Child of Destiny

Swoosh!

Cecil did not wait for Shin to respond and swiftly dashed straight to Shin.

Whoosh!

Shin could only see a blur standing at her previous location before a pointed tip of a dagger appeared right before his face and headed straight between his eyebrows.

Shin quickly responded, leaning backwards while also raising his sheathed sword and waving it in circular motion to redirect the incoming attack.

Swoosh!

However, right before his sword and the dagger came in contact with each other, the latter suddenly blurred out of existence from Shin’s vision altogether.

Whoosh!

Right after, Cecil’s figure suddenly manifested right behind Shin, which was also the direction where he was dodging.

Shing!

She then stabbed her dagger forward, targeting the latter’s back.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Unfortunately, right before her dagger could find its target, Shin’s figure suddenly flickered multiple times along with the appearance of the overlapping phantoms stacked with his body.

‘Phantom Series: Movement Technique – Phantom Shroud’

Not only was Cecil’s vision tricked by this stack of overlapping phantoms, but her other senses as well.

This made her unable to read the movements of her opponent, and she even committed a mistake.

Swoosh!

Her dagger stabbed forward, but only able to hit one of the phantoms, which was already fading away.

Whoosh!

On the other hand, Shin had already turned his body and faced her while assuming a sword-drawing stance.

Click!

When the overlapping phantoms had already caught up with the main body, he was already in the middle of unsheathing the sword and about to strike with it horizontally.

‘Jade Kirin Scripture: Quick Draw – Flash Horizon’

Shing!

A flash of light immediately followed, tracing the path of his sword and attempting to strike his opponent.

Poof!

However, the opposing party had suddenly turned into black smoke and disappeared.

Swoosh!

Not long after this, black smoke suddenly rushed toward Shin, passing through him before he could even respond.

Shing!

Along with this black smoke, Shin also felt a sharp sensation that seemed to have sliced through his neck.

*Ding*

Immediately after, he suddenly received a notification from the system, informing him that he had just died.

System: You have just died. The timer is reset to zero.

“What!?”

He was taken aback by the sudden turn of events. Everything happened a bit too fast, yet he was still doing quite fine until that final moment.

He could not help but raise his brows, especially after recalling that he was unable to respond against that black some earlier.

“You are not that bad, especially that sharp reaction speed of yours. Unfortunately, quick reflexes are not enough in all situations.”

It was at this moment that Shin heard Cecil’s voice coming from behind.

Shin then slowly turned around and looked at her with a somewhat serious gaze. He was not sure what had just happened. He could tell that it must be something related to her insanely high stealth and extreme speed.

The combination of the two made him lose track of her for an instant. Meanwhile, the earlier black smoke must be something she had released to further confuse him and mess with his senses.

This was just his guess, but he at least had to be careful so that such instances would not happen again.

Seemingly understanding what he was thinking, Cecil gave Shin an amused smile before suddenly turning into black smoke once again.

Poof!

Just like earlier, Shin had completely lost track of her, making him raise his brows quite high.

Aside from the black smoke that lingered on her previous spot, he was unable to perceive her presence at all.

Shin squinted his eyes, trying to focus on the lingering black smoke with his True Sight Ocular Skill. He wanted to see if that black smoke was just a part of an illusion to hide herself, or at least her tracks.

Unfortunately, he found that it was just a black miasma that all the spectres passively released.

Swoosh!

Not long after, a sharp sensation suddenly overwhelmed his back, indicating that he had been hit by something.

More specifically, he had been stabbed from behind.

*Ding*

Immediately after, another system notification rang in his ears, telling him that he had just died once again.

“You are quite alert. Unfortunately, it is not enough.”

Cecil’s voice then whispered right beside his ear before she swiftly distanced herself from him.

She then giggled while pointing out, “Your senses are not sharp enough, so even if your reflexes are quite instantaneous, you are unable to respond to such threats.”

“You might have quite good senses and extremely instantaneous reflexes, but how can your body react to something that you can’t perceive?” she added while playing with the dagger, letting it dance between her fingers.

Shin did not know how to respond when he heard this. He knew that his ‘Ultra Instincts’ innate talent within the game helped him avoid any kind of threat that might come after him.

But just like Cecil had said, how could he avoid a threat that he could not feel despite all his sharp senses?

“Now, this is quite a problem,” mumbled Shin in silence while trying to think about how he would deal with the current situation.

He could tell that Cecil was purposely waiting for him to think of a solution to his current predicament. Unfortunately, he could not solve such a problem correctly, given the limited information that he had at hand.

At first, the situation somewhat reminded him of the time when he was sparring with Vincent in the real world.

Vincent was a top-class assassin and a genius from the Valentine Family, which was one of the Assassin Families in the world.

Opposite to Jeremiah, who constantly released his killing intent and spread in every direction to fill the entire atmosphere, Vincent was a type of assassin who always kept his killing intent to himself.

Vicent never let even a hint of killing intent leak out from his body, making sure that his target would never release his presence until the final moments.

He was a type of assassin who hid his intention until the moment he made his move.

However, even if Vincent was extremely skilled in this assassination method and mastered the art of concealing his intention until the final moments, there were still some instances where his killing intent revealed itself, such as when he was about to eliminate his target.

This was the window where Shin could move and counterattack. Given his ‘Immediate Response’ Talent and ‘Spiritual Sense’ in the real world, dealing with such ambushes was much easier.

This was where the difference between the methods that Vincent used in the real world and Cecil’s technique here inside the game differentiated themselves from one another.

At the very least, Vincent, or even his in-game persona as Faker, leaked out a hint of killing intent whenever he was about to eliminate his opponent.

On the other hand, Cecil had never revealed any signs when she was about to make her move, much less a hint of her killing intent.

Not even when she was about to eliminate him.

“It is as if she never has any intention of killing me, which is why her killing intent never slips out of her body,” he mumbled, feeling very troubled with the current situation.

Even those mechanical puppets that Old Man Lin in the academy regularly released to torture them at least had a hint of killing intent in them. They were not even a living being, much less a person with the intention to kill.

Shin immediately rejected the idea that it was because of the system. After all, he was already familiar with how the world within the game worked, which was basically based on the real world.

He was sure that there must be a reason why he could not sense the presence of the other party, and how she was able to hide her killing intent as if it had never been there.

This situation troubled Shin quite well, especially when the situation surpassed his current martial arts and mentalism attainment.

After all, an individual was supposed to release a killing intent so long as they had the intention to kill.

If Shin were to describe the current situation, then it would be like giving an innocent child a deadly weapon and asking them to use it against someone.

Imagine a toddler stabbing someone with a knife; such a thing gave Shin shivers down his spine.

“Should I give you a little hint, little brother?” said Cecil with a teasing tone.

Poof!

Immediately after, she disappeared once again, making Shin fully on guard.

He repeatedly swept his gaze at the surroundings, trying to find the other party. He was also constantly moving in circles while holding his sword tight, ready to launch an attack at any given moment.

Shing!

Unfortunately, despite all of this, he was unable to respond when Cecil made her move. His throat was slit once again, signifying his third ‘death’ since the start of this trial.

“Damn!” he cursed, feeling a bit frustrated for being too powerless against her.

He thought that with all the improvements that he had undergone these last few days, he would be able to breeze through these obstacles.

Unfortunately, he was immediately humbled by the very next trial.

…