Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 846: Finch’s Trump Card [GT Ranking Bonus Chapter]

Finch could be seen running for his life with his chain in hand, his figure a blur as a Rank 5 Shadow Assassin relentlessly chased after him. Unlike the other top fifty students, who could one-shot these Rank 5 Shadow Assassins, Finch couldn’t perform the same feat. How could he? He wasn’t at the Swiftstar or Firmstar Life Rank like the rest of them.

His senses screamed as he dove to the side. The moment he did, a crescent blade of darkness carved through the air and split the wall before him perfectly in half. Finch didn’t hesitate. He caught a table at his side and flung it toward the Shadow Assassin pursuing him.

The Shadow Assassin simply ducked beneath the table and pounced at him like a jungle cat, its dagger screaming toward his thick neck. Finch immediately raised his chain and caught the dagger in place, a metallic clang ringing throughout the surroundings.

The Shadow Assassin simply recalibrated, a second dagger forming within its other hand, and without missing a beat, it stabbed toward Finch’s stomach with lethal precision. Finch immediately formed an Astra energy barrier, stopping the attack in its tracks.

He shoved the Shadow Assassin to the side and immediately rose to his feet. The moment he did, the Shadow Assassin was already upon him once more, unleashing a barrage of crescent-shaped dark blade attacks.

Finch immediately commanded his soul-bound chain, instantly forming it into a dome around himself. With immense slicing force, the attacks tore into the chain dome. Yet it held firm, as it was practically indestructible.

Before Finch could even heave a sigh of relief, the Shadow Assassin flickered into the dome itself, simply moving through the shadows within it. The moment it appeared, it unleashed a kick toward Finch’s head, intending to explode his skull where he stood. But before the attack could even connect, the earth beneath Finch’s feet suddenly shattered as it was destroyed by an unknown force.

Losing his footing, Finch immediately plummeted downward, his body streaking toward the floor below. And with that, he narrowly evaded a kick that would have undoubtedly killed him.

But the Shadow Assassin remained undeterred. It pointed its palm toward Finch while he was still midair and fired a dark bolt beam with wicked force. Finch immediately erected another Astra energy barrier, but the moment the barrier met the incoming dark bolt, it shattered upon impact. The dark bolt continued unabated before slamming directly into Finch’s chest.

Finch felt both the unbearable pain and the battering force behind the attack as his body shot backward with terrifying momentum, tearing through ten entire floors from the sheer impact. The moment he crashed onto another floor, his body finally came to a halt. He coughed violently as his internal organs twisted in agony.

He had lost seven hundred (700) Vitality Points from a single attack, leaving him with only three hundred (300) Vitality Points remaining.

The energy barrier that cloaked each individual was unique, its defensive capability varying according to the user’s body and physique. Finch had suffered seven hundred (700) Vitality Points worth of damage simply because he was weak... far too weak compared to a Rank 5 being, even one that specialized solely in speed.

If that same Rank 5 Shadow Assassin had used the very same attack against Asher, he wouldn’t have lost even a single Vitality Point because of his absurd Physique.

Damage scaled according to the durability of one’s own body.

Just like how Asher had stopped a dark bolt beam from the Rank 7 Shadow Clone with nothing but his bare palm without losing even a single Vitality Point. If it had been Teo Swig instead, he would have been eliminated on the spot.

Finch’s senses screamed once again. His soul-bound chain instantly appeared within his grasp as he raised it to block. The chain intercepted a overhead kick from the Shadow Assassin. The tremendous force behind the attack slammed into Finch’s body, forcing him down onto one knee as the earth beneath his feet cracked apart while compressed air exploded outward, blasting everything across the floor away from him.

Although the Shadow Assassin possessed considerably less physical strength than most Rank 5 beings, at the end of the day, it still possessed power that someone of Finch’s calibre couldn’t possibly hope to match.

’Where the hell is that damn Buddhist?’ Finch screamed inwardly.

He couldn’t understand what was taking Acker so long to come and help him. He didn’t believe the Buddha had simply run away. He didn’t seem like that type of person.

Finch was in a situation similar to Isaac’s.

Both of them relied heavily on physical attacks and close-quarters combat. But unlike Finch, Isaac could one-shot these Rank 5 Shadow Assassins because they were simply too weak to even keep up with his speed, so they couldn’t phase through his attacks.

The only hope Finch might have had was the After Damage ability he had received from Lior. It was this very ability that had helped him survive during the first round. But it was completely useless here. For one, the Shadow Assassin could simply phase through his attacks. And secondly, even if his damage were multiplied twofold, it still wouldn’t be enough to bridge the enormous gap between a Rank 3 and a Rank 5 being.

’Should I use my flag?’ Finch thought to himself as he blurred backward while simultaneously blocking yet another long-range attack.

’No... I need to save it for the next round,’ he thought to himself.

Finch was tempted to simply shapeshift into a pebble and remain motionless on the ground, but at the end of the day, this was a team-based round. He needed to pull his own weight.

He wasn’t worried about revealing more than one ability. He certainly wasn’t the first person to possess multiple abilities.

Before he could react, the Shadow Assassin drove a kick into Finch’s chest, sending his body hurtling several meters before he slammed violently into the wall behind him with booming force. His Vitality Points dropped by yet another one hundred (100) points.

’It seems I have no choice... it’s now or never,’ Finch thought to himself as he endured the searing pain coursing throughout his battered body.

His Astra energy immediately surged throughout his body before pouring into the air with maddening intensity as he slowly raised one hand and declared;

"I summon you, my loyal servant... Sword Savant Lior."

Above Finch’s outstretched palm, a miniature sphere of light materialized before rapidly growing brighter and brighter, blinding everything and everyone nearby. When the radiant light finally faded away, a Goblin standing exactly seven feet tall emerged. Numerous tattoo-like markings covered its green body as it wore a flowing haori and a straw hat, while a katana rested calmly at its waist.

"Your wish is my command, Master," Lior said as he vanished from where he stood, only for his body to flicker back into existence directly behind the Rank 5 Shadow Assassin that had been relentlessly hunting Finch until now.

The very next moment, the Shadow Assassin’s head cleanly separated from its body as both dissolved into countless motes of darkness and shadow.

This had been Finch’s plan all along, his method of surviving from this point onward. Lior was his trump card. He was the reason Finch had never truly panicked from the very beginning and had remained calm regardless of everything William, Ryaen, and Vaelric had said to him the previous day.

Of course, Finch dramatically shouting that Lior was his loyal servant before performing an elaborate summoning, followed by Lior respectfully referring to Finch as his Master, was nothing more than theatrical acting. It was a performance the two of them had carefully planned together.

Since Finch had virtually no hope of reaching the final round in a competition of this calibre, Lior had decided to step in. Back when Finch and the other students were being healed after the first round, Lior had quietly informed him that he had broken through and become a Rank 6 Emovira.

It was Lior who had suggested this entire plan to Finch.

As for why? The answer was simple. He wanted to have fun and had grown tired of spending all his time disguised as a bird. So, making use of his shapeshifting ability, he transformed himself into a Monster, a Goblin.

As for anyone seeing through his disguise and realizing he was actually an Emovira, that simply wasn’t going to happen. After all, he had completely suppressed the aura of Serenity that he naturally emitted.

The Ravencroft bloodline was literally designed to summon Monsters, so why couldn’t Finch do exactly that?

Besides, countless people throughout Crymora possessed beast-taming and summoning abilities of various kinds. Everyone would simply assume Finch was one of those individuals.

And with a faint smile spreading across his face, Lior went on a rampage.

___

Not sure any of you saw this coming. Although I will acknowledge that one person on my Discord saw Finch pulling this card.