Darkness vs Beast [Single Job]

Zesh yawned quietly while sitting in the tree, hiding from a person called Miss Copper. His day was quite boring. Mentioned woman was currently taking care of flowers in her garden while humming some song unknown to the redhead. Actually, she was doing this since morning. If Zeshin had doubts about her love for flowers, they were no more. It was his first bodyguard job, that's why he didn't know what to expect from it. Certainly not hiding in the trees in front of the person whom he was supposed to protect. Well ... customer's wishes come first. There is a time for everything, even for such an uncommon job.

Stretching slightly, he looked around the place, checking for any sign of danger. They were currently in Miss Copper garden. It was quite colorful, because of all the planted flowers. Fortunately, she also had a few high trees in this garden, which allowed him to hide himself. Most of the time his VIP spends there. Aside from gardening, she lazed around the house and went to buy some groceries. Tailing her in the second situation was easy, in first... not much. Without breaking into her house, he could only look through the windows.

Exactly when he finished looking around, the woman started heading towards her home. It was right in front of the garden, so she didn't have to go far. Zesh already wanted to jump off the tree to follow her, but he stopped at the last moment. Reason for this was quite simple. Some suspicious shadow began to head towards the Miss Copper home. From what the redhead knew, the shadows could not exist by themselves. And this one did it. Magic, right?. Right. From what his employer told him, there was supposed to be only one lowly assassin. Zesh, however, had no advantage over him right now. He couldn't use magic and she gave a lot of advantages. He could only hope that his opponent is not combat oriented.

Actually, the redhead had one advantage. His enemy probably didn't know about him. After all, who would expect a bodyguard for someone like Miss Copper? That's why Zesh quietly jumped from the tree and slowly began to walk towards the shadow, which was in front of the house doors. A second later, a figure began to emerge from the shadows. Some guy, dressed in typical ninja clothes. Seeing strange man, Zeshin stopped moving. But only for a second. He wasn't allowed to alert Miss Coppers of assassination. That's why, when ninja wanted to enter the house, Zeshin instantly grabbed him and threw him over his shoulder.

"Sorry, but I can't allow you to kill her, ninja-san." Zeshin said with an unnerving smile, not really feeling sorry for that. Killing people because of jealousy was stupid. There was no chance in hell, that he will allow it. Not on his watch. The redhead could hear not very ninja-like growl coming for an assassin. Oh boy. He wasn't happy. It worked for him anyway. Provoking his opponent further, Zesh waved to him with his clawed hand - it was the first time he was going to use his new weapon. In response, the ninja took a katana from his own shadow and got into some stance.

"I would suggest you stay out of my way, mage-san." Assassin told him through clenched teeth. In response, Zesh jumped to him and tried to claw his eyes out. After all, sight is quite important in fights. Of course, the ninja wasn't that weak to get hit by it. He instantly tried to cut off his hand, before it reached him. Mage of Crystal Swan had to stop his attack unless he wanted to lose arm. Assassin quickly slashed horizontally, but redhead managed to step back out of weapon reach. Their fight looked like that for a while. Zesh attacked and dodge, while Ninja countered because of his range and quick reflexes. No one could land any hits, aside from few small cuts good mage got. So far, it was battle of endurance, which Zesh was slightly winning. "I'm tired of this."

After Ninja said that, he slashed widely. It forced Zeshin to jump back unless he wanted to be cleaved in half. Redhead sweated a little when assassin began to concentrate his magical power. Just a little, because it couldn't mean anything good. He wanted to jump in before his enemy activated some spell, but he simply wasn't quick enough. Shadows crawled on assassin blade, instantly lengthening it and probably empowering its power. That alone would be problematic, and it wasn't the end. "Blackout."

As soon as the ninja whispered these words, Zeshin's world was covered with black. He cursed under his breath, instantly trying to concentrate on his other senses. "No one survived that combination, redhead. It's time for you to visit your ancestors." Well, at least he could hear. Zesh concentrated on hearing his opponent movements, but well... for his misfortune, he was fighting with ninja. Mage of Crystal Swan moved a little when he heard incoming slash, but he couldn't avoid it completely. He felt it very well when enemy's blade cut into his side. That was how fight looked for few seconds. Zesh was getting slashed in many places, but fortunately avoided critical wounds. And his opponent was more talkative this time.

"You have no chance to survive, so just stop moving."
"You're only delaying the inevitable."
"I hate worms like you who just don't want to die easily."
"Honestly, I expected more after legal guildmage. My guildmates were right, you are a bunch of weaklings."
"What are you doing here, if you can't even use magic? Do you think you are some kind of hero?"
"Wrong. Now you will feel despair."

Ninja raised his sword, apparently deciding on cleaving him in half for sure. Zesh didn't saw his happy, smiling face. Nor did he saw raised sword. However, he heard it. "What?!" Enemy shouted when he felt someone grab his hands and clenching them hard enough, that his bones were close to breaking. Thus, he blocked his attack.

"For some professional assassin, you talk too much. You annoyed me, ninja-san." Zesh accented his last words with a hiss, and creepy smile. His eyes glowed red and there was wildness in them - like he was some kind of beast. "Say hello to Slayer mode." With these words, demonic redhead pierced Ninjas' stomach with his claws. Pain must have canceled his technique because in a second Zeshin was able to see again. Though, creepy grin was still on his face. He withdrew his hand with satisfaction, and slashed enemy across the eyes, effectively making him yelp. After that, Slayer drew ninja blood with every hit. The assassin was unable to react quickly enough to block him. Maybe because he had hole small in his gut, or maybe because he became blind. Who knows. After a few seconds of fun, Zesh punched him in the face knocking him out and took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down from his berserk state.

"Shit. I almost killed him." The redhead sighed and looked depressed at his actions. He will have to do mental check on himself. However, now he didn't have time to deal with himself. He lifted the assassin and quickly went to a nearby hospital. Few times he almost lost consciousness, because of his own blood loss. The moment he entered the hospital, he almost fell over. Fortunately, he was supported by some old guy.

"HEY! What happened to you?! Nurse-san, call for some help!" Old man quickly said to random nurse who was near. Zesh didn't care too much about that now. He could only say a few words before he fainted. "Listen. This guy here is a dark mage. Call council or someone to take care of them. And... see you later."

Redhead woke up two days later, feeling much better than before. Well, it wasn't shocking. Old doctor who helped him before told him what happened in the meantime. Some guys from the council came to take care of ninja - he survived only thanks to healing magic -, miss Nosey Neighbor visited him and left "Thank you" letter with some jewels, and Miss Copper didn't realize that assassin was hunting her. How he didn't know. One would thought that all this blood would give away his job. Apparently not. All in all, the mission completed. Now, he just had to get out of the hospital.