Zeke and his companions set up camp around the ravine.
Monsters wandered nearby, but Klone quickly smashed their heads, leaving them sprawled on the ground.
Once the camp was complete, Zeke sent out Ghost Troopers to scout the interior of the ravine.
'The path was narrow, with plenty of spots suitable for ambushes.'
It didn't seem like the berserk monsters would set up ambushes to launch attacks, but the Empire might send Hunting Dogs to target their rear.
From a terrain perspective, it was a location with many disadvantages.
The real trouble began at night.
Many monsters on the main planet had nocturnal habits, so as soon as night fell, the nocturnal ones started crawling up from the ravine toward the camp.
Grrr...
Zeke, who was on watch, spotted these nocturnal monsters and immediately summoned his familiars.
From the darkness, warriors with crocodile faces wielding swords and Dragon Warriors appeared silently.
Zeke gave Kaiman his orders.
"Kaiman, eliminate all enemies approaching the vicinity."
"I shall obey your command, Master."
Kaiman led the Dragon Warriors into the shadows.
True to their nature as Shadow Spirits, they dealt with the monsters stealthily and efficiently.
While Kaiman was on guard, Zeke used the Ghost Troopers to scan the surroundings, searching for the mages controlling the monsters.
But no matter how thoroughly he searched, he couldn't find any mages directing the monsters.
'They could move without mages issuing commands.'
That meant the Empire had developed an awakening drug that worked on monsters as well as humans and other races.
Zeke confirmed that the Empire's movements were even faster than in his previous life.
'But rushing things always led to problems. If even the Intelligence Agency, which should have had the strictest discipline, had gaps, then the Imperial Army must have had internal issues as well.'
Zeke planned to find those gaps and exploit them.
It would be best to assume the Empire's continental war was inevitable. In that case, weakening their forces as much as possible and steering the situation to his advantage was crucial.
Zeke returned to the camp and cast a stamina recovery buff on Liam, who was on watch, before entering the command tent.
'I should ride Bucephalus to the old castle and check the situation.'
It was then, as Zeke pondered ways to turn the tide, that the Phoenix, who had been dozing on his shoulder, suddenly perked up and raised its head.
It flapped its wings and began pecking at Zeke's head.
"What's with you? Didn't you just eat? Already hungry again?"
As the Phoenix continued flapping insistently, Zeke sensed something amiss and immediately stood, activating Hercion.
Almost simultaneously, a rift tore open in the space beside him, and something burst forth from within.
Swoosh!
A sharp blade edge grazed past Zeke's nose.
Zeke drew Bahamut and swung it at the mysterious assassin.
Boom!
The assassin, struck by Bahamut, crashed into the ground, and Zeke readjusted his stance while glaring at the foe.
Surprisingly, the assassin began to rise again.
'What was that...?'
Through the tattered night-ops suit, the assassin's form was revealed: its entire body was made of hard minerals.
Moreover, both hands were formed into sharp blades, making its body itself a weapon.
At that moment, the tent floor turned to sand, and Zeke's feet sank into it.
From within the sand, something grabbed his ankle and pulled.
'These weren't ordinary assassins.'
The mineral-bodied assassin swung its sharp arm at Zeke.
Zeke immediately activated Resonance of Strong Waves and Empty Vibration.
Woooong!
The waves of Resonance of Strong Waves and Empty Vibration spread in all directions.
Boom boom!
Not only the one underground but also the charging assassin were repelled by the waves. In that interval, Zeke used Illusion Step to circle behind the assassin.
He channeled Resonance of Strong Waves and Empty Vibration into his fist and unleashed Fajin (Explosive Force) at the mineral body.
Crack!
As Zeke's Fajin struck, the assassin rolled on the ground from the internal shock.
"Urk!"
Despite its mineral body, it seemed to feel pain, groaning as it rose and tried to flee outside the tent.
But the fleeing assassin was struck by something and bounced back inside.
Klone entered the tent, mace in hand, fuming.
"These damn bastards, who do they think they are, crawling in here!"
Zeke extended his hand toward Klone and said,
"Well done, Klone. Step back."
Zeke extended Chamber of Metal Power toward the fallen assassin.
Rumble rumble rumble!
Immense pressure bore down on the space where Zeke exerted his power, crushing everything in the tent.
Even the mineral-bodied assassin couldn't withstand the crushing force and knelt on the ground.
Zeke slowly approached the assassin, lifted the tattered clothing with his foot, and prodded the hard skin.
"It's not magic, but some unique bloodline ability. Crystallization of the body, perhaps."
Muttering softly, he drew Anexiʼs Dagger from his bosom and struck the assassin's back.
Snap!
Anexiʼs Dagger, with its indestructible property, bounced off without penetrating.
Zeke twisted Anexiʼs Dagger and said,
"With this level of bloodline ability, you're one of the Nostra Familyʼs Six."
At Zeke's words, the assassin struggled desperately to escape the pressure.
The Six that Sion had belonged to was an assassination unit composed of elite bloodline ability users.
Yet three of the Six had been deployed to assassinate Zeke Draker, and they had failed again.
He realized Zeke Draker's abilities far exceeded those of an ordinary red knight.
'I needed to report to the superiors!'
Seeing the assassin writhing, Zeke said,
"You're struggling to escape, but save your energy—it's pointless." With that, Zeke slowly retracted the chains that had burrowed underground.
Ssssh...
The ground turned into a quicksand bog, and from within, another of the Six emerged, bound by Soul Confinement Technique.
The one with a skull mask, possessing the ability to turn the ground to sand.
Zeke had seen this ability user before, during Dario's transport.
Anticipating the change in the ground, Zeke had cast Soul Confinement Technique to prevent escape as sand, successfully capturing him.
At Zeke's signal, Klone and the others entered the tent.
Klone and Liam glared murderously at the assassins.
Boris said to Zeke,
"I'll find out who sent them." Zeke shook his head.
"They're bloodline ability users, so ordinary interrogation won't work."
Zeke decided to interrogate the assassins himself and, after issuing orders, dismissed the others.
He approached the captured Six with the crystallization ability.
"Why is the Nostra Family in the ghetto region?"
Zeke gripped Bahamut and struck the hard, mineral-covered shoulder.
The crystallized skin was too tough for the blade to penetrate properly.
Zeke then tried another method.
Whoosh!
White Flame rose from the sword.
The pure fire, conjured from elemental power, clung to the assassin's body.
The White Flame began slowly melting the crystallized skin.
The assassin writhed in agony.
"Feeling like talking now?"
Despite Zeke's words, the assassin thrashed but refused to open its mouth.
Zeke withdrew the White Flame, and the melted crystals dripped like beads to the ground.
"Quite stubborn."
Protected by the hard crystals, it wouldn't yield easily.
Zeke decided to first neutralize the bloodline ability.
He opened Blood Eye toward the assassin.
"Look here."
The power of Blood Eye seeped into the assassin's body.
Ssssh...
Sensing something ominous, the assassin clutched its head and resisted the Blood Eye's power.
But resistance was impossible.
Soon, under Blood Eye's command, the assassin released the crystallization ability.
Ssssh...
The hard crystals vanished, reverting to normal human skin.
The assassin was a silver-haired woman.
Zeke asked her,
"Why did you come to the ghetto region?"
"...To assassinate Zeke Draker."
"Who ordered my assassination?"
At Zeke's question, the assassin trembled.
'A geas was activating, perhaps.'
Recalling that Sion had many geas and brainwashing seals, Zeke rephrased.
"How did you breach the outer defenses to get here?"
"...A spatial teleportation ability user opened a rift for us."
Hearing this, Zeke recalled the spatial teleportation user who had escaped his grasp before.
'That one was part of the Six too.'
Zeke looked at her and said,
"Where is the spatial teleportation ability user now?" The assassin shook her head.
"We don't know."
"What does that mean?"
"If we succeeded in the assassination, we were to fire a signal flare, and he'd come here for our escape via spatial teleportation. But we failed, so he's probably escaped alone."
Zeke turned to the skull-masked assassin beside him.
"That means you've been abandoned."
Zeke kicked off the skull mask with his foot.
The face of an ordinary-looking man was revealed beneath.
He glared at Zeke with a humiliated expression.
He hadn't imagined failing the assassination, so this situation felt like a lie.
During Dario's mission, he thought their failure was due to carelessness.
Sion, assigned with them, had unstable power, making coordination difficult.
So this time, two strong and composed members of the Six were deployed, without complacency.
The mission they were on had a 100% success rate.
The leader of the Six, the spatial teleportation ability user, was skilled at assigning appropriate missions based on abilities and utilizing them effectively.
He never dreamed of being overwhelmed and failing like this.
In truth, the man was inwardly panicking. He knew the fate of assassins captured by enemies.
From the moment of capture, he tried swallowing a hidden poison and biting his tongue to commit suicide, but for some reason, he didn't die—his body kept regenerating.
"Biting your tongue won't work, so give up and stay still."
At Zeke's words, the assassin was startled, then wore a despairing expression and resigned.
Zeke assumed, like Sion, that these two had geas and brainwashing imposed.
'I should send them to Arina first for mental reeducation.'
He didn't know the details, but sending them to Arina turned enemies into devout believers, so entrusting her seemed best.
Zeke thoroughly restrained the two Six members to prevent escape and pondered how to turn the sudden assassination attempt to his advantage.
Once secured, Zeke called his companions into the tent.
"I'll pretend to have been ambushed and injured."
Felix was surprised.
"You mean act like the assassination succeeded?" Zeke nodded.
"Yes. The Empire surely knows I've entered here. That's why they commissioned the
Nostra Family to send these assassins."
Only one person in the Empire would pull such a stunt. 'Morgan Buffon. Only that snake would devise this scheme.' Zeke continued.
"Boris, return to the Autonomous District and release the Imperial Intelligence Agency prisoners we captured earlier." Boris understood immediately.
"You're spreading false information, my lord."
"Yes. Make it seem I've been attacked and the situation is dire, and that the mutated Red Flower Disease has spread even to the knights, causing chaos in the camp. Let them carry that back to their lines."
"You're turning the ambush against them."
"If they learn I've been injured, the Empire will react somehow."
"Understood, my lord."
Zeke decided to dig a trap and lure out Morgan Buffon.
'To draw in that snake, I needed thorough preparation.'
The next day, Zeke concealed himself, while his companions took the assassin prisoners and returned to the Autonomous District.
Following Zeke's instructions, they leaked false information and deliberately weakened their defenses to create openings.
The Intelligence Agency operatives escaped the camp as intended.
And a few days later, the target fell into Zeke's trap.