“Switch.” As the blade went for my hard, I switched placed with Carmine.

I had given her a warning via Slave Communication before swapping us, and the strike slammed into a shield, jarring the assassin. The other attacks also bounced harmlessly off her armor. Meanwhile, I appeared where she had been, giving a wave of my blade. These assassins were the lower-tier ones. In a single strike, I had dispatched two of them and caused the other one to retreat.

Carmine’s defense was always greater than her attack. Although we had worked on her attack a bit, she was still a rather slow fighter, and so she hadn’t landed any attacks on these quick-footed assassins. That wasn’t a problem for me though. I used another Quick attack, aiming at the assassins behind Carmine, who were currently turned away from me. They had more warning than the lower-level assassin’s though and managed to escape out of the way.

I ended up back-to-back with Carmine with nine assassins around us. They were very skilled in their craft, and they were determined to kill me. The crates had been intended to create a distraction. Then, while I was still on the ground, they’d swoop down and kill me. Their plan was simple, but I had to admit it probably would have worked. The problem was that that first crate went off early. Had the two groups of paladins not been there fighting over it, then they never would have dropped it and given us a warning.

As was, the first crate exploded a few moments early, and the damage was light enough we were able to prepare for the second explosion. They were now looking to salvage the situation, and even with their plan interrupted, they were still able to surround Carmine and me pretty well and push us into a corner. I was considering escaping using Return, but that was when there was a boom. A large rock golem landed in the middle of the assassins, grabbing the closest one before he could react. Terra slammed him into the ground brutally.

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A formed blurred passed her, and Lydia appeared with a spear already spiraling in a circle around her body. She immediately intercepted the lead assassin, forcing him back. He was fast, but she was far faster, and so she gave him no room to escape. While this was happening, several wind blades came from the sky. One assassin managed to block the blade, but two others weren’t lucky and ended up getting chopped up.

The sounds of the explosions had naturally alerted the other girls, and they immediately came running. We had managed to delay them just enough that everyone was arriving.

“Get over here!” Miki reached out her hand, and a stream of light shot out at one of the assassins.

He didn’t even have a chance to duck. The light struck him, and when it pulled back, his soul was ripped out his body. Did she just pull a Scorpion? As the soul flew back to her, it tore apart into pieces, and the body collapsed to the ground.

The other assassins started to run realizing that the odds were no longer in their favor, but one of them only took a few steps before he suddenly slashed to the side. A form seemed to rise out of his shadow directly behind him.

“You wish to out assassin me, huh?” Shao’s eyes flashed red.

Those were the last words he heard.

“I need one alive!” I cried out helplessly.

When had my girls all become so ruthless? They were slaughtering the assassins gleefully.

“Okay!” Lydia knocked the weapon out of the lead assassin’s hand, spun around took his knee, and then in a single motion spun around him and slammed the spear in his shoulder, pinning him to the ground, but leaving him alive.

“Th-they’ve gotten stronger,” Carmine muttered.

I nodded in agreement.