One of the assassins took a step forward, trying to shorten the distance.
There were still a certain distance between them and Epsilon. But even if Epsilon launched a surprise attack from where she was, they would be able to take that with ease.
─ However.
"What!?"
Suddenly, the assassin's head flew into the air.
And Epsilon slashed at the assassin's body of which blood flying in all directions, and fell down because of lacking strength.
"How can this person release such a strong magic!?"
The remaining four assassins quickly changed to a defensive posture, but they couldn't cover their surprised look.
Releasing magic from a sword.
A magic-swordsman could do that as long as he reached a certain level. However, as it is impractical in real combat, no one uses it.
Control on magic would be lost once it leaves one's body and rapidly disperse. To maintain magic that was dispersing, one had to use even more magic. And it took some time to prepare a large amount of magic, which would also delay the attack. The longer the distance, the time and magic needed would increase in proportion.
Only those who had a far tighter control on magic than ordinary people did could solve this problem. Only a small amount of magic could reach a place far away in a short time. Only provided the caster can use his tight control to suppress the consumption of magic and shorten the time accumulating magic. But even if one could do that, if he didn't have enough amount of magic, he would lose in a long-term war.
"The time she used to accumulate magic was almost zero… Can someone really do that?"
They knew how difficult it was to attack from far away in a real combat, so they were quite surprised.
"Don't stay together. Split up!!"
"─ Useless."
Countless slashes cut the space.
The slashes, letting out a sharp sound indicating they would cut anything, mercilessly rushed to the assassins who were running helter-skelter.
"Dammit, I can't dodge."
"Keep away from it for the time being."
"Don't back down. If we can't shorten the distance, we can only unilaterally…"
"It won't work. You are absolutely unable to escape from my attack range."
Another assassin's head was cut down.
The blood was hit by Epsilon's slash, and dispersed after turning into red mist.
"Things are going badly…"
"How could she control so many slashes to such an extent?"
"This is [seven shadows]…"
An anxious look appeared on the assassins' face.
Then, another assassin turned into a blood mist after being chopped by Epsilon.
─ Just at this time.
"Ga."
Epsilon stopped attacking after letting out the dull sound.
Epsilon placed her hand on her chest and got down on her knees.
Then she fell down.
"Not right now…"
Red blood issued from the gap of her bodysuit.
The wound had cracked.
"I heard that she had been seriously injured by Mordred."
"This seems to be her limit."
Yes, Epsilon had reached her limit.
She knew that, so she launched a short-term decisive battle. If it was an ordinary enemy, the result would have been determined at the beginning.
But enemies were members of the cult who had a second name.
Although she killed one as soon as the battle began, she spent too much time in the later fight. Then, after killing three assassins, Epsilon's wound finally cracked.
"Ku…"
The sword fell from Epsilon's hand.
"… it seems that we will be the first one to kill [seven shadows]. We will definitely be promoted!"
"But there are another six people like her. If only they wouldn't threaten the cult…"
"Mordred-sama will kill them all, including the so-called Shadow-sama."
"If that's the case, then it would be fine… hey, stay there!"
They looked down at Epsilon, whose face distorted because of pain.
"We won't kill you yet. After coaxing the information out of you… oops."
Epsilon reached out and tried to pick up the sword that fell on the ground before. An assassin immediately stepped on her hand.
"U…"
"Give it up."
"Sha… dow… sama…"
"Hey, what are you doing?"
"I'm… so… sorry…"
Epsilon made her final effort to make a dagger and tried to stab herself in throat.
"What… stop her!!"
At the crucial moment, an assassin kicked the dagger away.
"U…"
"It was damn dangerous."
"Hey, hey, your… feet…"
"Hmm? My feet?"
"Your feet… were cut down…"
"Eh…?"
The man who kicked the dagger away had his feet fell down on the slabstone.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh my feet!!"
Then, ko, ko, ko.
Came the footsteps.