The fallen assassins stirred—battered, bloodied, and humiliated.
Their bodies quivered as they rose from the floor, eyes burning with rage. Bruises painted their skin, wounds leaked crimson, and splatters of blood marked the once-pristine chamber. But their auras surged again—this time with something deeper.
They activated their Nature Attributes.
Each body pulsed, infused with primal resonance.
Shatterpulse screamed as magma veins spread across his arms.
Attribute: Volcanic Earth.
His fists now burst with molten tremors, each step leaving molten cracks in the floor.
Spectral Fang snarled, his form draped in fluid shadows.
Attribute: Umbra Flow.
His movements rippled like water, intangible and smooth—an assassin born from darkness and tide.
Crimson Bloom lifted her arms as wind howled around her.
Attribute: Gale Bloom.
Petals sharpened by air pressure whipped around her like blades—controlled by unseen gusts.
Stonewake let out a low growl—his granite skin cracked open, glowing magma leaking from within.
Attribute: Corequake.
He now radiated heat and gravity, his strikes able to shake foundations.
Liam exhaled once, stepping forward as their powers intensified. His voice was low, dry—confident.
"Heh… so now you're getting serious."
A faint hum echoed around him. The ground chilled slightly. The light dimmed near his body.
Dark sigils began to shimmer faintly across his arms and neck.
Oblivion Vein.
The air around Liam thickened, as if sound itself hesitated to move. The assassins flinched slightly—not from pain, but from sudden, inexplicable weakness creeping in.
Suppression Field.
Liam called out..
They could feel it—their aether slowly dulling. The brightness of their aura dimmed within his radius. Breathing grew heavier. Timing faltered.
Liam vanished from sight.
Vein Shift.
He appeared before Shatterpulse, knee already driving into the man's molten ribs. The blow cracked the earthen armor, sending a geyser of lava sputtering upward.
Shatterpulse retaliated—swinging both fists downward.
Liam slipped sideways, then twisted and struck three times—two to the ribs, one to the solar plexus—each hit enhanced by bursts of raw, searing emotion. Shatterpulse collapsed, unconscious.
Spectral Fang tried to phase and slash—but Liam closed his eyes, relying on the shift of air. He struck mid-blink with a backfist that sent the assassin spiraling, then kicked upward—sending him into the ceiling. He fell, unmoving.
Crimson Bloom shrieked, launching a maelstrom of slicing petals. Liam powered through it, cloak shredded but unfazed. He slammed a palm to her gut—Echo Slash leaving a phantom blow that triggered a moment later, knocking her flat.
Stonewake was last. He charged—lava-coated arms swinging like clubs.
Liam braced himself, body trembling.
Vein Shift. One final surge.
He ducked the first blow, stepped inward, and struck his chest with both fists—once, twice, thrice. The final hit detonated in silence—Stonewake froze mid-swing before being hurled backward, crashing through two walls.
Silence.
Liam stood alone, breathing heavily. The sigils dimmed. The chill around him faded.
But his hands were shaking—not from fear, but from the toll.
He flexed his fingers. "I'm… still me."
---
At Kaela's House
Kaela blinked as the final assassin rose from the crater she'd slammed him into.
All four were alive. Barely. But like Liam's opponents, they too summoned their Nature Attributes—a last resort.
Voidlace spread his arms as a dark mist slithered from his pores.
Attribute: Netherbind.
His tendrils solidified into barbed chains of void—sharp, inescapable, hungry.
Glass Reverb cracked his neck as crystals formed across his skin.
Attribute: Prism Surge.
Each movement now scattered blinding light and distortion illusions.
Frostveil inhaled as the ground iced over.
Attribute: Deep Winter.
Mist hardened into armor, his presence turning the room into a freezing tundra.
Ashmantle, still ablaze, screamed.
Attribute: Infernal Core.
His flames turned blue-white, impossibly hot—scorching the very air.
Kaela took one step forward.
Lightning sparked at her heels.
Her eyes narrowed. Her fists clenched. Red energy flickered across her limbs.
And then—it exploded.
Red Lightning.
Crackling arcs of plasma danced around her frame—racing up her arms, bursting from her shoulders. The room lit red, pulsing with storm-born fury.
She vanished.
To the assassins—it was like she ceased to exist.
Then she was behind Voidlace, elbowing him in the spine and following up with a roundhouse crackling with lightning—disintegrating the chains before they could grab her.
He hit the wall. Didn't rise.
Glass Reverb cast illusions. Mirrors. Confusion.
Kaela charged through them, every strike lightning-quick, literally. Her fists struck faster than the eye could follow.
One. Two. Three.
His crystalline body shattered like a prism under pressure.
Frostveil launched frozen daggers—but Kaela's red lightning melted them mid-air.
She zipped forward, blurred by speed. A punch to the stomach. A spinning backfist to the temple. Frostveil collapsed into unconscious cold.
Ashmantle, now a roaring inferno, charged.
Kaela clenched her fists—crimson arcs snaking up her arms. She vanished again—then reappeared mid-air, fist raised.
"Solar Lash."
Her lightning-coated punch struck Ashmantle's chest, exploding on contact. The assassin flew backward, flames extinguishing mid-flight.
Kaela landed, panting—but smiling.
Her body steamed, bruised, and burned—but her eyes still burned golden-red.
At Liams house
The assassins groaned.
Wounded. Burned. Shattered. And yet—they stirred.
Stonewake's cracked skin tried to reform. Crimson Bloom clutched her side, gasping. Spectral Fang phased in and out of solidity. Shatterpulse crawled forward, molten drool spilling from his lips.
"We can't…" one hissed, trembling.
"…lose to a damn kid!" the four screamed in ragged unison.
They charged Liam again.
Desperate. Suicidal.
Liam's eyes narrowed. "You're really pushing it…"
He slid his left foot back, stance dropping. One hand extended forward—open. The other clenched behind, pulsing with an icy black shimmer.
The sigils across his neck and arms glowed deeper now—no longer flickering, but alive. His aura howled around him, distorting the air like shattered glass caught in gravity.
His mind flashed back to the dojo… to that one move that he learnt in the dojo
He remembered the cracked tile. The crater. The silence.
Liam's voice was steady. Cold.
"Time to end this."
Vein Shift:
He poured every drop of suppressed grief, rage, and hatred into a single channel—his right arm pulsing as if the muscles might rip from his skin.
The aura condensed—focused like a blade at the edge of control.
The ground beneath him cracked.
Then he moved.
A blur of fury.
He twisted into the center of their charge—his fist slamming into the ground between them with a shout that shook the walls:
"Veinburst impact"
A dome of black-aether shockwave exploded outward, silent at first… then deafening.
Time slowed.
The four assassins froze mid-attack, eyes wide with terror—then they were flung backward by an invisible force. Bodies slammed into walls, cracked through furniture, and rolled across the ground like ragdolls.
This time—they didn't get up.
Their auras flickered, then went out completely.
Liam stood at the center, steam rising from his back, his arm numb, the sigils now faded.
He took a deep breath.
"I warned you," he muttered. "
He looked down at his trembling hand. The chill was there… just faintly.
But not overwhelming.
Not yet.
---
At Kaela's house…
The smoke had barely settled when the last assassin stirred again. Ashmantle let out a choked, ragged breath, clutching at the floor as he tried to rise—his entire body scorched, flickering like a dying star.
Kaela's eyes twitched with disbelief.
"Still?" she muttered.
Ashmantle screamed, his flames reigniting—but weak now, unstable. He stumbled forward, fury overriding sense.
Kaela sighed, one eye twitching. "I really hate stubborn opponents."
She stepped forward, sparks dancing at her heels again.
Lightning rippled across her skin once more, but this time… it was sharper. More controlled.
Kaela pressed two fingers together, and her lightning snapped inward—condensing around her knuckles in spiraling coils.
"Let me show you… what precision red lightning looks like."
She vanished—again.
Ashmantle didn't even have time to flinch.
She reappeared with a twist midair, her fist slamming down with a pinpoint arc:
"Hell volt..
Her knuckles cracked into his chest, and the resulting boom shattered every remaining window in the house.
Ashmantle hit the floor—his flames vanishing.
Gone.
Kaela landed gently, wincing at her bruised ribs.
She rubbed the back of her neck. "Finally…"