The three people present each had unique abilities: Leonard could induce sleep through poetry, Angel was familiar with Madam Sharon and possessed Phantasm Eruption bullets to easily detect invisible targets, but the greatest threat to Madam Sharon was undoubtedly Daly Simone, the Spirit Medium who could manipulate blue spirits and burn away the invisible threads used by Sharon.
The moment Phantasm Eruption revealed Madam Sharon’s silhouette, she simultaneously launched an attack on Daly Simone.
Angel didn’t believe Daly could withstand the Assassin’s full-force strike, especially since she was facing away from the enemy, completely unguarded.
In the heat of the moment, Angel raised her hand and fired a shot at the approaching figure, while simultaneously moving sideways to shield Daly from the attacker.
As Angel had anticipated, the hastily fired shot was easily dodged by the attacker, but the barrier formed by her body prevented the assailant from passing through.
The attacker was forced to turn and engage Angel instead, and the two became locked in close combat.
Even at such close range, Madam Sharon’s invisibility ability remained effective.
Angel could only vaguely make out her outline through the phantom phosphorus powder clinging to her body, which significantly impacted the close-quarters combat.
Seeing the powder-outlined figure swing a punch towards her, Angel extended her left hand to block while her right hand, still holding the gun, continued to close in on Madam Sharon, preparing to fire at point-blank range to limit her evasion space.
Just as her left hand was about to block, Angel’s instincts as an Assassin warned her that this action would be extremely dangerous.
Without hesitation, she chose to trust her instincts, immediately retracting her outstretched left hand while simultaneously shifting the gun barrel in her right hand towards the center of Madam Sharon’s outline, and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The muzzle erupted in flames, propelling the bullet towards Madam Sharon.
However, in that instant, Madam Sharon seemed to be yanked sideways by an invisible force, changing her trajectory at an impossible angle and avoiding the point-blank shot.
This also caused her slashing attack towards Angel to miss.
The intuitive warning had been correct.
If Angel had tried to block that punch with her left hand, it would have inevitably been severed by the dagger that was invisible along with Madam Sharon.
At the moment of attack, this dagger, burning with black flames, appeared from thin air, silently passing by Angel’s side before vanishing without a trace.
It seemed Madam Sharon hadn’t come to ambush them empty-handed after all.
However, compared to firearms that would cause more commotion, she had chosen a dagger more suitable for an Assassin’s attack.
Although invisible weapons were difficult to defend against, once Angel saw the shape and length of the dagger, the pressure of close combat was greatly reduced for her.
As a fellow Assassin, even if the opponent was of a higher sequence, she had nothing to fear.
Moreover, from the corner of her eye, she glimpsed Leonard, who had been freed with Daly’s help and was now aiming his gun in their direction.
Madam Sharon clearly also noticed that Leonard, who had been restrained by invisible threads, had regained his mobility.
Her silhouette quickly retreated several steps, sidestepping to avoid the bullet hastily fired by Leonard.
Simultaneously, several black flames appeared around her, tracing complex trajectories in the air as they flew towards Leonard and Daly.
Unable to continue firing, Leonard displayed speed rivaling that of an Assassin.
He grabbed Daly and rolled behind a sofa, avoiding the incoming black flames.
The black flames struck the fabric surface of the sofa like bullets but didn’t ignite it.
Instead, they quickly dissipated into the air, as if they were phantoms that didn’t exist in this world.
Seizing this opportunity, Angel raised her gun again, aiming at Madam Sharon’s outline dotted with phantom phosphorus powder, and fired the last two bullets in her chamber.
The bullets were dodged by Madam Sharon, who also possessed an Assassin’s ability to predict danger.
Her evasion seemed not to be powered by her own effort, but rather as if she was being moved rapidly by an invisible giant hand.
The two bullets successively hit the wooden partition behind her, creating two irregular holes.
An invisible giant hand…
It seems the threads that had bound them earlier could also be used for movement…
Angel silently speculated while her gaze pursued Madam Sharon’s silhouette.
With this type of movement, long-range shooting was purely a waste of bullets.
She flipped open her revolver’s cylinder, ejecting the empty shells.
Her left hand discarded the temporarily useless ladies’ gun, quickly reloading new bullets using a speed loader.
Leonard also cooperated well, firing from behind the sofa to keep Madam Sharon at bay, though his shots were equally ineffective.
Black flames appeared again around Madam Sharon.
She raised her hand, and several black flames floated towards Angel this time.
Angel knew these black flames couldn’t penetrate objects.
She directly flipped over the nearby table, causing the teacups and kettle on it to roll to the ground, while she crouched behind the table.
She heard several puff sounds as the black flames hit the table and dissipated, causing no harm to her hiding behind it.
It seems the Witch’s extraordinary abilities have too many limitations, incomparable to the Nightmare…
As she crouched behind the table, lost in thought, she suddenly felt a tightness in her chest and lunged forward.
The spot she had occupied a second ago was now pierced by a transparent ice spike that had penetrated the wooden table.
The ice was lodged in the table, its tip piercing through the carpet, sending waves of cold air that made the surrounding environment feel like the depths of winter.
Affected by the cold air, Angel felt her movements becoming somewhat sluggish.
She used both hands and feet to quickly move away from the frost-covered wooden table, dodging several black flames that flew towards her like bullets.
Not far away, Madam Sharon held an ice spike that had formed out of thin air, surrounded by even more black flames than before, preparing to launch the next round of attacks.
Suddenly, as if a gust of cold wind had swept through the chaotic reception room, the circling black flames seemed to have been paused, and Madam Sharon’s swinging arm froze in place.
Under the gradually dimming glow of the phantom phosphorus powder, a figure slowly appeared.
Unlike the elegant and charming socialite of Tingen in Cole Granger’s memory, the extraordinary being now appearing before them wore a short-sleeved shirt and form-fitting leather pants, one hand gripping a black flame dagger, the other holding an ice frost spear.
Her exposed, slender arms and beautiful face had taken on an unhealthy grayish-white color, her expression a mix of anger and panic.
Just like the Nighthawks who had been restrained by invisible threads a minute ago…
Angel’s mind raced, and she turned her gaze towards Leonard, who was hiding behind the sofa.
She saw that he also looked surprised, then had a look of sudden realization as he glanced at Daly beside him, who was holding a pendant with her eyes tightly closed.
It seemed this was another feat of the Spirit Medium.
Angel refocused her attention.
She raised her reloaded revolver, aiming at Madam Sharon, who was now immobilized and visible, and pulled the trigger.
This time, Madam Sharon, restrained by the Spirit Medium, had no chance to dodge.
The bullet accurately hit her head, and her entire head—no, her entire body shattered like an ice sculpture.
The fragments melted into the air before they could hit the ground.
The black flames surrounding her, now without a controller, scattered in random directions, extinguishing with a puff when they hit obstacles.
The large decorative mirror hanging on the wall nearby also shattered, breaking into pieces the size of fingernails, some sticking to the frame, others falling to the ground along the wall.
Another mirror substitute…
Angel’s gaze quickly scanned the reception room, noticing several more decorative mirrors of various sizes.
She immediately raised her gun towards one, firing two consecutive shots to shatter it.
“Watch out!” Leonard’s panicked, sharp yell came from behind.
Without time to turn around, Angel immediately lunged forward, rolling away from her original position.
The dagger burning with black flames silently sliced through the spot where Angel had just been, and Madam Sharon, her entire body now engulfed in black flames, appeared behind her.
Her complexion had returned to normal, clearly indicating that the effect binding her earlier had been lifted.
“The black flames have driven back the spirit,” Daly’s warning came belatedly.
“Give me another twenty seconds.” In the corner of Angel’s vision, Daly directly tore off the crystal pendant from her wrist, clasping it between her palms, her gaze becoming profound.
“Whoosh—” Madam Sharon, who was about to continue pursuing Angel, disregarded the target right in front of her and directly condensed an ice frost spear in her hand, hurling it towards Daly, who was in the midst of communing with spirits.
Angel hurriedly fired the remaining bullets in her cylinder, precisely hitting the ice frost spear in mid-air.
The powerful Storm Convergence tore through the solid ice, shattering it to pieces.
A few ice shards grazed Daly’s body, but she remained motionless, as if what had brushed past her face was merely a summer breeze.
“Reload!” Angel flipped open her revolver’s cylinder and began changing bullets.
Seizing the opportunity, Madam Sharon took two steps forward, her dagger trailing black flames as she stabbed towards Angel.
Bang bang bang— Leonard fired several shots from the side, forcing the fierce Madam Sharon to retreat.
He knew that the most important thing now was to buy time for Daly to regain control over Madam Sharon through the spirit.
Otherwise, if they continued to consume ammunition like this, once the bullets were exhausted, they would have no means to deal with her.
To restrain Madam Sharon, Leonard rushed out from behind the sofa where he had been hiding, rapidly pulling the trigger and emptying the bullets in his cylinder in one go.
Madam Sharon, like before, used invisible spider silk to manipulate her body, swiftly moving about and avoiding all the bullets.
She looked at Leonard charging towards her, a hint of disdain flashing in her brown eyes.
With several waves of her snow-white arm, Leonard’s charge faltered, his windbreaker outlining obvious threads, once again entangled by invisible strings, his movements becoming difficult and slow.
Madam Sharon brandished her dagger, about to finish off this presumptuous man with one strike.
Suddenly, her expression changed, and she was yanked sideways by the threads, avoiding a bullet fired from a blind spot.
“Tch.” The sneak attack failed, and Angel couldn’t help but feel anxious.
Madam Sharon also possessed an Assassin’s combat intuition, and with the control of invisible threads, even an attack from behind couldn’t hit her.
After fighting until now, having changed bullets twice, apart from hitting the mirror substitute, Madam Sharon remained unscathed.
The only way was to let Daly complete her spirit communion, allow the spirit to control Madam Sharon, then shatter all nearby mirrors to prevent her from using the mirror substitute.
Only then would there be a chance to kill this extraordinary being with her numerous life-saving methods.
But how long had passed out of the twenty seconds?
Seven seconds, or eight?
As thoughts raced through her mind, Angel’s hands didn’t stop.
She pulled the trigger shot after shot, forcing Madam Sharon to dodge constantly.
Bullets continuously flew past Madam Sharon.
Although unable to hit her, her constant movement and evasion left her no time to gather black flames or form ice frost spears for attacks.
Seeing the seconds tick by, Madam Sharon’s face darkened, and she unexpectedly charged directly towards Angel.
With a bang, Angel accurately hit the panicked Madam Sharon, but the sound of shattering mirror that followed made her realize she had been tricked again.
“Daly Simone!” Angel knew something was wrong and hurriedly called out a warning.
She looked towards Daly’s position, where a faint figure appeared beside Daly.
Madam Sharon, who had just used the mirror substitute, materialized out of thin air, still holding that dagger burning with black flames, a victorious smile on her face.
Daly, draped in a black robe, still had her eyes closed, tightly gripping the pendant in her hands, as if unaware of the approaching danger.
Angel raised her hand without hesitation and fired a shot, but only the crisp sound of the hammer striking the primer was heard.
This large-caliber revolver could only hold five bullets, and the last one had just been used to shatter the mirror substitute.
A gentle breeze swept over everyone, as if someone had hurriedly passed by.
Angel couldn’t help but shudder, her thoughts momentarily sluggish.
She gathered her wits and looked back towards Daly and Madam Sharon’s position.
The Spirit Medium Daly had reopened her eyes, her deep gaze returning to its emerald green color.
Beside her, Madam Sharon’s skin once again took on that unhealthy gray color from earlier, her raised dagger frozen in place, unable to swing down.