If he had any choice in the matter, Victor would have loved to train for a few more months before enacting his plan, but circumstances forced his hand.
[All-Healing Milk (Weak)]. It was a Skill that could heal anything the one drinking it considered an illness. Victor hadn’t tested it yet, but it was highly likely that it could even cure aging.
Without a doubt, it was a powerful Skill, but it was really troublesome for Norm to have it now. He could, without a doubt, cure the curse those pieces of shit put on everyone.
That was not a good thing, especially because Norm couldn’t turn it off.
If those pieces of shit found out about it, they would definitely try to kill Norm, and Victor wasn’t sure if he could protect him if that happened.
Making Norm stop selling milk for a while wouldn't work; it would make his mother investigate what was going on, and Victor would be a fool to think Aria wouldn’t figure it out.
Hence the killing.
The only plan he could think of that wouldn’t endanger Norm was putting all the attention on himself. Removing Aria’s subordinates would also make her less likely to figure out Norm’s Skill. But whatever he did would only delay the inevitable. The people who drink Norm’s milk would without a doubt act differently, and it would only be a matter of time before Aria figured it out.
Victor couldn’t think of a way out of this situation except killing Aria and Garron. He picked Aria first because Garron rarely left the mansion, while Aria always ran around. If Victor attacked Garron first, there was no way Garron wouldn't call for Aria or Elpis’s parents if his life were at stake.
Aria would not. She wanted him to kill her.
Most of his life, Victor lived with them, so of course he knew them. He even knew about most of Aria and Garron’s Skills, nothing exact, just the general gist of them. They never told him about it; he was just a good observer.
For example, Aria always preferred to remain unseen whenever Garron was around, whether by illusion or simply staying out of sight. Sure, staying undetected was always a good advantage, but doing it every time was really suspicious. So, it was safe to assume that remaining undetected was a requirement of some of Aria’s Skills, and Victor was sure that it was more than just one Skill.
Victor didn’t know what Aria was like before she became his mother, but being an [Assassin] meant she would, more often than not, remain unseen by her opponents. She would also definitely want it to be that way.
Experience, desire, and need. A Skill was created based on those three things. So, it was safe to assume that just seeing her once and landing a hit would give him a huge advantage.
Stabbing his own heart was more than worth it. [All-Healing Milk (Weak)] could cure the side effects of a potion. He had already tested it before the fight.
His plan was going smoothly, but that didn’t mean his victory was guaranteed.
If they had the same gear, Victor was sure that he would win way more than he would lose. But that wasn’t what was happening right now. Even though Aria was covered entirely in black, Victor knew she was decked out in Artifacts and magical items. Meanwhile, Victor only had a dagger and a sword, both of which he refused to use against her. He didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of being killed with the skills they had taught him.
It was a decision he'd made not long ago. Swinging a sword around felt disgusting, and each day, that feeling only grew until finally, he stopped using it.
When he was fighting Jeb, using his fists felt great, and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Now, he didn’t even want to touch a sword or a dagger.
[Store Weapon] still contained his weapons. He was not foolish enough to discard them completely when he was about to fight an opponent stronger than him. He was only an amateur at using his hands and legs, after all.
Seeing Aria behead a pack of wolves in an instant made him regret, just a little, that he hadn’t used a sword from the start. He was still using his fists, but if this kept up, he’d be forced to use it.
They were both staring at each other, unmoving.
A squirrel threw glowing nuts at Aria using its mouth, but not a single one of its attacks managed to hit her. All of them stopped dead five meters away from her and fell to the ground. An eagle dived toward her, but it was stopped by a barrier that suddenly appeared.
“[Triple Slash].”
Aria suddenly appeared behind Victor, almost completely cutting both of his legs off. He dodged it at the last second, but his legs didn’t come out unscathed.
Victor was undeterred and kicked at her, but it was a bad move. When his leg connected with her face, it felt like he was kicking water, and the blow passed through her harmlessly.
A dagger came sailing toward his neck, and rather than dodging, Victor got close to her and threw a punch.
“[Piercing Stab].”
The dagger pierced his neck, but his punch landed square on her face, sending her flying and destroying several trees in the process.
[Payback]. After being hit, his next attack would be boosted depending on how strong the hit was. The boosts could stack, but each one would disappear three seconds after it was gained.
[Furry Strike] also helped. It made his attacks more powerful the angrier he was.
“V-ver.”
Cow’s milk appeared directly into his mouth, and then Victor pulled out the dagger in his neck. The wound immediately closed, and the poison in his body slowly faded. When it was completely gone, Victor signaled Ver to stop.
Five seconds had passed; it was five seconds too long.
Victor ran in the direction Aria had flown, and found her fighting a panther, a tiger, a zebra, a deer, and a moose, with no visible injury. She only dodged, without attacking any of them.
When he tried to join the fray, Ver informed him that the mana around Aria had surged, and Victor instantly deduced that a high-tier spell had been cast, but it was too late.
Flames poured out of Aria in every direction, consuming everything in their way. Not even a second later, Victor was hit by a bolt of lightning and his entire right arm was severed from his body.
He couldn’t see anything; his eyes were destroyed, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t counterattack.
Flashbang.
It was the loudest Flashbang he had ever created. He couldn’t hear anything afterward, and even standing was difficult.
Cow’s milk appeared inside of his mouth, and when his mouth was full, Ver used [Bless Milk]. His injuries were healing, but it was slow. He was still being burned alive, after all.
Thankfully, his regeneration outpaced the damage the flames inflicted on him, and Aria wasn’t attacking. The Flashbang had definitely bypassed her defenses.
That fire and lightning definitely came from a scroll. But I didn’t see her holding any paper. A Skill, maybe?
The difference in items and equipment became more and more apparent as the battle went on, and it was frustrating. Any hit that managed to connect did nothing, while Aria had far more ways of attacking him.
There were no scrolls that weren’t expensive, but Victor was sure that Aria would not hold back from using any of them.
When Victor was able to see again, he could see Aria stumbling, trying to drink a healing potion. Most of it spilled, but it was still enough. Slowly, Aria’s hands steadied, and—
A punch hit Aria’s stomach, sending her flying into the sky. There was no skin on his body, but he couldn’t possibly let such an opening go to waste.
He was able to stay awake and even move despite the pain because of [Pain Resistance] and [For Norm's Sake]. The latter helped far more; he would endure and do anything for Norm.
After a second, Ver poured cow’s milk into his mouth and repeated the cycle once more.
(My mana is not unlimited.)
Victor nodded. He was now a level 6 [Spirit Contractor] after killing Aria’s subordinate, and he got one new Skill, [Verus Albus: Telepathy (Victor)].
They also found out that Ver could teleport into any of his contractors regardless of distance. The mana cost always stayed the same whether Ver was teleporting ten meters or two kilometers. It also didn’t cost much, at least according to Ver.
After some practice, Ver could now appear inside of Victor’s mouth rather than a random part of his body. It only cut down the time by maybe a second, but a second is a lot in a fight.
Thirty seconds had passed, and Victor was still burning alive.
He tried to put the fire out by using Create Water and rolling on the ground, but none of it worked. This was no ordinary flame, and it was spreading.
There were sounds of fighting in the direction Aria had flown off, but he was sure the fire would drastically hinder the animals, and after a while, all of them would be out of the fight.
The reason he didn’t join the fight now was that even though the teleport didn’t cost much, it still cost something. And right now, he needed all the healing he could get or he would be burned to death.
He was counting on [Gradual Resistance (Temporary)] to make the flames manageable. After one minute, he was still engulfed by the flames, but they did nothing to him.
“I’m fine now, Ver.”
(Ehem, I’m getting sleepy. Could you handle this on your own?)
“Yes.”
It wasn’t bravado. Yes, he didn’t know how many times he had to hit Aria to bypass her defenses, but he had [Payback]. The Skill still worked even if the attack didn’t damage him as long as it came from his enemy.
(Don’t get killed.)
“Don’t worry, I won’t.”
As the last of Victor’s injuries were healed, including his missing right arm, Ver disappeared, leaving Victor alone.
He had [Lesser Regeneration], but that Skill couldn’t compare to Ver’s healing. He had to play it safe, and not be as reckless as before.
When he went to where the sound of battle was, he found Aria’s legs and arms sinking into the ground while an elephant repeatedly stomped on her. It looked as if the elephant would win, but Victor knew better. The elephant was weakening, undoubtedly because of poison, and it was only a matter of time before it died.
Not wasting any time, Victor shoved the elephant aside and began punching the immobilized [Assassin].
Thankfully the elephant didn’t attack him, so he could focus on doing as much damage as he could. But after a few seconds, he felt the ground shift, and not wanting to get stabbed, he backed away.
It was the correct move, as Aria got up an instant later with no injuries in sight, maybe. It was hard to tell when her entire body was covered in black.
They stared at each other, and after a second, Victor kicked behind him. He wasn’t going to fall for the same trick twice.
There was no sensation or even any sound, but in the direction of his kick, several trees were suddenly destroyed.
Gotcha. I fell for it the first time because I thought I was immune to illusion, but what I was staring at probably wasn’t an illusion at all. I was careless.
This time, he chased after her—
A dagger came straight at his neck and he backed up. However, it still managed to cut his chest, poisoning him. The follow-up lightning was impossible to dodge.
When Aria tried to attack him thinking he was stunned, she took an uppercut that launched her straight upward.
Hundreds of stone spears then appeared from the sky, before descending towards his location.
Victor managed to dodge most of them, and the few that hit him didn’t do any significant damage. He was quite resistant now to whatever Aria had been throwing at him, thanks to being constantly burned alive.
That didn’t mean he was resistant to magic though, just the type that Aria used. He had already tested that after a point, his resistance to other types of magic wouldn’t increase except for the type that he was being hit by.
He felt Aria nearby, and without hesitation, he threw a roundhouse kick that connected with her ribs.
Predictable.
It was safe to attack from behind, but even an idiot could tell with their eyes closed where an attack was coming from if you did the same thing multiple times.
Years had gone by, and Aria had never changed her fighting style.
Let’s get this over with.
Victor ran towards where Aria was, and predictably, she appeared in front of him, dagger aimed at his neck.
This time, he didn’t punch or kick her; he grabbed her wrist, and when she tried to hit him with her other hand, he grabbed that as well.
“Flashbang, Flashbang, Flashbang, Flashbang, Flashbang, Flashbang, Flashbang, Flashbang.”
It still hurt him, and it even made him deaf, but Aria definitely got the worst of it. He could feel the strength leaving her limbs.
Rather than punch or kick her, Victor put her on the ground, placed his foot on her chest, and pulled both of her hands.
Just like he expected, her arms came away from her body with surprising ease, and blood spilled freely from the injuries he just created.
Her Artifacts were simply too strong, and he was sure that it was an Artifact that had been making her immune to his punch and kick. No magical items were that strong.
An Artifact was simply an object that inherited a dead person’s Skill because its owner cherished it or had used it for a long time. And if you know anything about Skills, any powerful one would always have a catch.
Victor didn’t know what the weaknesses of the Artifact were; he simply tried the first thing that came to mind besides punching and kicking.
“Sure, it was safe to do the same thing over and over again when it always worked, but doing it to the same person? Are you stupid? Did you think they wouldn’t learn from it?”
He knew that Aria couldn’t hear him or even see him, which made him want to use a healing potion on her, but he held back. It wasn’t important.
“I guess, as an [Assassin], you rarely fight the same people twice, and your fights probably don’t last this long.”
Aria was trying to kick him, trying to escape, so he took off both of her legs.
“For someone who wanted this, you seem pretty eager to stay alive.”
Her mouth was covered, so Victor didn’t know if she was screaming or talking the entire time. It would also be easy for him to drink a healing potion and hear what she had to say, but Victor didn’t.
“Torturing you used to be a dream of mine. It would be fair to do to you what you did to me, right?”
Looking down, Victor saw that Aria was still struggling, deaf to everything he said.
“But at the same time, I feel repulsed by it. Not because I’m a kind person; I just don’t want to be like you.”
He had no qualms about killing, but torture just felt… wrong.
Even though he was sure he would enjoy torturing Aria, he didn’t want to do it. Aria definitely deserved it, but it was not about her.
“I’m afraid that if I enjoyed torturing you, it would make it easier if the same situation happened again. Every time I did it, I felt like the bar would get lower and lower until, eventually, I’d start thinking that anyone I didn't like deserved torture.”
That was true for most things. The more times you do it, the easier it will be. Training, drawing, studying, lying, everything. It was a simple truth that most people probably knew, but he didn't think many truly understood it.
“Becoming like you is one of my worst nightmares. It felt disgusting to even say it.”
When Victor looked at Aria, she wasn’t moving. And when he checked her breathing and pulse, he concluded that she was dead. So, for a while now, he’d been talking to a corpse. Though he supposed it wasn’t much different from talking to someone who couldn’t hear you.
He was happy that Aria was dead, but it wasn’t the overwhelming joy he’d always imagined it to be.
At the end of the day, Aria was just an inconvenience, someone who made his life miserable. She wasn’t worth thinking about now that she was dead. Because what was the point?
There was definitely a reason why she became like this, but he couldn’t find it in him to care about any of it. Everyone had a story, and he didn’t want to hear hers, no matter how pitiful or sad her life was.
However, this was still a bit disappointing.
Victor had dreamed of this moment ever since he was a kid, and now that it was finally here, it felt kinda underwhelming.
Rather than be happy about killing her, I should be happy that Norm is safe.
A smile finally appeared on Victor’s face. Putting it like that felt so much better.
[Ever-Adapting Survivor Level 25!]
[Combat Adaptation Obtained!]