Epoch: A Berserker's Rise

Once everyone was ready, they entered back into formation and began climbing up the stairs. While they did so Adam was keeping his focus on the are around him, now that he had leveled up to Level 15 a new assassin should come, a Level 20. Now the question was, would the assassin be an Iron ranked or a Bronze one?

However, it looked like his question wouldn't be answered any time soon as the assassin wasn't coming, and that scared Adam. Once again, NPCs in this game weren't dumb, and so the assassin would know when would be the best opportunity to attack them.

Attacking him while he is in the middle of a formation with other Level 20 would be dumb, and so the best course of action would be to wait for them to be facing enemies. If he is in the middle of a crowd of goblins with Shamans launching spells at him and archers firing their arrows while he fights Hobgoblins, then it would become harder to defend.

But Adam actually wished the assassin would attack him, because they could do worse than that. If he got attacked Adam was confidant he would survive, but what if the assassin attacks Louisa, or even anyone else in the team.

Losing any of the members would cripple the formation and they could very well get overwhelmed by the horde of goblins. That's why, Adam kept his focus on his surroundings, and maybe if he was lucky enough he would spot the assassin ahead of time.

Of course there was still the possibility of the assassin not entering the fortress, but Adam couldn't find any reason for the assassin to do that.

Unfortunately he didn't sense anything amiss even when they reached the second layer. But then he had an idea. He leaned toward Breyn and began whispering in his ear.

At first his face turned shocked before a sly grin appeared on his lips. He nodded to Adam and as the group passed by the door leading to the second layer he whispered to the other members who nodded too.

Then, Louisa stopped fueling her illumination spell and the group walked into the darkness, disappearing.

A couple minutes later, a shadow hiding in the shadows in the stairs sighed angrily and passed by the door. However, as soon as it did a dagger appeared from nowhere and stabbed into the shadows kidneys.

The shadow never saw the dagger and only knew it was attacked when it felt the pain into its backside. The shadow form vanished revealing a Blackheart Assassin, although this one looked somewhat unique she was a Kartian.

The kidney stab stunned her, and thus the one who attacked her was free to finish her. The one who attacked her was Breyn. However, as his dagger was about to hit the girl's throat she awoke from her stun and dodged nimbly the dagger.

Breyn clicked his tongue, the ring Adam had given him was really great for hiding, but it was a shame he hadn't managed to finish her by himself.

The two assassins faced each other warily, a dagger in each hand. The two had hoods hiding their upper face, and their body was tensed, ready to move at any moment.

After half a second, the girl was the first to move as she jumped at Breyn. She was slightly slower than before because of the pain coming from her kidneys, but she was still very fast. Breyn knew that if it weren't for the ring Adam had given him he wouldn't have been to follow her moves.

She slashed upwards with one of her daggers, which Breyn easily dodged, but then swiped at his legs. Breyn first instinct was to jump, but a certain memory came back to his mind as he crouched instead and blocked the leg with his left dagger.

As soon as he did a dagger appeared right where his throat had been, as if it had always been there. Breyn sweated, had he not crouched he would have gotten killed, no doubts about it.

He had no time to rest though as the dagger fell toward his head after missing his throat. He grabbed her legs and forced her to fall while he stabbed her hand.

The girl growled in pain but still managed to kick Breyn in the face and push him back. She then slapped the hand that was stabbed on the ground, forcing the blade out and regaining her balance at the same time, before dealing a roundhouse kick.

Breyn didn't even see it coming and was hit right in the nose, breaking on the impact and falling backwards while his hood was pushed back.

The girl jumped on him and was about to stab her daggers in his neck when she abruptly froze and then hurriedly protected her side with her two daggers.

She defended herself just in time as a greatsword appeared there and crashed into her with the force of a car. Despite putting up her daggers in defense, it only allowed her to avoid being bisected, she was sent flying into a wall.

Despite the pain she felt, she got up as soon as she hit the ground and looked around for an escape route. The bounty offer was messed up, the target was way stronger than expected.

However, she felt despair when she saw her target was standing in front of door leading to the first layer. She would rather go deeper in and face the hordes or goblins than face this guy.

But even that wasn't a viable option as the path was blocked by a group of adventurers.

"Here you are little girl. Wanna dance?"

She turned her gaze back to her target who just taunted her. She gathered her courage and prepared to face him, which made him smile. As she was about to jump toward the escape she suddenly felt her heart stop beating and her blood freeze, and froze. She felt it. She felt death. She knew that if she took a single step forward, her head would leave her shoulders.

Seeing her freeze, Adam raised an eyebrow and said "Interesting, to think someone like you would develop their danger sense to this point, interesting?"

Now she was completely terrified, someone like that shouldn't exist. It was impossible. What she was feeling came from a kind of 6th sense developed by strong fighters, or martial artists, and it was called the danger sense. If one's mind and technique reached a certain level then they would be able to feel the danger emitted by someone, and what she was feeling now wasn't normal, it wasn't possible.

But when she thought her target was a monster, he suddenly took a step forward and asked "If you have developed your danger sense, then you should understand that all resistance is futile."

As he said that the danger he emitted suddenly skyrocketed, and she felt her legs grow weak. All hope of life disappeared from her mind and she only hoped for a quick death now… WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!

Her mind suddenly shook as she jolted awake and jumped back, all her senses seemed to be in a hyper stimulated stage as she breathed heavily and her eyes were completely dilated as adrenaline pumped through her body. The person in front of her had been so overwhelmingly powerful compared to her that she began giving up on life.

Adam raised an eyebrow and said "Who would have though you would make a breakthrough right now. Well, it won't change anything anyway, but it's nice to see our martial arts are similar. You can die now."

As he said that he disappeared from where he was and appeared in front of her, his sword centimeters away from her neck. However, at the moment Breyn cried out "WAIT!"

Adam's Greatsword instantly froze, resting upon the girl's neck. No, it wasn't even the case. A drop of blood appeared right where Adam's sword was, and driveled down the sword. The sword was actually a centimeter inside her neck, and the slightest move would cut her carotid open.

He looked toward Breyn and asked "What's up, you want the kill for yourself?" It surprised him a little, he didn't think Breyn was this kind of person.

He misunderstood the situation though as Breyn said "No, you can't kill her, that's… my girlfriend."