With a flicker of Aether, Raegar summoned his dagger into his trembling hand. The assassin scrambled to react, but he was a force of nature, unstoppable in his final act as he had to protect his family, the one who loved and cherished him, alongside Yuki.
Using the last shred of his strength, he drove the dagger upward, the blade piercing through the enemy's jaw with a sickening crunch. The tip punched through bone and brain, snuffing out his life in an instant.
Raegar watched as the enemy's body went rigid, then collapsed like a puppet with cut strings, blood pooling beneath him on the ravaged earth. He stood over his fallen foe, swaying, his chest heaving as the garden's alarms wailed on.
The dagger slipped from his grasp, and he sank to his knees, the poison and blood loss dragging him toward oblivion. Yet, in that fleeting moment, a flicker of triumph burned in his remaining eye; he had defied death, if only for now.
