Desmond approached his front door while trying his best to act normal. He would cast cursorily glances at the large white soul hovering outside his front door but was careful not to stare. He didn’t want to spook them.

A soul without a body could only mean one thing, there was someone using stealth magic there. Desmond tried to use mana sight to confirm his suspicions but found there was no mana abnormality in the area where the white soul was.

Desmond trusted his soul sight more than his mana sight. This meant he was dealing with an assassin who could hide their mana from him. A skill only high-tiered professionals would have.

Could this be one of Riki’s associates or contacts? They could be out here waiting for her to get back. But that would not explain the soulless people walking down the street.

As Desmond looked around he found that he could no longer see any people on the crowded street that actually had a soul. They had somehow managed to isolate the whole street in front of his house using these light illusions. Or at least that’s what Desmond assumed they were, given the light affinity assassin waiting for him at his door.

This was a clear show of hostility. Whether this trap was meant for Desmond or not, he was going to be the one to spring it.

Desmond approached his door acting like he was going to unlock it. This put him right next to the large white sun. From this close, he could even see the person's legacies. They had 7 of them, but the only one of note was a golden legendary one. This person would have at least one unusual skill.

Desmond reached on and wrapped his right hand around Ravager. He quickly spun around and brought the sword down right on top of where the light soul was.

Like they had been expecting an attack, the light soul flew away causing Desmond's blade to strike the ground right outside his front door. He pulled most of his power out of the attack before it hit the ground as he didn’t want to damage his own property.

As the assailant dashed away their stealth skill dropped and Desmond got his first look at the assassin. They had a large black cloak with a hood covering their entire body but from the size and build it was clear that the assassin was a woman. The only notable feature was a pair of glowing silver eyes that were shining through the darkness of the hood. She was clearly using vision magic of some sort.

“Why, hello there,” Desmond said casually as he took out his helmet from his storage ring and put it on. “You know it’s rude to just stand outside someone's house, right? You should at least introduce yourself.”

The assailant drew a long sliver blade from under her cloak as she seemed to try and stare Desmond down. The sword looked like a katana with one sharpened side, but the blade was straight with no curve to it.

“Not much of a talker, huh?” Desmond continued in his casual tone. “Don’t worry I can talk enough for the both of us.”

The blade that the assassin was holding started to glow until the entire surface looked like white molten metal. She then charged straight at Desmond.

From her speed alone Desmond could tell she focused on the Agility stat. He was slightly surprised that she abandoned her stealth magic for a frontal assault like this. But stealth magic got more mana-hungry and was less effective the faster someone moved. She was clearly confident in winning a frontal engagement.

Desmond felt a smile come to his face, he would just have to prove her confidence wrong. He swung his greatsword in a wide horizontal sweep just as she was about to enter his attack range.

But then something unusual happened. The assassin seemed to lose all momentum and just stopped a hair's width outside the range of his sword. Desmond's sword passed harmlessly right in front of her face. She then used this gap to step in and close the distance.

Desmond was never going to be able to bring his sword around again in time, so he abandoned the idea altogether. He decided to step in, bringing them almost face to face as he brought his right hand around to try and grab her. A chance to trade blows was something Desmond was looking for. He trusted in his armor and Constitutions, and as long as he got a hand on her the fight would be over.

The assassin pulled back, but not before leaving a nasty gash on Desmond’s outstretched arm. The blade had bit deep into his forearm, but it was still nothing but a flesh wound to Desmond. The two quickly took distance and sized each other up. Desmond's armor was already fixing itself, sealing the wound in the process.

Desmond’s gaze met the silver eyes from across the street. That sword was dangerous and he would have to be careful of it. He had a significant reach advantage with his own weapon but her agility was a problem.

As an assassin, this situation was disadvantageous for her. Even if she was blocking the street with illusions it was only a matter of time before more people took notice of the fight. In this situation, all Desmond had to do was not die until help showed up. But where was the fun in that?

“Time for round two,” Desmond said as he closed the distance, making a slower more conservative strike this time. Her greater agility was limiting how Desmond could use his strength.

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She once again dodged his blade by a hair, staying just outside his weapon range. Desmond pressed forward with a flurry of quick strikes. The assassin moved back as he advanced, always staying just outside his range. It was starting to get annoying.

Desmond decided to change tactics. He brought his sword down hard with his full strength smashing it into the ground. He used Force Dispersion as the blade hit the ground. There was a powerful quake as the earth shook, concert and rock were sent flying through the air like tiny bullets bouncing off his armor and the surroundings.

The idea had been to knock her off balance, but right before the attack, the assassin had taken a large distance. She was proving a slippery opponent to pin down.

Since the fight had started the soulless illusions had all just stopped, standing around with a blank expression on their faces. It was an odd backdrop to their fight, darks would usually run and panic in this situation.

The assailant once again activated stealth magic as she slowly started to move away from him down the street. Was she trying to withdraw? Desmond wouldn’t allow that. He tracked her soul with soul sight and quickly moved to close the distance.

“Leaving so soon?” Desmond asked as he ran. “We were just starting to get to know one another.”

As Desmond approached, the assailant dropped her stealth magic and Desmond was momentarily stunned. In front of her was a massive magic circle easily twice Desmond's size, glowing with white runes.

Desmond could tell with a glance that this was attack magic and he was now far too close to try and dodge. He quickly lifted Ravager and drove it into the ground horizontally in front of him just as the wave of heat hit. It was like a massive pure white laser beam consumed him.

Light magic in its basic form functioned similarly to fire magic, where it would burn its targets. It was widely considered to be weaker but much faster than fire magic.

For a whole 8 seconds, Desmond was consumed by the large beam of light. The heat was intense but most of the damage was blocked by the large sword he was now using as a makeshift shield. As the magic faded Desmond stood up unharmed and pulled Ravager from the ground.

“Wasn’t expecting you to be a mage,” Desmond said as he squared up to the assassin once again.

She had clearly put significant experience into the Intellect stat for her attack to be that strong. That was a good sign for Desmond. If she focused on Agility and Intellect then she would have lower Wisdom and therefore lower mana to keep up the fight. It would make sense for an assassin build, high damage, low sustain.

Desmond closed the distance again, this time putting his full force into each attack. A battle of attrition would be in his favor.

The assassin continued to dodge each strike by a thin margin where she was able. When Desmond's blade hit the ground in a powerful overhead strike the assailant would leap back to avoid the stone and concrete that would be shot out in all directions.

This continued for a few minutes as the two slowly fought their way down the street. The assassin seemed hesitant to close the distance again despite Desmond’s many openings.

From here Desmond could now see the end of his street. Where his street crossed another, many people were going about their business who had souls. As soon as you left the street everything seemed to be normal.

Desmond swapped to mana sight and was able to see a large magic matrix of some kind at the end of the street. This must be how she was keeping people out. It wouldn’t work for much longer as Desmond could already see several awakened students from Winten pointing at the spell matrix from the other side.

It was time to end this. Desmond knew that if the assassin chose to run he would not be able to stop her. He moved in for another horizontal slash. He expected that assailant to move back and dodge the blade by a hair's width as normal. This time, however, Desmond released his sword mid-swing turning his slash into a throw.

As Desmond released the blade the assassin suddenly jumped back and dropped to the ground allowing the blade to pass harmlessly over her head. Ravager spun off into the distance hitting the road and leaving a small trail of destruction in its wake.

Had she been expecting the sword throw? That unnatural dodge backward went against her normal fighting style that Desmond had seen so far.

Suddenly, all the soulless nearby tried to swarm him. Desmond knew they were just illusions so he activated soul sight to keep track of the assailant

as he pushed forward. As he came out of the swarm the assassin had already pulled back and had another large magic circle formed in front of her.

Now that he no longer had his weapon it would seem she was going to try another magic attack. The beam of light came again completely enveloping him in a blinding white light.

Desmond dug his feet in and pushed forward hard, running as fast as he could. Dodging light magic was hard because of its speed, but what it had in speed it lacked in the sheer stopping power that something like fire magic could provide.

Desmond used soul sight so he didn’t lose track of her in the blinding beam of light, and after a few seconds, he emerged from the spell almost right on top of her.

Desmond punched out bringing his fist right through the magic circle, shattering it. His fist continued forward aiming right for the assassin’s chest. The assassin had already leaped backward and formed a light barrier of some sort around herself. Desmond’s fist went right through it, hitting the assassin in the gut and launching her backwards like a bullet.

The assailant few backwards and went right through the wall of a house before her momentum came to a stop. For good measure, the house then collapsed on top of her. But Desmond knew she was still alive, her soul was still moving.

Only after the exchange did Desmond realize that he had been cut. He was standing there in red hot armor that had melted slightly from the light magic, and he had a large gash across his lower stomach.

The cut was deep but not life-threatening. However, without his armor, he would have needed to attend to the wound immediately to prevent his guts from falling out. His new armor was proving quite useful at keeping everything in the right place. Not what he had expected it to be useful for, but he would take it.

By the time Desmond got to the house, the assassin was already standing in front of the collapsed building. She had definitely taken the brunt of his last strike. Her cloak had been lost or destroyed in the exchange, and she had blood leaking from the side of her face and mouth. Her right arm also hung limply at her side.

Without the cloak, Desmond finally got his first good look at the assassin. She had short silver hair that stood out in the sunlight and was on the shorter side for a woman. But what really stood out was her face. She was completely expressionless, and without her hood, her silver eyes looked dead and vacant. She had on a set of black leather armor that Desmond recognized. It was the very same gear he remembered Riki wearing the first time they met.