Chapter 32: Six Shadows [Part 1]

Chapter 32. Six Shadows [Part 1]

"Rey...?" Ariel sounded cautious. "Are you mad?"

I glanced over my shoulder.

She was staring at me from the pool with wide blue eyes, apparently still thinking my sudden personality change had something to do with the water she’d thrown at my face.

"I’m sorry."

...

I laughed. "No."

Ariel blinked. "Then why are you smiling like that?"

"Something came up."

That did not reassure her whatsoever.

Understandable.

I stood and brushed the water from my clothes. "Just wait for me here."

Seris’s eyes narrowed immediately.

Unlike Ariel, she hadn’t been distracted by guilt. Her gaze flicked toward the corridor.

"Your wards. They detected something, didn’t they?"

Sharp woman.

I smiled. "Don’t worry. Just a minor inconvenience. I’ll be back."

Before she could argue, I turned and walked into the dark corridor.

My footsteps echoed against ancient stone.

Slow.

Casual.

Unhurried.

The restoration chamber’s blue-white glow gradually disappeared behind me until darkness swallowed the passage.

They couldn’t see me anymore.

More importantly, whoever was coming wouldn’t immediately know I had company.

I kept walking.

The corridor still smelled of blood.

Several dark splatters remained where I’d killed the monsters earlier. Claw marks scarred the walls. A few broken stones were scattered across the floor.

But there were no monsters anymore.

Only me.

And six people who thought they were being sneaky.

[Arcane Eye.]

My vision changed.

Mana traces sharpened.

Stone became layered with faint currents.

Movement flickered through the ruined structure ahead.

Six.

Fast.

Very fast.

They weren’t moving together either.

Two above.

One circling through the eastern corridor.

Two approaching from opposite sides.

The last...

I stopped.

Already behind me?

Interesting.

Assassins.

The worst natural opponent for a magus.

Magi liked distance.

Formation.

Casting windows.

Clear targets.

Assassins considered all four of those things offensive suggestions.

So.

Who sent them?

The Light Temple again?

Possible. They’d already sanctioned poisoning me.

Holy Knight Headquarters?

Darius might prefer something more politically clean than sending assassins, but hypocrisy had never stopped institutions before.

Maybe Duke Harven?

Rey’s memories supplied an image of a red-faced noble flying backward through a banquet table after Rey punched him.

The idiot had almost sacrificed civilians, children and women included, as bait to trap one of the Dark Lord’s generals.

Rey disagreed with the strategy.

With his fist.

Apparently diplomacy had been going wonderfully even before the curse.

But these people...

No.

Their movements were too clean.

Too synchronized.

Another possibility surfaced.

Assassins Valley.

And if that was true...

Raven.

"Let’s see."

[Arcana Injection.]

[Wide-Area Detection.]

Forbidden Energy spread from my feet.

Black-violet lines raced through cracks in the stone, climbed the walls, slipped through broken windows, and sank beneath the ruined temple.

The skill changed.

[Arcana Injection successful.]

[Forbidden Skill created.]

[Abyssal Hunter’s Domain.]

[Base Skill: Wide-Area Detection.]

[Functions: Hostile Presence Detection. Movement Tracking. Mana Signature Lock. Target Pursuit. Blind-Spot Compensation. Tracking persists within effective range.]

My grin returned. "That’s useful."

Six red signatures appeared in my perception.

Not visually.

Spatially.

I knew where they were.

Direction.

Distance.

Movement.

Acceleration.

Even when stone separated us.

One stopped.

Had he sensed something?

Maybe.

The other five didn’t.

Stopping them, however, was another matter entirely.

Knowing where a knife was coming from didn’t automatically make the knife slow.

The signature behind me moved.

Fast.

I tilted my head.

A black blade passed where my throat had been.

Close.

Very close.

I turned.

Masked figure.

No wasted movement.

No dramatic clothing.

Dark leather reinforced around joints, face completely concealed, mana suppressed almost perfectly.

The assassin’s wrist rotated.

Blade reversed.

Straight for my ribs.

[Void Shift.]

Reality folded.

The knife cut through black mist.

I disappeared.

Reappeared six meters away.

The assassin didn’t hesitate.

A throwing knife was already airborne.

Then another.

Then four.

I lifted my hand.

[Eclipse Light Manipulation.]

White light ignited around me.

Black at its core.

Six thin blades formed in the air.

Not swords.

Closer to elongated crescents.

They hovered around my shoulders. "Go."

The first Eclipse blade moved.

-CLANG!

It knocked one knife aside.

Second.

Third.

Fourth.

Metal screamed through the corridor.

The assassin lunged through the deflected weapons.

Fast.

Too fast for an ordinary assassin.

My fingers twitched.

The hovering blades moved with them.

Not like projectiles.

Soldiers.

That was how I controlled them.

Two guarded my flanks.

One remained behind my neck.

Three attacked.

The first swept toward the assassin’s knee.

He jumped.

Second came horizontally toward his stomach.

He twisted in midair.

Third descended toward his shoulder.

His dagger flashed upward.

-CLANG!

Eclipse Light met enchanted steel.

Black-white sparks exploded.

He landed and immediately vanished.

My eyes narrowed.

Not teleportation.

Movement technique.

Ridiculous acceleration.

[Abyssal Hunter’s Domain.]

Left.

I turned.

Too slow.

A boot slammed into my side.

"Ghk—"

I stumbled.

A blade followed toward my chest.

[Void Shift.]

Gone.

I reappeared above him.

My cloak snapped around me.

"Three."

Three Eclipse blades descended simultaneously.

He crossed his daggers.

-BOOM!

Stone shattered beneath his feet.

And then...

Five signatures moved at once.

I Void Shifted.

A sword passed through my previous position.

Shift.

A chain blade snapped across the corridor.

Shift.

Something thin pierced the wall exactly where my head appeared...

I shifted again before fully materializing.

My heartbeat accelerated.

Not fear.

Excitement.

These bastards were good.

Two came from above through a collapsed section of ceiling.

One attacked low.

Another aimed for the space I would logically retreat toward.

They weren’t reacting to me individually.

They were herding me.

Predicting teleport exits.

That required experience fighting spatial magi.

I raised both hands.

Twelve Eclipse blades appeared.

Then eighteen.

Hovering silently around me.

The assassins paused.

Just slightly.

I smiled. "My turn."

My fingers spread.

The blades scattered.

The corridor became a battlefield.

Six blades pursued the first assassin.

Three blocked the second.

Four spun around me defensively, intercepting throwing knives with bursts of sparks.

The remaining five shot through the corridor at different angles, deliberately missing their targets...

Then curved.

One assassin ducked the first.

The blade behind him reversed.

He barely twisted away.

A cut appeared across his shoulder.

Blood.

First hit.

He disappeared backward.

Another replaced him instantly.

Dagger.

Sword.

Wire.

Poisoned needle.

My Eclipse blades screamed through the darkness around me, colliding with steel so quickly the corridor flashed white-black like lightning.

I wasn’t fencing.

I was conducting.

Index finger left. Two blades crossed.

Thumb down. One plunged.

Wrist turn. Four circled behind me.

Palm open. Scatter.

Close. Return.

Each blade was an extension of my casting.

My soldiers.

And for several glorious seconds, the abandoned Light Temple became an orchestra of murderous geometry.

Still...

They kept up.

Barely.

But they did.

One slipped between three blades and reached me.

I Void Shifted behind him.

He somehow anticipated it.

His elbow came backward.

I blocked it.

[Abyssal Formation Creation]

[Mana Reinforcement]

Forbidden Energy surged beneath my skin, reinforcing muscle, bone, and flesh without touching my normal mana reserves.

I raised my forearm.

-BAM!

Impact rattled through my arm.

I grinned directly beside his ear. "You’re not ordinary."

His blade snapped toward my stomach.

I shifted away.

Twenty meters down the corridor, I materialized and slid one foot backward.

All eighteen Eclipse blades returned to me.

They hovered.

Rotating slowly.

The six assassins finally stopped hiding.

One stood on a broken pillar.

Two occupied opposite corridors.

One crouched above.

Two remained directly ahead.

Perfect formation.

Perfect spacing.

No panic.

No confusion.

Even after I’d exposed their positions.

Even after I’d turned the corridor into a blender made of corrupted light.

My smile faded slightly.

Not because I was worried.

Because I recognized the quality.

These weren’t hired thugs.

They weren’t temple zealots with knives.

They weren’t some pissed-off noble’s private killers.

Their footwork.

Their coordinated blind spots.

Their ability to predict retreat routes.

The way each assassin automatically filled the opening created by another.

I knew this style.

He’d fought beside it for years.

Shadow Assassin doctrine.

My gaze moved between the six masks.

Then I chuckled.

"Ah."

One Eclipse blade rotated lazily beside my cheek.

"So that’s how it is."

Raven Dusk.

One of the Five Heroes.

Rey’s former teammate.

The man who would supposedly help kill Rey someday.

I had wondered when another hero would finally enter the game.

Apparently... He’d sent six knives ahead of him.

My grin slowly returned.

Wide.

Sharp.

Delighted.

"Well, Raven."

Black-violet energy crawled across all eighteen blades.

"Now you have my attention."