333 Chapter 333: Samurai and Shinobi (2/2)
Rei was naïve if he thought he could eliminate me so easily. I smiled and waited for him to charge at me, while he covered his advance by throwing another storm of shadows at the struggling Anastasia. As he closed in on me, glancing at the battling Hydra – who was still occupied by that monstrous cluster of serpentine shadows he had conjured – to ensure that he was in no position to intervene, he struck out with his katana. Vapor-like darkness streamed out of the curved blade and lashed out at me, as if to ensnare me or cut me apart.
At the same time I summoned my next Constellation spirit. An azure gigantic whale materialized behind and above me, hovering in the snowy skies. With a silent song, Cetus barreled forward, swimming through the air and leaving a thick trail of ice. Everything was frozen in an instant, even the shadows that Rei was unleashing.
”You…!”
”What?” Despite the gravity of my situation, I couldn't help but smirk. ”Did you think I had run out of Soul Beasts or something?”
”Just what the hell are you!?” Rei snarled as he backpedaled, drawing more shadows toward himself to defend against the incoming blizzard. The entire place had already plummeted to below minus fifty and vapor was freezing immediately into ice, deadly enough even to a mage enhanced with physical reinforcement spells and magical resistance. His skin was already turning blue from the extreme temperature.
”I'm a summoner,” I replied before his vision of me was replaced by the gargantuan jaws of Cetus.
However, Rei was no simple Assassin. He wasn't going to get swallowed up by my humongous Constellation spirit like that.
”!!!”
Cetus recognized that too, and banked to the right. Hard. A gigantic ice shield the shape of a snowflake appeared in front of him and protected him from a sword strike from Rei's katana. I recognized that sword spell as the same basic ranged strike any swordsman could use by swinging his sword. Hell, I was casting the same spell earlier, with the only difference being that my sword blasts were black and white instead of Rei's silver.
However, Rei's sword slash was several times sharper and more powerful than mine – and I was taking into account the combined power of both of my sword slashes. The guy was clearly a madman. Or he was really a professional Assassin. Not that I ever doubted that, but hey.
”Damn…I thought I could cleave that gigantic whale in half.”
Rei cursed as he glanced up at Cetus. The gigantic ice shield had been split in half, and was raining down fragments of frost onto the snow below, and a deep wound had been gouged into Cetus's side, but otherwise the Constellation spirit was still in the fight.
”Too bad I didn't learn healing magic,” I muttered. It was impossible for me to summon healing type spirits – and let's be honest, it was much more efficient for me to learn healing magic and cast it myself instead of summoning a spirit and then having it cast on me. To summon a Constellation spirit capable of casting healing spells, the prerequisite was that I myself had to master healing spells first. The reason why I could summon Constellation spirits of the five traditional Chinese five elements was because I learned the basic elemental spells for each of them. Unfortunately, I didn't learn wind magic, so I had to improvise with wind-attribute Constellation spirits. Same with healing spells. And before you go and demand that I learn them, it wasn't that simple. You don't expect a lawyer to suddenly master medicine and double as a doctor, do you? Even if they try, they would need years to do that. For me to go and learn a completely new magic such as healing or whatever, I would need to spend another few years learning a completely different branch of spells.
Rei glared at me, but before he could deliver another attack at Cetus, Anastasia practically jumped him. As expected of a former Assassin – even I, who was looking in Rei's direction, didn't see Ana sneaking up on her target at all. She lashed out with a poisoned dagger, intending to bury it in the bald Assassin's back.
However, Rei didn't survive this long and grow this strong from being careless or naïve. He reacted on instinct, moving to dodge her strike. At the same time, shadows surged from the ground and almost pierced through Anastasia, who was forced to vault over them and land a few dozen meters away. Several of them curved and shot toward her, but she cleaved them once again with her dagger and short sword.
Taking a deep breath, Anastasia dug her feet in the snowy ground before launching herself forward. She weaved through the multiple shadowy spikes, slashing and cutting those that she couldn't evade, and closed the distance on Rei. She was greatly assisted by the fact that Rei was forced to divert a significant amount of his shadows and coalesce them into a single spear to thrust it at the approaching Cetus.
Again, Cetus swerved away while creating a second ice shield, which got smashed completely by the shadowy spear. Before he could wheel away to safety, another powerful sword strike from Rei sent him crashing through the forest, and leaving ice in his wake.
By now, Anastasia had reached him. Rei spun around, just in time to intercept her short sword from piercing his back. He whirled about and kicked at her, but she ducked under the blow before slashing upward with her dagger. Rei slammed his elbow down on the flat of her blade, ensuring that he didn't get cut at all while deflecting the deadly, poisoned weapon, and then countered with his katana. Anastasia parried it with her short sword, but the power behind Rei's blow sent her staggering back a few steps.
He ground his feet into the snow and swept his katana up, unleashing a sword blast that rippled devastatingly through the forest and forced Ana to flip away. While she was still trying to regain her balance, Rei sent another bombardment of shadows to pierce her. Still off balance, Anastasia threw herself off the ground before she could get impaled, blood trickling down her arms when she failed to evade them completely.
She crashed onto the ground awkwardly, and before she could get up, Rei stood over her, getting ready to plunge his katana into her and finish her off.
It was only natural. She posed the biggest threat to him. One little injury from her and he would be finished. He probably didn't have any antidote, or even if he had, he didn't want to risk it.
However, before Rei could deal the killing blow, a single arrow slammed into his back, piercing his coat and leather suit to embed it deeply into his skin. Snarling, he staggered around and glared at me. I shrugged as I lowered my bow.
”Hmph.”
Rei snorted when he realized that the arrow didn't hit any of his vitals, and his injuries seemed superficial. Like I said, I was never a good shot. I was glad that I was able to hit him at all, and that was thanks to him being a stationary target. If Rei had been moving, I would never have been able to hit him. And even though my aim struck true, I wasn't able to target his vitals.
I told you I sucked at archery. I specialized in brute force, not precision.
”What are you playing at?” he sneered. Because my arrow had embedded itself in his back, he was unable to reach behind and pull it out. Not that it was a big deal – he could get one of his disciples to extract it once all this was over. ”After all the Soul Beasts you were summoning, such a lame attack is so disappointing.”
I shrugged as I dismissed Hercules. Rei watched me, bewildered. He was evidently wondering if I had given up.
And then hellish agony exploded across his body.
”AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
Howling, Rei dropped onto the ground and writhed. His body began to bubble and melt as the intense hydra toxins that laced my arrow finally took effect, destroying his system from the inside out. He stared at me with melting eyeballs, the final expression on his dissolving face that of disbelief, despair and excruciating pain.
”Sorry…but I figured I should take a leaf from Ana's book, you know?”
Smiling, I watched Rei's demise to ensure that the master Assassin wasn't feigning his death. He wasn't, of course.
The highly virulent toxins utterly annihilated his body, making certain that he wouldn't be coming back in any shape or form…for good.