Assassin Obstacle Course (3)

After that first confrontation, the assassins were quick to accept that they would have no chance at victory unless they worked together, a testament to their professionalism. Each team of assassins split into two groups, with the larger groups charging at him while the remaining groups fired powerful spells. The spells were the first to make impact on the tower of swords. They could do no damage, but Shui had to use up a portion of the swords for this defense. However, this defense was focused in one direction so the tower was left vulnerable as the larger groups of assassins attacked from the left and right.

Against these two incoming groups, Shui imagined a second Sui in his left hand and swung both of them down. The two gigantic golden swords that were summoned in response, crashed down on the two groups, but while the confrontation continued, one assassin from each smaller group appeared behind him. He had to guard against slightly less spells, but he still had to face enemies from three other directions. The assassins hoped to take advantage of a gap in his focus, but Shui's perception was much greater than they could imagine.

Without the need to turn his head, a new sword appeared behind him and knocked back the two assassins. It was harder controlling the formation with just his mind, but it wasn't outside of his capabilities. He didn't want to give up on this opportunity, so he shook off the assassins with a burst of sword light, and then swung Sui in the direction of the two lone assassins in order to deal a powerful blow.

Facing that golden blade, the two assassins tightened their grips on their weapons and fueled them with a vast portion of their nature energy to release their strongest techniques.

"Hah!"

Against the strongest attacks of the two assassins, the golden sword came to a halt, and was then pushed back briefly by the force of their strikes. Considering the number and quality of the swords in the formation, a proficient sword formation master would have been able to leave heavy injuries on the two assassins, but Shui was only using theory to make it so it was lacking a lot. If he searched through his mind's archive that was connected to the Primordial Library, then he could easily find a proper formation to construct, but he wouldn't be able to learn it in the midst of battle.

He would have been able to make a second attempt before they could reuse their techniques, but the other assassins resumed their attacks so Shui had to focus on them again. Emily began to feel nervous as she noticed that Shui was at a disadvantage, and prepared herself in case the formation was destroyed, but that bleak determination was proven unnecessary. Against this team of enemies, Shui could sense a clear chance of defeat. One that would come even if he was exerting the full extent of his mind and energy. Such a thing was rare for him, so he was all the more excited.

There was no denying that he was a genius, but he believed that learning techniques and improving his cultivation was only a small part of his journey. It was the experiences, the victories and struggles, and the despair that would push him further to the limit. Sure, it felt nice to easily defeat his hated enemies, but if he couldn't test his limits and then surpass them, then he wouldn't be able to use his true strength when he needed it most. Additionally, though his mind only touched on it occasionally, his special eyes were always a reminder that his fated enemies couldn't be faced without the resolve to walk with death.

He became motivated by the difficulty, finally peeling back his gentlemanly aura and leaking a hint of his pure battle intent. For a moment, all of them including Emily felt as if a sharp pair of eyes was looking at them. Emily only experienced it for a short time, but the assassins had to endure it head-on. The assassins were able to shake it off, but a sense of urgency filled them.

They made another collaborative attack, but this time, two from each group used their strongest techniques. If he tried to face it the same way as before, then there was a chance that his formation could be damaged, but Shui swung down Sui regardless. The giant golden sword appeared again and clashed with the techniques. The other assassins prepared to pounce the moment the sword was knocked back, but the unexpected happened. The techniques were smashed and those who were slow to evade were hit directly by the sword. It didn't end any lives, but two of them, both part of the duke's forces, were now unfit for battle.

They hadn't lost the confrontation because their techniques were too weak, but because Shui drew out the full power of the golden sword by using his martial intent. He couldn't do this before due to his lack of proper training, after all, if he could expertly use a formation of this level on his first try, it would be too much of an embarrassment for sword formation masters.

Even so, Shui's comprehension of martial intent made this feat possible. He was ashamed of the time when he thought that martial intent was just an alternate form of mental control, but he had learnt from his mistake and always made efforts to utilize martial intent better. Similar to how he could use martial intent to analyze a weapon, Shui guessed that by applying this logic to his formation, he would be able figure out the best way to exert the power of the formation. Unfortunately, this method had its limitations.

The two assassins who were caught by the attack, tried to get up so that they didn't become hindrances to their comrades, but it was a mistake to think that they could turn their backs. Since he knew their exact locations, Shui opened pits below them with spikes at the bottom. Furthermore, in case they didn't die from the spikes, he sealed the pit, caused a minor explosion to occur in the closed space and then compressed it. It was rather thorough, but no one was able to see anything besides the two bodies being swallowed by the ground. Before they knew it, two causalities had been produced while neither Shui nor Emily had a scratch.

At this rate, the assassins would be more and more disadvantaged, until they lost their lives. Still, it wasn't death that troubled them, but the fear that their mission would be incomplete, and these assassins were willing to give up their lives for the sake of their mission.

The Tower of Killers assassins, exchanged quick glances before they arranged themselves in the shape of a decagon. Once the setup was complete, a gloomy red light wrapped around their bodies like a coat. This was the Dynamic Blood Formation that was a core technique of their organization, but because it was made for head-on battle, it was rarely used. Still, a living formation was like a sword formation, so based on their mastery, each assassin could now be as strong as all of them combined, making them quite the terrifying enemy.

On the other hand, while the assassins of Duke Eclair couldn't afford to reveal their signature formation, all of them burned a portion of their blood essence to violently increase their offensive ability. The amount they burned was within recoverable range, but they were prepared to go even further if necessary.

As the threat of both groups swiftly increased, Shui steadied his breathing and fixed his posture. At that moment they all knew; the final clash would be soon.