The Sword and The Shadow

"Where does Saron live? What's he doing right now?" Leguna asked with Ebony held against the neck of a patrol soldier.

"Lord Saron should be living in what used to be the general's quarters. He should be sleeping now," the guard replied with fear.

"Sleeping? Why would a magus sleep? You dare lie to me?" His eyes glowed savagely.

"No, I'm not! He's really asleep, but I don't know why!" the guard whispered in haste, "Please, I beg you, I have two children I have to care for! I won't tell anyone you're here!"

"Thanks," Leguna smiled before he slit the guard's throat.

He hid the corpse and questioned two more guards. After ensuring that their stories lined up, he started to make his way for General Tamro's quarters.

Tamro lived in the central keep of Fort Kesta. It was a rather tall tower and Leguna had gone there a number of times when he was fighting the war for Hocke. Now, Saron took that place as his own residence.

Naturally, he couldn't just go up the stairs. He used tools made with Shadowedge to climb the tower walls, a method he used often to great effect.

Leguna climbed all the way to the room and saw that the guards weren't lying. Saron really was sleeping!

After he made sure the person was Saron, he didn't make an immediate attack. Instead, he snuck into another room in the tower and climbed his way to the ceiling like a lizard.

It was a really highly skilled maneuver he took up to half a year to learn from Gahrona. The difficult part was using impetus to mask the sound he made. Thankfully, he was an agile fighter and had marginally better control over his impetus.

After climbing all around the ceiling and found that there weren't that many Stokian guards. He considered for a moment before deciding to deal with the guards first before taking Saron out.

The guards were obviously inadequate to stop a high-order assassin like Leguna. It took less than ten minutes for the four patrol guards and the two standing guard by Saron's room door to be taken out for good.

Leguna took out some tools from his dimensional pocket and set two traps along the places one had to past when leaving the tower. That could prevent Saron from escaping or slow down Stokian reinforcements.

When everything was done, Leguna snuck his way back to Saron. He opened the door carefully and approached Saron soundlessly. Leguna was really careful. A magus Saron wouldn't be completely undefended if he knew Leguna was about to go there to assassinate him. There might be some magic formation traps lying around.

Leguna gained some basic understanding of magic thanks to Annelotte. Yet, it appeared to him that not a single trap was planted in Saron's room.

He was only two meters away from Saron. He furrowed his brow and used Wave Blade to take care of him.

However, Saron's eyes snapped open at that moment. His impetus surged around his body and nullified the wave.

Shocked, Leguna hurried to make distance between himself and Saron. He was still in stealth and he could launch another surprise attack even though his first failed.

Saron eyed his room and when he didn't see Leguna around, he laughed. "You're finally here. I thought you'd chicken out!"

Leguna's eyes widened with fury as he used Shadow Blink without hesitation and cut towards Saron's back with all the impetus he could muster.

As he was a high-order warrior, the crimsonflame demon was also rather quick. He rolled forward and activated Host of Flame in an instant.

Though he did cough slightly. Leguna's strike did harm him a little after all.

"We serve different sides, so I have no complaints if you want to mess with me--" Leguna waved Lighteater with a wrathful glare. "--But you harmed Eirinn to get to me. This, I cannot tolerate!"

"Hahahahaha! You can't tolerate it? So what? I heard that woman's legendarily ugly. I didn't think you had such unique tastes in women to even want someone like her. If I were honest, I'd say a harlot bought with one silver in the slums is much better than her!"

"I won't let you call her that!" Leguna charged at him with Lighteater in his right hand and Ebony in his left, unleashing a flurry of fatal slashes in an instant.

Saron dodged as he dictated a spell. It didn't take long before he used stoneskin, agility, Oxen Might and other spells. With the buffs, his speed soared, and he sent a flame-covered fist at Leguna's face.

Leguna blocked with his left hand and a piece of impetus armor he just formed.

Bam!

Even with two layers of armor, he was still sent flying by that strike.

"Hmph!" Saron shook his wrist. Leguna had tried to sever his tendons with Ebony during the strike.

While Saron was a warrior, he didn't possess the insane defenses of Legg and if Ebony really struck his skin, it would tear through it like tofu. Even with the help of stoneskin, it wasn't something he dared to take. So, he held back that strike slightly and managed to avoid having his tendon cut.

But before he could provoke Leguna further, the latter had blinked to his side.

Saron was shocked and didn't think Leguna would be fighting like a rabid dog. Why was he that suicidal? It appeared that she cared for Eirinn quite a lot!

"Hargh!"

Saron let his fire impetus surge; the heat of the impetus of a fire guide wasn't something to scoff at. Leguna felt a strong wave of heat assail him, but he grit his teeth to push forward. He wouldn't be satisfied until he hurt Saron.

Bam!

Slash!

Saron struck Leguna square in the chest while taking a stab on his shoulder. Fortunately for him, the wound wasn't deep and his bone wasn't hurt.

"Hahahahaha!" Even though he was hurt, Saron actually laughed. He looked at the coughing Leguna and said, "Even though your impetus seemed to have improve from last time, your fighting skills have rusted. What's wrong? Can't move as you did after staying at the bureau for too long? Work harder! I haven't even used half my strength!"

Leguna wiped the fresh blood off his mouth and furrowed his brow. The destructive potential of Host of Flame was terrifying. Even though he was only punched once, he felt a burning pain in his chest. The skin around that area must be swelling red.

However, he didn't feel the least bit like retreating just because of that. So what if Saron hadn't been fighting at his hardest? Leguna hadn't either! He glared at him and raised Ebony. "Ebony's curse, Darkness!"

The blood left on the blade was quickly absorbed and Saron felt his vision darken.

"Hehe!" he chuckled. He had tasted the curse before and wasn't surprised that Leguna used it again. "No new tricks this time?"

"I'll show you! Aaargh!" Impetus flowed out of his body with a pained look.

Fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh stage!

[Alright, stop!] Gahrona cried.

Leguna was allowing his strength to grow nonstop and only snapped back awake when he heard her cry and hurriedly stopped. That was when unbearable pain assailed every inch of his body.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!" he retched. Even though his body had high affinity for shadow impetus, that didn't change the fact that shadow impetus symbolized destruction, corrosion and death. Too much of it was not something Leguna could take.

Saron glared shockingly at Leguna. He had more or less a rough grasp on his many gifts and knew that Host of Darkness could increase his powers. What he didn't expect was the magnitude of the increase! Leguna was now just shy of the 19th stratum!

Leguna looked up with a face marked with black lines like Balor's. They swayed around like a centipede and added an eerie air to him.

"You better think about your funeral now," Leguna said as he was looking at his prey. Indomitable confidence came with the power he just gained.

"Interesting. Looks like I was underestimating you before. But if this is your limit, you still won't be able to beat me."