Devouring I — Ambrosya

"Yannia Jullo," I whispered a name as my gaze pierced through the dark shroud of the deep, deep night.

The document in my hand could barely be read in this darkness, but I had already memorised it completely.

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Name: Yannia Jullo

Gender: Female

Class: Assassin

Mana Usage: Physical

Height: 5'6"

Weight: 53kg

Hair: Black

Eyes: Brown

Tattoos: None

Skin: Fair/Tanned

Weapon of choice: Straight Dagger (red pommel, gold hilt, silver blade)

Martial Arts:

- Movement Technique, Feline Steps

- Barehanded Art, Tiger Claws

- Unknown Dagger Arts (likely nonexistent)

! Wanted dead for the Assassination of an Information Veil Employee. !

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As I recalled such a document, memories of my target's martial arts appeared in my mind.

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Movement Technique: Feline Steps

Mana Consumption: Light

Quality: F rank

Description: Allows the user to tread quietly like a cat.

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Barehanded Martial Art: Tiger Claws

Mana Consumption: Light

Quality: F rank

Description: Allows the user to strengthen their nails with mana phantom images to claw at a target.

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They were rather simple arts, but in the right hands, they were quite deadly. Especially now.

If not for my Mana Vision, I wouldn't have noticed the woman who appeared just a few steps in front of me. She was lurking in the darkness, creeping forward one step at a time with footfalls so silent, I could barely hear them with Sight-Sent Senses.

'The Information Veil is quite terrifying now that I think about it properly,' I thought to myself as I watched Yannia inch forward.

I currently had a case of [ There's always a bigger fish. ] in my hands. The Information Veil, when they discovered that Yannia was the one who had killed one of their employees, had enacted an elaborate plan to smoke her out and get rid of her.

The task I was doing now, was in fact, supposed to be a job for one of the Information Veil's assassins. I took over because I asked King for this opportunity.

Failure would mean that King would be rather disappointed in me. He probably wouldn't let me take over the jobs of his professionals after this.

Now, the plan was simple.

So simple that I had trouble believing that it was real.

The Information Veil simply put up a job that was within Yannia's striking range and waited. That was it. They only had to place the bait down and allow the virtue of patience to run through their veins.

Thus, as Yannia would take the job to assassinate someone, the Information Veil's assassin would then assassinate her in the process. Furthermore, the person to be assassinated was one of the Information Veil's men. In a sense, a sacrifice.

My job now was to make sure that the sacrifice wouldn't actually turn into a sacrifice. The 'sacrifice' should only be there to lure Yannia out. The Information Veil did not want another one of its employees to be taken out in the process.

So, with all of these factors in my favour, from the location of the assassination to the time we would act, I theoretically had success already in my grasp.

'I just have to make sure I don't mess this up.'

As such,

Here in this narrow alleyway, I waited for Yannia to walk just close enough to me so that I could strike her down. She stepped closer.

And closer.

...And closer.

But then she stopped.

She had yet to reach the door to the building... So why did she stop?

The world slowed down for me at this moment as I realised something. Something wrong.

The way her eyes glinted in the darkness. Her posture. Her grip on her dagger.

She was most certainly ready for combat. But... why?

I had a guess, and I didn't like such a guess.

This girl had damn sharp senses for a character I hadn't created. Was it because she grew up in the underworld? Or was her sense of danger just that strong?

I did not know, and that made me less confident of my victory.

In this slowed world, I then decided to act. If I had been discovered, then so be it. She had a job to finish and so did I.

It was a fight to the death.

So, I did something I had never done before. I poured physical mana through my body in the way the next level of the Rushing Shadow Art had taught me.

I circulated the art's techniques.

And thus, with a rapid lunge forward, my body practically morphed into a shadow. A black phantom that did not have a shape engulfed me and shrouded my face and form. Blur and Silent Being stacked on top of it, creating a deadly combination.

I watched as the mana within Yannia surged in response to my approach. There was panic in her, I could feel it.

She wasn't expecting another assassin to appear in the middle of her job. But she was ready to fight with her life on the line. And I was the same.

No holds barred.

I stabbed straight for the heart and the wind whistled with my movements. I watched things in slow motion as my dagger flew through the air.

Yannia's pulsating, rushing mana. Her desperate expression, and her grip on her blade. I saw it all.

Clang—!

My dagger was parried and launched into the concrete wall right beside me. I still had my grip on its handle, but the force behind her parry was too great for me to handle.

E rank... Maybe E+ rank.

Whooosh—!

Yannia's parry turned into a counterattack that I could not defend against with my blade. She slashed, going right for my throat.

A chill had run up my spine as I perceived the threat of death. I leaned back to dodge, but it clearly wasn't enough.

Luckily, as I watched the dagger cut through the air, I turned my palm to face it. Mana programs were glistening in a bright blue. They coiled around my wrist and caused what came next.

Boom—!

A conical explosion shook the alleyway, forcing Yannia's blade away from its original trajectory and burning through her clothes. The flames spread out and engulfed Yannia in great amounts of heat.

The woman reeled back in surprise. She was in a panic, fully expecting the fire to melt her skin.

But what could an F rank spell do to someone with E+ rank resistance?

Nothing.