The stab to the heart was the first step to getting rid of her. The next was slicing half of her torso apart, a clean horizontal line from her heart cutting through and then exiting from the girl’s left rib-cage. In an instant, she was then sent off of this fenceless stone balcony.
Safe to say, to the assassin, she was—
“YOU IMBECILE!!!”
The princess, Cecilia Lenore, yelled with all of her heart and soul, drawing her sword against the assailant and charging towards them. The assassin did not hesitate, and met her blade with her own.
The clanging of metals, of Mithril and enchanted steel, filled their ears. The assassin knew of the strength of humans during times when they were distressed or in great danger, capable of overcoming insurmountable odds despite their inherent weakness.
Users of Spirit Cultivation were like that, and it was especially the case for humans. They were the ones that have used it the most.
The assassin knew of their massive disparity in power, they did not need the Tome System to notice it. But with the fact had already been said, they would not let it get to that moment. They would not lose to the likes of a race that thinks they were on the pinnacle of their age.
The two of them duel onwards, their speed, same as before, increasing the more their blades made contact. There was not much space to move, but it didn't matter. Like a ballet of death the two of them clashed and danced, of raging aggression against silent ferocity.
Cecilia screamed her heart out, her desperate warcry filling her with further strength of will. If she had the same thing as Marilyn does, that being the Eyes of Heaven, she would be getting notifiers that her Strength and Willpower were increasing bit by bit to match the assassin.
She used her flames upon her blade to boost its striking power, she used it to disorient her friend's murderer, she used it to try and decimate the one that ruined her chance of becoming someone worthy of that maid’s promise.
With all her heart, she raged onwards against that very person in front of her. Each strike was accompanied by her wrath, of not wanting to grief for someone she came to care for.
She did not care about her pride or her humility, all she wanted now was revenge.
But—
“Ahk—!”
A cut to her left arm, and then to her thigh, cheek, and sides. Rapid slashes to which she was caught off-guard by, all due to her rage. Even though she kept on going, that brief moment of pain was enough to let the assassin use their strength advantage against her.
The assassin proceeded to punch her in the face and knocked her back deep into the empty hallway that led to this place.
The princess rolled and skipped across the ground, but her senses caught on, resulting in her managing to recover herself, blade stabbed into the ground to slow her velocity down to zero.
She knelt down, blood dripping from her injuries, her breathing laboured. She won't give up now, but exhaustion was catching up to her. That moment of rage brought her closer to being able to equalise against her opponent, but it was not enough, it was still too big of a gap to reach.
Which was why she won't give up. She still had that chance. After all, she was the pride of the Lenore family.
The assassin, still not hesitating at all, charged against Cecilia, who readied herself again with her stance. But before they could even close the distance.
“-!?”
A blast of light was caught in the middle of them, forcing the assassin to turn around in utter shock. Their expression was not shown, but it was clear what kind of face they were making right now.
Marilyn had survived, in flight, with no injuries to her body nor, her clothes having no stain of blood whatsoever, staff summoned to her hands and at the ready.
Her expression was grim and vengeful. A dozen or so of the same light bullets were then sent at the assassin, to force them on the defence, putting their focus entirely on the barrage. It was successful, and the person in question was now deeper into the hallway than even the princess herself.
It was not just the assassin that was in shock however.
“How…?”
Marilyn landed next to her, seemingly very normal about this. She did not turn to her either, simply answering with one word.
“Immortality.”
Still in utter disbelief about this development, Cecilia just shook the thought off. They have something more worrying in front of them.
The assassin seemed to be in deep thought right now, as if reeling from that one moment. It left them with a bit of time.
“They can rewrite magic.” Marilyn would say, forcing Cecilia to pay attention. “Equalising in speed and strength is a no go either, they seem to know that.”
“So, what do we do?” The princess said to her. “We can't just run away now do we? We're too deep in this.”
“We use the less obvious things. The simple things. Catch them off-guard with the unorthodox, distract them whenever possible, put off their focus.” Marilyn explained, before turning to her with a smile. “Plus, last week's essay work was quite the eye-opener, Professor Winston had the right idea to give us that.”
Cecilia was quite disturbed still, but she just smiled and scoffed it off, facing the assassin again. “Alright then, I’ll let you go on with the plan.”
With that said and done, they've made up their plan. The assassin had also seemed prepared now.
Marilyn prepared her stance, if one could call it that, and nodded to Cecilia as a signal. And in turn, the princess would charge against their common enemy once more, her speed shockingly fast as she closed the gap with a single leap.
They're now on their first attempt at a counteroffensive against their assailant, and with the plan being set into motion, the princess had no right to really fear here. She trusted Marilyn with this, knowing how confident she's being right now.
Their blades met once again, the assassin having counter-charged against the ruby-eyed girl. Cecilia was being more careful now, yet still very aggressive and serious, the assassin knew that from reading how their blades are making contact with each other.
That was the essence of the Blade Dancer, to know the blade as if they were their own selves, to become one with them.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Their dance was still one would consider beautiful lethality. But there was an added substance to this, for the air around the two had increasingly gotten warmer and warmer, to the point that a normal person would become dizzy within their zone of fighting.
Then—
“Ha!!”
Cecilia half-yelled, and said warm air turned ablaze. Flaming missiles, dozens of them, swarming and surrounding the assassin, homing in on them like locusts.
The princess kept on pressuring the assassin, knowing that they have to focus on either her or the flames. Sacrificing focus for one or the other could be fatal even with the power disparity, which both of them would know just at first glance.
Again and again, the assassin's mithril blade met Cecilia's estoc and flames, some of them even hitting and attempting to burn their cloak.
With no other option, they had to get rid of one temporarily to focus on the other.
“Hrk-!”
So the assassin decided to kick Cecilia away from them and fully focus on the flames. Which was what Marilyn had wanted to happen.
Rewriting the structure of the flames’ Essence, Marilyn had turned the dozens of homing projectiles into hundreds of thousands of particles of dust.
And the next instant, said particles turned into a series of flashing lights and a booming roar. Not meant to harm, but to disorient and blind. She had essentially created a flashbang.
The assassin had no choice but to endure them all. Their vision and hearing were compromised.
New milestone achieved. Perception paused.
- Skill Learned - Magic Rewriter
- Strength is now level 10
- Essence Aptitude is now level 10
- Willpower is now level 8
“Really, right now?” Marilyn thought.
Inquiry detected. Answering…
Potential maximum potency has been determined to have increased due to better control over Essence Energy, resulting in a level increase.
She really did not need that explanation, but she guessed that's well and good for now. She really had no reason to complain though, she was level 5 at most, if there's an experience bar it wouldn't really take much for her to level up significantly.
“I guess studying about how magic works for two weeks and facing an enemy way above your pay-grade twice really does things…"
Perception speed normalised.
“You really did just that, huh?” Cecilia commented, still on-guard for whenever the assassin strikes again.
“It's the simple spells that are easy to cast without having to say them out loud, and I figured I should combine that with magic rewriting to make them more annoying to face.” Marilyn responded, “Wait for my signal, we don't have enough offensive power to do significant damage, even if they're dazed.”
“...right. I’m trusting you on this.” She said, falling back and awaiting for that opportunity.
The dazing effect of the flashbang would eventually dissipate as soon as Cecilia ended their dialogue then and there. And even without seeing their face, the both of them know the assassin's pissed off.
The assailant they had been fighting as a result charges against them, trying to finish both of them off, but Marilyn’s first. They were still disoriented, but it did not matter, they wanted to end this as soon as possible.
Cecilia was signalled to not interfere, so this is fully a Marilyn vs The Assassin fight.
With that said, the brief moment of disorientation the assassin had experienced was all that Marilyn needed. The moment the assassin had their foot make contact with the ground once more, she turned the floor from solid rock to slippery mud.
“-!!”
An embarrassing moment for sure in any situation, but humour won't be capitalised here.
“Hyah!”
Dozens of spikes shot up from the mud, surrounding the assassin. The earthen formations pierced their cloak, tearing it more and more with each passing second.
“Tch—!”
But it wasn’t enough. Marilyn saw it—the assassin tore through the spikes and pressed forward, barely slowed. A final leap was all it would take to close the distance and shift the battle in their favour.
This was all improvised, Marilyn knew. She had to give Cecilia a chance to act, not just stand by behind her, frozen with growing anxiety.
Therefore—
“Hyah!”
The shattered spikes and all the mud on the ground was lifted telekinetically, flinging toward the assassin in a barrage. Marilyn took several steps back, trying to gain distance, quite literally slinging mud in desperation.
It wasn’t enough. The assassin could still close the gap in a single bound. Mud to the face would only delay them by a single second—nothing more.
But then, in the next instant, the wet earth transformed. What was once mud became oil. Not just a few splashes upon their body—they were basically in an ocean of it. The orb of mud Marilyn had quickly formed from all that was gathered from the ground now engulfed the assassin before transmutation, turning it into a thick, flammable trap, overwhelming them.
“Cecilia, now!”
“This is a childish display of genius, you know!!” Was the warcry the princess had let out, as she would then send a blast of fire against the vulnerable target in front of them.
The flames met with the oil, and the assassin was lit ablaze for nth time. Marilyn took the opportunity to send a gust of wind against the orb of flames to further their distance from the enemy. She would then fly back to Cecilia's side, who had also advanced several steps forward to stay on guard.
“You think this would work?” The princess asked of her.
Marilyn shook her head, “I don't know, but at least the plan did go smoothly.”
Cecilia sighed, she wouldn't deny that honestly. But in any case, the two of them would now wait.
Well, it was certainly a brief one, for their enemy rewrote magic once again to disperse the flames and oil, turning it into cold air. Their…or more precisely her, cloak was gone, and her features are finally shown.
Pale skin, silver-grey hair, and amethyst eyes. She crouched low with one hand on the ground and the other raised, presenting her sword that's gleaming under the moonlight. A silent anger exuded from her sharp eyes, her neck covered in a dark purple scarf. A rogue-like appearance was what she presented herself in, her clothes meant for quick manoeuvring and acrobatics. She was partly revealing, yet still radiated a lethal aura.
Cecilia attempted to utter something out, “She's…”
An elf was what she was. Those ears were apparent and the most prominent feature of hers.
Marilyn's eyes glowed a starry azure, she was analysing her.
Profile complete, individual identified.
Name Selena Blackthorn Race Elf Titles The Assassin Discipline Essence Magic - Path of The Blade Dancer Strength Level 32 Willpower Level 30 Essence Aptitude Level 35 Esoteric Traits
Dark-vision
Spiritual Body
Equipment List
Mithril Blade
Elven Assassin Attire
Warning: Individual presents great danger, power gap remains too large to face head-on.
No need to tell her twice, that much was already a certainty.