NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 56: The Assassin Of Ennead, Shamir
Listen While Reading: Yagyu Sword Chronicles
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The Realm of Ennead.
A realm of dunes, seas of sand, and limited resources. However, it was also a world brimming with countless ancient and dangerous tombs, filled with ancient and precious treasures. Among all Realms, Ennead was the Realm with the most “natural” dungeons occurring all over the Realm.
However, because of this, it was also a very dangerous Realm, powerful monsters roamed every corner of the sands, and deserts of all types existed, creating unique atmospheres and destructive zones that most normal people wouldn’t be able to withstand.
Amidst these endless dunes, many nomadic tribes lived, and the one to which Shamir belonged was perhaps the strongest and most dangerous of them all, known for being black magic sorcerers, assassins, thieves, and masters of poisons—the vilest of elves.
Desert Elves.
In the world of Ennead, every person was born with a Soul Treasure Orb within their body, there was no other power in this Realm, and so everything derived from what their first Soul Treasure became.
Being born with a Soul Treasure was as rare as finding a drop of water in the desert. Most people had to find a compatible Relic to absorb and transform into their Soul Artifact. Hence, the ancient tombs, filled with dangers and rewards, were where these people would raid endlessly, seeking power to overcome the difficulties of their upbringing.
The Essence of the Sands of Time was the energy that the people of Ennead manipulated, allowing them to empower, evolve, transform, and enhance the Soul Artifacts they possessed, bringing forth their true powers to the world.
And Shamir here, possessed a powerful Soul Artifact. Paul had only seen this online, but these things were like growth-type equipment directly connected to the user’s stats; the more they grew, the more the user grew as well.
They developed skills, abilities, auras, and more as they evolved by absorbing materials and the souls of other people and monsters.
Meaning that… they were utterly broken!
The thing is, most players that started on Ennead gave up; the difficulty at the beginning was too much, as nobody started with a Soul Artifact, and had to find one themselves without being able to grow stronger.
It was obviously the highest difficulty someone could choose, and in an online game, no less. There might still be some tenacious players in Ennead trying to get the Soul Artifact, but right now, Vlad has yet to hear about any doing anything worthwhile.
Yet… that didn’t apply to the Realm’s own inhabitants, who had been living there since the beginning!
“{Soul Artifact}: {Dual Shadow Serpent Daggers: Enchant}”
With a few words, Shamir shook the hearts of Paul and Chris. His twin black daggers, which resembled slithering black and dark purple snakes, glowed brightly. The eye-shaped jewels on them glowed, releasing a deadly aura of darkness and poison!
The Assassin moved too fast; Paul couldn’t simply react in time, and the only thing he could do was protect Chris with his own body.
Thankfully, he had already repaired his damn armor!
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
CLAAANK!
A series of slashing attacks reached Vlad immediately, like a flurry of slashing waves of purple and black colors. His armor began to gain several scratches and even tiny cracks.
The amount of damage this attack dealt alone was tremendous!
“Get away from here! You can’t handle him!” Vlad said.
“But what about you?!” asked Alitheus. “Can you even handle him with your Trait?! This guy’s insane!”
“My brother and that dragon were hard too, but I won anyway, trust me!” said Vlad.
“You really are quite confident just because you possess armor,” Shamir commented. “To think you would start chatting as if I’m nothing to you… How disrespectful. Are all the people of this Realm like this?”
Shamir grew furious; even though his way of speaking seemed very refined, he was still unmistakenly a cold-blooded assassin. With a burst of power, he imbued the energies and aura of his Soul Artifact into his legs, kicking Vlad and Alitheus at the same time.
BAAAM!
“Aaaggh!”
“Ugh!”
The two ended up hitting the wall with a tremendous, thunderous sound. The entire cave below the city trembled, with small boulders falling from the ceiling.
Shamir slowly started walking towards them, a smile clear beneath his semi-transparent black veil covering half of his face.
If Paul had to be honest, with his slender body, flawless face, and long blonde hair, he was a very beautiful man.
But that wasn’t the only thing noticeable about him—his fighting techniques. His attacks showed the experience of someone who has lived for many years fighting.
He’s an experienced assassin.
So…
“Where did that damn hobgoblin get the connections to summon someone like you?”
Vlad quickly stood back up, holding onto his sword as he imbued large quantities of Arcana into it, which also spread through the rest of his body thanks to his powerful magical armor.
“Hmm, I am not someone that likes doing small talk, but this is my first time interacting with people from this Realm…” Shamir smiled, licking his lips. “To make things easier for you to understand, It’s the will of my master and leader of our cult that Hobgoblin, despite his attitude, is a member of our cult, part of... our extended branch. That is all I will reveal to you before your death. Now, be prepared, undying vampire. Death comes to all, even to your kind.”
FLASH!
Before Vlad could respond, Shamir appeared in front of him, moving so fast that he resembled a black and purple-colored blur. His two daggers were moving down, attacking Vlad several times, hitting a single point of his armor, the chest, and trying to break open a hole to stab him in the heart.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
“Shit…!”
The power and force of each hit were completely different from any attack from Vlad’s brother, and although not as burning as the dragon’s breath, it was just as devastating.
The momentum that Shamir built based on his attack power and speed was immense; Vlad was unable to respond, constantly being pushed back before he could even land a hit.
“Hmm, strange. Your armor doesn’t break no matter how hard I hit one point? Is this some sort of spell that keeps it together?”
Shamir immediately figured out on his own the power of Vlad’s armor, which had already saved his life many times. His entire full-body armor, despite being several different parts, was connected through an artificial soul.
This made it so their durability was shared in a huge pool; no piece would break as each one shared the same durability as if they were a big piece of metal instead.
This made it so that unless all durability reached zero, the armor would simply never break!
However, it would develop cracks and grow weaker as it took damage.
“My crafting skills come in clutch again... If I hadn’t made all of this equipment beforehand, just how much would I have been fucked over by all these foes?!” thought Vlad, gritting his teeth as he quickly swung his blade vertically.
SLAAASH!
A wave of flames was unleashed, quickly taking the shape of a fiery dragon. Shamir faced it fearlessly, swinging his daggers against it and slicing the dragon into pieces.
“Weak.”
The ruthless assassin rushed back to Vlad, noticing something.
“Wait, where’s the girl with him?”
His eyes widened as he noticed a presence disappearing far away, encompassed by a veil of shadows. It was nobody else but Chris!
Using his magic bow’s ability [Veil of Dark Flames], which creates dark flames that are invisible to most eyes, he increases his stealth abilities.
Vlad didn’t just engage in a conversation with Shamir to learn something about him, but to fully put the assassin’s attention into him.
“You! Where do you think you’re going?!”
With a furious roar, Shamir quickly imbued his Sand Essence into the daggers he wielded and quickly thew one of them towards Chris. Connected to a long snake-like aura manifestation, the dagger moved around, chasing Chris as he tried to escape.
“He can even manipulate the daggers like that?!” Vlad thought.
He rushed forward, quickly imbuing Arcana into his blade and releasing its full power against Shamir while he tried to chase Chris.
In that very small window of time, Shamir ended up lowering his guard slightly.
“{Dual Blazing Blade Arts}: {One Sword Style: Burning Cleave}”
SLAAASH!
“Hmph!”
Shamir swung his other dagger several times, releasing a storm of slashing attacks made of darkness and poison. Vlad’s technique was easily blocked.
BOOOM!
However, once it was destroyed, the technique exploded, covering all of Shamir’s surroundings with flames, giving Vlad enough time for his armor to activate its ability as well!
“[Elemental Magic Shockwave]!”
Imbuing his Armor with a Light Elemental Spell, a powerful shockwave of this element was released, hitting Shamir directly right after he blocked Vlad’s initial attack.
FLAAASH!
“Ungh?!”
Shamir had to reflectively close his eyes as the light burned through his body; the shockwave alone sent him flying, as he was unable to overcome it completely.
The snake-like aura thread that connected him with his other dagger was temporarily destroyed, allowing Chris to free himself from the dagger’s chase and quickly fly away to where the hobgoblin had gone.
“That dagger…”
Vlad quickly imbued his body with the Soar Spell, flying towards the black dagger on the floor and aiming to steal it from the assassin.
However…
“SHAAAHH!”
The dagger hissed at him, suddenly transforming into a giant, three-meter-tall black and dark, purple-colored snake with emerald jewel eyes.
“Ah!”
The young vampire prince was shocked this thing could even transform; the snake quickly hit him strongly with its tail before leaping towards him and aiming to bite his head off!
“{Blazing Doppelgangers}!”
FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!
However, Vlad could also play the same game; his blazing aura erupted from his body, quickly dividing into five doppelgangers, perfect copies of himself copying a small portion of his base stats unaffected by the curse of gluttony.
The Blazing Doppelgangers blocked the biting attack of the dagger-turned-snake and started attacking it on their own with powerful, explosive, and blazing blows, with small explosions covering the snake.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
“So that is your power; you can wield many elements, but your specialization is fire!”
Shamir’s voice whispered behind Vlad. The young vampire’s eyes widened as he felt even the warm breath of the seductive desert elf behind him. His heart began beating faster, adrenaline rushing through his body a few seconds before a dagger were to slide through his armor pieces and aim for his throat.
“Dammit!”
FLUOSH!
Before that could happen, a mass of cursed ghostly energies surged from Vlad’s body, transforming into yet another clone of himself, blocking the dagger a second before he managed to evade the blow, punch Shamir in the stomach with a giant stone fist, and then send him flying away with a gust of wind.
“You’re full of little tricks, aren’t you?!”
Shamir suddenly smiled, showing his sharp teeth. The dagger that he was holding quickly transformed, becoming a long whip-like snake, hissing at Vlad.
“{Soul Artifact}: {Dual Shadow Serpent Daggers: Abyssal Snake Whip}”
FLUOSH!
With a single swing of his arm, the giant snake rushed towards Vlad, hitting him several times within a few seconds. Terrible explosions of black and purple flames erupted, engulfing his entire body.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
The Blazing Doppelgangers he had summoned were completely consumed by this deadly venomous dark fire, disappearing one after another, at the same time as [Cursed Ghost Clone] began to grow weaker while trying to resist the attacks.
“His weapons aren’t just daggers, but he can turn them into other things! That’s so unfair!”
Paul started to regret not having crafted that shield he wanted to make yet; it would have been much better to defend using that than letting his armor absorb all the damage and end up with its Durability already below 50%!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Any movement, spell, or skill he tried to use was in vain; the attacks from Shamir were too fast and too powerful, and Vlad was being constantly pushed back without any opportunity to attack.
“So there’s nothing else I can do... Alright then, time to pull out the trump cards.”
Suddenly, the crimson runes covering his body started to glow brightly as his skin began changing from its pale white to dark red color.
Horns started growing from his forehead, and his hair became long and black-colored, at the same time as he felt two sharp tusk-like teeth grow on his lower jaws.
His entire body’s musculature started growing larger and bulkier, his armor barely adapting to his changes.
RUMBLE!
And his Blood Aura erupted with tremendous new strength.
“Oh?!”
Shamir couldn’t help but smile as he felt a tremendous surge of power.
“Good! Don’t let me down yet! Show me how far the warriors of this world can go!”
“RAAAAHHH!”
With a mighty roar, Vlad rushed towards Shamir, using his bare hands and his sword to tear through and cut the countless Aura Snakes that the Desert Elf conjured.
[The Skill [Blood Demon’s Immortal Chimera Body (SS)]’s Ability {Lesser Blood Demon Transformation} has been activated!]
[Your body has transformed, taking upon the form of an Ancient Blood Demon of your Lineage for 15 Minutes and Increasing All Stats and Vampiric and Chimeric Abilities Power and Effects by 330%!]
[While in your {Lesser Blood Demon Form}, you are Immune to any Status Effect, and your Stats cannot be lowered or increased any further. You can also use the following Abilities without any cost: {Blood Asura’s Rampage} {Blood Domain}, {Blood Curse}, etc.]
Vlad unleashed the Demon within him.
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