Under the moon, atop the balcony of the hall Cassian dodged the combined attacks of the three men.
His mana needed some time to recover so till then all he could do was dodge.
But even so he was on edge. He could handle three people but only if they were normal, unlike these assassins who are skilled with weapons and even in magic.
To think they came inside the academy, there's probably a mole among us. While he dodged the strike he thought of how they came inside.
The academy had tight security and the only people who could enter were the students, the professors, parents and lastly the maid or butler and guardian knight deployed by certain houses.
And having assassins no less infiltrate meant only one thing. Someone high in the faculty was involved with this or a student.
Cassian ducked under two strikes and hit the pommel of the sword on the assassin's stomach, but the second one jumped in and blocked the attack.
He frowned, the sound of metal against metal was getting louder and louder as Cassian drew out more of his strength.
Surely someone with hearing sharp enough would've heard this. He swung his sword at the assassin running towards him which was blocked.
From his right and left the other two flanked him, their swords pointed towards his head and stomach, but Cassian jumped in the air, the assassins who were basically ruining couldn't control themselves and smacked into one another so that they could not kill the other accidently.
In the air, Cassian pointed his finger towards the one who blocked his attack and shot a wind bullet point blank.
The man's head exploded cleanly off of his neck, his body fell down limp and Cassian chuckled.
The remaining two stood at a distance, their faces were full of disbelief as someone who was not even a talk among nobles, the youngest son of Count Morrigan, the little lion Cassian Morrigan was capable of all this.
They thought their information was either outdated or outright incorrect. Cassian didn't let them get any further as he covered his legs with mana, made his legs denser in muscle and jumped towards them with his sword covered in aura.
One of them tried to block, but the force and mana behind the strike was too much. His sword shattered as a diagonal cut appeared on the man's chest and he fell down.
Only one remained and that wouldn't be an issue but just as he was about to go for the last one, a thick pungent smell came from the two corpses followed by the sound of hissing.
He looked down at them and a purple mist came out of their bodies, then the purple mist gathered to where the head of the first man was and for the second one on the deep cut on the chest.
'Necromancy!' Cassian thought as the dead men now stood in front of him once more.
The third assassin upon seeing this, grabbed his dagger and drove it in his neck, killing himself so he too could be made into an undead like his peers.
The mage is somewhere nearby, as reanimation is a spell which needs the caster to be close.
Cassian stood among the three undead assassins now, the last one was reanimated as well. He knew that the power level of the undead soldiers of any type depended on the caster and considering he knew nothing about them he raised his sword in front of him.
The floor cracked as the three undead assassins jumped towards him, Cassian blocked and dodged but even then he couldn't come out unscathed.
He raised his arm to block the punch but was launched backwards into a wall. He coughed as he got up.
Blood dripped down his forehead as he grabbed his shoulder and with a pull, set it in its place as the impact had dislocated his shoulder.
This reminds me of old times, my instructor on Earth once dislocated my shoulder to demonstrate how to put it back. Maybe all of the things I did back then were not useless.
As Cassian got ready to continue the undead assassins didn't move from their place at all. Upon looking at them he saw shadow tendrils wrapping themselves around them as footsteps echoed behind Cassian.
The man clapped and he walked, "Cassian Morrigan what a wonderful display. Even elite students cannot hold themselves against three opponents, much less three undead." He said and stood next to him. It was none other than, Edmund Hawthorne.
"It seems some rats made their way inside, good job Cassian for holding on for so long. I suppose a bit earlier you purposefully hit their swords and daggers in a way that produced more sound and would alert someone?" He asked and raised his fist.
Then he moved it backwards as he walked up to the restrained assassins and then punched the middle one. A wave of dense mana erupted from the strike as the undead assassins burst into black flames and burned away, not even leaving any ash.
The remaining two were met with the same fate, Professor Hawthorne had quickly neutralized the situation.
"Cassian, take this." He tossed a small bottle to him, the liquid inside was rather sparkly and shimmering.
Cassian gulped and drank it all, it was a recovery elixir as his depleted mana was back and the throbbing pain in his body subsided.
"Thank you, Professor." He replied as he got up and more faculty members came running into the hall.
But just as they arrived a sudden chill ran down everyone's spine. They looked outside the window as they felt an intense amount of mana being compressed not far away and aimed at this place.
But before they could take an action the spell was fired by the caster. The speed of it was too much and it all happened in a split second, but then the sound of a cane tapping on the ground came.
"Huh, you brats are slow. Is this how the faculty of The Aurelian Imperial Academy act when faced with such a situation? Truly pathetic." The old man with a wrinkled face, blonde hair with white and grey streaks in it and a blonde beard said.
"Even so, who are these fools to attack this academy while I'm still alive. Did they forget about me while I was in seclusion?" He mocked the attackers, his voice was full of disgust.
Even though he wore pristine clothes, befitting of someone with a very high status and his manner of speech was crude and direct.
But even then he walked and stood in front of the window where the spell was coming from. He raised his cane and shattered the glass and looked at the attack coming towards them.
"Hollow the strike, drink the spell,
[Aegis]"
A huge amount of mana burst out from the man and enveloped the area in a condensed barrier. The attack hit and dispersed as if there was nothing.
As Cassian looked at the old man in front of him, the man sighed as one of his hands was still in his pocket.
He turned towards the rest of them as all of them bowed slightly towards him.
"Welcome back Vice-Headmaster, Alister Hawthorne."
Hawthorne? He was related to Edmund but even then Cassian remembered him by another name, the Assassin King, The Black Death.
***
[Chapter 16 - Banquet(5)]