The True Assassin's Strike
The skeleton facing me seemed to realize it would have to put me down before it could go after Emma. It began to circle me with careful, measured steps, keeping its distance. Whatever it had learned from our brief exchange of blades, it was in no hurry to close in again—content for now to watch and wait in a tense standoff.
Well, the assassin had shown itself. It had better be ready to take a few hits. I tightened my grip on my sword and charged straight at the skeleton assassin. Instead of meeting me head-on, it chose to give ground and slip backward.
Ordinarily I would have pursued at once, sticking close and forcing the issue. But the fact that we were standing in a lich’s lair made me hesitate for a fraction of a second. The skeleton assassin did not miss that tiny opening.
Something like a magical orb shattered against the floor, and smoke billowed upward. Whether it was enchanted or not, even when I focused hard I could see nothing beyond the haze.
Naturally the skeleton assassin vanished into the darkness along with the smoke.
The lich had chosen an assassin for its bodyguard, so it must have deliberately kept the surroundings dim and the flow of mana chaotic. I could no longer sense the skeleton assassin’s presence at all.
In a pure one-on-one duel I would have had nothing to worry about. But the creature had two possible targets: me, who was hunting it, or Emma, who was locked in a brutal fight with the lich on the far side of the room, just as before.
That made the situation inherently unfavorable for me. Or rather, it had been.
It felt similar to when Emma and I first entered the chamber and failed to notice the assassin’s presence—but it could never truly be the same.
Both of us already knew the skeleton assassin was here. No matter how hard its presence was to detect, the difference between knowing and not knowing was enormous.
If I could not see, I simply closed my eyes. I sharpened every other sense to compensate for the loss of sight. When pure sensation was not enough, I used Aura to hone them even further. Before I came to the Academy such a technique would have been impossible, but the training I had undergone since then had not been wasted.
In particular, the sparring matches I had fought against a Sword Master at Yurine’s estate had refined my senses—and my instincts—to something close to the level of a superpower.
From a distance came the thunderous crashes of Emma’s battle with the lich. Yet even that din could not drown out my hearing. Through it I caught a faint, deliberate rustle—something moving with exquisite care.
Every time the lich’s magic erupted or Emma’s massive blade swept through the air, the aftershock battered my sense of touch. Still, each time the assassin shifted its weight, the almost soundless tread of its feet traveled up through the floor. I felt the subtle disturbance in the air.
Even if I could not see it, that was no obstacle. With my eyes closed I could still perceive every motion it made—how it would move next. It went beyond mere observation, beyond prediction, into something like foresight.
Against an ordinary opponent such a reaction would have been impossible. But I had already anticipated one of its attacks and blocked it once. When the opponent was another assassin, and when I knew its skill as an assassin was inferior to mine, the impossible became merely difficult.
I did not doubt my senses or my instincts for a second.
Beyond the darkness of my closed eyelids the creature’s movements stood out as clearly as if I were watching them in broad daylight. It stepped around behind me, yet a kind of sixth sense tracked it without fail.
I felt it approaching slowly, soundlessly, but I did not react at once. Just a little closer… just a little farther into my range…
And the instant it began its swing—no, half a beat earlier—I raised my sword.
Clang!
Had my prediction been even slightly off, the skeleton assassin’s blade would have slipped past mine and taken my head. But my certainty proved true.
A skull has no expression, yet I could see its shock as plain as day.
Ah… that’s not how you assassinate someone.
I understood why it was surprised that I had blocked without looking. Still, a real assassin, the moment an attack fails, moves immediately into the next action—whether that means vanishing again or pressing for a follow-up strike. Freezing in place like this was the kind of mistake only a third-rate assassin made.
So I decided to teach it what a true assassin looked like.
“Want to see something fun?”
I slowly released the Aura that had been circulating only inside my body, letting it scatter outward into the surrounding air. Unlike coating a blade, this was simply dispersing the energy itself. Considering how much Aura it consumed, it possessed neither power nor threat—pure waste.
But for erasing one’s presence, it was more than enough. It could not match the magical smoke the skeleton had spread earlier, yet under the present conditions it was sufficient. The very environment the lich had prepared for its assassin’s benefit had now become the blade closing around its throat.
The moment I killed my presence and melted into the darkness, the creature began to look around in clear panic. How it managed to “see” without eyes was a mystery I was happy to leave to the mages.
My talent had already been acknowledged by more than enough people, and it was never limited to the sword. The place I had been kidnapped to was an assassin’s guild, after all. If I had lacked talent for assassination before I ever picked up a blade, I would have been discarded as a disposable tool long ago.
Even if it had been a third-rate guild, the Guild Master had not become Guild Master for nothing. He might have been human garbage as a person, but I could not deny his skill as an assassin. He had been far superior, technically, to any half-baked first-rate assassin—enough to claim the title of Guild Master.
The assassination trade was competitive in its own way. If some no-talent tried to found a guild, rivals would come to cut his throat just to eliminate the competition.
And I had learned those assassination techniques directly from that Guild Master. Calling us master and disciple would be too generous; tool and owner was closer to the truth. What mattered was that my skill as an assassin far surpassed the skeleton standing before me.
I killed my presence again, and again. I made none of the mistakes the skeleton assassin had—letting killing intent leak out.
This time I walked slowly through the darkness. I felt no worry that it might read me the way I had read it. It could not hear my footsteps.
I passed right in front of it. I did not entertain the thought that it might see me. It could not see me at all.
Then, slowly, I raised my sword.
No grand flourish. Just slowly… slowly… I brought the blade toward the back of its skull.
Even as it glanced about, even when it turned so that my sword was right before its empty sockets, it never noticed the blade that was steadily approaching.
Crack.
My sword sank into its skull. The creature probably never understood what had happened, even in the instant its cranium shattered.
And with that, the fight was over. No flashy swordplay, no dazzling Aura. Only the overwhelming difference in technique and capability.
“Still, thanks for the fun. I was worried I might have gotten rusty after so long, but I guess I’m fine.”
Naturally no answer came, but I had never expected one.
If the thing had been a swordsman instead of an assassin, I could never have shown off a technique like this. If the space had not been deliberately shaped by the lich to favor an assassin, it would have been impossible. But what could it do? Even as a skeleton it would have to blame its own rotten luck.
“Gyaaaaah!”
From the other side of the room came the lich’s scream as it fought Emma. Along with the pained cry, the magic that had been protecting it—and the spells aimed at Emma—began to unravel. Emma did not miss the opening; she smashed its skull to pieces.
Normally the lich would have regenerated in an instant and launched another barrage of magic, just as before. This time it failed to regenerate at all. It crumbled completely into bone dust that scattered across the floor. Even the robe seemed to have been made of magic; it dissolved into powder and vanished, leaving only the necklace the lich had worn.
Curious, I checked the surroundings and found something that looked like a crystal orb nestled inside the skull of the assassin I had just destroyed. I had seen it once in a textbook—a lich’s Life Vessel.
I had been half-expecting it to be hidden somewhere difficult to find, so I was relieved I would not have to go to the trouble. The lich itself had almost certainly never predicted a situation like this: Emma, who could casually dismantle its magic and pin it down, or me, who could dispose of its carefully chosen bodyguard with such ease.
“You found it sooner than I expected.”
Emma walked over as she spoke.
“I would have liked to watch you fight, but I didn’t have that kind of leeway myself. A pity. Next time we’ll have to spar so I can see for myself.”
Knowing that, I had used my assassination techniques without worry. If there had been even the slightest chance Emma might notice, I would have faced the creature in a more ordinary fashion.
“Here. You take this, Miss Elicia.”
“This is…?”
I snatched the object she casually tossed my way. It was the necklace the lich had left behind when it died. A skeleton would not have worn jewelry for decoration, so it was obviously a magical item. Found in a labyrinth and used by a lich, no less—even a child could tell it was valuable. Emma knew that perfectly well, yet she handed it over without the slightest hesitation.
“It looks expensive at a glance. You did almost all the real fighting, Lady Emma. I can’t just take this…”
“Think of it as compensation for getting dragged into family and city affairs. Selling it should cover any reward money nicely. Or you can use it yourself.”
Even outwardly the necklace looked quite valuable.
“Still, make sure it’s not a cursed artifact, all right? Once we’re back in town I’ll have an appraiser look at it, so don’t put it on out of curiosity. If you wear a cursed item first and then try to get it removed, it only makes things more complicated.”
I was not that lacking in common sense. Cursed artifacts came in every variety imaginable—from the merely mischievous to the kind that completely bound the body.
“Well then, shall we head back?”
Emma walked past the chair where the lich had sat and approached the magic circle that was glowing with bright light. I had my doubts that something so blatantly placed could really be a return circle, but Emma knew far more about labyrinths than I did, and she showed no concern. That was good enough for me.
The moment Emma and I stepped onto the circle, brilliant light once again enveloped us both.