"Hah-Hah!"

"Kuh!"

Gasping for air, Marie glared at the reason for her fatigue.

Orion, proudly standing still at the center of a perfect circle, a wild smirk on his face.

"That's good. I quite enjoy the moment, but..."

His smile disappeared.

"Is that all you've got?"

Frozen by the pressure, she looked around her.

Out of the squad, only four of them could still stand. Herself, Eden, and Alice.

Those three were the toughest in terms of stamina. Only one other rivaled with them, but for an entirely different matter.

"Grrrrr!"

Baring her sharp fangs in all four, Celeste still stood, her wild nature fully revealed.

The others were kneeling, hardly capable of lifting themselves up.

'They've been going at it for thirty minutes. I suppose it was to be expected.'

Olivia closed her eyes with a frustrated smile.

'I had hoped at least one of them would force him to budge, but reality isn't as kind as he is.'

All around the circle, threads of cut wire littered the ground. Moving his wings slightly, the cape behind him moved upward alongside them.

When they dropped, the wind picked up and pushed them away.

At that time, Celeste leaped forward and ran toward him like an animal.

Watching the woman rush at him, he smiled once again.

"I prefer that. Show me what you're made of."

Her nails, which grew longer as she let her beastman blood run freely in her body, fell on him.

"Hmm..."

"Try faster."

Her hand met the ground again.

"Tch!"

She was a meter away in front of him. This had been one of the problems they had encountered while fighting him.

Whatever the distance they traveled, they always found themselves further away than Orion.

After a few tries, they understood that he was either playing with their spatial awareness or was moving them with void magic away from him.

Whatever it was, unless they found a way to get through, they would never get close to even getting a chance.

The other issue was the destruction of their only way of attacking from a distance.

Orion quickly destroyed the threads and even went as far as stealing the rings around their fingers with void magic. They were safely stored inside his personal storage, waiting for the battle to end.

All that was left for them was to move closer to him, but that brought them back to square one.

Marie straightened her back and recovered her breath. For a reason she couldn't understand, she was calm.

Normally, she would be screaming orders to the others, but this time, she let everyone decide their individual actions.

Eden and Alice walked behind her on both sides and watched as Celeste jumped back in front of her leader.

Standing back on two legs, she glanced over her shoulder.

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"It doesn't work."

"At least you've tried."

As she nodded in return, Marie watched a red-headed struggle to stand. Wobbling slightly, she stood next to Eden.

"I... can still fight."

Serena, one of the four that stole food to survive, was smiling boldly. Persuading herself that she was fine, she pulled out a dagger from under her skirt, which was attached to her thigh.

Her forehead was covered by a V-shaped weave of hair, almost touching her nose. While she was a kind person by nature, her eyes were the wildest of the bunch.

Forged by the past, she tried her best to always stay ahead of her trauma. As such, the other three that accompanied her during their childhood forced themselves on their feet.

Kate, the golden-haired maid with the largest build, gritted her teeth as she watched the back of her friend. While she cut her hair to shoulder-length, she always wore a white ribbon to attach them.

Alma, the youngest of their group, punched the ground in anger. Her dark brown hair covered her face as she glared down. She swallowed the fatigue and stood up, joining with the other two.

Lastly, Noelle, the most endowed of them, smiled warmly. Albeit intriguing, she was boiling inside, hiding her emotion masterfully. Pushing her long, dark blonde hair behind her ear, she feebly pulled out a dagger from under her skirt.

"Let's try again!"

These four leaped forward, and each took a side to attack.

Kate and Noelle went to Orion's left, while Alma and Serena moved toward the right.

"Don't forget about me!"

Celeste growled as she rushed directly at Orion, using the strategy of overwhelming the enemy as a chance.

For a split instant, Orion noticed that Celeste's posture was similar to Procyon.

Squinting his eyes, he noticed the superposition of the two clearly.

'Is she...'

The possibility of Procyon having a link with the beastmen wasn't out of his mind, but presently, he had other matters to care for.

Mainly, the attack of five women desperately trying to break through his defense.

"Fine, I'll allow it this time."

Decreasing his power input, he looked at Alma and Kate coming at him first.

Surprised by his nonchalant demeanor, they still pushed forward with their daggers in hand.

'We're through!'

Shocked by the sudden opening, a smile appeared on their faces.

But Orion wasn't exactly going to let them score.

He aimed both hands toward them, and before they noticed anything, they had switched places.

"Wha-!"

"Damn it!"

But Serena and Noelle weren't out of the competition yet. They moved past the confused women and slashed at Orion, thinking that he was recovering from using his magic.

Again, he surprised everyone.

"You see, I learned something new earlier."

He crossed his arms in front of his chest, holding two fingers at two precise angles.

"!"

Both maids found their daggers stuck between his fingers.

"I can catch blades with ease. Too bad for you, I suppose?"

With a smile, he lifted his hands with the daggers still locked between his fingers. Firmly gripping the handle of the weapon, Noelle and Serena crossed paths in an arc over his head before being sent flying toward the opposite side.

"I'm here too!"

"I know."

Celeste leaped in off the ground with the full weight of her body behind her fist.

As a beastman, she was tougher and stronger than humans. Orion knew clearly knew this and never underestimated her.

But he also knew that she was weaker than he was.

Staying in the confines of the circle, he leaned forward and prepared to return the same amount of force.

Bringing two fingers together, he smiled.

He easily avoided her fist and flicked her forehead.

"OUCH!"

Forced backward, the beastman maid returned to Marie while rolling on the ground.

Worried that he might have been a little too far, he glanced toward Olivia.

She still had a look of interest on her face, which told him he was safe.

Silently breathing a sigh of relief, he looked at his side. Alma, Kate, Serena, and Noelle were completely out of energy, unable to lift even a finger.

Even Celeste was unable to gather the strength to stand after suffering a powerful flick, powerful enough to send her backward.

She was lucky that Orion applied a healing power to it, or it could have cracked her skull otherwise.

'Holding back is quite challenging. I like it.'

Opening and closing his left hand, he smiled. He felt great, not because he was roughing up Olivia's maids, but because he could feel a new feeling surge inside his core.

At the same time, another group managed to stand up.

"Celeste..."

Four women picked up their friends, carefully looking if she had been hurt badly.

"How do you feel?"

"I'm fine."

Rubbing her forehead, Ollie confirmed that she was fine.

Ollie's hair was lighter compared to Celeste, who had a very dark black color, belonging to the beastmen. Her face was similar to a doll, but the emotions on it proved that she was alive.

Niya, the woman from another country, stood in front of them, ready to be attacked. Her dark skin was similar to Kamala, but her silky chestnut-colored hair was entirely unique to another place.

Orion quite liked this reaction. They were looking for each other while carefully adjusting to the situation.

Marie could have helped her, but as the leader, her duty was to find an opportunity to strike at Orion through the others' struggles, and they all understood that.

Joining Niya, Haileen and Lillian grabbed his attention.

The first was a fair maiden with light skin. Haileen was a bastard child of the previous Lord of Noctelagia. Her white hair, which appeared after years of torture in the basement, gleamed gorgeously under the light of the sun.

On the other hand, Lillian, who possessed a natural silver color, was tortured because she was thought to be a spy. With tanned skin compared to the others, she smiled charmingly at Orion.

The three maids, standing in front of Ollie and Celeste, intrigued Orion.

'Why are they smiling at me?'

This felt strange to Orion. Slowly, very faintly, a shadow crept behind him.

At the very last second, Alisa jumped from behind Orion with a dagger in hand. With both hands, she dropped on him with both hands holding the dagger down.

"..."

Orion simply glanced over his left shoulder and sighed.

"At least, you made no sound that would have indicated your presence."

*Fwoosh*

A wave of darkness suddenly covered her. Swallowed under a sea of shadows, she lost the will to breathe as she panicked.

"This is... how a true killer becomes one with the abyss."

She abruptly turned around as she heard Orion's voice.

"Ah..."

A sludge darker than the abyss washed over her, drowning her entirely.

"!"

Opening her eyes, she stared at the back of the man she tried to take down. Her hands shook for a moment as she wondered what had happened.

A thread of her light blonde hair, held in a bun, brushed past her cheek and swiped a drop of sweat off.

"Kuh!"

Gritting her teeth, she stopped pondering and slashed at Orion.

"Good. Not letting your mind be clobbered by useless worries is the first step of growing into a good assassin."

As the pupil of Dylan, he couldn't help but feel a sense of familiarity with Alisa, who was the closest to being one with the shadows.

"You get a point."

Moving his feet away, he let her dagger move past him. With a shocked expression, she felt a hand on her head before her vision warped.

She blinked and found herself in front of the trio that were grinning at him previously.

Their smiles had vanished, replaced by bitterness from the failure.

"Marie..."

Alisa glanced at her superior with a perplexed expression.

"What have you been through? For a few seconds, you stopped in your tracks."

Her expression changed. The perplexity changed into pondering. Then she turned to Orion, who was watching her back until now.

"One with the abyss..."

As Olivia watched over her maids, she noticed something different.

'Why are they acting so reserved? They are usually so hungry for battle that it's frustrating to look at them.'

'Are they... changing because they can't let their true selves show in front of him? Would that play against them?'

As she stared at her friends, actively thinking and carefully planning their confrontation against Orion, an idea came to her.

'They can't remain twisted in front of him, or they will lose. That's why Celeste is controlling herself so well.'

'Even Marie is holding back. Orion is bringing the best out of them without trying to do so.'

Looking at the smile on his face, she could tell he was having the best time of his life.

'He doesn't even see them as weak... What a man.'

Hugging her knees, she smiled.

'I'm glad I entrusted them to him.'

As a part of the maid squad's struggle continued, the other finally recovered the strength to assist the others.