Cornered

"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH." A thunderous cry of agony came from the mouth of Luke Steward, who on the Aurora Continent was better known as Shadow. Since its creation, many heroes and villains had set foot on this continent, but Shadow was likely one of the most famous.

Extravagant. That's the word most people would use to define him. A villain, who contrary to the norm, didn't care in the least about hiding and committed his villainous deeds in broad daylight.

While the popular consensus was that Shadow was a scary villain, he did not see himself as such. He considered himself a true hero, one willing to break with order and rules in order to bring justice. Public beheadings? An almost daily occurrence. Blowing up the royal palaces of different kingdoms? A boring trick. Turning the streets into rivers of blood? His favorite activity.

All this could make out that his nickname, Shadow, was nothing more than sarcasm, by which people made fun of him. However, Shadow was a nickname he earned during his youth, while acting as an assassin in a large criminal organization.

That was the moment when The Circle, the most powerful organization on the Aurora Continent, set its eyes on him. The Circle consisted of 8 people, recognized as some of the most powerful characters, which was in charge of looking out for the interests of humans, so it was no wonder that Luke became their main hunting target.

"Shadow, it's time for you to give up. Everything has come to an end, fighting is pointless, why don't you tell me where you hid those treasures? If you tell me, I'll think about whether it's worth giving you a slightly more honorable death. Otherwise, I wouldn't mind making soup with your head to feed my dogs. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH."

The voice was full of arrogance. It belonged to Dimitris, the crown prince of the Rolemor Kingdom, who was also the leader of the current generation of The Circle.

Cough, Cough...

Not caring about the large mouthful of blood he had just spat out, Luke looked straight at Dimitris with his cold and defiant eyes. "Hahaha. Dimitris, are you sure your mother didn't cheat on your father? You don't look like a prince, instead you look more like a royal buffoon. Handing over my treasures to you? Hahaha, what good jokes you tell, you're very talented, I'll never tell you, they'd be nothing but trash on cowards like you!"

Even finding himself badly wounded and one step away from death, Luke stood firm in his convictions. In his opinion, the members of The Circle were nothing more than cowards exalted by the masses because they were so powerful, but who didn't dare to use that power toward putting an end to people's problems.

"Dimitris, stop wasting your breath on this jerk. Just kill him and be done with it. Who knows what tricks this bastard is hiding? We've wasted too much time and resources chasing him to let this guy get away."

The speaker was Andrew Mertan, the youngest general of the Pakal Kingdom. His body was covered in blood and there was a large hole in his left shoulder. These wounds had been inflicted on him at the start of the battle due to his underestimation of Luke's power. In his opinion, Luke was a fragile assassin who was simply smarter than the average and who at the same time had crazy luck.

However, 10 years ago Luke had put aside his job as an assassin and devoted himself to improving his arsenal of magic spells and melee techniques. Despite the hatred they had for him, everyone admitted that Luke was probably one of the most talented people to have set foot on the Aurora Continent in its more than 20,000 years of existence.

By the age of 25, Luke had already earned a reputation as one of the most fearsome assassins and acquired the nickname Shadow. And now, at 35, he was versed in magical spells of mass destruction and melee defense techniques. Although he was far from the best in these areas, the combination of these skills made him an extremely dangerous enemy.

"Don't worry, Leyla has conjured up an interdimensional barrier that will make it impossible for him to escape even if he uses all his power. Besides, stop talking nonsense, what's with just killing him, don't you remember that this bastard murdered Xavier and Akami? If we don't make him wish he was dead, their ghosts will come to curse us at night. Can you really live with that?" One could see anger burning in Dimitris' eyes.

Xavier was a close friend of Dimitris, and at the same time the chief intelligence officer of the Rolemor Kingdom. A little less than a year ago, Luke managed to lure him into a trap and assassinate him, and later throw his beheaded body at the gates of Rolemor Royal City. This not only dealt a great blow to Dimitris' spirit, but also jeopardized his position of power within The Circle.

For her part, Akami was the strongest mage archer in the Volkan Kingdom. Her death happened 3 months ago, in an ambush on the outskirts of the Volkan Kingdom that resulted in more than a thousand deaths.

These events were the greatest humiliation The Circle had received during the last 200 years. This caused questions to be raised about the ability of the organization not only within the royal families, but also from the general population. In addition, the positions of the current members began to be jeopardized, leading to a hunt that had lasted almost a year to the present day.

"Hahaha, do you really think this stupid barrier can stop me? Pfft, it's nothing more than a cute spell created to entertain small children, HAHAHAHA." Luke suddenly burst out in a crazed laughter.

To anyone else, this behavior would have been nothing more than an outburst of insanity from someone who knows he is about to die. However, to the members of The Circle, who had spent the entire last year studying Luke's behavior and fought against him on countless occasions, they knew how big of a danger they were in.

"HURRY, USE ALL YOUR PROTECTIVE SPELLS AND ARTIFACTS! THIS DAMNED MADMAN WANTS TO TAKE US TO THE GRAVE ALONG WITH HIM!" Dimitris was the first to understand that something was not going according to the plan and immediately alerted his companions.

The scene fell into chaos. All the members of The Circle used all their power to protect themselves. They knew Luke was a genius with incomparable luck, so that moment of madness meant he had a trump card that could put their lives in danger.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA! You're all cowards, look how worried you are about your lives! If you really believed in all those heroic phrases you throw up in front of the public, you wouldn't be in this situation. SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE BASTARDS!" As he said his final words, Luke ripped a lock-shaped pendant from his neck and poured all his power into it.

𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘮! 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘮! 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘮!

A thunderous sound of explosions spread throughout the place, as a tide of darkness shot out from Luke's location. The interdimensional barrier quickly gave way, along with the protective spells and artifacts that the members of The Circle had employed.

After a minute, the explosions ceased and silence returned. The mountain where they had finally cornered Luke had disappeared along with him. Although Dimitris and the others managed to survive this last devastating attack, they sustained considerable injuries. And, most important of all, it was unknown whether Luke had died from the pendant attack or if he had managed to escape.