[The Dance of Death: The Broken Fangs of the Wind]
The violence erupted without a whisper of warning.
Elena moved first—not as a human, but as a shifting, predatory void. Her long blade lacerated the air, but the strike wasn't aimed at Gina's body; it was aimed at the very space around her. Invisible vacuum blades exploded outward, severing thick branches, shredding the earth, and cleaving a massive tree trunk behind Gina in two.
Gina leaped backward, relying on her "Silent Steps," but the ground itself was disintegrating beneath her feet. This wasn't a mere knife fight; it was a macabre chase between absolute velocity and the raw instinct of survival.
Tnnnnnnn—! Gina's dagger collided with Elena's steel, but the sheer kinetic shock alone sent her reeling two meters back. Elena curved her lips into a freezing, mocking smile.
"You are slow."
She didn't finish the sentence.
She vanished.
The air behind Gina shrieked as it was torn apart. Gina spun instinctively—
Tchaaaaaak! The Wind Blade pierced the tendon of Gina's right leg.
It wasn't a common wound. It was a clean, surgical excision. Gina's leg collapsed instantly, and she slammed into the dirt with violent force. A muffled cry escaped her—not from the agony, but from the realization.
Her mobility was gone.
Before her brain could process the failure, the second strike descended. The blade drove deep into her left shoulder, transfixing it completely. Blood erupted in a crimson spray, and the shock caused her vision to pulse and waver.
Ryo lunged from the shadows like a beast unleashed from its cage. "GINA—!"
"NO!" Gina shrieked, her voice cracking as she slammed her fist into the dirt. "Stay where you are... If you step in now... then I have lost."
Ryo skidded to a halt, his massive frame trembling, his golden eyes burning with a helpless, solar fury. I watched from atop the tree, signaling him to remain still with a firm, icy gaze.
Elena circled the collapsed Gina slowly, like a predator savoring the moments before the final harvest. "A severed tendon... a pierced shoulder... and now you cannot even stand." She tilted her head, her eyes devoid of mercy. "Do you know what the most beautiful part is? That you are still conscious."
She raised her blade, aligning it for the killing thrust.
But she failed to notice one thing. Gina's hand was moving.
It wasn't reaching up in a plea for mercy. It was reaching for the ground. Gina had driven one of her daggers into the dirt seconds prior—and deliberately snapped the tip off.
She pressed her palm against the hilt.
Fssssssss—! An explosion of black metallic dust saturated the air. It wasn't poison; it was a specialized powder designed to disrupt the very flow of the wind. Elena's wind-aura faltered, the air currents around her turning chaotic and heavy.
For the first time, Elena miscalculated. She stepped half a pace too far forward.
In that heartbeat, Gina sacrificed the rest of her humanity. She lunged her body forward, ignoring the white-hot agony, ignoring the paralysis creeping up her leg, and allowed Elena's blade to pierce her other shoulder—just to get close.
"Now."
Gina slammed the heel of her boot upward.
Kraaaaaaack! The hidden spring-blade in her heel erupted, shattering Elena's jaw, lancing through the roof of her mouth, and pinning her head in space for a frozen, agonizing second.
Elena didn't scream. She couldn't.
They fell to the ground together in a heap of tangled limbs and steel. But Gina... Gina did not stop.
She crawled.
She dragged herself with one functioning hand over Elena's twitching body, blood pouring from her shoulders, her leg a useless weight. She raised her remaining dagger.
"This... is the price of speed."
She stabbed.
Once. Twice. Three times.
They were not fast strikes. They were slow, deliberate executions. She didn't stop until the body beneath her ceased its rhythmic shivering. Gina collapsed beside the corpse, her body racked with tremors, her breath coming in shallow, ragged gasps, drowning in a pool of her own crimson.
She tried to move, but her muscles refused. Her leg was a dead thing. She let out a short, broken laugh.
"I won... but I... won't be fighting for a while."
She raised her eyes to the obsidian sky, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. "This... is the art of Ryumin."
[The Macabre Message: The Eye of Deception] Ryo sprinted toward her, but when he reached the site and saw Elena's mangled face and torn throat, he stopped dead. A visible shiver ran through his massive frame. In that moment, he realized that Gina wasn't just a subordinate—she was a monster no less dangerous than her master.
I descended from the tree with a ghost-like grace, followed by a trembling Nero, who was clearly horrified by the carnage. I walked toward Elena's corpse with absolute detachment. I knelt over her, my Red Eye scanning her beautiful face, now masked by the pallor of death.
"What are you doing, Ray?" Nero asked, his voice shaking. "The mission is over. we need to go."
I didn't answer. I extended my long fingers, and with a sickeningly surgical precision, I drove my nail into Elena's left eye socket.
Tk! I plucked the eye out entirely, the optic nerves still clinging to it in a wet tangle. I pried open Elena's dead mouth with brutal force, shoved the severed eye deep past her teeth, and slammed her jaw shut.
Nero looked at me with a revulsion beyond words. "You... you're sick! Why would you do that to a corpse?"
I looked at him coldly, my Red Eye flickering in the dark. "Don't worry, Nero. I don't desecrate the dead for sport. I merely wish to set fire to Baron's mind. Tomorrow, when the King sees his favorite guard's eye inside her own mouth, he won't go looking for the Ryumin syndicate. He will look for the demon who stole the Dragon's Heart. Let them burn each other to ash while we dance upon the embers."
[The Homecoming: The King's Tears] We returned to the Ryumin headquarters. The moment we entered the Great Hall, with Ryo carrying the wounded Gina, the room exploded into a deafening roar of applause and cheers. The assassins slammed their blades against the stone floor; the first of the five Asura Guards had fallen to the "Cat of Ryumin."
Skyro met us with a cunning, satisfied smile. "Well done, Gina. You have proven that our eight years of investment were not in vain. Take her to the medical wing immediately."
But while the syndicate celebrated, there was one person sitting in the corner, rubbing his eyes and making ridiculous, whimpering noises. It was Ryo.
"MASTER RAAAAAAAY!" Ryo wailed, wiping his nose with his shroud. "Why didn't you let me fight? I was ready! My hair almost turned even whiter from the boredom! Gina took all the fun for herself!"
I looked at him with freezing indifference and ignored him completely, turning to discuss the next phase of the plan with Skyro.
"Master Ray! Listen to me!" Ryo continued to grumble, following me like an oversized, petulant child. "Please... the Fourth Seat belongs to me! I'll cut off his head and bring it to you in a sack! Just give me the signal!"
I ignored him once more, walking toward my private quarters, leaving the "King" behind to grumble about his misfortune, while the scent of true war began to permeate every corner of Draka.