Chapter 194 - 194)Sacred Grounds

"I'm sorry for the delay, I just had something important to talk about," Sketch said as he stepped out and looked at Night gazing into the crowds that now seemed to be trying harder, not knowing that it was because they wanted to impress him. Shade stood right beside Night although he did stay a little behind him, he was looking at the other players and their technique.

'Trash. Average. Can't compare to My Lord. Sir Leo could fight better and he's a tank. Other than the man My Lord previously sparred, none of the ascenders here are even worthy of My Lord,' Shade judged the players in his mind, however, he was thoroughly impressed by the quality of skill the NPCs displayed, to an extent where he mentally surrendered to them.

"Oh no no, that's fine, I managed to keep myself busy ahah," Night let out a hearty laugh with a hand behind his back. He could tell that there was something different about Sketch but he decided not to pursue it.

"I see," Sketch replied as he looked at what Night was looking at, the difference in the energy was very obvious. The players were pushing themselves harder than ever, but just like Night, he decided not to pursue it further. "Let me show you to our sacred grounds," he said before walking forward, gesturing for Night to follow him.

"You can't enter without the presence of an elder. Which is why even if players wanted to give it a shot, they would need the approval of an elder at the least. Besides, even if they somehow find themselves on the grounds, to commence the trials is a different issue. It's not like its some big ritual, it's just something that isn't public knowledge,"

"The sacred grounds acts as a gate for the Phantom Trials. However, that's only one of its purposes, members or trainees of the Assassins den who are acknowledged by an elder are given access to the Sacred Grounds. They don't necessarily only enter to attempt to clear the Trials but they use the grounds to practice in private. Of course, this is encouraged by the elders, after all, you wouldn't want the whole world to see your technique now would you?"

While the last sentence had a lot of truth to it, Night couldn't a hundred percent agree with it. The only reason he refrained from using his skills was because of the chance that a Divine being would find him, and based on his luck, the chance of Zeus himself appearing was pretty high. It can be seen as an exaggeration, however, such an event had already taken place, and it had barely been a day since then. It was right after Night had killed the Pope, there were two Divine beings whose attention he had caught, not one, but two.

"Haha yeah...." Night nervously agreed as he was reminded of the nearly game-ruining experience.

"Hmm, anyway, there are only a handful of members inside, including the one who you just sparred with. JetSky was the hope of the entire den, everyone trusts him to fully complete the Trials. Even after you beat him, I'm sure the others still believe in him. Although, his attitude is a little...inexcusable at certain times," 

"Oh I know ahaha, that's how we met. He challenged me in front of everyone," Night explained as he looked at Sketch wince at the thought of JetSky's previous comments. 

"Hoh? And what did you do? Did you accept? And if so who won?" Sketch asked curiously. However, he wasn't the only one who was curious, Shade was quite confused as well, he stuck by Night's side nearly always. However, after considering it, Shade decided that it was during the time he was with Nate.

"I accepted it. I'd never back down from a fight, even if the opponent is leagues ahead of me. I took him on multiple times the same day and I managed to win every single time that day. But I will say this, he was fast and skilled, so much so that I couldn't keep up properly without using a skill." Night explained with a smile on his face. Even though the duel between them was literally only a few days ago, in his mind, it felt like it had been more than a few months.

"Is that so? Then how do you explain the overwhelming advantage you had in the spar?" Sketch asked curious as to what caused the sudden difference. Was it the fact that they fought without any weapons? But that would mean Night, a Grandmaster who managed to understand the concept of weapon aura before the age of 30, was worse than an Assassin at weapon mastery, which wasn't very probable or even possible.

"Oh that, since I've crossed paths with him on multiple occasions, it helped me understand his movements better so I was able to position myself better and make sure I wasn't making any unwanted moves. I went with accuracy and precise moves to counter him, so yeah." Night said, casually as if him learning another individuals pattern after just a few spars was something normal. It was an extraordinary task. Especially because it was someone as talented as JetSky.

"Huh...but tha-.... never mind," Sketch gave up on the topic. There were too many questions left unanswered and there was no way he could get an answer. After all, it was only a few minutes ago that he explained the importance of privacy. 

"We're nearly there," he continued in the hopes of dropping the topic.

'This guy.....he's something else. I've spared with JetSky on multiple occasions and yet I haven't yet caught his movements. Wait a second....'

"Wait- We Assassins don't have any specific patterns to catch onto....so what exactly did you do to form a pattern in your head...." Sketch asked after realizing something that he had overlooked during the conversation. Assassins always had a dark and eerie vibe around them, and that was for a reason. They were unpredictable and sneaky. They could be anywhere and everywhere, they could come out from any corner and it would be too late. Trainees were taught this, the fighting style, and everything was based on being random and unpredictable. After all, an assassin whose moves could be predicted had no real power over the situation.

"Hm? There isn't? Well, I'm not sure then. I swear I was able to predict his movements because I knew what was coming next. Oh maybe because of his feet? his hand movements were erratic for sure, but his feet would always give away whether he was going to defend or attack..." Night explained after thinking about the friendly spar he had with JetSky before asking him to join the clan.

"F-foo...to work?" Sketch choked on his own words. It wasn't because Night found a loophole, there was no way there could be such an obvious mistake with something that had been passed down for centuries, but it was something else. "Wait....who was in control of the pace?" Sketch asked after a thought had crossed his mind.

"I would say me, I could control the speed and power behind my strikes better so I guess I was in control yes." Night replied without thinking too much about the sudden follow-up question.

'So it was because of that...you forced his footwork into giving away a pattern.....truly scary. For a second there I had a heart attack....if there was something wrong with the martial art we've been teaching them then it would be a serious issue....'

"We're here..." Sketch said as they stopped right in front of a huge dark blue door made up of some kind of mysterious wood. Just from the outside, one could easily deduce that it was thick, and trying to push it open would take years.

"Oooh spooky, do we say open sesame or something?"

"....I will ignore that nonsense...."

"Wait but wh-"

"I refuse to let you make fun of the Sacred Grounds any further. Now just stand back for a second," Sketch said as he took a step forward and gently put his hand onto the door.

"I'll ignore that nonsense.....I'll ignore your face..." Night grumbled under his breath as he took a step back and watched the door slowly open up. His thoughts about the door being impossible to push open were slowly erased as he looked at that exact thing occurring.

Blue light rushed out as the door slowly revealed more and more of what it sealed away. The smell of sweat was dominant, but it wasn't anything that one couldn't stand, but at the same time you couldn't call it pleasant either. It was the complete opposite of what one would expect when you think of assassins. It wasn't a dark gloomy wide area, it was bright and had a countable number of objects in the middle of the ground. There was a huge crystal that was in the center of the ceiling, it acted as the only source of light but based off how strong it was, it was obvious that it was more than enough.

"What the..." Night muttered as he looked into the room. There were other people, all of them were practicing. They were either working on their footwork or their hand-to-hand combat skills, but they were all busy. However, as soon as the door opened, everyone in the room instantly turned towards Night and the others.

(A/N: To the early readers- You may have noticed something wrong towards the end of the chapter. It was just an entire para repeating multiple times....I'm not sure what caused it but I think when I was copy-pasting the chapter from another app, something went wrong there. But it is now fixed so yay. If you didn't catch the error then you can just ignore this note and if you did then I apologize for that, I did not expect that to happen.. Thank you.)