From The Void

by kurapica

Assassin

The Next Day

"You will?!" Silver Wing asked, elated at what he just heard.

"Yes, in exchange for you saving my life I will train you. Now come, we need to get equipment to train with." Lucien replied, as they went to the stores.

Once they arrived Lucien began looking for any yeomen or blacksmiths; it only took about a minute to find a blacksmith, an earth pony with a steel colored coat and a fiery red mane with a voice that resembled that of a Nord. The assassin bought a wooden short sword and long sword, and two dozen wooden throwing knives for himself; he also bought two short swords for Silver wing and handed the blacksmith 345 bits for the weapons.

Deciding that it would be best if no one knew how he fought, Lucien decided to train in the plains southwest of Baltimare. "First we will work on your defense, try to dodge my attacks and only block when necessary." The assassin told Silver Wing after they arrived. After tossing him the short swords, Lucien picked up his long sword and short sword and began attacking with a basic fighting style, Silver Wing dodged the first strike but had to block the second. After an hour or two of this he started to find a pattern, get close to the strikes from the long sword and back away from the short sword. Lucien continued this for another 45 minutes before he increased the speed of his attacks.

At this point, Silver Wing had to block almost every attack just to avoid getting hit. He quickly flew away from the assassin and paused to catch his breath. He didn't even notice the throwing knife Lucien had thrown until it had grazed his cheek, he put his hoof to the spot where the knife had struck and found a small stream of blood on it.

"Never take your eyes of an opponent!" Lucien shouted as he charged silver wing. After continuing his barrage for a few more minutes, after which he switched to a more advanced and fluent fighting style. it only took a minute to knock Silver Wing to the ground and pointed a blade to his throat.

"Good, you dodged most of the basic attacks. However, when you flew back to rest you lost sight of me and got injured because of it." Lucien said, as he took his sword away from the colt's throat.

After taking a short break the two went back to training. "Now we will work on offense and footwork; mimic my movements and you should succeed." Lucien said, as he grabbed his longsword and Silver Wing grabbed a Short sword.

"Raise the sword, step back and strike, step forward and thrust, raise the sword, turn and strike." The assassin said, as he and Silver Wing did the motions.

"Raise the sword, step forward and strike, step forward and thrust, raise the sword, turn and strike. Turn, step back and uppercut with the sword, continue with the strike by turning and striking downward, step forward and thrust turn and strike."
Silver Wing struggled with the third technique, but Lucien showed the correct way to do it.

"The next is the same as the third except when you turn for the uppercut you step forward. Next block toward the side of your front leg then step in that direction; now bring your sword from blocking to your head and strike, step forward and stab, turn and strike.now instead of stepping toward the block, the back leg slides out then step back and strike." Silver Wing was now doing the attacks more fluently and could almost keep up with the Assassin's moves.

"Now, raise the sword and step forward, turn, step back and cut, step forward and thrust turn and strike." It took him a few tries but Silver Wing managed to get the hang of it.

"With the next technique block toward the open side and slide your front leg out, then the back leg takes it's place. Now Strike, step forward and thrust, turn and strike." After they finished, Lucien picked up his other sword, and then moved away from Silver Wing

"Now, let's see if you can strike me in two hours." The assassin said as he got into a fighting stance."Don't hold back; strike me with intention to kill."

Silver Wing Nodded and charged the assassin striking with his left sword, Lucien simply dodged by going under the strike. The next strike came too close to the ground to duck so the assassin jumped back, Silver Wing tried to get away with a reckless charge which Lucien stepped out of the way from and tripped him.

Silver Wing responded by throwing dirt into the assassins eyes then going for an upward swing. The assassin blocked and swung his other sword at Silver Wings head. He scarcely managed to dodge and back away.

I thought you said you wouldn't attack!" Silver wing shouted at the blinded assassin.

"I never said anything of the sort, and even if I had; you should never trust your opponent, no matter who they are." He replied as he charged the sound of the colt's voice.

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3 Days later

"Not bad." Lucien said as he blocked a few of Silver Wings attacks."Not good enough to live." He said as he spun Silver Wing around and threw him away. Afterwards they continued to train and Lucien brought them to a nearby rock." Find a place to sit down? I don't have your energy." The assassin said as he sat down. "Fight with your head, not your heart. he said as he slapped Silver wing gently.

"Better, Silver Wing." Lucien said as Silver Wing blocked his attacks. "you're still dead." Lucien said with a laugh as he spun around and hit Silver Wing's side. he then poured him self a drink from a table he had set up, still blocking. "No one ever found victory in the dirt." he said as he tripped Silver Wing. 'This child has potential.' The Listener thought to himself as they continued training.

It was then that he decided it was time to finish training for the day. "Meet me at the abandoned house on the eastern edge of Baltimare tonight, you can have the rest of the day to yourself." Lucien said, as he handed Silver Wing a small bag of bits and walked toward the town. After he arrived he went to the blacksmith and bought a dagger with a crimson wrap.'Now to find a suitable pony.' after a few minutes of walking he noticed an old unicorn sitting in an alley trying to drown whatever troubles he had. 'Perfect.' The Listener thought to himself.

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The Other Side of Town

Silver Wing Wandered around until he noticed he was near the barracks. He watched the guards train for about an hour until an earth pony guard noticed him and walked over. "Hey, you're the kid that Lucien guy saved; wanna have a quick sparring match?" the guard asked.

"Is that even allowed?" Silver wing replied.

"Sure it is; come on." the guard said,practically dragging him to the training field. "Take whatever suites you; doesn't matter to me." the guard said as he grabbed a wooden greatsword with a wide blade from the rack and took a fighting stance in the sparring ring. Silver Wing grabbed a shortsword and dagger. "To be fair I don't think you should be allowed to fly." the guard told Silver wing who simply nodded in agreement.

The guard was the first to attack, a simple vertical slash. Silver Wing dodged to the left and tried to stab the guard in the neck with the dagger, only to have it blocked by the flat of the greatsword. He then tried to slash across the guard's chest with the shortsword only to have it disarmed and have pushed back to avoid the sword.

At this point some of the other guards, and even a few ponies from town stopped to watch them spar.

The guard pushed Silver Wing to the edge of the ring and did a vertical slash. Silver wing was trapped; there was no room to dodge to the side, and if he dodged backwards he would go out of the ring. He blocked the strike with the dagger and directed it away from him, he managed to avoid the strike but the dagger broke in the process. Silver Wing moved to the center of the ring and went into a unarmed fighting stance.

"You should really just give up; I mean, you don't even have a weapon any more." the guard said, as he walked closer to him.

"It's not over until your opponent is dead!" Silver wing shouted.

"If that's how you wanna fight then so be it." the guard replied. as he charged him.

Silver Wing got on the inside of the strike and twisted the guard's arm away from his face causing him to let go of the sword.Silver Wing then did a leg sweep to knock him over, and swung the guard's sword at his chest; a kill strike, had they been using real weapons.

At this point there was a small crowd watching; most of which were cheering for Silver Wing, although some of them begrudgingly handed others a bag of bits.

"Nice work kid; serves me right for challenging somepony who's teacher beat a group of bandits lead by the captain's brother." the guard said with a slight laugh.

"It was only luck that the dagger didn't break sooner; you could just as easily have won." Silver Wing replied as he handed the guard his sword.

"Either way; you beat me fair and square. Here consider this your prize for winning." the guard said as he handed him a bag of bits.

Silver Wing noticed it was getting dark, so without a word he flew to meet Lucien. After a few minutes of flying, he found the house; which was easy considering it was nearly falling apart. When he went inside he found lucien just sitting there with a dagger.

"Good you're finally here. Now, before we begin I must make one thing perfectly clear: if you wish to lead a normal life, then you should leave now. However, if you wish to stay with me; you must be prepared to do anything." Lucien said standing up.

"You saved my life; I'm staying with you." Silver Wing replied sternly.

"Then follow me." Lucien said, as he headed to the basement. Silver Wing quickly obeyed and followed him down. What he saw next would change his life forever; an old unicorn, strapped to a chair and gagged.

"I believe you deserve an explanation; I am an assassin, a killer, a mercenary, and if you wish to stay with me, then you must become one as well." Lucien said, as he took his place by the door.

"But what about him?!" Silver Wing nearly shouted.

"Kill him." Lucien replied simply.

"What?"

"You saved my life by killing the gryphon, showing that you can kill when necessary. Now I need to know you can kill on command; now kill him." Lucien said as he handed Silver Wing the dagger.

Silver Wing walked up to the unicorn, visibly shaking. He stood there a few minutes before he made his choice; he slashed across the unicorn's face, earning a muffled scream. But that wasn't enough to get rid of the rage and fear he experienced in the last week. he swung at the unicorn again and again; one of the strikes hit the corroded artery, spraying blood in his face, but he kept going. By the time he was done the unicorn was long dead, and he was covered in blood.

Lucien walked up to the colt and put his hoof on his shoulder.

"Welcome to the Dark Brotherhood."

Comments

[An Absent Man]

Now sh*t gets real!

[Diokno44]

This intrigues me....continue , and yay, Lucien's back!

[1st Lieutenant Dave]

Interesting, I wish to see more.