She could see the carnage along the walls. The assassins hadn’t just targeted Defiance directly and using their overwhelming numbers had sabotaged the defences she had installed along their outpost, leaving most of them destroyed or unable to fire.

“Most of the monsters were being funnelled towards us thanks to your mother’s efforts and Anthea’s fabulous distractions. However, when they began to attack we were forced to shift our focus and that meant far more monsters were slipping through the gaps. The defences kept up at first, but as more of them were destroyed the remaining ones had to work overtime. I guess they just kept reloading until they couldn’t.”

“Too expensive. I’m not sure how long I have left until my next income but once that happens it shouldn’t be an issue. Not for a while anyway, assuming the event doesn’t spawn anything crazy.”

“Not to worry, little menace. Let’s just slaughter all these miscreants and reclaim control over our domain. They don’t seem that strong.”

Evelyn stepped forward and brought her war hammer down onto one of the shadowy figures blocking her path. They raised their arm to block but it had little effect, the bone snapping against the overwhelming force of her blow and sending them staggering backwards. Her father lunged in and thrust his sword through their heart, bringing a swift end to the assassin.

She looked towards the other two members of the group, her mother and Anthea, who were still cut off by ten or so assassins. Her mother was facing the most enemies. Three dark shadows flitted around her, slashing and stabbing with their twin daggers in an attempt to deliver a lethal blow.

They were failing. Mei Han had near perfect control over her frost magic and there was a localised blizzard raging around her body that slowed and whittled away at her foes. Anthea on the other hand was having a hard time keeping up with the assassins and they were slowly pushing her towards the edge of the wall.

“Let’s help Anthea first, mother seems to be doing just fine on her own,” said Evelyn.

“I think that would be wise darlin’,” said Kayla who had dispatched the unfortunate fellow who’d tried to stop her and Evelyn from reaching Anthony and now rejoined the two of them.

There was no reason to hesitate and so the three charged towards Anthea. The first assassin was taken by complete surprise and fell in a matter of seconds to their combined assault, but the others reacted rapidly. A few even abandoned the attack on Mei Han to back up their allies, seeing that penetrating the woman’s barrier of ice would be near impossible.

Anthony was closest to the new attackers and deflected the strike of his current enemy towards Evelyn before turning to face them. She took the additional foe in stride, adjusting the swings of Spinebreaker so that they threatened both assassins with injury or death.

Kayla had already blown apart the guard of the cloaked figure pitted against her and was pummelling him into submission. After just a few heavy strikes he dropped limp to the ground and she jumped in to help Evelyn out.

“Why did they even try to attack when most of them are so weak? I know numbers can be an advantage but this feels suicidal,” said Evelyn.

“Never underestimate the power of stupidity and overconfidence, darlin’.”

“I agree with Kayla. There are always far too many people who overestimate their own abilities. And it’s possible they are operating under orders from someone stronger. It’s hard to say no to someone who holds your life in their hands, I know that better than most,” said her father.

Evelyn’s face screwed up and Kayla stared at him for a few seconds, the gears turning behind her eyes. There was no time to consider the implications of what he’d just said however, because their foes were unrelenting.

Clang. A ring echoed through the air as her hammer met with something more solid than a dagger. She had been operating on autopilot against the relatively weak assassins but took in the sight of her new foe when they managed to block her blow.

It was a man, that much was obvious from his build and stature. And lack of bulk around the chest area, though a glance at Kayla was enough of a reminder that not everyone was as blessed as Evelyn in that regard. Just like the other assassins he was wreathed in a cloak of writhing darkness, but the shadows around him were thicker and heavier than the rest.

It was like staring into the black abyss of night. Evelyn was thrown back into her childhood, when a fear of the dark consumed her every evening. For most people, her included, the real reason they feared the darkness wasn’t the dark itself. It was the terrifying dread of the unknown. Anything could be hidden in the shadowy corners and hidden recesses. That enigma hung over the man like a cloud. Not even his eyes were visible.

He hadn’t blocked her blow because his weapon was more suited to it. Just like the rest of their foes he wielded twin daggers, though his were of a higher calibre. Polished steel and curving ever so slightly, she could see a translucent film coating the blade. Venom. One of the daggers was held against the flat head of Spinebreaker and unmoving in his iron grip.

“Well met, Evelyn. I’m a fan of yours to be honest. I also thrive alone and when I heard of your solo clear of the 16th Floor I was incredibly impressed. To bring down Dazurmagon in one-on-one combat is a mighty feat that I’m not sure I could match. Slaying you will be an excellent accolade to add to my collection,” he said.

His voice was hoarse and it sounded like each word was a struggle to deliver. It made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end like she was wandering the woods at night and being stalked by a predator.

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He gave her no time to respond to his introduction and stabbed his other dagger at the base of her ribcage while shifting her hammer away from his body and twirling the other dagger towards her neck in a single swift manoeuvre.

If it had been her first time wielding the war hammer or she was a weaker woman, his decisive ploy might have caught her off guard and ended the battle in a single strike. However, she had wielded Spinebreaker in countless battles since obtaining it and the last twenty-four hours of constant swinging and smashing meant it felt like an extension of her body rather than a useful tool. And that wasn’t all.

During the World Event she had been using the energy of the reality node rather sparingly, trying to conserve as much power as possible for the later waves which would no doubt be exponentially more difficult to deal with than the mindless monsters that had been attacking thus far. When her friends were under threat though, she would spare no effort to crush anyone who dared to harm them.

Energy flared through her bicep and shoulder and Spinebreaker whipped through the air, fast enough to cause a blastwave that buffeted the shadowy cloak around the man right before her war hammer smashed into his chest. Except it never made contact.

He bent over backwards, contorting his spine in a direction that should be impossible for a human and ducking under her hammer which passed just an inch over his nose. The moment it passed he snapped back into place like a spring and spun his daggers right back towards her.

Evelyn had to pull back on the hammer to cull its momentum and staggered ever so slightly. She twisted her torso to avoid his dagger thrusts, one of them glancing harmlessly off her chest but the other still found purchase and slipped between two of her ribs with a squelch.

“Bastard.” It stung a little, at first. And then a lot. Burning pain blossomed from the entry wound and her blood spurted out as he ripped the blade from her chest. A glance at her status told her what she had suspected - his blades were coated in venom.

Already the wound was festering, the flesh around the gash turning a greenish-purple even while her skills fought to regenerate the damage.

And her opponent was unrelenting. He wasn’t satisfied with his first successful strike and continued to twirl his blades around. They seemed glued to his hands and whistled as they cut through the air towards her. One aimed at her heart and another at her neck. Every single one of his strikes was aimed at her vitals and she knew that a single slip up could spell death, however temporary it might be for her.

This time though she was far better equipped to respond. Her build was well suited to dealing with wounds like the one she had suffered. And he wasn’t expecting her to resist his venom because when she whipped Spinebreaker at his head he seemed to freeze in his tracks. Only for a moment, but it was enough hesitation to spell disaster.

Her war hammer smashed into the side of his skull and his body was blown to the side, flying away like a ragdoll under the force of her strike.

One of his daggers fell from his grasp and clattered against the battlements while the other hung limp in his grasp. There was a crunch when he smacked against the ground and she could see one of his shoulders bent at an awkward angle.

I’m honestly shocked he isn’t dead after that. This guy must be one of the toughest human opponents I’ve ever fought. Quite durable for an assassin, but I doubt he’ll be able to mount much of a resistance in that state.

Chasing after him meant leaving her father and Kayla to deal with the other assassins without her, but that had been the case during their duel anyway. And this was one foe she didn’t want to give a window of escape to. If he was able to heal and return with reinforcements it would be disastrous.

Even as she charged towards him he was struggling to get up. The shadows danced around him and seemed to be melding with his body. Every step she took he seemed to grow more confident in his movements and when she was just a single step away from him there was a crunch and his damaged arm popped back into place.

She activated Flashfreeze Flamecharge, or whatever it could be called now that she relied on just her own memory to recreate it, rocketing towards him and bringing Spinebreaker down towards his head. She stumbled forwards and had to right herself when the hammer sailed through empty air and almost swung back into her own legs.

All that remained of the man were a few wisps of darkness that dissipated as she watched. Crap. Evelyn ducked and felt something scrape the back of her head. Looking up she saw his arm passing over her, his remaining dagger gripped in shadowy hands.

She leapt to her feet and turned to face him but he had vanished once more. It looks as though he had a trump card of his own. This will be tricky. Evelyn looked towards her allies but let out a sigh of relief when she saw that her father and Kayla had managed to slaughter all the assassins attacking Anthea and most of the ones swarming her mother. She could focus all her attention on her foe.

And she would need every bit of focus she could grasp at. He appeared right beside her and she only just raised the shaft of her hammer to parry his thrust. What she hadn’t expected was for him to pull another dagger from his cloak and stab at her eye. Half of her vision faded to black and it felt as though a thousand needles were being thrust into her brain as it sunk into her skull.

When she tried to lift her hammer she discovered her arms were sluggish and heavy. The venom was far more potent than she had expected, but it wasn’t over for her yet. Evelyn summoned her courage and unleashed a guttural roar of rage and fury that began in her stomach and shocked her opponent so much he stumbled backwards.