The moment the Enforcer Professor hit the floor, the assassin moved like a wisp of smoke, gliding along the wall and up onto the ceiling.
Defying gravity, she sprinted across the overhead beams, leaving the four spells cast by the Academy lecturers trailing harmlessly in her wake. Then, like a pitch-black Death Rite Bird, she swooped down, her apprentice robes snapping in the wind. The mage directly in her path didn't even have time to chant a second spell before a blade was driven through the very center of his glintstone crown.
Hooking her arm around the dead mage's neck, the assassin used the corpse as a shield, swinging it into the path of three incoming spells. Amidst the spray of blood from the detonated body, the assassin shot forward, wedging herself into the center of the remaining three mages. A band of obsidian light swirled in a circle around her, coming to a rest between her fingers—it was the curved blade of a Black Knife.
Time seemed to stand still. The three mages stood frozen in place.
The assassin stepped slowly out from between them. Her killing intent was so palpable it distorted the surrounding air, and the magical orbs of light illuminating the bunker flickered and died one by one.
Behind her, the three mages collapsed simultaneously, like puppets with their strings cut.
Someone let out a first, piercing scream. Like a switch being flipped, the apprentices surged toward the bunker's exit in a frantic swarm.
"Oh? You're not running?" the assassin asked with genuine interest amidst the chaos.
"If I get swept up in that crowd, I'd likely die even faster under your blade," Raven replied.
Raven lowered his center of gravity. One hand gripped his light greatsword, while the glintstone staff in his left hand extended a long blade of shimmering cerulean magic—a Carian Slicer. With one sword long and the other short, one physical and the other ethereal, they fanned out beside him like wings. He radiated an unshakeable, mountain-like presence, with biting sword-intent swirling around him.
"The Carian Slicer... and a Wing Stance? It looks decent enough, I suppose." The assassin nodded mockingly, but then her tone shifted to one of slight surprise as she realized Raven had closed his eyes. "Blind Strike?"
Under the unprecedented pressure of imminent death, Raven's mind became as serene as a moonlit lake. Even without sight, every movement in his surroundings was reflected in his heart; only the assassin ahead remained a blurred shadow.
The skill: Blind Strike. He had practiced this top-tier technique for a long time, and even with the talent of a demigod, it was difficult to master completely. But now, it was as if the dust had cleared to reveal the light; the blades were extensions of his hands, capable of reaching anywhere.
Fuuuu—
A breath escaped his lips.
He stepped forward, breaking into a jog, then a sprint. The sword light surged like a tide.
The assassin sneered. Her body danced in tandem with her shadow, slipping into the tsunami of sword-intent from an impossible angle. Her Black Knife pressed against the flat of the greatsword near the hilt; using the momentum, the blade bounced up, gliding effortlessly toward Raven's throat, only to be deflected by a magic shield that manifested out of thin air.
Magic surged according to Raven's will. Glintstone Pebble, Glintstone Stars, Glintblade Phalanx, Crystal Barrage... countless low-to-mid-tier spells were cast instantaneously. Some weren't even recognized spells, but rather unformed torrents of mana or jagged crystal shards that perfectly filled the gaps between his sword strikes.
Even with the assassin's formidable strength, she found herself struggling to parry and dodge, unable to find an opening for a counterattack.
"Have you had enough?!" After being suppressed for nearly half a minute, the assassin finally saw Raven's breath falter. She parried two heavy strikes with a sharp clang, and just as she was about to deliver a fatal blow during his momentary transition, her right foot failed to lift.
"What—!" The assassin looked down. A layer of glintstone light had bound her right foot firmly to the ground, and it was already spreading toward her left.
"The Miner Brotherhood is here!" Five apprentices had driven their staves into the ground, sending mana crawling across the floor. This was a variation of the Shatter Earth sorcery, taught to them by their low-born miner parents. It was a technique ignored by the elite, yet it had caught the assassin off guard.
Raven seized the moment, swinging his blade in a wide, sweeping arc. With nowhere left to dodge, the assassin struck the spine of the sword with her palm, using a masterful technique to deflect the edge at the cost of two of her fingers flying into the air.
With a shattering sound, she broke free from the mining magic. She leaned back to evade two Glintstone Pebbles coming from behind and moved laterally with ghostly footwork to put distance between them.
Two noble apprentices lowered their wands, glancing provocatively at the Miner Brotherhood. "Noble blood will never lag behind!"
"But only two of you showed up!" a miner apprentice shouted back.
They argued to bolster their own courage, but their voices gradually went quiet until no one spoke.
Drip. Drip.
Blood hit the floor.
"You have truly angered me." The assassin slowly stood upright. Upon the two bleeding wounds on her left hand, a flame of interlaced red and black suddenly ignited, cauterizing the injuries shut.
Even with his eyes closed, Raven felt the phantom pain of his eyes being seared by those flames. He hissed through his teeth, "That fire—"
"Alecto, Ringleader of the Black Knives." The ochre flames on the assassin's hand suddenly erupted, covering her entire body. Her apprentice robes were reduced to ash within the fire. "I bring you Destined Death."
"Round two, then?" Raven clashed his two swords together. "Bring it—what?!"
The power of the Rune of Death bloomed within the bunker. In an instant, the senior apprentices arriving as reinforcements were turned into living torches. The assassin shot forward like an arrow, a semi-spherical crimson arc appearing before her. Her body, wreathed in ochre flames, pierced through the arc, trailing a straight line of light as she lunged at Raven.
Faced with those flames, Raven's demigod body trembled with instinctive terror. He swung his blade with all his might, but he only cleaved through an afterimage of fire.
A hundred meters away, a row of afterimages slowly dissipated.
The assassin rose slowly. Her bare skin glowed a brilliant, bruised red; countless capillaries beneath the surface had burst, and subtle cracks appeared at her joints. Even for the Ringleader of the Black Knives, a dash that far exceeded the speed of sound was a heavy burden on the body.
Clang.
A blade fell to the floor. A thin line of blood appeared across Raven's throat.
"Finally finished. Now, all that remains is to carve the Cursemark..." Alecto muttered to herself.
She walked toward Raven. The power of the Rune of Death was enough to kill a newborn demigod in a single strike, but only by carving the Cursemark of Death could one create the "First of the Dead" among demigods.
Halfway there, she stopped abruptly.
She felt something ineffable approaching—an astral wind as cold as the blackest reaches of outer space. The very air around her seemed to be freezing solid. A distant, ethereal singing echoed in her mind, like the sea of stars itself was lifting its voice.
"This is... another Outer God—" She clutched her head in agony, staggering toward the fallen Raven. A strange, yellow veil seemed to drape itself over her vision. "It's just like Malenia... no, this is more terrifying than the Goddess of Rot... I must finish this before the Two Fingers arrive..."
She forced herself to raise the Black Knife, but let out a cry of pain as she was blasted back by a barrage of Glintstone Stars.
Sellen appeared at the bunker entrance, the tip of her staff glowing brilliantly.
Alecto's body skidded across the ground, leaving a trail of blood on the wall. Whether it was because she had been forced away from Raven or because the pain had cleared the mysterious mental influence, Alecto regained her senses.
A single Sellen was nothing to her. But she heard the rapid thunder of hooves approaching from the distance and knew that if she didn't leave now, she never would.
She melted into the shadows of the corner, slipping along the base of the wall and out into the darkness beyond the bunker. Half a minute later, Loretta charged into the bunker on horseback, staring in stunned silence at the devastation before her.
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Elden Ring: The Unborn One's Journey Through Elden Ring(34 Chapter - Ongoing)
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