The air around Edric warped with terrifying, suppressed mana.
His dark eyes were burning with cold, absolute murder as he stared a hole through the choking figure in his grasp.
"Who sent you here?"
I snapped back into focus, tearing my attention away from Edric’s terrifying display.
We didn’t have ti to stand around.
"Scarlet! Tessa!" I barked, pointing across the cavern to where Rolf and Yenna were bleeding out. "Go help them!"
Tessa gave a sharp nod, imdiately breaking into a sprint with Scarlet guarding her flank.
They slid to their knees beside the fallen adventurers, uncorking the vials and getting to work.
With them safe, I turned my full attention to the center of the room. I gripped Oathstorm tightly, the blade humming in my hand, and locked eyes with the second hooded figure standing confidently in front of Garf’s battered iron shield.
"More insects ca." The figure let out a dry voice. "How tireso."
Behind the shield, Mira let out a ragged, bloody cough.
She looked at , her eyes wide with horrified disbelief. "Why the hell are you here, kid? Run!"
I didn’t answer her. I just lowered my center of gravity, shifting my boots into a solid fighting stance.
The figure vanished.
He didn’t move fast; he simply ceased to exist in the space he was occupying.
"Behind you!" Garf roared, his deep voice shaking the cavern.
I threw my weight to the side, but I was a fraction of a second too slow.
A heavy, leather-clad boot slamd directly into the center of my back.
The sheer force launched forward.
I hit the stone floor hard, tumbling shoulder-over-shoulder before I finally managed to dig my boots into the dirt and halt my montum.
"Fuck," I coughed, tasting fresh blood on my tongue and snapped my head up.
[ENTITY_SCAN]
level: 42
class: SHADOW_ASSASSIN
threat_level: LETHAL
combat_rank: B RANK
I spat a wad of blood to the side. I can’t fight him like this.
I opened my status window...
System allocate all 25 Available Points to Agility
[AGI: 64 —> 89]
A violent, tearing sensation ripped through my leg muscles.
But I didn’t stop there. I began typing reality edits into the interface at blinding speed.
[Target: Jin —> Modify Property: Personal Weight = -40%]
Edited my perception, neural processing, my blade’s wight, air density, frication of ground and all I could in span of few seconds.
I had to catch him off guard.
"You’re a tough one for a kid," the figure grunted, clearly surprised I was already back on my feet. He dropped his stance and vanished again.
But this ti, I was ready.
With the air density around tripled, his stealth movent created a massive, audible displacent of pressure.
I felt the air warp to my right.
Two jagged daggers materialized out of the shadows, aid flawlessly at my throat.
Because of the thickened air, the blades moved just a fraction of a milliter slower than he intended.
With my Agility, perception, neural processing boosted, it was all the ti I needed.
I brought Oathstorm up in a weightless, blinding arc, parrying both daggers simultaneously.
CLANG!
The force of strike reverberated down my arms. My bones scread under the pressure.
The figure’s eyes widened beneath his hood in pure shock. He imdiately jumped back, resetting his stance, before launching into a blistering flurry of strikes.
I parried, dodged, deflected.
Every block sent a shockwave of agony through my forearms. His level was much higher than mine.
I can’t keep trading blows with him for long.
And backpedaled, deliberately slow, like I was being pushed.
The figure followed, confident now, sensing weakness.
He stepped directly onto the patch of stone I had edited.
Zero friction.
His lead foot slipped wildly out from under him, completely ruining his balance. I imdiately restored Oathstorm’s weight to maximum and brought it down in a brutal, two-handed slash.
But the bastard. Even falling, twisted his spine with unnatural flexibility and brought his daggers up in a cross-guard, perfectly catching my blade.
Fuck! I was close.
"Nice try," he snarled, kicking out and catching in the chest, pushing back.
He quickly recovered his footing, his daggers flashing as he prepared to counter—
BAM!
A massive slab of dented iron slamd directly into his ribs.
"Gah!" the figure cursed, stumbling sideways.
Garf had charged perfectly into his blind spot.
"Get off him!" the tank roared.
"Down!" Mira scread from behind.
I instantly dropped to a crouch. A pair of throwing knives whizzed through the exact space my head had been, flying straight at the assassin’s face.
The figure violently repelled the knives with a frantic swipe of his dagger, but the distraction left his flank entirely open again.
BAM!
Garf’s heavy shield cracked against his jaw, sending the assassin skidding across the dirt.
"Without your speed," Garf rumbled, his boots stomping heavily against the stone, "you’re nothing but a cheap punchbag."
The figure tried to flip backward, but his boots slipped on the loose gravel.
But I was already there, swinging Oathstorm, carving a deep wound right through the reinforced leather on his back.
He grunted in pain, his composure finally breaking. He scrambled backward, preparing to jump—
FWOOSH!
A massive fireball exploded against the cavern wall re inches from his head, the shockwave forcing him to hit the dirt.
Yenna stood on her feet now, leaning heavily on Tessa for support. Her face was flushed with exertion, her hands wreathing in violent, roaring flas.
"You bastard!" She scread, her chest heaving. "You’re going down today, didn’t you hear ?!"
In the blink of an eye, she conjured four more perfectly spherical fireballs and sent them hurtling toward him like artillery shells.
"You crazy bitch," the figure gritted his teeth.
He pushed himself up, twisting his body into a desperate acrobatic roll.
Avoiding the first two fireballs by a hair’s breadth, and expertly slashed through the next two with his mana-coated daggers.
But as he landed from the dodge, a stray throwing knife from Mira buried itself cleanly into his thigh.
He let out a sharp hiss of pain, diving wildly to the right to avoid another crushing shield bash from Garf.
He hit the ground rolling, his eyes darting frantically across the cavern. He looked toward the other end, where his partner was still engaged with Edric.
"02!" the figure yelled, his voice cracking with desperation. "Retreat for—"
"Who said you could leave?"
I cut him off.
Simply appearing in front of him, dropping into a low, predatory stance.
As I channeled my mana into Oathstorm, the lightning didn’t glow blue. It didn’t ooze green.
It crackled in jagged, terrifying arcs of pure, absolute black.
Before his brain could even process the movent, I swung.
SLSK! SLSK!
The black lightning sheared effortlessly through his defenses. In two blinding strikes, I severed his right arm at the elbow and slashed deeply through the tendons in both of his knees.
He didn’t even have ti to scream.
I reversed my grip, driving Oathstorm straight through his stomach.
The montum carried us both backward until the blade violently pinned him against the cavern’s stone wall.
Black lightning violently discharged from the steel, frying his nervous system and charring his armor. He choked on his own blood, his remaining hand twitching weakly as he stared at in sheer terror.
I leaned in close, the dark electricity reflecting in my eyes.
"Who. Gave. You. Permission. To. Leave?"
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