The Last Assassin

Chapter 3: As Clear as Night

  Days turned to weeks, as I trained with the assassins. At first, they taught me basic walking assassinations, and eventually taught me how to make an aerial assassination. a taught me, personally, how to use a sword and nearly killed me a couple of times. I was improving, but I was slowly doing so. We were in the middle of practice, and A nearly cut my hand off! She disarmed me by slicing my wrist, and held her sword at my neck. I had to submit.

  "You're getting better, but you still suck." A told me. She helped me up, and I brushed off my jacket. "Your left arm should rise up a bit more, and relax your grip. If you squeezing the handle of the sword like that, you're either gonna cramp up your arm, or break the handle off. Either way, you're screwed."

"Sorry. I'm not used to using weapons at all. I'm only used to parkouring across the rooftops of New York." I said with a, more or less, sarcastic tone. It's just habit. "Well, you can't survive just by running. Sometimes, you have to fight in order to survive." I shrugged. I've survived this long by running, why couldn't I survive the rest of my life?  "Come on. Try again."

"Mind if I decline? I don't think My arm can take becoming a sliced and diced meal." I looked at my arm, seeing the damp red spots expanding slightly. A laughed, and patted my shoulder, "You'll get used to it. Get yourself checked out, and take a break." I nodded, and went to go wash my arm off. I took of my robes, and pulled up my sleeve. My arm was sliced to hell, but I just washed it off, and wrapped it up with some cloth. I knew I was gonna be sore in the morning...

  ...Why did I join the Assassins in the first place? I asked myself over and over in the silence of my room. "Indeed. Why DID you join the Assassins?" I heard a voice asking me, only it was coming from another body. I looked up, and saw an assassin with his hood down. His hair was spiky in the front, facing down to his eyes, but his hair seemed smooth. He had a scar across his mouth, and he had an unamused expression on his face. "You have no experience, no skill, and the only thing you know how to do, is run away. Like the little coward I know you are." The guy walked further into my room, and looked at me. "Kyle Maxxis. The kid out for revenge. You think you can take on the big man himself? The new head Templar, Nick? He was a mentor here, before he switched sides, but you think you can take him on?" This guy laughed slightly, and got in my face. "Listen, kid. Even if you didn't stop training from today, to the end of this month, Nick would kill you in an instant. As a matter of fact, so could I. I don't know why you're here at all. You can't exact revenge on your siblings. You can barely defend yourself. You might as well just go back home, while you're still alive." 

  He got out of my face, and walked toward the door. "Today in practice. I'll show you that you don't belong here. You understand me?" He turned to look at me, and I straightened my jacket. "As clear as night." I told him, and he left. I knew he was gonna be trouble for me. Later that night, I went down to the practica arena, and saw that the whole place was prepared to watch some kind of fight. There was even a betting board towards the side, and people were placing bets on people to see who would win. A was grinning as she was collecting her winnings from, what I guessed, the previous fight. She saw me, and waved me over. I walked over, passing by what seemed like the whole bureau of assassins here. "Hey Kyle. I heard you ran into Derrek. He's one of the more arrogant, and older assassins. Don't let him get to you, though. He's all talk." A laughed, and looked out a window to what seemed like an Arena. "You haven't seen this part of the practice arena, have you?" I shook my head. "It seems like a pretty big area."

"It is. It's the battle arena. It's where people challenge others, and people bet to see who wins. Don't worry, no one actually dies. We have animi over there, see?" I looked at tables with people laying on them. "What's an animus?" A laughed. "You really have a lot to learn. An animus is supposed to let you revisit memories of one's ancestors. However, we rigged it to let you create another version of you, like an avatar. It can get hurt, and even die, but the real you will be fine." I looked at the animi, then at the battle arena. "Is that was those people down there are? Just avatars of the assassins on the animi?" A nodded. "They are in no harm at all. Come on, you should try it." I shook my head, and declined. "Come on! It'll be a good thing to see how well you can survive on your own." I looked out the window as I heard a scream from one of the clones. Derrek's clone was victorious, and people were handing over money to the people who bet on him. When they got out of the animi, Derrek looked at me. He walked over, and put an arm around A. So they were a thing, apparantly. I didn't mind, but I didn't see any signs of it. A moved his arm, and looked at him. "So, how many times did you hide and sneak around in there?"

"I'm hurt. You really think I just hide and wait until I'm one of the last people in there? Give me more credit. I bet I could kill this new guy in the arena."

"Is that a bet?" A asked, and everyone turned around. A smirked, and stood on something to get everyone's attention. "Alright everyone! Derrek is going in again, and this time he has a wager! He says he can kill the new guy, Kyle, before anyone else is eliminated! So let's make this interesting. If Kyle is the first to die in there by the hands of Derrek, I'll give him 300 bucks, but if Kyle survives the first elimination, and still dies by Derrek's hand, I'll give him less!" A announced to everyone. I was not ready to be in this, but it looked like I had no choice but to go in there. "What if I don't die?" Everyone laughed slightly. Derrek pushed me slightly. "You will die in there." He laughed, and went on one of the animi. "Don't worry Kyle, you'll be fine." A reassured me, and pushed me toward an animus. I laid down on it, and let the monitor go over my eyes. I was transported through lines of code, and 0's and 1's. Things were dark...

  ...All of a sudden, I was in the arena. I looked around, and saw A by the window above me, watching. Everyone was watching, probably to see if A would pay Derrek 300 dollars or not. I sighed, and got ready. I saw the others transport in, and I saw Derrek. There was a robotic voice that stated, "Manhunt. Find and kill a target, and attempt to be the last one alive." We were all prepared, and I saw Derrek eyeballing me. When the game started, I climbed up a nearby rock, and went to the rooftops. The environment we were in was around the Statue of Liberty. The simulation was nice, if there weren't people trying to kill me. There were random A.I. that were sent into the streets, and I lost track of everyone. I looked in front of me, and Derrek was right there. "This won't hurt... a lot." He tried to stab me, but he had terrible aim, and killed a guy behind me. The guy was transported out, and Derrek looked at nothing for a while, stunned probably because he would get less of a winning bet. I shook my head, and pulled out my hidden blade, and stabbed him in the hip. 

  He pushed me off the rooftop, and I landed in a dumpster. I walked out, and saw he was gone. I knew I didn't kill him, but he wasn't 100% either. I saw him climb down, and I vanished into the crowd of A.I. 'How am I going to find anyone in this crowd?' I thought to myself, then I saw a little monitor pop up in front of me. I saw someone was directly ahead of me, and I closed the monitor to kill them silently. The girl was looking around for anyone looking for her, and I wondered how I was going to kill her. I felt something in my pocket, and found it to be a distracting bomb. I threw it in the street, and it caused a non-harmful explosion. A sound explosion I liked to call it, everyone looked at it, and I stabbed the girl as she was distracted. The voice came up again, and said, "Animus user 3 has been desynchronized. 5 users remaining." 

  The game went for about 10 minutes, and it came down to four of us. Derrek, me, and two others. Derrek didn't waste any time, as he just charged at me. He tried stabbing me again, but he had terrible aim. He missed me by a almost a foot, and I threw his sword up. He moved with the motion, and fell to the floor as I swept his right foot from under him. I pulled out my hidden blade, and stabbed him through the neck. He looked at me with anger, and shock as he was desynchronized.  The voice came up again, "Animus user 1 desynchronized. Three users remaining." 

  The last two were on the rooftops, and they were fighting to the death. I saw a rope connected to the top of the roof at the bottom, and I used it to climb up. It was kind of like a zip line, and I cut it at the bottom, and I was sent straight to the top. I saw them blocking each other, and I did something I thought I would regret. I shot out my two hidden blades, ran over, slid under their swords, and stabbed them both in the neck. They were both desynchronized at the same time, and the voice talked. "Animus users 4 and 7 desynchronized. Animus user 8 wins." I was desynchronized, and I sat up on the animus. My head hurt front the experience, but I guessed that's what happened to first time users like me. 

  A walked over, and patted my shoulder. "Looks like the rookie knows how to survive. Derrek, you got anything to say?" Derrek was leaning on the wall behind me, and he looked at me with disgust. "I underestimated you." He walked over, and looked at me. "Don't let this get to your head. You may have won this time, but trust me, you're not better than me. You understand?" I pushed him out of my face, since he was already starting to annoy me, and I answered him with the same response I gave him in my room. "As clear as night." I walked out of the arena and went to my room to retire for the night.