System in Assassin's Creed

Chapter 121: Chapter 120: ”I don’t really care anymore...”

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The night was dark and there was no moon.

Alaric, Kassandra, Reuben, Thulani, and Flavia stood silently in the middle of a dirt road several miles outside Bristol, at a point roughly six kilometers from the intersection leading towards London or Birmingham. The chill wind was rustling the leaves in the nearby trees.

Alaric, wearing his crimson Justacorps draped over his shoulders, looked around with a strange expression on his face. He was smoking another cigar, the glowing tip was a small point of light in the darkness.

Thulani shifted his weight, the massive Excalibur now strapped to his back. ”Have you picked up where the enemies are, ’Laric?” he asked quietly.

Alaric shook his head, a small chuckle escaping him. ”No, it’s unrelated... but,” He gestured vaguely around them. ”This spot... this is where I found William Penn’s broken wagon, almost fifteen years ago now. Where I first... intervened.”

Reuben’s eyes widened slightly in the dim light. ”Ah... right after you found me. That’s when you saved him, aye?”

”That’s right,” Alaric confirmed with a nod. He turned back to face the direction of the intersection, his gaze hardening. ”Anyways... you guys might be wondering why I brought you all out here, so far from the Estate.”

Flavia nodded, pulling her cloak tighter. ”Si... Signore Oldgate has La Providencia ready for departure. Everyone else is already heading towards the secret passage to the docks with Jonathan’s assistance.”

Their attention was drawn to the distance. Far down the road, towards the intersection, a faint, flickering orange glow began to appear, growing steadily brighter. Torches. Thousands of them, moving steadily in formation.

Kassandra raised an eyebrow, folding her arms. ”Hm? That’s quite a direct approach,” she observed coolly. ”No scouts? No vanguard? I expected them to send skirmishers first before marching the main force onwards.”

”That means they don’t care about stealth,” Alaric smiled grimly. ”This is England, their territory. They likely assume overwhelming force is enough, that no one would dare resist the King’s soldiers. I bet they didn’t even devise a plan to capture the Shadow Raven.”

”Anyways,” He took a long drag from his cigar, then turned, meeting the uncertain gazes of his companions. ”I brought you all here... because I aim to flaunt my strength... I will face all of them on my own”

”...”

Silence greeted his statement. Reuben, Flavia, and Thulani just stared at him, speechless.

”What!?”

”C-cosa!?”

”F-Flaunt?” Thulani finally choked out, coughing slightly. ”You aim to flaunt your strength... against two thousand men!?”

”Heh... of course,” Alaric grinned, the expression holding no humor. He took one last, deep drag from his cigar, then flicked it away into the darkness. ”I should at least show my disciples how strong their master truly is, shouldn’t I?”

Kassandra sighed beside him but said nothing, though she shook her head slightly. Even with her millennia of experience, facing two thousand trained soldiers head-on was madness for anyone... anyone except perhaps the man standing beside her.

Flavia looked horrified. ”A-Alaric... isn’t that too... much? Spericolata?” (Reckless)

The approaching torches were much closer now, resolving into distinct points of light, illuminating the disciplined ranks of soldiers marching steadily down the road towards Bristol. Twenty men across, a hundred deep. A solid rectangle of steel and resolve.

Alaric simply shook his head. ”Two thousand...” he murmured, almost to himself. ”That should be enough.”

”Enough? Enough for what?” Reuben muttered, his hand instinctively tightening on the hilt of the Sword of Damokles.

Kassandra sighed again. ”Enough with the suspense, Alaric. They are almost five hundred meters away now.”

The column of soldiers marched closer in the darkness, unaware of the small group waiting just off the road ahead. Four hundred meters... three hundred... two hundred...

Alaric stretched his limbs leisurely, cracking his knuckles, then his neck. A predatory smile then touched his lips.

”Watch carefully, all of you,” he said, his voice suddenly calm and low. ”You might not get to see me do something like this again anytime soon.”

”What do you-” Thulani started to ask.

Whoosh!

Alaric vanished. Not in a blur, but simply... gone. An afterimage flickered where he stood for a fraction of a second, and a powerful gust of wind slammed into the remaining four, making them stagger and nearly lose their balance.

They recovered quickly, looking around wildly. ”Where’d he go!?” Flavia exclaimed, scanning the darkness.

Reuben and Thulani looked equally confused, searching the road ahead. But Kassandra’s gaze instantly shot upwards.

Flavia noticed Kassandra looking up and followed her gaze. Her eyes widened, her own Eagle Vision kicking in instinctively, outlining a figure impossibly high above them, silhouetted against the faint starlight.

’Dio mio...’ Flavia thought, stunned.

---

Alaric hovered silently in the night sky, hundreds of feet above the marching column of soldiers, concealed by the darkness. He looked down at the sea of torches, the orderly ranks, the glint of steel.

Two thousand men, sent to raid his home, threaten his family, disrupt the life he was trying to build. Yes, their aim was Reuben... but that would also mean, they’ll hunt anyone related to the black-haired.

A familiar coldness settled over Alaric, the numbness he’d worried about pushed aside by a fierce, protective anger.

He smirked, the expression chilling in the darkness. ”I prefer not to kill needlessly,” he muttered to the wind. ”But I don’t really care anymore...”

With a smirk that promised chaos, he tilted forward and dropped.

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