Limits

The sky turned dark and I could see lights coming out of the village houses. It was almost night time but people would still do some things before going to bed, eating dinner, drinking and so on. We needed to wait till midnight at the very least, then the plan would start.

At the midnight all the lights in the village were gone. I said to Shelly "We shall set up the poison and I will show you which ones you will be responsible for". When Shelly nodded it's head, we moved silently towards the village.

The first location was next to the village's gate. I set up a poison there and moved on to the next location. Like that we placed 10 vials around the village. It was now the end of autumn season and so there were some slight winds. The poison could be blown in wrong direction but because it was set up in a circle at least couple of vials would cover the village.

I hoped that it would be enough but I still decided to watch from within the village, otherwise, I wouldn't be able to find the ones who escaped or were not affected. I placed the skeleton mask on with the ability to enhance my vision and said to Shelly "You will take locations from 1 to 5 while I take from 10 to 6 and we will meet behind the village. Then we will enter it together". Shelly nodded it's head and I continued "I will give you the antidote. Just like last time, drink the whole vial". I placed opened vial with antidote in front of Shelly and it drank the whole thing. I then drank one vial myself and said "Alright. Time to start".

We speed off to our own locations. I needed to start from the 10th location and work my way through to the 6th location. Shelly would be a bit faster but we would meet at the 6th vial according to my calculations. At the 10th location, I unsealed the vial and speed off to the 9th location.

I worked my way like this till 6th location where I opened the last vial and saw Shelly running towards me. I said "Alright, now we enter the village silently and wait for the development. They probably have someone with the ability to track people and maybe someone with the ability of stealth. We need to watch out". Shelly nodded it's head and followed after me into the village. Because of my technique as well as approach to the village no one spotted us or at least no one seemed to spot us.

I could see some of the clouds from vials set up in the southern part of the village were mostly blown towards outside edges of the village and so wouldn't have much effectiveness but other than that, because of the southern wind all other clouds entered the village and in overall 7 of them were on target.

We waited for about 20 minutes and I could see people starting to run out of their houses while coughing blood. It was similar sight to the one we encountered in the Horseplain Village. The more time passed the more people started to die, I said to Shelly "We should head to different place, Almost all people here are dead, we need to check for other places too".

We traveled towards the inner parts of the village where we saw more dead people on the ground while those that were dying and saw us, were shocked and I could see fear in their eyes. Then I noticed an old woman running towards us as if she was not affected. I swung my arms and threw about half a dozen of daggers at her.

To my surprise the woman dodged those daggers and sprinted forwards as if I never attacked her. I narrowed my brows and said to Shelly "Attack her". Shelly didn't wait any longer and with a great speed that was at least 2 times faster than the old woman, Shelly shoot out towards her.

The woman smirked and didn't dodge, instead she headed straight towards Shelly. At the last possible moment, the woman struck with her fist and connected with the speeding Shelly. I knew something was wrong because this old woman didn't try to run, on the contrary it was as if she wanted to fight us. I could hear a "Boom!" and shelly flew into the air. I was stunned by this sight, 'This woman is strong, a lot stronger than me. Who the hell is she?' I thought to myself.

When She punched Shelly back, she smirked again and said "Boy, you have some skills but unfortunate for you. Mine are greater". I stood there without moving, not because I was paralyzed but because I was calculating and planing what to do next.

This old woman was out of my expectations. To think that she would be this strong, I even had a feeling she was stronger than Nick. I didn't say anything but instead focused on her. She looked at me and again said "Why did you do it?" to which I didn't say anything. Nothing I said would change this situation. People were dying left and right and she was the only one that was capable to withstand the poison.

She either had antidote or the poison didn't work on her. I looked at Shelly who was struggling to get up. I could see some cracks on it's shell. 'This is bad, I don't know if she had antidote or whenever she has immunity to this poison. I also don't know her skills besides her strength" I thought. The woman didn't wait any longer and ran towards me.

I didn't wait for her to arrive and readied my daggers. I threw 3 then 6 and then 9 daggers but she simply dodged them. It was also hard for me to calculate her behaviour, it was as if her behaviour was ever changing. I needed to fight her in close combat. Although she was strong, her speed was not greater than mine. I took out two daggers and ran towards her as well.

When we were couple of metres apart, she suddenly took out a whip that was barbed with some kind of metal. She then lashed the whip at me while I avoided to the side. Although I did avoid the whip it somehow still hit me in my left leg "Ungh", I gave a low grunt. This was a weird fighting technique, she actually manipulated the whip in such a way that it could change directions.

I got closer and tried to meld with the surroundings. To which she snorted and said "Another assassin. You think your petty tricks will work on me?" and she lashed out the whip in a way I would never imagine. I was already behind her but somehow the whip striked my back.

I lost my footing and stumbled, when a second attack came and hit my right arm. I thought 'I can't win against her. If I learned how to use stringed hidden weapons, I would have a chance'. I started to back up towards Shelly. I needed to retreat. My life was more important than someone surviving in this village. I ran next to Shelly and grabbed it, then started to sprint out of the village.

The woman didn't just stand there and ran after me while shouting "Where do you think you are going? Do you think I will let you leave just like that?". I didn't respond to those questions and tried to focus on running. In the life or death situation, I thought of an idea. I still had some vials with poison left, I decided to to break some and use the cloud as a distraction. Maybe it would buy us some time.

I threw one vial at my feet while running and the cloud started to form instantly. To my surprise, the woman ran straight into the cloud, having no care in the world. The poison would work even if someone didn't breathe because whole human body was breathing. I thought of a different plan and turned around towards the woman.