“Third, you stay here and watch these two traitors.”
He tilted his head toward the tall, thin assassin holding two daggers:
“Second, come with me. Let’s go drag that sneaky rat out—I’ll skin her inch by inch!”
Before the words faded, two figures stepped on the weeds of the wheat field and shot toward the small forest like arrows from a bowstring.
Watching the two approach menacingly, Ailiya, hidden in the shadow of a tree trunk, didn’t even let her breathing become disordered.
‘Only two chased after me…’
Ailiya silently calculated in her mind. As a former professional power-leveler, against elite monsters of unknown attributes, the first step before engaging was always to check the panel.
Her ice-blue eyes narrowed slightly, and an invisible mental energy instantly released.
【Appraisal】 【An Ya: LV.31】 【Ti Gu: LV.25】
— The two running at full speed suddenly stiffened, and a layer of fine cold sweat broke out on their backs.
That feeling was as if they had been stripped naked.
This intense, nauseating feeling of being watched made them instinctively uncomfortable.
“Appraisal?!”
An Ya gritted his teeth, looked up at the forest, and his voice was full of disbelief.
“This kind of blatant peeping fluctuation… is a basic spell from Arcadia Academy of Magic. What kind of person from the academy are you?!”
Only a mage who had actually studied at Arcadia Academy and had an enormous mental energy could wield this basic spell with such overwhelming force that it was impossible to resist.
Ailiya did not answer. At the edge of her vision, the simple panels of the two appeared.
‘Barely qualifies as an elite monster.’
Ailiya calmly made a judgment.
‘A head-on collision is obviously unwise. I must use skills and terrain to kite.’
Just then, the faster dual-dagger assassin Ti Gu charged into the forest first.
“Get the hell out here!”
Ti Gu caught a glimpse of a black corner of cloth on a tree trunk. His two poisoned daggers crossed into a cruciform shape, and with a tearing screech through the air, he mercilessly slashed at it.
However, facing this fatal strike, Ailiya did not choose to conceal herself with shadow magic.
She leaped down from the branch, and the moment her toes touched the ground, the muscles in her legs suddenly burst with a faint cyan light.
【Sprint】 Her body dragged an afterimage in the air, at a strange angle that completely violated physical inertia, she shifted half a foot sideways, perfectly avoiding the cross-slash.
“Swift Wind School’s footwork?!”
Ti Gu’s strike missed, his pupils constricted sharply.
But he was a battle-hardened assassin; without time to think, he changed his move quickly, closed in, and with a backhand flick, his dagger aimed straight for Ailiya’s throat.
Ailiya’s eyes were cold. Her right hand pulled an ordinary dagger from her waist.
【Mana Infusion】 A layer of high-density, humming blue mana instantly covered that cheap dagger.
Clang! Ti Gu felt a violent numbness in his tiger’s mouth; the magic dagger he had spent a fortune on was actually parried by that piece of junk.
“How is that possible?!”
The dual-dagger assassin Ti Gu was shocked. Mana Infusion is only the most basic apprentice technique, but to compress mana to such an abnormal degree?!
This kind of terrifyingly precise control of mana is even more frightening than old mages who have been immersed in this for decades.
In the moment they were locked in a stalemate, An Ya had already snuck up like a silent viper from Ailiya’s blind spot.
In his hand was a strangely shaped black curved knife that resembled a bird’s beak, aiming straight for Ailiya’s heart.
“Die!”
An Ya showed a cruel smile. Under the pincer attack from front and back, Ailiya seemed to be in a desperate situation.
But there was no trace of panic on her face, not even a frown.
Her free left hand suddenly snapped its fingers crisply.
A pure and dazzling ball of light exploded without warning in the middle of the three!
【Flash Spell】!
“Ah—my eyes!”
The dual-dagger assassin screamed, tears streaming down as he wildly swung his weapons.
Even the experienced An Ya was momentarily blinded by the sudden glare; his curved knife lost its aim and grazed past Ailiya’s cloak.
“The Holy See’s support magic?!”
An Ya endured the soreness in his eyes, his shock beyond measure.
Academy of Arcadia’s Appraisal, Swift Wind School’s footwork, abnormal mana control, and now even the Holy See’s exclusive holy light spells!
“Second, watch out! She’s about to counter!”
An Ya relied on his ability to locate by sound, shouting a warning.
Though Ti Gu was blinded, he danced his two daggers in a tight defense, trying to form a protective net.
Pfft! A light sound. He felt a resistance in his hand; his blade had indeed cut something.
But before he could be happy, the “Ailiya” he had cut twisted grotesquely and dissipated into a cloud of black smoke.
“Phantom Clone?!”
An Ya finally barely recovered some vision, saw this scene, and his heart sank to the depths; a chill shot up his spine.
Moreover, it wasn’t just a phantom. The aura of that woman’s true body had completely disappeared in this forest!
No footsteps, no magic fluctuations, even her breathing had been erased.
“Shadow Stealth…”
An Ya gritted his teeth and pronounced the name word by word.
As a middle-level member of the Night Owls Organization, he was well aware of what these two skills meant.
Within the Night Owls, these were secret arts that only a few talented individuals could master.
“Back to back! Defensive formation!”
An Ya didn’t dare to be careless; he immediately called the dual-dagger assassin to stand together, staring at the dark forest around them as if facing a great enemy.
Academy of Arcadia’s magic, Swift Wind School’s unique footwork, the Holy See’s divine arts, and their own Night Owls’ top secret techniques…
Individually, these skills might not even be considered world-destroying forbidden spells.
But if someone could perfectly connect and seamlessly switch these basic skills from different schools, different systems, conflicting with each other, even achieving instantaneous chantless casting…
Then that person would be a flawless, extremely terrifying killing machine!
“Who the hell are you?!”
An Ya, while warily guarding against a blade that could come from the shadows at any moment, tried to probe her identity with words to buy time.
“Academy of Arcadia’s spy? An inquisitor trained by the Holy See…”
Silence. In the small forest, there was only the rustling of leaves blown by the night wind.
After a long time, a cold, flat voice of uncertain direction floated from the surrounding shadows, as if the Death God was whispering in his ear.
“Your imagination is quite rich, but I have no interest in your boring factional struggles.”
“I’m just a passing ordinary maid.”
Before the words faded! A silver lightning bolt suddenly refracted down from the branch above Ti Gu’s head!
That dagger, coated with high-intensity mana and glowing with a blue light, pierced through Ti Gu’s throat at an impossibly tricky angle.
“Ahh—!”
Ti Gu screamed, eyes wide open, clutching his spurting neck, his whole body convulsing.
An Ya reacted quickly, slashing diagonally with his curved knife in a backhand motion, aiming at Ailiya in mid-air.
But Ailiya, having landed a hit, didn’t linger for greed.
Pushing off lightly from Ti Gu’s shoulder, she leaped back into the darkness like a swallow, completely melted into the shadows, not even letting An Ya touch a corner of her clothing.
“You’re the only one left.”
After a moment of dead silence, the shadow in front rippled like water waves.
Ailiya slowly walked out from the darkness, stopped, and coldly looked at the blood-soaked An Ya.
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.