The old soldier lost his head.
Adrian held the dagger of instant-killing poison in his right hand with an under-handed grip. The blade's intricate design glimmered faintly, red tinged pink from the blood, encoding the steel itself.
The remaining five soldiers tried to draw their weapons. Adrian's strikes were merciless. He cut through exposed necks and gaps in their armor before they could react.
In a single motion, Adrian seized one soldier's sword and hurled it at the bell on the wall. The steel sliced cleanly, silencing the warning before it could sound.
He ran toward the remaining soldiers, already charging at him in single file. Clashing with precision, Adrian's daggers moved faster than eyes could follow. Cuts, stabs, and slices tore through their defenses.
The bridge had already been drawn back, but Adrian did not falter. He leapt across the trench, landing with both daggers ready.
The dagger of paralyzing poison gleamed purple—light, almost soft, with spiked points tracing the edge. Adrian scaled the wall, each movement calculated, his body a blur of lethal intent.
Adrian cut across the top of the wall, steel flashing in the dying light.
He turned his head, eyes scanning left and right. A swarm of soldiers surged toward him, shouting in panic and rage.
"Kill him! Don't let him escape!"
"Inform the lord! Stop him at all costs!"
Eight more walls loomed in the distance, each with soldiers lined along them. Adrian did not speak; he did not flinch.
A soldier reached him first, swinging a longsword down toward his arm. Adrian shifted his body almost impossibly fast, sidestepping. The dagger in his right hand sliced clean through the soldier's arm, the paralyzing poison taking hold instantly.
Before the man could scream, Adrian shoved the same blade into his neck. Blood spurted, a fine pinkish-red mist mixing with the cold wind.
Another soldier crept from behind. He thought he had the advantage.
Adrian turned with the speed of a striking serpent. The dagger arced diagonally across the soldier's chest, cleaving through the armor as though it were paper.
The man gasped, staggering backward, eyes wide with disbelief.
"By the gods… he moves like a demon!" one soldier shouted, raising his sword.
"Don't let him live!" another screamed, trying to coordinate with his comrades.
Adrian did not wait. With the left-hand dagger, he swept in a low horizontal strike, cutting at knees and exposed joints. Soldiers fell one after another, their shouts ending in muffled gurgles or cries of pain.
"Stop him! Stop him, damn it!" the older soldier barked, trying to rally the remaining men.
But Adrian's movement was fluid, almost impossible to follow. His daggers gleamed, the poisons within them paralyzing, incapacitating, or killing instantly.
A soldier attempted a stab at Adrian's side. Adrian twisted mid-air, diagonal slash through the man's torso, sending him sprawling over the edge.
"Reinforcements! Send reinforcements!" a soldier screamed, fear lacing his words as he stumbled back.
Adrian crouched slightly, daggers poised. His crimson eyes swept the remaining soldiers. None had yet touched him, but he could sense their hesitation, their panic.
He did not speak. He did not falter. Each step was calculated, each strike final.
'This ends quickly,' Adrian thought, feeling the surge of lethal efficiency in his body. 'The rest will fall just as fast.'
The soldiers tightened their circle, trying to flank him, but Adrian was already gone from one spot, appearing diagonally across the line with a new strike.
"Protect the lord! Don't let him reach the castle!"
Adrian's daggers flashed, silver and red, purple and deadly, cutting through desperation and steel alike.
The hood of Adrian's black hoodie obscured most of his vision.
On the second wall, not yet scaled, figures moved. Mages, their hands weaving intricate patterns, preparing spells that could burn a man alive in an instant.
One soldier lunged toward him, putting up a valiant effort. Adrian didn't hesitate.
His paralysing dagger, gripped in his left hand, flashed. The blade cut across the man's wrist. Instantly, the soldier froze, rigid, unable to move.
Using only two fingers, Adrian grasped the hole in the man's arm. He dragged him forward, spinning him to face the incoming flame.
The spell collided with the soldier. Flesh vaporized. A thin curl of smoke rose, and the scent of burning flesh thickened in the air.
'It never ends,' Adrian thought, the weight of inevitability pressing in.
The sky darkened further, thunder carving cracks of sound across the horizon. Lightning traced jagged lines over the walls, illuminating the battlefield in stark silver.
The land beneath shimmered with foreboding shadows. Each flash revealed more soldiers, more targets, all unaware of the storm approaching them.
Adrian stepped forward. Every movement precise. Every breath calculated. The hooded figure moved like a shadow of death, unstoppable, cold, and absolute.Adrian realized these soldiers could not be allowed to return and report.
He accelerated. Each strike of his daggers cut through the ranks in front of him, slicing with precision, leaving paralysis and fear in his wake.
Bolting with jolts of speed, he dodged incoming arrows. Some archers beyond the outer walls had clear shots, but each arrow clanged uselessly off his blades.
With momentum gathered, he leapt toward the next wall, clearing a fair distance without descending or ascending again.
He nearly tumbled over the edge. His dagger rammed into the wall just in time, halting him with a metallic scrape.
The archers couldn't fire now. Adrian's proximity to the mages made their ranged attacks ineffective.
The mages screamed, their spells faltering. Fear twisted their faces; they were not made for close-quarters combat.
Adrian didn't hesitate. He ran again, leaping from wall to wall, blades ready, eyes sharp under the hood.
Each landing was precise. Each movement calculated. He pushed through every defensive layer, up to the ninth wall—the last barrier standing.
The plan had crystallized in his mind: ensure no soldier could retreat, force them back through the layers, and control the sequence of chaos from outer wall to inner.to inner.
The soldiers' shouts echoed across the wall.
Arrows clanged against the stone.
Silver mana pressed against the air, a tense warning meant to intimidate the lone figure advancing toward them.
Adrian did not move.
He slid the paralysing dagger back into its sheath. The left hand was free now.
One soldier broke from the line, screaming curses. His sword swung downward, aimed to cleave Adrian's head in one stroke.
Adrian stepped aside. The blade met only the motionless air.
The soldier stumbled. Adrian's hand was already behind him, grasping the hilt of the instant-kill dagger.
A swift slice.
The blade met the soldier's neck. Blood spurted like crimson mist, drowning the man's scream before it fully left his lips.
His body collapsed, limbs twitching once, twice, and then still.
The remaining soldiers hesitated.
"Step back!" one of them shouted, voice cracking with fear. "He… he is not human!"
Adrian's hooded gaze shifted toward them.
'You should have turned back,' he reflected calmly.
'Now… I give no quarter.'
The soldiers charged.
Adrian moved like a shadow, each step precise, each strike deliberate. Blades flashed in the dimming light.
The instant-kill dagger sliced through a forearm, a shoulder, a throat.
Paralysing poison swept through another, and he crumpled to the ground mid-lunge, screaming silently as his limbs stiffened.
Steel sang against stone.
Each soldier that drew close met the same fate: either struck by poison, cut through unarmored joints, or crushed by Adrian's hand.
The wall was littered with bodies, the air thick with the scent of blood.
Thunder rolled across the skies, and the clouds grew darker, echoing the violence below.
Adrian paused, hood falling over his eyes.
He looked across the layer, noting the next wave approaching from the outer walls.
'Let them come,' he thought.
'All will fall, as they must.'
The clouds thickened above.
Darkness swallowed the wall, shrouding Adrian in shadow.
Arrows hissed past him, slicing the air like silver snakes.
Adrian stooped, plucking fallen swords from the bodies around him. He tossed them toward the archers.
Some ducked in time. Some did not.
The sound of metal piercing flesh cut through the air. Screams echoed from the battlements.
"By the gods! Run!" one archer shouted, eyes wide in terror.
Another staggered backward, holding a bleeding shoulder. "He… he's a demon!"
Adrian did not move.
'They see too much, too little,' he thought.
The next wave of soldiers climbed the wall. Thirty brave souls.
Adrian disappeared beneath a sentinel's platform, enveloped in shadow.
The clouds pulsed, black lightning crackling across the sky.
Inside the darkened cover, screams erupted. Clashing steel rang in short, brutal bursts.
Then silence fell.
Lightning split the sky.
The wall beneath the clouds was illuminated for a single heartbeat.
Adrian stood drenched in blood, clothing plastered to his frame, a soldier's head gripped firmly in his hand.
The light vanished.
A second later, he tossed the head into the darkness.
The remaining soldiers froze.
"W-what… what has he done?" one stammered, trembling.
"He's… he's not human!" another shouted, backing away.
Fear swept through them like wildfire. Every step felt heavier, as if the shadows themselves resisted their movement.
Adrian stepped into one of those shadows, vanishing from sight.
The brave ones who entered were met with screams, steel, and death.
The rest remained on the wall, peering down at the empty darkness.
'Let them feel it,' Adrian thought. 'Let them remember the consequences of stepping into my path.'
Lightning flashed again, illuminating him for an instant. Blood ran down his arms, his clothes darkened with it, and his eyes glimmered crimson under the hood.
And when the light dissipated, he was gone once more.
The soldiers could only tremble.
"F-fall back! Fall back!" one finally cried, voice hoarse with terror.
"Do you… do you think he's still alive?" another whispered, shaking.
'Alive or not… it matters little,' Adrian reflected. 'Fear alone is enough.'
The voice rang out across the wall.
"We do not fall back! We will serve our Lord to our last breath! And he who stands in our way will perish, as those who tried before him!"
Adrian turned his head.
The speaker was tall, broad-shouldered, his armor polished despite the chaos. His presence alone demanded attention.
'Who are you?' Adrian thought, tilting his hood slightly.
It did not matter.
The commanding officer marched forward, dragging the stricken, terrified soldiers with him, forcing them to witness the fear he hoped to crush into them.
"I will slay this cur's waste!" the officer roared, voice like thunder. "You all have failed! Can you call yourselves men who serve our Lord? You should be ashamed!"
Adrian emerged from below the sentinel platform.
Shadows clung to his form, but even in the dim, storm-darkened light, the crimson of his eyes glimmered.
Every movement was deliberate, graceful, yet lethal.
The soldiers froze, even the brave commander faltering.
'So much noise,' Adrian thought, 'and yet so little understanding.'
Lightning split the clouds above, painting the scene in stark, silvery white for an instant.
Adrian's silhouette leapt from shadow to the faint illumination, dagger glinting in his right hand, paralysing poison ready, his left hand holding the other for swift, decisive strikes.
The commanding officer's jaw tightened.
"Face me, demon!" he shouted.
Adrian's hood shifted slightly, obscuring his face entirely.
'Face me? Very well.'
And then he moved.