When Master Ezio approached the corpse to pick up the peculiar magical item, as soon as his hand reached out, it was grabbed by the body, which was stuck to the wall. His reaction was a great fright, followed by a quick attempt to pull his arm to free himself from the hand grabbed him, but it was like the claw of a strong monster. He felt a great pain in the muscles of his wrist, and the bones in that place began to crack with the force of the grip.
Seeing the other hand, trying to grab his body this time by the neck, he did something that not even Rafael expected. An ice spear spell was fired towards the body still stuck to the wall, followed by a quick cut, amputating his arm at the elbow with a long dagger. The spell cast at such close range penetrated Rafael's heart, leaving another even larger hole next to the spear.
As Master Ezio's body jumped inhumanly and flew away again into the sky, he observed his target, who should have been dead by now, with a much more serious look. He then saw Rafael move his hands and use his great strength to remove the spear that was pinning him to the wall, then he also removed the ice spear that was lodged in his heart.
Master Ezio then asked a question that had crossed his mind:
"Necromancer?"
As the two holes in Rafael's chest closed at a frightening speed, he looked at the man in the sky and said:
"Something like that... You gave up on your arm pretty quickly, I guess you're not very good at close combat, are you?"
When Rafael finished his question, the firearm on the ground disappeared along with the man's arm, going straight to his inventory. The man saw how far they were from his "bag" and didn't know how he did it. At that moment, seeing that his target was also not affected by the poison in the spear, he climbed even higher, intending to flee the place by flying quickly.
But Rafael did not plan to let the Master Assassin go so easily. His right hand, which was still holding the enormous spear, gripped the handle firmly and threw it, making maximum use of his great strength, towards the flying Master. The spear narrowly missed, even grazing one of his arms. This threw frightened Master Ezio so much that he gave up on gaining more altitude and began to fly away.
Seeing this, in a final gesture, Rafael drew his pistol again and fired, this time hitting the target in the back, only to see the bullet ricochet off his cloak. After sighing, he put his pistol away, it seemed that the time of these companions was over. Besides, it was good that Master Ezio fled, since this was just his blood clone.
With no spells and using only a few level 5 artifacts, all his clone had was great strength, powerful regeneration, and many immunities. Furthermore, not being able to fly in the skies was a great weakness that even Rafael's real body could not overcome. "Flying" was an advanced-level spell that involved at least 3 different common spells, and only a few affinities had such a combination. He would need to get his hands on a Relic with such a spell or wait a few more years until he mastered the superior version of flying that the fire element possessed.
When Rafael returned, he did not go to the Yin Yang Tower and instead changed direction to the small Tower of the Sages. He was worried about everyone. If anyone else was targeted by a Master, then the situation could be much worse than he anticipated…
Even with the warning from the Dark Alliance, a hidden partner that the Order of Sages paid bribes to every year, the losses suffered by the Order were considered substantial, considering the number of assassins sent. There were at least three organizations involved in this coordinated attack. Some civilians who worked for the Order were also caught in the middle of the fight against the assassins.
The use of the Mage-Slaying Arrows was something that no one anticipated. These artifacts were rare even in Asshai, and everyone had a negative impression of such an item. The artisans who manufactured the infamous item in the city were always targeted by several mages, and there were even bounties on their heads. Although such an arrow could not take the lives of powerful apprentices and Masters, it was still very lethal against average apprentices. The use of a powerful poison made the mage-killing arrow even more lethal. And this time, nine apprentices of the Order of Sages lost their lives…
Vitarys was watching several reports that arrived with a grim face. He already knew who had died during these attacks through the signs of life, but reading the description of how they died was even worse. In more than half of the reports, the name Mage-Killing Arrow appeared. As he read again the report of one of the assassins who managed to escape, Rafael entered the room. He only nodded slightly to Vitarys before stopping in front of the glass where the signs of life were. Vitarys saw him clench his fists in anger at the sight of the dead and asked him for the report:
"Tower Master, we were attacked by at least three assassination organizations: Dark Alliance, Death Lords, and the last one that has not yet been identified seems to be a new group. Furthermore, this last unidentified organization was the one that used the Mage-Slaying Arrows and was responsible for the deaths of five apprentices.
Among the dead are: Little Liu and his parents, Marvirys, Old Yan, Jayme, Madam Luna, Madam Ellania, and... Ted.
There was substantial damage to the Sage Store and other towers. Among the injured is Yun Hai's brother, who miraculously survived the poison of the Mage-Slaying Arrow, due to a dark plague pill his brother had. Liza and Zaya are currently treating him, but it will take a few days for them to completely get rid of the severe side effects of the pill. There were also three civilians accidentally killed during the assassinations, two of whom were children who traveled with us when we came to Asshai. One of them was Zhang's former squire…
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Special thanks to Patreons:
Sage's Supporter: Jan, Vinnie, frimorigo, Leery Falcon, Parsa, Scott Robertson, and Pato Senalima!
Magical Apprentice: Axel Bour, Gabriele Sulpizio, Takatchi, mandeep singh, Austin, and Kobe Robertson!