Targeted By The Protagonist As A Villain-Chapter 36: Bodyguard (3)

"Who are you?" Celeste questioned as she unsheathed the glowing white sword that was on top of the kitchen counter and pointed it at him.

Since she didn’t recognize who this man was, she was certain that he wasn’t one of her allies coming after Eric, but rather someone who was after her instead.

"You don’t need to know who I am. The only thing you need to know is that I’ve been trying to find you for a very... very long time." The man smirked as he moved toward the couch and sat down as if he were in his own home. "And now you’ve also saved me the trouble by being in an optimal location where I can kill you in peace without having to worry about drawing too much attention from the general public, and for that, I thank you."

Hearing this, Celeste didn’t reply back immediately, but still kept her guard up, not letting the man’s relaxed demeanor affect her whatsoever.

After all, she couldn’t afford to, even for just a little bit.

Because she could sense that he was only slightly weaker than her based on the amount of magical energy he was emitting.

But eventually, Celeste asked, "How did you know I was here?"

"Heh, it’s simple, really." The man crossed his legs, leaned back, and then pointed at Eric, "Your friends sent out a distress signal about that guy, and luckily for me, I had someone infiltrate one of the groups your friends had reached out to years prior. So when word reached out to me about it, I came straight here to learn more about this Eric Porter fella and hoped to talk to him about you for a little bit. And BAM! Wouldn’t you know it? That’s when I saw you. Aren’t I such a lucky guy?"

"..." Celeste didn’t say anything again and remained silent.

"Now I know you had asked me that silly question just now so that you could gather some information from me and make sure that you won’t make the same mistakes again the next time you go out like this and all that, but unfortunately for you..." The man then suddenly stood back up, snapped his fingers in midair, and smiled.

Immediately afterwards...

Shing! Shing! Shing!

Eight translucent black swords suddenly appeared around him, and they were all aimed directly at Celeste.

"There will be no next time."

The moment the man finished speaking, he launched one flying sword directly at Celeste, but it was immediately blocked off by her glowing white sword, causing it to evaporate into thin air.

"Nice parry, I expected no less from you. Let’s get more serious, shall we?" The man laughed as eight more swords appeared around him to make up for the lost one.

Now with a total of fifteen hovering around him in a circle, the man started attacking with all of them at once from various directions.

However, due to the sheer mental strain of controlling so many weapons at once, only five of the swords moved with true precision, as that was the limit of his control, while the remaining ten lacked finesse and were reduced to projectiles he could launch but not guide.

Nevertheless...

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

Every time he sent a sword flying towards Celeste, he replaced the ones she blocked or dodged within mere seconds and repeated the process, while his other five controlled swords tried slicing at her at close range, not giving her a single second of respite whatsoever.

Celeste was able to dodge and weave through everything that the man threw at her with ease though, and once she finally found a moment to break free, she quickly casted a spell that changed the atmospheric pressure around her and then instantly rushed straight towards the man at a speed which she didn’t think he could react to.

But that didn’t work out at all however, and instead...

Clang!

"Did you really think that I didn’t know about how you fight? Your element of surprises won’t work on me here." The man smiled while a thin sword appeared between the palms of his hands and blocked her glowing white sword, causing a huge shockwave that completely cracked and shattered everything nearby.

Then without hesitation, the man controlled the other five swords that Celeste had ran past by in order to reach him and directed them to pierce her back.

Celeste noticed the attack coming though, and she was able to fend them off by bringing her sword behind her without even having to turn back and look.

That left the front of her body defenseless as a result, which allowed the man to strike back once again with the thin sword in his hand.

But Celeste wanted him to do this, and the moment the man raised his sword to attack her, she used her extreme superiority in speed to her advantage and quickly brought the sword from behind her to the front and thrusted it directly toward the man’s exposed chest.

The man didn’t even attempt to dodge it however, and let the sword hit him.

Tink!

Instead of piercing through him like Celeste had expected, it only sounded like the tip of her sword had hit some kind of armor he was wearing underneath his coat, and her sword bounced back as a result.

As such, Celeste quickly tried to create some distance between them and started moving away from the man.

Unfortunately, the swords that the man had been controlling behind her never ended their assault, even after she had brought her sword to the front, and one of them managed to barely graze her leg.

"Tch." Even though the damage wasn’t fatal, and it didn’t even cause her to bleed at all, Celeste still couldn’t help but click her tongue in disdain.

"Why aren’t you coming after me with everything you’ve got? Aside from lowering the pressure earlier, you haven’t used any spells or abilities at all." The man questioned.

"Same reason why you’re not going all out as well." Celeste coldly stated.

"Mmm... you’re trying to gauge my abilities then?" The man said in an eerily calm manner.

Celeste didn’t respond to the man and just stood in her spot quietly.

The man knew the answer to his question, however, and after he stared intently at her for a few more seconds, a creepy smile began to spread across his face, and he couldn’t hide it anymore.

"Heh... hehehe... ahahaha!" The man’s shoulders shook as the laughter tore out of him, uneven and breathless, "You still don’t get it, do you? I know everything there is to know about you, how you fight, and how to counter you. That also means that I knew you weren’t going to go all out in the first place and used that to buy some time!"

"Buy some... time?" Celeste repeated what the man had said and then realized it.

But before Celeste could even make an attempt to escape...

Her body suddenly refused to move, and she dropped her sword.

Not out of fear.

But because something in her body had stopped working entirely.

Then, a split second later, she coughed...

And blood came out of her mouth.

"Ah... there it is." The man said with an unhinged look on his face. "Now your body is finally starting to feel it."

Hearing this, Celeste tried moving her body as best as she could, but she found it so heavy and painful to move that she barely managed even a single inch from her spot.

"Curious as to what’s happening now?" The man asked in delight.

"..." Celeste didn’t say anything and tried to move away again, but once more, she only made minimal movement, and it looked more like a twitch than anything else.

"Since you’re finally going to die by my hands soon, please allow me to reveal it to you. I insist." The man eagerly stated before continuing, "You see, my main specialty is actually dealing with poison and toxins. So before I even entered this penthouse to begin with, I went into the vents of this building and released some very strong airborne toxins through them, a weakness for someone like you, who isn’t very resistant to them and has trouble detecting them due to your lack of exposure."

"..."

"After that, I casted some spells to guide it through the vents and into this penthouse, letting it circulate through the room before I entered the room."

"..."

"Hehehe, it’s very simple, I know, but it worked, didn’t it?" The man proudly boasted, "And now... you’re under its effects."

"..."

"I should thank you though. If you hadn’t moved around so much while we fought, it would’ve taken so much longer for the toxins to take effect on you. Truly, you’ve been a great help." The man grinned as he walked closer to Celeste, but stopped a couple of feet away from her.

"Now... let’s end this once and for all, shall we?"

The moment the man finished his sentence, he raised up his sword, pausing for a few seconds to savor the frightened look on her face, and then finished off by saying...

"Bye bye, bitch. This is what you get for letting me live and humiliating me when you should’ve killed me 50 years ago."

And with that, the man began swinging his sword down, intending to fully decapitate her and take her head as a trophy, while all Celeste could do was close her eyes and accept her fate.

But before the man could fully slice her head off of her body however, he suddenly stopped mid swing.

After all, he heard something quite interesting to say the least.

And that was...

"If you’re going to be killing off my bodyguard like that, could you at least have the decency to wait until she’s done with her job first?"