inner Blade, the only way out is Death, Mercy, or Glory!”

Soon I realized that this wasn’t some half baked Genius Disciple, the man in front of me was a true Expert, and a powerful Ranker.

Before I knew it the man had jumped forth and closed the distance, I noticed that oddly simultaneously the man seemed to be cutting himself up.

The cuts from his body and face started to leak a blackish liquid, that with the help of Inner Energy surrounded his body, and thereafter two long black blade shapes protruded from his hands.

The Inner Energy master sliced forward, and two waves of Dark looking Inner Energy came rushing straight towards me.

I hastily had no choice but to dodge forward, as the waves were traveling too fast for me to escape.

But that put me in the vicinity of the man's dangerous technique.

Soon two black blades swung towards me, and looked to sever me of my limbs.

Eventually the man managed to successfully cut my chest before I speedily took the opportunity to get out of his range of attack.

But suddenly I felt an intense and terrible pain directly come from the cut in my chest, thankfully my body reacted accordingly as I felt most of the Inner Energy within my body do its best to push it out.

This kind of technique and pain experience was new to me.

***

“Are you terrified worm?! Behold my school's Forbidden Technique, Dark Inner Blade, this is the power of Shadow Inner Energy!”

The man in front of Guso was Ranked D in the Seeiers list, and he was a cruel and evil man.

His Organization in general also didn’t have a great reputation.

The Inner Blade School of Inner Martial Arts was known to engage in practice of Forbidden Techniques, the infamous Shadow Inner Energy Arts, which were looked down upon.

It was for this reason that despite them technically being an Inner Energy School they were left out from the Inner Focus Alliance.

The grudge they held towards Kemoro was much too deep for it to go away because of some good deeds from his disciple, and if anything, during the past few months and weeks their grudge had only deepened.

Kemoro was the culprit who had crippled their Schools once in a lifetime Genius Disciple, and ruined any plans for their school to rise in power.

Not only that, ever since the arrival of his disciple, plans to take their vengeance only kept on getting thwarted again and again, either by Yupow or the Mayor himself.

They were ready to cut their losses, especially with the advent of Focus Shard Technology, but their Organization found itself getting snubbed again and again in any major dealings that happened on the subject.

As other Organizations rose dynamically in power, they struggled to keep up.

Soon they saw the collapse of their Organization not too far away.

It didn’t help that they were Practitioners of Forbidden Techniques, that although not illegal, were deeply rejected by the Martial Community.

And so they decided to take matters into their own hands, their primary objective was to capture Guso and squeeze his Focus Shard secrets out of him, but if that failed, then they would kill him and quench their thirst for vengeance with his blood.

Zigif was the one they trusted with the task, in conjunction with the other Organizations, as he was an experienced assassin, and a seasoned ‘Ranker Noob Hunter’.

Even if a higher Rank challenged a low Rank, the benefits were still many; although many times smaller than winning over a higher Rank, one's rank would still increase just through sheer improvement of duel and combat record.

You also eliminated a potential threat early.

And loot and benefits from slaying said Rankers was always appealing.

Most of the high to mid tier Rankers, who where stuck and couldn’t move up, would become these so called ‘Noob Ranker Hunters’.

They infested the low rankings, but also became gate keepers of the higher Ranks.

Zigif, although not a publicly declared hunter, enjoyed these sort of activities as a low level D class Ranker, and also felt threatened by Guso’s rise and his Master's warning.

He was jealous and envious of Gusos sudden rise, popularity, and growth in strength compared to his own stagnation, and so hated him.

And so he happily volunteered to be the one to end Guso’s career early with his own hands.

Guso’s enemies knew Ranker Duels could not be denied in front of witnesses or else your Rank would suffer, and would be considered a loss, so Guso would be less likely to evade.

You also could be attacked regardless, and enter battle without the full Ranker benefits one received during a duel, which unknown to most people were actually many, and so they could enact their sneacky assasination attempts during the match.

And up to that point they had been right, Guso felt like he had no choice but to accept, for that was the path he had chosen.

But the Inner Blade Master had forgotten that a Ranker Duel was unlike a Martial Duel; the only rule was survival, so Guso had all his tools at his disposal.

And right now Guso, with the help of his Yellow Seal, had already fully analyzed the situation.

He knew he was surrounded, and that they were just waiting for the right opportunity to attack.

***

I saw as the Inner Blade Master showed off his School's sort of grotesque Martial Arts, as he combined his body’s bodily fluids with his controlled Inner Energy for a deadly Martial Style that completely enveloped his body.

Manny bladelike structures started to protrude from his body one by one and some even started to fly around him.

His excellent control of Inner Energy actually had me worried for a little bit.

But thankfully I had decided to do some Slingshot practice today.

“Are you nervous? Don’t worry if you let me cut off your legs and arms, and come peacefully with me, we might actually let you live hehehe.”

I immediately knew what they were after.

They were after my Focus Shard secret, it seemed the unwanted attention had arrived.

“Keep on dreamin, you and your friends have made a grave mistake, you are still acting as if this was a Martial Duel when in fact this is a Ranker Duel, Behold! My awesome Marksmanship!”

I immediately reached for one of my pouches, it was Dark Bullet, I was worried about the Inner Energy surrounding him somehow blocking the shot, so I decided to use something similar to his Shadow Inner Energy, in an effort to avoid failure.

I had no idea if my train of thought had any merit, but at the current instance I couldn't afford to doubt myself.

Seeing that I was going to counter attack, Zigif plunged forward at breakneck speeds.

But it was too late, I was now a formidable Martial Artist, who was also a Practitioner, and was currently augmented by my Yellow Seal.

My movement was flawless, efficient, and quick.

I remembered what Kemoro had once taught me before.

“In Martial Arts and in a battle of life and death Speed! Speed is everything!”

The Dark Bullet flew aimed straight at his right lower leg, against my better judgement I had decided to spare him.

Before he could even consolidate his attack, the bullet flew straight into his leg and never came back out.

Instantly he was knocked off balance and flew many meters away.

With my enhanced senses I could see a terrifying phenomena manifest.

All his shadow Inner Energy was being absorbed by a dark spot in his leg.

Before I could witness the fate of the man, I detected movement from surrounding Inner Energy signatures.

They were going to strike again, but I wasn't going to let them.

It was obvious that they had been stunned with how things had turned out, and so had hesitated for a moment.

For these guys I decided not to have any mercy, those who hide in the shadows can stay in the shadows.

I effortlessly reached for another pocket and shot my shot.

Homing Shot, the perfect Shot for this occasion.

As soon as I let it go, the shot flew straight into one of the attackers skulls, exited, and proceeded to do the same with his adjacent partner, and then the next, all in a curving trajectory.

In a mere instant two thirds of the assassins were vanquished.

The rest of the assassins freaked, and one even screamed in fright, and fled away in opposing directions.

For a while the hillside turned eerily quité, until I heard a subtle sound like if someone was moaning, or trying to scream, but couldn’t.

In the distance I saw a black flash, for an instance, before it disappeared.

I walked towards the direction of the flash, and saw Zigif laying strewn out on the floor wretched, with both of his legs blown out, looking as if he was 100 years older.

With my enhanced Inner Energy Senses I could more or less tell what had happened, most if not all of his Inner Energy had been drained, except for a dark stain right in the spot where his legs used to be.

It seemed the bullet had drained all of Zigofs Shadow Inner Energy away, before it vanished away with a violent explosion that took out his legs and lower body.

It was a wonder he was still alive.

The Slingshots ammo was not to be messed around with.

I had done it, I had survived the assassination attempt, and lived to see another day.