Sword of death (Thief of hope #1)

Prologue

The sun was starting to set as The Phantom Stalker walked the streets of Wresa. His dark as the night cloak was lifted from his back by the strong wind. He signed- nights were dangerous these days. A  Reaper or two could always get next to the guards, if they were drunk. Maybe a few Wargers.

Phantom, as friends called him in short, quickened his pace, his mind set to reaching the cavern a few streets away. Nobody was outside at this time- they all knew the risk, especially after a Warger killed 3 people few nights back. The guards that were guarding the gate were beheaded. Phantom was a stealthy man, a good fighter, but even he wouldn't try his luck against many in a not-so-wide street.

After a few minutes of walking, he reached a small cavern with a sign that simply said: Tommy's cavern.  He went through the green colored door, from a cold night into a welcoming little house with a fire pit that lit the room with dancing shadows. Men were all over the place, laughing and drinking, some eating.

But The Phantom Stalker had no interest in them. He looked for the killer everyone feared. Even with monsters as the mutual enemy to all so-called 'tribes', they still quarreled between them. And there was a killer from Metalguard in Rainguearde land. Phantom was sent to find him, and kill him. In front of the citizens, if he had to. Phantom was an important man- or should we said, assassin. He knew no magic, like other assassins, but he hid in the shadows and killed using ambush.

People never liked assassins. Real warriors hated them even more than the guard, for both they and guards didn't have magic within them. But they had special hate for assassins, for their trickiness, and often called them Ratmen. And that's why people suddenly went quiet, and whispered something between each other.

,,A Ratman! What he doin' here?" A man, clearly drunk as a barrel, said, more shouted, and then fell on the floor laughing. After that, they all forgot about Phantom, and noise returned to the place as usual.

Phantom walked to the bar, asking to rent a room. The owner, Tommy, was the one who showed them his room. Phantom knew Tommy well, and they were friends. Not much trust between them, but enough for Phantom to tell Tommy who he was looking for.

As Phantom described his mission, Tommy went white. Phantom looked at Tommy's chest failing to rise again. It took him a moment to notice a blood puddle starting to form on his stomach, and a blade in the middle. Phantom smiled, in spite of his loss.

He's found his killer.

Phantom quickly took a long knife from the side of his cloak, where he stored smaller weapons. Ha dodged the blow from the killer that was aimed at him, with the creaking wooden floor below him. They were upstairs, and no one was sleeping yet, so Phantom hoped that he could finish his job without people passing out.

The killer was wearing dark clothes, with no cloak. He wore a black leather mask over his face.

This time Phantom attacked, but the killer was quick enough to dodge it. Phantom knew that even wizards had limited mana, but more than other kinds of warriors. So he knew that the killer could use his magic to do a few smaller tricks, but would have to wait some time for his mana to restore.

Phantom smiled, knowing that he would win this battle. He striked again, but the killer was too fast  once more.

Phantom suspected that this would happen, but not that soon. He striked, wanting to deal a final blow as he saw that the killer exposed the back of his head, a great opportunity indeed. In that moment, he forgot about killer's magic powers.

He remembered when it was too late, when his screams already filled the cavern, while he slowly died of fire.