The corpses of Thanatos and Castess were still holding hands as the assassin raised Thanatos’s head.

A clean cut severed it from the neck without causing excessive damage. He was going to send the head to his superior, the middle finger. Thanatos took the lives of two assassins and caused a mission to fail several months ago. He was a stain on the reputation of The Hand.

The assassin Piser was sent here to clean up the mess and correct things. He spent the last couple of weeks learning the patron of the underlings of Underworld and checking the reports of his deceased colleagues, Agatha and Jakov. Thanks to The Hand intelligence network, he learned about the army raid and the subsequent attack from the Red Dragon tomorrow.

He only had to wait outside and take the kill when the time was right.

Krister was angry when he heard about the deaths of Agatha and Jakov. He called me all the way from the Demi Human Council, but after seeing his power in person, I’m sure it was the right decision. This guy had the best necromantic powers I have seen in decades.

He looked at Thanatos's head one last time and put it inside a bag. Mission completed. Without their leader, Underworld wasn’t a threat anymore. The Red Dragon would kill the last members tomorrow, or they would disperse like leaves in the wind.

An orange shadow pounced at him from the back. Piser took his short word attached to his arm and slashed... Neo claws stop the attack.

"Did you not see me killing your boss? There is no point to this now. You should run away if you value your life."

"SHUT UP!" She was wounded by cuts and punches through her body. Neo had defeated a bunch of people to open a path to the building. She was almost out of mana and used most of her spirits.

The only thing keeping her fighting was rage and indignation. She was angry at Piser, sure, but she was furious at herself. How could she be so pathetic? When time came, she could barely watch as this man cut Thanatos's head off.

She sprinted as fast as she could, but it was meaningless. Thanatos and Castess were dead because she was too slow...

"I’LL KILL YOU!" Her feline claws grew sharp and big. She unleashed her fury in a shower of attacks.

CLANK, CLANK, CLANK. Piser blocked every strike with precision. He didn’t waste any movement, and if Neo could see behind the mask, she would see a calm and collected face.

She backed down and kicked at his gut. Before the kick reached him, Piser stabbed her leg.

She could feel the poison going through her veins. It was taking the feeling from her leg. Instead of retreating or trying to get her leg free, Neo focused the last of her mana.

A pair of enormous white jaws formed in her mouth. She let him take her leg for this chance. The blade was attached to his arm. That meant he couldn’t move it away easily if it was stuck in something.

"Jaws of earth crocodile!" She bit Piser's arm and crushed him into a pulp. The arm was torn to shreds along with the sword.

Despite suffering such a terrible wound, Piser's voice didn’t change in the slightest.

"You think that by destroying my sword I can poison you anymore?" He pulled his crossbow aimed directly at Neo's forehead. "Stupid."

"[Speed]!" Eric came from the side, aiming at the crossbow. Thanks to his ability, he reached it in time, but this wasn’t all. "One!"

His muscles grew. He combined both special abilities to deliver his most powerful attack. He wasn’t going to let him kill another one of his friends.

Eric’s fist graced the crossbow along with the arm, but he didn’t cause any damage. He just slipped past them like they were soaked in soap or something.

"[Dodge]" Piser used his own special ability to save his remaining arm. No matter Neo or Eric's efforts, he was still unimpressed by them.

But Eric didn’t give up. He prepared the second strike with his knee aimed at Piser’s chest.

"Two!"

Something hard blocked his attack. He looked down and saw the reason Piser didn’t care when Neo destroyed his arm. A third arm came from inside his cloak.

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It was long and blue. It looked like a ghostly hand. It was also strong enough to defend against Eric's second strike.

Neo tried to attack his leg, and Eric launched his third and final strike with a punch...

"[Dodge]" once again, he moved between them and shot Eric right below his chin, injecting him with poison. He punched Neo in the chest and broke her rib cage, sending her away.

The battle was over. Neo lay on the ground. She was having trouble breathing. The poison caused muscle paralysis, and if one took a high dose, it would cause the muscles in the chest in charge of breathing to stop working. The poison, along with her broken ribs, was making her choke.

"AH………. AH……." She only had a couple of minutes to live at most.

On the other hand, Eric was barely standing. His mouth was open, letting his drool spill on the ground like an open faucet. The poison was taking its toll, causing dizziness and slowing his movements. He also had the recoil of using [3 Points].

"I won’t let you... hurt any more of my friends... anymore. AAAAAAAHHHH!" He attacked with a sluggish and pitiful strike.

Piser shot him two times in the leg and punched his face with the blue long arm. He sent Eric to the floor, vomiting and struggling to raise his arms.

He walked toward the wounded man and kicked him to the side so he could look at him.

"You still don’t understand? You aren’t going to let me hurt your friends? Are you blind? You don’t have anyone else! Look around, your boss is dead. The half woman is drowning in her own blood. Even that guy with the fire sword is probably dead in your base. There is nothing for you to protect!"

He took his mask off and showed a scarred face. He was missing half of it, and one of his eyes was blue like his arm.

"You failed. Thanatos failed, Underworld is going to disappear as a speck of dust. That’s the price you pay for going against the Hand. You believed you were untouchable. The only one worth anything in that pathetic group was your leader. He had potential, but the rest of you are nothing to worry about."

He kicked Eric's hand as he tried to take a healing potion from his pocket.

"Still thinking you’re going to live? You should have run away from the beginning."

"I… I’m not going to run away after what you did. No, not only you, the army, the red Dragon and your precious Hand. I swear I’m going to make them pay! I’m going to live and rebuild Underworld in his name! I don’t care if it takes me my whole life, you heard me bastard, I swear I’ll make all of you assholes pay for what you did!"

His voice cracked with anguish and tears. The cry of a man who has lost everything He wasn’t bluffing. Eric had all the intentions of living and enacting revenge for Thanatos' and everyone else's sake. With all his strength, he grabbed Piser's foot with one hand and tried to throw him off balance.

Fight you bastard! Neo is still breathing. You need to save her. At least save one person, you stupid, good for nothing. You don’t have the excuse of being weak anymore...

"AAAAHHHHHHHHH!" he screamed, trying to muster every ounce of power to fight back, but...

"Good bye." Piser aimed the arrow at Eric's head and pulled the trigger on his crossbow...

"[Wolf hunt]!"

"... [Dodge]!"

Piser evaded using the last use of [Dodge] he had for the day. he jumped away from the hands that were trying to grab his arm.

He looked at the man that appeared out of nowhere. He didn’t feel his presence until the moment he attacked. It was a grey fox demi human with a scar on his right eye.

He didn’t respond. A curtain of darkness fell around Piser.

A special ability? He’s trying to dull my senses by hiding his presence and taking me out in a single attack.

He could see only a couple of meters ahead. It was a powerful ability, but seeing his cost, it was probably a one time thing. He only needed to hold on the defensive until the effect passed.

He closed his good eye. He only trusted his ears and instincts to tell him the direction of the attack. He had done it hundreds of times in the past. Training by losing a sense was a standard practice of The Hand.

He felt the attack coming from above to his right. He was trying to attack from the side where his arm was wounded.

Piser looked ahead without doubt and fired two arrows in quick succession. The fox demi human didn’t bother to dodge. He received the arrows in his chest and prepared for his most powerful attack.

"[Claw of Fox]" he put his hands together and a giant spectral hand appeared.

Three claws aimed at Piser were about to crush him. He raised his arms in defense but stopped...

Those claws look like a spell, but he’s not suing mana? which means...

He let the claws attack him and blocked the hands of the demi human.

"I knew it. They were fake. You tried to make me block a harmless attack."

"Tch…"

Piser read him perfectly. The attack was still strong, but he managed to block it with his blue arm. The combined power of the claws was stopped by the blue arm. He twisted his body and kicked the fox demi human away.

The darkness began to fade and light returned around him.

"Is your ability over already?" he asked, loading another arrow into his crossbow.

"Yeah, it is over." Suddenly, the fox demi human disappeared in place.

"What?"

SLASH... Piser's blue arm was cut. The fox was in front of him and slashed his abdomen along with the arm.

"This is the true [Claw of Fox]!"

Piser looked at him and noticed that he didn’t have any arrow wounds in his chest.

"Then all of that was an illusion? No wait…" he was standing on top of Eric. He didn’t move a single step from when the fox attacked.

It was an illusion. He activated his ability and sent me into a dream. It lasted for a few seconds, but was enough for him to attack me.

He tried to hold himself by using his last arm, but the claws pierced his eyes and twisted his head, breaking his neck.

The fight was over.

"Eric! Neo!" Some of the other members of Underworld arrive. They took out their potions and fed them to them.

"Please hold on, boss. We’ll take you somewhere safe."

Eric moved toward his savior, who was taking the bag with Thanatos's head inside.

"W-Who are you?"

"My name is Kit. I came to repay a debt, but it looks like I was too late." His expression changed to a sorrowful one as he confirmed that Thanatos was dead.

"I failed again…"