Chapter 70 - The Eve Of Arwell Lychester's Assassination

The blade ripped through his shoulder, sending his hatchet, alongside the arm it was attached to, rolling away along the forest floor. Not giving the man any time to scream or retaliate, he dealt one more attack, which was enough to finish him off.

He then turned to the last player, who was screaming in pain as he ripped the vine out of his shoulder. Merlin could see purple spots slowly form and spread up his neck. The man retaliated by slicing the vine with his sword, forcing it to quickly retract back into Merlin's body automatically.

"What the hell is that?" The last player shouted while clenching at the wound he just received. "How is that fair?"

Merlin's remaining vine was sent towards the man's other shoulder, but was forced to dodge as the man swung his sword at it. Although the tentacles were interesting to play with, they were incredibly weak against sharp objects, unlike the rose wight's tentacles which were seemingly indestructible without the use of holy water.

This weakness made them somewhat inconvenient to fight with, even those who used combat assistance posed a threat to them at this level. Someone who was capable with a sword without the use of combat assistance would probably never be hit by one of Merlin's vines, unless he was swarmed with multiple. 

The man charged towards Merlin and began swinging at him without any care for self-preservation. Merlin parried him while watching the effects of the rose poison, and after a few minutes it didn't seem like it was spreading anymore, rather the purple was slowly fading away. It seemed the poison only lasted for about five minutes before the effect ran out.

Merlin parried one more strike and sent both vines into the man's legs, causing him to lose his balance and fall to his knees.

"Thanks for being my test subject, you've been a great help." Merlin mocked, to which he received nothing but cursing in response. Not wanting to waste his or the man's time any longer, he put him down quickly.

"So he received three strikes but didn't die, I guess it's more of a utility skill then, or maybe the damage just scales poorly." Merlin mumbled to himself while looking around the floor for loot, unfortunately none of the players he just killed dropped any loot. "Why don't these guys ever drop loot. So stingy."

Merlin stood back up and made his way over to LordKyle's corpse, he used his dagger to cut a part of his tattered red cape and then grabbed the guy's hatchet off the ground, it was a temporary item but it didn't matter. He shoved the red cloth in his pocket and made his way over to where he left his bow.

After picking up his bow and quiver, he started walking towards the well-trodden path that connected the two settlements. He had found a place where wolves spawn, and there was an easily traversable route between the wolf spawn location and the path, without much vegetation that would potentially slow him down.

Merlin stepped out of the treeline and onto the man-made path within the forest. He looked around the treeline for a tree that was long enough to block most of the road, but wasn't too thick that he couldn't cut it with the few hits the hatchet would give him.

Eventually he found one that matched his needs, not too far from where he stepped out of the forest. Merlin placed the bow and quiver down against another tree, and twirled the hatchet around as he approached the tree.

He began chanting the skill name of heavy strike before swinging the hatchet at the tree. Merlin could feel vibrations travelling up his arms, and the hit itself made a loud noise that echoed within the forest. The hatchet's head was wedged into the tree rather deep, but with a bit of struggling, Merlin freed it from the tree's grasp, leaving a single diagonal cut in the tree.

He waited for the skill's cooldown to end before repeating the process, this time swinging from below the previous cut to slice a wedge out of the tree. It didn't quite work, but over the span of a few minutes and a few more hits, the tree lost a lot of its foundation. Unfortunately before Merlin could give it the last few hits it needed, the hatchet shattered.

"I don't suppose a sword would work?" Merlin wondered out loud as he grabbed the bovine butcher from his inventory.  He waited for the cooldown once more, and once it was back, he began chanting the skill as he swung the blade at the tree.

With a loud bang, the blade sunk into the tree, but nothing further happened. When Merlin attempted to retract the blade, he found that it was well and truly stuck, so he recalled it back into his inventory.

"Maybe I should have grabbed a woodcutter's soul before this." Merlin sighed, he just stared at the large missing chunk near the tree's base. It looked as though the tree would fall if it received enough force pulling at it, the weight of the tree would cause the rest of it to just snap off.

An idea popped into Merlin's head, and he decided to give it a try, he wasn't confident in finding another axe in time. Merlin walked out onto the path and pointed both hands towards the tree. A vine extended out of each hand towards the tree, wrapping tightly as high as they could reach.

Starting off slowly, he began repeatedly applying force before taking it away, effectively rocking the tree back and forth. Merlin could hear the wood creak, and a few small cracking sounds every time he applied force. The rocking became stronger and faster, the leaves on the trees were loudly rustling, and eventually a series of loud cracking sounds could be heard.

Taking that as his cue to finish, Merlin put all his strength into one final pull, causing the tree's foundation to spray bark everywhere as the tree began falling directly towards Merlin, who barely rolled out of the way in time.

As the tree fell, it kicked up a cloud of dust and sent yet another loud noise echoing through the forest. It was very likely that people would had heard the noises, but even after a half an hour passed, nobody bothered coming to check. Merlin hooked the tattered red cape on the fallen tree before picking up his bow and walking back into the forest.

He began patrolling between the wolves spawn and the treeline near the eastern gate. All the wolves had respawned and were staying around the one location, it wouldn't be very difficult for him to attract the attention of all of them within seconds, so that part of the plan was sorted.

After a few hours, the sun had risen, and there was movement at the eastern gate. A wagon pulled by two horses, and surrounded by what looked to be four private guards, were now talking with the town guards who were on duty at the gate. Merlin got a good look at the man sitting on the wagon, and as if confirming the man's identity, he received a the same notification as always.

「Eliminate Arwell Lychester.」

It was time, everything was going as planned. This would be the last time he received this notification.

Merlin dashed through the forest with an excited smile on his face. His heart was beating so fast he could hear it. Assassination was a common quest you received when sticking with stealth-based classes, but Merlin's heart always beat with excitement moments before he completed the task. It wasn't only excitement, but anxiety too.

What if the plan failed, what would his backup plan be? Would he abandon the quest due to the difficulty? What if the guards saw him? Would he run in there and kill the man himself? Would he kill all the witnesses? What if the guards were too strong?

Questions ran through Merlin's mind, but he knew he had to stay focused on the plan he made. It took him a few minutes to reach the wolf spawn location, everything looked fine so far. If the wagon had started moving a little while after Merlin left, they would reach the tree in less than a minute if they were moving fast, or in about four minutes if moving at an average walking pace.

Either way, the tree should keep them occupied for a few moments, enough time to distract them while Merlin dragged the wolves there.

"It's time.." Merlin roared as he ran towards a group of wolves, utilising his vines to whip all the wolves he could reach, fortunately all the wolves near the ones he attacked also decided they wanted to rip his face off, so it didn't take long for all twelve wolves in the area to start chasing him down.