The assassin made no sound, not even a gasp of pain, as his body was blasted backward through the air.
Ryoji twisted in mid-air and landed lightly on the concrete.
Since he had been airborne, he hadn't been able to perfectly adjust the angle of his strike, succeeding only in slicing off one of the assassin's hands.
But the price for that single strike was far from trivial.
Ryoji glanced down at his sword-wielding right hand. The web of flesh between his thumb and forefinger had split wide, blood welling up and tracing a crimson path down his arm. The full force of the reflection had slammed back into him, severely damaging his arm. Judging by the blinding, sharp pain, a bone was almost certainly cracked.
Switching his Vrring blade into his left hand, he fixed the assassin with a cold, sharp gaze.
The assassin staggered, reeling from the impact. Realizing he had walked straight into a trap, he immediately attempted to sink back into the shadows.
Ryoji's eyes narrowed dangerously.
Abandoning the chainsaw woman who was already rushing him again, he kicked off the ground and lunged toward the assassin's direction.
Immediately, he activated his Noble Art, Absolute Divine Speed, pushing his velocity past the point where the assassin could possibly reactivate his shadow ability.
His figure shot forward like lightning, crossing over twenty meters in a single instant. Riding the explosive turbulence, he swung his blade horizontally at the assassin's upper torso.
Faced with such a sudden assault, the assassin clearly could not react in time. He could only instinctively raise his left hand in a desperate reflex.
"Clang, !"
After a brief, jarring clash, the assassin was sent flying away like a stone skipping over water, tumbling across the ground before finally grinding to a halt.
A second Spiritual Device?
Ryoji's eyes flashed. The assassin's remaining left hand gripped a dagger identical to the one spinning on the pavement, the severed weapon refusing to dematerialize.
Did that mean they were a matched pair of Spiritual Devices?
The assassin barely managed to stand, his body swaying violently. He nearly collapsed and coughed up a mouthful of pitch-black blood, clearly heavily injured. The appearance of a second dagger had saved his life, but his left arm was now twisted at an impossible angle, clearly dislocated or broken by the impact.
Ryoji shook the numbness from his left arm, then surged forward again, determined to eliminate the assassin first!
The chainsaw woman was nowhere near fast enough to intercept; she couldn't possibly save him. This strike would land for sure!
"Clatter-clatter-clatter….!"
But the assassin was no amateur.
In the path ahead of Ryoji, the ground abruptly transformed into a swirling surface of pitch-black water. From beneath, dozens of one-foot-long spikes shot upward, halting his charge.
Looking closer, Ryoji saw they weren't spikes.
They were daggers. All of them Spiritual Devices!
Not just a pair, Ryoji thought, his shock deepening. There's no limit to the number of copies?
A Spiritual Device capable of self-replication. He had heard whispers of such things, but this was the first time he had seen it with his own eyes. Even if the total quantity wasn't truly infinite, the ability to multiply during combat granted an overwhelming, terrifying advantage.
"Shhh-shhh-shhh…!"
In an instant, a continuous, invisible force surged from beneath the black water. Dozens of daggers suddenly reversed direction, erupting violently from the liquid-like surface and pouring toward Ryoji like a solid rain of blades.
Ryoji was forced to retreat several steps, narrowly avoiding the upward-angled volley.
At the very same moment, the assassin's figure vanished once more, sinking back into the shadows beneath the ground. Ryoji had intended to rush straight into that swirling black surface to follow, but a surge of instinctive danger warnings exploded through him, immediately forcing him to abandon the chase.
"Tch!"
Ryoji clicked his tongue in irritation.
Not only was the chainsaw woman troublesome, even this shadow assassin was proving just as obnoxious.
Where had these people come from? How could they dispatch two Blazers of this caliber, one after the other? Either opponent alone could easily serve as an ace of the Seven Stars Academies, ranking as a B-Rank Magic Knight at minimum, yet he'd never heard a whisper of them.
But with both of the shadow assassin's arms destroyed, a silent assassination would no longer be possible. As long as he dealt with the chainsaw woman first, eliminating the assassin afterward would be simple. That barrage of Spiritual Devices must have been a single, pre-arranged burst; there was no way he could fire continuously, or he would be winning like Gilgamesh spamming Noble Phantasms.
Ryoji shifted his gaze back to the distant chainsaw woman. Like an emotionless machine that knew no exhaustion, she charged again without hesitation.
Ryoji did not flinch. He raised his blade in his left hand and rushed forward. As a swordsman, switching hands for blade work was fundamental. With his mastery over his body, his left-hand swordsmanship was already as refined as his right-hand technique.
However, midway through his charge,
Ryoji's expression suddenly sharpened. His foot dug into the ground, and he spun sharply, slipping to the side like a spinning top.
"ROOOOAR…!"
A deafening, primal roar tore through the street.
A storm-like shockwave blasted outward, the surge of Od sweeping pebbles and trash into the air, leaving the entire street looking like a localized typhoon had just passed through.
Ryoji landed, glaring toward the source of the roar.
There stood a massive lion, nearly as tall as a man. Judging from the size of its bulging muscles, its physique was terrifyingly powerful. Its mane spread outward like a blazing sun, and just like the other two, its entire body was pitch-black.
A stick-figure lion.
The chainsaw woman and the creature flanked Ryoji from both sides, on the left, the whirring menace of the chainsaw; on the right, the massive, taut body of the lion, its jaws ready to unleash a devastating roar at any moment.
"A Special Individual?"
Kanata's voice came from the side. With a grave expression, she stepped forward, coming to stand beside Ryoji, prepared to fight alongside him.
Having a Noble Art was not a privilege unique to humans. In fact, there had been rare cases of animals worldwide awakening such powers. When an animal awakened a Slashing-Type ability, its intelligence would greatly increase, and it could even gain Od, becoming akin to a mythological creature. Such animals were known as Special Individuals.
Normally, these creatures were strictly managed by the League and rarely roamed free. Yet here stood one before their eyes.
Gurgle, gurgle,
The ground turned to black fluid once more, and the slender assassin floated up from the abyss beneath it.
His right arm, the one Ryoji had cleanly severed moments ago, was completely intact.
"…What happened?"
Kanata's stunned voice trembled.
Several minutes had passed, yet they hadn't defeated a single enemy. On the contrary, the number of enemies continued to increase one after another. Even the assassin they had already taken half-down had returned as if time itself had rewound!
What impossible nightmare was this?
"What do we do?" Kanata's tense voice reached Ryoji's ears. If this continued, they were in real danger of being overwhelmed.
"…There is only one method left."
Ryoji drew a deep breath, his eyes filling with a terrifying, absolute resolve.
(End of Chapter)
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