Multiple beasts with hyena-like heads and humanoid bodies could be seen patrolling the area around the settlements, searching for clues about the attacker. The area around the settlements was heavily guarded, and troops were sent to search the forest.
While the Gnoll soldiers were searching for the attackers' whereabouts, The culprits were moving away on their contract Beasts. They have already eradicated more than seventy Gnolls in the north; now they are moving towards the south.
They started their journey in the morning, and by evening they were already in their desired location. They waited for the sun to set again. They were trying to reduce the number of enemy troops; it was impossible to fight them head-on.
The teammates' level has increased significantly since the previous assassinations; low-level guild members were prioritized to attack weak, injured, and sleeping Gnolls. Everyone had increased one level from the previous attacks.
Rishi turned into a shadow and disappeared again. He moved through the settlement and gathered information about everything. He then moved to other settlements and gathered information about them before returning to his guildmates. He explained to them the situation of the settlement and the number and strength of their opponents.
There were more than 140 soldiers in these settlements. He also told them about the presence of an Alpha Gnoll. Dev and others listened carefully before discussing how to devise a strategy among themselves.
Dev looked at the other members with his hand pointing at the rough map behind him and said, "From what we have encountered till now, these Gnolls are undisciplined without their leaders. We will first strike at their leader and eliminate him swiftly. Once he is gone, they will not be able to join their forces."
"For this plan to work, we need to follow three steps:
Step 1: Assassinate the Alpha.
Step 2: Launch an attack.
Step 3: Stop the enemies from escaping.
Rishab, will you be able to assassinate their leader swiftly without other soldiers being aware?"
Others looked at Rishi; from what they saw, he was changing his role to that of a fighter. Can he fulfill the role of a high-level assassin? It was not that people could not learn to fulfill two different roles. It was just that the two roles should have some similarity, Like a Spearman and a rider, or a mage and a priest, but Assassin and Fighter were two completely different roles with entirely different objectives and Skill sets.
Rishi nodded, not explaining anything about how he would do it. Despite being curious, no one tried to inquire about Rishi's plan; they were thrilled to see how he would assassinate an opponent he had never faced, surrounded by opponents.
Despite having such an urgent task, he didn't start immediately. Instead, he started meditating and understanding his killing intent. He knew that his killing intent was revealing his location, and he would fail if he didn't gain control over it.
He activated his 'Extreme Focus' skill and started looking for a way to control his killing intent. He discovered that as soon as the thought of killing someone comes to his mind, his killing intent starts releasing uncontrollably. He thought about the reason and concluded that maybe it was due to his will to kill. He started thinking of solutions.
Time passed by, and he didn't move. Then his eyes suddenly lit up as he realized he might be able to make it disappear if he didn't have the will to kill. This was a complex problem. He wants to kill a person, but now he needs to kill him by not thinking about killing him; this process doesn't make sense to him.
"How do you kill someone without actually intending to kill him?" This question was difficult, and he started thinking of how people die without anyone intending to kill them. His lips curled up as he got his answer: "By mistake! Many people die due to accidents without anyone intending to kill them."
He was enlightened as he thought about it: "I just need to convince myself that my intention is not to kill the person; I need to fool myself and trick my mind into believing I am just shooting at the arrow towards the tree. I have nothing to do with the person standing before the tree. If the arrow hits him, then it is a mistake, not intentional."
He left the camp and moved into the forest to test his theory. It took him some time, but he successfully suppressed his killing intent. He decided to try it on a gnoll when he saw a Gnoll hunter moving through the forest. He started approaching him without any intention to kill him; he was quickly able to approach his opponent, who could not sense him.
He then stabbed his Dagger into his heart, making himself believe that he was only practicing and stabbed air; he also didn't start at the opponent directly. These minute changes helped him trick the creature's instincts, and he was stabbed to death without knowing what had happened.
He was surprised, as he had not even used his concealment skill, but with it, the opponent could not detect him. He now also knows how people detect danger. It looked like a person's instincts could sense the killing intent coming from the enemy.
Killing Intent was released by everyone whenever they looked at someone with the intention to kill him. This was just a mortal approach. The absolute mastery of Killing Intent allowed a person to suppress his opponent by staring at them; It could make the opponent lose his will to live.
Someone with a powerful killing intent could force opponents with weak wills to commit suicide or die of a heart attack. Killing Intent was a multipurpose intent;
It could help the user sense the killing intent expressed by others.
It could help the user destroy other people's will to live.
It could help the user trick the instincts of opponents and increase concealment.
It could help the user launch a physical attack, which would stun a person. Allowing the user to finish them off.
There were still some more uses unknown to him, but even then Rishi knew that the offensive power of the killing intent was nothing compared to other intents. It was also the most common Martial Intent. Even when it was expected, most people only had Basic Mastery of killing Intent. Only some people tried to master it.
This was also related to the power of killing Intent. The killing intent of different users was different. Most people had similar killing intent; only a select few had rare killing intent. Like Rishi's killing intent, it manifested as a big eye behind him, unlike others.
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