The man was shocked by those words. He quickly turned around only to see someone really coming out of the shadows.

Soren was also slightly surprised from that figure’s words but he knew that he was not using any concealment skill or spell, so it was not shocking for that masked figure to know about him. Since he was already found out, he decided to just come forward.

From the voice, Soren could tell that the masked person was a man. The masked man saw Soren coming out from the shadows and then looked at that man who was already scared shitless; it didn’t take much for him to figure out that this man had been followed.

As he saw Soren walking towards him, he also took a step forward and suddenly casted a spell.

Soren was alarmed at the sudden action and backed off a few steps, ready to counter with his own spell.

Seconds passed by; Soren was already in a combat position, ready to act anytime but….nothing happened.

“An Initiator at Layer-8 following this weak man; may I ask if you have any business with him?”

Soren was now totally surprised as he heard the masked man call out his cultivation level so easily. He had not released any spell as of yet so it was quite hard to know what cultivation level he was at. But he quickly calmed himself down and ran his brain. He very soon came to a conclusion as he thought about it a little; if he could make Isaac scan someone, it was entirely possible for anyone else to do the same.

It might be some spell or might be a skill; Soren didn’t know, but he didn’t care much either. He was just glad that neither the Captain nor the Liston Family had this spell; or if they had it, they didn’t care to use it on him. Maybe because they didn’t think his level would be any different than what they thought or maybe because of some other reason—he didn’t know or care, he was just glad.

As though mimicking the masked man’s actions, Soren also made Isaac scan him and the result he got in return was—“Rank 0: Layer 9”. This made him tense up a little. He’d never had a proper fight with a fellow Initiator before, so he was a little nervous; more so when his opponent had a higher cultivation level than him. And most importantly, he couldn’t back out of this fight as he had to finish off his target and he couldn’t do that without fighting the Initiator in front of him.

The masked man saw that Soren was not answering and quickly made a decision. He leaned forward….and dashed towards Soren. He brought his hand forward while running and conjured a short sword, holding it in his right hand; it was his Soul Form.

Soren quickly concentrated on the battle and removed every other thought from his mind right now. He saw the man rushing towards him and quickly released his Stygian Grimoire.

A light flashed on the masked man’s body as his short sword started shining, forming a thin layer of light around it; it seemed to be the unique effect of his Soul Form.

Things happened in only a few seconds as they faced off against each other.

Soren pushed his right palm forward and casted <Shadow Chain>—a black chain came forth from the shadows around him and rushed towards the masked man.

The masked man only sneered under his mask upon seeing this spell. It was a pretty common tactic to use against any close combat fighter, so he was already used to it. This also proved the difference of combat experience between them.

The masked man slashed with his sword while running and hit the shadow chain that was coming towards him.

CLANK!!

A loud sound resembling a metal hitting a metal resounded in the air, but the result of the clash slightly surprised the masked man. He was able to repel the shadow chain but now, his hands were trembling from the shock. He had also come to a stop as he once again checked his opponent out.

He had never expected that this Layer-8 Initiator’s spell would be this strong. The masked man obviously didn’t know this but the main reason behind this was the fact that Soren had only focused on his magical stats; stats related to Spell Casters. This had caused him to have low physical capability than his counterparts but instead, it gave him a boost in his spellcasting ability—highly increasing his efficiency as a Spell Caster.

Not to mention his Soul Form; it was a representation of his talent as a Mage and had an innate effect of increasing Soren’s ability as a Spell Caster. Not only that; Soren was also not using his staff right now as he didn’t bring it with him on assassination missions. Once he used his staff, his spells would get another boost with the stat enhancements that it provided; even though it was a basic magic staff.

Soren had already expected the shadow chain to get repelled so he was not that surprised. He once again opened his palm forward and cast another spell—<Ice Arrow>.

A white arrow formed in front of him and flew at a high speed towards the masked man. Although he had suffered a shock from the collision with the chain, he was already fine and was ready to welcome the incoming spell.

As the arrow moved towards its target, Soren licked his lips and made the ice arrow explode with a snap of his fingers. The masked man was not surprised at all as this was also a pretty common tactic, but he was a little confused as Soren had made it explode quite early; the ice shards did not even reach him much less do any damage.

“Did he miscalculate the distance? .... Heh! Amateur!”

He scoffed at Soren’s stupid mistake and got ready to use a supporting skill but suddenly, he understood the reason behind his actions. Not far away from him, the white fog had formed which seemed to be the left over from the exploded ice arrow.

He glanced at the fog and quickly jumped roll to his right as he sensed the danger closing in.

Swoosh!

A bolt made of dark and dense smoke like thing flew past him at a high speed. The masked man had dodged it by a hair’s breadth.

Soren was slightly surprised to see his spell miss its target. He had realized now that he was missing many vital spells in his arsenal. He only had one spell which he could use to control the movement of this masked man, but that spell had a high chance of failure; especially when it came to something moving at a high speed or something that could change directions easily.

Soren shook off the distracting thoughts and casted another <Ice Arrow>, but this time, he did not explode it early.

“Trying the same thing again—do you take me for an idiot?” He shouted at Soren, thinking that he was being underestimated.

Soren just smiled and replied in a low voice, “No…definitely not an idiot.”

The masked man at first thought that Soren was trying the same thing as before but soon, he saw the ice arrow didn’t explode but flew towards him at a high speed.

He quickly ducked as the ice arrow went above his head and pierced the hat on his head. Soren saw the ice arrow missing its target but he wasn’t flustered. He confirmed the ice arrow had passed the man’s head…and then exploded the arrow.

Boom!

The masked man was a little surprised with the sudden change but quickly adapted to it and dive rolled forward; dodging most of the shards that came from behind him. His hat was also shredded to pieces by the explosion.

Soren was already ready for this as he once again casted <Shadow Chain>. This time, the black chain didn’t miss and pierced the masked man’s left thigh, wrapping itself around his waist and holding him down.

Soren smiled at his small success and was going to cast another spell to finish the masked man as suddenly…..

Boom!

An explosion went off with the masked man in the center. Soren was startled with the sudden explosion and stumbled back a few steps.

“What the…fuck was that?”

He soon saw the masked man standing in the center of the explosion, completely free from the shadow chain but his left thigh bleeding from the open wound.

‘Aura Burst’: It was the skill that the masked man had used. It compressed the Mana in his body and made it explode outside to free him of any restraint.

Soren saw the masked man getting free from the chain and again starting to rush towards him. He then quickly thought of another idea and braced himself for it.

The masked man wiped his finger on the short sword—his Soul Form and casted a supporting skill while dashing forward.

A pale white light flashed around his feet and soon, his feet also started shining with that strange white light. The masked man pushed his feet against the ground and dashed towards Soren with a speed even greater than before.

Soren quickly backed off a few steps to maintain a certain distance between them and again casted <Ice Arrow>.

But this time, he didn’t release it.

The masked man’s left thigh had been pierced before by the shadow chain so his speed had decreased quite a bit, but because of the skill that he used, his speed went up a notch instead of decreasing. By the time he covered half the distance between him and Soren, Soren had casted 5 more ice arrows which were now floating in front of him.

The speed of the masked man was quite amazing, to be honest, as he did not even take 3 seconds to reach Soren. But the same could be said about Soren as he also didn’t take even 3 seconds to cast <Ice Arrow> 6 times. Both displayed their own strength.

The masked man put his sword in front of him while running; the light around his sword had also got stronger by now. Slowly, the light on the sword stretched and extended, seemingly increasing the sword’s reach.

Soren didn’t have any hesitation in his actions as he waved his hand and pushed his palm forward. The multiple ice arrows were hurled forward at a high speed but their aim didn’t seem to be the masked man.

All of the ice arrows flew at a high speed and….hit the path of the masked man. One arrow even hit quite close to Soren and the rest hit the ground at a certain interval of distance. The masked man was quite surprised to see such actions but didn’t let his guard down. Soon, a fireball was hurled in his direction which didn’t hit him either but attacked the ground.

Upon seeing the spells falling on the ground in his path, the masked man quickly decided to change his direction a little and then rushed forward to swiftly end his enemy.

“Is he giving up?” A thought went through his mind as he saw Soren’s weird actions.

He was a little baffled at Soren’s actions and almost thought that Soren had gone crazy from the thought of losing. He then shook his head and removed all useless thoughts from his head. He didn’t care what Soren was planning or if he had gone crazy as he only had to slay him to end his plan; a simple but effective method.

He ignored the wasted spells and rushed forward. He had already reached Soren and now, they were in his arena—close combat.

He took a stable position and stabbed his sword towards Soren’s head. Soren saw the sword coming for him and ducked his head left, but couldn’t remain unscathed. His forehead was cut open by the sword and blood started flowing down in his right eye; he had miscalculated the sword’s reach because of the white glow on it.

The masked man then made a small slash towards Soren’s throat which was also dodged by a hair’s breadth by him; he was slowly getting used to the short sword’s reach.

A fierce exchange of moves quickly happened between them. Soren was on the receiving end all of the time and had already received multiple injuries. The masked man was also getting a little frustrated after seeing Soren dodge every attack with only small wounds.

Soren was, at this time, completely relying on his developed eyes. As his cultivation had increased, the ability of his eyes had also grown. His mutated eyes could read his enemy’s movements and made it possible for Soren to easily dodge the attacks—but that was only in theory.

While his eyes did read the enemy’s movements and his brain was more than capable to calculate everything in a very short amount of time, his body betrayed him.

He could see everything but wasn’t fast enough to dodge properly. And that was the reason he was almost dodging every hit but was still getting injured at the last moment.

……..

Soren jumped backward to dodge another sword slash that was aimed at his stomach. Once again, he couldn’t dodge it completely as his clothes were ripped apart from the strike and his skin was torn off.

He landed with unstable steps as he backed off and tried hard to stand straight. He was panting hard, trying to breathe in as much air as he could. He was quite tired by now and found it really hard to follow his eyes. His eyes had also turned red from the overuse and had started aching.

The masked man was also panting a little but not as hard as Soren; he was a physically focused fighter after all.

The masked man was truly irritated right now as he looked at his opponent. He was not losing exactly but not winning either, even when they were fighting in the range he specialized in.

He took a deep breath and once again wiped his finger on the sword, casting a spell from his stored Spell Vessels.

<Wind Blade>

He finished swiping his finger and slashed his sword forward to produce a thin but sharp wind blade.

Soren saw him casting his spell but didn’t back off. Instead, he rushed in towards the masked man. The <Wind Blade> spell did physical damage based on the sharpness of the wind but it only had penetrating power and no stopping power.

Soren knew that and that’s why he rushed in. He dashed and put up his left arm defensively in front of him.

The masked man was also taken aback by his sudden actions but didn’t take it seriously and released the wind blade.

Swish!

The wind blade rushed forward at a high speed and hit Soren’s arm, making a deep gash on it. It was so deep that it even made a cut on Soren’s bone. Soren hissed and winced in pain as his face twisted in anguish, but he, in turn, increased his pace and rushed forward; this was the final part of his plan.

The masked man was a little shocked now to see Soren taking on that spell with his bare body and not even stopping. He saw him rushing in and swiftly prepared himself for another round of close combat.

He bent his knees and took an offensive position. As he saw Soren coming in his range, he stepped forward with his left leg and slashed with his right hand, swinging from left to right.

Soren was already expecting such movements and made a gamble. He started ducking just at the moment he saw the sword moving; without confirming the direction.

And he won.

The sword went from the top of his head as he felt the sharp wind from the slash. At that moment, he rushed forward and used all his momentum….to push the masked man back.

The masked man was shocked to see Soren dodge like that and wasn’t ready to follow up so, he ended up getting pushed by him.

He was pushed back hard by Soren but soon stabilized himself after a few steps. He was, after all, superior to Soren when it came to physical capability. He looked at Soren and laughed mockingly as he got ready to finish him off. He didn’t know why Soren had done such a stupid thing like pushing him back but he didn’t care either; he just wanted to kill him.

Soren ignored his laugh filled with mockery as he suddenly crouched down and banged his right palm on the ground.

A low and enchanting voice came out of Soren’s mouth: “<Cold Touch>”