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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Cyno
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“Fragmented Moon!”
As Evelyn crossed her arms and shouted, a pair of sharp, crescent-shaped energies shot rapidly towards my chest. I nimbly stepped to the side to evade, but the crescent energies, following Evelyn’s gesture, reversed direction and aimed for my back.
I had no choice but to swing Yōjo left and right, deflecting the crescent energies one after another.
Thwack, thwack.
The crescent energies dissipated powerlessly. But I had no time to catch my breath in relief; I had to turn around and block Evelyn’s successive direct attacks.
Clang, clang.
Evelyn’s movements were incredibly fast. They were highly unorthodox and grotesque. It was an instinctive swordsmanship without typical form or structure, yet entirely focused on attack, fitting for an assassin. It felt like a desperate move, brimming with the will to throw herself at the opponent to ensure their death.
Logically, there should be significant openings in her defense, but there were none. Whenever I tried to exploit a gap and counter, magic inevitably blocked my way.
“Here I go!”
“Single Slash!”
Just as I swung Yōjo, a pale energy shot straight towards me in a line. A new magic attack. I hastily twisted my upper body to dodge, and a chilling sensation brushed past me. But that wasn’t the end.
When Evelyn shouted “Severing Cut!” again, two pale, scythe-like energies crossed in an X-shape and surged towards me. I hurriedly launched myself into the air, barely dodging, but before my feet even touched the ground, I faced multiple major crises from Evelyn’s ensuing thrusts and Zelsa’s magic, being forced back continuously.
Kaboom! Boom! Boom!
Explosions erupted all around. Pillows hit by Zelsa’s magic burst like dry straws, and the granite walls crumbled like haystacks.
I grimaced.
“Hey. Stop destroying everything. Sunlight’s getting in. If you get sunlight on your skin, you’ll break out in rashes, won’t you?”
“That’s not your concern!”
Evelyn closed in quickly, swinging Zelsa and pushing me back.
Yōjo and Zelsa clashed, tracing threatening curves in the air. Amidst the scattering fragments of aura, Evelyn wielded her blades as if dancing, pressing her attack against me.
In terms of blade work, Evelyn, with her two daggers, was undoubtedly superior. Although Yōjo was somewhat longer, I was helpless against her overwhelming speed and indiscriminate magical attacks.
I still found opportunities to attack, but it was meaningless. Each time, Zelsa’s magic flew in to block my path.
“Piercing Severance!”
Under the subsequent magical attack from Zelsa, Yōjo vibrated violently enough to sting my wrist. Startled by the unexpected situation, Evelyn and I simultaneously created distance.
“What is that sword? Zelsa’s Piercing Severance magic didn’t work?”
“So, what?” I asked, massaging my tingling wrist and catching my breath.
“‘Piercing Severance’ is a magic that passes through aura blades to sever the opponent’s sword. But…”
A magic that passes through aura blades and shatters the opponent’s sword? What a cheat-like magic. If my sword weren’t Yōjo, I’d have been left fighting with just the hilt after one shot of that magic.
“No need to be surprised. My Yōjo is naturally quite sturdy.”
“Hmm…”
Evelyn, her eyes sharp, cautiously circled around me. She seemed wary, perhaps suspecting hidden magic within Yōjo.
But after I showed no sign of using any magic for a while, she dropped her guard and began her assault in earnest.
Clang, cha-clang, clang.
Our aura blades shattered into fragments, scattering in all directions. A feast of countless sword strikes poured in alongside Evelyn’s movements, like a raging current. I desperately blocked the relentless onslaught of Zelsa’s tips and edges with Yōjo, enduring and enduring.
Just as I spotted an opportunity to counter, Evelyn’s shout erupted again.
“Piercing Blast Sphere!”
A spherical energy emitted from Zelsa passed through the aura blade enveloping Yōjo and struck my abdomen squarely.
Bang!
With the impact, my body was thrown back, tumbling roughly across the hallway floor. If Evelyn’s attacks continued, it would be an extremely perilous situation, so I urgently did a flip to right my posture.
“Kuh, damn magic.”
Evelyn narrowed her eyes. She seemed somewhat surprised that I got up unscathed after taking the blast sphere.
“What are you?”
I frowned, looking at my tattered shirt. If not for the Freyaker vest I wore underneath, that attack would have ended the fight.
I spat out a bit of blood-tinged saliva and waved my hand.
“It’s nothing. I’m just a bit sturdy myself.”
Evelyn squinted her eyes.
“You’re… something’s off.”
“I know. People tend to say that.”
I furrowed my brow deeply.
‘Zelsa.’ What an incredible sword. It wasn’t showcasing massive destruction like the magic of the Seven Divine Artifacts yet, but in terms of minor anti-personnel attacks, its power surpassed them.
Especially the piercing-related magic was chillingly terrifying. Striking directly through the aura blade to hit both the opponent and their sword—I’d never even heard of such magic in all my life.
But that wasn’t all. As my momentum briefly rose, Evelyn unveiled a new magic.
“Curse of the Departed!”
As Evelyn stirred Zelsa in both hands along a strange trajectory, pale smoke billowed forth, and countless skeletal revenants with sunken eyes and scant flesh materialized.
Groooan. Groooan.
The revenants let out eerie cries. The hollow-eyed creatures chattered their desiccated teeth, circling me before suddenly charging en masse.
“Dammit!”
Startled, I quickly moved back to evade. But they pursued me relentlessly, like vengeful spirits freshly returned from hell, self-destructing in front of me.
Kaboom! Boom! Boom!
When the explosions subsided, I was practically in tatters. My torn and shredded pant legs, heavily singed, fluttered in the wind blowing from outside. My shirt was gone somewhere, leaving only the Freyaker vest protecting my upper body.
Every joint in my body ached. My ears were ringing, sounds were muffled, and the lingering haze of smoke made it hard to distinguish my surroundings.
At that moment, Evelyn burst through the smoke and thrust Zelsa towards my waist.
Clang! The sound of Zelsa and Yōjo crossing.
Evelyn looked at me with a hint of admiration.
“Putting up quite a fight?”
“Yeah. I’m good at enduring.”
“But this is the end. Barrage of Single Slashes!”
As Evelyn created distance again and crossed Zelsa in an X-shape, pale energy coalesced into a sphere before surging towards me as countless streams of single slashes.
The torrent of single slashes filled every space, leaving no room to dodge. Soon, they grazed various parts of my body, creating large and small wounds.
After blocking the last stream with Yōjo, I clutched my bleeding forearm and looked at Evelyn.
“It’s not over yet.”
Evelyn’s eyes widened.
“How did you dodge that? There was no time to dodge!”
“Ah, I let a few hit me at an angle, blocked a few others… so I kinda dodged it.”
“What?”
“In the world I used to live in, I faced countless insane attacks like this. So I’m pretty used to it.”
Evelyn looked at my wounds.
“But for being ‘used to it,’ you don’t look very intact.”
“No. I’m becoming intact. Right now, I’m returning to a perfectly normal physical state. Thanks to you.”
“Huh?”
Evelyn tilted her head, puzzled. But instead of satisfying her curiosity, I only posed my own question.
“Never mind. Let me ask you one thing. Why did you abandon the assassin’s path? You were originally an assassin, weren’t you?”
Evelyn looked incredulous.
“What on earth are you talking about? I am the world’s strongest assassin, and I’ve always lived as one. No, I’d say I was reborn as a perfect assassin after obtaining this Zelsa.”
“A perfect assassin…?”
“Yes. You’ve fought me now, so you should know. I don’t have the fatal weaknesses other assassins possess.”
“Ah, you mean the weakness of poor defense?”
“Correct.”
“Hmph. So that’s why you abandoned the assassin’s path. A snake that grows legs is no longer a snake. An assassin is one who discards themselves to sever the opponent’s life. But现在的你, you care too much for your own safety. In other words, you’ve become no different from an ordinary swordsman.”
Honestly, the combination of Evelyn and the demon blade Zelsa was strong. To be precise, it was a flawless and致命ally powerful strength.
But nothing in this world is flawless. She said she overcame the weakness of defense through ‘Zelsa’ and was reborn as a perfect assassin, but in truth, she had merely abandoned the spirit of her own path—the assassin’s way.
If I were Evelyn, I would have used Zelsa’s magic not for defense, but to more surely sever the opponent’s life. That is the assassin’s path.
And I, too, have been making this same mistake until now.
Living in peaceful times, I had momentarily forgotten, but my way of fighting was originally a dogfight. If the opponent bites, I bite back—that kind of thing. Yet today, even wearing a Freyaker hide vest, I was dodging and fussing over a little magic. And this, facing a strong enemy like Evelyn wielding Zelsa.
In other words, I had momentarily forgotten my method of escape and was merely evading. Even though my escape has always been an infinite charge towards life.
In the Age of Ruin, I would plunge into hordes of monsters covering the earth to open a path. When chased by monsters, I would willingly leap into trash cans, sewers, and wastewater without hesitation. Because life lay ahead, I could advance without fear of anything.
But today’s me was different. Afraid of pain, I tried to evade; afraid of death, I abandoned my way of survival. You can see it in my body. Until today, there wasn’t a single scar on my body.
In my past life, I merely desired life; I did not avoid death and pain. I lived in a world where hesitation born from fear of death and pain would lead to death.
By the way, humans are truly fickle. Living in a slightly peaceful era, even I fight while being cautious. I guess humans really are animals that adapt to their environment.
Evelyn snorted.
“What do you know about us assassins to say such things?”
I channeled mana, wrapping an aura blade around Yōjo. However, my aura blade, which had barely exceeded 10 cm, was gradually, very gradually, expanding its area.
I grinned a wry smile.
“Of course I don’t know. I’m just a fake assassin. But I’m not as fake as you are.”
“What?”
“If you don’t understand, I’ll show you. My path of the sword partially includes the assassin’s path. Here I come!”
As I charged, a ‘Piercing Blast Sphere’ flew towards me. I intentionally let it graze me, flying towards the prayer room wall with the explosion. Amidst the suffocating pain that assaulted me, I kicked off the wall and launched myself straight at Evelyn.
Soon, Yōjo and Zelsa clashed repeatedly. Evelyn managed to stab my side slightly with her left Zelsa, but her wrist was caught by my right hand and twisted.
Yōjo and Zelsa pressed against each other, ringing loudly. In ultra-close combat, Evelyn’s arm was twisted by my raw strength. Using the twist, she spun and kicked towards my face.
Whoosh.
But as I took that kick on my forehead, Evelyn had no choice but to move in the opposite direction, applying a joint lock on my right arm. It was a risky attempt, but a necessary choice since her left hand was caught.
I pressed my body close, disrupting her balance, and then slammed her to the floor with a one-handed shoulder throw.
“Kuhk!”
Evelyn, unable to break her fall, collided with the floor and quickly did a backward flip to create distance. But as I closed in rapidly, one of her legs was caught, and she was thrown hard in the opposite direction.
Evelyn tried to get up quickly, but hesitated and sank down again as she tried to cross Zelsa to block my descending Yōjo. I didn’t miss this opening, driving my knee into her exposed abdomen with full force.
Evelyn slid down the hallway from the impact and fired ‘Fragmented Moon’ at me as I pursued.
Boom, thwack.
Taking one ‘Fragmented Moon’ hit on my left chest, my upper body twisted, but I threw myself forward nonetheless, plunging Yōjo down towards Evelyn.
Luckily, she blocked it well with her right Zelsa, but she was then grabbed by the collar by my outstretched left hand, forcing us into a close-quarters melee.
As we tangled and rolled around, the tips of our swords came to rest at each other’s throats. But in terms of both raw strength and sword length, I was overwhelmingly advantaged. Feeling the gradually tightening grip of death, Evelyn shouted Zelsa’s magic at the top of her lungs.
“Blast Wave!”
Instantly, with a intense blast sound, Evelyn and I were thrown apart simultaneously. ‘Blast Wave.’ It wasn’t a attack, but it held enough power to separate the two of us.
I scrambled to my feet, searching for Evelyn. But her figure was nowhere to be seen, and neither her mana presence nor any other sign of her could be sensed.
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