Arc 1 (Conception): (36) Night of Slaughter
After watching dead bodies of gang members made into human-shaped cheese and knife on his neck, the thief has lost his wit. He started to cry and was begging for mercy. Soon, he was ready to do anything for a sliver of hope. Thanks to that, it did not take long for us to get all the information he has as an ordinary member and joined his friends. Slaves checked for any useful item on them and got 5 knives, 2 swords, 20 silver, and 35 copper coins. But all their clothes or any other thing on them was now useless due to our reckless attack.
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Two days ago, on the night of the day, I returned to Merata village, Gabber, the leader of the Chor gang, was visiting one of the Gupta Noble House's mansion while cleverly hiding his husky figure under the darkness to give a regular update to his employer about sector-34 and get money for the operation.
But his employer was not happy with the report as Zuya house's progress in rising power was stabilizing their position much faster than they were managing to destabilize them. It might soon become impossible to hope to get sector-34 if destabilization of sector-34 did not proceed more quickly.
So, his employer gives more gold this time and is expected to kill some people and merchants in sector-34 to spread horror and scare ordinary people still living there. But when this employer was suggesting the killing of people or merchants, Gabber has perfect candidates to create chaos in sector-34. Therefore, he ordered all his gang members to target the slaves of Merata Wild Meat Shop to bring back their master for the hunt.
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Listening to the heinous plan of Gabber and his employer was not pleasant for me. Since the Chor gang was planning to kill my slaves and me to just make an example for others. My blood was boiling from anger, 'Want to kill my slaves? Want to kill me? Then don't blame me about what I am going to do.'
I silently took out my dagger from my belt, and a hint of killing intent was raised with it. I remember the first day my shop opened, and these fuckers attacked my shop, broke things, and spouted bullshit.
So, they see us only as disposable mobs, then they should be ready to be mobbed now by us in exchange. Tonight, none of them would escape this city alive.
My blood boiled for the second time since I stopped seeing Zuya when she left the village to be someone else concubine. They threatened to kill my family then, and now the Chor gang was also daring to repeat that.
I would no longer succumb to the fear of losing someone and let these scums do what they liked. Indeed, I have given up on fleeing the moment these Chor gangsters have my bottom line. I only wanted to know the truth behind these attacks from Gabber and his employer. Who was actually the employer?
We moved from the location made the street as clean as usual, it was after storing all the things related to this event in my space ring.
...
That night, we followed the thief's given path to reach the Chor gang's hideout and was greeted by a relatively small street in the slum area of sector-34, a perfect place to hide in the open, neglected by all, which I had never visited. Therefore, non of us know much about it and surveyed the surroundings to get an idea about all escape routes to block. Our group didn't have a lot of space to maneuver, but I ordered that we ensure that non of the Chor gang survive and get rid of anyone looking suspicious. Then, I used stealth and moved along with the assault team Qunia was leading to enter from this hideout's main gate. The assault team soon started to kill everyone they could find, and I was attacking unsuspecting gagsters coming from inside from shadows. Some even tried to escape after watching the blatant killing of gangsters. But were caught and beheaded by slaves waiting outside after some chasing.
There were also some remarkable fighters here. A thief wanted to attack me using the moment when my stealth stopped working due to an attack I was inflicting on another member. He used his thief skill masterfully with his relatively high wisdom and perception, making it easy to hide and escape all of our perceptions. He might have even succeeded if not for being caught unaware by Qunia's new axe before finishing me when he moved and lost his hiding advantage. Since we know that this was the last thief killed, I was now free like a bird with wings out of a cage with plenty of ways to handle others with my assassin skills. So, after thanking Qunia for saving me.
Qunia was like barbarian chopping heads of the Chor gang members like harvesting a crop. This has instilled fear in enemies and friends alike and scared them to do everything to avoid near her.
So, learning from the now-dead thief, I curled in shadows, triggering signature assassin skill. With the help of the surroundings, it was like my body disappeared into shadows. Now, I was more like a death shadow harvesting sorry souls of these unaware and careless Chor gang members walking past me with my curved dagger. Very soon, more than 39 enemies were lying on the ground like logs, but suddenly more shouts started to come out from inside hideout about us. Looks like by now, everyone inside was aware of our attack, but listening to them has given us hope that we would not be forced to face them all together.
'Jack! Where the fuck are you? And what is going on?'
'Dick! Who dares to attack the Chor gang? Did people forget the horror of Gabber?'
'I, your father, am here! Whoever has come, don't try to escape!"
'Boss! allow me to take care of these small fries?'
And so on.
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I cursed the thief who told us about how many works for the Chor gang, by realizing more people in the hideout. Since they were giving me a chance to weed them out one by one by not attack together. So, I left the assault team and Qunia to move deeper into the hideout to kill some more small fries before they could overwhelm us with their number, using my stealth.
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But soon, I was hooked on a swordsman with a giant sword. I waited silently in shadow for the swordsman to walk close to me and then sneaked behind him like a ghost. I immediately put my left hand over the swordsman's mouth, and my curved dagger smoothly drew a red line across his throat. In an instant, blood flew everywhere as the swordsman tried to put the last-ditch struggle for his fading life, but my hands were still covering his mouth without showing a hint of emotion.
After a sudden jerkish effort, the dying swordsman struggled fruitlessly, randomly trying to injure me. I could feel the swordsman's body gradually weakening, and finally, the guy was dead.
after letting his cold body slide out of my hands, I shake my head and said unhappily, "I'm way too slow."
The careless swordsman was obviously a bad example to learn from for low-level swordsman. He didn't suspect that the target he was looking for might be an assassin. I quickly searched his body, found a heavy purse full of coins and some rare random materials, a rich man, and collected all the materials in a space ring. Thanks to this sudden and unexpected small confrontation inside a corner away from others, I hid his body and then hide for the next pray.
As my guts told me, I was being limited by my body and level from reaching my best with my skill sets. Even the most straightforward moves I just used were assassin trademark combo 'Shadow Steps' and 'Cutthroat.' I have studied thoroughly in the past. If completed correctly, this combo would result in an average human's instant death with massive damage inflicted and best-suited for quickly killing an enemy.
Given how my body strengthened only for very few days after practicing the One-leaf cultivation method. So, I guess this was an excellent result. After all, the swordsman was level 2, the second most potent member of the Chor gang. If not for this critical hit, he would have struggled and cost us dearly. But thanks to his sacrifice, I could finally experience a raise in power surging in me, indicating the level-up I was having. Now, my assassin skills were unnecessary for killing most of the Chor gang members but a luxury I was using to swiftly deal with them. So, now each hit by me was a sure kill for many thanks to his more frequent critical.
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Soon, everyone outside was dealt with, so, along with Quina and the assault team, I entered the main hall of the hideout.
Now, there were 4 regular members and Boss Gabber in the hideout. But this place was well light, and my stealth skill effect was significantly reduced here. Upon watching our group of more than 15, as rest were outside to make sure that nobody escaped, finally Gabber and his lackeys showed more vigilance. Gabber was still expecting others to return but cursed in annoyance with his rough voice, 'Damnit, that damn Jack.'
Jack was the name of the swordsman. He could not see our face as we have covered it.
"Who are you? Why did you attack us? I do not remember offending your group?" (Gabber)
I could not help but laugh after hearing what he said.
"Wow, Was it not you who order to kill my slaves and me? Did you not wanted to kill Merchant Kola? Now that I have come here, you are saying otherwise. Strange!"
After listening to what I said, Gabber knows that there was no point in baseless bickering as only one group would leave alive after tonight's fight.
But his heart was cold, thinking that powerless merchant has fucked his gang! Gabber was at a loss. How did things come to this point was not merchant, weak and non-combat skill?
So, Gabber and I together said
"Attack!" (Gabber)
"Attack!"
With this declaration of war on both sides, Qunia, I, and seven slaves surrounded Gabber, and while other gangsters faced two-three slaves. Gabber was indeed a Level-3, as with his first swing of the axe, the share momentum blows away not only me but breaks my curved dagger with which I took the blow. Only Qunia was able to face him with the distraction provided by others. Soon, it was clear to us that Gabber alone was dominating this face-off.
But In this confrontation, we were not fighting to kill him now but were waiting for others to kill their opponents first and join us. So, now Gabber was fighting 1vs17 from 1v9. This doubled the rate at which Gabber was being attacked. He has soon riddled him with so many cuts and stabs and was losing lots of blood. He tried many times to run from here but failed and was slowing down and decapitated by Quina.
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After some rest, some slaves called everyone from outside, and they cleaned this place for money, weapons, etc. that was worth collecting in the space ring.
The Chor gang has 57 members, of which swordsman was level-2, and Gabber was an axe-master of level-3. They all died today. We had one slave killed by Gabber. This was all thanks to our planning and the Chor gang's negligence. Rest has various levels of few wounds but nothing life-threatening. We left some bodies here as we did not have enough space to fit them in the space ring and did not want to be seen around moving with dead bodies. Not suitable for a man doing the meat business. So, we arranged the place for making left bodies legitimate and downplayed the conflict here.
After double-checking for anything, we could take and remove as possible clues. Contrary to our expectations, there was a lot of money in cash, weapons, and useful materials.
On the way back to the shop, when I raised my head and saw the black clouds floating in front of Moons, it was hard to see anything. But I know for sure that tonight would be known as a night of slaughter.
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