After managing to save his life thanks to the healing items he had specially equipped himself with for this mission. Blane crawled out of the hole in the wall he had been kicked into, his invisibility skill, having been completely seen through was immediately shattered on impact.
For some reason, the female undead hadn't made any follow-up attacks after that which was both infuriating and a relief as it granted him a moment to recover.
He couldn't help but wonder, what was the undead's true objective here. Was her aim truly the same as his or was she here for a different reason?
Still, Blane was trained to have no other priorities than the mission at hand. He couldn't allow himself to get distracted from his current objective.
His current mission was from the former head of the specialized division, Lady Citrus, it was a simple mission that involved keeping an eye on the activities of the 5th princess of the Jaxith family while serving as her bodyguard and he had done just that.
His job was not to question his orders even when he did not understand the reasoning behind it. As a member of the specialized division of the Brimstone family, he would carry out his assignments flawlessly and without fail.
Reaching into the pouch on his waist, he felt around for the spatial storage box he had stored the documents he was sent here to retrieve as he considered his options carefully.
This was an important mission given the urgency of the situation. He had only just received the assignment from Citrus messenger earlier today.
He was to secure and retrieve the list containing the names of nobles involved in dealings with Numbers as it was bound to implicate their carefully positioned spies, ruining centuries of hard work.
Blane understood that this list was most likely the reason the organization was able to set up a base in this city despite their lack of power and influence in this part of the continent.
They surely possess a vast information network if they were able to put together such a list in such a faraway city from their headquarters. Who knows just how long they've been operating in this city unnoticed due to the power this list holds against the nobles of the Floato region.
For an organization outside the influence of the Great Five to possess such influence was insane. He couldn't understand why the Brimstone family had to attempt to control the entire organization from the shadows.
Although he could imagine the backlash having such an advantage over the other Four Greats would entail despite the fact that the Great Five each possess an information network vastly superior to that of this organization.
This only goes to show just how fragile the balance of power between the Great Five was as even a needle such as this would greatly tip the scale.
Thinking of all this and the consequences of failure, with consideration to the strength of the undead before him, Blane made his decision.
He ran.
Shadow Stealth?
?Shadow Clones?
?Shadow Surfing?
?Shadow Movements?
In less than a second, he had successfully activated four different skills at the same time, expending most of his mana in the process.
Seeing as the undead hadn't attacked him immediately, he used shadow Stealth, a variation of the stealth skill that increases the effectiveness of the skill in darkness, as such, he followed the skill up with shadow movement.
The shadow underneath his feet widened and two identical copies of him formed from his shadow and took shape, each immediately charging at the undead with great speed.
Using Shadow Surfing, a skill that controls the shadows in a way that increases their ability to move and/or maneuver either in various ways, either by granting them abilities they otherwise lack or allowing them to ignore normally needed equipment.
In this case, the shadows extended from their backs in the form of jet-black wings that boosted their speed several folds.
Blane saw the shadows underneath the undead's feat move to take the shape of two daggers and she easily used them to parry the attacks from his clones as he sank into the shadows.
He clearly didn't believe he was capable of defeating this undead and knew his clones could only serve as a distraction for a few seconds, but a few seconds was all he needed to escape with the information he had retrieved.
Sinking into the Shadow realm through his shadow, an infinite dark void of semi-sentient shadows that were connected to every single shadow in the physical world, he used shadow surfing to boost his speed as well, diving through the shadow realm to aid his escape.
?Shadow Clones?
Having parried the attacks from the two shadow clones, Zelda made her decision as her shadow expanded and two copies of herself rose from within and lunged at the incoming clones of Blane.
?Shadow Assault?
A barrage of attacks assaulted the clones in less than half a millisecond, rendering the clones countless pieces as Zelda and her clones also used shadow movements to chase after their target.
Due to the use of Shadow Stealth, it should've been impossible for anyone to sense or see Blane in the absolute darkness of the Shadow realm yet the three Zelda's almost immediately caught up with him.
"How is this possible? Tsk!"
Seeing all his preparations go to waste without even slowing down his opponent at all, Blane was a little frustrated that he lost his cool. He clicked his tongue as he created multiple clones of himself again, sending them to distract his opponent even for a moment.
?Shadow Garden?
Zelda's clones suddenly disappeared as the slowly moving shadows all around them morphed into countless thorns with black roses that slowly bloomed the thorns shot at the clones of Blane from almost every direction, imprisoning them in what seemed to be a black rose garden.
"What sort of skill is that? Fuck!"
Blane cursed after seeing his clone pose no threat to the undead, her glowing green eyes seem to penetrate even the absolute darkness as though it was completely locked on him which sent shivers down his spine.
?Mark Soul?
Turning his attention within, he finally sensed it. Realizing something was wrong as she shouldn't be able to sense him or track him while shadow Stealth was still active within the absolute darkness of the shadow realm, he turned his attention within and finally sensed it.
His soul had been engraved with the mark of the undead, perhaps this was what she was doing when she had chosen not to attack him earlier. Somehow, it seems she had known he would attempt an escape rather than risk failing his mission.
"Damn it. I can't even get rid of it."
Having been marked in his very soul, Blane knew he couldn't hide from her anymore and deactivated his shadow Stealth skill as it was now a simple waste of Mana.
He then exited the shadow realm, their brief chase had already taken them out of the city and he jumped out of the shadows of the trees of the Ozark forest.
With his increased speed and agility, he moved swiftly around the dense forest, using the trees as cover to avoid being shot down from behind by his pursuer.
He planned to lose his tail within the density of the vast forest so that he can buy himself enough time to rid himself of the mark on his soul.
However,
*Bang. Swoosh... BOOM!
The undead had somehow shot out of a shadow ahead of him and before he could even react, her leg was already an inch from his face.
Moving on instincts alone, his arms moved to block her kick with the base of his sword which might've saved his life as his blade shattered under the force of the kick. breaking his right arm as his body was sent flying through the trees until burrowing into the ground in a devastating impact.
Blane gasped as the air was forced out of his lungs again, spitting out blood as he hurriedly used a healing scroll before another attack would come his way. He could not afford to stay still even for a second.
"Max magic, Shadow hounds."
The shadows all around him moved sentiently as they took form and 10 shadow wolves lunged at the undead that had just landed where he had been.
Jumping out of the crater his body had just created, he cast a spell and quickly followed it up by retrieving another blade from his storage box.
"I guess I have no choice. If I want to escape I'll have to use it."
To many, an innate ability was the essence of their livelihood, their ultimate trump card. It was no secret the Brimstone family was seeking out the innate abilities of lesser demons and demihumans.
These abilities were unique abilities that could be insanely weak or ridiculously strong, and in the wrong hands, even a single ability could very much destroy the world. Hence why the Brimstone family was trying desperately to extract those abilities from anyone and gift them to their forces.
As such, everyone that had been assigned to the specialized division possessed such innate ability that would aid them in carrying out their mission and Blane was no exception.
He had hoped he wouldn't need to use it as his ability was somewhat harder to control and extremely valuable.
? Strings of Fate ?
Glowing red strings slowly wiggled out of his back as Blane planted his feet on the ground and exploded forth, shattering the ground underneath his feet.
His shadow hounds moved randomly as they used the trees and branches to lunch at their target. Her movements were swift and precise as she accurately dodged the dog's attacks and her blades would instantly split them in two.
Within a second, she had already eliminated 5 of the 10 shadow hounds but just as she moved to avoid the jaws of another hound, a single red thread touched her leg and she one characteristic tripped and was forced to stop the attack with her arm.
Still, an undead felt no pain and what would've been a hindrance to many was merely a slight annoyance to her as her free hand moved swiftly, detaching the head of the hound from the rest of its body.
However, the other 4 moved around her and lunged at her from all angles with Blane charging in from
the front as another red thread attached itself to her leg yet again.
"Time to rest in pieces undead beast!"
?Rending Death?
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