Chapter 65: Teta, what did you do?

“Hmph, trying to hide from me with only this level of skill is useless. I’m the champion of hide and seek!” Yuna cried and rushed directly to the assassin. She casually sent out a thrust directly for his heart.

’What!?’ SmartYeti barely parried the thrust with his dagger. Not only was his stealth seen through, a ten second penalty cooldown had been applied. Even if the girl was unexpectedly strong, he never expected his stealth would be rendered useless.

“Tch! One with Shadows!” he muttered as he used the force from Yuna’s thrust to jump into a dark alley.

Yuna rushed to follow until she felt the assassin’s presence disappear and appeared behind her, aiming a dagger directly at her neck.

“Yuna!” the girls cried out.

’I see him!’ Yuna smirked and ducked the Backstab, then pivoted on her back foot and sent her elbow direct to his sternum. With his momentum stopped, she reached up for the arm above her. If she managed to grab ahold, she could easily break his arm.

’Won’t let you!’ he screamed in his heart. With every ounce of vigor he had, he brought his legs up and kicked off Yuna’s back to separate them.

Yuna saw through the maneuver quickly and rolled forward to weaken his kick. Then, she sprang up toward SmartYeti with a kick of her own. The speed of this approach was many times faster than what it had been before.

This work is hosted on mananovel.com

“What is this speed!? Are you a ninja!?” SmartYeti complained aloud while he drifted in midair. As an assassin, he prided himself on his speed as it is the bread and butter of rogue type classes, but the speed he just witnessed made him break out into a cold sweat. He had kicked off of her, but she was up and ready to attack him before he could even touch the ground.

“A ninja? Maybe!” Yuna chuckled happily as she closed in. In an instant, she was close enough to see his face twisted in rage. From below, she swung her sword and executed Dragon Claw. As the roar of a dragon sounded out, SmartYeti desperately tried use double jump.

“Too slow!” Yuna roared as she flicked her wrist to send the Dragon Claw raking across SmartYeti’s chest.

Blood sprayed as the assassin flew crashed into the wall once more. Being an assassin, he didn’t want to wear heavy armor since it would require him to invest into strength. However, as prompts started popping up and assessing his damage, he was truly regretting that he didn’t even have a chest plate for protection.

He scowled at Yuna and said, “You win, okay? Let’s just leave it at this.”

“You want me to let you off after you attempt to attack my friend? Had I not been here, you would have killed her, so I’ll be taking your life instead.” Yuna declared as she pointed her sword.

SmartYeti stood shakily and slowly widened the distance. “You kill me, and I’ll make sure my Hall of Shadows doesn’t let you get another good night’s sleep. Killing me once is fine, but killing me twice would be an embarrassment! The guild would definitely put out a contract on you to even the score!”

Yuna’s eyes narrowed. She could tell that the assassin spoke truth, but she had the sneaking suspicion that he wouldn’t just let their conflict end today either way. “Let them come.” she said solemn and began to sprint.

SmartYeti had already prepared. “Life Severing!” he screamed as he stabbed forward with his dagger drenched in his own blood. Life Severing was a move that did damage based on how injured the assassin was. Should they find themselves in a desperate situation such as this, killing the target was still possible. As with many of the assassin’s moves, its purpose was to aim for the opponent's life in one strike.

What SmartYeti didn’t expect, was that when Yuna reached his dagger at that insane speed, it went right through her like a ghost. His scalp went numb at the sight.

The real Yuna had hid her presence and rushed to the side to jump off the wall. With savage glint in her silver eyes, spun her entire body and unleashed a Slash a full strength.

SmartYeti could only stare as a flash of light passed beside him, followed by a burning pain all the way from his left shoulder to his waist. In the next instant, he received a prompt saying he had been dealt a mortal blow and his screen went black.

Yuna landed nimbly and looked down at the assassin with a small smile. Thadius had face this same foe, and now, so had she.

Christina came up a moment later, holding the hands of Teta and Esaa who had their eyes closed. From their pale complexions, one could imagine that such a bloody scene was quite new to them.

“Is...he dead?” Christina asked, trying to keep her voice even.

“He’s dead.” Yuna replied solemnly, then she turned to look at Teta and Esaa with a wry smile. “Come on. Let’s get back before it gets dark. That’s when the really bad people come out.”

Christina shuddered at what Yuna’s words implicated and tugged on Teta and Esaa’s hands to hurry them along. Without anymore sudden events, the girls came in sight of the Temple.

Yuna used Vanish before reaching the temple where she would have to keep quiet to avoid detection. She walked toward Christina and whispered, “What do you think would have happened if I hadn’t been with you today?”

The color drained from Christina’s face. She had been thinking about just that the whole time after the battle. All she had for her protection right now was Barrier, and that wasn’t something that could be used infinitely. She could only weakly admit, “I would have died.”

“Do you think the Red Hand would have died?” Yuna pressed.

Christina grit her teeth as her eyes started to mist. She had also made this comparison countless times in the past few minutes. If the Red Hand, Rosemary, was strong enough to have her name spread to another continent, then would she need to fear a single assassin? Christina truly didn’t think so, and being found wanting when compared to the woman who was Thadius’ lover, stabbed at her heart mercilessly.

Watching Christina on the verge of tears, Yuna sighed, “There is a reason why Thadius wants you to learn how to protect yourself. I’m not trying to be mean. You know that, right?”

“I know.” Christina nodded.

Esaa, who had been listening in, tightened her grip on Christina’s had. “You did a lot more than we could Christina, so don’t be too sad. We’ll all get stronger together, right Teta?” she said as she looked to Christina’s other side. There was no reply, so everyone’s gaze turned to the tiny initiate.

Her head was down, and she was staring at her hand with a fierce intensity. Every so often, she would wiggle her fingers and grumble. The others all became curious as to what would have her so focused.

“What’s got you showing such a serious face, huh?” Christina asked, gently squeezing the tiny hand.

“I think...it was like this?” Teta muttered under her breath. Suddenly, above her hand, a small transparent disk materialized. The others immediately stopped and gaped at the disk. It bore a striking resemblance to the skill Christina was just bestowed by a god.

“I did it!” Teta cheered as she watched the small disk, but it disappeared soon after.

“Teta, what did you do?” Christina asked.

When the Teta turned, her little pig-tails swung in the air. Yet, as she looked at the other’s faces, especially Yuna’s, who had even lost her concealment because her concentration was broken, her triumphant smile slowly turned to wide-eyed fear.

“Did I do something bad?” she asked tentatively.

Christina quickly looked around. Once she saw the coast was clear, she knelt down and gave Teta a hug. “You didn’t do anything wrong, okay? You just have to make sure that no one else but us sees what you just did. Even when you practice it, it can only be by yourself or around us! If you show anyone else, they might take you far away. Do you understand?”

“Okay.” Teta said meekly.

’Does she really not know how significant it is to do what she just did? Or...has it happened more than once!?’ Christina’s thoughts were in chaos, and when she caught sight of Yuna’s strange expression behind her, a sense of dread suddenly sprouted in her heart. It had only confirmed that what they just witnessed could not be known to anyone else. It was akin to stealing power from the gods.

“Come on. It’s been a long day. It’s time to get some sleep.” Christina pulled herself together and lead the way back while Yuna vanished behind her.