〇 〇 〇
Caim and Deed clashed near Mount Garank’s summit.
Deed swung his shovel at Caim, who dodged it. Each time the shovel struck the ground, it broke through the earth, scattering rock fragments around. While each blow was extremely powerful, it was only brute force and no skill.
He’s...strong. Absurdly so! Caim thought, avoiding another strike. Deed might have been relying solely on his strength, but his sheer destructive power was unbelievable. Moreover, the fact that he wasn’t using any techniques made it harder to read his attack pattern, and he kept swinging his shovel at Caim from all directions. And he isn’t just strong...!
“Kirin!” Caim backstepped and sent out a spiraling shock wave of condensed mana. But while it did strike Deed’s body, it was simply dispersed without doing much damage.
“Hah!” Deed continued to attack as if nothing had happened. He hadn’t done anything special, like using a barrier. No, his body was simply so tough that Caim’s attack hadn’t done anything to him.
“Come on... How can you be so tough even without using Mana Compression? Are you a monster?!” Caim complained. Deed wasn’t using mana to strengthen himself like Caim did, and yet he was incredibly tough and powerful. “To think that someone could resist the Toukishin Style’s Mana Compression with pure physical strength... The world truly is vast!” Caim said while he consecutively struck Deed in the face, the stomach, and even the crotch. But the assassin didn’t flinch, immediately counterattacking with his shovel.
Caim clicked his tongue, avoiding the horizontal swing by ducking down. The blow destroyed the rock behind him instead. If Caim hadn’t dodged, it would have crushed his head.
“You’re fast... I’m surprised,” Deed said solemnly.
“That’s my line! Also, how can you still move after being injected with several shots of my poison?” Caim replied, annoyed. His mana was toxic, so every time he struck Deed, he’d been putting poison into the assassin’s body. And yet, Deed was fine.
So he isn’t just tough, but also resistant to poison?!
“Seiryuu!” Caim slashed at Deed with a blade made of compressed mana, but it only scratched his skin, drawing a slight amount of blood and a grunt from the assassin. “This is the first time I’ve ever faced someone so sturdy! Are you some kind of legendary hero who bathed in dragon blood?!”
Caim had read about such heroes in his childhood—a warrior would defeat a dragon, bathe in its blood, and earn a body as tough as steel. Then after a few more battles, he would gain great riches and even the hand of the beautiful princess.
“I don’t know. At least, I don’t remember ever slaying a dragon.”
“Of course you don’t. Becoming immortal by slaying a dragon is just a fairy tale anyway.” Dragon blood could be used to produce a miracle drug, however, so the legend likely came from a misinterpretation of that fact. “Do you have monster blood? Or were you experimented on with some unique magic? Nah, that’s not possible either. How did you get a body like that, then?”
“It doesn’t matter how I was born. No. No, it doesn’t.” Deed traced his cut with a finger, scooping some blood, then licked it. “We have a motive to fight. Our enemy is right before us. Isn’t that enough? Or is there some reason we should stop fighting? No. No, there isn’t.”
“Yeah, you’re right... Sorry, I’m talking too much.” Caim had been so surprised by Deed’s toughness that he hadn’t been able to contain his curiosity. He shouldn’t be so interested in his opponent to begin with. It was pointless to learn more about someone he was going to kill, after all. The man in front of him was his enemy—someone who wanted to assassinate his woman. There was only one thing to do.
“I’m gonna kill you.”
“As will I,” Deed replied.
The both of them saw eye to eye. From now on, there would be no meaningless chatter. They would only punch, kick, and strike until one or the other was dead.
“Shiyuu.” Caim used his strongest weapon—the only Secret Stance technique he knew—and faced Deed. Then, clad in stormy mana, he leaped at the immortal assassin.
✦ ✦ ✦
〇 〇 〇
While Caim was fighting Deed, other battles were coming to an end halfway up the mountain.
“Ugh...”
“Sorry. I hope you can forgive me.” A trigger was pulled and gunfire echoed. Groaning in pain, the man died with a bullet in his head. “Dear me... Now everyone is dead...” Mistress, the boss of the Company, muttered with a sigh, gun in hand.
Countless monsters and people—both enemies and her own subordinates—lay collapsed on the ground around her. Because of the monsters and other assassins who had been driven into a frenzy by Caim’s poison, Mistress had now lost all of her men.
“In the end, our biggest enemies were our business rivals.”
The one Mistress had just shot was an assassin known as the Wild Bird, a wicked man who drank the blood of his kills. Because of that, he had tasted the blood of the frenzied monsters, directly ingesting Caim’s poison and losing his sanity before assaulting Mistress.
“I suppose the other groups must have been annihilated too...” Mistress sighed, pulling the trigger on her empty gun multiple times before giving up and dropping her shoulders. Her subordinates had been divided into several groups to climb the mountain, but they had all probably ended up like the men in her group had—killed by monsters or other assassins.
Now that it had come to this, completing the assassination was impossible. In the end, they’d suffered heavy losses and gained nothing.
“This is our biggest failure since I became the boss of the Company... I wonder what kind of blame our backers are going to push on me.”
“If you don’t want that, how about fleeing far away? I recommend heading all the way to hell,” a voice replied to Mistress’s monologue from behind her.
“Ah, you were here?” Mistress said without turning back. “To think I’d meet my end by your hand. What a surprise.” She threw her gun to the side and held her hands up. Before she knew it, her former fellow assassin—Rozbeth—was standing behind her, holding a knife. Mistress knew Rozbeth was close enough that it would be impossible to escape or counterattack. “My loss. Could you at least make sure I don’t suffer?”
“How gallant. Why not resist?”
“I know it’d be pointless, my dear Rozbeth... And even if I die, there’s someone to take my place,” Mistress answered with a detached tone. She was the boss of the Company, but just like its members could be replaced at any time, so could the leader. After her death, a new boss would rebuild the organization. “Or rather, I’d be a hindrance if I stayed alive. It would bother my successor if the previous leader lingered around, wouldn’t it?”
“If you say so. I guess it’s fine to kill you, then.” Seeing that Mistress wasn’t pleading for her life, Rozbeth knew that further talking was meaningless and thrust her knife into Mistress’s back.