Chapter 76: Resistive Forces

’One down. Two more to go.’ Adam spun, facing the others.

The two assassins paused for a split second, shocked to see a first realm awakened send a mid-tier second realm awakened flying with one punch. But their training kicked in the next moment.

They pulled daggers from behind their waist and closed in on Adam at the same time.

Adam read the two assassins’ body language like an open book, predicting what they intended to do before they did. With adept agility and manoeuvrability, he danced around their dagger attacks, matching them speed for speed.

For the first several seconds, Adam focused on reading their combat acumen and coordination. He would parry, block and redirect slashes and stabs at difficult-to-imagine angles, sometimes retaliating with strikes to the chest, gut and shoulders.

But the two assassins were also close to the peak of the second realm, making it a lot more difficult to end them in one strike. The assassins continued pressing with relentless momentum, forcing Adam to move around.

They became a blur of movement, flashing from one point to the next across the woods. Adam made use of his environment to the fullest, using the trees and stones to his advantage.

He exploited any and all openings he found in their coordination.

When the assassins realised they could not wear him down with their combat and dagger skills, they switched things up.

Adam predicted the change in their movements before the first ability came alive. He didn’t know what their abilities were, so he disengaged right as the two unleashed their abilities.

Darkness exploded from one of the assassins, rapidly spreading around the area like the touch of death. Adam immediately lost his sight. But that was not what caught him off guard.

A sudden urge to drop everything and surrender overwhelmed his mind out of nowhere. For a moment, Adam almost gave in to the urge and was on the verge of deactivating his double enhancement.

’No!’

The roar came from the deep recesses of his mind. Without hesitation, he called upon another skill.

Mental Fortress

The urge disappeared almost immediately, the layers of mental defence pushing back the urge. Another strange sensation slammed into his mental defences, causing it to ripple in his mind. But the skill held strong.

Right at that moment, though, a slash streaked across his chest with ruthless precision. Adam groaned under the force of the strike, pain assaulting his senses. He pushed through the pain, clenching his teeth.

Thermal Sight

He layered another skill on top of the many he had activated. Darkness was swiftly replaced with two distinct thermal signatures, one standing back while the other aimed at him. The skill was a life-saver. But he could feel his Spark levels draining, and fast.

’I need to end this quickly!’

With a swift jump backwards, he exploded with a wave of powerful wind, but the darkness was barely pushed back. Unperturbed, a pair of combat daggers materialised in his hands.

Clank! Clank! Clank!

Sparks flew as Adam exchanged rapid strikes with the assassins, the sudden appearance of daggers in his hands surprising them. But more than that was his apparent disregard for the surrounding darkness.

More attacks slammed into his mind, trying to force their way in. Adam had to actively fight back with his skill to keep the attacks at bay. It was a daunting task, the strain making his head pound.

Gritting his teeth, he continued exchanging deadly attacks with the assassin.

’Time to end this.’

As soon as the second round of rapid exchange of dagger strikes came to an end, Adam’s movement changed.

Keeping several skills active rapidly ate into his Spark reserves, but the cost was worth it. Throughout the fight, one of his essential skills had been active the entire time, aiding him in grasping the intricacies of resistive forces.

Cognitive Partition.

A part of his attention had been running simulations on the forces acting on his body, slowly getting familiar with manipulating them. He was finally ready to apply them, the very first being his agility and seamless transitioning through the air.

The two third realm assassins who had been observing the fight since the very beginning had noticed some inconsistencies with Adam’s pattern of attacks. They would have gone unnoticed otherwise.

There were times when Adam’s blows carried far more strength and force than expected. There were moments when his speed would abruptly increase, his body slipping through the air like a slippery eel.

It made no sense.

The information they had on him mentioned strength on par with an early second realm awakened, frightening intelligence that would put geniuses of both the old world and new world to shame, and a dual affinity for fire and wind.

What they were seeing, however, was something else entirely.

Adam wielded peak second realm strength and combat capabilities they could never have anticipated, and speed and reflexes a newly awakened human should not possess.

Right before their very eyes, they watched as Adam moved through the two second realm assassins like the wind, flowing around them as though guided by unseen forces.

He was supposed to be blind, and yet, he moved with such effortless grace.

With dagger techniques and movements that would put even the most experienced assassins to shame, Adam streamed around the assassin he was fighting with unresisting swiftness, carving up the assassin like a motionless log.

His blades cut through multiple nerve points across the assassin’s body, riding the motion to swiftly appear before the second assassin and repeating the same feat. He completed the move in one seamless second, his movement so fast that he only appeared like a flowing stream of light.

Like broken dolls, the two assassins dropped to the ground with a thud.

The darkness dissipated while the attack on his psyche came to an abrupt end. Adam came to a smooth halt a few meters away, his back to the assassins, his daggers dripping blood.

’I-I did it.’

Adam had succeeded in defeating one mid-tier and two almost peak-tier second-realm assassins. But his joy was short-lived. There were still two very strong third-realm assassins watching him.

’Damn it! My Spark is running out!’

Clenching his teeth, he pushed off the ground, breaking into another full sprint. Applying his newly gained manipulation of resistive forces, he exploded with speeds that exceeded his early peak with absolute and startling ease.

His only hope now was to somehow make it to town and vanish with his Deceptive Aspect skill.

’God, I hope the others are alright.’