Asher stood at the center of the apocalyptic ruin he had created, the forest around him still trembling from the aftershocks of his destruction. His body remained flawless, unshaken, as though the annihilation of every assassin within a hundred-meter radius had been nothing more than a mundane exhale.

Flames licked the charred ground, molten stone hissed beneath his feet, and shredded fragments of terrain hovered in the heated air like suspended dust. Yet Asher stood perfectly calm, untouched by the devastation.

But the world of Crymora seemed tired of the sight, tired of witnessing Asher aura-farm through every confrontation, tired of watching him effortlessly erase lives as though sweeping aside dust.

At the very next second, an overwhelming killing sensation flooded his entire being, so sharp and sudden it felt like a cosmic spike driven into his spine. His instincts reacted before conscious thought could form. Instinctive Adaptation and Optimal Movement Efficiency flared within him like twin supernovas.

Asher's body bent backward in an impossible arc, his spine folding as though turning liquid. His back aligned perfectly parallel with the ground beneath him, creating a margin of survival so narrow that even the air seemed unsure whether he had avoided the blow or merely dissolved for a heartbeat.

The moment he dodged, the world shifted. Time itself slowed, or perhaps Asher's mind accelerated beyond what time could keep up with. His purple eyes caught the faint, lingering trail of a sword slash, the afterimage of a gleaming death-line tearing through the space where his neck had existed barely a fraction of a second earlier.

He wasted no moment. Optimal Movement Efficiency surged again, and Asher dove abruptly to the side the instant his dodge completed. He didn't need to see the follow-up attack; he knew one was coming, knew the kind of assassin capable of such an opening strike would have already queued a second killing blow. A violent boom followed, the air screaming as the missed attack shredded wind, dust, and stones around his previous position.

Asher's figure blurred, reappearing several meters away in a flash of motion. His head snapped toward the spot he had stood upon mere moments ago, and there he saw him, a man draped in a dark cloak, face obscured behind a white mask, posture calm and utterly unaffected by the carnage around him. His back remained turned to Asher, as though the boy's existence was beneath his concern.

Asher didn't need to guess, heknew immediately who it was. One of the two assassin leaders, Blue.

'What is he doing here?' Asher thought, eyes narrowing. This was supposed to be an assassination attempt targeting Norman. Logically speaking, the two leaders should have been directing their lethality toward Norman, not toward him.

'Unless these assassins were never after Norman to begin with.' The suspicion tightened his gaze.

Blue spoke without turning. "You truly are a Wargrave. To think you would dodge an attack you could neither sense nor see… truly a family of monsters through and through." His voice carried a quiet mixture of admiration and disappointment, as though Asher's survival had disrupted his expectations.

Only now did the man turn to face Asher fully.

Indeed, Asher had sensed nothing. Blue had been positioned outside his Sense Dome radius, and his speed had eclipsed Asher's base perception entirely. If Instinctive Adaptation and Optimal Movement Efficiency had not flared simultaneously, if his instincts had hesitated by even the smallest heartbeat, he would be dead.

"A talking assassin?" Asher replied with a faint lift of his brow. "That's new." He spoke deliberately, buying time, gathering information, sharpening the answers to the swirling questions inside his mind.

But despite the conversation, Asher's guard never dropped, not for a breath, not for a heartbeat. He had barely survived that first strike. He wouldn't give the man a second free attempt.

Star Energy flowed subtly through his eyes, down his limbs, and across his brain. His perception expanded, his thoughts accelerated, his speed heightened. Every nerve and muscle surged to its absolute peak as he prepared for whatever might come next.

Without warning, Blue vanished. Not disappeared, vanished. A burst of motion so instantaneous the earth beneath him rocketed upward, tearing free in violent chunks. His short sword screeched through the air toward Asher's neck again, the same killing stroke, yet this time sharper, faster, cleaner.

But Asher saw it. This time, he could follow the arc.

Battle Intuition roared within him, a primal scream of instruction. It didn't tell him to stand and block. It told him to advance, to meet the attack head-on, to violate every conventional instinct of survival.

He obeyed.

Asher cut forward with a burst of speed that surpassed even the furthest peaks of the Blazestar Life Rank. Virelass blurred into motion, the rapier singing with anticipation. The devastating collision rang through Asher's bones as Virelass met the short sword.

The impact rattled him. 'Heavy,' Asher thought. Too heavy. Had he taken the blow standing still, even while augmenting his body with Star Energy, he might have been thrown backward, or worse, sliced apart. Without Star Energy, there would have been only one outcome: instant death.

Blue attacked again without pause, undeterred by the impossibility of Asher blocking him. His short sword tore through the air with a streak of black light. Asher met every swing, every thrust, every killing strike with force so immense it echoed through the ravaged forest like thunder ripping through space.

Purple eyes met green. And then both figures vanished.

They became specters, blurs of motion flickering across a lava-scorched landscape. The world transformed into a battlefield of collapsing trees, exploding terrain, and piercing booms as their clashes tore the environment apart. They crossed a hundred meters in seconds, ripping through the molten forest with every exchange. One was a blur of black; the other, a streak of gold and purple.

Then it came, a scream from Asher's instincts.

His entire body jolted. Something was wrong. Terribly wrong. He was barely keeping up already, Battle Intuition Optimal Movement Efficiency and Star Energy working in tandem to anchor his survival, yet his instincts screamed louder than ever.

And then he understood.

His body slowed. His thoughts collapsed back into normal rhythm. His perception dimmed to its unenhanced state.

His connection to Star Energy,

vanished. He didn't need explanation. He knew instantly: Blue had severed his access.

The assassin's blade closed in toward Asher's neck, faster than any speed Asher could ever reach without augmentation.

Instinctive Adaptation and Optimal Movement Efficiency activated again, saving him by the width of a hair. Asher dove left with a burst of pure, primal movement, and even then, he wasn't fast enough.

A thin cut flashed across his cheek, crimson blood dripping down before the wound snapped shut immediately.

Blue watched, silent.

The battle had only begun… and he will end it immediately with the next strike.

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