"That Ji Xuan really has his tentacles sunk in everywhere across the Federation. I can't believe so many schools were sheltering his lackeys." Lilith huffed angrily. Then she frowned. "There are rumors that he has ties to the a.s.sa.s.sin Guild…"

I narrowed my eyes at that. The a.s.sa.s.sin Guild again. Come to think of it, those ninjlike dudes were pretty similar to the amateur a.s.sa.s.sin trainees that I had come across. The connection made some sense, but it felt ridiculous that someone who called himself the "Spiritual Saint" would have any ties to an underground organization like the a.s.sa.s.sin Guild. Then again, maybe the t.i.tle "Spiritual Saint" was something other people gave him.

However, it made sense that he was able to mobilize them under one banner and for a single goal – because they were all from the a.s.sa.s.sins Guild to begin with.

"In any case, what do we do?" Lilith asked with a frown. "We can't run away from them forever. They're still hunting us. At this rate, they'll corner us before long and we'll be forced to fight them head-on regardless of what you say."

"No, we won't." A smile was creeping across my face. Lilith shuddered when she saw my insidious expression.

"Why not? What are you scheming?"

"You've never heard of guerilla warfare?" I pushed my gla.s.ses up my nose. Since this was like a thousand years into the future, the history the people of this period learned was very different from the history that I had learned.

First, the Chinese Communist Party, despite the odds, managed to defeat the Nationalist Kuomintang despite the latter having better trained troops, more technologically advanced equipment, wealthier funds and foreign support. They did that by recruiting the farmers and launching guerilla strikes against the Kuomintang troops, hitting them when they least expected before melting into the forests and withdrawing before the superior forces could retaliate.

It wasn't just the Chinese Communist Party. The Vietnamese, particularly the Vietcong, were able to drive a militarily superior force from the United States out of their country (granted, politics and other reasons also forced President Lyndon Johnson's hand), but prior to that, Viet Minh guerilla forces defeated their French enemies in the war for their independence shortly after World War II.

When used properly, guerilla tactics could prove to be extremely effective against superior opponents, even if they outnumbered us or had better equipment, weapons and technology. Or in this case, magic.

Of course, I didn't give Lilith an entire lecture on history because she had no interest in it other than how it was relevant to our current predicament. Fortunately, she was intelligent enough to understand the reasoning behind my plan.

"That does seem to be the most logical course of action," she agreed with a nod. "If we can take out isolated units, we'll be able to gradually chip away at them and finally wear them down. Especially since they won't be able to receive reinforcements and replenish their numbers from outside the Spiritual Road."

"That's right." I was glad that she saw the wisdom of my suggestion. "The only unknown factor for us is how many a.s.sa.s.sins or whoever this Ji Xuan has under him. But it's unrealistic to think that he will commit his entire force just to chase and capture you. He must have other goals…"

"It's probably regarding my status as the Holy Maiden of the Porter Clan." Lilith paused for a moment, chewing on her lip. "Political marriage…and I heard rumors of some sort of…ritual. I don't know the details, but apparently they need me specifically for some sort of spell."

For some reason I thought of the spirit contract that Dad told me about, the one that required the sacrifice of someone dear to you in order to bind a spirit from another dimension into this world, in exchange for tremendous power. Surely, it couldn't be…

Well, there was no use speculating and over-thinking things. For now, I decided to focus on the present and do my best to ensure the situation wouldn't lead to that.

"Anyway, that's a good idea you have, but…" Lilith had also chosen not to dwell on the rumors. "Even though you say guerilla warfare, what are we supposed to do, concretely?"

I grinned. "How about I demonstrate it to you right now?"

*

The ninja dudes appeared to like moving out in groups of five. While I certainly couldn't take on twenty to thirty of them at once, even with Lilith's help, five was a manageable number. The odds of two against five were something I would take any time over two against twenty or thirty. After all, I was the guy who defeated ten mages by myself.

Okay, admittedly that was just me wanting to rip off Ip Man or Donnie Yen, and these guys were probably much more skilled than the poor mages I defeated during the qualifier rounds for this Spiritual Road training camp. So there wouldn't be any more "I want ten!" scenes. Not to mention, ripping it off once was funny, but doing it too many times would just get annoying. Repet.i.tive jokes got stale and old really fast.

Anyway, Lilith and I stood by somewhere and watched the five. Given their skills, they should be able to locate us really soon, but I had planned to ambush them before they found us. It was all a question of timing.

"Are you sure they'll be in this area?" one of the ninjas complained. His leader spared him a glare.

"Sure as sure. If you got a better idea, out with it."

The guy shut up after that, his face flus.h.i.+ng red.

They continued to comb through the forest, leaving no stone unturned. One of them stopped at a tree and frowned when he found some tracks.

"There's a footprint here! Human…it might belong to the two of them!"

"Really?" the leader sounded skeptical. "Don't forget that there are plenty of other students in the Spiritual Road besides those two. Make sure they belong to either of the two we are pursuing. Otherwise don't waste our time!"

"Sorry, sir!" the guy leaned down and poked the print that Lilith had deliberately left. He closed his eyes and used his magical senses, savoring the sensation for a few seconds before he finally opened his eyes and raised his head. Smiling triumphantly, he rose to his feet. "The mana signature matches that of Lilith Porter's! And it's recent too! She can't be far!"

"You're right. I'm right here."

"…eh?"

All five dudes looked up, only to see a screaming fiery meteor descend upon them. Lilith's h.e.l.lfire Bear materialized and crashed onto them, crus.h.i.+ng two screaming ninjas before they could escape. The other three succeeded in dodging, but just barely.

"f.u.c.k!" the leader swore angrily as he tried to roll to his feet. He parried the h.e.l.lfire Bear's claws when it swiped at him, and was flung across the forest. He crashed into a tree, splintering the trunk and uprooting it. "Kuh!"

Wiping the blood from his mouth, he tried to look for his surviving subordinates, but he caught sight of the two of them being mauled by a pack of Leo Minor. They were desperately flinging spells at the Constellation spirits and screaming. The lions nimbly dodged the fire and earth spells while slas.h.i.+ng at them.

"You…!"

Hollering in fury, the leader cast his own spell and imbued his arms with what seemed like gigantic claws. Throwing his arm out, he unleashed three surges of sharp mana that scythed across the air and cut through the gra.s.s and trees. The pride of Leo Minor were forced to dodge, but one of them was cleaved apart by the razor-sharp spell.

"Tiger Claws!"

The leader lunged forward, both of his arms wreathed in deadly mana. The maelstrom of energies washed over another unfortunate Leo Minor, ripping him to shreds, while the rest ducked. The h.e.l.lfire Bear turned to face him, and bellowed as his intense energies ripped a b.l.o.o.d.y swathe through its protective fiery fur.

"I don't care what you are, I'll destroy you!"

The leader barreled into the h.e.l.lfire Bear, tearing into it. The immense Soul Beast roared in agony and swiped at him, but he agilely dodged it while retaliating with another slash into its face.

"He's really skilled," Lilith muttered, impressed. I nodded detachedly, but I was more concerned with the amount of time we had left. Any moment now Ji Xuan or one of the higher-ups would be demanding a report, and realize something was amiss when they couldn't contact this particular team. Not to mention he would just inform them of our ambush and give our position away.

I needed to finish him off as quickly as I could.

"Leo, Regulus."

"?!"

A golden pillar of light surged forward and slammed into the ninja leader. He cried out before he was sent hurtling across the forest, cras.h.i.+ng headfirst into a tree. Before he could even get up from under the broken, splintered trunk, Leo pounced on him, pinning him to the ground with a huge paw. His claws dug deeply into the poor ninja leader's back, drawing blood.

"Ugh…"

The guy heaved and struggled, to no avail. Even as his mana swirled around him and he attempted to break free by slas.h.i.+ng Leo with his Tiger Claws, the lion was protected by a st.u.r.dy aura reminiscent of the Nemean Lion's armored fur. He didn't receive any damage at all.

Croaking and gasping, he forcibly turned his head to see what happened to his subordinates. They were already fading away, after their blood tokens were sequestered by me and Lilith. Swearing under his breath, he glared at me defiantly.

"You won't get away with this!"

I snorted. "Making me sound like the villain now, are you? You and your friends are the ones trying to murder me. You and your friends are the ones attempting to rape Lilith. We're just defending ourselves, and we even held back so as to not kill you guys, yet you're acting as if I'm the villain and I won't get away with it? Get away with what? Self-defense? Protecting myself from your a.s.sault? Are you an absolute moron?"

The guy went still and at least had the temerity to look embarra.s.sed and ashamed of himself.

"We never intended to murder you," he finally admitted. "That was just us talking big. We would just have beaten you up and taken your blood token, but none of us ever actually thought of killing you. We're not stupid enough to commit such a blatant crime under the noses of the Federation."

That much was true, I knew. Kids always loved to exaggerate and make threats like "I'll kill you!" But n.o.body actually goes through with that. Seriously, did you guys really not go through school hearing guys make all these empty threats, but nothing worse than an altercation or a fight happened and n.o.body died?

Not to mention, the Federation was monitoring the entire training camp from outside the Spiritual Road. Unless the students wanted to be disqualified and arrested for murder, they weren't stupid enough to actually kill anyone inside the Spiritual Road. You all probably remember what happened to Mu Chen when he was forced to kill a bunch of people in the Spiritual Road after being led to a trap by Ji Xuan. Well, here we actually had modern rules governing us, and the perpetuators wouldn't be let off with a simple disqualification. There would be an enquiry, an investigation, and the culprits would be sentenced to death. Or at the very least, life imprisonment.

"I know. That's why I'm not going to kill you. But you have to be really deluded if you think I'm just going to stand there and let you guys beat me up without fighting back." At my mental command, Leo sank his claws deeper into the poor dude's back, causing him to writhe and moan audibly in agony. Crouching, I then took the blood token from him. "Thanks for this."

"You won't be able to defeat Ji Xuan!" the ninja leader shouted. "He'll utterly destroy you!"

"Then I'll do my best to avoid him," I replied with a smile. "Just like how I've eluded you guys this entire time."

The dude howled in frustration before he disappeared, forcibly teleported out of the Spiritual Road. Rising back up, I turned to Lilith.

"All right. Let us get out of here before their comrades notice something is wrong and send some people to check on these guys."

Just like incorporeal phantoms, the both of us melted away into the shadows and disappeared without a trace. By the time the ninjas' friends arrived, there was no sign that either of us had ever been here.