Ace and Silas had clashed well over a thousand times already, but this time it was different. Ordinarily, after having his attacks blocked or parried, Silas would seemingly vanish into the wind, only to appear behind the dark-haired teen aiming for what should be a blind spot, but this time…
As the blades of the sword and glaive made contact, Silas was forced several steps back.
“You…” Silas said in shock as he looked at Ace in disbelief, with a trickle of blood falling from the corner of his mouth. “What did you do?”
“You really want to know?” Ace smirked as his body disappeared, leaving nothing but a trail of fire and a faint afterimage in his wake. “Let me show you!”
This was the first time that Ace was able to take the initiative, and he had every intention of taking full advantage of it.
Silas knew Ace was merely provoking him in the hopes he’d make a mistake, and if he was honest, there was a big part of him that wanted to throw caution to the wind and wipe the smirk off Ace’s annoying face, but what kind of assassin would he be if he allowed him to get riled up so easily. Plus, his insides were still churning.
He didn’t know what happened. On the surface, Ace’s last attack had been no stronger than any of the previous ones, but as soon as their weapons made contact, his insides felt like they’d just been rattled by some sort of shockwave.
Although it wasn’t life-threatening, it was far from comfortable. As such, as soon as Ace went on the attack, Silas vanished into the wind, hoping to buy some time for his insides to calm. Unfortunately, Ace wasn’t about to let him rest so easily.
Silas’ eyes suddenly bulged as he saw his opponent somehow follow him, the obsidian blade of Ace’s glaive arcing through the air to chop off his head.
It had to be understood that Silas’ movement technique, [Vanishing Winds], was a movement technique created and perfected by his master, Ragnor, that allowed the user to truly become one with the wind, allowing them to all but hide their presence entirely.
The profundity of the technique meant that the only way to find the user was for you to have a higher comprehension of the laws of wind or have access to the ‘divine sense’ of a deity.
Ordinarily, the only way to counter the users of this particular technique was to wait for them to attack, as they became visible again when attacking, but Ace genuinely seemed able to locate him.
Silas knew that Ace wasn’t a wind user, and even though he had a powerful soul that surpassed his own, which allowed him to sense the presence of the other assassins from ‘Saber’ that had tried to ambush him in the past, it definitely wasn’t at the level of a deity.
Just to err on the side of caution, during their first few exchanges, Silas made sure to pay special attention to Ace’s reactions whilst he was merged with the wind, and although Ace had been able to somehow block all of his attacks, he could see from his expressions that Ace wasn’t actually able to sense his presence whilst he wasn’t attacking.
Silas’ shock was understandable, but there was no time for him to sit and think about how Ace was able to do it. Ace’s glaive was nearing his neck, and he didn’t have time to dodge.
As unwilling as he was, all he could do was allow Ace’s flame-coated blade to clash with his battle-qi-coated sword, praying to the sovereign of wind that Ace wouldn’t be able to use the same technique again.
“Ugh!” Silas grunted, coughing a mouthful of blood as he used the force of the impact to help him create some distance.
‘[Internal Destruction] really is a useful technique!’ Ace thought to himself as he continued to chase after his white-haired opponent. Unfortunately, Silas had learnt from his previous mistake.
Instead of relying on the invisibility aspect of his movement technique, he focused on his raw speed to put as much distance between them as possible, and even with the new and improved [Soru], the difference in speed wasn’t exactly marginal.
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“So much for capturing me to force Kong out of hiding,” Ace teased as he continued to chase after Silas. “At the moment, you don’t seem to be able to do anything but run away!”
It was at that moment that Ace’s brows raised with a hint of surprise.
Silas’ body suddenly split in two, creating two virtually perfect versions of himself. So perfect that not even Ace, with his [Observation], could sense the difference.
“Since you’re in such a hurry to die, allow me to send you on your way!” Silas voiced coldly as both bodies tore through the air.
Even though he couldn’t tell which was the real body, Ace wasn’t worried.
As Silas was running away previously, Ace had to use his ordinairy [Observation] to keep track of the white-haired assassin as his compressed [Observation] only covered a total of 70 meters.
What shocked him was that even when Silas entered the range of his compressed [Observation], he still couldn’t tell the original from the clone.
Whether it was their mind, body, or even soul, the two Silas’ appeared to be exactly the same.
Fighting one Silas was hard enough. Fighting two and finding a chance to counterattack with both seemingly equal to the original in every way was nigh impossible, especially as he didn’t even know which body he should be focusing on. Unless…
Ace’s eyes flashed with resolve as he steeled himself.
The two clones were approaching from different sides in an attempt to force Ace to have to make a choice on which body he wanted to deal with, and if anyone were able to watch, it’d look like Ace had frozen with fear, but as soon as the two clones were a fraction of a second away, Ace’s eyes flashed, as his [Conqueror’s Haki] exploded out of him.
“It’s you!” Ace exclaimed as one of the two clones appeared dazed before he could land his attack.
Ace shifted his body slightly so the sword aiming towards his heart from his rear would miss any vital organs, whilst the blade of his glaive created a perfect arc in the air, cleanly slicing through the neck of the body Ace had found to be the original.
Before Ace could celebrate, his eyes suddenly turned into pinholes as he felt what the sword of whom he believed to be the clone exiting his back.
Without a second of hesitation, the fiery ‘battle-qi’ coating his body exploded from behind, just enough to slow the sword piercing towards his head.
Ace hurriedly turned to face his opponent as his glaive shot forth like a meteor leaving a trail of fire in its wake, barely making it in time to meet the incoming sword.
As the two blades met, both Ace and Silas leapt back, creating some space.
Ace ignored the hole in his back as he studied the young man in front of him incredulously. He knows his haki definitely attacked the consciousness of the real body, and yet, he could only watch in shock as the body he was certain was the original faded out of existence.
“That shouldn’t be possible. Unless…” Ace muttered softly, still trying to wrap his head around what just happened. “Your consciousness can swap bodies at will.”
As surprised as Ace was, how could it compare to Silas’ shock? Ace was a child more than half his age, and yet, even though he had suffered an injury, he had lived through his secret technique.
For ten years, he locked himself behind closed doors to train in order to avenge his loss to Wukong. In that time, not only did he reach the ninth and seventh ranks as a warrior and mage respectively, his comprehension had even stepped into the profound realms. Something that evaded even Olivier – ‘The Sword Prodigy’ – Akerlund till now.
He genuinely believed that with the help of his secret technique, he would be able to avenge his loss. But if things keep going as they are, before he even gets the chance to challenge Wukong, he might actually lose to a teenager whom he suspects to be Wukong’s junior brother.
“Ace!”
“ROAR!”
Ace looked down at the ground to find Leo and Killian standing in the middle of a gruesome battlefield with the corpses of over 100 assassins lying by their feet. Both stared up at Silas coldly, ready to take action to assist Ace at a moment’s notice.
“Don’t worry about me; go find Alissa. She’s still imprisoned with a warrior at the middle stages of the ninth rank guarding her,” Ace stated calmly. “Leave this to me!”
Seeing the blood falling from the wound on Ace’s back worried Killian and Leo, but they both trusted Ace explicitly.
After taking one final glance at Ace and his opponent, Leo and Kil turned to hurriedly find Alissa.
Silas knew that had Leo and Killian joined Ace, he likely wouldn’t stand a chance, especially with the internal injuries he’d already suffered. Still, his eyes never left Ace for even a second.
“I admit it; you’re by far the most talented person I’ve ever met,” Silas stated as the shock and unwillingness in his eyes receded, slowly transforming into resolve. “But I won’t lose; I refuse to lose!”
As Ace met his gaze, he had to admit he was slightly surprised. He could guess that like Chukaya from the Rohault Empire, Silas more than likely grew up being hailed as an unrivalled genius in ‘Saber’, but unlike the so-called strongest of the Rohault Empire’s three geniuses, when running into someone more talented than him, instead of allowing it to hinder him, Silas used it as fuel to improve himself.
“Neither will I!” Ace said calmly as the respect he felt for his opponent grew.