“Calypter Attack!”
As Evelyn crossed her arms and shouted, a pair of crescent-shaped sharp auras swiftly flew towards my chest. I quickly dodged them by taking steps on the side but the auras turned their directions on Evelyn’s gesture and flew towards my back again.
I had no choice but to bounce them off with Yojo.
Tang. Tang.
Crescent-shaped auras scattered away. Yet, I had to defend myself against her successive attacks without a moment to catch my breath of relief.
Clang. Clang.
Her moves were very fast. They were unorthodox and odd without the patterns and rules. Her swordsmanship was based on her instincts and only focused on attacks just like an Assassin. It seemed she would kill her opponent no matter what even if she had to sacrifice her own life.
However, I couldn’t catch off her guard at all. Whenever I tried, she defended my attack by using her magic skills.
“Take this!”
“Light Glitter!”
At the moment I was about to wield Yojo, a white aura in a straight line stretched out towards me. It’s a different kind of magic attack. I dodged it by turning my upper body to the side. It was a ghastly dangerous attack but there’s even more.
Evelyn shouted ‘Lethal Slice Attack’. A pair of white sickle-shaped auras crossed in X-shape flew towards me. I quickly jumped into the air and barely dodged them. Before I landed on the ground, she started attacking me right away with her daggers and magic skills so I faced critical situations many times.
Thud! Bang! Bang!
There were explosions everywhere. Pillars in the building were burst into pieces by the magic of Zelsa and granite walls crumbled down like sheaves of straws.
I twisted my mouth.
“Hey, don’t destroy everything. Otherwise, we’re gonna be exposed to sunlight. You get rashes on your skin if you’re exposed to sunlight, right?”
“That’s none of your business!”
She swiftly approached and pushed me off by wielding her Zelsa.
Making a dangerous trajectory, Yojo and Zelsa collided with each other in the air. Evelyn kept wielding her daggers and attacking me as if she’s dancing in the cloud of scattered pieces of auras.
Evelyn had two daggers so she certainly had the advantage. Yojo was longer but her overwhelming speed and vicious magic skills made it ineffective.
At times, I found a few opportunities to attack her but they were meaningless because the magic of Zelsa always protected her.
“Penetration Slice Attack!”
The huge impact of another magic attack of Zelsa made my hands and Yojo shiver yet I could still defend myself from her successive attacks. Due to the unexpected situation, our eyes got wide open and we distanced from each other.
“What the hell is that sword? How come the Penetration Slice Attack of Zesa can’t pierce through?”
I smoothed down my numb wrist and took a short breath.
“Why does that surprise you?”
“Penetration Slice Attack can pierce through the Aura Blade and cut the other sword in two. But…”
It can pierce through the Aura Blade and cut the other sword in two? What the hell? It’s an unfairly dangerous skill. If it weren’t for Yojo, I would’ve ended up only with the hilt of my sword.
“That’s not surprising at all. You know, my Yojo is quite strong.”
“Hmm…”
Evelyn narrowed her eyes and started circling around me very carefully. She seemed to be wary of the hidden magic of Yojo.
After she saw me not using any magic for a while, she put her guards down and started attacking me again.
Clang. Clank. Clang.
Each of our Aura Blades was broken into pieces that scattered around everywhere. Evelyn’s countless moves and attacks were like torrents. Her swordsmanship was a work of art. I kept defending myself with all my strength and Yojo against the blades of Zelsa and Evelyn’s endless attacks.
When I finally tried to counter-attack, she shouted another magic spell.
“Penetration Explosion Bomb!
Soon, the spherical aura came out from Zelsa pierced through Yojo’s Aura Blade and struck my stomach. With the huge impact, I flew backward and rolled over on the floor. I quickly turned a somersault, stood up, and got my fighting stance right away because she could start attacking me again at any moment.
“Damn these magic skills of Zelsa.”
Evelyn narrowed her eyes and seemed surprised since I was still alive after being struck by her explosion bomb.
“Who the hell are you?”
I frowned after I saw my tattered shirts. If I didn’t wear my vest made of Fraker’s skin, I would’ve been seriously injured if not dead.
After spitting out the blood in my mouth, I waved my hand.
“You know, I have a pretty strong body.”
She narrowed her eyes again.
“You are a strange man.”
“I know that. Everyone says I am strange.”
And I made a frowning face.
‘Zelsa’. What a great weapon. Although I hadn’t seen an enormously destructive magic like those of the Seven Sacred Weapons, Zelsa was more effective than the Seven Sacred Weapons in a duel.
The Penetration Skills were especially horrifying. It could pierce through the Aura Blade and give huge damage to the opponent. I never heard of such skills before.
But there was more. Since I kept defending her attacks, she used another different magic skill.
“Curse of the Dead!”
Making a weird trajectory, she swung the daggers in each of her hands. Then a white smoke rolled up and countless skeleton ghosts with hollow eyes appeared.
Keeeh. Keeeh.
The skeleton ghosts screamed and roamed around for a short while. Then suddenly, they all rushed towards me.
“Dammit!”
Hurriedly, I moved backward in fright. They were full of murderous spirits and looked like those who came from hell. They kept chasing after me and blew themselves up when I was near them. They’re suicide bombers.
Thud! Bang! Bang!
After they all detonated themselves, I became exhausted. My pants were scorched and torn apart by the explosion. My shirts were gone. The only thing I was wearing was my vest made of Fraker’s skin. My entire body was hurting. I could barely hear and see things around me because of murky smoke.
At that moment, Evelyn suddenly appeared out of nowhere and swung Zelsa towards my waist.
With a clinking sound, Zelsa and Yojo collided with each other.
Then she stared at me as if she was surprised.
“You’re pretty tough.”
“Yeah, I am.”
“But it’s over now. Light Glitter Spray!”
She distanced herself from me and crossed her daggers into an X shape. A white aura in front of her started forming a sphere and transformed into countless Light Glitter rays which then poured down towards me.
Since Light Glitter rays were pouring down all over the place, I couldn’t dodge them. I got small scars everywhere on my body.
After I bounced off one last ray with Yojo, I grabbed my bleeding forearm and stared at Evelyn.
“It is not over yet, is it?”
Her eyes got wide open.
“How did you dodge those rays? There was no place you could hide.”
“Oh, I got hit a few times and bounced off some of those rays. Yet, I am still alive.”
“What the…”
“I have encountered these kinds of attacks countless times in the world where I had lived. So, I am fairly used to defending myself against them.”
She looked at my scars.
“Although you’re familiar with these kinds of attacks, you’re quite heavily injured right now.”
“No, actually I’m getting better right now thanks to you. Almost back to my normal self.”
“What?”
She tilted her head on the side because she had no idea what I was talking about. Without explaining what I meant, I asked her a question instead.
“Never mind. Let me ask you a question. Why did you abandon the Way of Assassin? You were an Assassin, right?”
She made a dumbfounded face.
“What the hell are you talking about? I’m the best Assassin in the world and I have always been an Assassin. Actually, now I am a perfect Assassin because I’ve got Zelsa.”
“A perfect Assassin…?”
“You would agree as well since you’ve just seen my swordsmanship in our duel. I don’t have the critical weakness which all other Assassins have.”
“Yeah, I know that Assassin’s weakness is defense.”
“Yeah, exactly.”
“Haha, that’s why you’ve abandoned the Way of Assassin. A snake that has legs is not a snake. An Assassin is the one who sacrifices his or her life to kill the opponent. However, you’re overprotecting yourself when you fight. Thus, you are no different than a typical swordsman or woman.”
Frankly, Evelyn with her Zelsa was very strong. To be more precise, her swordsmanship was perfect and extremely strong. Yet, nothing was perfect in our world. She said she became a perfect Assassin by overcoming her weakness in defense with ‘Zelsa’. But in fact, she only abandoned the Way of Assassin.
If I were her, I would’ve used the magic skills of Zelsa not for defense but for killing the opponent. That’s the Way of Assassin.
I also made the same mistake until now.
While living in a long peaceful time, I forgot about my way of swordsmanship which was the dogfight. If I got bit, I bit as well. I never stepped back in a duel against anyone. But today, I kept dodging her magic attacks even though I wore my vest made of Fraker’s skin. Back in the days, a strong opponent like Evelyn with her Zelsa would’ve made me more excited.
In other words, I forgot my rule of running away for a moment. Instead, I was only busy dodging her attacks. Actually, my rule of running away was to keep rushing ahead endlessly for my life.
During the Era of Destruction, I jumped into the swarm of demons covering the vast land and made the escape route. I jumped into the underground waterway full of feces when being chased after by demons. I was never afraid of anything and kept moving forward since there’s always a future in my life.
But today, I didn’t fight like I used to. I kept dodging her attacks since I was worried about being injured. I abandoned my way of survival because I was afraid of death. My body with many scars and wounds was the proof. Before today, I never had any scars on my body.
In my past life, I was eager for life but never escaped from death or pain. Because if I hesitated due to death or pain, I would’ve been dead already in my past life.
Humans were such cunning creatures. Even I became a coward after living in a peaceful time for a little bit. It was true that humans were very good at adapting to their environments.
She snorted.
“Shut up. What do you know about Assassins?”
I infused mana into Yojo to cover it with the Aura Blade which was about 10cm before but now grew more little by little. Then I made a sly smile.
“Of course, I don’t know about Assassins because I am just a fake one. But you’re even worse.”
“What?”
“I will show you what it means. The Way of Assassin is also a part of my swordsmanship. Take this!”
As I approached her, she threw the ‘Penetration Explosion Bomb’. I got slightly hit by the bomb on purpose and flew towards the wall of a prayer room. I was in pain for sure. Yet, I kicked the wall and jumped towards Evelyn at an instant.
Again, Yojo and Zelsa collided with each other. She poked my waist with one of her daggers but I grabbed her wrist and twisted it.
The clinking sound of their collision was loud. Her arm got twisted by my strength. Yet, she turned her body around and kicked my face with tons of torque.
Swish.
I bounced off her kick with my forehead. So, she had to move to the opposite direction and tried to attack my right arm. It was a dangerous move for her. But actually, I was grabbing her left hand so she didn’t have any better choice.
By pressing my body against hers, I made her lose her balance. Then I smashed her onto the ground by a one-hand shoulder throw.
“Argh!”
Although she was smashed onto the ground, she quickly turned a somersault and distanced herself very far. However, I rushed forward and grabbed her leg. Then I smashed her again in the opposite way.
She was trying to stand up hurriedly but failed because she had to bounce off my Yojo with her Zelsa. I didn’t miss the opportunity. I kicked her stomach with my knee very hard.
Due to the impact, she slid down the hallway. As I chased after her, she used Calypter Attacks.
Bang. Thump.
I got hit by one of Calypter Attacks on the left side of my chest. Although my body was turned around a little bit, I jumped into her and stroke down my Yojo. She defended herself with the dagger in her right hand by luck. Then I grabbed her by the collar with my left hand and we went into a dogfight.
During our dogfight, each of us was in critical danger from time to time. Yet, I had huge advantages over the length of the sword as well as physical strength. As she gradually felt the fear of death, she shouted loudly to cast the magic of Zelsa.
“Explosion Wave!”
With a loud explosive sound, we got separated from each other. ‘Explosion Wave’ was not a very powerful skill but explosive enough to separate us from each other.
I stood up in a hurry and looked around to find her. However, I couldn’t see her anywhere. Also, I didn’t feel any mana or energy.