The assassin threw the dagger at me while jumping to the side. The blade sailed through the air before being caught by a skeleton which had emerged from the ground in front of me. The throwing knife ignited and began burning the skeleton which had caught it. I quickly summoned another two as the assassin continued flanking me. By the time I had summoned the skeletons, he had circled the bath and we now stood on opposite sides.  

He threw one of the glowing daggers into the bath and a plume of hot steam erupted as the water in the bath evaporated. The rising steam hung in the air creating a misty veil. I suddenly became aware of a second presence. “So you brought friends,” I said. “I thought this would just be a me and you thing to be honest. I’m not sure if I'm ready for an open relationship like this.” I made pointless banter in order to hide the sound of the skeletons moving. I heard a clash behind me as one of my skeletons locked blades with one of the assassins. 

“Grasp of Hades” I yelled as skeletal arms popped out of the ground behind me. The man jumped backwards dodging their attack. I ordered the skeleton forwards and the outstretched arms in the ground sank back into the earth. As I was focused on the new assassin, the first one threw a pair of daggers from across the bath. I ducked and pulled the arm off a skeleton next to me before throwing it at the man. He easily dodged it, just as I had expected. 

I clasped my hands together and cried out “Summon Undead!” The ground trembled as several zombies began to emerge from the ground. They immediately split into two groups and lumbered after the assassins. I felt useless just ordering my minions around but without a weapon or armor, there was little I could do. The assassin behind me seemed to have his hands full with the zombies and skeletons now encircling him. Just before they reached him. He suddenly disappeared. 

A sharp pain struck my left arm and I rolled to the side. Teleportation I thought as I latched onto the cut on my arm with my mouth and sucked the potentially poisoned blood out. The man continued pressing his attack and as he approached, I spit the blood in my mouth out and used  mana to shape it into small shards. Blood manipulation wasn’t my strong suit but at this point, I was out of options. 

The needle-like shards flew through the air and several struck his face before he could dodge. Unfortunately, they only seemed to scratch at his face and make him angry. I used his disorientation to roll to the side and dodge his strike. I seemed to be doing a lot of dodging these days. Before he could ready another attack though, he collapsed to his knees and began violently coughing. “I guess it was poisoned,” I muttered as I collected myself. 

The steam was beginning to clear and I looked across the bath at the other assassin. He was currently feeding mana to a growing fireball in his left hand. I had been on the receiving end of my fair share of fireballs as a dungeon master and this one looked particularly deadly. I could feel the heat from here. “Puppeteer undead,” I muttered. 

My body stumbled as my conscious was shifted over to the skeletal arm I had thrown at the man earlier. Controlling the arm, I leapt up and grabbed his cloak with my bony fingers. He looked surprised but reached for me with his free hand latched on to my skeletal forearm. As he prepared to yank me off his cloak, I released my grip and grabbed one of the daggers he had holstered in his belt. My skeletal arm spun as he tried to throw me but before he could toss me, I slashed upwards digging the knife deep into his left arm.

His left arm fell to the ground as the stump it had been connected to spewed a torrent of blood. I shifted my consciousness back into my body in time to see the fireball spell he had been preparing go haywire. The fireball sputtered before releasing the built up mana and engulfing the far side of the open air bath in an explosion. The sliding door behind me slammed open as a worried looking Grace and Olivia rushed outside. Grace rushed towards me and wrapped me in her arms as Olivia surveyed the damage around us. 

“Are you okay? What happened?” A panicking Grace asked. I stroked her hair to calm her down. “I’m fine. It was just some unexpected visitors.” I said as I tried to calm her down. “Oh my god, you’re bleeding.” she said as she grabbed my arm and held it in her trembling fingers. She grabbed my shirt off the ground and ripped the sleeve off with her claws. Damn, I kind of liked that shirt I thought as she began wrapping it around my arm. 

“Grace get over here, I think we got a live one?” Olivia suddenly called out. We both turned our attention to the charred corner of the open air bath where something was moving amongst the smoke and flames. Out from the fire stepped the one armed assassin. His armor had been burned away and there was a painful looking char on his skin. He stumbled forward as the three of us surrounded him. 

“Give it up, there's no way out of this bastard.” Olivia said. The usual seductive tone of her voice had vanished. “Why did you attack Alex?” Grace asked. The half dead assassin ignored the two girls and pulled something from his pocket. It was a pill, purple in color and slightly transparent. He eyed it for no less than a second before popping it into his mouth. His cracked lips twisted into a cruel smile as he swallowed. “I have a bad feeling about this,” I said as I watched him. Hell yea, I always wanted to say that. 

A sudden pressure erupted from him as the air around us grew heavy. A magic circle appeared under his feet and started shifting. Purple lines growing and twisting in an ever complex pattern. “We might be screwed,” Olivia said. Agreed my big bosomed compatriot. Before he was able to activate the magic circle, a figure dashed forward from behind us and struck the man square in the chest. It was none other than the teal scaled owner lady. 

He flew through the air before crashing through the fence. The three of us rushed to join her as she licked her knuckle with a forked tongue. “Are you all alright?” She asked us. “More or less I replied placing an emphasis on the less. The shock from being attacked had finally started wearing off and the pain in my arm was becoming increasingly, well, painful. 

We cautiously approached the broken fence but the assassin never emerged. Peering out into the surrounding woods revealed a trail of ashy footprints. The teal scaled girl apologized profusely before calling the police and explaining to them what happened. As I was sitting in the back of an ambulance, I could only wonder what the hell had just happened. When I arrived, I was rushed to the emergency room where I overheard the doctors talking about a loss of blood and severe poisoning.

The wound on my arm was apparently far less shallow than I thought and I hadn’t removed all the poison. The realization that I had nearly died was finally starting to settle in. Shit I thought as the doctors put me under in order to heal my arm, I almost died a virgin.

BlackObelisk

I've never written fight scenes so hopefully, this one is comprehensible. It didn't help that two of the combatants were unnamed assassins' dressed in identical clothing. Anyway, thanks for reading. This chapter kicks of the b-plot which features higher stakes and real fights. I plan to focus the story on the romance and slice of life elements but occasionally return to this plot thread every so often until it's resolved.