The Eternal Assassin

Draken was a tall, lanky man wearing a charcoal suit and tie. With his short, cropped hair and clean-shaven face, he looked more like he should be golfing with the CEOs of a major company than leading the second largest gang in all of Whikoga. His face pale and impassive, the man's gaze slowly swept around the room, and Asher could practically hear the gulping of those who met his eyes.

"Thank you all for coming," Draken said, approaching the head of the table and clasping his hands behind his back. "Before we get started, there is a quick matter I must attend to. You, over there," Draken said, angling his head toward a heavy-set man with a monstrous warhammer propped against him. "You are Galvo the Smasher, correct? An up-and-comer working under Leo?"

"That's right," Galvo said, seemingly unperturbed at being called out in front of everyone as he grinned at the gang leader. "What's wrong? Got someone you want me to smash for you? Just give me the name and consider it done."

"No, I just wanted to confirm your identity," Draken said. "I don't condone the killing of children, so thank you for saving me the hassle of having to send someone out to find you. It's far easier to take out the trash when it walks through my front door."

"Now wait just-" Galvo said, snarling as he reached for his warhammer. But before he could do so much as stand up, the heavy-set man suddenly slumped forward, his warhammer falling to the ground with a clang as his torso hit the table like a dead fish.

Asher stared at Galvo's collapsed form right alongside all the other elites, his eyes wide. He'd spent enough years as a mortician's apprentice to recognize a dead body when he saw one.

What… What the hell just happened?

He must not have been the only one thinking that, as if the room had been quiet before, it was entirely silent now. Sighing, Draken shook his head.

"My apologies that the rest of you had to witness that. Death is never something that should be taken lightly, but it had to be done. Crush?"

Immediately, Crush stepped into the room, awaiting Draken's command.

"Would you mind disposing of Galvo for me? No sense forcing these fine people to sit alongside his corpse as we discuss the future of our fair city."

"You got it boss," Crush said, quickly throwing Galvo's body over his shoulder and grabbing the fallen warhammer. As soon as the door had shut behind him, Draken nodded, a faint smile on his lips.

"A fine man, Crush. I hope all of you sitting before me have the same work ethic as he does."

"Get on with it, Drak," Francis called out beside Asher, the druid earning a few dozen open stares of shock and horror as he leaned back in his chair. "Some of us have places to be, you know?"

"Ah, Francis. Good to see you again," Draken smiled. "I'm glad you were able to make it. How goes the surrounding woodlands?"

"How do you think?" the druid frowned. "I wouldn't be here if things were all peachy-keen, now would I?"

"Fair enough. As our resident druid here has just pointed out, we are all gathered here today for one reason, and one reason only. Loratta's influence has grown too powerful and spread too wide, and she refuses to work with the rules we have set in place to ensure our continued survival. Seeing as she refuses to back down, she must be dealt with."

"Cinder demands the south-eastern part of the second ring for our aid," a woman with flaming red hair suddenly said, speaking up despite the clear fear in her eyes. After a tense few seconds, four other red-haired elites sitting beside her all nodded, showing their support of the mysterious Cinder's claim.

"The Fang lays claim to the northern portion of the first ring once our victory is confirmed!" A man in little more than rags shouted, standing up and shaking a spear that seemed to have a sharpened bone tip for the blade. He was quickly joined by three more people wielding weapons carved from bone as well, each jumping up and cheering alongside one another.

As nearly half the room went to stand and shout their respective gang leader's claims to Loretta's territory, a sudden weight seemed to press down on them out of nowhere. All the cheering and arguments stopped in an instant as the chilling touch of what Asher could only describe as death crept across their shoulders. Without Draken having to say a word, everyone immediately stopped talking, the elites quickly taking their seats and giving the one hosting this little get together their silent attention once more.

No doubt the memory of Draken killing a man without so much as a glance was still fresh in everyone's mind.

"Now is not the time for such discussions," Draken said calmly, completely ignoring the various claims he'd just heard. "Rest assured, you can tell your various leaders that their efforts will be rewarded. I will personally see to it that everyone who takes part in this coalition is rewarded appropriately. If there is anyone who doubts my word, please speak up now."

Asher was pretty sure he'd been in morgues that were louder than the room he was currently sitting in. Not a single one of the rowdy elites dared to say they had a bone to pick with Draken. Like a good host, Draken waited a few seconds to ensure everyone had a fair chance to speak up before he continued, nodding his thanks.

"Good. Now, with all that out of the way, let's get down to business."

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The next hour was spent going over the plan to take down Loratta once and for all. Draken had clearly given this quite a lot of thought, as the man unveiled a map of Whikoga's gang territory even more detailed than the one Loratta had shown Asher before explaining the different roles he expected everyone to fill.

Some people were marked entirely as distractions, while others were tasked with tying up Loratta's elites as long as possible, or taking them out if the opportunity arose. Naturally, just about everyone wanted to be on the team in charge of storming Loratta's underground compound, but the few fights that started to break out were quickly quelled with a light touch of Draken's mysterious death aura.

Once the hour was up, everyone had their respective task.

Everyone except Asher.

As the minutes ticked by, and group after group were given their task, Asher began growing a little anxious. After Draken had finally gotten to the few scattered individuals, assigning each of them a solo task or merging them into one of the larger groups, he began suspecting something was up. When even Francis had been given a job, and Asher's name had yet to be called, he decided there was no sense bothering to pretend anymore.

Somehow, someway, Draken must have figured out his true purpose for being here. And just to add to his paranoia, when Asher tried to Identify the man as he spoke, he realized his skill didn't work.

Not that his skill returned [Unclassed] and question marks. It literally didn't register the man as a living being.

Just as Asher was beginning to wonder if he should just strike now and hope for the best, Draken clapped his hands.

"Alright, I think that's as good as we're going to get. If you have your task, please convene with your group out in the main lobby. Once my people finalize our preparations, we'll let you know. Expect the strike to occur within the next few hours. The less time we give Loratta to prepare for us, the better."

Happy to be given an excuse to get away from the terrifying man, the elites quickly fled out of the conference room one after another. Before long, after he'd received a questioning raised eyebrow from Francis as the druid followed the crowd, everyone was gone.

Everyone except for Asher and the man he was supposed to murder.

Waiting until the door had swung closed behind the last of the elites, Draken finally turned his attention to Asher, the two of them separated solely by the length of the long table. Giving Asher a curious look, Draken spoke.

"So… May I ask why you are planning to kill me?"

Asher matched the gang leader's stare, Comprehend working overtime as he tried to come up with a good answer. Eventually, he thought he had a pretty good response.

"Huh?"

Sighing, Draken grabbed one of the empty chairs, taking his own seat as he fixed Asher with a pointed look. "I can quite literally sense impending death, or the intent to cause it, I suppose. While over half of the elites in that room would have been willing to kill me if given the chance, you were the only one I could sense who was actively working out a way to try and kill me throughout the entire meeting. Frankly, it was rather distracting. Not to mention rude."

Damn this world and its crazy magic skills.

"You don't seem upset," Asher pointed out, deciding there wasn't much point in lying to the man.

"You get used to it after a while," Draken shrugged. "People want to kill me for all sorts of reasons. To gain power for themselves. To rid the world of a forbidden element. Even occasionally for odd things such as sexual gratification, strangely enough. But yours feels like a reason I haven't felt before, which drew my curiosity. So, I ask again, if you wouldn't mind sharing… Why are you planning to kill me?"

Asher watched the man carefully, waiting for the inevitable death beam or whatever else he was capable of. Yet even as he watched, Draken merely sat there, examining him. The gang leader seemed content to wait as long as it took for his reply.

Okay, what are my options… Option one, I take advantage of being alone with him to try and kill him. Hopefully my Complete Resilience is strong enough to survive his strange death aura, and I get him before he gets me. Option two, I'm honest with the man, and maybe even join this effort to take down Loratta for real? I'm willing to bet her strange slime powers won't help her against Draken's terrifying death attack. Honestly, maybe that's the real reason she wants me to go after Draken?

A sudden realization struck Asher, and he felt a chill go down his spine at what he'd almost done. Wait a second… Do I even want to kill Draken? So far, the only questionably bad thing I've seen the man do was kill someone that supposedly murdered children. Even his elites seem to hold themselves to rather high standards. Sure, that random thug threatened to cut off my fingers, but she seemed rather young. Not excusable, but it sounded like she was supposed to be shadowing Crush instead of threatening strangers. Maybe Draken is actually trying to help the criminals and thugs within his turf, in his own strange, roundabout way.

While Asher struggled with his dilemma, saving Rosh on one side of the coin and sticking to his principles of killing only those that deserve it on the other, his subconscious must have come to a decision as Draken slowly nodded.

"Your intent is gone," the gang leader said, raising an eyebrow. "Change your mind?"

"I guess so," Asher laughed weakly as he rubbed the back of his neck. "If you don't mind me asking my own question before answering yours… Do you think you're a good person?"

"I strive to do good despite the situation I've found myself in," Draken shrugged. "What few people know is that Death is actually my origin element. I didn't absorb the element willingly, which is the actual reason I haven't been ceremoniously executed by the truthseekers despite my presence being well known. Few people are aware of this, but the laws are slightly different for people like myself who didn't have a choice in obtaining a forbidden element."

Draken sighed, and Asher suddenly got the feeling that the man was trying to hold the world up on his own shoulders.

"I could have hidden myself away and refused to interact with anyone, but I'd always dreamed of making the city a better place. Whatever god governs the system granted me the power to do so, and so I decided to use my gift to try and accomplish my goals. Am I a good person? I've killed more people than you could possibly imagine," Draken admitted, shaking his head. "All I can say is that I did it with the intent of improving the world a little bit, one death at a time. Does that answer satisfy you?"

"Yeah," Asher said, coming to a startling realization. In a way, he's just like me. Neither of us asked to be thrust into our current roles, but damn if we aren't trying to make the best of them.

Letting out his own sigh, Asher rubbed his brow, resting his elbows on the table's edge.

"I have this friend named Rosh, you see…"