The longer the tense confrontation with the guards, the more Ixion realized that the fatigue of the day was affecting him. While the worst of the poison was over, the lingering effects were still affecting him. His muscles were weak. His eyelids were heavy. The one thing he needed now was rest. It was the one thing that he did regret in leaving the Church of Reina. However, he pushed the hindsight of past events behind him. They happened and there wasn’t anything that he could do that would change those events. He could only live with the consequences and try to slip under the guard’s senses until the events that I’on had suggested has passed. After all the trouble the assassin had given him, he owed the penin that much. He knew that the penin was also tired, though that was probably due to just returning to the city from an excursion that Ixion didn’t know about or had an interest in. The vampire, however… The assassin didn’t know the state of him. A lot of the previous fights had been majorly fought by Ixion, receiving wounds in both occasions. The third member of the group was an unknown variable: the assassin didn’t deduce any past events that the vampire or the full extent of his abilities. Just in case anything bad had happened, he took a mental image of the scene.

It had turned out that taking the mental image was a fair move in the end. The vampire began to growl. While Ixion had forgotten if the other person had made the sounds before, but from previous experiences with vicious animals, a growl was not a good sign. Just mere moments later, the vampire charged. Right towards the guards. This was something that the assassin did not want at all. He then recalled the moment when the vampire had grabbed the Fixer on the rooftops. He did also recall when the vampire charged and sent the staff towards Blue’s side before she created a magical barrier to stop the attack. Using these events and what is happening just now, Ixion concluded that the vampire must be in a state of rage. One of these states were prevented by his illusions. However, with the staff-like weapon in play and close to the guards, the assassin couldn’t risk the vampire from using the staff to attack the illusion without the weapon hitting the guard. The only thing that the assassin could possibly do, with the possible help of the penin, was to either remove the rage state or to knock him out completely. With the combination of the vampire’s speed and his kusarigama being strapped to his belt, he couldn’t deflect the weapon. Or could he.

Steeling his mind, Ixion started moving his hands in a visual incantation. Somewhere behind the guards, the grounded knife began to stir and was sent flying pommel first towards the unsuspecting guards like a bullet. The assassin instantly teleported himself, interjecting himself between the first guard and the vampire, who reached for the guard’s halberd. Reaching for the hilt of the sinister sword, Ixion turned around, an unholy anger apparent in his eyes. “Enough!” he bellowed, unsheathing the weapon. Unfamiliar with the use of the weapon, the assassin swung the blade towards the staff with both hands. He felt the impact of the weapon. His muscles screamed in agony of the shock. Gritting his teeth and steadied his feet, the assassin threw his entire body weight behind parrying the weapon to the ground. With any luck, the dagger would have reached the two, with the pommel trained near the vampire’s left temple.