[A/N: An Extra Large Thanks to @MO.FI.SA on Patreon for reaching the second tier and becoming a Companion. a bounce chapter will be posted after this one.]

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  The road was narrow and hardly anyone would find a good place to hide and make an ambush. This meant these fellows had made adjustments to ambush me knowing that I would be alone.

  Unfortunately for them, Nurina taught me that one can never be too careful, this is why I always activate the ’Alarm’ spell and charge it to last longer.

  Dark Elves like Nurina have been met with a terrible hospitality after they fled Morrowind so having a high awareness was what made them survive.

  I learned all that from Nurina and I could survive two attempts on my life now.

  About the current situation, the ambushers don’t seem to be experienced in making a strategy.

  It reminded me of an event that happens in the game when the player gets attacked by hired thugs.

  Anyway, now two of the ambushers had spears, and the other had a bow. One of the spearmen was blocking the road behind me, the other two were at the front.

  This was a strategy to deal with a rider. So, let’s not ride.

  I went down from ’Meatloaf’ and hit its butt to clear the place, wouldn’t want the horse to get injured.

  "Who sent you?" I asked.

  "Look at him courting death, if you remained on your horse you might have a chance to run." The archer said. Seems like he is the boss around here.

  "Tell me who sent you and you will get out of it alive." I said, making them angry is better than keeping them cool-headed.

  "You’ll know once we send you to Oblivion." The man said as he was aiming at me.

  As I go into combat state, the spell ’Ocatu’s Rectical’ activates ’Stoneskin’, Protection is good at any case since I was unarmored.

  I ran towards the two in the front while unsheathing the sword.

  As I get near to the spearman I throw the sword at his unarmored arm. The sword grazed the arm and leaves a big wound.

  I was already near the man and was dodging the arrows that cam at me.

  Once I was close enough I grabbed the spear in his hand and pulled it while kicking the man away, he didn’t offer much resistance.

  The bowman was few steps away and he was switching to an axe.

  I aimed the spear and stabbed at his hip, I seem to have hit a major blood vessel as the blood was going like crazy.

  The last man was running at me twenty meters away, I looked at him and shot a ’Lightning Bolt’, after three hits he was already down.

  I switched my attention to the last man who was hit by my thrown sword and fell down.

  He grabbed the sword I threw at him and slashed at me shouting "DIE."

  Seriously? Die?

  I just dodged him few times then held his arm that held the sword, used his charge, carried him over and to the ground with a tud sound.

  He coughed blood but I sent him to dreamland with a stomp on his face.

  This was a disappointment in my opinion, someone sent the sheep to hunt the wolf. At least look for something as good as last time assassins.

  After healing the bleeding man I tied them up with their clothes and linds them in the ground.

  With few slaps they regained consciousness, they looked around left and right and then to me.

  "Monster!" The archer said.

  "Who sent you?" I said.

  "We brothers won’t betray a contractor no matter what happened to us!" Another said.

  "A milk drinker like you wouldn’t even dare to kill a chicken." The last one said.

  "Even the ruffians in Riften know when to give up!" I exclaimed.

  Seems like every city is different. No one can hide in Riften unless he had a backer, but seems like Solitude is a bit safe so ruffians here are softer than the lowlives in Riften.

  I took the axe and examined it, it looked like the ’Woodcutter Axe’ from the game.

  "Let’s do it that way then." I said while raising the axe and burying it deep into the spearman’s head.

  The blood went out and flew in every direction. This was the second life I take.

  I could feel the skull getting crushed and the sensation of the axe going into the soft organs of the body.

  I really couldn’t hold it anymore and backed away. I threw up all I ate this morning.

  I felt dizzy, this was horrible, I didn’t have to kill that man but I thought it’s a good chance to get used to killing, my inner demons insinuated that to me, I’ll need to kill to protect and survive, why not start now?

  I could hear the other two men wailing and cursing at me calling their brother’s name, they sure didn’t think a younger would do that.

  I kept throwing up, it was horrible. The more I do, the more fear will get out of me.

  I, who was born in a peaceful world would never think of living this experience.

  I remembered the assassin I killed, I was hyped with adrenaline and it was a clean stab, nothing like this mess.

  Finally, it stopped and I could stand up again while staggering.

  I looked at the corpse and the urge to throw up came back but I was emptied.

  "Who…… sent you?" I asked again while trying to stand up properly.

  The men were wailing over there brother, cowards! Men don’t wail like that.

  I went to the corpse and looked at it, then grabbed the axe that was stuck in the skull and pulled it out.

  One of the men was screaming and cursing while the other had his mind already broken.

  I pointed the axe under his chin and raised his face to look at me with the axe.

  "Speak or die." I said.

  "Black-Briar, Sibbi Black-Briar." He said as he already gave up, he was broken from just knowing that death was at hand.

  And it was none other than good old Sibbi, I’ll deal with him later.

  The other man was going berserk so I had to shut him up. The axe found its place into his skull just like his first brother.

  It didn’t end here, I raised the axe again and did the same with last brother.

  Blood was everywhere, on my face! on my clothes, on my hands, even some entered my mouth.

  The sky turned dark, and dark clouds appeared, a storm is coming.

  I looked around me and it was a bloody mess.

  I dragged the corpses away from the road, after spacing out for a while the sky started pouring its rain, it was a thunderstorm.

  I walked to the horse which was panicking and rode it back to the city.

  The rain cleaned all the blood on me and cleared my path as everyone was hiding in their homes.

  As I reached the inn, I tied the horse in the stable and went to my room.

  It was dark, but I just threw myself on the bed and slept like the way I was.

  ********************************

  It was a terrible sleep, I also saw some unreasonable dream too.

  I looked around me and found that the room was messy, I had to clean it and change into some easy clothes.

  I went down but the place was hectic on the first floor of the inn, it seemed that they discovered that three regular thugs were brutally murdered outside the city.

  The cart just brought them to the square and their families came for them.

  I went to look but it was just too much, one of them had an elderly mother and a sister, the other had no one and the last was married.

  I couldn’t wait to see more, I just walked somewhere far.

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  I reached the castle area and looked around, I saw some shops were open, stopping at a stall I picked up some street food to eat.

  I was hungry and ate like a pig.

  People around me were talking about the brutal murder that happened, even though the world wasn’t peaceful, Solitude was a safe city and these events were rare.

  I couldn’t stay around to listen to that, these three were there to kill me, and I happened to be much better than them.

  I kept walking and walking till it got dark, I saw the ’Hall of the Dead’ and there seemed to be a sermon. I stood and watched.

  The three were being buried in the crypt of the hall.

  Funny, I remembered a saying from my past life, it was "Killed the man and attended his funeral", I just literally did that.

  Dammit! Why am I smiling? This is not funny.

  I walked away again! I turned from alley to alley to escape reality for a while.

  I could do nothing about it anymore, I went back in the direction of the inn.

  Tomorrow is a big day after all, I need at least to be ready.

  As I walked in the inn, Wulfur and Battle-Born were there waiting while looking worried.

  "What’s going on?" I asked.

  "Where have you been all day?" Wulfur asked.

  "I was just in a mood to go out!" I said.

  "Did you forget about the ’Lots’ event today?" Battle-Born said, "I went in your stead and something is not right."

  Drawing lots was that thing about arranging the 32 teams into the elimination contest, team duels were to start tomorrow and it could be considered the main event.

  "What happened?" I asked.

  "After the assassins’ team were discovered, the teams became 31 so that means a team will go to the round of 16 without dueling, guess which team was that?" Wulfur said.

  "Which team?" I asked.

  "Black-Snow, the one sponsored by the Black-Briars." Battle-Born said.

  "You mean they are paying?" I asked.

  The two nodded, "Not just that." Wulfur said, "All the teams we are facing are a headache after a headache."

  "Who are we facing?" I asked.

  "We are the first duel tomorrow, we will face team ’North Stars’ of that guy Ongeim." Battle-Born said, "After it, in the round of 16 we may face the Companions’ second team."

  "No problem on my side, I would hate it if we faced any weak team." I said.

  "Thought you would say so." Wulfur said, "But whatever bothering you today may affect us tomorrow, so you better be ready."

  "Okay? Anything else I should know about the matches?" I asked.

  "Nah! Just that each round will be finished in a day, which means this team duels will take five days to finish." Battle-Born said.

  "I know about this, anything else?"

  "The number of fighters in the arena will be according to the lowest team in number, which means if we go five against three, the team of five will only send three, if one of those fell, then another can take his place."

  This is unfair for small teams, lucky for us the smallest team is just 3 players which means we can go in and out as a whole.

  "What about our strategy?" Wulfur asked.

  "We will go with the usual one, I will take a flank and support with healing, you will carry your shield and defend the middle while Battle-Born will be taking the other flank with fast hit and run." I said.

  "Sure it will work?" Battle-Born asked.

  "Like a charm." I said.