Zilo and his teammates form into a circle and look to the ceiling of the church, waiting. Jin Shi used his incredible senses to analyze the entire area inside, out, and back. After a moment of him focusing on one spot, he whispers back to his teammates and speaks,
"This, ain't right, he ain't here. Dere's no trace a him at all."
May snaps back, "He's a master of stealth, Jin. Even you might..."
"No May, ye don't get it. He's nah here. I can't even feel another presence, I felt it fur a moment, but den he jus' disappeared."
Zilo speaks up, "If he went invisible, then leave it to Tess. She has dragon eyes she can."
"You ain't hearin me. I'd still feel that. I'd hear his steps, or feel deh air shift. He gone."
Tess turns back toward the others, putting her back to a nearby pew shaped tree. The dragon woman speaks, "Then where did he-?!"
Suddenly the corner of the pew expands and warps into the shape of a humanoid and the assassin leaps from inside of the wood with his blade already cutting the air. With a flash the assassin's blade skewered and poked out of the front of her chest.
Just as quick as a whirlwind, the blade was pulled out and he snapped it out at May, leaving a deep cut along her left side. To finish his gambit he stabbed again and impaled Zatrian in his leg, rendering it useless with it's severed hamstring.
It all occurred within a split second, and as the assassin pulled his blade from the injured elf, Tess fell to the ground with a gush of blood beginning to cover the floor. Zatrian and May held their wounds, and while they still breathed, it would take time for them to recover. Zilo and Jin finally glanced to see that the other three had fallen.
Zilo snapped Harmony into it's performance mode and flicked an immediate chord of Inspire Greatness, bolstering his monk friend. Jin, with Zilo's music pushing him forward, lept over the fallen Zatrian. Wanting to give those downed some time, he focused his ki and aimed for his nerves underneath his muscles to use a Stunning Fist.
Jin hits home, and the assassin's body convulses, his blade clattering to the ground. The drunken fighter lands from his leap, but falls to his knee from weakness. Jin mutters, "Z-...Zilo help'em!" Not needing another sign, Zilo kneels down and examined Tess, Zatrian, and May. By the time he had, May had cast a Cure Serious Wounds to mostly fix her side and she rose with her scythe in hand. Zatrian, besides a lack of mobility, would recover, the issue was Tess.
She was not dead, but her body had gone into shock, and was twitching. She had taken the worst hit, and was still bleeding horribly unable to act, and with no end to her state in sight. The assassin struggled to make his body move, eventually managing to kneel and grip his blade. Jin was there just as quick and also grabbed the blade.
May flanked around, kicking off the pew that had housed the assassin. In a flash the assassin's stunned arm's feeling returned. He snapped out a hidden Swordbreaker Dagger and caught May's scythe. He threw her scythe forward at Jin, and in a quick wrist twist, stabbed the Vanara in his arm. Jin lost his grip on the assassin's main blade, and the assassin snapped the blade out and away, cutting into the monk's exposed chest.
The nimble elf swordsman hopped back as May tumbled into Jin. Zilo cast Cure Serious Wounds to keep Tess breathing. Zatrian reached into his backpack which radiated some sort of magic light and pulled out a gun. The gun looked to be a pistol, but a specially made one called a Dragon Pistol. With a loud boom, the pistol unleashed a cone of metal shrapnel that peppered the assassin, who was too shocked to even try and avoid them.
Zilo looks to the backpack and says, "When did you-!?"
Zatrian Shouted back, "I got Deep Pockets, and am tired of being a victim!" The chronicler snapped out a book and began orating in elvish, his voice seeming to be emanating with power, similar to when Zilo played his music. Inspiring Courage flowed in Zatrian's allies.
May and Jin shook themselves off, and knelt up, May began to reach into her bag, as She looked up and locked eyes, with the worried Zilo.
"What!?" In the other realm the man in the hat with Zilo's Sheet questioned. The woman with May's Sheet says her idea again, "I have like the perfect way to kill him, but I can't say it or he might hear me, so I'm gonna try and tell Zilo with my face."
The man known as Jones squints his eyes and smiles as he says, "I like this plan, you roll... just charisma, I guess. And you roll-"
The man in the hat stares at his sheet shaking, "Sense Motive... I am aware... You are aware of Zilo's Wisdom, right?"
The woman throws down a 20 sided die, and it lands on a 13. Before she checks her sheet for her bonus she says, "Just roll, It might work."
The man in the hat rolls, and his eyes widen and his face is plastered with a smile, as he points for the red haired man with Jin's Sheet to look at his roll. Hat man exclaims, "Confirm that!"
"20!"
The wires in Zilo's head finally manage to connect, and he understands what May was intending for the first time since they have met almost a year ago. He swaps his Inspire Greatness performance onto himself, and unsheathes his blade as he casts Haste and with his speed given life he snaps out a Cat's Grace.
The assassin flicks out his sword and speaks, "Had you not shot me on the road, this job would be finished by now!" And Zilo streams in with Scherzo tapping the ground in beat, before responding, "I've got more than magic arrows now. Here, have a taste!"
The two exchange swings with Zilo's raw magical enhancements managing to hold the assassin's finely honed skill at bay. For about 20 seconds both sides cut the air, and the hollowed trees echo with the clanging sounds of metal on metal.
The assassin grimaces not wanting this exchange to continue and let the others recover enough to fight back. He flicks his sword between his eyes and casts Know the Enemy His eyes peer past Zilo, and under his cloak the assassin smiles. The smiling killer he maneuvers down to Zilo's left side, Zilo moves to swing at him, and in an instant, the assassin's legs shift and he twirls about to Zilo's right, past his shoulder.
As he twirls the assassin slices and cuts clean into Zilo's waist, directly into his old wound from when he was cleaved by the bugbear samurai, but unlike the samurai, with this strike comes the assassin's Death Attack with his masterful ability of causing a Swift Death. Zilo, with his body nearly halved, fell, and Tess sat up just in time to witness it. She shook for a moment before her grip on her blade tightened and she shot forward.
The high elf warrior's draconic cowl encased her as she let out a viscous roar, flapping her wings. She slammed into the assassin, lifting him into the air a short distance. Surprised, but still in control, The assassin thrusted his sword up, cleaving a hole into her wings, forcing her to twirl to the ground as he slipped from her grip.
The assassin dashed at the defenseless Zatrian, only to be struck again in the jaw with a fist. The elf tumbled and looked to the Vanara attacker, only he had changed something. His fists now were housed in leather gauntlets, and coated in some form of purple slime. As the assassin realized what the slime was, he reached for his face and he could taste it.
May smiled behind Jin as the monk spoke, "Moonberries. Unlike you, our sassin, don't let time do de killin for 'er." The assassin's body felt heavy, but it was still a simple matter to slash Jin back to the ground with the Monk's body far more weakened. Seeing her friend struck down, May charged in with her scythe. The assassin might have been afflicted now, but so long as he could adapt and avoid May's initial gambit then Zatrian would be a sitting duc-
The assassin's body lurched and stalled as he thought, "I can't move... What's wrong! Moonberries don't paralyze!? Why can't I mov-"
His eyes drifted over to see, Zilo, not dead, but with his fatal wound across his gut with an aura surrounding, and knitting it back together. His magic blade was glowing the same mystic greenish fey energy. His other hand was out stretched with the chord of his instrument being thundered down in order to cast Hold Person.
The assassin's crimson eyes flicker back to May, who's scythe cleaves right into the side of I' Sereg'wethrin neck. That sight proved to be the last the assassin would ever see.
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