Point-of-View: Argent Stryker

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"Okay, this is starting to get boring," Whispered Izzy with a sigh.

"Come on, we’ve only killed four of them, there’s still eight left. Don’t worry, we’ll attack them out in the open once they start to regroup...and in the meantime, if we get the opportunity to kill a few more of them this way, we’ll do that," I replied quietly.

We’d been sniping any Knights who got close enough that we could kill them without being noticed. Izzy was creating bullets with her Negative Energy, while I was doing the same with plasma.

Lightning is too flashy, and flames require a high level of intensity to be strong enough to pierce through a person with a single projectile, and raising it to that level of intensity makes it pretty bright.

And since I’m not the most proficient when it comes to earth Spells, I went with plasma by default. It’s not quite as powerful as fire or lightning, but compress it enough and it can pierce through a target without much trouble.

Anyway, we’d each killed two of the Knights...after that first one who we killed in that alley, we next targeted a Knight who went into the alley on the other side of this building.

I shot him through the side of the head, he was one of the few Knights wearing leather armor instead of metal, so he didn’t make much noise when his body collapsed onto the ground.

The third one was a Knight who’d entered the building we were on top of and then came out through a door leading up to this rooftop. He had started to call out in alarm, before Izzy fired a projectile straight through his open mouth and out the back of his head.

And the fourth one we killed, entered the same alley as the one we first killed, I shot him through the top of the head. That was a couple of minutes ago, no other Knights had shown up close enough for us to kill them without anyone else noticing it.

"Look, I think they’re regrouping now," Izzy nudged me with a gleam in her eyes and pointed, as the remaining Knights began to gather back up again.

When we killed the third Knight, I noticed that he had an earpiece communicator on, I’m guessing that Commander of theirs must have given the order to regroup.

"What’s taking the others so long?" She frowned after a moment, looking around.

"Can we attack now?" Inquired Izzy with a pout.

"Yeah, let’s do it...can you shoot their Commander through the shoulder? Or in any non-fatal spot that’d leave her alive long enough for us to interrogate her?" I requested in response.

"Sure, I can do that...," She nodded, trailing off as she pointed and took aim, forming a Negative Energy projectile, "I’ll burst a hole straight through her right shoulder before she even knows what hit h-..."

"Who’s there!?" The Knight Commander suddenly snapped, a Magic Circle appearing just a few meters ahead of us.

Crap, Distance Casting and Chantless Casting!? As a massive blast of lightning burst out from the Magic, Izzy quickly fired out a blast of lightning herself, canceling out the blast. I’m pretty sure we didn’t give ourselves away, how did she notice us?

A sensory Skill, maybe? No, because in that case, she should’ve sensed us ages ago. Well, whatever it is, our cover is blown, so we have no choice but to act...!

"Alright, guess we’re attacking now," I sighed wryly, as I manifested my Soul Weapon.

"Finally!" Grinned Izzy, as she swooped down rapidly.

I leapt off the rooftop as well, taking aim at two of the Knights as I flung my blades up...Elemental Flame: Double Mega Fire Blast!

It struck one of them, who had been distracted by Izzy and was too slow to react, letting out a cry of pain as the blast of flames struck him on the full, his metal armor turning red as he collapsed onto the ground in agony.

The other one managed to chant in time and manifest her Soul Weapon, which looked like a handgun but with a long barrel. She fired out a burst of energy from it, canceling out my attack.

Meanwhile, Izzy had swooped down towards two Knights, grabbed their heads and smashing them together, crushing their skulls against each other with a loud crunch and a burst of blood.

Another Knight then shot towards me, closing in as the Knight with the gun took aim and fired at me, right as my blades came falling back down towards me.

I swiftly grabbed my blades as they got within my reach, swinging the left one across to dissipate the incoming energy bullet, before using my other blade to block the swing of the Soul Weapon of the Knight who’d shot towards me, a short but wide rectangular blade.

I then shot forward as I turned intangible, phasing right through him as I let my arms trail behind me. He let out an alarmed cry as he tried to grab at me, failing as I ran right through him.

And as I emerged behind him, holding my blades out behind me, I turned the blades tangible as my body fully moved past him, eliciting a sharp gasp of pain from him as my blades cut through his insides, coughing out blood with an agonized wheeze.

I noticed the Knight Commander zipping towards Izzy with six floating blades around her, before Izzy noticed and fired out a massive, powerful blast of flames at her from her mouth.

The Commander’s eyes widened in alarm, before she moved all six blades in front of her like a shield. As the flames struck her blades, the sheer force upon impact knocked her blades straight back towards her, sending her flying back and crashing into a building.

Three of the Knights then surrounded Izzy as I shot towards the Knight with the gun, who continued firing at me, but her projectiles harmlessly passed right through my body.

She then drew out a short sword from behind her back as I started to close in on her, raising it defensively to her left as I slashed at the side of her neck.

A look of alarm appeared on her face as my blade phased through hers, she quickly sprang back in response, grimacing as the tip of my blade left a shallow cut across her neck, a trickle of blood running down to her chest as she backed away several paces, before tripping on a loose brick on the pavement and stumbling back.

I immediately shot towards her at top speed, as she fired at me desperately with her gun while trying to regain her balance...I’ll chalk that up to my Luck Skill, might as well at least pretend that it’s useful.

"G-get away from me-...argh!" She began with a wild swing of her blade, before trailing off as I shattered her blade with one of mine, and then drove my other blade straight into her throat, eliciting a choked gasp from her before I yanked the blade back out, blood gushing out of her neck.

"You bastard!" Snapped another Knight who sprang up to my right with his Soul Weapon, a Morningstar club, raised up high.

As he swung it down towards me, I slashed at his wrist, cutting off his hand before slamming a kick onto his midsection and eliciting a sharp wheeze of pain from him as I knocked him back several meters, as his Soul Weapon hit the ground with a loud clang, his severed hand around the handle.

"Hey, what rank are you?" I called out as I began to stroll towards him.

"Damned Commoner trash...I am a Colonel of the Knight Order, you will pay for this!" He snapped furiously, as blood gushed out of the stump where his hand and wrist used to be.

Colonel, huh? That’s the fifth highest rank, if I’m not mistaken...and also the second lowest rank, well third lowest if you count the Unranked Knights, those too weak to be assigned an official rank, basically their common foot soldiers.

Well, I suppose I’ll keep him alive for interrogation too, he may not have a high rank, but maybe he-...before I could finish my thought, Izzy suddenly zoomed across towards him and slammed her fist onto the side of his face, shattering it to several tiny, bloody chunks as his head got blown clean off of his shoulders.

"Hey, I was going to interrogate that one," I sighed in exasperation.

"Oh, you were? How was I supposed to know that, you said earlier that we should keep only the Commander alive," She shrugged in response.

Yeah, fair enough, I guess. Speaking of the Commander...

"You’ll pay for this...," She remarked icily, as she walked out from the building Izzy had knocked him into, "Soul Weapon Ascension: Justice Shards, Tenfold!"

"Careful, this one’s likely to be pretty strong...there aren’t many people who can use Soul Weapon Ascension," I warned Izzy, as sixty floating blades formed around the Knight Commander, who had a furious look in her eyes.

"I hope you’re right...maybe she’s the one who can finally give me a real challenge," Smirked Izzy, as she cracked her knuckles in anticipation...

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