Book 5 - Chapter 59 - Cornered (1/2)

The instant Janus’ dagger pierced his skin, Cloudhawk felt the toxins begin to spread through his body. It felt like fire was being injected into him.

Luckily it was just a matter of the flesh. Cloudhawk had nothing to fear from poison.

Janus must have known this one strike would not have been enough for he prepared to tear open a deadly gash through in his target’s frame. But as the assassin heaved, he suddenly felt his grip grow lax. Cloudhawk had engaged his phase ability and spun around with Arden Wrath cutting a deadly arc.

A ferocious cut followed, cleaving Janus apart at the waist!

For the third time, Skycloud’s master assassin was slain.

Both halves of the man wafted away from each other like leaves on the wind, and settled upon the ground five meters apart. Only a handful of creatures could survive a wound like that, none of them typical humans.

But the mysterious patriarch of the Umbra family would not stay down.

Cloudhawk made sure to watch carefully. As he stared he saw the borders of that figure begin to dissolve into smoke before the two halves of the figure vanished entirely.

Of course, that wasn’t real. No wonder he’d been able to land blows so easily.

Cloudhawk looked around, this time finding more than one of the man. Shadows descended on him from several directions, each one masked in the same way and watching with soulless eyes. The daggers in their grip seemed real enough, were they all copies?

So that was his secret. No wonder he seemed invincible. It was certainly a unique skill, but something about it made him think of Adder.

Adder had been able to summon mirror images through high-grade relic. The doppelgangers it created were near-perfect replicas that copied the form and even the relics of its target. Such a relic had made Adder one of the most terrible enemies Cloudhawk had ever faced. Luck had played a big role in his victory that day under the God Tree.

However, Janus’ ability had a distinct difference from Adder’s.

Adder’s crystal mirror summoned copies of whatever he liked, but Janus’ mirror images were limited to himself. The former could replicate anything, however they were weaker than the original and capped at four or five copies. Janus’ relic was specialized, thus creating more powerful mirror images and in greater numbers.

Three… five… ten… twenty…

Shadow after shadow swept toward him like a flood of nightmares, appearing from the ether and gaining substance as they neared. There seemed to be no end of them.

Cloudhawk suddenly found himself alone in a sea of deadpan eyes. Each shadow was perfectly identical and it was impossible for him to pick out the true assassin.

It was no wonder this man was the head of the Umbra family, the leader of the Court of Shadows and Skycloud’s ultimate assassin.

The physicality of these copies was very weak. All of their power was concentrated in their attacks, whose strikes were as deadly as the original. But with each subsequent attack the copies became weaker.

That was how Cloudhawk had been able to cut down several already. Assassins were not warriors, they didn’t fare well in protracted battles. They were trained to eliminate their target in one blow, so a single opportunity was all they needed.

Ten of the shadows closed in one Cloudhawk and struck in unison. It was a frightening scene, for this singular attack was delivered by Skycloud’s foremost killer, ten times in the same moment.

Cloudhawk’s eyes slid toward Daen, motionless on the ground. He took a deep breath, sheathed Ardent Wrath on his back and retrieved the Rekindling Lens from a pocket. First he would have to heal the wound in her chest.

But Janus would not stand idly by and allow him the chance. Cloudhawk was immune to his poison? They he would just have to kill him the old fashioned way, cutting him to pieces!

Those ten copies dissolved into smoke and were carried away by the wind. A moment later four more appeared right beside Cloudhawk. They attacked him with incredible speed.

More followed, wave after wave converging on a single point.

Meanwhile Cloudhawk remained with his feet planted and did not move. All around him grim specters groped with lethal intent. Janus could be just as deadly as a Master Demonhunter, but his attacks were fundamentally different.

The likes of Arcturus and the Crimson One relied on psychic power, and had it in spades. When they summoned that strength the results of their power shook the earth.

Janus’ strikes, on the other hand, were not showy or sensational. They were a single adjective, taken to the extreme – fast!

Unbelievably fast, supplemented by an assassin’s deadly precision and stealth.

Cloudhawk found himself the dead center of a killing field.

For this reason Cloudhawk made no effort to protect himself. He knew he couldn’t match Janus’ speed, especially not ten of him. Instead he gathered his mental energies, took a breath, and let it go.

A torrent of green fire erupted from him. Before anyone knew what was happening it had consumed an area ten meters in every direction. Janus’ copies were instantly destroyed. Yet despite the orb of deadly fire it was no use. The assassin’s shadows were all-pervasive and slipped through even the smallest gaps between the flames. They racked their sickly daggers against Cloudhawk’s flesh and left a number of gashes.

“Get the fuck away from me!”

Cloudhawk roared and urged the fires forth like a tidal wave. More of the mirror images were obliterated.

As his fury raged a huge swath of ground around him was blasted by divine fire. It swelled out in every direction, an orb of all-consuming power with him at the epicenter. With no were to hide, the twenty or thirty specters around Cloudhawk were erased.

Yet in a display that robbed him of hope, the number of Janus’ copies was not affected. In fact, they increased.

The real assassin was hiding somewhere Cloudhawk could not pin down. He was controlling this perpetual onslaught from some inky shadow. These copies did not require much from him, but maintaining the field of Castigation fire was a demanding task for Cloudhawk. Under these circumstances, Cloudhawk was no match for Janus.