Chapter 530: Mercy

Outwardly, Christina appeared to be a Seventh Step Core Formation Practitioner. Knowing this, the veteran Fourth Step Sea Establishment Realm assassin had thought it wouldn’t be too difficult for him parry her hasty one-handed strike, even if he had been taken slightly by surprise.

When Christina’s greatsword made contact, however, his dagger was sent flying and his wrist nearly shattered.

Eyes bulged, the assassin tried desperately to dodge, but it was too late.

Barely losing any momentum from the earlier clash, Christina’s sword sank deep into the assassin’s chest, cutting through his cloak and leather armor like they were ordinary pieces of cloth.

Coughing up a mouthful of blood, if this assassin hadn’t been brutally trained since young to never utter a sound in combat, he would have been screaming in agony.

Again, driven by a single-minded will to complete his mission, he tried to disengage and put some distance between him and his target who he now understood he was no match for in close-quarter-combat, but Christina wasn’t about to let him escape.

Since she began cultivating, Christina had repeatedly been taught by all her teachers, trainers, family members, and experienced sparring partners that in a fight to the death, showing mercy to your enemy would only get you and everyone around you killed.

Over the past half-year, this lesson had been hammered even harder into Christina’s head by Celestina and all the Initiate-Realm masters around her, sometimes with them literally using hammers to do so.

Understanding this, Christina grabbed hold of her greatsword with both hands, determination flashing across her eyes as she let out a great roar and swung the blade with all her strength.

The result?

The black-cloaked assassin’s torso was severed in half, the top and bottom of his body being sent flying a few metres through the air before landing with a thud somewhere amidst the thick plume of smoke.

Christina wasn’t sure whether to celebrate her first real victory in battle against another human, or to throw up from the gruesome feeling of cutting living flesh apart and having hot blood splatter back on her face, but the young girl didn’t even get a chance to contemplate this complicated matter as in the next instant, an arrow flew over and struck dead-centre on her chestplate.

Knocked back by the impact, Christina could feel the air being forced from her lungs, but thankfully, her new armour held. She wanted to curse, but bit her lip hard to stop herself, realizing that the only way the enemy archer could have accurately targeted her just now was because she had literally announced her position by shouting.

Slamming against the Manor’s wall, Christina spat blood but didn’t dare to stop moving. Ducking down again just in time to avoid a follow-up strike from the archer, she began searching around for Landon, but having gotten separated and with the smokescreen still lingering on the deck, she realized she had lost track of him.

Damn it, I need to find him! Christina grit her teeth as she tried to get back to her feet.

She wasn’t particularly close with Landon, nor could they be described as friends, but Christina knew that if she let the Darr Kingdom prince die here tonight, the situation between their two nations would rapidly escalate, possibly leading to a full-scale war.

In fact, she was now convinced that causing a war between the Rockwell Kingdom and the Darr Kingdom was the goal of these mysterious attackers.

With two extremely talented royal children from enemy nations trapped in this small town, without any truly powerful bodyguards to protect them, tonight was a perfect opportunity for this malicious force to sow discord and chaos.

Determined not to let these bastards get what they wanted, Christina desperately searched for Landon, almost wishing the smokescreen would clear up for a moment so she could grab him and then retreat to the Manor to hunker down.

Almost.

Surviving for as long as possible was all that mattered right now.

In a stroke of good luck, or perhaps bad luck, Christina got her wish, as a sudden explosion blew away the surrounding smokescreen.

As for the source of this explosion, it was actually the corpse of the assassin she had just bisected. Like the shadowy assassins that had attacked the migration convoy Christina had been riding late last year, it seemed these attackers also had some kind of Spirit Array or Spirit Tool implanted into them that would self-destruct upon their death.

It now made sense to the young princess why no evidence had ever been found at the sight of the village attacks.

This information would surely be of great importance in the army’s future efforts to combat this invisible threat, which gave Christina one more reason she needed to survive the current crisis.

With visibility restored, Christina and Landon quickly found one-another, their eyes meeting briefly as they silently read each other’s intent.

Grabbing the last smoke grenade in her Space Bag, while simultaneously making a mental note to ask Lucas and Marco to produce a lot more of them in the future, Christina chucked it in the direction the arrows had been coming from and then made a mad dash for the doors.

Landon did the same, his speed notably faster than it was a minute ago, indicating that the anti-toxin was beginning to work.

More arrows flew over, but it seemed the Heavens were on the two young royals’ side as none of them managed to find their mark.

If Christina and Landon thought that they would be safe once they got inside, however, they were sorely mistaken.

Racing down the hallways, sounds of shouting and fighting immediately reached their ears, and within seconds, they encountered a group of 5 black-robed assassins.

Christina’s only objective right now was to stay alive, so if there was another path to take and escape down, she would have taken it without hesitation, but with the only other option being to head back to the balcony, she quickly determined that fighting was unavoidable.

Besides, the assassins had also spotted them and were now charging over, so showing her back to them was probably the stupidest thing she could do.

"You take one of them, leave the rest to me," Christina ordered as she lifted her greatsword, feeling thankful that the hallway was wide enough for her to be able to properly swing her primary weapon.

Landon didn’t try to argue. Even if he wasn’t currently poisoned, the young Darr Kingdom prince had realized after their recent encounter with the assassin on the balcony that Christina was stronger than he was.

Even if that was the case, though, he wasn’t about to let a girl who was more than a year younger look down on him. He was determined to quickly finish off his opponent and then he would move to assist Christina in taking down the rest.