The assassin moved first, quick enough that the fight changed shape before the roof had finished creaking under their weight.

He slid across the slanted tiles and slipped into [Shade Skip], his body smearing into a dark blur before reappearing near a chimney with one knife already cutting toward Trafalgar’s ribs and the second waiting lower for the follow-up.

Trafalgar turned with Maledicta in time to keep the first strike shallow, but the poison had already dirtied the rhythm inside his body. His strength was still there. It simply no longer rose as cleanly as it should have, and against a man who fought like this, that fraction had teeth.

Steel scraped across steel in a tight burst of sparks. The assassin did not linger in the clash for even a breath. He slipped out, cut again, changed angle, and came in low with the kind of work that had nothing to do with pride and everything to do with killing efficiently.

One knife snapped toward the inside of Trafalgar’s thigh. The other hovered near his throat, ready to punish whichever line Maledicta chose first. Trafalgar knocked the lower blade aside and felt his leg answer half a fraction slower than he wanted. The assassin felt it too.

"You’re already slowing down."

Trafalgar stepped in and brought Maledicta down in a heavy diagonal cut that split broken tile and forced the man backward, but the bastard flowed with it instead of resisting, boots glancing off the roofline before he vanished through [Shade Skip] again and appeared at Trafalgar’s side with both knives working together.

One cut traced along the black cloth at his waist. The next came shorter, and fast enough that it kissed skin before he twisted away. A hot sting flashed over his side, and the poison entered him more deeply.

That was enough.

Black armor closed over him in a dark shimmer, piece by piece, until hard obsidian plates wrapped his chest, shoulders, arms and legs with a fit so precise it felt less like summoning and more like truth surfacing. The assassin’s pace did not break, but something in him tightened at once. He had expected a target with talent, a sword, and problems. He had not expected this. Obsidian Wings, Trafalgar perfect armor covered him completely.

"...That’s inconvenient."

"You’re free to leave," Trafalgar said.

The assassin answered with another rush. He came in tighter this time, no wasted testing left in him now. The first knife flicked toward the seam beneath Trafalgar’s arm, the second angling up under the jaw as he slipped through [Shade Skip] midway through the attack and changed the line from one side to the other.

He fought like a man who had spent years making sure nobody ever got a clean exchange against him. Trafalgar met him with heavier steel and heavier intent, Maledicta smashing one knife off-line and biting sparks from the second, but the poison kept dragging lightly at his timing. Not enough to put him down. Enough to make him annoyed.

’Filthy style.’

The assassin pulled away two steps and opened his left hand. Powder dusted his fingers.

Trafalgar saw the shallow breath gather behind the cloth over the man’s mouth and knew exactly what was coming before the skill finished taking shape.

The bastard wanted [Venom Breath] again, hoping the second cloud would turn discomfort into real collapse. Trafalgar’s off-hand opened and [Blazewick Torch] appeared there at once, flame bursting alive in a hot crack just as the green dust blew forward.

Fire met poison.

The powder did not spread the way the assassin wanted. It caught. Heat flared back into his own side of the exchange and burst across his hand and part of his face, spoiling the attack in one ugly instant. He recoiled with a curse, one arm jerking up on instinct. The rhythm of his body broke, and that was all Trafalgar needed.

He drove forward through [Severance Step], body cutting across the roof in one blurred curve before reappearing at the assassin’s flank.

Maledicta came first and forced both knives high in a rushed cross-block. The second strike did not come from the sword at all. A dagger flashed into Trafalgar’s free hand, [Widow’s Whisper] appearing just long enough to carve a short, hard line across the man’s side before its concealed edge bit deeper at the end of the motion. Blood spilled across dark cloth.

The assassin hissed and sprang backward toward the edge of the roof, one boot slipping on cracked tile before he threw himself onto the next building.

Trafalgar let [Blazewick Torch] vanish. A breath later [Widow’s Whisper] disappeared as well. Only Maledicta remained in his hand when he followed.

Below, Zafira was already moving through the narrow side streets beneath them, keeping pace without forcing herself upward too soon. Her crimson threads remained stretched through the stone around her, so fine most people would never know they had touched them, but every vibration reached her clearly. Two bodies across the roofs. One lighter, cutting in bursts. One heavier, direct even under poison.

The flare of fire had traveled through the web like a plucked string. The sudden shift afterward had told her enough.

’He burned the poison.’

On the next roof, the assassin landed in a crouch and pressed one hand against his bleeding side. When he lifted it away, his glove came back wet. He stared at the blood for the space of a breath, more insulted than shaken.

Trafalgar crossed onto the same building at a measured pace, black armor drinking the light around him while sea wind dragged salt and smoke over the tiles.

"I preferred you poisoned," the assassin said.

Trafalgar kept Maledicta low. "You talk too much."

The answer scraped deeper than a threat would have. The burn across the man’s hand and cheek had already ruined part of his confidence, and the line torn open at his side had finished the rest.

His fingers dipped into another pouch and came back dusted with a paler green powder, finer than the last and somehow nastier for it. He let part of it fall while he drew the knives again. The particles did not burst outward like [Venom Breath]. They drifted, light and patient, and began clinging to the roof around him.

[Deadman’s Pollen].

Trafalgar felt the change in the air immediately and moved before the field could settle properly. Maledicta carved out in a swift horizontal line and [Arc Slash] burst from the blade in a wave of dark-blue mana that tore across the roof, forcing the assassin off the centerline before the poison could spread where he wanted it.

Broken tile exploded upward. Green dust scattered. The man slipped sideways through [Shade Skip], avoiding the worst of it, but the roof he had claimed a moment ago no longer belonged to him.

He landed on the higher ridge and came back in low with both knives, choosing speed over space. Trafalgar met him halfway and swung again, this time driving into [Severing Fang].

Pressure burst from Maledicta in a diagonal line that split the roof from ridge to gutter, snapping tiles apart and forcing the assassin to spring over his own footing just to avoid losing balance. He did, but the movement cost him the angle he wanted, and Trafalgar was already on him.

[Severance Step] carried him through the gap in one blurred curve. He reappeared at the assassin’s flank with Maledicta already descending, the strike heavy enough that both knives had to rise together to keep it off flesh.

The clash rang hard across the rooftops. The assassin blocked, twisted, and tried to roll the impact off his wrists, but Trafalgar stayed on him this time, the poison still dragging at his body and irritating him more with every second.

The assassin slipped out before the second cut could take his shoulder, but not cleanly. Trafalgar’s boot drove forward and caught him in the side, sending him skidding across the broken tiles into the edge of a chimney stack.

The man recovered fast, faster than most would have, though the blood at his side had begun to spread lower now.

"Flow Core my balls." he muttered.

Trafalgar advanced another step, black armor tight around him, Maledicta humming faintly with mana. "You should’ve brought better information."

The assassin’s expression twisted. He rushed again, this time using the pollen around him as cover, body flickering through [Shade Skip] while his knives came from ugly angles and the poisoned dust clung to the roof between them.

Trafalgar did not wait for him to complete the pattern. Maledicta rose and came down in a brutal two-stage motion as he drove power into [Earthsplitter]. The first impact split the tiles beneath them. The second sent a shock through the roof broad enough to crack stone, collapse part of the ridge, and punch a stagger through the assassin’s legs just as he came out of movement.

For the first time since the fight began, the man’s balance truly broke.

That was all Trafalgar needed.