Cassandra stood with a calm demeanor as she stared at the Assassin Vice Guild Leader. They faced one another in silence, eyes locked, as though they were enemies born of fate itself. From the very beginning, Cassandra had always considered herself the executioner of all who dared oppose the Wargrave, and at this very moment, she fully intended to enact that role without hesitation.

Although she had only met the Tenth Sun once, she had liked him immediately. His personality stood out sharply even among other Wargraves, his thoughts, his expressions, the way he carried himself were fundamentally different. He wasn't rigid, arrogant, or detached in the way many powerful Wargraves tended to be. And yet, despite knowing exactly whose blood he carried, these assassins had dared to touch the Tenth Sun.

That alone was unforgivable.

At this moment, her opponent stood at the very peak of the Soulstar Life Ranker, the Radiant sub-Life Rank. He was only a step away from stepping through the threshold into the Crownstar Life Rank. In contrast, Cassandra herself was still at the Flare sub-Life Rank. The gap between them was not small by any standard.

But it did not matter to her in the slightest.

If she could not bridge a mere two levels within the sub-Life Rank hierarchy, then she did not deserve to one day become the Commander of the Wargrave Knight Order Round. That was the standard she had set for herself, and she had no intention of lowering it.

If anyone else were to hear her thoughts, they would cough up blood in disbelief, or slap her outright. She was talking about matching a man with one foot already inside the Crownstar Life Rank as though it were nothing more than a mild inconvenience.

Cassandra did not speak.

Her knees bent forward, and in less than a blink, faster than sight, faster than sound, faster than thought, she erased the distance between them. Her Chakram tore through the air toward the Assassin Vice Guild Leader's head with lethal precision.

Dame merely shifted slightly to the right, dodging the attack with insulting ease, as though Cassandra were nothing more than a reckless child biting off more than she could chew. But Cassandra did not relent. She was already moving, her second Chakram shooting toward his kneecaps in a ruthless follow-up, aiming to cripple him completely.

Once again, Dame saw through her intentions. His feet moved casually, almost lazily, as he evaded the strike with graceful efficiency. The two of them blurred into motion, one attacking relentlessly, the other dodging calmly, his expression unchanging, as though he were humoring a stubborn child who refused to acknowledge the overwhelming difference in power.

'This isn't going anywhere,' Cassandra thought as she continued her assault.

Her opponent was faster than her without even trying. That much was obvious. But that did not mean there were no other ways to match Dame's speed.

The very next instant, Astra energy surged through her body. Her muscles screamed, her perception sharpened, and her speed skyrocketed. In a golden blur, she eclipsed the pace Dame had been moving at moments earlier.

Dame reacted instantly.

His rapier tore upward to meet the incoming circular blade, and with world-bending force, both weapons collided. The shockwave ripped outward, toppling trees, shattering stone, and blasting everything around them backward as though a storm had detonated at their feet. Their eyes met for a brief moment, killing intent burned violently within Cassandra's gaze, while serene composure glowed within Dame's.

The world blurred around them, color drained from reality itself as their movements accelerated beyond perception. The forest disintegrated around them as they streaked through space like bolts of lightning tearing through the night sky.

Clang. Clang. Clang. Ding. Ding. Ding.

The constant sound of metal colliding rang out without end. Every strike was aimed to kill, not to injure. At this point, even Dame had fully augmented himself with Astra energy, his normal speed was no longer enough to keep up with Cassandra's accelerating movements.

Astra energy coated their weapons as they moved to claim each other's lives. Every monster and beast unfortunate enough to exist within the same forest was instantly reduced to minced flesh beneath the sheer force and caliber of their battle.

With another thunderous boom, they collided once more, then vanished again. Neither of them employed elemental abilities, for they possessed none. At this stage, the battle was purely physical, a contest of raw power, speed, technique, and killing intent, waiting only for the tempo to shift.

The intensity of their battle climbed higher with every passing moment. The air screamed in agony, shrieking as their blades tore it apart, but neither of them seemed to hear its pleas. They existed in a world of their own, each focused on the rhythm of the other's heartbeat. Until one heartbeat fell silent, there would be no stopping, no retreat, no pause.

Madness continued to rise. Intensity. Force. Battle energy. Everything surged relentlessly.

Power met power. Speed met speed. Control met control. Blade met blade.

There was no hesitation in targeting vital points, eyes, brain, skull, neck, throat, lungs, heart, spine. Mercy had no place here. One of them would die, and that was all that mattered.

'She's matching me,' Dame thought as he narrowly dodged another strike.

He couldn't understand it. The difference in sub-Life Rank alone should have given him a decisive advantage, yet that advantage simply wasn't manifesting.

'She's getting faster… and stronger,' he analyzed again.

At the beginning, Cassandra had barely been able to keep up with his base speed. Now, after both of them fully augmented their bodies, she was matching him stride for stride, something that was supposed to be his specialty.

'Where do the Wargraves even find these monsters?' he wondered as he thrust his rapier toward her throat.

Cassandra parried with ridiculous grace, redirecting the blade and counterattacking within the same motion. In Dame's eyes, Cassandra couldn't have been more than one or two hundred years old. Yet here she was, matching someone who had lived for over five centuries.

Though he could clearly tell she lacked the depth of battle experience he possessed, there was a far more troubling issue, she was learning in real time. Every time he exploited an opening, Cassandra would evade it, analyze it, then seal that weakness permanently.

'I should stall her,' Dame decided mid-battle. 'Once Duke Azaron kills the Guild Leader, I'll finish her off, escape, and claim the position of Guild Leader for myself.'

Cassandra's eyes flicked sideways as the air exploded near her ear. Her opponent's blade was already coming.

Without hesitation, she dove left, narrowly dodging the strike. But she didn't merely evade, she retaliated. Her Chakram sang forward with lethal intent.

Dame dodged, but the moment he did, he felt something brush against his shoulder.

A tap.

A distinctly human touch.

The instant his senses registered it, his shoulder detonated outward. Pain flared violently through his mind. Without hesitation, his form dissolved into a black, flickering phantom as he widened the distance between himself and Cassandra.

He frowned as he examined the damage, he couldn't understand it. He had felt a touch, and then his shoulder had been torn apart.

'Can she cause injuries with a touch?' he thought sharply. 'Is this her ability?'

As an assassin, analysis during battle was second nature to him. But Cassandra's ability was not to cause injury through touch.

It was similar, but far more terrifying.

This awakened ability was called Injury Manifestation.

It allowed her to forcibly re-trigger old injuries the moment she made contact with someone. If she touched a person's palm, and that person had ever been injured on their palm at any point in their life, that injury would instantly reappear, fully manifested, regardless of how perfectly it had healed.

Time did not matter. Healing did not matter.

As long as the injury had existed once, it could be summoned again under her control.

And this was merely one of her awakened abilities.

Cassandra, the Vice Commander of the Wargrave Knight Order Round, was one of the rare individuals in all of Crymora who had awakened more than a single ability.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: It's Christmas, and this author didn't receive a single gift or a super gift. This author feels betrayed... apologize to this author with a super gift (cries profusely).

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