Adam didn’t wait for the assassins to reach him. His body blurred, splitting into three afterimages with [Mirage Cascade] each one darting toward a different cluster of enemies. The real Adam wove between the shadows, his fist already cocked back, dark energy curling around his knuckles.

Leela moved.

Her form flickered, and the air around her seemed to distort. [Shadowfoot Waltz] —a skill that bent space around her steps, making her movements unpredictable, her speed almost impossible to track. She slid between the afterimages, her short sword trailing a silver arc toward Adam’s exposed flank.

Adam’s instincts flared. [Hunter’s Tri-Sense] pushed outward, feeling for the displacement of air, the shift of weight on stone, the subtle pulse of her heartbeat beneath the chaos.

’There.’

He didn’t turn. He simply twisted, the blade passing so close it sliced a few strands of his purple hair. His hand shot out, but Leela was already gone, back in the swarm of her operatives.

She reappeared several paces away, her golden eyes narrowed.

"You’re fast."

Adam rolled his shoulder, the dark energy in his palm dissipating.

"You’re not bad yourself."

Leela didn’t give Adam a moment to recover. Her twin daggers flashed in the firelight as she spun into a new technique [Whisperwind Waltz] . Her body became a blur of motion, spinning and twisting, her blades tracing arcs of silver that seemed to come from every direction at once. Each step was a feint, each strike a promise of death.

Adam’s arms moved in a blur, deflecting the relentless assault. Steel clashed against his scaled forearms in a cascade of sparks. The daggers couldn’t pierce his hide, but the force behind each strike was enough to push him back, step by step.

"There’s no opening," Adam muttered, his crimson eyes tracking her movements.

He planted his feet and drove forward with [Monarch’s Pierce] , his fist aimed at Leela’s center mass. The air cracked around his knuckles.

Leela’s eyes widened. She twisted mid-spin, her body folding at an impossible angle. The strike passed close enough to ruffle her white hair. She used the momentum to launch herself backward, landing in a low crouch several paces away.

"Close," she admitted, her golden eyes sharp.

Adam opened his mouth to respond—

Something hissed through the air behind him.

His head snapped sideways. An arrow, black-fletched and humming with dark energy, passed so close to his ear he felt the wind of its passage. He caught it mid-flight, his fingers closing around the shaft just before it would have buried itself in his shoulder blades.

He snapped the arrow in two with a flick of his wrist, letting the pieces clatter to the stone floor.

"I thought this was a fair fight," Adam said jokingly.

Leela’s lips curled into a thin, unapologetic smile. "Fair? What a foolish thing to say." She raised her daggers, the blades gleaming. "There’s no such thing as fair in a fight for survival."

Adam’s lips curved into a slow, matching smile—dangerous and wild.

"You’re right."

He inhaled deeply, his chest expanding, and then he roared.

[Draconic Roar] .

Concussive force rippled outward in visible waves, shaking the walls, cracking the stone floor, sending debris raining from the ceiling. Every assassin within range stumbled, their hands flying to their ears. Some fell to their knees, blood trickling from beneath their masks.

Leela winced, her daggers wavering as she fought to keep her balance.

Adam didn’t wait.

Dark energy gathered in both palms—one swirling with the cutting wind of [Tempest Sovereign] , the other pulsing with the hungry void of [Abyssal Pierce] . He brought his hands together, and the two forces merged.

[Cataclysm Tempest] .

A vortex of shadow and storm exploded from his palms, tearing through the ruined forge like a living thing. It swept across the room, consuming everything in its path, broken crates, fallen assassins, the remnants of Hilt’s workbenches. The assassins who had been scrambling to regroup were caught in the blast, their screams swallowed by the roar of the storm.

Leela’s voice cut through the chaos, sharp and commanding. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Scatter! Don’t cluster—!"

But Lilith’s threads were already moving.

Silver strands shot across the room, weaving a web that herded the fleeing assassins back toward the center of the vortex. They tried to dodge, to slip through the gaps, but the threads were everywhere, tightening, pulling, driving them into the path of Adam’s attack.

One by one, they fell.

When the storm finally faded, the floor was littered with bodies. Half of Leela’s reinforcements were down dead, unconscious, or too wounded to rise.

Leela stood among the carnage, untouched but breathing hard, her golden eyes wide as they swept the destruction.

’They’re coordinated,’ she thought, her internal voice sharp with cold realization. ’They’re fighting as one. Covering each other’s weaknesses, amplifying each other’s strengths.’

Her gaze shifted to Adam, who stood at the center of the chaos, his chest rising and falling steadily, his crimson eyes already fixed on her.

’We need to change the rhythm. Break their coordination. If this continues... we’ll be wiped out.’

Leela’s hand shot up, a sharp gesture that sent her remaining operatives into motion. They spread out, fanning through the ruins of the forge, their movements synchronized, practiced. Some drew bows, others raised wands, and a few simply melted into the shadows, waiting for the right moment to strike.

Leela’s daggers spun in her hands, the blades tracing arcs of dark light. The steel began to glow, coating the daggers in a sheen of abyssal black.

"I’ll admit," Leela said, her golden eyes fixed on Adam, "you’re strong. Stronger than anyone I’ve faced in years." She shifted her stance, the daggers humming with contained power. "That’s exactly why you need to die here. You’re a threat to the guild."

Adam stretched his arms out to his sides, palms up, his expression calm and almost bored. "Threat? I’m flattered." His lips curved into a cold smile. "But I don’t take orders from corpses."

Leela moved.

[Shadowstep: Abyssal Flurry] .

She closed the distance in a blink, her form flickering as she wove around Adam in a blur of motion. Each step left a faint afterimage, each strike came from a different angle. The daggers traced arcs of black light, faster and faster, until Adam was surrounded by a storm of shadow and steel.

Adam dodged. Weaved. His body twisted and turned, avoiding the worst of the strikes. But Leela was accelerating. Every evasion seemed to feed her speed, every near miss made her faster. The daggers began to find their mark—small cuts at first, shallow, barely breaking the skin.

Then a blade caught his cheek.

It was a thin line, barely a scratch, but blood welled from the wound, dark against his pale skin. Adam frowned.

[Status Effect: Defense Break – Physical defense reduced by 30% for 60 seconds.]

[Status Effect: Armor Corrosion – Damage taken increased by 25% for 60 seconds.]

"Debuff huh," Adam murmured, touching his cheek.

Leela didn’t pause. She raised her hand, and her operatives attacked.

Arrows, bolts, and spells rained down on Adam from every direction. He raised his arms to block, but his scales, which had turned aside blades and spells with ease, now cracked under the assault. The projectiles tore through his guard, embedding in his shoulders, his arms, his torso.

An explosion rocked the forge. Fire and debris engulfed Adam, and when the smoke cleared, he was on one knee, his clothes shredded, blood streaming from a dozen wounds.

Leela circled him, her daggers still glowing with that hungry black light.

"It’s over," she said, her voice tight with exertion but steady with certainty.

Adam lifted his head. His crimson eyes, still bright, met hers.

"Not bad," he said, his voice calm despite the blood. He glanced at her daggers, then back at her face. "Those weapons... they’re the real threat, aren’t they? The debuff, it’s coming from the blades."

Leela’s lips curved into a thin, proud smile. "You’re perceptive. I’ll grant you that much before you die." She raised a dagger, the black light pulsing along its edge. "My daggers are enchanted with a curse of weakening. Every cut lowers the target’s defenses. And what I lower..." She tapped the blade against her palm. "...I convert into raw offensive power. The more you bleed, the stronger I become."

Adam’s eyes widened slightly, then narrowed in understanding.

"So that’s why my scales couldn’t hold."

"Precisely." Leela stepped closer, raising both daggers for the final strike. "Now die."

She lunged.

But Adam’s body was already healing.

The wounds on his arms sealed, the gashes on his torso closed, the blood flow stopped. His regeneration the [Eternal Cycle] of the Ouroboros Progenitor surged, knitting flesh and mending bone in the span of heartbeats.

Leela’s eyes widened. Her daggers halted mid-swing.

"What... what is this?! Regeneration? At this speed?!"

Adam straightened, rolling his shoulder. The last wound on his cheek faded to a faint pink line, then disappeared entirely.

"That’s right." His voice was calm, almost conversational. "You’re not the only one with tricks."

Leela’s internal voice screamed. ’Impossible! I cut him dozens of times! His defense should be crippled! His wounds should be fatal! How is he still standing?!’

Her instincts took over. She couldn’t afford to let him recover fully. She lunged again, her daggers blazing with all the power she had accumulated.

"ABYSSAL REQUIEM!"

The blades descended, aimed at Adam’s heart.