Supreme Monarch

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The Phantom kill was a secret Technique that was known only to high-ranking dark elves that specialized in assassination. It was a technique that guaranteed the death of its intended target as long as they were able to meet certain conditions. No amount of resistance or passive defensive skills could stop it. It was a technique that was practically impossible to block.

While not especially flashy, this technique focuses on attacking all of the opponent's vitals with one fluid motion and the perfect control of multiple blades. When used correctly it multiples the attack power of the user by more than 100 folds on their first strike, it was truly a one-hit kill.

Although this was the first time Rain was using this technique in an actual fight, she knew that amongst her peers that had learned this technique at the same time, her mastery was second to none.

Rain's spiritual Daggers created six illusionary blades and she was wielding one of them leaving five hoverings in the air around her and launching attacks individually without her needing to fully control them. 

However, to fully utilize the phantom kill technique, she had to take control of all six blades and aim them at their respective targets. Although the technique could be used with a single blade, the more blades one could use masterfully the faster the strike and the more effective the technique was.

All her attacks were launched instantly, leaving no room for escape.

Her intentions were never to kill this man, he had gone out of his way to save her after all and even though he had his reasons for doing that, she should be grateful he hadn't used her condition to exploit Liz like most demons would have.

Yet, here she was attacking this man without any hesitation. She didn't know when he had managed to get under her skin so much but every time he narrowly avoided her attack without pulling out his weapon made her feel like she was being looked down upon and she may have gotten a bit too frustrated and now there was no turning back.

There was a chance if she killed him they would all be stuck in this castle forever and slowly starve to death but it was too late now. Her body was already moving on its own and she couldn't stop it. All six spiritual Daggers and the black dagger cut down into a different part of his body and tore through his vitals.

Her blade strikes were so fast that even Albert and the others couldn't see what was happening but it made Albert feel nervous. This was only supposed to be a spar, yet this happened. The fight had slowly gotten more intense and even Albert had sensed the killing intent that emanated from Rain during that last strike. However, his body was just too slow to react in time and before he could even take a step to stop this fight the battle was already over.

Liz, on the other hand, didn't know how to react, she stood rooted to the spot and Erin was the same, with the color in their faces slowly draining. They couldn't believe a simple bout had lead to this tragedy. They had all gotten acquainted with each other and they all knew how important Tyler was to the ogres, beastmen, and kobolds.

Even Rain had gotten to know them all during the few days she had been up, so why would she get so carried away to do this. Rain felt her mind went blank when her attack had connected successfully, she knew her attack was lethal and there was more than a 99% kill rate for the phantom kill, half of her had hoped he would narrowly dodge the attack just like before but even she knew that wasn't possible once she had gotten that close to her target.

Rain's mind was finally clear of the frustration she felt, but looking at the dead body underneath her, it was already too late for that. However, as she tried to pull out her weapon from the dead body on the ground, something truly ludicrous happened. 

Her blade was stuck, it was as if it had been jammed into a rock, she wanted to pull harder when his body suddenly shifted weirdly, it warped distortedly before ultimately fading away like an illusion, which revealed her weapon that had merely been plunged into the ground. Rain's mind went into overdrive along with everyone that witnessed this.

'What just happened?'

She was dumbfounded but her body instinctively shot backward leaving behind her black blade that was still stuck on the ground. However, she soon felt a palm on her back that stopped her retreat. She turned her head hesitantly with a blank expression on her face and just as she feared, she saw him standing behind her with his arm stretched out and her blood immediately ran cold.

A bone-chilling aura ran across her spine that almost made her knees buckle under the pressure. He soon smiled and spoke gently, yet it was a tone that commanded authority, "Looks like I win." There was nothing she could say to refute him. Her mind may have still been active but her body was no longer hers to control.

It was a feeling she had never felt before, even from her clan leader. His aura alone made her feel insignificant, her most powerful technique was rendered useless before she could even realize it. She had played right into his palm. It made sense now.

Why she couldn't reach him, why he wouldn't even pull out a weapon to fight her. She was just that much weaker than this man, who seemed to have been having fun toying with her heart the entire time. 'Asshole.' Was the only word her chaotic mind could think of as she bit her lips in frustration. This was the first time she had lost to someone other than her brother, and she hadn't even stood a chance.

"I lost, I admit defeat." She said with a bitter smile.

"No need to be so down, you're the first person to push me so far in over a thousand years. I'm quite impressed."

Rain saw the genuine smile on his face when he said that as he took his palm off her back. She felt his aura rescind and her nerves rapidly calming down which made various emotions start to rise within her.

She could see Liz running towards her so she decided to apologize. "Sorry. I'm sorry about earlier." She was apologizing about her last attack, most people would've died from that and it definitely wasn't supposed to be used in a practice bout.

"It's fine, this had been very educational for me so I'm glad I accepted this bout, besides, how can I refuse a serious request from such a lovely young lady."

Rain was flustered by his response and the final lid that kept her emotions in check popped like a wine cock and she broke down crying.

Tyler almost lost his composure with her sudden outburst as he thought. 'I should stop using those types of spells if something like this is going to happen every time.' He was the one that had just managed to escape death, yet it now looked like he was just bullying a girl.

Luckily for him, Liz and Erin arrived just in time. "Are you both alright?" Erin asked in a worried tone and shot Tyler a look. 'I didn't do anything.' He wanted to protest but kept silent. Liz went to console Rain and she just fell into her arms like a baby. It didn't take long for her to stop crying in Liz's arms after Erin cast a soothing spell that negated the effects of his spell, Touch of Despair, a Tier 2 spell in the Despair series. Which Tyler had felt was more convenient than its Tier 1 counterpart.

Tyler looked at the scene and sighed inwardly, perhaps he could've ended the fight in a more suitable manner. if he had wanted to just overwhelm her with strength, he was sure he would've lost control and ended up killing her.

Rain seemed to have fallen asleep after the soothing spell and Albert offered to carry her out. Liz then went over to Tyler and he thought she was about to berate him or something but she didn't.

"I'm glad no one got hurt, I thought for sure that last attack would cause a lot of problems, I'm sorry my friend got carried away..."

Tyler nodded but did not speak and Liz continued.

"I can't believe you survived the phantom kill without even a scratch on you."

"That's true, her last strike had really surprised me," Erin added, strangely more enthusiastic than usual.

"That's right, and how were you able to fool Rain with an illusion, she should be able to see through any illusion magic due to her racial skill."

"Mmm... I just distorted the space around me a bit and combined that with an illusion spell, it's no big deal."

"Wow, you can use such a high-level special magic?" Their eyes gleamed with a childlike excitement that Tyler hadn't expected. He then quickly changed the subject before they could bombard him with questions he could not answer.

"How about we head back up and resume our discussion."

"...Oh... Okay." They both seemed a little disappointed by that, it was now obvious that they were really interested in hearing more about spatial magic which Tyler technically couldn't use.

Albert carried Rain out of the room and the two girls trailed behind him leaving only Tyler behind. He proceeded to place his hand on his chest and sure enough, his heart was beating heavily. He was surprised at how he was able to hide the loud sound from the others, but he still felt his arm trembling before his eyes.

What he felt during that last attack was no doubt the threat of death. He was certain that if he hadn't activated his ring and gotten those two skills, he would've died in this match. This was the third time that Tyler had ever felt threatened by death in his life and he couldn't get used to it. The first was on earth, just before he actually died.

The second was here on Neron, the moment he and his friends were captured by a demon general. Coming face to face with someone of that level as someone that wasn't even a Tier 1 swordman was enough to give him a heart attack. And finally, he felt the same feeling when facing that dark elf.

Well, it wasn't the same. He turned his head to looked at his trembling hands. What he had felt when faced with that last attack was, insulted. Something within him felt absolutely livid. He was glad he had accidentally activated his ring and had a way to end that fight quickly otherwise he wasn't sure what he would've done to everyone in this hall.

As it turned out, his plan for managing the demon's pride with the placate spell was flawed as it was harder to do that in the heat of battle. Still, he had learned a lot from that battle. For instance, the value of pieces of equipment and Artifacts. The usefulness of enhancement spells and skills in battle and more importantly, the strength of a Secret Technique.

Tyler reached into space and pulled out a ring, he stared at the Monarch Ring as he wondered if he should activate it to be safe. It didn't have any skills but maybe it would increase his basic stats. He sighed deeply as he decided against it. The ring was useless for now and he felt like putting it on would attract trouble. If he could open the secret door without needing to activate it, he would do so.

Tyler then walked out of the hall after returning the ring into his storage space and he headed back to the North wing. He entered the office room and saw that Rain had woken up and looked as if nothing had happened with that carefree smile on her face as they watched Tyler enter the room.

He proceeded to take his seat and stared at the girls before he spoke.

"So... Now that we're done with your little test, how about we get straight to point. Let's start from the beginning then, who are you girls? Where exactly are you from, and why were you headed for this castle?"