'Til Kingdom Comes - The Banished Prince Vol 3: The Prophecy

Assassin's Dance

I had my eyes closed all this while and I could see the bare-fisted Assassin before me. He raised his fist in a boxing type of stance and I watched his feet as he quickly shuffled it and was ready to shift and deliver his pinches towards me.

I hopped around a bit and then I stood still at my spot as I concentrated my whole weight in my right leg as I relaxed the other. I raised my hands in front of me and held an open palm stance that surprised the Assassin before me.

He never knew that I would enter such a stance and knew that an open palm would normally incur more injuries than not. Seeing an opening he lunged forward and delivered a series of punches they aimed towards my head, chest and abdomen.

With my open palms, I managed to parry his first few punches and the palms that I held before him looked like a beak as I used the upper wrist to block his punch that was directed towards my face.

The punch was diverted upwards while the other punch that was directed towards my chest was held down by my left palm instead. A front kick was administered but the Assassin was quick and parry it with a kick of his own as he jumped back in surprise.

He didn't know that I would be moving with such speed but little did he knew they everything in my sight was living at a slow-motion speed...!

The front kick had little power but normally used to make the opponent become off guard. Soon, a bare-fisted fight turned into a flurry of kicks that was soon sent to my direction.

I grappled the leg of the Assassin and a look of horror flashed through his eyes as I made a downward palm strike right at the side of the right knee when I managed to grapple his leg during one of his attacks.

It was a simple palm strike but the impact and force were very damaging as my palm could be considered as a heavy blunt object as it crashed at the side of the knee.

(In other terms, it's called a lambchop where law enforcers would deliver a horizontal strike at the knee to bring the assailant to their knees without breaking any bones whatsoever. The force of the baton against the side of the knee would be considered a sure stopper for anyone who opposes the law and quickly brings them to their knees.)

I threw the leg that I had grappled earlier and this made the Assassin swerved around in his other leg like a ballerina before he fell to the mat. He tried to stand up but his right leg refuses to cooperate and he soon had to leave the ring by rolling in the mat right to the sides.

It seems that I had sent another Assassin out of commission by delivering such a simple palm strike on the side of the knee. Tchick... Tchick... Tchick... This Majesty is a bit cruel, don't you think?

Two down and two to go. One was wielding a wooden sickle while the other was holding to two curved wooden daggers. It seemed that the one on one wasn't going to work further and so it would be a good idea to strike at the same time towards some.

I taunted the two Assassins and since I was playing as a heel, the spectators screamed their enthusiasm as they watched how I teased the two of them into attacking me together.

I danced around the ring and the two Assassins were assessing on how to take me down with just the weapons in their hands.

They knew that even if its weapons were made of wood, it would surely have a significant impact if they were to strike a non plated armour like what we were all wearing at that time...!

I heard the spectators screaming the word 'Mantis... Mantis... Mantis...' as it slowly turned into a chant.

The sickle attack came and I once again swerved about to avoid being hit. Both of the opponents before me had full health hovering above their heads and I knew that a few direct hits from me would be able to incapacitate them and rendered them to be out of commission soon.

I myself had no weapons so I had to rely on my punches and kicks to party their attacks and right now all I could do was to entertain the crowd and at the same time to see how my other techniques and moves would benefit me.

A mistake...! The Assassin had performed a lunge with his sickle raised high above his head and I took the opportunity to move sideways and towards his body. I cover the distance in a flash as I gripped the sickle by his hands and at the same time used an elbow to strike his chest.

He lost his breath for the moment and stumbled back and the twin wooden daggers came in for the attack. I had no weapons for chrissake... How am I going to block this crazy twin dagger attacks...?!

The daggers were crisscrossing before me and if its a pair of real twin daggers, it would be able to cut me down in an instant for sure...!

I managed to swerve being hit and suddenly I made a sidestep and appeared at the wielder's back. He wasn't able to turn and face me back in time but I had already leapt up and had performed a scissors neck hold using my legs and flipped him across the mat to the other end of the ring...!

I didn't know how I did that move but it was a reflex and somehow it managed to disarm the opponent. The Assassin looked in surprise at my attack and never expected it at all. The sickle wielder had managed to catch his breath once again and rushed in, smashing his sickle horizontally this time since he had learnt of his mistake.

I was jumping back a step when the sickle wielder advances.

I then saw an opening.

I reached out when the sickle had swiped across me.

I held it in my hands as I sidestepped by him.

I held the wooden sickle in my hand that he was holding tightly.

With the momentum, I was already behind him and I held the sickle on his neck.

That wooden sickle was just a prop but I hit the back of his neck.

The blood flow to his brain stopped momentarily.

He slumped to the mat and fainted.

Never let your back unguarded...!

The crowd cheered when they saw that I had defeated yet another opponent and now the wielder of the twin daggers saw that his buddy had slumped to the floor and knew that he was the only one left.

Being a twin blade wielder, these Assassins were known to enter the battlegrounds, strike hard at their enemies swiftly with deadly precision, and then fall back to safety to engage in a long-range offence.

They would engage repeatedly through the confusions of the battlefront and would stop only if their offences were not of much use at super close quarters. Being hit by one of the Assassins was like being intimately engaged by the Reaper themselves.

It was like a date with Death itself...!

I picked the wooden sickle with the long handle and found that there was no ball of chain at the end of it. Only the real thing would have that and I swung the sickle in my hand by twirling it for a few times with a flick of my wrist.

The Assassin had brought his body close to the gravity as he wielded the twin daggers before me. He sneered through his half mask as he held both of the daggers diagonally with one another. Even he knew who his opponent was since this is a no-holds-barred battle, no one is a friend and only foes in the ring.

He ran forward brandishing the twin daggers in front of him, going for the kill, like what he had used to be doing before.

He kicked his legs as he ran forward, his body almost perpendicular to the ground.

I watched how he ran and I calculated the angle of attack as well as his intended aim with his twin daggers.

Just as he was nearing me, I ran forward too and it seemed that I would be clashing with him head-on.

The sickle was held by my right hand and was slightly places away from my body and my left arm was shielding my face.

A few inches more, and I suddenly flipped through the air in a tight roll.

The Assassin knew what I would be doing and slashed upwards, intending to 'cut' me down with his wooden twin curbed daggers.

I saw the trajectory of the blade and as I flipped above him, I slashed the sickle down hard and it clanked loudly across the whole Coliseum.

It seemed we were equally matched in this round and no one would want to yield to o e another.

I could almost hear Heather screaming through the boxed seating for me to 'KILL... KILL... KILL...' and I laughed out to myself at how my sweet young wife could be so vicious while watching the silly wrestling match before her. Hahaha.

I dropped on the other side and we both happened to lock our weapons in place. When the sickle landed, I used its momentum to flip right over and was close to the ground like how the Assassin was before me.

Hey, I was also an Assassin, remember?

We ran again towards each other as we kicked at the ground to propel us forward.

The twin daggers had an advantage which would be able to parry at the same time before being used to perform an offensive attack with the other dagger.

A sickle would only be used to cut down the stalks of the crops once their spikes had been removed... Hahaha.

It would not be a good offensive weapon since its considered as a farmer's tool, much like the pitchfork, the spade (some call it a garden hoe) and even a humble garden rake.

One dagger was aimed at my throat once more and I parry it with the sickle on my hand and I knew another dagger would come by me in a second or two.

It did and the dagger struck at my sides as the Assassin shouted "EVISCERATE" but somehow the armour I was wearing stopped the advances of the wooden dagger from harming me.

I was surprised at the shout and lost my thoughts and concentration momentarily as another flurry of attacks came when the sickle I was holding was knocked back.

The Assassin flipped above me.

He intends to get to my back since he saw me a bit stunned earlier.

"ON YOUR KNEES"

"CRITICAL STRIKE"

The moment the Assassin shouted the first sentence, I somehow felt that a hex had fallen on me as I fell back on my knees and seemed that time had stood still.

My armour had a lot of resistance against poison, cold and elemental attacks but it was not made to resist hexes and spells...!

During that time, I somehow listened to shouts and realised something... This Assassin knew about these shouts and skills and somehow managed to reveal it to me in this kind of fight.

I was hexed and my movements were 33% slower. That's that Ceres sounded in my mind.

My back was exposed.

I can't stop the next flurry of attacks.

The wooden daggers stuck me for a full 10 seconds, hitting close to all my vitals from the back of my neck right to my kidneys.

If this was a real blade, I would be done for...!

A thought flashed through my mind.

Who is this Assassin and how he knew about the skills and shouts?

Did the Shadow Guild teach these Assassins before?

As I was slumped forward, bearing the brunt of the attacks aimed at my back, a kick suddenly landed on the back of my neck and this made me nearly lose my consciousness.

The hex had made me feel sluggish and moved like a bloody snail.

I wished to become stronger...!

I staggered to my feet but my legs refused to listen to my brain commands as I nearly slumped forward once more.

My head was held in a lock as the wooden dagger danced across my neck as of a real blade was decapitating me.

I raised my hands to stop from being decapitated but it was too late as I had lost the match. Hurr Hurr... Well, I need to train up more, I guessed.

The crowd went wild and they cheered as they saw the Black Mantis finally succumbed to the final Assassin as I was literally thrown back like a rag doll as I watched the sky turning into a shade of reddish hue.

Gah...what a bummer. But at least it was something successful. I had to get stronger and be who I was before and being an Assassin seems extremely risky since its a super close-quarter combat...!

The ring announcer leapt to the ring and raised the Assassin's arm high in the air as I catch my breath and slowly sat up.

A hand quickly came in front of me and I grabbed it and it pulled me to my feet.

"Good show, Your Majesty. You need to train harder than you seemed to be. A sickle may not be a weapon of your choice but I'm sure you may want to experiment on different types of weapons as well."

"By the way, your new armour looks cool on you. Hahaha...!" the Assassin laughed at me and I found his voice rather familiar. It was Eagle himself...!

My very own professor from York's University, my own personal guard and confidant and my friend and advisor that had been with me since the early days...!

I didn't realise it was him at all and I wrapped my hand over his shoulder as we both raised our hands towards the spectators.

"How are the guys that were brought to the hospital? They would not be out of action for long, right? I'd be visiting them soon. I really didn't manage to control my force at that time."

Eagle looked at me through his half mask and laughed at me. It seemed that I'm still a bit soft-hearted and was emphatic to the guys that had his arms broken and one that got knocked out cold.

Eagle punched my chest in a friendly manner and told me, "Have no compassion for your enemies. You have to hit first in order not to be hit. Avoid all their attacks and work on your defences and offenses at the same time. You need to have a heart made of stone at times, Your Majesty..."

I laughed and seemed that I need to work on that too as well. If I'm too soft, I would be easily overrun.

"That was a great Assassin's dance, Your Majesty. We can be sparring partners if you wish. Just have a small arena and we could be chasing each other around it. Hahaha." Eagle suggested to me and that's what I had in mind too.