Aileen and her squad entered the Vermillion’s gang headquarters following Katherina’s order.
But when they descended to the second underground floor, a rain of arrows surged towards them.
“Careful!” Aileen shouted and brandished her rapier quickly. She had been wary of ambushes, so she easily deflected the first wave of arrows.
But before she could sigh in relief, tens of enemies surged out from the surroundings and charged toward them.
The trap set up by the Vermillion gang had been activated.
Suddenly, Aileen’s expression turned grave.
“Form a circle!” She ordered. “Protect each other and be careful of the arrows!”
“Roger!”
One second later, the two groups clashed.
The Vermillion Gang’s men charged toward Aileen’s squad in waves. Enemy after enemy surged out of the surroundings and charged toward them without regard for their lives.
But unfortunately for them, Aileen’s men were as stable as a mountain. As part of the group that survived night after night inside the dangerous facing dangerous origin beasts, they were used to defending against waves of enemies. Even when one was injured, they gritted their teeth and kept their positions bravely.
Outside the building, Lucien turned anxious when he heard the sounds of battle.
“Big sister!”
“Wait!” Katherina remained calm; she stopped her brother from trying to charge forward like a mad bull.
“It’s not time yet!” She reminded him
“But Aileen is in danger…!” Her brother said.
“She will be fine, trust her. She is stronger than you think!”
Lucien bit his lips. He could only look anxiously towards the building while waiting for the moment to charge to the battle.
Meanwhile, the situation inside was turning perilous. Even though Aileen’s men were the cream of the crop in the Ouroboros after undergoing countless deathmatches and that hellish training, they started to get tired after facing so many waves of enemies.
The waves of enemies seemed endless. No matter how many they killed, more would come to replace the dead ones. Aileen estimated that they had killed around fiftty6 enemies at the cost of four of her men.
Suddenly, Aileen felt a terrifying sensation of danger.
A dagger appeared above her, piercing her forehead.
“!!!” She opened her eyes wide. Almost instantly, she turned around and used her rapier to defend against the sneak attack.
*Clank!*
The dagger clashed against the rapier. Aileen recognized the enemy as Emma, a low-level 4 warrior and another one of Vermillion’s gang vice-leaders.
“Finally, you are out!” Aileen bellowed, her voice reaching to Katherina outside.
Sensing something, Emma’s expression changed.
“Hurry up; she called for reinforcements!”
Instantly, five strong auras appeared in the surroundings.
Instantly, five strong auras appeared in the surroundings.
“Hahahaha, it doesn’t matter! She will not survive to see them!” Another vice-leader laughed.
Aileen snorted. “It looks like all the rats are here, huh.”
Emma licked her lips. “Afraid? I must admit that we underestimated your Ouroboros, but your mistake was to enter here alone! I can’t believe that Katherina was so idiotic to give such an order!”
“Stop chatting!” Romanoff, the leader of the Vermillion Gang, suddenly spoke.
“Hurry up and attack! We need to kill her before the others arrive!”
Instantly, the four vice-leaders attacked.
Seeing this, Aileen grinned. Unexpectedly, she faced the four attacks boldly. Shaking her rapier, she joined four attacks in one movement, stopping the four vice leader’s attacks.
The vice leaders’ faces changed. “Careful! She can be considered proper level 4 now!”
But they learned about it too late. Aileen had already jumped back, escaping from the enemy’s encirclement and rushing towards the stairs.
But at that moment, a shadow rushed towards her.
“Do you think you can escape!?”
Romanoff brandished his glaive. Powerful level 4 origin filled the weapon, forcing Aileen to avoid the blow. The amount of origin he could wield was far stronger than the one Aileen, a low-rank Level 4, could wield.
It was because of this that it eliminated her possibilities of escape. In an instant, she was once more surrounded by five powerful enemies.
“Hahaha, where are you going to escape now, bitch!?” Emma mocked, brandishing her dagger.
Emma had expected Aileen to fall into despair, but it was not what happened. Aileen looked at the enemies and suddenly smiled.
“Who said I need to escape?” Aileen looking at them, said with an evil grin. It was like the smile of a bully that led her victims exactly where she wanted.
“Huh?”
Before they could understand Aileen’s meaning, a shadow materialized behind their leader.
Then, Stella swung her daggers.
[Death’s embrace!]
Stella used her strongest attack from the start. It was a skill imbued in the cursed daggers, Orpheus granted her.
Stella’s two daggers gleamed in an ominous light and crisscrossed towards Romanoff’s back.
The leader of the Vermillion’s gang paled. Even as a middle-rank level 4 origin master, he knew he would die if he received such an attack. He had the feeling that even a scratch was enough to claim his life.
But just when the daggers were about to take his life, a ring on his finger flashed with a golden light.
Miraculous, Romanoff vanished only to reappear three meters away.
A teleportation spell!
A trace of disappointment appeared inside Stella’s eyes, but it faded in the next second. She did not dwell on her failed assassination and instead tried to make the best of the current situation.
Shadows surged from her feet, extending to each corner of the second underground floor. Before the others could react to her actions, her figure faded into the shadows, reappearing in the back of another vice-leader.
“Careful!” Romanoff, the only one that managed to follow her movements, bellowed. But the vice-leader was unable to understand the meaning of his shout. In an instant, a dagger had sliced his throat, and another had pierced his chest, and that vice leader’s head was sent flying. Flood spurted from the headless body like a geyser.
“Arggggghhhhhh!!!”
Seeing one of his vice-leaders dying so helplessly, Romanoff, the leader of the Vermillion’s gang, couldn’t help but cry in rage. He filled his glaive with origin and sprinted towards Stella in an attempt to kill her.
But Stella’s figure seemed to fuse with the shadows. The greatsword only managed to hit an afterimage, and she was already behind another peak level 5 vice-leader.
One stab, one slash, and another vice-leader were dead.
Only now, the other three vice-leaders reacted.
“Impossible!” Emma shouted, her face pale with fear. In just an instant, they went from being the hunters to being the hunted.
Romanoff’s expression turned ugly. The short exchange between Stella and him was enough to determine that he couldn’t overpower her. Furthermore, Stella was an assassin. She only needed a distraction from his part to take his life.
Instantly, he decided on his next course of action.
“Retreat!” He shouted to the remaining vice-leaders and charged towards an exit without thinking twice.
But the next second, he was forced to stop his movements.
A dagger had appeared in front of him.
*Clank!*
Romanoff used his glaive to deflect the blow. He then saw a petite girl using the attack’s recoil to appear between him and the exit.
“… You will stay.” She said with an indifferent expression.
Romanoff’s expression darkened.
He could hear the sound of footsteps coming from the first floor. In at most a few seconds, Katherina and Lucien, together with the other members of the Ouroboros, would arrive here.
By then, escaping would be a pipe dream.
Looking around, he realized that his other vice-leaders had also been stopped. Aileen had stopped Emma, and the other two were stopped by Amber, an unknown girl he had never seen before.
At the current rate, the Vermillion gang would be wiped out tonight.
Romanoff’s eyes turned bloodshot.
“You think you can stop me, little slut!”
A wave of origin exploded from his body. The immense pressure coming from him forced many of the men around to stop their fights and retreat in fear of being implicated.
Romanoff’s aura surged out, clashing against the shadows in the surroundings. The origin of his weapon lit up the surroundings, burning the shadows into cinders.
The leader of the Vermillion’s gang then kicked the ground.
And his body reappeared in front of Stella in an instant with his weapon raised high.
Ultimate skill, [Sky splitting Slash]!
Romanoff’s most potent attack.
”BOOOOM!!!”
“Stella…!” Aileen panicked.
The floor trembled. Debris fell from the roof, and a curtain of dust clouded Romanoff and Stella’s situation. All the people on the floor stopped to see the result of their clash.
But when the dust cleared, their mouths widened in shock.
Stella’s back was touching the wall, with her daggers crossed to stop the glaive and her eyes fixed on the leader of the Vermillion’s gang across her.
But besides her slightly messy hair and heavy breathing, she was completely unscathed.
Romanoff’s expression changed. He hurriedly pulled back his glaive and tried to make another attack.
But suddenly-
*Clank!*
A sword clashed against his greatsword.
“Romanoff! We finally met!” Katherina walked out from the shadows.
Romanoff’s expression fell. He hurriedly used his sword to repel the belt-like sword and jumped back.
“Katherina!” He said with gritted teeth.
“At your service!” Katherina replied with a grin. “It looks like you were bullying my sister, huh.”
“… As I thought, you stepped into the middle-rank Level 4.” Romanoff chuckled bitterly, feeling this to be absurd. He was even jealous.
Katherina smiled. “I was lucky.”
“Luck, huh. If you are lucky, my gang is out of luck. To think I would see the day when Vermillion gang falls.”
“Nothing is eternal, Romanoff. We must strive to stay within the board, to last longer..” Katherina said indifferently before adding.
”It’s time for some change.”
