Whilst Ace was using his observation to assess the situation of the other battles, the mage in front of him began chanting, and although Ace had never seen a real mage do battle properly, he knew from books that Mages used chants to control their spells.

Not wanting to find out what spell his opponent was casting, Ace shot towards him, guandao in hand, as fast as physically possible, giving his opponent quite the fright.

“Impossible! They said you were only a rank one warrior, but that speed…” The mage shouted in shock, clearly caught off guard by Ace’s speed!

But Ace was more interested in who the ‘they’ he was referring to were. But before he could ask, he noticed several silvery crescent blades being fired at him in quick succession.

He assumed all spells required chants to perform, so when he heard the mage interrupt his chant, he foolishly believed he was safe. Unfortunately, he couldn’t have been any further from the truth.

Though he was taken by surprise, Ace remained ready to react. His guandao swept through the air in front of him with unstoppable momentum slicing through three wind blades with one slash, but he was forced to stop his approach and dodge when he noticed three more coming towards him.

‘This is what they called a somewhat talented eight-year-old?’ The mage thought to himself in disbelief when he saw the ease with which Ace was dodging his wind blades.

He could somewhat accept that he had reached rank two by the age of 8, as although it was rare, geniuses like that popped up every once in a while.

He could even accept the ruthlessness required to thrust a knife into another man’s eye. Again, although it was rare for a child, it wasn’t unheard of, but when you add both those points together as well as the combat experience required to perfectly dodge each of his wind blades without being touched. The only word he could think of to describe the child in front of him was… ‘Monster!’

Ace, on the other hand, was smiling happily as he moved between the wind blades. The longer this went on, the more relaxed he felt.

At first, he could only see the wind blades being formed and then had to guess where they were being aimed and move accordingly, but now, through his observation, he could see the intended path of each attack, making them easier to dodge, allowing him to slowly edge closer and closer towards his target as he weaved his way through the onslaught of wind blades.

The mage didn’t even realise that he’d been backing away until he backed into a tree.

“Aghhh. I refuse to let a child beat me, a dignified rank three mage!

Rank 2 Spell – Giant Wind Blade!” As the mage roared, a giant wind blade five times the size of the others formed in front of him.

Even after seeing the size of this new wind blade, Ace never faltered. His eyes flashed with resolve as he took a deep breath and shot toward him like a bullet. As soon as the Wind Blade was in range, the blade of his polearm turned pitch black, and Ace, using all the strength he could muster, swung the guandao from left to right.

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The spell didn’t shatter under his might like Ace hoped it would. Both attacks fell into a stalemate, with neither able to push the other back.

Ace felt a shooting pain all along his arm, but he refused to give up.

“BREAK FOR MEEEE!” Ace bellowed as he forcibly coated the whole of his weapon with his armament haki.

The wind blade shattered there and then, but Ace wasn’t done. He knew he didn’t have the strength to do that again, so, as soon as he finished destroying the spell, he sped towards the assassin who had only just recovered from what he saw.

“Kid, you’re not the only second-rank warrior you kn…”

Before he could finish his sentence, he saw the guandao tear through the air like a shooting star. He hadn’t thought Ace would throw it from that distance, and he definitely hadn’t expected it to travel that fast.

The glaive tore through his chest and exited his back before stopping blade first in the tree behind him.

Ace, whose body was crying for rest, turned to face the rest of the attackers with crimson eyes. Every cell in his body was burning with fatigue, but when he saw Killian, who was covered in his own blood but refused to go down, and Lance, whose condition was no better, he forced himself to keep going.

The other assassins, who had all been trained to keep an eye on their surroundings, had seen what happened and felt a hint of fear when looking at the prepubescent boy, who was barely able to walk.

“I’ll handle this stubborn fool; you go kill that kid!” The burly man wielding the heavy-sword said to his partner.

Not wanting any more accidents to happen, the slender saber-wielding assassin darted towards Ace with every intention of taking his head as quickly as possible.

Ace saw the man coming towards him, and even though he knew his body was in too much pain to continue, he carried on walking in his direction. Each step was more painful than the last, but Ace’s fists were balled tight, and his eyes shone with a fierce light that made the man hesitate briefly.

“Why am I scared of a snot-nosed brat?!” The assassin snorted before speeding up.

Milianna, who had been forcing herself to stay silent so as not to distract Ace or the others from their fights, fell to her knees when she saw the saber-wielding assassin running towards her son, who could barely stand.

“No…

Please stop…

My son…

SSTTTOOOOPPPPP!” She screamed as a familiar invisible energy exploded out of her.

Just before the saber could reach Ace’s neck, the assassin collapsed under the sudden pressure he felt from Milianna’s haki.

The two remaining assassins didn’t collapse, but they were definitely caught off guard.

That moment was all Lance needed to flip the script in his favour. His spear snaked forth, piercing through his opponent’s head like a hot knife through butter. Lance watched as his burly attacker fell to the floor, with all signs of life fading from his eyes.

On the other hand, though the young assassin seemed able to easily bear the pressure, she was still in shock over the sudden development. She took one more look at her fellow assassins, all of whom were now either dead or unconscious, before glancing at Ace, who was glaring back at her. She finally turned to take one more profound look at the boy who gave her so much trouble.

She could see he was barely conscious and should be unable to swing the axe in his hand anymore, but for some reason, she felt that as long as she stepped towards him, he would swing away with just as much power as before. She couldn’t feel any hatred or killing intent from him, just pure, unwavering determination.

She sighed once at the situation before running away, taking advantage of the fact that everyone else was too weak to stop her.

It was only when he saw her leave that Ace felt he could breathe a little easier. He then turned his attention to his mother, who was running over to him in tears.

‘So you have conqueror’s haki as well?’ Was the last thought he had before losing consciousness.