Chapter 498: The assassin  

On seeing Harry draw his two Blades, Kyle's natural reaction was to draw his single black raven as well.? While Harry was calm, Kyle's hand was shaking about nervously. Not because he was scared of fighting, but because he was unsure if Harry was truly under the shadow's influence.

"Should we do something?" Flynn asked. Worried for his old black sash master. They were on the same side and he couldn't understand why the sudden need to draw weapons.

"Harry, please forgive Kyle, I believe he only said those things because he wanted to cheer us up," Wendy said.

With a single glance from him, all four of the kids stepped back. It felt like if they even tried to help Kyle then he would go to attack them. Immediately, Dale stood in front of Claire ready to protect her. He held his hand in front of his face, and his eyes started to shift and change.

"What is wrong with you!" Kyle snapped, his hands no longer shaking. "You really have gone mad if you threaten the kids with your Ki like that."

'So that was his Ki? It was so strong.' Claire thought. She never knew it could be used in this way either, to intimidate your opponents.

"Great, now it looks like you're finally ready to fight," Harry said with a smile. "Let's see if you can back up those words of yours from earlier."

Focousing his Ki, Harry sent out a force towards Kyle, using his footwork he had moved and dodged the attack, but it was a simple bluff. There was no blade and only a force of Ki, he had realised his mistake too late.

Already, his blade had been consumed by both of Harry's blades. Swirling the black raven it was flung into the ground. Piercing the floor beneath, right by the kids feat.

"You Bas-" throwing out a fist at him, Kyle was mad, but the anger had consumed him and was used against him. It was wild and easy to avoid, allowing Harry to get behind and place a blade by his throat.

"And look how easy the greatest swordsman in the Redwing army was defeated," Harry said.

At that moment, stepping through the door, was the giant man known as Lenny.

"What is the meaning of this Harry?" Lenny asked, with both of his fists glowing. It was a strange magic he would use to re enforce his fist and pound his foes. On the battlefield, people had seen him kill many beasts with his bare hands.

Dropping the blade from Kyle's neck, Harry started to walk off to the exit. "Don't worry, I'm just teaching people there place. We will be going into another war soon."

If Kyle was only hesitant about whether Harry was possessed by the shadow before, he was sure of it now.

*****

The journey to the fortress was delayed. Just before they were about to set off and leave, two more knights were found dead in the tunnels. Each knight were Redwing knights that had fought in the war.

They were by no means weak, and with no one having heard or seen anything, travelling was put on hold. They would have continued to move out, but Martha could tell it would be a bad decision.

With now four knights being assassinated, they didn't want their leader Ray, and a few other strong ones to suddenly leave. Fear and paranoia was starting to spread through the army. Some were suggesting that they should return to Avrion and abandon the lion's mouth.

They felt like the place was cursed, it hadn't been completely cleared of the shadow. Of course many were against this idea as well, so much blood was lost trying to claim the place.

Still, that didn't stop from small fights breaking out between each other as there were two different options.

Meanwhile, inside a single tent, away from the leader's one. The young beast students had decided to gather to discuss what had happened the other day.

"I think it might be true," Claire said. "We saw how he acted that day, maybe if Lenny didn't come in then Kyle would be dead by now."

"I think you might be right." Wendy replied, a little down. Harry had saved her a few times when they were out trying to gather beast crystals and even during the war.

He had sacrificed himself to help everyone to the point where he was taken away.

'You don't think…" Flynn paused thinking whether he should say what was on his mind or not. With a nudge from Dale, he went for it. "You don't think that the assassin could be Harry, do you? He would be skilful enough to defeat those knights like that."

"No," Wendy said. "I can't believe he would do something like that."

'When possessed by the shadow, they can make people do anything." Said Dale.

Few words were ever spoken by him, but whenever he did, it hit the others really hard.

As a way to distract everyone. Training was ramped up for the knights. It gave them something to focus on, and not to go mad twiddling their thumbs all day.

Eventually another meeting between the leaders was called. Harry stood there still with his pale skin, and Kyle kept glancing in his direction. After that day Lenny had spoken to Ray and Ray had a word with Harry.

However, it seemed like nothing had changed. Perhaps Ray was losing his touch, Kyle thought. Sometimes those that were weaker with power were most sensitive to those around them.

Now that Ray had great power again, a small change would seem insignificant. But he was only guessing and had no clue what was going through Ray's mind. That day when they experienced Ray's life. His thought process always seemed strange.

Maybe that's just what happened to those that lived thousands of years alone.

Lenny stood by Ray's side as he gave an update to everyone on the investigation. "It appears that the fortress was destroyed using some mighty force rather than an army. Maybe some type of weapon. Similar to the white stone."

Hearing this, only made Ray think back to the special weapon that required the key around his neck to activate, had they really found a way to activate it without? Thinking about this also made Ray think of his mother.

If only she had accepted the contract, he would have been able to message her and ask her a few questions he had about it. At the same time, after telling everyone else the truth, he thought she deserved to know the truth about him as well, and about his father.

"Could it be another dragon weapon?" Jack asked.

'At this point we're not ruling out any options." Lenny replied. "Spread through the continent there are many strange and different artefacts. The very crystal that Van is holding is one of them. Perhaps someone had used one of these.

"Sylvia says to not rule out anything, even an attack from the shadow itself. Back then when she was being controlled by the shadow, she noticed that her shadows were being controlled by the ant. It wasn't the usual shadow that we are used to.

'Maybe there is even infighting amongst them."

Speaking of infighting, this caused Kyle to bring up his concern he had as well.

"Has there been any progress in finding the assassin?" Kyle asked , hoping that some evidence had pointed towards Harry. That day he tried to search for evidence himself but couldn't find anything.

If Ray wasn't going to act, then he would need to find proof and get the others on his side. Lenny was a little cautious and the others didn't believe Kyle's tale when he told them.

"No," Ray replied, "But I have been doing my own surveillance. There are things that I can do that even you guys don't know about. So even if one of us is the assassin ourselves, I will be able to catch them."

This brought a smile on Kyle's face. It seemed that Ray hadn't just disregarded his report.

Placing his hand on the ground, a small circle appeared and from it, an old friend had appeared that they hadn't seen for a long time. A black furred wolf with a large horn sticking out from it's head.

"Noir!" Jack shouted. "But wasn't she bigger before?"

"Just like me, Noir also improved her strength. One of the skills she has is she can change her size as she wishes. Her speed is even more impressive than before and I guarantee you'll, she is stronger than any emperor tier beast."

Those words scared them all, they looked at Noir who was happily licking Ray's hand. It didn't seem like a deadly beast but they had seen it do a few things in the past.

"We will be wasting no more time. We will be moving out to the fortress now."

*****

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