Science/Magic

Back from the dead with five chapters...

...

At the same time, in another part of the city.

Sara spun her daggers on her hands after eliminating the B-Rank that she had been fighting.

Around her, seven people lay unconscious. Two of them belonged to team blue, and the other five were the people protecting them.

Right now, she had already eliminated seven of the twelve B-Ranks she had promised to eliminate.

"Five more to go," Sara stated expressionlessly as though it was an effortless matter. "Gina, where is the next target?"

[The last five are a bit more complicated, sister.] Gina's voice came through the earpiece on Sara's ear. [They are in the same place, but one of them is a B-Rank. Furthermore, they are being protected by five B-Ranks and ten C-Ranks.]

"Six B-Ranks in total, huh."

[… I'm not sure how, but it seems like someone discovered our intentions.]

"Is it so?" Sara said indifferently. "Just six B-Ranks are not enough to intimidate me. What is their location?"

"Hehe, as expected of my sister. Okay, follow my instructions."

Sara nodded. She then kicked the ground and started to run in the direction her little sister indicated.

Sara's speed was incredibly fast. As an A-Rank, she could burst at speeds close to sound speed!

Of course, she could keep such speed only for a few seconds before becoming completely exhausted. But even so, her normal sprinting speed was close to one hundred meters per second!

It was almost as fast as a bullet!

With such a terrifying speed, she needed less than one minute to reach the location of her targets.

However, she did not attack immediately.

Instead, she stopped several hundreds of meters away from them and took a deep breath.

Then, her presence disappeared completely as though she was not there.

In truth, her body did not disappear, and she did not become invisible either. In fact, nothing about her seemed to have changed.

However, even peak A-Ranks would find it hard to see her right now.

Furthermore, because her ability was completely different from the usual methods of stealth, it was even harder to see through it.

Such ability was so horrifying that even Bloed, with his special eyes, was not completely sure he could see through it.

To Sara, however, this ability was a part of her.

She remembered that when she was a still child, she was very good at playing hide-and-seek. She never lost a game against someone of her age.

Even adults and practitioners had trouble finding her if she wanted to hide from them.

Back then, however, it was nothing more than an unusual talent.

If her life would have continued normally, perhaps such talent would have never blossomed.

She would have become a swordswoman or a mage instead of an assassin.

However, fate had a different plan for her.

When her family was betrayed and killed, Sara swore revenge. She swore she would do anything to kill the people that killed her family.

Thus, she went to become a subordinate of the Arkavel family.

She was sent to a death camp together with hundreds of children.

In that place, dying was normal, and killing each other was the norm.

It was there where her ability truly blossomed.

More than once, the ability to remain hidden saved Sara's life. More than once, it became the trump card that allowed her to kill her enemies.

Sara realized that, so she trained it even more.

And eventually, it turned into her ability of today.

The ability to remain hidden even while walking in front of her target.

Sara did not know it, but before separating from Bloed in Calice City, Bloed had studied her special ability once.

Back then, he concluded something.

Sara's extraordinary stealth talent was the result of an ESP ability.

Just like her little sister, Sara was born with a special gift.

[A-Grade Hiding Presence].

Sara had unknowingly awakened it thanks to her constant practice and the mana in her body.

And now, she had put this ability at the service of her new lord.

Sara moved calmly. Her footsteps were completely silent as she approached her targets.

Just as her little sister said, they were being protected by five B-Ranks and ten C-Ranks.

In total, she was facing twenty enemies.

However, the short-haired girl was not intimidated by that.

Step by step, she approached them. By this point, even her heartbeat had stopped completely, and her killing intent was completely withdrawn.

When she reached in front of the group, her hands reached for her daggers.

Then–

*Swish!*

Her daggers slit the necks of two B-Ranks, shattering the barrier protecting them and knocking them unconscious.

"Huh?"

The B-Rank and C-Rank students around her were dumbfounded when they saw her appear suddenly. They seemed unable to understand what was happening, even when two of their comrades collapsed on the ground in front of their eyes.

And Sara was not the kind to waste such an opportunity.

At that instant, her killing intent erupted completely. The terrifying pressure belonging to an A-Rank assassin surged towards the students in front of her.

Taking a step forward, Sara brandished her daggers murderously and cut down another B-Rank.

One second later, the place was filled with panicked cries.

…

The battle between the B-Ranks vs Bloed and Liu Ying intensified.

After Bloed managed to defend against the magic attacks unleashed by five B-Rank mages, the B-Ranks were momentarily stunned. Due to that, they allowed Bloed and Liu Ying to take out four enemies more.

When the B-Ranks finally snapped out of their surprise, only nine of them remained.

Even so, nine of them were more than enough to put Bloed and Liu Ying in a difficult situation.

Moreover, the two of them had been fighting and running for almost two hours already. Right now, their reserves of mana and psychic power were almost depleted.

Despite that, the nine B-Ranks did not dare to underestimate them.

It was because even in that condition, Bloed and Liu Ying proved to be very dangerous.

Mainly due to Bloed's saber and Liu Ying's fists. The B-Ranks had witnessed how two of their comrades had their barriers destroyed instantly after Bloed's saber cut them and Liu Ying delivered an aspect-powered punch.

It made them toss away any thought of defending against their attacks. They put their entire focus on avoiding the saber and fist as much as they could.

However, with each passing second, the expressions of several of the B-Ranks turned grave.

It was because–

'They are too calm.'

Alex muttered to himself.

'Moreover–'

Looking at his surroundings, Alex realized that he could not find the cat girl.

She had not appeared again since she disappeared back then.

Alex knew that with the cat girl strength, she would have been able to eliminate two or three of them if she took advantage of the moment when they were distracted due to Bloed stopping the all-out attack of five mages.

If she would have attacked then, perhaps the situation right now would have been completely different.

However, she had not attacked even then.

'Did she escape? No, that is impossible. In other words, they are planning something… But what is it?'

Just at that moment, one of the C-Ranks in the distance shouted something.

"Mr. Alex! They are trying to eliminate team blue! I just received information that all the students in team blue around the city were eliminated! The only ones remaining are here!"

"What!?" Alex was surprised. Instinctively, he looked in Bloed's direction.

There, he saw a pair of bright blue eyes looking at him with a confident smile.

"Fire."

Oculus lit up once more, opening fire to three students in the crowd, all team blue members.

And the cat girl made her move again, stabbing her dagger through the heart of another student. With him, she had eliminated twenty students already without anyone noticing.

"Only three remaining," Bloed muttered.

"Crap! Hurry up! We need to protect them!"