Chapter 339

Shadow warriors, a group of professional warriors as old as assassin or even older.

They were born in Rome.

In 476 ad, the Western Roman empire lost its vitality under the repeated ravages of the guards, Queens, Germanic savages and Huns for more than a century.

The collapse of the brotherly empire made Leo I, the Thracian who ruled Byzantium, feel a great crisis.

Because the risk of being emperor in Rome is too great.

422 years after the unification of Rome, it has been handed down to 82 generations, and 60 people have no good end.

In the 81st year of Western Rome, it was handed down to 11 generations. Four people were abolished and five people were killed.

In sharp contrast, East Rome, which also lasted 81 years, went through five emperors. The four previous dynasties before Leo I ended well, and Leo I's own position was quite stable.

Why is that?

Thracians who opened a new dynasty thought hard and finally came to two conclusions.

First, Eastern Rome abandoned the polytheistic doctrine of Western Rome and adhered to the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Christian sect of the only God.

Second, the emperors of Eastern Rome paid more attention to the centralization of monarchy. Compared with their brother Empire, the emperors of Eastern Rome had more power.

The more crucial reason is, of course, the centralization of monarchy.

To understand this, Leo I immediately gave up his plan to avenge his brother empire.

Before his brother's bones became cold, he reached a reconciliation with the Gothic, the great enemy of the Empire. The Gothic no longer coveted the land of the eastern empire. He also vowed to give up his plan to recapture the strong land of the Western Empire.

After solving the foreign invasion, Leo I began to strengthen the centralization of rule and, together with his descendants, turned the Senate and Consul into honorary titles in a dynasty.

Such a move really made the rule of the Empire more stable. The four emperors ruled the Empire for 61 years. Even after the storm of usurpation, Emperor Zeno also had the opportunity to kill the usurper vassilskos and regain the throne.

But powerful centralization of power can not make the emperor safer, because in the face of more and more powerful imperial power, the emperor can no longer be trusted.

Leo II was poisoned by his parents and stepped on the blood of his parents and children. Zeno the great became the supreme emperor of Rome.

So after the extinction of the Leo Dynasty, the great Justinian I prepared a new guard while continuing to strengthen his kingship.

This work began when he assisted his uncle Justin I.

He chose excellent and strong slaves, many of whom were born gladiators. He used them to breed, took away healthy boys, raised and educated in an isolated manor, and then castrated at the age of six. At the age of eight, he began to take drugs, wear restraint clothes, and receive rigorous and cruel martial arts training.

By the time they were twelve, the survivors were shadow warriors.

These people have no desire, lack common sense, have a thin physique like a deformed child, can hide in a narrow space that adults can't imagine, and also show tenacity and patience that humans can't imagine.

These people hide around the emperor 24 hours, like the shadow of the emperor. They will show their strength and loyalty only when the emperor's life is in danger.

From a certain point of view, they and assassin actually have many things in common, such as exquisite martial arts, non-human sports ability, concealment skills integrated into bone marrow, professional and skilled means of killing and so on.

However, in the long history, these two professional armed groups with similar types and different departments have not had large-scale conflicts. The emperors of Eastern Rome were never assassinated by asasin, and the shadow warriors would not leave their emperors.

Their origins began after the interruption of inheritance.

With the collapse of eagle's nest and Constantinople, asasin became the sword of desire. As the eastern aristocrats fled to the west, the shadow warrior stood out from the vast number of Guard Types and gradually became the most high-end shield for senior aristocrats to maintain family security.

Is the sword sharp? Is the shield strong?

For two or three hundred years, Assassin's legacy and the shadow of losing the emperor never stopped killing in invisible and unknowable secrets. Both sides suffered huge losses and made the other party pay a painful price.

Haina had an encounter with the shadow warrior when she practiced with her father.

At that time, she was only 10 years old, and her goal was a Marquis of the Austrian golden wool knights.

In addition to her and her father, asasin has two strong men who are no less powerful than his father, and the Marquis is protected by two shadow warriors.

The fierce fighting is silent.

Without the knowledge of the people in the manor, one assassin was strangled in the ceiling compartment of the ceiling, and one died with the incoming shadow warrior when poisoning the wine cellar.

His father followed his companion's bones and killed the sneaking Samurai on the top of the bookcase of the big library. He was also seriously injured. Only then did he give up his close goal and return to Egypt with Haina, who was in charge of the office and watching the wind.

So Haina had only "encountered" shadow warriors before. Now, today, it was the first time she saw her natural enemies with her own eyes.

Shadow Warrior Zanin

Haina closed her mouth, took a half step back and bent her knees in a lunge.

Her lunge was loose, but her feet were as motionless as raw nails. At the same time, her upper body shook and swayed rhythmically in a range indistinguishable to the naked eye. Without stopping the adjustment of her center of gravity, it was impossible to predict her next move.

Her hand shape is also very different from the stretch and softness of the past.

The left hand holds the short blade upside down and the curved arm is the knife. The tip of the knife is forward, and the fist eye protects the heart. Hold your right hand forward, lock your opponent like a javelin, and straighten your face.

Both knives are in front, both arms attack.

The left knife and the right arm form two parallel lines with different lengths. They rise and fall together within a limited range with the change of center of gravity, like a broken wood floating on the sea, which gives people a strange, rigid and dull feeling.

This is certainly an illusion.

Even in the face of the strong enemy in the shadow, Haina will not foolishly throw herself into dangerous tension and hesitation.

Her muscles are still flabby, and she puts on a stiff posture with relaxation, just as cats bow their backs and show their teeth before the war, which is both a deterrent and a combat readiness.

Zanin actually received Haina's threat.

He strides, lowers, swings. Slender and out of proportion to the body, the deformed arms spread back like wings, and the shiny curved hook tip scratched the air, making a whirring sound of cutting the wind.

"What a wonderful encounter, miss asasin," he said. "The shadow is on the offensive side, but the killer is on the defensive."

"Then get out of the way."

Haina lowered her eyelids, crossed him, stared at nasion behind him, and was ready to go.

"A competent killer will not stand in front of anyone. He will only try to take my life when I kill."

"It's really an interesting proposal." Zani smiled like a night owl. "Although it's interesting, it can't be implemented. Nasion is the master's precious wealth. His skills are very useful to us. I can't let you kill him."

"Then shut up and fight when it's time!"

Haina's body stopped swinging and sank, like a runaway spring, suddenly started and shot out in the process of sinking.

She strode forward, stabbed the right knife on the tip, and put the left knife in front of her chest.

Zani stepped forward without showing weakness, crossed two iron hooks in front of her, easily caught Haina, without fancy straight stabbing, expanded her chest, locked, pulled outward, and sealed the attack route of Haina's left knife.

But Haina abandoned the knife.

At the moment when the short knife was locked, she abandoned the knife directly, followed Zanin's traction force, and turned her body with her right leg as the axis.

Big spin!

Her broad blouse unfolded like a flower. I don't know when she stopped the momentum, turned around, and the handle of the left knife hit the copper bell around her.

Buzz!

The frenzied sound waves exploded and shattered the quiet night. They hit the eardrums of the three clock tower visitors like a heavy hammer. Even Haina was not spared.

But she was ready after all.

Resisting the nausea and loss of sense of direction stirred by her brain, she raised her feet on the guardrail of the bronze bell and jumped out of the clock tower.

Stunned and dizzy, Zanin's eyes were blurred, and all the scenes were presented in a twisted vortex like form, which made him even stand upright a luxury.

He saw Haina jump out of the clock tower. The limited part of her brain that can maintain thinking kept ringing the alarm bell to warn him that Haina could not jump out of the building to die.

But what was her purpose? What is reliance? Where is the mechanism to ensure action?

We have to find it!

He squinted like a drunk and looked carefully at the arched window where Haina jumped.

Once, twice

As the dizziness slowly faded, he finally found a clue.

A piece of string

"Behind you!" Zanin roared at the stunned nasian.

Hena rose from the arched window against nasion.

Clutching the sling and stepping on the wall, she ran on the vertical wall with the pendulum movement, broke through the shackles of gravity like a flying angel, and rose up from the night sky outside the building!

The sling is tight!

The tight sling pulled Haina back. She loosened the sling, touched the Throwing Knife in mid air, and raised three straight into nasion's throat.

Zani can't do anything.

He flew up, but he couldn't catch up with the flying knife. He could only watch the flying knife pierce Nathan's shoulder and make a sound of sharp blade entering his body.

Three shots and one hit.

Under the interference of dizziness, Haina hit only one of her flying knives, and missed all three keys of eyebrow, throat and heart perfectly.

She flew towards nasion under the pull of the rope. Zani grabbed nasion's collar before she mended the knife and flew into the open stairway.

Haina fell on the ground of the clock tower, was pushed by inertia and hit the stone arched window heavily, and couldn't help but make a stuffy hum.

"Escaped..."

She covered her shoulders with regret and staggered to her feet.

"Forget it, as long as you get rid of the hunter, you're just a shadow warrior. It doesn't matter whether you live or die..."