A tired voice muttered in the tent.
"Who the hell leveled up while sleeping?"
There was not a second to waste.
Immediately, Kumi turned around to face the sound of speaking before they could even finish their sentence.
"Mnph!"
Stuffing the rot soaked piece of cloth in their mouth, Kumi shoved her knife in to their throat and twisted it.
But it was already too late to do this quietly.
More than just this one scout had been awoken by the light.
Hazy and tired, a few others rustled in their beds before sitting up straight.
'Damn it! I should have powerleveled instead of sleeping!'
There was no choice left. Even if she silently began eliminating the waking scouts one by one, in less than a minute they would all be awake.
So, Kumi deduced one clean solution.
Before they could properly wake up or get ready or do Anything. Kumi would need to slaughter as many as possible.
Kumi let out a breath of air.
'Okay. Time to fight freely.'
She moved immediately.
She threw the rot soaked cloth in the face of one of the scouts who was looking in her direction before throwing one of her knives as a follow-up.
Her aim held true as it pierced their neck. But Kumi couldn't guarantee her kill, as she had already turned to kill the next.
Everyone around her died first. She ran to a nearby bed and stabbed her knife through the scout's throat.
And she moved to the next.
In a mere moment, this silent star-bound night turned to mayhem.
Blood splattered from one corpse to the other sleeping scouts as Kumi didn't have the time to cleanly remove her knife from the bodies.
Everyone in the tent was now awake, adrenaline started spiking as people yelled out into the darkness.
Panicking and in a state of confusion. Those who could not react nor move in time, met death.
...
Outside, the two remaining guards talked.
One commented, "Hey, haven't seen many guards doing their job tonight-" but was interrupted by the yelling coming from one of the two tents.
The other guard thought out loud, "Party Game night?" but the yelling didn't stop.
Both guards stood up, each passing second hardening their expressions.
A scout ran out from the tent, stumbling over the blanket that their feet had dragged along.
"Wh-" the guards couldn't even ask, as a darkened figure pounced out from the tent, landing on the fleeing scout as they fell face first on the ground.
Before the guards could even notice the attack, the figure had already pulled out their knife from the side of the scout's throat. Blood splattered onto the sand.
"I- Intruder! Assassin!"
'Why did this guy have to run?' Kumi asked herself as she already started running again.
She let her mana flow into one of her three remaining knives and threw it at the two remaining guards.
It shone before flames burst out of it as a loud rumbling explosion enveloped them both.
The exploding knife was loud and flashy, but it wasn't powerful enough to kill the two guards outright.
Covered in cinders, the two started putting out the fire on their clothes.
Kumi had already moved to the second tent.
She ran straight in there and continued killing as many as possible before they could properly get out of bed.
'The timer has started with that explosion. Thank you, Ayaka.'
The scouts in the second tent, although they were all awake due to the noise and yelling coming from outside and the neighboring tent, weren't ready for an immediate attack.
Although the mission was difficult. Annoying even. Kumi had to acknowledge two things.
First, it was a good starter mission for gaining practical experience. Second, the scouts in this camp were subpar enough for her to deal with alone.
If the scouts had been even a slight bit more cautious, battle ready or experienced then Kumi would have had to face nearly the entire squadron by herself in a direct confrontation.
Kumi managed to slice the neck of another scout who was stumbling around with only one shoe on.
She scanned the tent in a moment.
'14 left here. I wasn't accurate in counting how many escaped from the first tent. Total should be about 20. If I'm careful and don't face them all at once then it should be manageable.'
She turned to leave the tent, only to find a figure blocking her path.
'...21.'
She corrected herself as the boy spoke.
"Man. You really surprised me. That's the first assassination that I've experienced. Really scared me there."
The boy looked... older, now.
Still, it was the exact same person. There was still blood splattered across his neck. Yet, there was not a single scratch on him.
"Oh, right. Surpri-"
Before he could finish, Kumi moved again, tackling him to the ground and piercing his neck with her knife.
She twisted it and used all her strength to directly tear off the boy's head.
Having done so, she kicked the head away.
'Bullshit regenerative abilities? The head and body were still connected by blood. It's a stretch but if completely removed from the body then he might stay dead.'
Kumi looked at the corpse for a moment.
It was unmoving.
She couldn't stay there focusing on a corpse.
The two guards, burn scars covering their faces, moved to strike Kumi from behind. She turned to face them.
She dodged the first diagonal slash. Parrying the second horizontal slash with her knife before blasting a stream of liquid rot in the face of one of the guards.
The victim screamed out in pain as he fell on his back. His sword, fallen and his hands clutching at his rotting face, he was a step away from dying naturally.
The second guard didn't go out as easy as he was already attacking again.
Kumi could dodge the sword strikes no problem. The issue was the Ice Magic he wielded.
Kumi dodged a sword made of ice, just barely.
The man was now dual wielding.
With a scream, he advanced and swung his swords in a flurry.
The attacks were simple and Kumi could follow them with her eyes. But that didn't mean the attacks were slow.
There wasn't a clean opening to exploit.
He was like a charging, blind animal, still he seemed to be trained well.
Another problem, the remaining scouts. Now actually ready to fight. Adrenaline spiking and no longer just targets to stab at. They were leaving the tents one by one.
Kumi hopped to the side, blocking a sword strike from the guard with her knife before softly tossing her remaining knife into the air above them.
Filled with mana, the knife shined bright for a moment before an explosion erupted with both Kumi and the remaining guard in the blast radius.
Using this moment of blindness she created, Kumi dashed low and slashed at the heels and legs.
The guard fell and, before he could catch himself or even think about facing the enemy, found the tip of a knife sticking out of his mouth.
'My aim is off.'
Kumi kicked the body away as a fierce wind started blowing.
'The fastest way to get rid of the guard resulted in taking more damage than expected.'
The wind was quickly picking up pace.
Kumi crouched down and grabbed the corpse by the feet.
Spinning once, she threw it directly at the scout who was using Wind Magic.
The scout hesitated, catching the body instead of moving out of the way.
Using this moment, Kumi dashed, her steps uneven, towards a different scout on the side.
She could feel her hair starting to stand up. Falling to her knees and leaning back, she attempted to dodge a bolt of lightning.
Yet she reacted too slow. The lightning strike was heavy but had no paralyzing effect. It launched her a short distance away.
Kumi retreated behind a nearby tent for a moment.
Stabbing her knife into the sand, she closed her hands together, forming a basic seal and focusing on the memory of Ayaka's demonstration.
"Barrier Realm."
She needed to make it large and she only needed to implement a single Rule.
'Within the barrier, it must be dark.'
A thin veil of mana spread out and covered the camp. All the lights inside dimmed and darkness spread.
Picking up her knife, Kumi dashed out from behind the tent.
She used Coating Reinforcement on it, temporarily infusing them with lightning.
A dim crackle of light was emanating from it, but barely enough to properly notice.
She dashed through the shadows.
The scouts were again troubled.
One began creating a Counter Barrier but he was being too methodical with the creation.
Kumi jumped on to his shoulders from the shadows, slicing his neck and leaving a scorch mark where blood would usually flow out of.
The surrounding scouts immediately noticed her and made their move.
Kumi threw her dagger into the stomach of the closest scout, jumping off of the corpse's shoulders and throwing a kick at the wounded scout's jaw.
They both hit the floor, but Kumi fell feet first.
She rushed forward as a spear reached her and pierced her shoulder.
Not paying notice, Kumi took the electric knife from the fallen scout's stomach and pierced it through their neck, guaranteeing the kill.
The spear approached her again, as did the sword of another scout.
Yet before the spear or the sword could reach her and even before Kumi could react.
There was a spark. Like a firework. From the side, from one of the 'corpses'.
There was an Eruption of Flame.
Kumi was blasted away, as were the remaining scouts surrounding her.
Kumi's body was launched straight into one of the storage tents, where she crashed into the wooden barrels and boxes.
Through the cloth of the tent, that was flowing in the wind, in the epicentre of that firework there was a boy with white hair and a red coat.
Kumi wiped the blood from her forehead. The impact of landing had done more damage than the explosion itself.
Looking to the side, she noticed a barrel of worn out weapons stashed for sharpening.
She reached out her hand, and from it, she grabbed the handle of a tomahawk axe.
Looking at it for a moment, she stood up and walked out of the tent.
The boy. The leader of this squadron spoke up as he saw Kumi exit the tent.
"Oh, wow. You look like shit. No offence."