Chapter 79: Hawk and Echo
The assassin Family techniques were treasures, knowledge handed down from generation to generation of assassins.
Talia knew this.
After all, it was common knowledge to the children born of the great houses.
Even before the discovery of Tenebris, the assassin families had existed, working in the shadows, uprooting entire kingdoms from behind the scenes.
That said, there was an even more closely guarded secret, the techniques the different families had come up with to harness the elusive power of umbralis.
" Could Lucian really have mastered how to use umbralis in such a short period of time?"
While it wasn’t unheard of, it also wasn’t easy to achieve.
It was the same reason why not all human beings and even the most powerful Talented could perceive the mysterious dimension.
It was the reason why the Great Houses passed down the techniques that they’d discovered to the next generation when the time for their initiation reached.
" Even with the knowledge my father shared with me, I can’t manipulate umbralis yet," she thought in contemplation.
Talia’s eyes drifted back to the easy-going smile on Lucian’s face.
" And yet this brat somehow managed to? No! It can’t be. It must have been a fluke."
Just then, Cassius laughed at something Lucian had said.
Samantha and Amanda were already awake, the four of them sitting in a loose circle.
It was still mostly dark outside, but the moonlight was particularly bright in Tenebris, illuminating the sky like a lone sentinel in the suffocating darkness.
Pale beams of moonlight filtered through the burrow’s entrance, just enough to barely make out everyone.
"I’m glad you aren’t hurt, Cassius," Samantha spoke, with a hint of relief in her voice.
" It was nothing. Just a few scratches." Cassius said playfully.
" Don’t brush it off. If Talia hadn’t been here, who knows what could have happened?" The brunette said seriously.
A somber silence enveloped the burrow.
" You worry too much," Lucian spoke, breaking through the quiet.
" But enough about us, what about you guys?"
Talia let out a quiet sigh, then began to explain.
" Well, much like you guys, one moment I was at the initiation ground and then the next, I was here, in Tenebris. "
Talia’s first contact was a memory she wanted to forget.
Much like the others, she’d heard the raging battle between the Council of Assassins and the masked maestro, helplessly frozen in place.
In the next instant, she lost consciousness.
When she finally came to, she was in a dark forest in the middle of nowhere.
In that moment, it had felt like she’d inadvertently stepped into a scene straight out of a horror movie.
Talia slowly surveyed her surroundings, trying to gain her bearings.
The haunting silence was the first sign that something was horribly wrong.
The forest was eerily silent, devoid of any sound.
Talia swiftly unsheathed her weapons of choice, two custom-made semi-automatic pistols, Hawk and Echo.
The pistols had been designed to favour her small stature, taking her weight and strength into consideration.
While most of the creatures in Tenebris couldn’t be killed with modern weapons and mundane ammo, the same couldn’t be said for weapons made with materials and ores obtained from the parallel dimension.
Needless to say, when she’d approached her father with her request, he’d rejected her at first.
" While convenient and well thought out, creating such a weapon would take considerable time, and not to mention, it wouldn’t work on beings like novices and maestros, they’re simply too fast. Don’t even get me started about ammo, bullets run out, while you can’t go wrong with blade weapons." Vincent had argued.
And while he was right, the pistols would still give her an advantage when it came to aspirants and initiates her age.
In the end, Vincent Varas, the Lord of House Varas, one of the most powerful maestros to walk the Earth, had given in to his daughter’s pleas, and the semi-automatic had been created with the help of Rundrik Ember, a renowned weaponsmith, and other talented weaponsmiths under the Varas’ family’s employ.
Unlike Raven, her dear friend, Talia didn’t drool over weapons or care much for how they were crafted.
But the pistols had captured her heart the moment she’d beheld them; one could say it was love at first sight.
The beautiful twin pistols had been crafted from a rare light but durable metal, Luminite, Raven called it.
The rare metal also had a rare sound-absorbing property; in a sense, the pistols had built-in silencers.
Most metallic weapons whistled through the air when launched or used, which could give away the position of the wielder, but Luminite didn’t.
" It’s mostly used in crafting arrowheads and throwing blades," Raven explained.
" That way, the weapon almost literally appears out of nowhere."
The pistols were cool to the touch, the light grips fitting snugly in the palms of her hands.
" Since the pistols are lights, I thought of making the bullets out of another incredible mineral," Rundrik explained at the time.
" This is Noradite," he said, holding one of the custom-made bullets.
"It’s the only material I could think of that you could easily carry around without slowing you down, and it’s also poisonous to low-level Tenebrian creatures."
With the two metals, Hawk and Echo functioned akin to semi-automatic pistols with silencers attached to them, except in this case, the soundproofing effect was a result of the Luminite.
At the time, seeing the fascinated smile on Talia’s face had warmed Vincent’s heart.
She was like a young girl receiving her first doll.
"While I commend the ingenuity of your idea, young miss, I’d suggest that you also learn how to wield a blade or any such weapon," the old weapon smith had advised, with a stern look on his face.
"Baah, who cares about blades when someone can use guns like these?" she’d thought smugly at the time.
Talia had practiced using her beloved Hawk and Echo, until she could give even seasoned marksmen a run for their money.
But Vincent had also ensured she properly learned how to use a sword.
Talia had begrudgingly accepted choosing a light saber, but the curved sword could not take the place of her semi-automatic pistols.
Talia moved carefully, warily observing her surroundings for the slightest shift in movement.
From the subtle feel of energy in the air, she could tell she wasn’t on Earth.
" This is definitely Tenebris, but where exactly am I? First things first, I’ll need to find other aspirants. Hopefully, then we can work together and get to one of the Human strongholds."
A shrill scream broke her out of her contemplation.
Talia swiftly ran in the direction of the scream, moving stealthily between the trees.
" That sounds like one of the other aspirants. If I can get to them, I can rescue them, and I’ll gain an ally."
Just then, the screams abruptly stopped.
A spine-chilling rasp floated through the trees.
Talia slowed down, advancing slowly.
Her eyes darted around the forest, paying attention to her surroundings.
A short distance ahead, the sound of wet squelching sounds with the occasional snapping sound could be heard.
"What the hell is going on?"
Talia crept into the bushes, slowly easing forward on her belly.
In the next moment, her hair stood on end, her widening slightly.
A sickening, nauseating feeling swept over her.
Her stomach threatened to empty itself.
Talia blacked out.
When she woke up, the same gruesome sight awaited her.
A giant spider, bigger than any she’d ever seen, was eating one of the aspirants alive.
Her eyes widened in recognition.
" That’s Bruce Gracian."
The large creature continued nibbling slowly. Bruce’s limbs twitched from time to time, the only sign that he was probably still alive.
In the next moment, the large creature injected his body with a white milky substance.
A large stinger on the spider’s abdomen plunged into Bruce’s side.
His body convulsed wildly, in erratic spasms.
Then it began to swell up.
Bile welled in Talia’s throat, but she blacked out again.
When she woke up, she was still lying in the bushes.
Bruce had stopped moving.
Tears silently ran down her face.
Talia slowly crawled back while the massive creature was preoccupied with guarding the body.
Just then, her arm brushed over something warm, soft, and smooth.
" Crap!"
She fought down the urge to scream, swiftly turning to examine the anomaly.
" It’s a person!"
The unconscious figure was a girl, in an academy uniform with the familiar symbol on her blazer’s lapel.
Shock flashed across Talia’s face.
" A Talented! What’s a Talented doing in Tenebris?! That’s insane! How’s that even possible?"
The girl was still unconscious, in probably the worst place possible.
"What do I do? I can’t leave her here. As if that’s not bad enough, there’s that... thing."
Talia’s eyes darted back in the direction of the giant spider.
" Shit!"
Just then, the girl’s eyes opened. Her eyes were an unusual shade of crimson.
" Weird."
Talia silently raised a finger to her lips.
The crimson-eyed beauty frowned, her eyes drifting to the guns on Talia’s person, then glanced behind her.
Her eyes widened in shock, then her body began to tremble.
Talia’s eyes narrowed, then widened. She instinctively lunged forward.
In the next moment, the girl let out an ear-splitting scream.