In this stagnant moment, the assassin clutching a dagger pushed open the window and leisurely stepped into the room.
He sauntered to Seraphina's bedside, gazing at her serene and beautiful sleeping face, and lamented, "I wonder what that lord is thinking... Well, it doesn't concern me."
"As a reward, I must complete his task properly."
"Farewell, little one, it will be over in an instant."
The dagger, reflecting the cold moonlight, showed no mercy as it aimed straight for Seraphina's neck.
Phff ——
Instead of the sound of a sharp weapon piercing flesh, a soft noise was heard as the feather pillow was punctured.
The assassin's eyebrows raised slightly, his gaze falling upon the suddenly opened dark red eyes.
Seraphina, barely dodging the direct stab, saw the assassin's blurred visage reflected in her eyes.
Even without understanding the situation, her innate intuition and talent had already set her power flowing through her body.
Her resting muscles instantly transmitted explosive strength, and beneath her seemingly delicate skin, her well-toned muscles pushed the force from her waist, abdomen, and spine to her thighs. Her supple and resilient limbs kicked the assassin's chest from an incredibly tricky angle, and it was no exaggeration to say that the force was enough to collapse his entire chest.
However, Seraphina felt no feedback from the bottom of her foot.
The young wolf's red eyes contracted to their limit, and the intense phantom pain in her chest made her instinctively raise her arm to block before the dagger fell.
This time, the blade truly pierced the girl's flesh, and even though she tensed her muscles as much as possible, her proud, wolf-claw-resistant body was penetrated in an instant.
"Damn it!"
The pain made Seraphina roar in anger, and she raised her leg to kick again, but undoubtedly missed.
However, this time she was clearly feigning an attack, and her kick was not forceful, so she easily retracted her leg, leaped up from the bed using all four limbs, and finally escaped the dangerous lying position.
"Well, this is..."
The assassin looked at Seraphina, who was clutching her forearm, with astonishment. "Are you really just a Crystal Staircase?"
"[Some Northern curse words], Who the hell are you?"
Seraphina's short hair was disheveled, her face full of anger and her eyes fierce. "Are you here to avenge those two rubbish Barons? Why not go after Hydral?"
"Well, about that..."
The assassin shrugged. "You can understand it as, I can't beat him."
At that moment, something snapped in the young wolf's mind.
"So you mean," her face twitched, revealing sharp canine teeth, "I'm much easier to deal with than him, right?"
The man laughed outright, "Isn't it ——"
In the next instant, his figure appeared in front of Seraphina, and the blade that could cut through iron like mud swept towards her throat like wind and light!
" — obvious?"
The assassin spread his hands in response to Seraphina's awkward backward flip.
Evading the strike, Seraphina moved backward, her hands and feet on the ground like a wild beast, the low growl in her throat burning like fire.
She knew, of course, that she was no match for Hydral, far from that detestable, hypocritical, scoundrel Hydral.
Precisely because of this, precisely because her heart was always filled with that inexplicable yet genuine resentment, Seraphina felt a deep-seated anger towards her own weakness compared to Ansel.
— It was a raging flame she didn't understand herself, a chaotic thought that compelled her, urging her to become stronger quickly.
[I must not be manipulated by him.]
The longer she spent with Ansel, the more easily such thoughts emerged in Seraphina's mind.
"So, you have a beast-like nature and possess a special talent in combat and intuition?"
The assassin casually twirled his dagger, "However, this isn't a particularly rare ability. I wonder why that esteemed person values you so much."
Are warriors with animal instincts rare?
Not at all. The genius assassin from the Chronos Guild had brought countless self-proclaimed extraordinary fighters to their knees under his blade.
"If that's all there is to it," he yawned lazily, "let's end this."
The man took one step forward after another, and at some unknown moment, when time seemed to have stopped, he approached Seraphina.
"Still using this posture to fight," he sneered, "how UGH—?!"
The assassin felt as if he had been struck head-on by a rampaging wild boar.
Seraphina, maintaining her four-limbed stance, charged forward without warning, her arms tightly wrapped around the assassin's waist, her head thrown back.
"GO DIE!"
As her arms tightened with terrifying force, threatening to break the assassin's waist, Seraphina's roaring headbutt slammed into his abdomen. Under this pincer attack, the assassin's spine and internal organs were likely to be crushed!
But that was not the case.
"I really... underestimated you."
The man sighed lightly, and for some reason, he was completely unharmed. He raised his leg and delivered a brutal knee strike to Seraphina's chin, causing her to spray a mouthful of blood.
"Only four moves, right?" The assassin stepped back, leaving a safe distance for Seraphina, surprisingly not pursuing her further. "You saw through my technique? And even predicted how long I could stop time?"
"This isn't something intuition can accomplish."
"Ptui!"
Seraphina spat out a small piece of her tongue, her blood-filled mouth making her look incredibly ferocious, no different from a wild beast. "You still have the mood to chat with me?"
"Oh, Miss... Animal, you need to distinguish me from ordinary assassins."
The expensive, ornate dagger with its hilt adorned with flowing sand spun at the assassin's fingertips. As he looked at the snow-haired girl with somewhat distorted pupils, he explained to Seraphina out of curiosity: "I—"
Crack — !
Seraphina watched as the assassin effortlessly sliced through the furniture she had thrown at him with his dagger, her expression dark.
From his first three assassination attempts, she had deduced the assassin's ability.
Time.
It wasn't that his speed was so fast that she couldn't react, but rather... the time had been frozen.
Because she had sensed that strange sense of displacement, each time she narrowly avoided the assassin's attack, she was not only brewing a counterattack but also constantly observing the opponent's condition.
The assassin's attacks and evasions of her counterattacks had no continuity.
It was as if... the process had been cut off.
Seraphina immediately realized that it wasn't the process being cut off, but rather that she couldn't observe the time when the assassin made his move.
Inversely, it was the assassin who had frozen her time.
If it had been the Seraphina of the past, she would not have considered so much in such a short time.
She would have immediately identified the opponent as a terrifyingly powerful enemy, for in her understanding, her own strength was everything. Being unable to observe the opponent's movements meant only one thing: the opponent was countless times faster than herself.
This erroneous direction would only lead to incorrect outcomes.
However, after today's lesson, Seraphina managed to halt her instinctive steps towards the wrong direction.
Transcendence. The mysterious, magnificent, and complex transcendence - the Transcendence that was "not merely a collision of fists and feet."
It was precisely because of Ansel's meticulous guidance that she considered the opponent's extraordinary abilities first, noticed the assassin's peculiarity, and was able to discern the assassin's capabilities in such a short time with her innate talent.
Seraphina had to admit that she indeed owed her gratitude to Ansel, although she did not have the time to express it now.
As for the bizarre, almost perfectly timed action prediction, Seraphina herself did not know how it happened.
She only felt that as blood continuously flowed into her throat, something seemed to be burning in the center of her head, as if a roar echoed within her soul.
Unbeknownst to her, the wound on the girl's arm had already stopped bleeding.
Her eyes twisted and focused, and an even colder and more ferocious will rose from her nearly beast-like pupils.
Like a wolf.