The impact of Yumi's heels against the stone floor echoed like a dark omen within the confined space of the mansion.
She no longer wore the cynical calm she had displayed at the beginning. The dust clinging to her elegant clothes and the thin trickle of blood running from the corner of her mouth were living proof that the inverted battlefield was having an effect.
However, the danger radiating from her seemed to have become even more concentrated, transforming into murderous urgency as the last rays of sunlight began disappearing beyond the horizon of the slums.
— Do you really think a handful of old planks and water tricks are going to dictate the course of my hunt? — Yumi's voice dropped into a low, hissing whisper that made the hairs on Arata's arms stand on end.
— Night is covering this roof. And your blood will serve as the opening feast.
With a speed that defied the eyes of an ordinary human, Yumi charged.
She didn't run.
She simply tensed her legs and launched herself forward, becoming nothing more than a blur of purple and black.
— Bon! Diagonal guard position! She's going around the right! — Arata shouted, his eyes wide and focused solely on the assassin's trajectory.
Thanks to the small amount of experience he had accumulated through his previous deaths, his mind processed the danger at incredible speed, tracking every tiny movement of the vampire's body.
Old Bon reacted within the exact same instant.
Instead of thrusting his bisento straight ahead, he planted his left foot against the dry dirt covering the floor and twisted his body, bringing the weapon's heavy blade around in an oblique arc that covered the exact blind spot created by the destroyed table.
The impact was sharp and deafening.
Yumi's purple katana collided directly with the reinforced shaft of the bisento.
Bright sparks erupted from the metal, illuminating the mansion's growing darkness for a fraction of a second.
The physical impact pushed Bon two steps backward, making the wooden floor creak beneath the weight of his boots, but he maintained his guard, locking their weapons together in a brutal test of static strength.
— Kh... You're persistent, old man — Yumi hissed, only inches away from Bon's face, her retracted fangs gleaming in the dim light.
Taking advantage of their proximity and the fact that their weapons were locked together, the assassin tensed her free hand.
The air around her fingers began to distort.
Small bubbles of purple, effervescent fluid began forming in her palm, ready to be fired directly at the defenseless old warrior's chest.
— Felicia, now! The ceiling! — Arata shouted, pointing his wooden club toward Yumi.
From atop the counter, Felicia already had her hands extended, her eyes glowing with a vibrant sky-blue light beneath the twilight.
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She didn't aim directly at Yumi.
Following the tactical logic of restricting the battlefield, she fired two spheres of compressed water directly at the wooden beam above the vampire.
The impact of the high-pressure water shattered the rotten beam.
Heavy pieces of decaying wood and clay roof tiles came crashing down in a shower of debris.
Yumi, realizing the danger of being buried and losing her mobility, was forced to break away from her struggle with Bon.
She propelled herself backward, performing a perfect aerial spin to avoid the debris that crushed the floor exactly where she had been a second earlier.
A dense cloud of dust and plaster filled the center of the room, obscuring everyone's vision.
— Nobody move! — Arata warned, backing up until his back was pressed against the counter where Felicia stood.
Cold sweat ran down his neck, mixing with the dirt covering the room.
— She'll probably use sound and the smell of blood to hunt through the smoke. Bon, keep the bisento low. Cover your legs!
Inside the gray haze, absolute silence reigned, broken only by the dripping water Felicia had fired and the heavy sound of Bon's breathing.
Arata held the wooden club with both hands, his heart pounding so violently against his chest that he feared Yumi might actually hear it.
He knew the vampire's daytime vulnerability was running out.
The thin line of sunlight on the horizon was about to disappear completely behind the hills of the slums.
If they didn't win there, nightfall would grant her perfect regeneration.
Suddenly, an almost imperceptible sound of wood cracking echoed to Bon's left.
— Bon, it's a feint! She's behind you, on the secondary counter! — Arata's voice cut through the smoke.
Before Bon could even turn his bisento, Yumi's silhouette emerged vertically, descending from one of the upper shelves with her katana pointed downward, aiming directly for the old man's collarbone.
Bon managed to move his body by mere millimeters, but the tip of the purple blade grazed the leather shoulder guard of his outfit, tearing through the material and leaving behind a sizzling trail of poison that immediately began burning through the fabric.
— Damn it! — Bon exclaimed, throwing a left-handed punch with his free arm that struck Yumi's shoulder, temporarily knocking her away.
However, contact with the poison on his jacket made him gasp in pain.
— Old Bon! — Felicia shouted from the counter, preparing another barrage of water spheres, but her hands had begun trembling from the exhaustion caused by continuously using her innate magic.
Yumi retreated to the opposite corner of the room, leaning against the wall of moldy wooden planks.
The wound Bon had inflicted on her shoulder at the beginning of the fight was still bleeding slightly.
Without consuming fresh blood, the injury was slowing her attacks, proving that Arata's strategy of keeping his distance was working.
However, the assassin's sarcastic smile returned when she looked toward the broken window.
The darkness of night had finally swallowed the last traces of orange from the sky.
The moon was beginning to rise over the labyrinth of the slums.
— Your time is up, mere humans — Yumi said, her voice echoing with renewed confidence as the wound on her shoulder began emitting a faint purple smoke.
The biological tissue closed on its own, without the need for blood.
The nighttime phase had begun.
— My regeneration is complete.
— You would need to tear me apart ten times in a row to cause a short circuit in my body now.
— And I have complete confidence that you're incapable of doing that.
Arata took a step forward, suppressing the panic threatening to paralyze him.
He looked toward the destroyed doorway and then at Bon, who was showing clear signs of exhaustion. The old warrior held his bisento with only one hand while trying to extinguish the poisonous embers burning through his jacket.
The perfect route was on the verge of collapsing.
But the message sent through Kauã Alves was the last tactical card remaining on the board.
— We don't need to kill you ten times, Yumi... — Arata said, forcing his confident facade to its absolute limit and displaying a defiant smile that concealed the terror inside his chest.
— We only needed to make sure you stayed right here until the real trouble arrived.
Yumi furrowed her black eyebrows, sensing the change in the atmosphere.
Then the distant sound of heavy footsteps began echoing outside the mansion, climbing the dirt alley of the slums.
BOOOM!
Suddenly, the side wall of the mansion exploded into a shower of splinters.
An icy breeze invaded the room, carrying a dense wave of frost.
Before the thief could react, several massive, razor-sharp ice spikes shot through the air, brutally piercing Yumi's body and pinning her against the rubble.
The freezing air and suspended dust filled the atmosphere of the ruined room.
Thanks to her nocturnal vampiric nature, Yumi's wounds closed rapidly as she pushed against the ice, wearing a bold smile as she stared toward the opening in the wall.
— You're going to need a lot more than that to kill me — the Ripper Assassin challenged, staring directly into the cold mist outside.
Through the destruction caused by the ice spikes, the blonde girl with purple eyes emerged imposingly, magical energy radiating from her hands.
— Yumi! You're going to give my necklace back now — the newcomer declared, her expression deeply serious and stern.
Yumi let out a cynical laugh.
— Then you're going to have to take it by force, little girl.
The thief quickly reached into the neckline of her clothes, intending to show off her trophy.
But her fingers grasped nothing.
Her eyebrows rose in shock when she realized the necklace was no longer there.
Discreetly, Arata reached into his coat pocket, feeling the shape of the necklace.
During the chaos of the earlier battle, the object had fallen to the floor, and he had secretly recovered it.
Regaining her composure, Yumi shrugged, disguising her surprise behind a malicious expression.
— What a shame... The necklace isn't here anymore. But who cares about it? The jewel was never my main objective.
— My real goal was to lure you here and capture what the Cult sent me to retrieve...
— Although, of course, I'm not going to reveal what they truly want from you — the vampire concluded, licking the remaining blood from her lips.
In response, the blonde girl extended her arms.
Around her, dozens of new, razor-sharp ice spikes materialized in the air, all pointing directly toward the assassin's chest.
End of Chapter 15...
To be continued in Chapter 16...