Death Dealer II

His blades met with that of another man who stood behind. He had just one eye, the other eye was blinded with a scar running down across his face.

"Hehe…" he smirked, seemingly enjoying the thrill of having to kill someone young.

Shadow jumped back and resumed his position, he crouched down and dashed at the man's feet, in sequence the man jumped high to the ceiling and upturned himself.

Using the ceiling as a foothold, he pushed himself downwards with enough force to splinter the floorboards upon his landing. His blades missed as Shadow reappeared at the door.

Shadow looked at the group more carefully.

Hired killers were such a bother.

He straightened up and looked at his opponents once more, the others seemed to relax and rest on the walls. No doubt enjoying the fight between him and the man.

"Ooh don't worry, we wouldn't dare intervene in your fight" the man who had thrown the axe said to Shadow

He grinned wickedly, and so did the others.

His opponent stood awkwardly and looked at Shadow, he seemed excited, he also wielded daggers, but his were of much higher quality.

Stronger, sharper, probably made from a mana beast's bones. He didn't know which.

"So… If I kill him, I wouldn't get attacked by the rest of you?" Shadow asked carefully, he needed to be certain.

"Look boy! We're lowly killers, but we pride ourselves when it comes to shedding blood. And old Dan here loves his targets in their early years" the man said once more.

Before Shadow could decide on what to do, the man attacked, he dashed forward with daggers in hand.

Then he let it go.

That gave him an even longer reach as the dagger came very close to Shadow chest, but he ducked left and rolled to the ground.

The side of Shadow's eye caught a little glint, he threw his head back reflectively and dodged a side slash from the same dagger.

His face was cut by the dagger, but he managed to curve away and save his left eye from the onslaught.

Blood dripped down his face.

How?

His opponent drew his dagger back and licked the blood that stained it.

"Hmm" the old man cackled with excitement.

He pushed himself back up and maintained a defensive position. Then he could see it, the end of the dagger was attached to a very thin string.

Very thin but strong. He almost missed it and thought it was Levitation magic.

He smiled out of habit. That had been his choice of assassination back in his last world. How ironic that it would be used against him in this manner.

"Very well, let us dance" Shadow said, he didn't have time to think about sparing his mana or he would die trying to save it.

In the past five years, Shadow had trained his attribute as much as he could, or as much as the System allowed him to. He had grown his mana core and learned to minimize his use of mana. Making only precise moves when the need be.

He covered his daggers with shadow energy and mimicked the same thing the man before him did.

The ends of both daggers were attached with Shadow strings, not as thin or as sharp as the ones his opponent wielded, but they would cause just as much damage.

'Syl'

[YES]

'Assimilation'

[AURA SHIELD. MANA COPIES.]

'Assimilate Aura shield'

[YOU DO NOT POSSESS AURA. ASSIMILATING SKILL INTO MANA SHIELD.]

[MANA SHIELD ACQUIRED.]

Shadow dashed towards the man, he hoped his plan would work, he had the element of surprise on him.

Shadow flung his daggers at the man, but they were deflected easily, that wasn't a problem. He had something else planned.

He pulled the daggers back into his hands, jumped almost to the ceiling, and landed on the spot where Old Dan had been.

Old Dan had already evaded the attack, he stood a few meters away from Shadow. Grinning and slowly approaching.

It was a poorly replicated move.

"Seems you're rubbing off on the boy already, old Dan" the leader laughed. As did the others.

But Shadow was where he needed to be, right in the center of the room.

"Activate Mana Shield, Syl" he whispered.

Dark Energy burst out from under Shadow's feet, it felt true to his nature, his attribute, it sucked up the light and took away the visions of his targets.

Soon, Shadow was encapsulated him into a deep purple ball made of solid mana. His mana. He was going through his reserves faster than he had thought.

He could hear the shouts of his targets just beyond the shield.

"Break the damn thing!"

"Why is it so hard?"

"No one touches my prey, get away from him, you bastards!"

The last one was Old Dan's voice, he seemed to have a thing for underage kids.

Fucking Pedophile.

But Shadow smiled and squatted, he let go of his daggers and turned around repeatedly as fast as he could, with every rotation, he extended the reach of his daggers further.

The dagger passed through the Shield with ease and aimed at the targets that laid beyond. Then it happened.

The sounds, he could hear the screams. The struggles and the tearing of flesh. Shadow didn't stop spinning, although he was starting to get dizzy, but he kept it up.

He extended the reach as long as his mana could permit him, until the blades clanged against the walls.

He stopped and fell to the ground inside the mana shield.

Silence.

Then he heard groans and muffled cries of pain. Shadow released the mana shield, as he did so, the darkness left as well.

The lamps lit up once more as Shadow saw the carnage he had caused.

Dismembered bodies lay about, all torn in half by Shadow's blades.

He didn't think it would work, he had only seen it in an action movie he watched once, after he had eliminated his targets back when he was an assassin.

They were all dead. And everything else in the room was destroyed. He dusted himself and stood up, picked up the daggers of Old Dan who laid with eyes wide open as his torso was split in half.

He had died in shock, he was also the first target.

Then he walked over to their leader and picked up his throwing axe, he would need these for the last two groups. His mana was depleted more than half way, but he had to continue.

He couldn't give up here.

Shadow strode out of the room up the castle, he knew where they were and oddly. They seemed to have found the Vault but couldn't open it.

Shadow grinned wickedly.