The Sword and The Shadow

Attacking Andalir

Due to the lack of temporal awareness, Leguna didn't know how long he rested in his room. However, he was already fully rested by the time Sala's messenger came to knock on his door.

"The matriarch has requested your presence."

Leguna put on his gear and followed the messenger to Sala's room.

Sala was seated behind her desk. She didn't bother with pleasantries and motioned for him to sit on the chair.

"Now, please prove your worth, Mister Leguna," Sala said. "Bring me the head of the matriarch fo House Andalir, Elije Andalir."

"I wonder if you're going to offer any support?" Leguna wasn't surprised by the sudden request. "Not to mention, will the death of a matriarch really cause House Andalir to fall?"

"You already made plans for this, didn't you, Mister Leguna?" Sala smiled in a controlling fashion. "Isn't Angelista the trap you laid in House Andalir? It really surprised me… I didn't think an assassin like you would be able to get a magus to bend to your will… They are such lofty people."

"Your intelligence-gathering truly impresses me." Leguna made a surprised expression, but was secretly berating her intelligence.

"Good that you know." Sala was quite satisfied with Leguna's surprise. She took out a document from her drawer. "This is a name list. Apart from Elije, these are the people who might pull the Andalirs together again. My subordinates have collected all the detailed information here, including their genders, jobs, habits, residences and fighting styles. You're the head of a human intelligence agency, right? I'm sure you don't need me to explain how useful this is."

"I understand." Leguna swept his eyes across the list and nodded. The effects of the omniglot spell from the scroll was still present. He could easily read the dark elf text.

"Hmmm… give me three days--" It just occurred to him that they didn't measure time in days. "Give me some time. Once my preparations are ready, I'll head out. I'll make sure to notify you again. Also, don't think that I can take them all out at once. That's impossible."

"Very well, but you better act fast." There was an impatient look on Sala's face. She seemed to truly hate House Andalir to the bone.

"I will."

……

Normally speaking, a human would find it really hard to live in a lightless environment like the Dusk Zone. It was the innate handicap their race suffered, but it didn't manifest on Leguna.

After all, he was a shadow dancer. As a person who can control shadow energy, Leguna had naturally great senses in the dark. With his mastery over Host of Darkness growing, his senses grew with it. It could be said that this was advantageous terrain for him.

Additionally, he had another really powerful ability -- Shadowedge. He could easily form a layer to shadow energy above his skin to circumvent the heat senses of the elves, making it much easier to hide from them.

All those factors combined gave him a huge edge over the dark elves.

The darkness was still. It didn't take long for one rumor to spread out from Darklight. Lately, the high-order magus hired by House Andalir seemed to be dissatisfied with her treatment and caused a huge commotion and even killed a few core members of House Andalir.

However, many people doubted the veracity of that rumor. Andalir was one of the seven great houses of Darklight and they weren't someone to be trifled with. However, some dark elves were secretly hoping that they would fall apart so that they'd be able to enjoy some of the leftovers. On the other hand, they feared that spreading the rumor would give House Andalir reason to get at them.

There were also many changes occurring in Andalir's rival, House Elvin. They had eased up considerably and made concessions in the conflict of the mines, allegedly to gather all their forces in Darklight.

Not long after, House Elvin bared their fangs. Matriarch Sala united with four other smaller houses in a frontal attack against House Andalir. Wars among houses were rather rare among dark elves.

The reason for that was each house had firm foundations laid down. Any conflict could end badly for both sides.

Should that really occur, the smaller houses couldn't be counted on for aid. They'd draw their swords and slaughter what's left until there were only bones left.

That was why no house would launch an attack on another unless they were confident. Andalir and Elvin had had a grudge for along time and the other elves were just itching for them to duke it out.

This time around, the two houses acted unthinkably swiftly and quietly, but there were still quite a few elves who were able to catch wind of it and sharpen their knives, in hopes of being able to catch some prey.

"Leguna! Why aren't you fighting?!" Sala beckoned, seeing him stand beside her that casually.

"Apologies, Milady, I'm just an assassin. While I'm no doubt effective in single combat, I won't be more effective than a priestess like you when it comes to taking lives." He stretched his shoulders lazily and continued, "Also, I'm injured, you know. As the head of the house, I think you have a responsibility to show your powers and sense of responsibility on the field instead of ordering people around right here."

Leguna couldn't help but complain. His left shoulder's wound was still corroding and it seemed like he required quite a bit of time for it to recover. He had gotten that wound from fighting a dark elf necromancer.

Leguna's plan was rather simple. He had Angelista cause as much trouble as she could in House Andalir so that he could pick out his targets in the mess.

Two pitiful fools died before even noticing Leguna's presence. However, Andalir wasn't a gathering of useless weaklings. He did suffer several injuries after facing off against a high-order magus.

That magus's rotting smog had brushed his shoulder. It was a level seven necromantic spell that could cover any matter with shadow energy. While a shadow dancer like Leguna had great resistance against that, he was ultimately human. After getting hurt, he could no longer move his arm freely, so he was forced to give Angelista the signal to leave Andalir's castle together.

Ever since then, Angelista was no longer a mercenary magus like before. Sala's warm invitation made sure she became a member of House Elvin. Angelista was now standing right beside Sala.

"If you'll allow me, I'm more than willing to take Mister Leguna's place," Angelista said with an impatient look. Those who knew her well knew her to be a destruction freak. She'd get testy if she didn't get to tear down a house or two after a while.

Angelista's loyal guard was just nearby too. She thought that this servant of hers was pretty decent and good with his sword. Had it not been for him, Angelista might not have managed to escape Andalir's castle that easily.

More importantly, she knew that the man had one other long thing aside from his longsword.

"Go ahead," Sala said warmly.

Angelista nodded and took a few steps forward. House Elvin's elves had managed to fight their way to the inner castle. Arrows rained down nonstop on the Elvin troops, causing quite a huge casualties among the dwarven slaves of the house.

"Holy crap… when did they get so good at fighting back?" Sala cursed.

Don't you even understand what it means to cut off a hydra's head? Leguna thought.

Even though he had wiped out a few core members of House Andalir, they weren't going to go down that easily, being such an ancient house. Even after falling into temporary confusion after their leaders were offed, it would be a pipe dream to think Leguna could spark the entire house's downfall alone.

Angelista dictated a projectile barrier on herself and launched her rain of destruction on the rows of archers to their terror.

"Hahahaha! This is the best!" Angelista relished in the feeling of pouring out her destructive power onto the castle walls.

"This woman is a fool too…" Leguna couldn't help but comment. It made him wonder whether Angelista betrayed Andalir because of his threat or whether she just simply wanted to tear that place apart.

Angelista wasn't trying to be considerate of Leguna by offering to take his place. She just couldn't stifle her endless bloodlust.

A ray of blue light suddenly struck Angelista. It was a high-level dispel. Thanks to that, her projectile barrier was rendered useless. RIght before the rain of arrows turned her into a pincushion, her eyes finally glowed silver.

The soul shield blocked off all the arrows and she turned around to see Andalir's high-order magus, Sol Andalir. He was the one who had hurt Leguna and caused him to abort the assassination.