Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Four shadows leaped from the rooftops onto the street. Cold blades reflected the moonlight hanging in the night sky, drawing out streaks of silvery-white light. They crashed into an empty fruit stand on the street, then darted over scattered apples and pomegranates without stepping on a single one.
The figures wielding the blades moved in a nearly prostrate posture, their leopard-like legs scrambling and crossing on the ground, leaving afterimages! It was a posture impossible for humans, yet it granted them incredibly fast speeds! In just the blink of an eye, they closed the fifty-meter distance to Suya's face. Four curved short blades simultaneously slashed towards Suya's throat, brow, kidney, and ankle in less than a breath.
Escaping was too late, throwing kunai would only cover one direction, and his sword had already been thrown. Faced with such a desperate situation, Suya unhesitatingly flung two pellet-like lime balls from his waist to the ground.
"Bang!"
A smoke cloud filled with quicklime erupted! The vision of the four incoming assassins was instantly stripped away. No, not stripped, but they voluntarily closed their eyes. Based on the sensation of their blades cutting through nothing, the four immediately realized something was wrong. With Suya's speed, he shouldn't have been able to escape this attack.
But where was he?
The rat-headed figure in the white mask, leading the group, stomped heavily, attempting to use [Stomp] to disperse the smoke.
However, at this moment, within the lime dust, a figure, with a faster reaction speed than him, grasped a gust of wind out of thin air! A large amount of D-rank magical energy condensed in the center of the smoke cloud, accompanied by a clear, cold shout:
"Imaginary Magic: Archer of the Aether!"
"Intel is wrong, this kid is an archer—"
Boom!
The wind that exploded out of nowhere pushed the lime smoke cloud and the four assassins away! And at this moment, in the center of the street, Suya stood in a remarkably strange posture: one leg bent, standing on tiptoes, the other leg bent back and raised to his armpit, one hand hooked back gripping his waist, the other hand raised, elbow half-bent, held high in the air, his neck and face tilted back. It was hard to describe the profound meaning of this bizarre posture, but strangely, the four short blades that should have struck vital points instead grazed past the extreme limits of Suya's stretched body, missing their targets.
And, a 1.5-meter long magical greatbow, flowing with dark red magical energy, appeared in Suya's raised hand. With his limbs all busy, he bit the bowstring with his only free mouth, pulling it back. The burst of wind earlier was blasted out by this magical greatbow.
Now, Suya twisted his neck, resettled himself, and coldly stared at the four suddenly attacking assassins. He slowly raised the magical greatbow in his hand, pulling back the bowstring with his other hand.
"—Hmph!"
The surrounding magical energy furiously converged on the greatbow, solidifying into an almost tangible wind arrow.
"He can only shoot in one direction, we—"
An assassin saw Suya's intention in the center of the street and immediately called out, attempting to reorganize their assassination attempt on Suya.
However, at that moment,
"Pfft!"
The assassin who was speaking suddenly lowered his head, disbelievingly gazing at the tip of an invisible, blood-stained sword protruding from his chest.
Bang!
The first assassin fell, and a figure hidden in his shadow subtly emerged from behind him. In the moonlight, the blond young knight shook the blood-stained 'sword' in his hand, a sword purely condensed from air, shaking off the bloodstains and making the 'sword' invisible again. And this figure, who had suddenly appeared and taken down a master-level assassin, was none other than Suya himself!
The remaining three master-level assassins instantly widened their eyes, looking somewhat confused at the two 'Suyas' who simultaneously appeared in the center of the scene.
And just then,
"Peng!"
The 'Suya' in the center of the street, who was coldly pulling back the magical greatbow, suddenly exploded, turning into... a wooden barrel?
Rumble~
The wooden barrel fell to the ground, rolling with a rumbling sound. Seeing this, the three master-level assassins instantly recognized this combat technique:
Compound Combat Technique: [False Clock].
Through rapid movement, it allowed an instantaneous escape in the dust cloud created by lime bombs, and in the process, a wooden barrel was thrown with hand movements faster than the human eye, deceiving the enemy with 'illusion.' This was undoubtedly an extremely profound combat technique in the assassin class, and to execute it to the point where it could deceive four master-level assassins, one would need at least a proficiency level of 'Mastery.'
At this moment, the three master-level assassins' pupils widened, looking at Suya, who had just emerged from [Shadow Strike], with expressions of astonishment. No, you're a swordsman, wait, an archer, no... But no matter what, you can't be more like an assassin than us!
Just then, Suya looked at them eerily, a cold smile on his face, gripping the air sword created by imaginary magic in his hand.
"Now, the hunt has just begun—"
The principle of the Aether Archer he wielded was to convert wind elements into aether arrows, shot through a matching bow-shaped phantom drawn from the Sea of Imaginary Numbers. However, manifesting the bow-shaped phantom required matching, incanting, and introducing divine words, which was not only tedious but also made the power and cost uncontrollable. Therefore, Suya only took the first half: if wind elements could be converted into arrow shapes, they could certainly be converted into other shapes, such as a sword. Or rather, this was a Noble Phantasm that was, in fact, a type of magic—
Wind King Barrier!
Suya rose onto his tiptoes, lightly tapping, and his entire figure quietly vanished into the shadows around the street. Wielding the sword with one hand, he rapidly approached with silent [Swift Steps]. He pulled four kunai from his waist pouch, silently counting one, two, three, four as he threw them consecutively. Then, he quickly pulled out a large handful of playing cards from his waist pouch, climbed over stacked wooden crates in the alley onto the rooftop, and threw them downwards!
This was a magical Mystic Code obtained from upgrading his Inciter pathway earlier: False Magic Cards, whose effect was to disguise playing cards as other objects. In an instant, 54 playing cards transformed into 54 kunai, raining down on the three assassins on the street.
The three assassins, seeing this, felt their scalps tingle. Before becoming Holy Knights and gaining the identity and power of Masters, they were merely professional thieves, roadside extortionists, and nameless assassins. Although they now had Master-level stats, they lacked the corresponding martial arts. At this moment, seeing Suya with his magic, Mystic Codes, and various mastery-level combat techniques, they immediately knew they had run into a brick wall.
Instantly, realizing they were no match for this person, the three immediately turned to flee without hesitation.
However, at this moment, as soon as they turned their heads, they saw standing before them a square-faced Holy Knight, clad in red and white heavy armor, with a grim expression.
The square-faced knight let out a heavy breath.
"A bunch of useless trash!"
He seized one of the rat-headed assassins by the neck with a single hand and flung him like a cannonball towards the other two!
"—Boom!!!"
Bricks shattered, dust exploded, and flesh splattered!
And at this moment, a dense rain of kunai covered them, and amidst it, a single kunai, glowing red like a branding iron, accelerated by three impacts, shot explosively towards the square-faced knight! After instantly dispatching his three subordinates, whose chimera identities had been exposed, the square-faced knight, without any delay, drew the exaggerated, door-panel-sized greatsword from his back and unleashed a heavy slash forward!
"Whoosh!!!"
A fierce wind suddenly rose, instantly dispersing the countless projectiles. Even the trajectory of the furiously accelerating kunai hidden among them was affected, causing it to deviate.
Swoosh!
The kunai grazed the square-faced Holy Knight's face, creating a gash that revealed a stubble of hard bristles, like a wild boar's. He frowned slightly, then abruptly turned his head, his face grim, to look at Suya, who was standing on the rooftop, gripping his invisible air sword with a solemn expression.
"Hm, such an ordinary combat technique, in your hands... it can reach this level?"
He let out a muffled breath, a cruel smile subtly appearing on his face.
"Very good, it seems you are worthy of knowing my name."
"Knight, Vasago."
Vasago sneered, slowly raising his heavy greatsword, his sabatons grinding slightly on the street's bricks.
"This will be the last you ever hear—"
Just as he spoke, he suddenly noticed that Suya, standing on the rooftop, didn't seem to be looking at him, but rather at the ground beneath his feet? And in the instant this thought arose,
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Spiderweb-like cracks furiously bloomed, and the entire street of Knight's Row violently trembled!
The next instant, Vasago watched in astonishment as the street beneath his feet violently collapsed downwards, forming a crater over 50 meters wide! And from beneath the crater, an unimaginably vast, bloody maw rose upwards, engulfing him!
Crunch!
Gulp!
At this moment, standing on the rooftop, Suya watched in horror as the enormous creature, which had suddenly burst from beneath the street, shook its head, and swallowed the master-level Holy Knight whole.
It was an owl at least 80 meters long.
And just a few seconds later—
"Rumble!"
From this vantage point, terrifying giant beasts, revived from ancient times, erupted from the ground across various parts of the capital!
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