Chapter 159: Battling The One of Swords (II)

Giliath demands your power stones!

*

"Tch. That really hurt you know. Didn't think you'd be able to create needles like those.", Ace said, seeing several smashed needles on the rooftop. As he said that, the smashed needles began to disperse, slowly vanishing away into bits of mana. He ignored the large pain that suddenly struck his body.

"Heh, that was just a welcome gift. You might want to watch your backside.", I said, seeing as Ace currently observed the phantom image created by my speed. "Piercing Light!", I suddenly yelled out, only to reappear over the same pillar to where Ace was still at. Seeing me reappear behind him, Ace turned serious, and did a backswing of his blade, only to swing down against another phantom image.

"Damn. You're a fast one.", Ace said, letting out a complaint. Before he could take another swing of his sword though, he felt something pierce against his lower abdomen.

"Ahh!", Ace yelled out, feeling my rapier pierce through the lower portion of the long robe jacket he was wearing. Blood splattered onto the thin blade, as it was now sliced through it. A big dark red text appeared over his head, seeing as it was a successful critical hit.

[-33,500!] (A/N: This is with the ATS conversion with Piercing Light)

"Cough...", Ace said, letting out a low groan as he felt my Radiant Starlight suddenly pierce through his lower abdomen. A lot of blood spurred forth from his mouth, only to quickly get absorbed into my blood spheres. This amount of blood caused my spheres to enlarge by a good chunk. As a result of my needles and this one critical strike of my rapier, After these two successive attacks, I had dealt about 15% of Ace's health. He had about 840,000 left. Compared to my fight with Randy, this grind has proven quite successful. Even I couldn't help but marvel at how high my strength has gotten.

That does leave a bit of worry for when the sky arc begins in the next couple years. I will definitely have to find a limiter on my strength, if I end up deciding to partying up with Estelle and her group. Still...

It seems this battle was indeed going to be a long one, regardless...

Yet despite seeing his own blood continue to pour over the blade I just pierced him with, Ace's gaze turned dark and his battle qi started to escape from his body.

"My little sister helped make this jacket, you piece of shit Jaeger.", Ace suddenly yelled at me, letting his anger soar seeing as my rapier was pierced through the lower end of his jacket, creating a decent sized hole in it. Ignoring the wound in his lower abdomen. Ace found himself suddenly twisting his body and went in for a close counter attack, which caught me off guard. I tried to will the blood spheres around me to absorb some impact. Ace still managed to slice through the walls of blood that quickly surrounded me as his anger soared. Thanks to the twist of his body, my blade popped out and his wound continues to bleed. But ignoring the pain over his abdomen, I saw myself blinking the large swording down my way. As it did, it began to glow in a yellow light.

I couldn't dodge in time, and blood began to splatter as a large gash struck over my armor. Ace's sword seemed quite durable too, being able to slash through it. A big red text appeared over my head as Ace blasted me away back to where the pillar Alisa was currently at.

[--6660!]

"Cough...", I said. letting out a painful groan after getting slashed directly on by Ace's greatsword, feeling a searing pain over my front side of my body with blood continuing to pour out. Ace's swing definitely hurt me, and by quite a bit after seeing Ace landed a critical hit of his own. In just one large swing, Ace took down about a half of my health. He definitely was no laughing matter in terms of raw strength. One wouldn't even think he was an assassin to begin with.

Yet, to this day, I don't think I've matched anyone who was able to deal such a large blow to me.

"Phoenix!", Alisa yelled out, obviously worried seeing how a large dose of blood spurt out from my front, leaving behind a large gash wound.

"How's that, damn Jaeger? You're officially on my shit list.", Ace said, cursing out seeing the hole over his jacket, ignoring his own blood pouring out.

"...", I didn't say anything, only to calmly observe the large slash wound.

This really was a first for me, huh? I did have some deep wounds caused by Randy in the past, but seeing one as large as this, it basically covered my whole frontside. What a sword Ace as. Its size and durability is very reminiscent of the ones used by both the Thunder God, and the Radiant Blademaster.

Yet to my surprise, after my hp dropped by almost half, my Regeneration skill already started to kick in. As it was such a large wound, I heard a notification sound off.

[Ding! Passive skill, Regeneration has reached Level 2.]

A low pitched hiss sound soon started to exude from my body. Slowly but surely, the large sword mark started to close itself up. The blood that I lost still affected me though. Ace blinked at the damage he had just caused me to start to heal.

"...Are you even human?", Ace said, uttering as my wound started to close already. As it did, small green health points constantly appeared over my head. This was not visible to anyone but me, but it was showing that my Regeneration was currently active.

"Would you like to find out?", I said, bearing my fangs at Ace.

However, before the two of us could initiate another clash, I heard several notifications sound off inside my mind, which caused me to smile.

[Ding! Garden of Sword assassin killed: 6/10]

[Ding! Garden of Sword assassin killed: 7/10]

[Ding! Garden of Sword assassin killed: 8/10]

[Ding! Garden of Sword assassin killed: 9/10]

[Ding! Garden of Sword assassin killed: 10/10]

Seeing these five sudden notifications, I couldn't help but smile. Looks like Ines, Ennea and Sharon were able to finish their routing inside of the upper floors of the Reinford building. To even add to that, it didn't take long before we heard faint sounds of shuffling feet, only to hear a latch on the rooftop open up not too far away.

"Tch. Those guys couldn't even do their job properly.", Ace said, seeing the three of them appear at the hatch. Sharon's eyes quickly wandered around, ignoring Ace's remark just now. Sharon soon spotted Alisa off to the left side of the roof.

"My Lady!", Sharon said, only to vanish from the hatch, and reappear behind Alisa, which caused Alisa to blink at seeing Sharon's sudden arrival.

"Sharon...", Alisa uttered softly. That was good timing at least. With Sharon now at Alisa's side, I could now focus on the fight at hand more.

Yet before we could do anything else, Ennea was quick to spot me. Seeing a large slash wound on my chest that was currently healing, Ennea felt something snap inside her mind, only to look at Ace and his large greatsword. Ines saw Ennea's eyes turn dull as she squinted them, not showing much sign of remorse, similar to how she behaved back inside of the cult.

Ines knew how Ennea came to become a member of the Stahlritter, but she had yet to see this side of Ennea. She didn't even think she would come to learn this side of Ennea, let alone knowing that she still had a dagger hidden within Ennea's body. She had mostly used the bow as a weapon, but seeing Ennea suddenly pull out a dagger from underneath her clothes, Ines blinked at Ennea.

"Die.", Ennea uttered, only to vanish from sight. Ennea's speed seemed to outclass Ace's as he tried to block but close to where the wound I left. Ennea's small dagger radiated a purple glow, and with a quick swift of her hands, she managed to pierce Ace's abdomen, almost opposite to where I struck with my rapier.

[-14,800!]

Another large damage counter appeared over Ace's head, with a big dark red text, signaling yet another critical hit. Seeing as Ace's physical defenses were higher, it was a surprise to see such a good damage count there coming from Ennea. Ace felt a searing pain reach his stomach again, causing him to cough out more blood. But for some reason, he didn't get Angry this time. In fact, we all saw Ace as he calmly saw his stomach get pierced again. Seeing who was now behind him, it took a second for him to recognize Ennea. He also had another look at Sharon, who was now at Alisa's side. It didn't take long for Ace to let out a laugh, which caused us to blink.

"Hahahaha! To think on this night I would find not one, but TWO traitors. Today must be my lucky day.", Ace said, only to playfully swing his sword around a bit as he continued to observe Sharon. Ignoring the blood that was still pouring out of his body, Ace continued to observe Sharon. Seeing Ace's eyes locked on Sharon, Alisa couldn't help but blink at Ace's sudden reaction.

"...What is this guy talking about, Sharon? Why did he call you a traitor?", Alisa asked, not having a clue about the situation at hand, since she didn't know that Sharon used to belong to the Order of the Moonlight Horse...