"The child should have not been able to see me much less throw the knife with such force. He should belong to a Path that specializes in detection and explosive force,so he is probably of the Hunter specialization of the Warrior Path. Its not like speed is their strong suit so a bullet should be enough,"
the intruder thought as he took aim and pulled the trigger sending a bullet flying towards Marcus but he dodged to the left at the final few seconds sending the bullet to a nearby house.
"Thank goodness I was observing the twitches on his right hand indicating where the intruder would aim and when he would fire otherwise I would have lead in my head. I have to find a way to end this quickly or else..."
Marcus thought but his thoughts were interrupted by the intruder shooting three more bullets which he narrowly dodged and then heard a clank of something falling on the ground. When he was about to regain his ground and thoughts,he felt a sharp pain striking his face followed by a force that threw him about four meters away from where he stood.
When he looked onward,he saw that the intruder had lowered his foot from a spinning hook kick and assuming a new stance,he disappeared into the shadows reappearing near Marcus and swinging his arm to attempt a right hook but Marcus blocked it with his left arm. Marcus felt searing pain from blocking the right hook but he managed to pull through and grabbed his right arm, caught his collar and did a shoulder throw applying Bone Crusher on his biceps and triceps to provide a devastating hit to the ground but the intruder's body sunk into the shadow puddle that was right under him.
As Marcus was wondering where the intruder went,the intruder resurfaced with a swift uppercut sending Marcus flying and as he was about to crash to the ground the intruder followed up with a upward kick to Marcus' ribs sending him a bit higher before finishing off with an axe kick to the spine causing Marcus' body to hit the ground and bounce once.
Marcus struggled to get up with his entire body covered with blood and briuses and used his abilities to trigger the body to release more adrenaline than usual to keep himself conscious.
"I thought he would put up more of a fight but it seems he neither had the skills nor the endurance to fight me. Though I think I should end this scuffle soon since I am losing a lot of blood and the knife won't do much in blocking blood flow.
"I guess I'll have to paralyse him and take him for questioning,"the intruder thought as he looked at the barely standing Marcus.
"I have to do something about this or else I will die here. Think Marcus, think," Marcus said to himself as he thought of potential solutions until a story that he had never heard before popped up on his mind.
The intruder looked at Marcus and saw that his demeanor and environment changed as if something was filling the very space he was standing in.
"Whatever the brat is planning I have to end it quickly. I hate that I have to use this move on a mere child but I can't afford to take risks," the intruder thought as he said in a language that seemed to stir the night's shadows,"umbra rumpitur."
A mass of shadows collected at the intruder's body and burst outward concealing the entire area with darkness that completely cut off all of Marcus' senses leaving him unaware of anything. Two seconds later the darkness cleared and the first thing Marcus felt was a sharp pain at his liver where a dagger had already been lodged with the intruder holding the handle. The dagger itself had shadows dancing on its cold steel with his blood flowing generously from the stabbed part.
"I'm not done with you yet. Umbra absumo,"the intruder said as the shadows in the dagger gain a sickly purple hue and enters Marcus' body causing all the veins in his body to pop up and gain a purple and black colour following by him collapsing on the ground.
"That should take care of him. The poison that was laced in my dagger should rot his insides in minutes but amplified with my shadows he has no chance at survival. Now to take care of this wound and join Kavus and complete the job assigned to us,"the intruder muttered as he pulled up the carving knife on his left tricep letting blood flow for a few seconds as he retrieved a small bottle containing a pale yellow fluid with green particles which was a healing potion and started drinking it.
As he was about to leave, he had an odd sense of impending danger near him. "Impossible. He couldn't have..."
As he turned his head to look at Marcus' body,he was met with a mass of lead with a diameter of about 12 millimeters and a length of 34 millimeters heading with such force that was far beyond its regular threshold that it caused the intruder's head to blow up upon contact sending blood,skull fragments and brain matter all over the area followed by a resounding gunshot.
Marcus looked at the scene with a gun held at his hand and suddenly threw up with his hands shaking at the thought that he had just taken a person's life. He had seen people die in many gruesome ways but this was the first time he had taken a life. He looked at his body and the sickly colours on his veins had just disappeared leading to him thinking back to what happened a few seconds ago.
...
A few seconds ago, Marcus had decided to execute a move he saw in one of the stories he saw in his Spirit Canvas. In a land far away,a warlock searching for a great treasure had found himself entangled in a battle between a large group of heavily armed bandits. In order to protect himself,he channeled his being into a 'counterpart' that seemed to roam a world where all common sense was abandoned to gain great power. This allowed the warlock to conjure a series of explosions just by releasing the energy gained.
Marcus attempted to replicate this but when he had managed to sense a connection,the intruder attacked him and for a moment he felt that he was about to die. Luckily his skill Lab Rat kicked in almost immediately with Resistance giving him partial immunity against the shadow enhanced poison giving his Adapt time to analyse the poison and develop an antidote which made him recover enough to notice the revolver that was tossed by the intruder and saw it still had two bullets in its chambers. He took advantage of this opportunity and when he saw the chance he seized it and applied Bone Crusher to the bullet ensuring that it was a guaranteed kill.
Marcus stood up and took the bottle containing the healing potion and drank what remained which caused the stab wound at his liver to close up and the rest of his wounds to heal. Marcus searched the intruder's corpse and found a wad of cash,five bottles containing different liquids, an iron case containing twelve bullets and a fake ID.
He took all of what he found along with the dagger and the gun and went back to his room and evaluate everything he got.
"Tonight I have learnt that although I have advanced I am by no means a fighter. I was one more mistake away from losing my life and making my promise meaningless. Next time I should carefully plan my moves or else there will be no such thing as a next time,"Marcus thought as he entered his room.
...
Meanwhile in another part of the neighborhood,the assassin looked terrified and beaten up as he looked at Arbus whose hand was engulfed with yellow flames who came closer and asked,"who sent you?"
The assassin, well aware that Arbus was just promoted to Captain of the 4th Company in the Desert 4 battalion was more than knowledgeable in information extraction, was prepared to tell him,"it's the Blood Iron Order under the commission of..."
The assassin then started to swell and blew up before finishing the statement.
"So the Blood Iron Order is out for me,"Arbus thought as he jumped up and fire erupted from his shoes.
...
Marcus took off his bloodied clothes in order to get rid of it. When he looked at the mirror he saw that his chest had silvery scales.