I Received System to Become Dragonborn-Chapter 998: Defeated

Jan and Hund stood still for a moment, scanning the forest with hard eyes.

Hund’s jaw tightened, his knuckles white around the hilt of his sword. He spat out a curse under his breath, the frustration plain in his voice.

"Damn it... I lost him!"

Jan frowned, lifting two fingers to his temple. His lips moved silently as he channeled a spell.

A faint shimmer of light flickered across his irises and his vision expanded, piercing deeper into the shadows between the trees.

Every branch, every fluttering leaf, every creeping insect was laid bare before him but there was no sign of the assassin remained.

"He’s gone," Jan muttered at last, his voice low. "That shadow form carried him too far and too fast. He’s not anywhere near us anymore."

Hund slammed his sword back into its scabbard with a sharp clang.

"God damnit! Who the hell was that? That spell... when he turned into black smoke. It wasn’t something ordinary. He muat be came from a strong group."

Jan nodded grimly. "Right. Someone skilled, and well-equipped. Let’s return to the camp. The others should know."

Together, they hurried back through the brush until the glow of the fire came into view.

Arty, Annette, and Esther were waiting, their eyes tense with worry.

"What happened?" Esther asked immediately, standing from her seat by the flames.

"He got away," Jan answered, his jaw tight. "That bastard used powerful Magic. He must have a strong organization backing him."

"He?" Annette echoed.

"Yes," Hund said firmly. "He’s a man. I saw his build and his eyes. The mask hid the rest, but not his eyes. Then he turned into smoke and just vanished into the night."

For a moment, silence pressed heavy over them. Each one pondered the meaning. Then Annette spoke, her voice hesitant yet sharp:

"Could it be... it is ’that’ organization?"

The others turned to her at once, eyes narrowing.

Arty, who had no idea what they were talking about, only blinked in silence.

"Maybe," Esther said softly. "But why here? Why send one of them after us? What do we have that would attract them?"

No one answered immediately. Their thoughts tangled with unease.

Until almost in unison, their eyes shifted toward Arty.

"W-what?" Arty stammered, caught off guard.

"They might be following you," Esther said gently but firmly. "We carry nothing worth their notice. But you... perhaps they are after you." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Arty’s mouth opened in protest. "But why? I’m new to this world!"

"Exactly," Jan said, his gaze piercing. "You appeared from nowhere. You became Archmage Sylmira’s student. And now you show talent most could only dream of. That alone is reason enough."

Arty swallowed hard, unable to deny the truth in his words. When she thought about it, it made too much sense.

"Oh. You’re right," she whispered. "Even though Archmage Sylmira said nobody would know, we still trained at the academy. Someone there must have seen it. Maybe... from there the news spread."

"But why would people from the academy resort to this?" Esther asked, her brow furrowing.

No one could answer. The weight of uncertainty pressed them into silence.

Finally, Jan sighed. "We’ll find no answers tonight. We should juat rest. Hund will take the first watch."

Hund nodded.

The group slowly dispersed to their tents, though unease lingered in the cool night air.

Only Hund remained awake and sitting by the fire, his hand never straying far from his blade.

—

Far away from the camp where the five of them finalleyvdecided to rest, a black smoke moved frantically between the trees, streaking past trunks with reckless speed until at last it collided hard against one and scattering into tumbling wisps before slamming onto the ground.

The smoke condensed then folding into itself until the form of a man emerged, sprawled and trembling.

He wore black clothes, a hood, and a mask that wet as his trembling hand tore it off.

His chest heaved violently, every breath ragged and shallow, pain lancing through his body.

He tried to rise but his legs refused to support his body. His strength drained beyond measure.

A hoarse curse escaped his lips, but even the single word left him gasping in agony. The weight of it pressing against his battered body.

He could feel how hollow his core had become now. His veins screaming with emptiness.

He had poured too much Magic energy into the spell and now almost nothing was left inside his body.

"They’re pretending. Those fuckers were just laying fools, acting like they didn’t know. But they knew. They knew I was there all along! They led me into their trap. And that damn girl! it must be her!"

The thought flared like poison in his mind, fury mixing with fear.

He had made a mistake that he had never committed before.

He had always remained unseen and always untouchable when stalking his targets. This time he had been pushed, cornered, and forced to use the one spell he had never used.

A spell that devoured his strength and left him broken afterward. Turning to smoke had saved him from capture but it had nearly killed him in return.

He gritted his teeth as sharp pain pulsed from his shoulder.

His blood soaked the fabric where an arrow still jutted, lodged deep in flesh.

If he had not cast the spell, he would have fallen there, crippled and defeated.

Capture would have been worse than death. He shuddered at the thought of what the organization would do if they discovered he had been caught alive.

He would be interrogated, and break. And then cast aside as a failure and being turned into experiment subject.

His jaw clenched, his breaths rasping harsh against the night air.

For the first time in so many years, the assassin felt the cold clutch of fear wrapping around his heart.

Not just from the arrow, not even from the spell’s toll.

But from the knowledge that he had underestimated them and that mistake might already have doomed him.

"I need to report this and got as far away as possible."

—