My mana was steadily depleting as continued with my mission. I wanted to conserve as much mana as possible, but I used more than I expected.

I was only at 75% capacity, which was annoying. I was currently being ambushed by 5 mages, all high D ranks.

I recognized the man named Alfred was leading them. I remembered he was my warden back when I was a weakling.

It seemed he had improved since 5 years ago and could be considered a low C rank to some. The difference in ranks were vague, so I could only approximate his strength.

I was having a difficult fight right now, and if Carl were to come, I would probably die. Though his room seemed to be made of materials that were soundproof and repelled mana, so probably didn't know what was happening out here.

Some people tried to alert him, but I killed them all before they could.

'Stop becoming emotional and calm down. I need to think this through otherwise I could consume too much mana.'

I stopped moving and took a step back, taking a deep breath. I emptied my mind and focused on the battle ahead.

One of my opponents wanted to take advantage of me stopping and attempted to get a good attack in. I {Burst Step} behind him, killing him before getting the chance to dodge.

'1 down, 4 to go.'

They didn't bat an eye at their comrade's death and continued attacking. I continued parrying their attacks, luring them to the dead body.

As soon as they got close, I manipulated the blood around their legs and immediately froze it. 3 people were trapped while Alfred managed to dodge.

While he was dodging, I {Burst Step} towards the ones trapped and killed them before they could escape.

Now that it was a 1 on 1 with Alfred, I knew I could win. Despite his superior experience, my technique and power overwhelmed him and I soon managed to get the final blow.

During that fight, I consumed more mana than I expected. This was a dangerous situation. I rested for 5 minutes, allowing me to recover my stamina. It would take hours to recover my mana but I didn't have that time.

After taking a deep breath, I opened the door to Carl's room.

"You can stop trying to sneak up on me. Your Haki is very obvious."

"Yeah, I must've unleashed my unconsciously released my killing intent."

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Despite my plan to assassinate him, I subconsciously wanted to kill him in one on one fight. Even though I had extensive training, I couldn't help but leak out my desire. I took off my mask and stared him in the eyes.

"That's pretty sloppy for a SUITE agent."

"You know about us."

"In this business, you find yourself knowing about SUITE."

"Well, I'm not surprised."

"You really made a mess out there."

"Do you regret having these walls soundproofed and mana-repellant?"

"I guess I do. But I didn't expect someone to brazenly barge into my building. You must have been the one tailing me. My instincts were telling me something was wrong, but I couldn't find you."

"Of course, you couldn't. I'm an assassin. Looks like you haven't recognized me so, I'll end the chit-chat here and take my revenge."

I dropped my mask and all my heavy equipment. They were all going to be inconveniences in this battle. I took out my greatsword and got in a stance.

He grabbed his two axes and also got in a stance. We both channelled mana into our weapons and clashed.

A gust of wind originating from our weapons spread outwards. My hair started fluttering behind me. We traded blow for blow, neither getting the advantage.

Though he had the greater experience, I made up for it with a greater mana capacity.

"Oh, I remember you. You're that kid from before. You've changed a lot since then, I didn't recognize you before. I should thank you. The money I got from selling you allowed me to make this empire."

I ignored his comment and swung my greatsword downwards. He sidestepped the attack and retaliated by swinging his two axes.

I backflipped out of the way, avoiding his blows. I was constantly on guard, watching his every move. This was the first fight in which I was unsure of my victory and could truly die.

"You were talented, though I didn't expect you to grow this fast. That's the unfortunate difference between humans. But you're too young to face me. I'm regretful I have to kill such a promising mage."

"We'll see about that. You will regret raiding my home."

I created and spear with water and shot it at him. He was surprised at me shooting attributed magic and could barely block it with one of his axes. He got sent flying back. Not everybody had the talent for attributed magic and everyone here could only use mana to enhance themselves.

During this opening, I used {Burst Step} to get in close and attacked him. He predicted this and blocked it with his other axe.

He was sent tumbling away and got a hold of himself by stabbing his axe on the floor, leaving a cut.

I followed up a flurry of blows. I was rapidly consuming my mana. However, during my rampage, he managed to get a cut in, slicing my chest.

'Shit! I was careless.'

I managed to dodge at the last moment so the cut wasn't very deep. He then attacked me with his other axe. He blocked it, but I miscalculated the mana behind this blow and was sent flying back onto the floor.

***

(Carl POV)

I used mana to enhance the speed of my arm in that last attack. I wanted to finish him off then, but he still managed to block.

'I underestimated him.'

I was surprised to see he had grown so much. I was also surprised he joined SUITE. I guess the rumors of that year's Nox Occulta being attacked were true.

I thanked my instincts for warning me about that. If I commissioned Vision to sell that kid for me, SUITE could have easily traced him back to me.

I threw one of my axes while he was knocked down, be he managed to roll out of that strike. He was a tricky opponent, so I was on guard.

While he got up, I rushed at him. But I didn't notice that he had frozen on the floor, so I slipped.

'FUCK'

I used my gas attribute to shatter the ice, creating a cloud of dust. I had the gas attribute, but it was so low, that it was very mana inefficient for me to use it.

I caught him off guard with my attribute and he staggered backward. In that instant, I got up and swung my axe at his neck.

My axe cut through his neck, killing him.