After seeing that the darkness sphere is not expanding anymore, I focused all my attention to the silver assassin and attacked again with my three clone, but he just sidestepped and dodged easily.

After that, he paused slightly for a moment and then shook his head.

"It’s futile, talentless hero."

I heard his mocking voice; after that, his sword starts glowing as he releases a powerful attack that aims straight at my heart.

"Danger, too fast, can’t dodge"—one thought after another instantly comes into my mind, so I instantly use Void Step to move ten meters behind him.

BOOM!

As I teleported, an explosion occurred as the ground exploded and was destroyed where I was a moment earlier.

THUD THUD THUD.

My three doppelgangers also got blasted away from the shockwave and crashed heavily on the nearby tree, and some even crashed to the ground.

"What the hell!"

I cursed after seeing what his attack has done.

"Fortunately, Void Step now can teleport me ten meters, or else I will be doomed."

I sighed in relief, because as my realm became Iron Knight, the Void step 1 m distance became 10 m, which is very beneficial for me.

The silver assassin paused slightly after finding that his attack had missed.

"Interesting"

He muttered while turning towards me, then he asked.

"Was it with this power you killed Darius Ashenford and his soldiers?"

My expression changed on the mention of Ashenford, and I asked. "So it’s really the Ashenford family?"

The silver assassin just shrugged and didn’t answer; instead, he continued his own talk.

"Even though your ability is quite amazing and this giant form is also good, but—"

He paused on this, then turned to look at the three doppelgangers that were blasted apart but were now slowly standing back on their feet and again starting to surround him. He also noticed that some black energy was leaking from their bodies, but it was also stopping slowly.

His gaze then returned back to me as he continued with a boring voice.

"This strength is not enough to kill a peak silver knight."

I also didn’t stop him but waited to restore some of my aether and stamina as well.

The silver assassin also saw this, but he continued his talk.

"Body temper, iron knight, and bronze knight are all good, but silver knight is the first major breakthrough, which changes everything you know about strength."

He paused for a breath, then said, "A real silver knight can fight hundreds of bronze knights."

"What!!!" My pupils dilated as I heard this word; this is absurd. Because a single person’s stamina and Aether are limited.

The silver assassin smiled at this reaction and said in a normal tone.

"I will show you why."

Then he muttered something in a very low voice, which even I can’t hear properly.

"Combat Art"

Then he raised his sword slightly but slowly, on which I felt goosebumps, but before I could use Void Step to dodge, another word escaped his lips.

"Quick Cut"

The next moment, in an instant, which my mind can’t comprehend, he moved slightly, then stopped the next moment as he lowered his sword, but—

His sword is stained with dark blue blood.

"Dark blue?" I muttered unconsciously, then thought, "Doesn’t my blood also become of this color in Nyx’s titan form?"

Then I felt a deep pain in my heart as my origin was damaged and looked sideways; there, my three doppelganger heads dropped to the ground with a thud. After that, they broke into small dark energy particles, along with the dropped heads, and disappeared.

"What? How?" Only this thought comes into my mind, but before I can understand all of this, I feel something missing as my right side feels lighter than usual.

I got confused, but still slowly I turned my head to the right side, and the next moment, my pupils widened because my right... my right hand, along with Voidfang, was gone. Then the next second I heard the silver assassin’s playful voice.

"Are you looking for this?"

I instantly turn toward him, and there he is, holding a giant bloody hand with a sword still clutched in that hold.

Then I also noticed his boot is releasing heat, and the ground beneath his foot seems a little bit burned.

"So he moves so fast that I can’t perceive him."

This thought occured to me, but the next second—

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Luke’s pained scream echoed as his hand was cut so fast and so cleanly that even his body failed to react to the absence of his right hand and the wound; even his blood didn’t come out because his Aether was stuck in place and stopped the blood flow.

But now it did, and he felt the unbreakable pain.

"Ahh..."

"It hurts!"

Luke’s eyes got teary, as this is the first time he felt so much pain, because in his last life, he was an ordinary guy, and even after being transported to this world, he didn’t feel this much pain.

The silver assassin looked amusedly at Luke’s behavior, whose tears came out just from the absence of a single hand.

"Well, you can’t compare to us," he thought and then said to Luke.

"Well, the client asked me to torture you and find out where Darius and Roland Ashendford are... before slowly killing you."

He paused slightly after this as he looked at Luke’s face, who was gritting his teeth to bear pain, but then added another line.

"So don’t blame me; blame them."

With that, he shrugged, like he was not the one who had done this.

I gritted my teeth in pain as I felt pain coming, because my right hand was missing and pain was coming from the heart area as well because of the loss of clone.

But fortunately, my titan healing kicked in, and slowly blood stopped flowing out from my wound as it finally, but slowly, closed.

"Huff...hufff."

I took a forced breath to calm down my body, and all this time the assassin didn’t intervene. "It seems like he is really planning to torture me."

This thought instantly comes into my mind, and then I check the status of the missing hand, but the result is bad because if I want to grow my back arm, it will take at least 1 day in giant form.

Then the next moment, I heard a shout that was a mixture of both a bird and a man. At this, both Silver the assassin and I turned to look toward the source.

"MASTER!"

There in the distance, the night curtains slowly disappear, and appear the group of assassins and knights, who were both injured.

There, the Owl hybrid man, who was bound by a chain to his neck, as two assassins were tightly holding him down, and then the knights, who were injured and were groaning in pain on the other side, as their bodies lay on the ground.

But the next moment my mind goes blank because I see Aurielle is tightly bound by five chains and a person is holding her hair to lift her head up like a trophy...

I can see her face, as she was in agony while blood coming down from her neck.

Then without even my thinking, a word escaped my mouth.

"YOU CROSSED THE LINE."

[Chapter End]