Eubin felt helpless under the relentless attacks from the multiple Merlins in the dense fog, her arms were now filled with frozen patches and they felt numb from the multiple shock attacks she had received.
If there's anything she felt happy for, it was the fact that the fog was currently blocking her sisters from witnessing her sorry state.
And she felt relieved that Merlin hadn't resorted to firing those invisible attacks from within the fog, if not she would be completely helpless, and if he was truly heartless, she would be dead.
'I guess he wasn't wrong when he said he could kill a Saint… honestly, how many abilities has this guy used now'
She gritted her teeth feeling more helpless, anytime she tried to counter, her hands would always phase right through the body no different from an illusion, but for some reason, their attacks always landed.
After a while, she noticed the fog was now thinning, she could already see the outlines of her sisters in the background, she looked at herself, more than half of her hands were frozen solid, other parts of her bodies that had been hit also had ice on their surface.
'Damn am I really going to be seen like this?' She thought frantically.
At that moment, Merlin's figure walked through the thinning fog, showing himself in her front, his face still holding his calm smile, even his breathing wasn't uneven.
She raised her hand to guard for any tricks, but Merlin raised his in surrender.
"Hey… calm down, I'm sure you don't want to be seen looking like that " he gestured to her.
"Well who's fault is that…" She scoffed tiredly.
"Well let's fix that then" Merlin smiled.
Snap!
With a snap of his hand, multiple balls of flames materialized close to the frozen parts, melting them off directly.
"How many abilities do you even have?" She asked, astonished.
Since the start of their fight, he had shown no less than seven different abilities and each one of them was so useful that it could be another Ascended's entire arsenal.
Merlin chuckled and replied.
"Back at the Forgotten Shore, I was called the Wandering Magician, you didn't think that illusion was the only trick I had right?"
"You're really something else…" she shook her in astonishment, she had been with him long enough to know that if she asked for the details of his ability, he would probably brush her off.
In a matter of seconds, the ice had already melted, and her Transcendent condition had already dealt with the numbing from the shock, at this moment, she was back in her peak condition, Merlin seemed to deal less physical blows to her, and just focused on his flashy abilities, but that didn't mean he was incapable, after all he had once kicked her in the torso, as for his reason for refraining, she had no idea.
By the time the fog cleared completely, she looked around and saw that everyone was wearing an expectant gaze, well everyone except her Mother who only had a light smile.
She turned to Merlin who was a few meters away and spoke up.
"It's my loss… you win"
Honestly, she could accept the losing, although she was holding back, and her ability was less useful for one on one fights, she was absolutely sure that if she went all out, Merlin would still have multiple tricks up his sleeve, plus he still had his trump card in hand.
'Sigh… Valor really did get the short end of the stick, thank you Shan' she cheered inwardly.
Merlin, who seemed to have accepted his win, walked up to her and stretched out his hand for a handshake.
"A good spar… I liked it very much"
She nodded and took his hand, however, just as she was about to grab his hand, she didn't feel his strong hand, instead she felt something squishy.
She looked down, and Merlin had disappeared, the thing in her hand was now a large brown rat, the same one Merlin had used during their session.
"Ugh!" She threw the rat down in fright and shouted, "Merlin you trickster!"
Merlin was nowhere to be seen.
At that moment, the curious crowd moved towards her with their obvious expectant gaze.
"Bin tell us, what happened inside the fog, we couldn't see anything" Lonesome Howl started first.
"Well we fought as usual, and he kept bringing out new tricks like electric shock and fire" Eubin gave them those brief words while swearing that she'd take the details of her loss to the grave.
"You're obviously hiding something… there's no way you'll just concede the match like that…" Hel sneered.
"Yeah… even before the fog you were already struggling, I'm sure that you suffered a lot as your vision was clouded," Revel added.
"That's your interpretation, for all you know, we could've just talked it out there" Eubin scoffed.
"Talk? Although we couldn't see, we weren't deaf, if the sounds I heard were you guys talking, I'd love to know the details of your discussion" Ceres smiled mockingly.
"Yeah right… like any of you could do any better" Eubin turned to them.
"I can do better" Silent Stalker finally made her first statement of the day.
"Yeah… I can beat him too" Revel nodded.
"Really… how about we ask him that?" Eubin spoke confidently.
"Let's ask him then," Revel said confidently.
Eubin nodded then turned around as her eyes fixed on the rat that Merlin usually exchanged position with, for one, the rat seemed too suspicious, although she had thrown it around a few times, it hadn't made any noise, and even now the rat was still idly watching their conversation.
'How long exactly has he had this rat…'
Seeing that she was staring at it, the rat immediately turned its head and started to walk away sneakily.
Rat: don't look at me like that lady, I'm not into humans…
"Hey!" She shouted at the about to escape rat, causing it to stop in its tracks and turn around guiltily.
"You stopped… so you really can understand me" She smiled amusedly.
The rat shook its head as if to deny her statement, then turned around and continued his journey.
"This thing… hey, I don't care what you are, just get Merlin here" she spoke to the rat again.
The next moment, the rat disappeared and in its position stood Merlin who held a towel over his neck.
"What's up?" Merlin asked.
..
"What's up?" Merlin asked while secretly controlling his marionette rat to return to his room.
Eubin sighed and said.
"Before that, what's up with that rat? Is it some kind of pet?"
"What? No…" he shook his head as he came up with a bullshit lie, "well after you gave me permission to record your enthralling ability, I used it on it and made it my very own thrall"
"Well I can't instantly switch places with my thrall" she put her hand on her waist staring at him suspiciously.
'What? Do you want sasuke's rinnesharingan? I can order one for you…' he rolled his eyes internally.
"Well that's a different ability entirely, I never said the abilities couldn't be stacked" he shrugged, "if you want to ask questions, you'll have to wait till I've eaten something"
"What does food have to do with anything…" Eubin sighed.
"Anyways… I want to know, if you and Revel or Silent Stalker fought, who'd win?"
"Hmmm… if I and Lady Revel fought in a spar, three out of ten times I'd win, the remaining seven would be a close draw, but if it were a real fight to the death, ten out of ten I'd win" he answered confidently.
The reason he rated her so high was because Revel had means to avoid physical attacks while still delivering her own, and her control over true darkness made it difficult for him to attack her, but that didn't mean he was completely helpless, it just meant their fight would drag out for a very extended time, eventually resulting in a draw.
But if it was a fight to the death, even without the cloak, Revel was still going to lose to him.
"Hey! You think you're strong enough to fight me to a draw?" Revel flared up, but Ki Song who had been listening from the side spoke.
"Don't look at it like that Revel, what I'm more interested in is the fight to the death, considering all you've shown, I'm sure that whatever ability you're going to use then is a guaranteed kill right?" She turned to Merlin.
"Well yes… if the condition is favorable, it can also kill a Supreme, but for someone on that level, there's a flurry of ways to avoid its current level" he shrugged.
He naturally had no qualms about tell her what the ability could achieve, even if he told her the ability and how he uses it, there's still no way she could defend against it, except through pure will, and that's only when he's not using the cloak, if he adds the cloak, then with time, he could break through the will itself.
"I see…" Ki Song nodded, "a very good ability"
"Wait Mother, you seriously believe he has an ability like that?" Revel looked at her mother confused.
"He doesn't have any reason to lie about an ability that could be seen as a threat, if he says it himself, then we should at leas believe him, plus I'm sure it has a few restrictions" Ki Song said as she smiled at him for confirmation.
He didn't answer her but that alone served as confirmation, the Marionettist ability was truly restricted by time and distance, if he was up against someone who could oneshot him, then he would be as good as dead, well this body of his would.
"What about Silent Stalker?" Revel grumbled, accepting her defeat.
"Yeah, against her…" he thought about his archery skills, then his danger premonition, then clown's intuition, and came to his decision "it would be tough"
"So you'll lose?" Eubin asked.
(I'm sure we all know what's coming…)
He smiled and replied.
"Nah, I'd win"
"How so?" Ceres asked.
"Although my archery is not as good as hers, and I can't see long distances, I still have super intuition to guide me, I can teleport to close distance and change positions, and I can make myself unable to be hit by physical attacks, coupled with my illusions, I'm an archer's worst nightmare…" he explained.
"You're right, your set of skills make you a nightmare for almost everyone" Lonesome Howl nodded .
"So you see, there's no problem with me losing, Merlin's the problematic one" Eubin spoke in defense of her pride.
"Heh… ours are speculations, but you, you got tossed around like a ragdoll" Revel snickered.
"Fine then let's set up your match" Eubin stated confidently.
"Girls… don't we have a party to prepare for?" Ki Song drew back their attention softly.
"That's right, according to this dimwit, Shan Shan is supposed to return next tomorrow" Revel remembered.
"Hel… do you see anything?" Ceres asked.
"We might die that day…" Hel shrugged.
Everyone rolled their eyes, treating it as a regular rant, except for Merlin who was more or less considering his options.
On that day, he was planning on pulling a very good stunt, that would help him gather followers, or would kill everyone in sight.
'Hopefully she doesn't jinx it…'
He felt something stir inside him, and he turned to the side, at a corner of the training room, in the reflective surface of a training sword, a blurry reflection could be seen.
'Stalker…' He rolled his eyes internally and spoke up.
"You know you can show up with your true body right, I'm not planning on beating you up…"
'Yet' he added internally.
"Who are you talking to?" Eubin asked.
"It's Mordret" he chuckled as the reflection faded into nothing.
"Did you guys have a problem?" Eubin asked.
"No… I heard he challenged the second nightmare with the cohort, so I wanted to talk, too bad he keeps running away" Merlin sighed helplessly.
Although he knew Mordret was not someone to take a loss and leave it, he was probably out there plotting something.
"Oh… well that's your problem" Eubin shrugged.
"Since we're done here, I'm heading back to my room" he reminded, then used blink to return to his room.
As he arrived, he stared at the rat at the corner, then he controlled it to leave the Jade Palace, dig a hole in the snow outside and bury itself as he disconnected his connection to it, the rat was already compromised.
The next moment, he opened his window and a winged ant flew in and landed on his hand.
'Scout number two acquired…'
He smiled and controlled the ant to stay in a corner, while he sat down on the chair in his room, thinking about how he would prepare for the party he was planning to take advantage of.
…
In a corner of the Jade Palace, a handmaiden knocked on a particular door.
Knock!
Knock!
"I'm coming…" a muffled voice sounded from inside.
As the door opened, a beautiful female figure came into view. The handmaiden bowed slightly.
"Lady Hel, I'm sorry to disturb you, but Lady Revel said I should hand these over to you" the handmaiden handed her a brown paper bag.
Hel collected the bag and nodded.
"Thank you"
The handmaiden bowed again and scurried off. Hel took the bag inside her room and closed the door after her.
As she opened the bag, what she saw inside was a book with the title.
[My CEO Boss Can't Get Enough Of Me.]
"Ah!" She threw the book down on the bed and gritted her teeth.
"Revel… I'll get you for this…"