Chapter 157: One Of Swords

Giliath demands your power stones!

*

Seeing as five of the ten assassins were now killed, bonus experience was granted to me as a result of me being in a party with three girls. The Harem Seeker title really does embrace the concept of the Gamer System quite nicely, especially if one was within the grind, to which I presently was.

On top of that, it is fun to see a person's reaction every time they get invited into the party system.

The level up jingle sounding off inside my mind and the faint yellow glow wrapping around me never gets old either.

I did want to invite Angelica and Kloe to this raid as well if it was dealing with monsters instead, I definitely would have. But we are dealing with human lives here. They are not used to the idea of killing while I have already experienced my first kills on battlefields prior to this. On top of that, we are dealing with assassins here, and I did not want to put their lives in danger.

As to my own, the sight and stench of blood no longer affects me much. I had gotten my first taste of it back inside the cult, and experienced my first kill in North Ambria. And whenever I'm in my dhampir form like this, it's more of a delicacy. I am still hesitant to drink the blood of the enemies that I slay, but I should probably try it out at some point, and see if there would be any different effect than how I got from drinking Ennea's blood.

I also need to check out that new servant system too when I get a chance...

But for now, I had yet to activate my Vermillion Eyes, so I turned quiet for a moment, and channeled my mana a bit. Alisa blinked at me, turning quiet for a moment only for me to close my eyes. She then felt a cold shudder sweep her entire body, only to have my eyes open again. Whenever I activate my Vermillion Eyes like this in my dhampir form, my eyes appear the opposite way. Instead of my eyes being golden only to have a vermillion hue around my pupils, my eyes were blood red, with a golden hue around my pupils. It did make quite the starking contrast.

"...What did you just do? It's like a pair of eyes just went right through me.", Alisa said, gaining a bit of interest.

"Ahh, sorry about that. People tend to feel that if they're close by when I use this. My household has a rather unique set of eyes you see.", I said, explaining a bit as I referred to House Phoenix.

"Your household, huh? There must be more like you then.", Alisa decided to ask.

"Unfortunately, my parents passed away quite a bit ago. I've been on my own for a while now.", I answered Alisa, keeping my real family aloof to her. It would be fun to see her reaction to when I would attend Thors later to see who I truly was, so I decided not to reveal everything about me now. Where would the fun in that be? But since I decided on that, hearing my answer like that caused Alisa to become flustered.

"I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked that.", Alisa said, feeling a bit sad after hearing my answer.

"Haha, being a Jaeger isn't all that bad you know. We get paid a good amount of mira depending on the contract we receive. It did change at the last minute though after we received a report of someone wanting to target you specifically, Miss Alisa. Even if we manage to deal with tonight, you will have to be ready to deal with what comes after. Your safety may not be fully secure until some time passes.", I continued to say.

"Right. It's still surprising to know someone is trying to use me. If anything, it's probably one of Mother's competitors...", Alisa also wondered to herself, only for her to stray further from the truth.

The fact that it was none other than Sharon's background who got Alisa into this mess. The Garden of Swords, who were one of the groups formed by that Garden the Oathbreaker created himself kept on pestering Sharon for her to join their group, only because Sharon used to be part of the Order of the Moonlight Horse assassins. Ennea was also in that same order, but I do wonder if she has been pestered to join the Garden of Swords. I'll have to ask her about that too.

With that thought, my Vermillion Eyes were now active. In my mind, a minimap of the Reinford Building group appeared.

I immediately noticed a few green dots aside from my current position. A bunch of yellow dots are currently moving around the first couple of floors, seemingly to scout them. These yellow dots were likely the RMP and the Provincial Army that I saw earlier. There was also a single yellow dot right on my position, which was likely Alisa.

I also counted five red dots, all individually split up and moving around at fast paces in the upper floors. These were likely the assassins. The three green dots seemed to be chasing them. These were probably Ines, Ennea, and Sharon. I didn't have a need to doubt their strength, so they would keep those five remaining assassins busy.

My interest was immediately drawn toward the singular dot on top of the building. It wasn't moving, as if it was waiting for someone to come their way. Its color was also different. Instead of red, it was purple...

Usually in these situations, a deeper color like purple meant a stronger enemy, right? I could only assume such. This purple dot was likely Ace, should he be the one showing up tonight.

Seeing the current situation, I regained my focus on the outside, still standing sideways on the building.

"Hang on, okay, Alisa?', I suddenly said toward Alisa, which caused her to blink at me.

"A-Alright!", Alisa said, only to think that I was about to move again. She gripped her grasp around me tighter, and kept the grip on the phoenix robe tight as well. The cold wind whipped around our faces as I started to walk. Quickly keeping my bearing, It didn't take long for me to start running on the side of the building.

Thankfully as we were already on the twenty-fourth floor, there were only a couple floors that were remaining before we reached the large rooftop. It didn't take long for Alisa and I to do a final jump, onto the roof, only to be greeted by a male voice.

"Hmm, I was beginning to wonder why my subordinates weren't coming. But can you be this stupid? You brought the target right to me.", A voice said, calling out to us from another pillar on the roof. Alisa blinked at the figure, as she saw that this person didn't appear to be cloaked at all. In turn, this figure observed Alisa, and determined it was the target his group was sent for tonight. Alisa's description matched his target's description.

"Well, in a way, doing this could be seen as stupid. But the rooftop is the safest place to be out of this current mess, no?", I said, only to let Alisa step down beside me seeing as we were on a flat surface again. To make sure she wasn't seen, Alisa immediately crouched down and kept my robe over her. Yet as she did this, she stuck out her tongue at the figure standing on another pillar, who appeared to be a messy brown haired man.

"That's right. There's no way I would go back with you guys, considering I have the Phoenix here protecting me.", Alisa chimed in, only to stick her tongue out at the guy, which earned a laugh from him.

"Haha, but you did save me the trouble of having me find you, so thank you for that. I didn't think I'd come across a Jaeger like you. It isn't out of the question though.", The man said, only to stand up himself, and stretched his neck a bit.

"You know me?", I asked with interest.

"Kind of, yeah. Word travels 'round pretty quickly in these parts. Doesn't matter what organization you belong to. You can call me Ace, by the way. You're the Phoenix, yeah?", Ace said, only to reach out for the insanely large sword he effortlessly carried over his back. His weapon choice was not of the normal standards, as he wielded a great Broadsword. The blade itself was about the size of his body.

"I am. I didn't think lowly assassins like you guys would come to know a Jaeger like me.", I said, answering the man who called himself Ace. I saw him start to wield his large Greatsword.

"It's kind of hard to not stand out in a Jaeger corp like Zephyr, especially since you're quite young. It'd be best for you to hand over my target, but from your current getup, I don't think you're going to take no for an answer.", Ace said, entering a combat stance of his own. He crouched, and brought his Greatsword backwards, bringing it away from himself. Seeing this man suddenly take an attacking stance, Alisa's eyes turned wide.

"W-Wait. You're going to attack Phoenix right here!?", Alisa exclaimed in shock. She knew that we were still on the Reinford Group's rooftop.

"Looks to be that way.", I answered Alisa, only to get my own weapon ready...