Chapter 16 Chapter Fifteen A Good Day for Death

As night drew closer to morning, half of the guests in the eight private rooms in "Dragon's Fig Leaf" were fast asleep. Porg Reese was so nervous that he couldn't sleep at all.Knowing what he had to do, and knowing that he had a part to play in the preparations for the official assassination, the young wizard thought over the potential problems he would face this morning.Will Zirkan Rufo always listen to him?And even if the priest was obedient, would this eccentric, skinny man be able to complete the task Pogue gave him?Things going on in Dragon's Fig Leaf can get very tricky very quickly if one of the Deans from the Moezhi Library is not dealt with properly and effectively.

Pogue knew the ruthlessness of the Mask of the Night organization, and he knew that if Zilkhan Rufo failed, the ghost would blame him.The magician paced up and down his small room, taking care to keep his steps as light as possible.He hoped that the ghosts would come to him at this moment, or that some member of the group who was nearby would at least contact him and let him know how things were going. The young wizard resisted the urge to open the door a crack, knowing that if he broke in at an inopportune time, he might end up like Cadderly. The ghost was in his room, staring out the window with hatred and anger.He didn't sleep at all that night, because Danica's psychic training thwarted his attempts to possess her body.He originally wanted to be there when the killer group broke in, but he was forced to go out in the middle of the night to find the group members to change the order.Danica must die with her lover.

Even with these unanticipated twists, the killer was still fairly confident that Cadderly would die that day; but even if the young priest could be simply sorted out now, the operation would still be rather ugly, sidelined. Unexpected and full of unexpected losses.Vander killed one man, and five members of the regiment disappeared in the foothills of the Snowflake Mountains. And Cadderly was still alive and well. Besides, he was very sober.The young priest was in his room, fully dressed, sitting at his desk reading a book on Universal Harmony.Much had happened in the Great Hall earlier that night that had surprised Cadderly, and he wanted to find a passage that would help explain his sudden heightening of senses, especially his progress in hearing.

Danica sat cross-legged on the floor beside the bed, meditating quietly.Not only did Cadderly gain some privacy by doing so, but she also gained some for herself.Her life is disciplined, with its inner challenges and trials, and although it's still early, she's starting a daily morning routine of building inner strength, stretching her limbs, and clearing her mind for the day ahead. Danica hadn't found an answer to her strange experience earlier that night, and really, she didn't want to.To her, the encounter with another unknown mind still seemed like a dream, and since no other trauma or danger had arisen, this explanation seemed sufficient.

※※※ "The sun isn't even out yet!" Dean Avery protested, trying to get his fat body out of bed with some difficulty. "That's Cadderly's request," Zilkhan Rufo reminded him. "He wants to do it privately, and I think what he might have to say will be worth the effort." Avery struggled to clear the phlegm that had accumulated in his throat during the night, and then took a deep breath, but he did not let go of his curious gaze at the thin man. Rufo struggled to keep his composure under that probing gaze.He keeps his breath steady, because a lot depends on the mask he's wearing at the moment.Beneath the calm surface, distress was churning in Rufo's heart.He really didn't know how things turned out like this, and how he ended up in this situation.He had been used by the evil priest Barjin when he invaded the library a few months earlier; he was the one who kicked Cadderly down the secret staircase, nearly bringing about the library's demise.

Rufo hadn't really forgiven himself—no, not forgiven, but not justified for his actions.To forgive himself would mean that he felt guilty for the treacherous behavior at the time, but now the thin man has no such feelings at all.After Barjin's aggression, the development of things made Cadderly more and more Rufo's enemy, the source of his disaster.At Simista, Cadderly was the hero, and Rufo, while he hadn't really done anything wrong (at least, he didn't admit to any of it, not even to himself), was the scapegoat. Avery staggered sleepily across the room and dressed.Rufo was glad the Dean finally stopped staring at him.

"Are you going down with me?" Avery asked. "Cadderly doesn't want me to go," the thin man lied. "He said he wanted to meet you alone in the lobby, before Fedegar started working." "That's when it's still dark." Avery spit out this sentence angrily. Rufo continued to stare at the fat Dean's back.How did things get to this point?Rufo didn't hate Avery — on the contrary, the Dean had stood up for Rufo on several occasions over the past decade. But that's all in the past, the thin man reminded himself.Simista undoubtedly changed Rufo's life, but now, looking at the innocent Alfred who didn't know what was coming, the skinny man couldn't help but stop and wonder how far he was going to change.

"Okay, I'm going to the lobby now," Avery said loudly, heading for the door. Rufo noticed that Avery hadn't even worn the staff on his belt buckle, and hadn't prayed or prepared any spells. "Honestly, I wish Cadderly hadn't been such a maverick," Avery commented, showing so much love for the young priest that it only strengthened the malign Rufo's resolve. "That's what's cute about him, I suppose, though." Avery smiled after a pause, and Rufo knew the fat man must have something on his mind about Cadderly. "Meet me in the lobby for breakfast later," Avery directed. "Maybe I can convince Cadderly to join us for dinner."

"That's what I'm hoping for," the thin man murmured sullenly.He walked to the door and watched Avery descend the steep stairs into the dimly lit hall. Rufo closed the door softly.His work is done.He followed the young magician's instructions and got things working.And Avery's fate is up to the Dean himself to face. The lean man leaned back against the wall, desperately trying to shake off his mounting guilt.He thought back to the way Avery had treated him lately, and the horrible things the dean had said to him--he had threatened to excommunicate Rufo. For Rufo, who was already filled with resentment, guilt wasn't an insurmountable feeling.

※※※ Pikel was dozing off in the hotel lobby two houses away from Dragon's Fig Leaf, his head resting on the window ledge facing the alley.A distant whistle reached his ears.The dwarf's drowsiness lasted only a moment longer, as he quickly thought of what the brother would do to Evan if he caught him dozing off while watching. Pikel stuck his head out the window and took a deep breath of the cool pre-dawn air. Another whistle sounded, this time from the alley on the other side of the building opposite him. "Eh?" the dwarf asked suspiciously.Intuition told him that these whistles were not made casually, but more like a signal.Pikel jumped from his seat, ran to the front door, picked up the deadbolt beam and threw it aside, then jumped under the front porch of the hotel.

He saw a figure move out over the alley of the nearest building, onto the balcony of the Dragon's Fig Leaf, and slip through the open door. Pikel was about to move forward to get a better look when something beside him caught his attention.A burly man charged at him, sword slashing ferociously.The first blow bounced off the dwarf's armored shoulder, missing but leaving a painful bruise. "Whoa!" Pikel exclaimed in surprise, backing away the same way.The man had been following him closely, attacking ferociously.Pikel was unarmed—he had left the stick in the room because he didn't really believe Ivan's growing suspicions that something sinister was afoot outside. Now, the dwarf with the green beard believed it, as a man slashed at him before him, pushing him back step by step.Blood ran down one of Pikel's arms from a slash on his cheek, leaving a small smear. The man continued to attack relentlessly, and Pikel had retreated halfway through the hall, leaving little room to run. ※※※ The latch made no sound.Dean Avery's eyelids drooped heavily, and he didn't even notice anyone entering the Dragon's Fig Leaf until the killer was already beside him. Then they passed him and slipped up the stairs as silently as shadows. Cadderly looked up from the Tome of Universal Harmony and looked back at Danica. "What's wrong?" the woman asked, her meditation interrupted by the young scholar's intent gaze. Cadderly put a finger to his pursed lips, motioning the woman to be quiet.Something called him, a song sung in the distance, telling him that danger was approaching.He picked up the frisbee and cane, and started to stand up and turn around to face the closed door. Before he could get out of his chair, the door slammed open, and a black figure rushed in. Danica was still sitting cross-legged when the first killer charged at him with a sword.The killer leaned down to attack, but then gasped in surprise as Danica kicked with her curled legs and sent her flying into the air.She drew her legs back as she flew up, avoiding the attack, and landed on the man who was still bent over. When she fell, her legs locked onto his neck and clamped tightly, then she violently threw her body to one side, bent down, and at the same time threw her whole body weight under the man's body. The killer saw the room spinning, but his own body did not. ※※※ Cadderly swung his staff sideways in front of his body, and was surprised to hear something—a crossbow arrow, he realized—fired and hit it, sending it flying.He turned sharply again, drawing a shoulder-height arc, aggressively this time, as two men pressed down on him.Instinctively, Cadderly dropped to one knee and hurled the Frisbee straight in front of him. A "Mask of the Night" killer who ducked with his head down happened to meet this second weapon, touching the hard Frisbee with his forearm. Cadderly thought the killer would strike back immediately, because the young priest didn't yet know how strong Ivan's forging ability was.Cadderly stared at the man's arm folded from the force of the impact—he seemed to have grown another elbow! Still, it's not wise to stop and gape when another enemy is right next to you.By the time Cadderly realized his mistake, and found a mace being thrown at his head, he knew his life was at an end. ※※※ Pikel managed to keep close enough to his pursuer that the man couldn't reach out and deliver a blow.Still, the dwarf kept yelling "Ooh!" and felt the sting from several scratches. Pikel's first thought was to run for the stairs, but he dismissed that thought as he realized that if he started running up, he would be at the same height as the enemy, and would lose the distance he was now below the enemy's optimum attack range. The only advantage.The dwarf turned sharply sideways and backed away even faster, almost tripping. The enemy followed him not far away. The killer stopped abruptly, and Pikel found himself unable to follow suit, leaving a gap wide enough for the enemy to deliver a full blow. "Whoa!" Pikel screamed, jumping back as hard as he could.He didn't jump far before he slammed into the wall, the killer's sword snapping across the lower edge of the dwarf's delicate breastplate. Pikel didn't even have time to cry out over the new wound.He bounced back off the wall and charged forward ferociously.The killer held the sword flat in front of him, and Pikel might have pierced himself, but he grabbed the sharp edge with his bare hands and tilted it sideways. Pikel then ran into the man.Immediately, he let go of his hands from the sword and wrapped his arms around the man's, squeezing with all his strength, while his stubby, muscular feet ran wildly. Now the killer backed up, Pikel moved forward, and the speed and momentum gradually increased.The burly man in front of him almost blocked the dwarf's vision. He wanted to run towards the door, but his aim was skewed, missing two feet to the left. The inn suddenly had an extra door. ※※※ Danica hit the floor harder than she expected, but she managed to climb back under the killer she had taken out in time, forcing the sword of another nearby Mask of the Night killer to pierce the floor. into the back of the friend who was still standing. Danica burst out from the other side, running towards the end of the bed.She hooked the foot of the bed with one hand, turned around to the right, and jumped up onto the mattress.A "Mask of the Night" killer also came to the bed from the other side and pressed on the apparently unarmed woman. Danica stays low and kicks straight ahead.She could barely find support in the pile of blankets, so her kick wasn't very powerful, but the killer couldn't find support either, but being weak could still cause damage.The man tripped and fell over the pile of blankets.Danica emerges from under him, wraps her arms around his shoulders from under the back, and yanks him away, using her own momentum to throw him over the end of the bed. She got up and grabbed the blanket at the same time, knowing that the man with the sword was too close.Instinctively, she held the blanket straight ahead, feeling satisfied that it absorbed the blow. The killer was entangled and distracted by the sudden screen, and didn't notice Danica attacking again until her leg landed a solid kick in his stomach. The agile monk let herself fall as the man slumped forward, using the springs of the bed to bounce herself up again, her forearm slamming into the face of the hunched man.Danica's other hand, tucked in front of her chest, struck the man's throat quickly after the first arm, and then she shifted the angle of the first arm, held it high above her head, and made an arc , hitting the stunned opponent diagonally downward, shattering his collarbone.He flew to the other side, and Danica, who was temporarily out of sight of the immediate threat, wasn't happy to find out what he saw after flying away. The young woman used the bed's springs to bounce again, ducking her head between the two bedposts at the end of the bed.A crossbow arrow hit the wall directly behind her with a heavy, muffled thud. The man she threw to this side just now got up again and came back to attack, but Danica bumped the killer with her shoulder, sending the killer flying, who was not ready in time, over the table and into the wall. ※※※ "Stop!" came the word from the back of Cadderly's mind.He didn't even realize the magical power it brought out, until the killer who had already launched an attack on his head suddenly stopped the mace in mid-air, and then stood still.The weapon was inches from the top of Cadderly's head. The spell's power was short-lived, and the killer soon recovered from the spell, growling and raising his club to strike again. Cadderly acted on instinct again, striking from two directions at once.Hitting the killer on the side of the knee with his cane, he threw the frisbee forward, crushing the killer's chest and sending him flying backwards. "Go to the balcony!" Danica called.Cadderly saw a group of killers - some drawing crossbows - still pouring in through the door, and saw no other options. Danica hooked his arm as she ran past him, pushing the door open. The song reappeared in Cadderly's head, somehow cutting through the chaos and the cacophony. Just as Danica was about to take the first step out of the room, he grabbed her hair and pulled it back violently.Danica, who hadn't expected this action at all, fell backwards. Cadderly quickly threw the disc through the gap between her bent upper body, just in time to hit a short sword thrusting from outside. The frisbee made by Ivan easily defeated the opponent, not only deflecting the dagger, but also shattering the hand holding it. Cadderly flicked his hands quickly, feeling a sting as the discs snapped back into his own hands, and immediately he flung them straight again, this time hitting the wounded Mask of the Night killer in the chest, Knock him over the railing. The killer stretched out his hand as he stumbled, clawing at the railing in vain.His hands touched the balcony, but only enough that he continued to roll over so that his feet were sticking out backwards, so that when he plummeted twenty feet, he landed on his back. Then he didn't move. ※※※ Pikel shook the crumbs out of his beard and hair. "My brother!" The cry sounded a little far away, though powerful, but it grew louder with the crackling of glass and the splintering of wood, as Evan heard his brother's cries of pain and ran at full speed past the second floor of the inn. The hallway of the first floor, and then jumped headfirst from the window above the front door of the hotel. He groaned as he hit the ground, just two feet to the right of Pikel and the stunned killer, sending a shower of shards of glass and wood over their heads. The killer stood up first, his back bleeding from many cuts, and he turned to look at his new opponent.He only saw Ivan's lower body—the upper half of the dwarf's body was inserted into the raised wooden platform—but he judged from the way Ivan kept slapping and cursing that the dwarf wouldn't be stuck there for too long. Long. He was about to raise the sword successfully, but Pikel grabbed his ankle and pulled him to the ground. Pikel continued to pull, pulling the man away from Ivan.Fury overwhelmed the green-bearded dwarf. "Whoa!" he growled, twirling and clamping the man's feet under his armpit. The Mask of the Night slayer writhed and bent to grab the dwarf, but Pikel's feet were firmly planted, and his spin quickly gained enough force that the man had to stand up. straight body. "Oh oh oh oh!" The man kept bouncing around the ground and struggled to hold onto the sword so it wouldn't fall. "Oh oh oh oh!" Right now, the only part of the Night Mask that has contact with the ground is his arms, and he's struggling to grab hold of anything he can. "Oh oh oh oh!" Pikel spun angrily; and the man—nearly avoiding the porch posts and the hotel walls—screamed with the other from the bottom of his heart. Ivan watched from behind with surprise, which quickly turned into amusement.The dwarf put aside his brother's club, spat in each hand, and picked up his huge double-bladed battle axe. Noticing Yiwen's preparation, the killer swung his sword reluctantly, but couldn't even touch Yiwen's edge.His arms were still outstretched, and his wrists hit the porch post in the twirl, and the sword was flying aimlessly into the street. Ivan gripped the ax tightly and started to swing, but the man was already flying past him. "Go faster than him," the dwarf reminded himself, wiping a drop of sweat as the spinning target passed by again.He saw the face of the "Mask of Night" killer become as white as death, even a dwarf as powerful as this, had never seen such a deep and fearful expression. boom! Distracted by a rare wave of sympathy, Ivan missed his timing and slashed the ax deep into the wooden platform. Pikel hadn't noticed his brother and his axe, nor had he noticed that the killer's scream had faded into a gasp of terror, and had no idea how he was going to stop the whirling, Or how to make him dizzy and stop the world in his head. "Oh oh oh oh!" The weight in Pikel's hands suddenly disappeared, causing him to spin and hit the wall.He looked down at the empty boot, still firmly tucked under his arm. The poor killer knocked off the nearest doorpost, crashed over the railing, snapping off just below the railings at their tops, and slid his way over the finely carved railings.He bounced a few more feet before coming to a sudden stop, his hips on the sharp edge of a broken post.There he lay, half on the platform and half outside on the cobbled street, moaning softly. "Nice boots," Ivan commented, running past Pikel and tossing him his brother's trunk-like club.Ivan started walking towards the man on the ground, then changed direction suddenly when he heard the scream of someone falling from a balcony at the Dragon's Fig Leaf Inn two houses away —that was Cadderly's balcony. The brothers let out a sigh of relief as they rushed past the motionless fallen man, and realized that it wasn't Cadderly or Danica who had fallen.But the constant sound of fighting from twenty feet above their heads told them that the two friends were not out of danger. The door of the inn was closed again and jammed with the bolts, but these obstacles never stopped Brother Stoneshoulders.In fact, it turned out to be a good idea for the dwarves to take down the door to block the front entry into the hall, because a number of crossbow arrows were shot at them as they went in, but they all went into the oak door without causing any damage. harm. ※※※ A crossbow arrow grazed Cadderly's shoulder, leaving a trail of blood on his arm. The Mask of Night's killers attacked him from behind; two others waited on the balcony, a sword and a heavy ax gleaming vaguely in the predawn twilight. Still holding Danica's hair in his hands, Cadderly pulled her up to her feet.She immediately turned into a blurry figure, and punched and kicked the wounded killers approaching from behind.She landed several solid hits and managed to push back a killer.But another killer grabbed Danica by the waist, and his momentum sent the two of them flying across the narrow balcony and into the railing. Danica grabs her opponent's face with one hand, fingers at the man's fragile eyeballs.But another Nightmasker killer on the balcony, having been forewarned how difficult this woman is, resorted to a sinister solution.With one swing of his gigantic axe, he chopped off the railing holding Danica and her opponent together. Together they fell off the balcony, and Danica took her hands away from the man's face, flailing her arms wildly, trying to find a place to grab them. Cadderly watched her fall, staring helplessly at what was happening. A crossbow shot into the young priest's back thigh.As he fell, he turned back, and his usually gentle face was now full of fury. Cadderly didn't even think about it, he raised his clenched fist at the man who fired the crossbow, said "Fett!", which is fire in Elvish, and activated the magic ring on his hand. A flame shot from Cadderly's hand and charged at his attacker, burning him to death in a blazing death smoke. A surge of disgust welled up in Cadderly's heart, and he stopped the flames.He turned sharply again, staff in hand, and hit the sword-wielding enemy solidly.He didn't really care how much he hurt the man, because he just wanted to get the man out of the way, all he wanted to do was fight his way to the axeman who had caused Danica to fall off the balcony. Again, inexperience kept Cadderly unwisely focused on one thing.Before he could get close to the axeman, some strong hands grabbed his shoulders and threw him towards the nearby railing. ※※※ Ivan flung the heavy door panel aside, trying to run straight for the stairs.The terrifying scene next to him made him slow down, but it only took him a moment to start charging again with ten times the anger. Pikel wanted to run straight for the stairs, too. "Ooh," he muttered, and ran to the right, taking cover over the bar, as he saw several dark shadows lurking on the stairs, all armed with deadly crossbows. Pikel ducked down and crawled across the long bar until he reached the bottom of the narrow passage and bumped headlong into the stacked casks of strong ale.He was surprised to find that he wasn't the only one there though, convincing the terrified shopkeeper Fedegar Harriman that he wasn't the enemy just in time before he dropped a whole bottle of brandy on his head. A crossbow arrow bounced off the edge of Ivan's axe, and another hit the dwarf on the head, startling him, though the antlers on his well-crafted helm caught the arrow just in time.And maybe the arrow finally knocked sanity into the dwarf's stubborn head, for Ivan wisely turned sideways, skirted the stairs, and scrambled under it for cover.He slammed into one of the stairs' pillars as he rushed in and got tangled up in it.By the time the dwarf figured out that it was just an ordinary wooden post and not an ambush enemy, he had chopped it to pieces. Yiwen blushed a little, feeling that he was really stupid as hell.Then he looked around and saw four more pillars—one more on this side, two on the opposite side, and another in the middle—and he gave a big, sly grin. ※※※ Danica gripped the fragile moldings on the edge of Cadderly's balcony, her strong hands not letting go, even though the Night Mask killer was still grabbing her waist, tangling and adding weight. The woman flicked and twisted to free one foot before kicking the stubborn man back and forth in the face. The killer's position was only a dozen feet above the ground, so he let go of his hand wisely, and fell heavily but uninjured onto the cobblestone road. Danica was about to climb back to Cadderly's balcony to join him, but all of a sudden, the moldings she was grabbing started falling off one side of the main frame, allowing Danica to swing around the edge of the balcony. Instinctively, she kicked and bounced, grabbing the sill of a window near the corner of the building across from Cadderly's balcony, before the molding came off entirely.Unable to stop her charge, Danica was forced to jump again, farther away from the fight, but this time there was something stronger to cling to, and it landed on the drainpipe near the side corner of the building. When she stabilized enough to observe the surrounding situation, the balcony was already crowded with killers in black and silver costumes.At first glance she couldn't find Cadderly among the crowd, and she didn't have time to stop to find him, for a crossbowman spotted her right away, and two other killers leaped over the railing along the ledge of the wall. Come in the direction of the drainpipe. Danica quickly climbed the remaining ten feet to the roof.It was only when she climbed up to the eaves that she realized she had badly sprained her knee, perhaps from a fight over the railing. "Cadderly," she whispered over and over again.The current situation reminded her vividly of when she had left Cadderly behind in Simista and went to fight by herself.She had been forced to let Cadderly fend for himself at the time. She starts traversing rooftops, trying to get directly over balconies and jumping over enemies.She turned around, however, because she heard the drainpipe creaking from the weight of someone crawling on it. "Climb up," Danica uttered sullenly, trying to give the fool a good blow as he thrust his head up to the roof.But it never occurred to her that this well-prepared organization might have ambushed people on the roof. Behind her she heard the click of a crossbow being wound. "It was a heroic battle, Miss Maupassant." A man behind her said in a deep voice, "But compared with the superb skills of the 'Night Mask', it is just a waste of effort." ※※※ Cadderly's cane flew away as it hit the railing.He nearly lost his balance as he flipped over, but caught one arm over the rail just in time. All this seemed in vain, though, as the Mask of the Night's killer relentlessly clubbed that arm, determined to let the young priest fall. Cadderly's first instinct told him to just fall - he shouldn't die if he fell.He learns, however, that another killer is waiting below, and that he remains an easy target once he falls and until he rises again. None of that seemed to matter, though, when the second Mask of the Night killer, the axeman, came to join the first on the railing above him. "Farewell, little priest," said the man viciously.He raised the brutal weapon, ready to split Cadderly's head in two. Cadderly tried casting a spell at the man, but the club hit his already injured shoulder again, and he could only groan. The young priest looked around desperately, he had only a little time to spare.He saw a thin ledge along the building a few feet behind him, and for reasons he couldn't understand, he thought of Percival the white squirrel.In the Mengzhi Library, it used to dance happily and easily along the protruding part as thin as that. Even someone as cranky as Cadderly knew that humans couldn't jump on thin protrusions like that.Somehow, though, he got there, and without trying desperately to find a place within his grasp.On hands and feet, the young priest moved quickly along the thin protrusion. "Grab him!" he heard the killer shout from behind, angry and surprised, while another called the crossbowman over. Cadderly quickly came to the corner, not wanting to look aside.The alley here was only about eight feet wide, but the only visible attachment point on the opposite building was several feet higher than where he was now.However, when Cadderly realized this in the dim light of the morning, it was too late to change his direction. He jumped and soared, impossibly high, impossibly far.He found himself climbing the side of another building with ease, barely slowing at all, and disappearing behind the roof before the crossbowmen on the balcony had time to shoot at him. ※※※ Peeking out from behind the bar, Pikel saw a killer pressing down on him from above, and two others were leaning on the side of the bar near the stairs, trying to shoot Ivan. The green-bearded dwarf sprang to his feet, club in hand, ready to face an attack. "Here we come," Fedega called from behind him.Pikel looked back to see that he had thrown the brandy bottle over again, but now with a burning rag plugged around the mouth. "Ooh!" Pikel yelled, too frightened to reach for it when Federja was supposed to throw it to him.In time, however, the dwarf reached out with the hand that was holding the stick and tapped the bottle over his head, before turning around and hitting the slow-flying missile with the stick, causing it to crumble Little Fireball.Shards of glass sprinkled the approaching killer along with the burning liquid. "Ooh!" Pikel screamed again, this time with joy, as the killer fell to the floor, rolling desperately, trying to extinguish the flames clinging to his coat.When the killer stood up again, he screamed and ran to the door, showing no intention of fighting. The dwarf jumped onto the bar, and then down again, because the archer on the stairs noticed him. ※※※ The only mistake crafty Ivan made was saving the middle pillar for last.Smiling, he swung his battle ax vigorously, knocking down the pillar, and then realized that he was standing directly under the heavy stairs. The stairs crashed down with the two surprised "Night Mask" killers standing on it. When Ivan finally burst through the pile of broken logs, only one killer stood up.Howling, the dwarf rushed forward, tried to swing the axe, but found it lodged tightly in an irregular block of beams and columns. The killer, though bruised but unhurt, smiled at him and drew a short sword. Ivan pulled hard, and the ax was pulled out suddenly, and it flew by at such a fast speed that neither the dwarf nor the killer could see its movements clearly, until it hit the killer and cut cleanly into his chest. abdomen. "Must hurt," Ivan muttered, shrugging in resignation, even a little embarrassment. ※※※ Pikel hopped onto the bar again, and he reconsidered again, for he saw a pair of dark figures rush out of Cadderly's room and down the upper walkway, toward the edge of the collapsed staircase. The frustrated dwarf groaned loudly—these two also carried nasty crossbows. Pikel realized that he was not their target, but he also knew that Ivan, who was standing unknowingly just below the ledge of the stairs, was.