Ascension of the elder

Chapter 27: The first true cliff

"Honey!"

"Daddy!"

Ash caught his wife and his daughter in a hug and held them tight and didn't ever want to let them go again.

"Dad it hurts."

"Honey you're wearing armour."

Realising his mistake Ash immediately let them go before sheepishly rubbing the back of his head and said.

"I'll get changed can you two wait for me here, I'll be back in a second."

Rushing away with red ears Ash presented the opposite of his impressive visage from before and looked more like an embarrassed schoolboy which elicited a giggle from his family.

"Mom what do you think is going on?"

Clara asked as she didn't expect any of this and she took a quick look around the entrance of this mansion. Even though it appeared scary from the outside, after being reunited with her father it appeared homely and warm to her. Lauren was no less confused as she knew the reason they had come to the Powell household and she also never thought she would see her husband again so this threw her emotions for a loop.

Ash quickly returned to them and after a more comfortable hug, led them to his new quarters. His family began looking around before Clara said.

"Wow is this our new home, but where's my bed I don't see anywhere I can sleep?"

"No this is where your mother and I will sleep you're getting your own room."

Clara and Lauren widened their eyes at this as the room they were currently in was larger than their previous house. Seeing their expressions Ash sat down with them and explained what had happened over dinner.

****POV change****

While Ash was enjoying his family time Kyle was heading towards the dining hall. He was happy that he would be able to speak to Randall and the blacksmiths again as he wouldn't need to worry about the way he spoke as they were simple people who were dedicated to their art and didn't worry about decorum so it should be a fun night.

Kyle was also hopping to run into Nettie as she carried such a grandmotherly aura around her you couldn't help but like her.

As he was walking he noticed he'd entered an area where the light arrays were not active. This was confusing as the family had a few people who inspected the estate and would report any failing arrays so his mother or an array master from the guild could come and repair them.

Approaching one of the arrays Kyle inspected it and found the glyphs had been disrupted. This would only last for a few minutes before they came live again. Getting a bad feeling Kyle put his hand on his sword hilt before he inspected the surroundings. Currently his soul sight range wasn't strong enough to detect more than a meter or two outside of himself but with the strengthening of his body his sight and hearing had improved beyond normal human levels.

Looking into the darkness Kyle could make out 5 figures approaching him. All of them had the large swords which everyone in this world used, even for assassination they didn't intend to change to smaller more inconspicuous weapons and the disruption of the light only succeeded in putting him on guard.

Kyle thought of this situation as he prepared himself for combat and couldn't help but realise this attempt on his life was childish and had a good chance of failing, while the poison plot was slow, methodical and even if unsuccessful would leave the perpetrator scot free.

When the enemy was with 2 meters of him they began to use skills. Their arms began to glow almost in unison as they all struck with heavy overhead strikes. Kyle moved to the left avoiding this stupid attack, I mean who has all their people attack at once with the same strike.

When the strike hit the ground there was a loud clank as their swords hit one another and the ground cracked due to the force. While they were tangled up Kyle moved to his first target and slashed at their Achilles tendon on their ankle. His sword passed through with no resistance and the first victim fell howling at the sudden pain and shocked they couldn't stand.

The other assassins pulled back but didn't give up. Learning from their first strike one of them spoke in a muffled voice.

"You two go forward and engage him we'll surround him."

This was a plan on the fly and wasn't thought out and considering they said the plan aloud showed that these weren't professionals. As the two in front came towards him they thought he would step back allowing the other two time to engage him in a pincer move. This may work sometime but only when the target can't break through the front line.

Instead of stepping back Kyle rushed forwards shocking the two he was approaching. They tried to do a lateral slash forcing him back but Kyle merely used his hand on the flat of one of the blades raising it into the path of the other as the attackers hadn't given themselves enough room to move properly. Pivoting to the right Kyle swung his sword again catching another tendon, a little higher this time just behind the knee. Two down three to go Kyle thought and started to grin, he didn't know he was doing this and this was his first real battle however his mentality had been forged by the pain he'd suffered before he'd been reborn and he knew death wasn't the end so this created a certain fearlessness in the face of danger but all he knew was he was having fun.

The other member of this vanguard saw Kyle's smile and shivered before he tried to bring his sword around to attack again, but before he could even get into position to strike Kyle was on him. Kyle didn't even use his sword and instead struck them in the solar plexus with a hard palm strike. Kyle wanted to get a reference on his current strength as he'd used martial arts to beat others rather than his strength and he wanted to get an idea of his baseline.

The attacker felt as though a granite block had hit him in the chest causing him to be unable to breathe and they thought that there was probably a rib or two broken from that on strike. How was this the strength of a level 0 or even a level 1? This was more like the strength of someone level 5 or even higher.

Three down two to go. As Kyle had struck the vanguard the remaining attackers didn't get a chance to respond and could only watch as a smiling Kyle took out their comrades in 2 moves. They didn't get a chance to observe for long as Kyle headed to the one on the left, he'd decided the one who spoke was probably the leader and he needed the leader to be alive and scared so he can get some information out of them.

The attacker thinking he was Usain Bolt turned and tried to run but he didn't get more than two steps before he felt a blinding pain at the back of his neck where Kyle had struck him with the hilt of the sword knocking him out with no fuss.

Four down one to go. Kyle turned to the last attacker who appeared to be frozen in place, they were holding their sword out in front of them but it was shaking. Kyle didn't know if the shaking was due to fear or from the weight of the sword, but he approached calmly with his katana held low to his side.

The attacker was scared, this kid should be dead and they should already be heading out of the estate through the route their employer had prepared. But as they say s*it happens, the Kyle who smiles gradually approached his prey trying to decide the best way to subdue this would be killer so he could question them later.

When he was in striking range he used the flat of his blade to slap away his enemies sword, expecting a counter and return strike Kyle was disappointed as the enemies blade flew out of their hand striking a wall nearby making them both turn towards it then back to each other while the attackers hands were still out in front of them.

"Um well that was anti climactic, I guess you yield?"

The attacker didn't speak but only fell to their knees. Expecting another attack Kyle trained his senses around himself while carefully approaching his attacker. Grabbing their hood Kyle pulled it off and saw the face of the leader of these half baked assassins.

"I should have guessed it was you."