Chapter 364: Assassin’s Failed Stakeout
As every mage approached the warehouse, Benjamin would first use the water element sensing technique to carefully observe them as well as the assassins’ expressions and movements.
The majority of them would be sneaking around, taking detours and carefully entering the warehouse. They would be aimlessly looking around to avoid anyone from spotting them.
Out of these thirty over people, there was one that was different.
It was a skinny young man. Also dressed in a cloak and cautiously looking around. The key was that he was able to pin point the location of the assassins. When he appeared, those assassins in hiding looked at him differently from the others.
How could it be possible to escape the System’s eagle eyes?
From the beginning, Benjamin had plans to scout out the traitor and instructed the System to record those that were suspicious and extract them for analysis. Even the heartbeat, pupils and breathing was observed closely.
The System refused to be identified as a lie detector but succumbed to Benjamin’s intimidation.
In the end, after repeatedly observing this person’s expression over thirty times, with a voice that was almost nauseous, it confirmed, "That’s right, he is the traitor!"
And that’s how the earlier scene came to be.
"There is a traitor amongst us."
Upon hearing this, everyone was shocked and followed the direction of Benjamin’s glance. As for this traitor, perhaps he has a weak mindset — He wasn’t originally from the mages freemasonry, but he was so afraid that he switched sides recently.
Benjamin didn’t even have to point him out, and he had already started to quiver.
The others’ gazes started to accumulate on him.
"This mage here, do you have anything to say for yourself?" Benjamin coldly stared at this skinny ass mage, like a wolf staring at a sheep that made its way into a wolf pack.
"What? I..." He sounded flustered but tried to maintain composure, "What is it? Why are you looking at me? I do not understanding the meaning of this."
Benjamin couldn’t be bothered with more questions. He and the others simply, silently stared at him.
Most people wouldn’t be able to take it under such pressure, not to mention guilty traitors. After a brief silence, out of a sudden, he chanted the flight spell and bolted.
Benjamin didn’t have to take any action.
Binding spell, gravity spell, freezing spell, ring of fire control... it was such a grandeur scene for thirty over mages casting spells. Magic, amassed like a huge mountain fell from above. The skinny mage had only reached the doorway before he struck to the ground like a pigeon with broken wings.
Benjamin could sense the changes in the surrounding assassins at the sight of this.
... Apprehensive now, were they?
"Sir, what do we do with him?" One of the mages turned to look at Benjamin.
"He betrayed us, perhaps he had even revealed all information to the Church." Benjamin spoke with a straight face, "Kill him."
The people’s pupils dilated.
After a short period of silence, they started to chant together. The mages had chosen the same fireball spell without knowing it. Countless fireballs accumulated together and set the entire warehouse bright while swallowing the skinny mage within.
In mere seconds, he disintegrated without a trace of ash.
As the fire slowly extinguished, many of the mages started to hesitate — to a part of the group, this may be the first time they had blood on their hands.
Benjamin chose to speak at such a time, in a calm but firm manner, "The world is crueler than we think. Only the hands of sin and blood could fight menacing enemies to open up a future.
The mages turned and remained silent. In the end, they firmly nodded at Benjamin.
Benjamin smiled and suddenly said, "It is not safe here, our location has been exposed by him. Let’s speak at another location."
They were stunned at this statement.
It wasn’t just limited to them, even the assassins that were hiding outside the warehouse and nearby looking at each other in shock after hearing this.
Benjamin did not leave them time to rethink this over. He waved at the mages and turned to leave the warehouse.
Everyone was puzzled but they had just annihilated a traitor and there was a possibility their location was compromised, and so they did not question but quickly followed. The assassins on the other hand, hesitated for a bit before quietly following the mages, leaving the abandoned warehouse behind.
They had been crouching here for long. If they were to let Benjamin and the rest leave like that, they would have wasted that effort.
"Be careful, I think that he may have caught on to us."
One of the assassins whispered to his companion while stalking.
"It’s alright. Just don’t lose sight of them. Once they release magic, we best run in separate ways." The assassin that seemed to be the leader lowered his voice and instructed, "Hide and keep your distance. As long as we wait until they disperse and remember the location of their residence to report to the higher ups, our work would be done."
The other assassins nodded in agreement.
They looked at the mages and Benjamin who was leading them with great caution.
Under their watch, the team walked towards the city’s outskirts. The pathway they took was getting more remote. If they had to guess, Benjamin should be continuing this gathering outside the city.
"This fella is too cautious."
The assassin lifted his head and glanced at Benjamin leading the pack. He couldn’t help but sigh.
"Oh really? Thanks for the compliment." At the same time, the voice that they were all familiar with, appeared to come from behind.
In shock, the assassins turned around to look. At the dark of the night, Benjamin was flying behind them and looking at them in all smiles.
They immediately had goosebumps.
"You... How did you..."
This was scarier than seeing a ghost. The head assassin lost his breath and couldn’t speak properly.
... When did he get behind us?
He took a deep breath during his tongue tied moment and looked towards the direction of the mage team. The mages that were supposedly heading out the city had now halted with their footsteps and turned around to stare at them who lurked within the shadows. Their stares weren’t not in the least bit friendly.
At the other end of the mage’s team, the other "Benjamin" was almost standing there with the exact same smile, looking at the assassins.
The assassins were now even more frightened.
What... What sorcery was this?
Cloning spell? Was there such a thing?
The most troublesome bit was that when they were tracking the mages, the scattered formation was slowly coming together and now it seemed that they were the one being sandwiched?
It... it can’t be.
Realizing this, the head assassin fell into despair.
"I wanted to spare your lives and interrogate you but you probably were hired by Aldrich and don’t know a thing." Benjamin who was flying behind them spoke nonchalantly, "If that’s the case, it would be better to finish you off."
The elements around them started to move restlessly. The assassins that were stuck in the middle felt an instant pressure.
"Wait! Pl-please don’t kill me!" One of the assassins shouted in fear, "I have something to tell you, please don’t kill me!"
The other assassins immediately drew their swords to kill the assassin who couldn’t hold his tongue.
Benjamin had long prepared for this. The water steam whirled in to hurl the assassin out and dragged in midair. The other assassins were not able to touch him.
"What do you know? Speak up!" Benjamin reprovingly asked in a stern voice.
"I know... I know..." The assassin in the air was terrified and panted a while before responding tremulously, "I know that Mage Aldrich has been executed today."