Chapter 104: Alpha, the Assassin
The people of Kari were known as the Karians, and they were peace-loving humanoid creatures with slit eyes, red skin, and long tails. The Karians were the most dominant race in the world of Kari, and just like the humans on Earth, they had settled in various locations around the world to create towns and cities.
This town, with the dead littering its floor, had been created by a small tribe of Karians who decided to take up farming as their main source of income. They harvested and sold crops to the towns located around them in order to make ends meet. But unfortunately for them, there was one Karian who decided that they were a hindrance to him, and he decided that he wanted them gone.
That Karian was one of the Barons in this region, and before killing all the Karians in this town, he had spoken to them and told them to give up their land to him since he wanted to use it to build a road. The Karian Baron was obviously lying and those who were well-informed knew that he just wanted to get his hand on the fertile land that the farmers had taken as their own, and he was trying to use the excuse of building a road to get it from them.
But the farmers refused to relinquish the land no matter how much the Baron tried to get them to leave. The Karian farmers fought back relentlessly and turned down any payment the Baron tried to make, and eventually, the Baron realized that there was nothing he could do about them. The Baron couldn’t attack them himself since that would go against the law. If a Baron attacks a small village, then the Baron would face backlash from the judiciary.
So rather than staining his hands with blood, he reached out across the Primordial Expanse and called on a group that was famous for its secrecy: The Phantoms.
The Phantoms were a group of assassins who were unspoken celebrities among those who used their services. They were made up of fifty members who were all in B rank and above, and each member possessed the unique ability to travel through any form of shadow. This singular ability allowed the Phantoms to carry out retrieval and assassination missions that would normally be impossible for anyone else!
They could sneak into a town and kill every single person there in one night before vanishing into the shadows like they were never even there! By the time morning came around, the only thing anyone would find was the stench of blood and dead bodies. And tonight, in this small village of Karian farmers, the Phantom troupe struck once more.
A single woman stood on the roof of a house and looked down at the multitude of bodies with emotionless yellow slit eyes. The light of the moon shone from behind her, casting a long black shadow along the roof and ground. The woman wore a black skin-tight outfit that covered her from head to toe and showed off her slender figure. She had a mask covering the lower part of her face, and her long black hair flowed in the wind along with the smell of blood. Two short horns curved up from her forehead, giving her a demonic and dangerous look. There was a Sai attached to either side of her hip, which was the primary weapon for the Phantoms, and behind her, she carried a short sword.
This woman was Alpha, the leader of the Phantoms.
Alpha hailed from a world of lesser demons known as the Raksha, which existed more than five hundred Dimensional Leaps away. The people of her world were once conquerors who attempted to take control of every single world that existed close to them. But after they made enemies of the people of Avaran, their world was destroyed and their army was completely wiped out. Alpha was one of those on the frontline who saw the sheer destruction that their enemies were capable of, and she decided at that moment that there was nothing they could do to fight against the Avarians.
Alpha managed to secure a way out of that world by selling information to the enemies. She gave them all the escape routes and safe bunkers where her previous allies were hiding in exchange for a lot of Magic Crystals, and then she took as many treasures and artifacts as she could carry with her and escaped through a Dimensional Tear. After she was certain that there was no one coming after her, she used the artifacts and Magic crystals to create this group of assassins.
Alpha watched as the other members of the Phantoms carried out the routine ransacking of the various houses and bodies in order to retrieve anything valuable. Alpha was irritated when she discovered that this town of Karian farmers were non-magic users. This meant that there were no Magic Crystals for her to retrieve after killing them, so the only way she could make a profit off their dead bodies was by taking anything valuable.
Alpha didn’t actually need to keep watch over her men since she was sure that none of them would dare to steal from her, but she knew she had to be thorough.
Her eyes trailed down to look at a little Karian girl who had been impaled by a sword. The Karian girl’s eyes were still open, and there was green blood leaking out from her lips as she lay dead but Alpha felt nothing in her heart. Alpha had lived through years of bloodshed as a member of the Raksha race. She had killed tens of thousands of innocents as a former soldier and she had watched hundreds of thousands of her own people die, so she couldn’t care less about the innocent blood she shed here!
Alpha was the one who trained all the other members of the Phantoms, and although they were all from different races and worlds, they all possessed the same ability to travel through the shadows. The source of this unique ability was still a mystery to everyone except the members of the Phantoms, and no one would ever find out how they gained their ability if Alpha had anything to say about it.
In the time since Alpha began this group, she had taken the Phantoms from an unknown gang of aimless thieves and made them into a ruthless group of killers who would sell their loyalty to the highest bidder. It didn’t matter if they were told to kill a politician or a child. It didn’t matter if they were meant to erase an entire town from existence or if they were meant to burn down a school. The Phantoms did everything that was asked of them so long as the asker was willing to pay the right amount, and tonight was no different.
The ground beside Alpha bulged slightly before a figure slowly emerged from the shadows to stand behind her. Alpha didn’t bother turning to regard the man as she kept her eyes on the other members below her. The man was also dressed in the same manner that she was. The black suit covered his body from neck to toe, and there was a black mask covering his lower face. At his hips were two sais drenched in blood. His green eyes scanned the surroundings for a second before he finally turned to his leader and spoke in a short clipped tone.
"We’ve checked the houses. No signs of life."
Alpha said nothing in response, but the man knew that she heard him and accepted his report. They stood in silence for a few calm seconds before Alpha spoke.
"There is a new mission."
It wasn’t a question, but the man recognized that Alpha was asking him to tell her about the new mission that they had. Now that they were done clearing out the Karian farmers, it was already time for them to begin their next mission. The man spoke up in a monotonous voice.
"The mission came from the Dragonborn on Radagan. It’s a search mission."
Alpha’s brow creased into a slight