Chapter 79: Savage
As they moved in tandem, Asher quickly realized that Hillary’s speed was escalating with each passing moment, his rapier flashing like fleeting bolts of silver. The rhythm of their exchange, once measured, had abruptly shifted without warning, as if the battle had taken on a tempo of its own.
In a blink, Hillary’s rapier darted forward. Asher’s instincts flared, he moved to intercept, but his blade met nothing but air. The strike had already come and gone, too swift to track.
Then came the sting. Steel met flesh in a single, seamless motion, clean and sharp, like a knife sliding through butter.
A fresh gash split open across Asher’s skin, but he didn’t so much as flinch. After enduring countless wounds over the past five hours, his body had grown numb to pain.
But Virelass responded without hesitation, the sentient weapon pulsed once, and the torn flesh stitched itself shut as though it had never been touched.
But Hillary remained undeterred, he had anticipated Asher’s regenerative ability. What he didn’t fully understand, however, was the extent of Virelass’s healing. Still, he had a theory.
In all the time Asher had clashed with various assassins, he had never sustained damage to a vital organ, for example something as delicate as the eye. Perhaps it was because Virelass couldn’t mend what required absolute efficiency.
With that possibility in mind, Hillary’s posture shifted. In a single, fluid transition, his attacks grew savage and ferocious. Then, like a lightning bolt rending the heavens, the tip of his rapier shot forward, aimed directly for Asher’s eye.
Asher watched the rapier streak toward him, the glint of its edge mere centimetres from his eye. There was no time to raise Virelass, no room for parrying. His head snapped to the side in the last instant, narrowly evading the fatal thrust.
A thunderous boom followed, the wind exploding against his eardrums like a concussive wave. His sense of balance wavered, thrown into disarray by the sudden pressure.
Hillary didn’t hesitate. In a heartbeat, he exploited the opening, his leg lashed out like a whip, driven by brutal momentum and flawless timing.