The night approached, with 10 assassins walking in the shadows of the castle. They were part of Laura's third group, the flank squad, sent to kill the rat king while he wasn't looking. They stood within the castle's roof structures, hidden from above, unnoticed by the guards.
"I got his position," One of them said.
"Good, where is he?" A female voice replied.
"With his soldiers, he seemed to be commanding them." The other assassin replied.
"Alright, let's wait for him to be isolated, then we will strike."
"Understood," they all said as they vanished within the castle's shadows.
As they followed the man from the shadows, they eventually made their way into his personal room. The room was great in size, with dark red walls, wooden windows, and golden lanterns. A bed stood in the center of the room, with a large mirror on the wall on the left. Marouce sat on his bed as he looked at his mirror, taking a glance at his own old appearance, reminiscing about times when his parents were still around to run the place, and he was just a simple and stupid kid.
As he took a long time looking into the mirror, he noticed something in its reflection, multiple silhouettes in the darker areas of the room. He stood silent on the side of his bed, as he silently manifested a gun with magic before finally speaking out.
"Who sent you here?"
The 10 figures revealed themselves from the darker areas of the room, without replying to his comment at all, armed with daggers; they all knew what they were here for: to kill him.
"No answer, huh?"
"So be it," Marouce said as he quickly turned around, shooting 2 of them to the ground. Another two dashed at him, attacking him with a barrage of attacks, which he dodges by using a teleportation spell, sending him away from the assassins and allowing him to shoot them dead due to his unexpected move.
Tsk!
"Kings like him usually don't have strength of their own, so his being strong was unexpected." One of the assassins said.
"What should we do?"
"You three take the left, we three take the right."
"Got it."
The six assassins circled around Marouce, attacking him from multiple angles at the same time, forcing him to be on the defensive when eventually his defence broke as gets cut by one of the assassins.
!!
"I cut him!"
"Now the poison in my dagger should take effect any second now!" The female assassin thought.
The rat king felt a sudden pain in his limbs as his body gradually became slower. He crouched, putting his hand on the wooden floor. Upon seeing the oppening the six assassins leaped at him with the plan of finishing him off and leaving as smoothly as they entered, but what they didn't know was that Marouce wasn't kneeling due to the pain; he was kneeling to cast a spell, with the wooden floor being the anchor.
[FIRE BLAST]!
Marouce's spell went from his palm to the ground, spreading fire in every direction as the assassins were engulfed in flames, and he stood alone in his burning room. Guards came in, bursting down the room's door, asking if the king was alright wich he replied that he was fine.
"Dispose of the trash here. I'll be in the throne room."
"And also, get in contact with Darca."
"Yes, your majesty!" The guards loudly replied that he made his way out of the burned-out room with only a small cut on his left arm. Meanwhile in the outskirts of the rat king's castle, Omen and Haru stood on a tall building's rooftop, which the three had agreed upon meeting on beforehand, watching the city as night took over it and talking about killing the rat king.
"Soon, it will be our time to strike," Omen said.
"Indeed, but it does seem like we have company," Haru replied as six soldiers landed on the same rooftop as they were on, which, within seconds, they quickly took care of. Julius arrived late to the meeting spot as he was occupied with stealing food, which Omen told him to take his job seriously.
"I was hungry, my bad."
In the rat king's castle, Clad ran the long and tall hallways of the castle before finding a big door. He opened it and saw him, looking exactly like Swan had described him to be, sitting on the throne room that was only lit with the lighting from outside the windows.
"...Rat king."
...?
"And who might you be?" Marouce asked him.