68 Final Struggle

While the prince made his escape with the princess...

The guard blocked the path as the remaining assassins got closer.

His pride as a guard would not allow anyone to get past him!

The backup group were smaller in size and weaker in strength compared to the group he had just faced with his men.

Now he no longer had anyone to protect behind him, he could finally put his whole focus on the assassins.

The head assassin attacked first, with the head guard being injured from the arrow earlier he could not make full use of his strength.

He mustered enough strength tobarely push the assassin back with the clash of swords

The other assassins followed with a coordinated attack striking together.

The head guard responded by sweeping his sword in front of him.

His sword did cut through the first assassin but only knocked the sword from the second assassins hands.

The third assassin escaped the blow luckily thanks to being the last one to be hit by the swing of the sword.

The first assassins death helped to delay the swing of the sword, the second assassin losing his sword did also granting enough time for the third to avoid death.

Thanks to this opening created the third assassin saw an opening in the guards defenses at that moment.

He pierced his sword through the guards waist, feeling that he had succeeded in stopping the guard.

The guard who was pierced suppressed his pain, grabbing onto the man.

Just as the head assassin attacked again the third assassin was pushed in front of the blade.

The third assassin was pierced by the head assassin, a look of shock was on the head assassins face.

Removing his sword from the assassin he looked upon the pale looking old guard and could not help but admire him for a moment.

Even with the odds against him he still found ways to delay them, unfortunately they had no time to waist on him.

The prince was out of sight and they had to find him or they would fail the mission which means death!

"Pick up your sword!" He ordered the secondassassin.

The first assassin had already died from heavy blood loss from his wound, the third had also from being pierced by his own ally.

The head guards vision was becoming a little blurry because of his blood loss after removing the sword from his waist.

Suddenly the second assassin came forward and began to attack again but was pushed back by the swing of the guards sword.

However in the moment the assassin was pushed back he suddenly stopped.

A look of shock and pain emerged on his face suddenly and he fell towards the guard.

The guard did not have the strength to stop this sudden unexpected situation, about to deliver a blow to the second assassin something else happened....

The assassins face showed great pain, blood came from his mouth as he coughed and suddenly a long blade pierced through his body.

As his body fell onto the guard the sword also pierced into the chest of the head guard.

His body fell back and barely was able to hold himself up.

Unstable due to enduring such heavy wounds to his body and the increasing blood loss, he began to loose grip of his sword.

He fell to his knees powerless without a weapon in hand, completely defensless and dying.

The assassin noticed the guard no longer had strength to fight and was so close to death, he no longer could block his path and he could go kill the prince.

Walking past the guard he gave him a final look. 'Yes his breath is very weak and his life is fading rapidly, I need to catch up to the prince... too much time has been wasted and too many deaths have been caused just to kill one man.'

Looking at the scattered dead bodies of the guards once more he passed the head guard to continue the mission.

However during this time within the guards mind he saw several images flashing before his death.

Loved ones, family, friends, the men he trained together with, the king and his children growing up he saw them all.

His heart was at peace for a moment but then he remembered the scene of the corpses and his dead men.

He remembered he had not completed his final duty yet.

There was still one more person left within the assassins and he was the most dangerous and a serious threat towards the prince!

He remembered the men who sacrificed their lives to gain more time for the prince to escape.

His brothers, they were all dead!

Rage and bloodthirst pushed him back to his senses for a moment, he opened his eyes and saw what lay on the ground.

He picked it up and saw nobody in front of him but could hear the footsteps that began to walk away from his direction towards the prince.

Not willing!

He was not willing to die yet unless he drags that assassin with him!

Almost like igniting the last remaining sparks of strength in his body, he lifted himself from the ground and charged towards the assassin who was very close by.

The assassin who assumed the guard would be no longer a threat did not notice the changes.

Suddenly an arrow was thrust through his back piercing through his heart.

He turned around in disbelief to see the bloody and pale guard who looked like a spirit of vengeance.

"You..." The assassin could not finish his words when he saw the guards face turn peaceful and his body fell to the ground.

The assassin only had a few moments before dying in regret.

He had completed many missions, killed many people but today he died because of his own carelessness.