"Nothing personal girl… It's just business…" The dark, broody voice muttered as he pulled back his blade. A spray of red came out with it.

I clutched at the "wound" and turned to see my assailant. He had a shadowy form clinging to him that obscured almost all of his features. None of my senses could see him; it was as if he had no life, mana, or even presence.

While I was frustrated at having my [Identify] blocked, what couldn't be hidden was the pointed ears on his body. An elf had attacked me.

"Why…?" I mumbled, hoping that [Acting] was doing its work.

"Like I said, nothing personal…" The shadowy elf muttered. "I'm just cleaning up loose ends that the humans should have finished."

Humans? The Stantons? Does this have to do with why Sylthaeryn was murdered?

He then reached for the bag at my side—the bag she had entrusted to me all that time ago. Part of me wanted to just let it be taken. She said to give it to an elf, and he was one… But if he was part of the plot that killed her in the first place, then I couldn't allow that to happen.

Plus… He attacked me, and I still haven't finished my elf profile…

I made the snap decision to fight back rather than feign death, and I reached for his hand. He must have had a skill or trait to sense it as he rapidly retreated.

"No point in fighting it, girl… The poison will kill you soon enough; why suffer for your last moments?" The assassin tried to reason.

I snorted. "I'll go down fighting!"

I launched [Lightning Bolt] at him, but he dodged. He clicked his tongue in annoyance and began swooping toward me like some kind of shadowy creature.

"Syl!? What's going on?" Vee asked with worry.

"Elf assassin trying to kill me; he thinks I'm the elf who died back in the forest…" I explained telepathically while I launched a barrage of [Fireball] spells at him.

The elf must have had some advanced form of [Evasion] as his dodges were almost poetic in their execution. Before this, I would have said Whitney was one of the most agile people I'd ever seen, and he made her look like a clumsy toddler.

"Can I help?" Vee asked.

"If you can find an opportune moment, then do so; I don't know what level he is, so he might be dangerous. Don't risk your life if you don't need to!" I warned Vee.

"I'm not going to just watch you die!" Vee replied.

He crashed against an [Aegis] spell I formed to block him and shattered it in a single blow. Then he pulled out a second blade, much longer and thinner than the shortsword he had first stabbed me with.

"I hate fighting mages…" He grumbled to himself.

"The feeling is mutual," I snapped back.

I used [Earth Magic] to cast a giant [Sand Pit] spell between myself and him, hoping the terrain would be beneficial, but he seemed entirely immune to the hazardous terrain.

"I'm not going to die…" I informed Vee. "I have a death prevention trait… And he thinks I'm an elf… In the worst case, I can pretend to be dead. You, on the other hand, don't have a second chance."

Vee didn't respond, but I could sense her hesitation through the connection.

I kept up the dance with the elf assassin, trying to barrage him with various spells. Subtly casting debuffs on him worked, although while observing him, I watched as they seemed to fall off him one by one at set intervals.

A trait or skill to remove afflictions? Or maybe magical equipment? I wish he wasn't covered in that shadow cloak so I could get an idea of what is going on under the hood…

Even when I brought in [Sub-Cores] to blanket him with spells, he either dodged them all with inhumane grace or vanished into the safety of a shadow.

"Your profile originally said you were a marksman… But to think you swapped to becoming such a powerful caster in such a short time… It's almost a waste," The assassin mocked.

"I didn't know combat banter was part of an assassin's repertoire?"

"It helps keep the opponent on edge and opens them up to mistakes…" The voice replied, echoing from an unknown location.

I felt a blade running through my side, but it was all superficial despite the blood show Alpha was putting on.

"Like so…" The voice mocked as he vanished again. "Although I'm dumbfounded at how much [Poison Resistance] you must have. That dose was large enough to put down an elephant, yet you stand and fight…"

"Maybe you got a shitty batch," I quipped back.

"That's a frustrating possibility… If that's the case, I'll need a new supplier…" The voice replied, now revealing himself standing on a rocky outcropping.

Using [Nova] and all my cores, I surrounded him with spells, all pushed out beyond my Mana aura, hoping to catch him off guard. Either the assassin had ice running through his veins, or my surprise was a failure, as when the fiery explosion erupted, he simply chuckled as he cut me again.

"I really thought that would have worked…" I muttered.

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"You've clearly spent too much time among the humans if you thought that would be enough," the assassin taunted. "Any novice mage is expected to be able to do that."

I clicked my tongue in annoyance and started pulling out spell orbs, which I lobbed and occasionally shot out at the assassin. I had hoped that the detonations would finally catch him, but other than causing what I assumed was a minor burn, it seemed he had gotten out relatively unscratched.

"Fascinating… I can't say I've seen orbs like this before…" The assassin admitted.

"It's just some basic enchanting; I'd expect any novice enchanter to do it," I taunted back.

The assassin let out a dark chuckle before suddenly I was stabbed again.

I faked a wince and clutched at where the wound had appeared.

"No witty banter?" I teased.

"While it has its uses, I think it's run its course…" The assassin admitted.

Looks like he's going to stop fooling around…

Using my connection to the ground, I began doing some tunnel digging with my cores and tendrils. [Acid Slime] meant that I could easily branch out and expand underground. Meanwhile, I left behind a singular core in my elf body to maintain the form.

I kept using as much over-the-top magic as I could throw out. [Chain Lightning], [Shatterquake], and even blanketed an area in [Caustic Cloud].

That last one actually got the assassin to react. "How truly awful, and to think you call yourself an elf… With foul magic like that, putting you down would be doing the world a service."

Meanwhile, my underground workers began spreading out like a tree spreading its roots. Once thoroughly situated, I started tendrils to the surface to plant landmines, hoping to catch the assassin.

I also let Vee know I was blanketing the area's surface with landmines, just in case she decided to make an appearance.

"I'm looking for a good opportunity, but he's so fast and jumpy… I'll stay away from touching the ground, though," Vee responded back.

Calling him fast and jumpy was an understatement, and I felt like I was literally jumping at shadows because of how absurdly fast he was. Even tasking my [Sub-Cores] with attacking him with magic had proved too much for them; he was just beyond us.

However, all his dodging around finally bit him in the back when he triggered a cluster of mines, and the detonation caught him off guard. He cursed a foul string of words, and when I next saw him, his shadowy cloak looked severely damaged and singed.

"I don't know how you did that… But you'll pay…" He grunted.

"Big talk from the guy who's trying to kill me," I taunted.

"A quick and painless death would have been my mercy," the assassin snapped back. "But I suppose that is beyond you now. I'll ensure you suffer as much as possible before your final breath."

He coated his blade in a blackish-red poison. It looked oddly familiar, and I couldn't help but blurt it out. "Bloodrot?"

The assassin chuckled darkly. "Good… I'm glad you've heard of it. Now you'll suffer and rot until your final breath, and no potion or healing will save you."

He also made a gesture that reminded me of Jet. He ripped his own shadow off of himself and threw it toward me. The shadowy mass writhed unstably before bursting into three small shadowy creatures.

The shadow creatures didn't trigger my landmines, and as I contemplated the best way to deal with them, I cast [Hex] and [Mana Burn] on all three. I couldn't think of any other method to deal with semi-intangible creatures, and unlike the elf, this affliction and debuff stuck around.

The elf assassin began his dangerous approach, armed with two types of poison now and an almost feral savageness now that he'd been wounded. His jests had ceased, and now he seemed to just want to inflict as much physical pain as possible.

I lashed out with spells to strike him and tried to defend myself with [Bubble], [Zephyr Shroud], and [Arcane Armor]. To my spellcasting persona's dismay, he must have been highly trained in methods of countering defensive spells as he practically slipped past my defenses to land his blows.

[Sneak Attack] and [Assassinate] mention bypassing defenses… So, I guess he's using something like that.

With each blow he struck and failed spells on my part, he seemed to be growing more and more confident. I caught him in a [Nitro Slime] trap one more time, but now he was too hesitant and frequently seemed to avoid the ground entirely.

When his shadow creatures dispersed, he seemed mildly annoyed but still retained his confidence. I couldn't think of any further preparations to be made, so I figured now was the time to slime out.

I retreated the core in my elf body into the ground but close enough to maintain the form and then primed the body. Setting the entire body on a hair trigger to detonate when he touched it. I also laced the inside with as much nastiness as I could think of, such as a steady supply of razor-sharp shrapnel made out of a combination of [Metal Slime] and [Poison Slime] while returning the favor of Bloodrot.

I missed him emerging from the body's shadow, but when his blade touched, the trigger went off without even a second of thought. The detonation was immense as my body was entirely made up of some of the best of the best slime.

Of course, my body would be the highest density possible, and while it was a painful loss of slime, defeating this foe would be a much greater reward.

His body was sent scattering to the ground, and his remaining shadow seemed to be trying to protect him. He was groaning painfully on the ground and rapidly feeding himself pills and potions.

That was when I emerged from the ground. My "body" resurfaced nearby, and tendrils of slime burst out. Without my [Sub-Cores] thoroughly distributed, controlling this quantity of spread-out slime mass would have been extremely difficult.

My slimy tendrils tried to grab him, but even injured, he was absurdly fast. He cursed and muttered.

"What the hell is this!?" The assassin demanded.

"Me…" I chuckled darkly, trying to best imitate his creepy tone.

The assassin burst out laughing as if all the puzzle pieces fell into place. "The girl was already dead… I got sent out to kill some creature wearing her skin… What rotten luck…"

Tendrils continued to burst out from the ground, and the assassin continued to dodge.

"No wonder my poisons didn't work… And even I've been infected with Bloodrot?" He continued to curse.

"On the plus side, you'll be a wonderful meal for me…" I taunted.

The elf actually shuddered. "No… I'm getting far, far away from here, demon!"

More and more tendrils burst out and started firing slime at him. Now, I was holding nothing back and ensuring I detonated as much [Nitro Slime] as possible with lacings of various other slime traits.

His panic was palpable as he tried to retreat as much as possible. What was once a shroud of shadows was barely scraps, and his elven body was now visible.

I'm not letting you get away!

I ordered all my [Sub-Cores] to catch him by any means necessary.

"Hey, Syl, try to lure him over in my direction!" Vee's voice suddenly sounded serious.

I acknowledged and relayed it to all my cores. We began forcing his hand to change his retreating path. His pills and potions must have finally kicked in as he was starting to pick up the pace.

"Sorry monster looks like I'm going to live to tell the tale!" The assassin taunted.

I growled in frustration.

No! No! No!

This was something I had always worried about; someone finding out the truth and escaping.

I shouldn't have revealed myself. Why did he survive my body bomb? What else can I throw at him?

Pessimism oozed out of my very being, watching the shadow elf getting further and further away.

Suddenly, my negative thoughts were flooded with a counter emotion. Confidence. The source could've only been Vee, and I wondered what she had planned right before I witnessed the most absurd sight ever.

The elf's body soared off into five arcing segments. I blinked in confusion.

"Don't run into the [Rift Thread]!" Vee warned.

I paused, and realization struck me as Vee continued mentally talking.

"I set up an entire web net here, and it looks like our elf assassin is utterly blind to it!" Vee continued, and now I understood where the confidence had come from.

The little spider had done it!