*Rip!*

My hand bled as I gripped the hilt of the dagger, Zhao Mei's face calm and cold as she swiftly dodge the upcoming punch, before summoning her spell blade and directly plunging it to the head of the assassin who suddenly appeared just now.

I chuckled before helping out Zhao Mei to get off the bed. Given with how exhausted we were, if it not for Zhao Mei picking scan and passively letting it activate while we let our primal desire take over we both would have been dead by now.

The culprit somehow knew that one of us had the learned *Scan* and was edging the scan area and had probably waited till we both 'finish' to catch us off guard. Upon sensing someone however Zhao Mei's bloodline mentally pinched her notifying us of the looming assassin. Something anyone could have normally missed while distracted as *Scan* requires you to manually glance at the mental image generated within your mind space to gauge your surroundings, rather than a skill is focused on detecting incoming enemies. This means that autoactivating it wouldn't really matter if you're unable to see or pay attention to it.

Though of course Zhao Mei's bloodline also having access to her mind space is an exception to this but the limitations of the skill did help me feel better with what I stuck with.

Taking our time to recover stamina, a few more tests with *Scan* revealed that the skill itself generates a very subtle but invisible echo to the surroundings, barely felt but can be detected if you're expecting it.

"The Assassin really did time his attack when we were about to climax"

Seeing me chuckle, Zhao Mei seems to have caught herself as she stood and left not a single shred of emotion painted across her face.

That emotion devouring bloodline really is no fun.

I said to myself before rushing outside to see the chaos outside.

...

... ...

…………………………

"Guardians and Ranged attackers, to the gates. Split into groups and make sure have atleast one person with *Scan* in the group. Scurry the town and get rid of the remaining assassins.

Join us as soon in the frontlinee as soon as you clear your area."

A large man bellowed, seemingly the new leader of our resistance. Overhearing from one of the groups it seems that our former acting leaders wasn't fortunate to wake up as the rest of us did. And seeing that they all took the most center of houses, I can only imagine that they drew themselves the short stick after encountering assassins who are skilled enough to sneak up to the middle of the town, well... specially while in their sleep.

Joining with Zhao Mei, we hunted within the southern part of the town, traveling as a pair we were able to sneak and stalk like assassins ourselves, though instead of encountering a solo or a pair. What we encountered was a group of assassins, on their way to back stab some of the players. Heading their way to the vanguard.

Having Mana Body Strengthening activated I jumped towards the roof, rushing from roof to roof quickly closing in distance to the group. Zhao Mei following from the ground.

Seeing me, the assassins also started empowering their bodies, but unlike what I thought would be a wild goose chase, seconds later revealed that their enhanced speed were far inferior to mine.

'Just like my fights earlier...'

I mumbled to myself, briefly recalling my enhanced body being a lot faster and stronger than most enemies or players. There were caveats like that long sword wielder as well as that bloodline holder, but their strengths clearly came in with their own edge and weaknesses.

This way I wouldn't need to use +overload so early in the wave. I'll have to check on it later though. Making a mental note, I shrugged as I continued to chase.

Three roofs later I was finally a house behind the group. I could see some of the assassins ahead already summoning their weapons and positioning themselves. One of them attempted to throw knives at me, utterly missing enabling me to catchup, and knock the wind out of the assassin, the delay of drawing his mellee weapon not allowing him to defend.

Kicking him down towards the ground where Zhao Mei was running towards, I was about to continue pursuit, only to crane my neck towards the ground as I evaded a decapitating slash. Utilizing my position I kicked the attacker in front of me, utilizing the momentum to push myself off the situation, dodging both knives and sword strikes in the process.

'They decided to fight it out?'

Are these soldiers really that attached to each other? Not that it... Matters...

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I paused my thoughts as another assassin tried to close in on me for a stab, unsummoning my sword, I briefly increased mana flowing through my body by 20 percent more, easily dodging the strikes he tried to land allowing me to grab his neck...

And crush it.

A pause happened all over as everyone watched the sight in horror. The limping lifeless eyes of the assassin that I effortlessly carried and tossed sounded a thud as it landed from the roof to the ground.

'RAAAAAA'

The remaining three Assassins screamed in frenzy as they all charged at me with wild abbandon, their movements becoming more predictable I easily beheaded the remaining two, before leaving the last one for Zhao Mei as she easily cut the throat of the last remaining assassin, as the assassin seeming threw it's life, madness and rage in his eyes continuing to look at me even as Zhao Mei's Spellblade ripped out his throat.

'So much for not using Overload.'

I mentally sighed before sitting at the edge of the roof to recover. Who would've thought that they would all outright charge at me. The people from their empire must be bat shit crazy.

"These fucking lunatics."

I shouted randomly. Zhao Mei's eyebrow wrinkling for a bit, before turning back to being emotionless. She simply sat beside me and said nothing.

"Well... Say something will you. I know you're using your bloodline to modulate your emotions, but you can say a thing or two sometimes. It feels like I'm monologuing you know."

Turning to look at Zhao Mei's emotionless face, she was about to roll her eyes before stopping mid way, not a hint of emotion in her as she continued staring at the raging battle outside the city.

"I don't want to."

"Well whatever."

I chucked before similarly looking at battlefield. Seeing as how such a large army got close without us noticing, the assassins must have took out our night watch first before creating all this havoc.

If not for the timely intervention of the Large man earlier, we would have been too distracted chasing the assassins while the enemy army silently marched towards us.

'There really is no shortage of talent among the players that chose to start in Asgard...'

I couldn't help but laugh inwardly. His knack for leading would have been impressive, if not for his suspiciously too perfect timing.

There really must be merrit in leading all this. The former acting leaders were also a bit too 'enthusiastic' when it comes to setting up things.

Now that I think about it... There's also a chance that another group of players themselves killed the once acting leaders...

Zhao Mei seemingly having recovered enough stamina, jumped down and started heading towards the battlefield.

Wouldn't that be interesting? I smiled before jumping down to the ground to follow Zhao Mei.

We'll just have to see once the Wave revives everyone back or if they will still come back for that matter. We never really had the chance to test friendly fire have we? The way I see it, both the numbers and abilities of this group is far more than enough to brush past Wave 5 without much fuss. Not to mention combatants powerful enough to rank within the World Arena lingering here and there.

I can definitely see NOIM or rather Asgard adding a fair bit of politics into the mix. Battle prowess isn't the only thing being measured after all.

Normally I wouldn't have mind playing such faculties, but the role that I'm trying to establish for the future calls me to deliver things differently. Not to mention given Eve's circumstances, I just simply don't have the bandwidth to give leeway for all this nonsense.

Maybe killing a few would help them get their thinking straight...

Maybe a few more than that...

Thinking it through, I called back Zhao Mei as I held my pace back to a walk.

...

... ...

………………………… …………………………

"Behind."

Zhao Mei's voice faintly, spoke as I briefly sped up to leap sideways twice dodging a spell or two, before making may way to catch back up to Zhao Mei.

The mellee had long started by the time we arrived outside the gates, immedietly we headed towards the frontlines. Pushing our way towards enemy lines, kill after kill. Till it became our routine.

Forcing our way pass through enemies Guardians, we directly charged forward deep within enemy lines. As calm as ice Zhao Mei would charge into the surrounding enemies, the variant of Mana Body Strengthening she got somehow more focused on speed and defense as compared to the all around enhancement brought by mine. Her bloodline only needing a small wound on her enemies, in order to trigger it's passive and drain away at the life force of her wounded foes. Solidifying and creating more blood tainted ice on the wound that she made.

Utilizing the distraction I would then rush in and finish the the distracted enemies, allowing me to easily deal lethal blows even without Mana Body Strengthening. Of course there are there are certain enemies that spell blade isn't well matched to deal with but briefly overloading my body with mana has proved to be more than effective when dealing with these tanks.

[Info] Mana Body Strengthening applications learned!

+Control:Focus

+Overload:Shot

I grinned, exhilaration filling me as the continued thrill and experience slowly allowed me to catchup to my inherited experience. My mind in overdrive, while I formulate even more applications I can do with the newly learned skill. With this I can create insanely fast leaps, and attacks without spreading out too much mana all over my body. Of course I would still have to maintain a fair bit of mana coursing through my body to successfully mitigate the impact of my own actions, but I can't help but feel overwhelmed at the complexity of even just one such kill can make.

"One at a time."

I mumbled to myself as I beheaded an enemy before using Shot to create a quick burst and propel me forward in order to kill two more enemies who were busy dealing with the spreading blood red ice from their wounded sides.

As expected the 2nd wave though there were a lot more enemies, as well as the dangerous play the assassins made before the mellee, didn't really amount to much given the skill as well as the additional ability we got from the Isignia. I did have to activate slow a couple of times in order for us to dodge projectiles, more from allies than enemies. By continously utilizing Scan, and the occasional cast of Slow to dodge potentially lethal moments we were able to continue our aggression deep within enemy lines without much injuries.

I did have to pull out Zhao Mei every now and then to prevent her from overextending specially during the later fights where we were both exhausted. Her effectiveness waining forcing me us to return every now and then after extended periods of time. Both physical and mental fatigue racking up on her which I was strangely exempted of.

Another thing I'd have to look into later on.

I'm the end me and Zhao Mei still decided to work together, whenever we could but innevitsbly straved of each other to match our own individual pace. Making sure to remind Zhao Mei to remain on guard even after returning to rest, I decided to head deeper into enemy lines.

Everywhere screams of anger and anguish kept echoing throughout the fields, making me wish to end the wave even faster. Measuring these lunatics really is an impossibility. They were deliberately using human wave tactics but kept screaming and cursing whenever their allies fell. They weren't screams of bloodlust and war unlike most normal people in a battle would scream..The enemy soldiers screamed profanities and... vile hatred on to their killers. As of it was our fault that they are in agony.

Though as curious as I was, it didn't really matter for me. In order to create substantial lead, I know for a fact that working with Zhao Mei was only a temporary solution. Not to mention the cost of failing...

***

[Info] Quest: Fragmented Soul of an Observer of the End. Defeat all five waves, without falling from the top 1 of the Leaderboard to collect all of the fragments of Eve's soul.

Reward: NOIM will help, Mend and fully integrate eve's soul to your Origin Core.

Failure: Removal of all benefits given by NOIM. Death to your current body as well as lifetime of servitude to NOIM upon reaching the 17th of age for seven hundred lifetimes.

***

I subconsciously recalled Eve's struggles, though I doubt NOIM would be kind enough to help her accomplish her goals without return, it did seem adamant for me to collect all of her soul fragments as soon as possible enough to even threaten my very existence in the process.

'You're long aware of this aren't you?' I subconsciously asked, knowing that Eve is fully aware of everything I'm thinking of. Getting a sleepy and slightly irritated mental confirmation in return, I could only chuckle as I circulated a bit more mana to increase my pace. Not really much I can do in my current power.

'Simply aware, but unable to do anything huh.'

I'm starting get it why the system calls it Fate's Awareness stage.

...

... ...

To be continued.