"Trying to run?"
A cold smile played across Leilin's face as he hurled the dagger from his hand. It whistled through the air and plunged straight into the back of one of the assassins.
Zero-level Spell — Arrow Launch! Combined with Leilin's own strength, the thrown dagger packed killing power rivaling that of a crossbow bolt.
A brief scream rang out, and the assassin crumpled to the ground.
The death of their companion spurred the other assassin to run even faster.
Leilin gave chase, seemingly oblivious to the darkness creeping ever closer.
These two assassins were merely bait. The real killing blow would come from the assassin leader lurking in the shadows.
Crack! Crack!
Leilin caught up to the fleeing assassin in an instant. The man was already terrified out of his wits and fell to the ground after only a few exchanges.
Leilin promptly dislocated the man's jaw and snapped all four of his limbs. Only then did a look of satisfaction appear on his face.
This was the reaction one would expect from a powerful youth who had just won his first victory in life.
"Talk. Who sent you?"
The young man stood over the downed assassin, and though he tried his best to suppress it, an air of smug superiority still seeped through.
"I... I'll talk..."
The assassin on the ground spoke in a faint voice, playing his part perfectly as a distraction to draw attention away from the leader's attack.
His lips kept moving, but the words he produced were deliberately muddled. Leilin's expression turned impatient. "Speak clearly! I can't hear you!"
Leilin crouched beside the man, completely exposing the vulnerable spots on his back.
"Now!!!" The assassin hidden in the darkness saw his chance. An arrow tipped with blue pierced the air, arriving at Leilin's back in what seemed like an instant.
"Hm?!" Leilin's eyes widened, and a flicker of panic finally crossed his face.
"Mage Armor!!!" A transparent Field barrier materialized, consuming one of his prepared First-level Spell slots.
Pop! The arrow struck the invisible Field with a piercing whistle, but its trajectory was deflected just enough to graze past Leilin's cheek.
The force of the impact sent Leilin stumbling back several steps until he collapsed to the ground.
"Awooo!" "Awooo!" Several green eyes emerged from the darkness as lean black shapes lunged forward, dripping fangs aimed straight for Leilin's throat.
"First-level Monster Summoning?!"
Leilin cried out, but the alarm on his face was quickly replaced by steely resolve. He rapidly chanted a few words, pointed toward the wolves, and a massive white net materialized out of thin air, entangling all three beasts. The white webbing seemed to possess tremendous adhesive power, leaving the wolves unable to move.
"Just who are you?" The young man rose to his feet, his expression a mix of exasperation and barely concealed fear.
At that very moment, the air behind him warped, and a dark figure materialized — a jade-green dagger driving straight toward Leilin's heart.
"Shadow Stealth?! A seventh-level assassin?!"
The young man shouted as a rope flew from inside his coat.
"Animate Rope!!!" Under the spell's influence, the rope seemed to come alive, hurtling toward the dark figure and coiling around it like a constricting serpent.
Thud! The figure's limbs buckled together and it collapsed to the ground — revealing itself to be a wooden puppet.
"Substitute Puppet!"
Leilin's expression had turned to outright horror. Then he saw a flash of cold light burst from thin air, plunging toward his throat.
Clean. Swift. A one-hit kill — this was how a high-level assassin operated!
Moreover, the enemy had clearly learned of Leilin's wizard rank through some channel and had patiently waited until he believed Leilin had exhausted all his spell slots before striking. And once he struck, he gave Leilin no chance at all!
At such close range, even using a magical item would be too slow.
Spell scrolls, after all, couldn't be cast instantly.
From that fleeting glimpse of the assassin's eyes, Leilin saw nothing but deathly stillness — as though the person he was about to kill wasn't human at all, but merely a pig or a dog. Only at the very bottom of those deep pupils was there a faint ripple, clearly showing that eliminating a prodigal wizard brought him a certain sense of accomplishment.
But when the assassin looked into Leilin's eyes, his expression shifted involuntarily.
Leilin's face bore no trace of panic or fear of death — only a triumphant smile.
"I finally caught you!" That was what the assassin read from Leilin's grin.
"Caught me? What does that mean?" The assassin's head spun for an instant, but then he saw a blinding flash of spell light erupt before him.
A blue beam struck the hand gripping the dagger, and a layer of frost immediately spread across it, engulfing his entire palm and creeping up his arm toward his body.
Then came searing pain from his thigh, accompanied by the sickening crack of bone.
"He broke both my legs!" The assassin's heart sank as he lost his balance and toppled to the ground.
Leilin didn't let up. A fist like a steel hammer smashed into the man's face, knocking out a mouthful of bloodied teeth — along with a tiny ball of deadly poison hidden among them.
"That really wasn't easy! If a seventh-level assassin decided to flee, I might not have been able to catch him!"
Only after completing all of this did Leilin let out a sigh of relief.
The battle just now had unfolded like a flawless performance. On the stage Leilin had set, those assassins could only follow the script he'd written, ultimately meeting a fate of total annihilation.
"You... how do you still have spell slots? Aren't you... a fifth-level wizard?"
Slurred words spilled from the assassin leader's mouth on the ground, mixed with blood and foam.
"So it seems there's already a traitor inside my family. And... who told you I was only a fifth-level wizard?"
Leilin glanced at him with undisguised contempt.
"Heh heh... so you'd already advanced to sixth level!" The assassin leader seemed to have figured it out. "Truly worthy of being the legendary spell prodigy. But unfortunately, facing our forces, your end won't be any different in the long run..."
"Enough nonsense!"
Leilin delivered a chop to the neck, rendering the man unconscious.
This assassin leader held a high position and considerable strength — he surely knew many things. That was precisely why Leilin had engineered the entire encounter to capture him alive.
"To think they already knew about me advancing to fifth-level wizard... even if the intelligence is a few years old, I'm afraid the family will need a thorough cleansing..."
Leilin looked at the unconscious assassin leader. Extracting the list of moles from the man's mouth was, of course, the priority.
And when it came to interrogation and mental exploration, he was nothing short of an expert.
Falling into his hands was arguably a fate worse than a clean death.
"Young Master! Young Master!" At that moment, the distant port erupted in commotion as Yakub finally arrived with the patrol squad.
"This is... hiss..." The frantic Yakub sucked in a sharp breath the moment he took in the scene.
Three assassins lay on the ground, with a fourth having been added to the pile. Yakub knew full well the strength of these assassins — each one possessed combat ability approaching that of a fifth-level elite professional. And there had even been one lurking in the shadows.
Putting himself in Leilin's shoes, Yakub realized he wouldn't have been able to evade such an attack under any circumstance. Dying on the spot would have been a very real possibility.
And yet the young master had wiped them all out without sustaining a single injury?
This realization filled Yakub with deep respect, and the other patrol members felt the same.
"What about the one who chased you?" Leilin looked at Yakub, particularly at the fresh wounds on his body, and had already formed a guess.
"Eliminated by my men, but his final counterattack took two of my squad..." Yakub looked somewhat embarrassed.
Especially after seeing Leilin's two prisoners.
"You can take that one — interrogate him thoroughly. But this one stays with me." Leilin tossed the ordinary assassin from before to the patrol squad while keeping the assassin leader for himself.
That cannon fodder clearly wouldn't know anything useful. Compared to him, Leilin was far more interested in the assassin leader in his possession.
A seventh-level professional wasn't someone you could just recruit easily.
Moreover, the man likely held intelligence about the moles planted in Leilin's estate, and possibly even the landing points of the pirate band. Leilin felt that before he had extracted every last piece of information from the man's brain, he absolutely could not hand him over to those patrollers.
Otherwise, he wouldn't be the least bit surprised to hear the next morning that the man had conveniently killed himself.
"Yakub! Take him and don't let him out of my sight!"
Under Leilin's orders, Yakub hoisted the unconscious assassin leader onto his shoulder and followed behind.
The remaining patrol members exchanged bewildered glances before finally dragging the lone surviving captive away, clearly intending to vent all their frustration on him.
As for cleaning up the battlefield, that was naturally their job as well — they had to bury the bodies to prevent any outbreak of plague.
Once the group had finished, the area had more or less returned to normal. Only the furrows in the ground and the scattered bloodstains remained as testament to the danger of the battle that had just unfolded.
"I didn't expect cousin Leilin to have grown this strong... it seems I was worried for nothing..."
A black figure flickered past, revealing