Purple Death wiped the blood from her lips with the back of her hand, her strange purple-tinted eyes locked onto the monster standing in the distance.
For the first ti in many years, genuine fear flickered deep within her eyes.
It wasn’t that she feared strong opponents, as she had fought desperately many tis before.
Since childhood, she had survived battles against foes far stronger than herself.
She had escaped hunts, endured torture, crawled out of ambushes, and killed enemies who should have been impossible to defeat.
So strength alone had never frightened her.
And the Rain Pavilion did not raise cowards.
If she feared strength, she would have died long ago, but what frightened her the most was... the unknown.
Her gaze fixed on the two pitch-black blades now held loosely in Shadow’s hands.
Even now, she still couldn’t fully comprehend what she had just witnessed and then experienced.
The attacks had no trajectory.
There was no sword intent, no spiritual fluctuations, no warning.
...There was nothing.
One mont there was empty space, then the next mont, her flesh was split open.
This feeling made her skin crawl.
An assassin’s greatest weapon was information... understanding and predicting the opponent’s moves, thoughts, and habits.
Every killer developed instincts by reading countless tiny details like: breathing, muscle tension, intent, qi flow, even emotions.
All attacks should leave traces... no matter how skilled the person and no matter how powerful the technique.
There was always sothing.
But that creature’s attacks... had nothing.
It was like fighting a nightmare...
...or a natural phenonon that simply happened.
A chill ran down her back at this strangeness that seed to defy everything she understood.
The more she thought about it, the colder her blood beca.
Because she start to realized sothing truly terrifying.
She wasn’t failing to see the attacks and wasn’t failing to sense the attacks.
The attacks genuinely did not exist until the mont they struck.
...So how did one defend against sothing that did not exist yet?
How did one predict sothing that left no trace?
For the first ti in many years, Purple Death found herself questioning whether victory was even possible.
Those thought lingered for a brief mont.
Then—
She closed her eyes and shook her head slowly.
"...No." Her voice was low, almost a whisper, but the hesitation within it had already vanished.
When she opened her eyes again, the fear was still there, but it no longer controlled her.
Because she understood sothing better than most.
Fear itself was not weakness.
Panic and despair were.
Fear rely reminded a person that they were alive... and that the enemy before them was dangerous.
And if there was one thing the Rain Pavilion had drilled into her since childhood...
...It was how to keep moving despite fear.
"Haa..."
Purple Death exhaled slowly as her mind gradually emptied as countless thoughts, doubts, and fears were forcibly pushed aside.
An assassin who allowed uncertainty to control their actions was already dead.
Victory? Defeat?
Those things could co later.
Right now... she only needed to survive long enough to understand.
And once she understood... she would find a way to kill it.
That was how assassins fought.
Not with overwhelming power but with patience, observation, and... adaptation.
Just as she had done countless tis before.
Then her grip tightened around her blades.
The cuts across her body throbbed painfully as blood continued dripping onto the ruined earth.
Yet her posture slowly straightened, and the hesitation vanished from her eyes.
She wasn’t sure why the creature hadn’t struck again and instead chose to observe her... but she would give it thanks for granting her this brief mont to compose herself.
_
_
_
Across the battlefield, Shadow tilted its skull mask slightly, as if noticing the change.
"I admit it... you are the most bizarre opponent I’ve ever faced," Purple Death said, her voice now carrying a cold resolve. "But I’ve killed many things that shouldn’t be killed."
She lowered her stance again, but this ti... blades held in a reverse grip.
"If normal thods don’t work... then I’ll stop holding back."
A dangerous glint flashed in her eyes.
Hiss...
A faint, eerie hissing sound suddenly echoed around her.
And her short black hair began to move on its own, slowly writhing like living flas.
Thin, dark purple veins spread across her pale skin, glowing faintly as sothing bright and inhuman flowed through them.
Her pupils narrowed into vertical slits, like those of a serpent, while the purple flas around her body compressed tighter and tighter.
Slowly, two sharp and beautiful curved horns ford from condensed purple fla appear above her forehead.
They looked both elegant and nacing, pulsing with destructive energy.
With that, her aura changed completely.
A cold, venomous, burning pressure spread outward, causing the surrounding trees and grass to wither and turn black instantly, as the air itself carried a faint, sweet scent of burning.
Shadow tilted its skull mask slightly, as if intrigued by this new form from the woman who had already shown it so many interesting things.
And it seed she still had many more to show.
"~~!"
A low, distorted sound ca from within Shadow... almost like a happy, childlike hum.
It swirled the two pitch-black blades smoothly in its hands with expert dexterity, the blades spinning like deadly flowers before gripping them firmly once more.
Then it lowered its stance, hunching forward slightly, mirroring Purple Death’s posture.
Right now, no one noticed that there currently two monstrous beings about to faced each other inside this ruined forest.
One, a venomous serpent awakened... beautiful and deadly.
The other, an abyssal nightmare given form... silent and unknowable.
Purple Death’s vertical pupils contracted as she watched Shadow’s movents.
"...You’re enjoying this?"
Even thought she asked this, but she didn’t wait for an answer.
WHOOSH!
She exploded forward like a striking viper, her body twisting in unnatural, fluid patterns.
Sharp purple flas trailed behind her blades as she closed the distance in an instant.
Her attacks were fast, precise, and layered with a strange, destructive compressed fla.
TING!!
Sparks flew as Shadow t her strike head-on.
The clash between her fla-coated blade and Shadow’s pitch-black sword created a violent burst of purple-black energy.
Now they were so close that they could see each other’s "faces" clearly.
And both seed to be... smiling.
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