Dim moonlight seeped through the lush tree leaves, giving a strange sense of serenity in this otherwise dire predicament.

I turned around and assessed the situation again after receiving order from the man— no, my superior.

Raun, Arthur, Marie, Emily, and Amelia were out of commission, so I didn't need to worry about them attacking me in the back. Thus, I turned my focus to the two remaining combatants.

I had only about 60% of my mana left.

"Eleanor, Lucy, I'll give you a chance to surrender right now", I spoke in an arrogant tone.

In response, Lucy took out her custom-made whip from her Space pouch, and Eleanor tightened her grip on her broken rapier.

'Is she going to fight with that?', I narrowed my eyes as I looked at her rapier which was snapped in half.

Of course, I had to jinx myself.

<[Hardlight blade]>

Light attribute aether rushed towards her rapier, replacing its broken blade with a bright yellow light. The air around her rapier warped due to the sheer heat it emitted.

I gave her a wry smile whilst a pale red hue mixed with thin threads of gray expanded from my body; A golden hue similarly enveloped her body.

As our mana and aether clashed with each other, the atmosphere became tense. Intense bloodlust seeped from Eleanor's hateful glare. The density of her bloodlust was abnormally high, almost as if she had taken hundreds of lives before.

However, I was completely unaffected thanks to [F - Emotionless].

We stood still for several more second, eyeing each other for the tiniest of opening, until—

"Take this!"

—Lucy's whip split through the air, making its way towards me.

I took a step to the right, barely dodging the whip that had just pulverized the ground I was standing on. Gazing coldly at the two, I began my assault in earnest.

<[Splice]>

Time mana surged around me, before my vision was dyed red and I was in front of Eleanor. Tightening my grip on my sword, I slashed down.

Unexpectedly, Eleanor reacted to my surprise attack almost instantly, parrying my strike and breaking my posture for a split second. Utilizing this moment, Eleanor thrusted her rapier which was shinning brightly toward my throat.

My cold and indifferent eyes traced the incoming attack with unusual calmness. Quickly focusing mana on my left hand, I grabbed the flat side of her rapier and redirected it to my right. 

However, the blade still managed to graze my cheek, marking the first of many wounds to come in this battle. Ignoring what must've felt like searing pain in the palm of my hand and my right cheek, I swung my sword at the shocked Eleanor. However, my attack was intercepted by Lucy entangling her whip on my sword. 

Seeing the chance, Eleanor jumped back beside Lucy. Her ruby-red eyes stared at me with unprecedented vigilance and wariness. Exhaling and tightening her grip on the light-cladded rapier, Eleanor explosively shot forwards.

Following an cloud of dust, a small crater could be seen where Eleanor once stood. My eyes darted around, looking for Eleanor, but all I could see was the blurry figure of her. Her speed seemed to have increased by multiple folds this time around.

In a second, Eleanor had already appeared before me. Locking her ruby-red eyes at my face, she thrusted.

I quickly dodged to my left upon sensing the attack. However, I was a step too late; Her rapier had dug into my sides. Blood flowed out from my wound, but luckily, no important organs seemed to have been pierced.

I raised my foot kicked at her solar plexus, sending her sliding a couple of meters back.

"Not that much of a swordsman, are you?" Eleanor clicked her tongue.

Her figure became blurry again. She rained down a flurry of attack onto me, most of which were just barely blocked and parried by me. 

Seeing that Eleanor greatly outmatched me in speed, I activated my Lightning magic.

<[Red lightning]>

Molten-red electricity sparked all over my body. Currents of electricity coursed through my nervous system, raising my reaction speed by multiple folds.

Seeing this, Eleanor thrusted her rapier again; But this time around, I could parry it with relative ease.

With her posture broken, I swung my sword down at her; But she quickly dashed backwards and distanced herself from me.

Using this brief moment of respite to assess the situation again, I suddenly felt foreign mana converging in my body. Tracing the mana, I found that Lucy was the one behind this.

'Wait, is she...'

Recalling the man's words and Lucy's fighting style in the novel, I instantly came to the conclusion that she had to be eliminated first.

<[Lightning spear]>

A spear made of orangish-red lightning shot towards Lucy; But she rolled to the side and dodged it.

However, I have already achieved my goal, as her concentration was broken.

I had 45% of my total mana left.

I then turned my attention back towards Eleanor.

She conjured another rapier made of Light attribute aether. Locking her eyes with mine, her body turned into a streak of light as she once again appeared before me and attacked.

I barely managed to block her thrust.

But Eleanor took half a step back and her body turned into light again. She rapidly assaulted me with extremely fast attacks using her 2 rapiers. If it wasn't for [Red lightning], I would have been dead a hundred times over.

This exchange continued for a minute, and it seemed as if it was going to continue for at least another 5. That was until—

'What's happening?'

—I could feel my movements getting increasingly sloppier as I started to accumulate more and more wounds. It shouldn't have been due to exhaustion, as I had [F - Emotionless] active.

Scanning my surrounding, I spotted Lucy staring at me with a grin.

"Too late for you!" She claimed out loud as she noticed my gaze on her.

'So it was her...'

I realized why my movements were getting worse. Briefly directing my sense into my own body, I could feel that my blood flow was slowly stopping.

From the corner of my eyes, I could see Eleanor dashing towards me with her rapier ready. I infused a massive amount of mana into my sword. Red electricity danced around its blade. The heat produced by the electricity melted the blade at an alarming rate.

I met swords with Eleanor again; Electricity ran from my sword to hers, paralyzing her temporarily.

However, I couldn't capitalize on this chance to knock Eleanor out, as I could feel my head getting lighter, and my blood flow coming to a screeching halt.

Throwing my sword at Eleanor to paralyze her even further, I turned around to deal with Lucy.

<[Splice]>

I appeared before Lucy; However, this time, she was fully expecting it. She lashed her whip out at me, which was blocked by my left arm. Smirking at me, she infused more mana into her whip.

The whip tightened around my arm, its jagged surface digging into my flesh. My blood then slowly traveled on the whip down to Lucy; Such was the design of her weapon. Being a vampire, she could drink her opponent's blood in the middle of a battle to heal herself. 

However, she was too naive to think that I couldn't do anything.

<[F - Mana blood]>

The blood that was flowing half-way down the whip towards Lucy suddenly stopped, and hardened itself into a spear. It then shot towards Lucy at a terrifying speed.

Lucy, being caught completely off-guard, couldn't avoid it.

"AHHHHH!", she screamed in pain as the spear of blood pierced her whip-holding hand.

Using this chance, I hardened my blood into a long sword, dashed towards her and knocked her out with the hilt of the sword.

I had only 20% of my total mana left.

Eleanor, who had just been freed from her paralysis, alternated her gaze between me and Lucy, who was lying face-first on the ground. She bit her fingernails in anxiety and frustration as she gave me a death glare.

"...I'll kill you." She spoke with an ominous voice.

As her voice slowly fell, the majestic golden hue around her intensified, enveloping the entire area. Alongside it was a terrifying pressure; My clothes fluttered wildly as the pressure kept getting stronger.

But suddenly, the pressure stopped. The surroundings was dead-silent, and only the eerie aura coming from Eleanor could be felt.

Cold chill washed over my body as my eyes traced her rapier, which was slowly pointing up towards the moon.

<[Hardlight]>

Aether exploded from her body, rushing towards every bit of moonlight around her.

'Sun magic...? No... it's her unique magic.'

Sun magic, or more commonly known as Light magic, grants the user the ability to control Light from the Sun. It's just so happens that Moonlight is just reflected Sunlight. Thus, Eleanor could use her unique magic [Hardlight] even at night.

Eleanor utilized her wings for the first time in the battle, flying into the air. Upon reaching tree-top height, she retracted her feathery white wings and stood arrogantly on tangible moonlight.

Processing what had just happened, I immediately ran towards the nearest tree, hiding from the moonlight.

However, Eleanor had no plans of letting me go.

<[Hardlight greatsword]>

Sounds of trees falling to the ground could be heard. As the noise was getting closer and closer to my location, I had no choice but to run out into the moonlight and make my way to another tree line.

<[Hardlight tracers]>

Tiny needles of hardened light rained down on me immediately after I stepped into the dim white moonlight. I tried to block them all. However I could only do so much with my sword. As such some needles had dug themselves deep into my body. '20m', it was the distance between me and the nearest shade; However, I hadn't been making any progress since a while ago. I tried to use [Alternate dimension], but the barrage of light needles didn't let me concentrate enough Spatial attribute mana.

Eleanor, who was standing arrogantly on the air by making the moonlight tangible, was smirking at me, clearly enjoying the scene of me getting tormented.

If this kept going on, I'd be skewered to death sooner or later. Thus, I decided to use my Wind magic for the first time in the battle.

Pointing my left hand diagonally at the ground, I shouted.

<[Wind burst]>

A quick and sudden burst of air shot out from my hand, propelling me in the opposite direction. This was the magic I had been experimenting with to give me more mobility. However, it was still experimental. As such, I overshot myself and—

THUD—!

—Crashed into a tree.

Not giving me time to recover, Eleanor dashed towards me at top speed. Her giant greatsword made of moonlight swung down towards the tree line, cutting the tress in half.

I used [Wind burst] continuously, evading the sword that could pulverize even hardwood while hiding from the moonlight in the shade of the trees.

Although the part of the forest I was in was denser than normal, I couldn't keep up this cat-and-mouse game, as I only had 5% of my mana left.

Thus, I decided to take a gamble. Killing my presence as much as possible, I came as close as I could to Eleanor while still hiding in the shade. Closing my eyes, exhaling, and removing my sunglasses, I shot a [Lightning spear] at her.

Eleanor quickly intercepted it by making the moonlight directly in front of the spear tangible, effectively stopping it.

However, I wasn't hoping for it to hit her in the first place.

<[Wind burst]>

According to the novel, she had to wait for around 5 seconds after using [Hardlight] and its variants to use it again; Thus, this was my chance to approach her.

However—

"Really? You think you could catch me off guard what that?" Eleanor chuckled.

—A hardened wall of light suddenly appeared before me, completely catching me by surprise; I rammed head-first into the wall. It was a miracle that I wasn't instantly knocked out.

'It hadn't even been 3 seconds yet', I thought, but I quickly regained my focus. 'I just have to adjust to the timing then.'

<[Lightning spear]>

<[Hardlight wall]>

Immediately after Eleanor used her spell, I used [Wind burst]. I shot towards Eleanor in a straight line.

She smirked upon seeing this and raised her hands. Light aether converged right before me. As her spell was about to be completed—

<[A - Authority of fear]: Pain>

—Her aether concentration was disrupted. Eleanor held her eyes and screamed in pain. "AHHHHHHHHH!"

To make my enemies feel pain, I have to experience twice the agony at the same time. However, I could completely bypass this requirement by using [F - Emotionless]. Using this chance, I closed up on her, just close enough to use my Time magic.

<[Splice]>

I disappeared from where I once stood, reappearing right beside Eleanor almost simultaneously.

"...!"

Not giving her time to react, I grabbed her by the throat and choked her.

"R- release me! D- do you know who I a- am!"

I ignored her words, and tightened my grip.

"I'll k- kil—"

After all while, she finally passed out from the lack of oxygen.

Gazing at her limp body coldly, I waited until after her spells had expired and left the area.

Finally, this tedious battle was over.

...

I dragged Eleanor by the collar of her shirt back to where my boss was.

My boss looked at me in surprise, clearly not expecting me to be able to take down Eleanor.

"HAHAHAH! YOU'RE EVEN BETTER THAN I THOUGHT!" He gave me a crazed laughter as he slapped his own thighs.

Arthur, Raun, Emily, and Marie all looked at me in horror and disappointment.

Ignoring their gazes, I arrived before my boss.

"I've completed your order, master"

"Very good! This great vice-leader Asmond will appoint you my right-hand-man"

I raised my head to meet his eyes and asked. "With all due respect, great vice-leader. I've come across someone else who claimed to be a vice-leader before. Are you sure you're one as well?"

He looked at me amusedly, clearly not taking offense in what I said. "So you even killed Quentin too? As expected of my new right-hand-man. As for your question, he was one of the two original vice-leaders of the mission. I'm just reinforcement sent by the headquarters."

"Anymore questions?", he asked.

"No, sir!"

Suddenly, my boss stared straight at me with widened eyes. "Your pupils... and you have no tails... So you're a halfling too, eh?" He gave me a warm look.

Arthur's side's reaction was that of shock. They, especially Raun, clearly didn't expect me to be a halfling.

Ignoring their expressions of surprise, my boss patted me on the shoulders. "If I had known you were also a halfling, I wouldn't have told you to fight."

"After all, all halflings are always welcomed in the <Darkest night>", he continued.

"Sir vice-lea—"

"Asmond."

"Pardon?"

"Call me Asmond"

"...Asmond, can I have the honor of killing the first-ranker?"

"Hmmm... Sure. As long as you come to my room tonight", the vice-leader flashed a smile that sent chills down my spine despite me still having the Skill active.

"I'm honored, Asmond"

Footsteps rang out as I slowly approached Arthur, who was still looking at me with shock on his face.

"W- why are you doing this!? I trusted you!" He shouted.

"Why did you trust me in the first place?"

"H- huh? Of course I trusted you! You're my rival!"

"And who decided that?" I glared at him coldly.

Arthur kept his mouth shut and stared at me.

"I might as well humor you", I placed my hand on the hilt of my blood sword—

"You have incredible luck."

—I slowly concentrated spatial attribute mana on the sword.

"You always have beautiful girls surrounding you."

—I raised my foot and kicked him to the ground.

"No one finds fault with whatever you do."

—I stepped on his hand; A painful crunching sound could be heard as I did so.

"You're a hypocrite, and a total pushover."

—A dark astral-blue hue expanded from my sword, signifying that [V - World splitter] was ready for use.

"And yet, you're tasked with 'saving the world'."

—I raised my sword up high, preparing to slash it down at Arthur who was groveling at my feet.

"STOP! TAKE MY LIFE INSTEAD OF ARTHUR!" Marie screamed as she glared at me with hatred.

"THEODORE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING! ARE YOU ACTUALLY MAD!?" Raun desperately shouted.

—I ignored their pleas and slowly brought my sword down.

"So that's why..."

—I glanced behind me. I could see the vice-leader closing his eyes while nodding in satisfaction; My sword was inches away from taking Arthur's life.

<[Splice]>

"...you can't die... at least not now"

Blood spilled on the grassy ground of the forest, and a headless body fell with a thud.

Staring at the body beneath my feet, exhaling, I raised my head and coldly glanced at the shocked Arthur.

"W- what just happened?" Arthur asked with a shaken voice as he alternated his gaze between me and the headless corpse of the vice-leader.

"I killed him", I coldly replied.

"B- but you said you wou—"

"What did it fucking look like? I lied."

I glanced around while Arthur was still processing what I said.

I could see Marie staring at me with a complicated expression, and Raun heaving a sigh of relief upon finding out that I hadn't really betrayed them.

Of course, I was really planning on killing Arthur and follow the robed man after securing Raun's and Amelia's safety if I hadn't gained the his trust by the time I finished my battle with Eleanor.

"Ughh!", I turned around to see Eleanor groaning as she slowly got up.

"Good, you're awake",

Eleanor quickly got into a fighting stance as soon as she heard my voice, but her vigilance soon turned into confusion as she saw the headless corpse of the <B-> ranked vice-leader, and Arthur sitting in front of me, mostly unharmed.

Glancing at everyone, I deactivated [F - Mana blood] and watched as my sword turned into liquid blood that seeped through the gaps between my fingers and onto the ground.

"Arthur was the one who killed the vice-leader, got it?"

Before anyone got the chance to speak, Arthur stood up, as if him barely standing up even with the support of his sword earlier was a lie.

'Fuck him and his cheat-like regeneration.'

Unaware of my thoughts, Arthur stared at me deep in the eyes and spoke. "I can't accept it. You're the one who killed him. You shou—"

"Listen here you little shit"

Arthur was petrified, clearly not having expected me to suddenly lash out at him.

"I saved you, right?"

"..."

"Right?"

"Y- yes..."

"So you owe me one, correct?"

Not wanting me to get angrier, Arthur hastily replied. "T- that is the case."

"Then just shut the fuck up and tell everyone that you're the one who killed him."

Not waiting for Arthur to collect his thoughts and retort back, I turned around and walked away and deactivated [F - Emotionless], as it was eating away at my mana.

I needed to destroy the Capture crystals around here as soon as possible to prevent any future troubles. After all, it would be extremely bad if the footage of me beating up a duke's daughter and the Imperial princess was recovered.

After that, I needed to check if the other main characters were safe.

Krista was probably the safest, since she could control Void beasts.

Ria had her 2 <C+> rank homunculus protecting her so I didn't need to worry too much.

The problem was Sylvia. Although I estimated her strength to be akin to a <D> ranker, if someone as strong as the first vice-leader I encountered ingested a Berserker potion, I wasn't so sure if she could hold off on her own.

I didn't need to worry about Arthur and everyone here since I've experienced Eleanor's strength first-hand. She was strangely a lot stronger than she was in the novel.

'I definitely need to approach her with caution'

Although her increase in strength was very suspicious, I needed to be careful when investigating her. After all, she was literally the Imperial princess.

After confirming my priorities, I started to move towards the nearest Capture crystal. However—

"W- what?"

—I fell to the ground after barely taking a step forwards.

My head started to feel light, and my eyelids were getting heavy. I tried to move my body, but the only thing I could feel was extreme drowsiness.

'Shit don't tell me... mana exhaustion?'

I tried to tell Arthur to destroy the Capture crystals for me. But what came out of my mouth was just nonsensical groans.

"A- hur t-he Crys—"

My vision darkened, and I fell unconscious.