Taming the Protagonist

Chapter 35: Effective Assassination

Hitana was not entering this state for the first time.

At nine years old, to save Marina from the wolf's mouth, she first felt that... rage and roar from the depths of her soul.

So the young girl who was still just a child at that time beat a robust adult wild wolf to death with her bare hands, scaring away the wolf pack.

At eleven years old, Hitana who went out hunting alone suffered an inexplicable weird assassination, on the line between life and death, that violent and ferocious barbaric power awakened again, allowing Hitana to successfully counter-kill the opponent.

Five years later, which was now, Hitana once again felt this... innate, buried deep in her soul, but not yet awakened power.

There was no special additional enhancement, only power, power, power!

Sharper senses, more astonishing physique, faster reflexes, more terrifying self-healing—

Pure like herself, just madly squeezing and tempering the limits of her own body, constantly pushing the bodily functions to a peak that no one could understand!

"Hu..."

The exhalation slowly overflowed from between her teeth, like steam fiercely rising!

The beast's calf muscles that bent down bulged and tensed, every joint and muscle in the body achieved ultimate perfect coordination without any guidance.

And then... charge!

Bang!

But such a violent charge, the final result was far from ideal, what should have been a collision sound like heaven collapsing and earth cracking, at this moment was just like a vase falling to the ground.

The assassin who solidly took this punch slightly furrowed his brow, squinting at Hitana who was again in a beast posture preparing to attack.

"Attenuated to this degree, and still have this force?"

He rubbed his abdomen, exclaiming: "You really are a... monster, animal miss, I have to take back those words looking down on you earlier."

While saying this, the man twisted his head to avoid Hitana's explosive high whip kick coming like a knife: "I said, you have to distinguish me from normal assassins."

"I pursue the limit of 'killing', seeking the great power that can rival time, even kill the world itself."

In Hitana's storm-like offensive, the assassin leisurely dodged like strolling in a courtyard, without counterattacking and said: "So I will give some valuable prey a... fair competition opportunity."

"With this—" He pressed the blade against his throat, for some reason his faintly losing luster pupils flickered with a chilling fanaticism.

"Temper myself!"

"So... I will unreservedly announce my abilities to you, then in this fair slaughter, end your life."

After such a long chant, the assassin suddenly struck, the blade tip straight for Hitana's throat!

Hitana twisted her waist, her flexible and powerful thigh straight upward kick, a skyward stomp first attacking the assassin's wrist, but even if it blocked this strike, her attack was still like before... no effect at all, or rather negligible.

"Are you curious why yourself—"

"Shut up." Hitana growled low, "I don't need... your self-righteous fairness!"

[Time]

Under that increasingly mad posture, Hitana's mindset was exceptionally calm due to Anselm's teaching.

[Couldn't hurt him, because he put on a layer of time armor]

All attacks would be counter-delayed by time just before touching him, the originally accumulated immense kinetic energy mercilessly crushed by time, with no force to speak of.

Hitana could perceive that unnatural stagnant feeling, clearly as if she had smashed into something, yet she had not caused any damage at all.

This assassin had... a layer of time buffer zone on him.

But this did not mean he was invulnerable; the initial charging strike had obviously broken through this buffer to a certain extent, which meant that as long as she pierced his power limit, she could still cause real damage!

Moreover... while wearing this "armor," he had not stopped time again.

That was to say, the abilities he used on time were very likely to be usable only one at a time!

"Not needed?" The assassin raised his eyebrow, "I've met many people like you, they were all very confident in their abilities... but Miss Hitana, you have to understand, they were either battle-hardened, powerful warriors only a step away from Scepter, or cunning and refined, with deep foundations sorcerers, even world-class geniuses who had already achieved Scepter, their confidence had basis, where does your confidence come from?"

The blade with sand flowing in the handle waved again, in the next instant, that dagger seemed to shuttle through space, as if the scene had been cut, immediately about to pierce Hitana's neck!

But it did not penetrate Hitana's throat, and only drew a blood line in front of her neck.

The assassin's expression slightly changed; in the instant before he froze time, this girl had actually made a backward leaning motion in advance—because this time he had not leisurely swung the knife, but had swung the blade down without pause during the time freeze, so instead he had not killed her in one strike.

Feeling the pain coming from her neck, Hitana did not pause at all, raised her hand to grab the assassin's wrist, the terrifying force that could dismantle a beast's skeleton with bare hands burst out instantly!

Ka!

After a brief crisp sound, the assassin kicked diagonally at Hitana's abdomen, but surprisingly did not cause any damage in a very comical way!

The next second, his figure instantly disappeared, retreating nearly four or five meters away.

"Such prediction and counterattack can no longer be explained by combat talent."

The assassin rubbed his wrist that had almost been crushed by Hitana, but fortunately he had used the time buffer in time, so it was only slightly dislocated, and said thoughtfully: "Are you a Blessed One?"

Hitana, whose mind was full of how to defeat the opponent, did not hear those extremely key four words at all; she stared fixedly at the assassin who still seemed at ease for now, and according to Anselm's teaching and ideas, crazily performed pre-enactment planning in her mind.

He really could not use these two abilities at the same time, and could not connect them seamlessly; although the time was extremely short, that was also an opportunity... the only opportunity!

Moreover, that time stop, as long as he touched me, time would resume flowing; otherwise, in the previous time stop, he would have killed me long ago.

Also, his body was not powerful at all; without that dagger, he could not hurt the current me at all, so as long as I... ugh!

Hitana's mind suddenly throbbed with pain; for some reason, the roar coming from her sea of consciousness and soul gradually weakened, even became dissatisfied; that power supporting Hitana's such fierce offensive, continuously surging from her body, also began to recede; although there was still supply, it was not as fierce and powerful as before.

Miss Young Wolf did not know where this power came from; she only knew that her time was running out.

"Must create that only opportunity..." Hitana panted, muttering so in her heart, "As long as I can—"

Wait...

Was that really her only opportunity?

Was there no other choice?

[Hitana, what you see is ultimately limited, but the height and depth of thinking can reach the endpoint of heaven, the end of the abyss]

Spells, how could anyone control time without relying on spells; so he must be using spells, that was beyond doubt.

Right... spells, who said assassins must be blade-wielding, combat-proficient killers; the one who was going to kill that viscount today was also a sorcerer!

This guy was not a proper warrior at all; his physical strength was so weak; he was clearly... a sorcerer!

Combat skills and physical talents were not unsolvable at all; a sorcerer who purely relied on cheating time spells to kill! Just a sorcerer!

Hitana noticed the trap created by this assassin; he deliberately did not avoid any close-quarters combat, making him seem at ease in hand-to-hand fighting; in fact, without that buffer layer, she would have beaten him to pulp long ago!

Right, what combat skills did this guy have; wasn't it just time stop and then come up to slit the throat!

This assassin used this unconventional way to cover his identity, making people focus all their attention on how to crack his abilities, while ignoring the more key things.

Sorcerers could manipulate ether, call wind and rain, even control time like this assassin, but no matter what, no matter how powerful sorcerers inevitably had weaknesses—these basic things, Hitana knew because she fought with people every day in school.

The simplest and most fatal point: sorcerers needed casting mediums to cast sufficiently powerful spells; losing the casting medium did not mean the sorcerer was completely scrapped, but it would greatly weaken his abilities!

And the stronger the association between the casting medium and the spell, the better the effect; so sorcerers' casting mediums were usually bizarre; using staffs was just because of their strongest universality.

Then this guy's casting medium...

Hitana's gaze imperceptibly fell on that dagger.

That... dagger with a handle like an hourglass, with flowing sand turning and flowing.

Besides this thing, what else could it be!

"...Although I don't know what you thought of."

The assassin blew a whistle: "But the dangerous aura on you is rapidly receding, animal miss; it seems you can't maintain that rampage state for a long time."

Hitana slowly closed her eyes; every muscle and bone in her body, every fiber and nerve tensed at this moment, accumulating power, seeming to make a desperate fight.

Since she knew the purpose, everything remaining... just leave it to instinct!

When she opened her eyes again, her irises were dyed blood red; those shrunken pure black round pupils were already no different from beast pupils!

The barbaric power that had originally receded from her body once again cheered and roared with excitement in return!

In the instant before the assassin had time to be shocked, Hitana with four limbs on the ground once again charged toward the assassin without any disguise or flair—

That was a bullet that pierced everything after being fired, a gale that swept up and tore everything apart!

The expensive carpet covering the floor and even the entire floor were forcibly torn under this extreme speed; between the flying silk velvet and wood chips, that beautiful snow color almost drew a pure white straight line in the air, like lightning bursting, dividing space in two!

This was a speed that absolutely did not allow the assassin to respond with time stop; if he was one step slower and did not have time to add the time buffer zone to himself, he would undoubtedly be torn to pieces on the spot!

[But this is also too reckless]

When this thought flashed in the assassin's mind, Hitana's five fingers formed into claws that had already buckled toward his throat.

Under such a violent offensive, even with the time buffer, he would be injured, but absolutely would not die.

But this girl, after accumulating such power, after being unloaded by him, would undoubtedly die.

The assassin strengthened the time slowing power on his neck and heart, these two key parts, to deal with Hitana's reckless desperate strike, and prepared to swing the dagger, planning to give her the real fatal blow after Hitana's force was completely dissipated and unloaded by time.

"Then, again—?!"

Mr. Assassin, who had already prepared in advance and given Hitana's terrifying power full respect, did not feel the impact from his neck.

Although strengthened, the force should not be completely absent; this was—

Feint!

Deceived by Hitana's fierce and violent appearance, and even more impossible to guess that she had already seen through his disguise, the assassin made the most wrong judgment.

When he realized this was a feint in an instant, the other hand that had accumulated Hitana's true full power had already clenched the assassin's wrist to death!

The entire wrist was directly crushed; bones, meridians, blood vessels, muscles were crushed into a mass on the spot; the terrible pain as if the whole hand was about to break off directly made an uncontrollable howl of pain resound in the room.

The instant the dagger fell, time immediately froze.

But before the assassin had time to grip that dagger with his other hand, a white tender small hand with bursting meridians and protruding blood vessels had already firmly grasped it in the palm.

"It's my win." A cruel smile appeared on the female wolf's face, "Go to hell with your tricks, bastard!"

She reverse-gripped the dagger; the barbaric tyranny deep in her soul was unhidden, urging her to stab straight toward the assassin's heart!

In the long silence, the sound of the body heavily falling to the ground resounded.

Hitana looked at the assassin with a stiff face, no longer moving at all; that unreasonable powerful force rapidly faded; uncontrollable fatigue that almost instantly engulfed her consciousness surged like tidewater.

"...Hy, Hydra."

The girl with constantly drooping eyelids sat down on the ground, while struggling to stand up, muttering more and more weakly: "If you didn't discover this, I will definitely... definitely..."

Thud—

Her head also directly hit the ground, fainting on the spot.

***

Only a few seconds passed, and the room's door was pushed open by someone.

Mr. Assassin, lying on the ground with no signs of life, also suddenly opened his eyes; the bloodstains and wounds on his body, as if time rewound and replayed, returned to a completely uninjured state.

"Hu, Your Excellency Hydra, are you satisfied?"

He played with his dagger with a relaxed face: "Actually, I really wanted to say to her at that time, 'Aha, do you know how many self-smart guys I've fooled with this thing?', and then appreciate her incredulous expression."

"This animal miss, her cognition of transcendent beings is too narrow and rigid."

Mr. Assassin shrugged: "Not to mention that ordinary sorcerers would have multiple spare casting mediums... she actually thought that a Throne-tier transcendent would die if the heart was stabbed through; such a taken-for-granted idea... where exactly did you find her from?"

"This is not important, Ocalian." Anselm squatted down, gently stroking Hitana's cheek, "What is important is that she is excellent enough, isn't she?"

"How could a Blessed One not be excellent? In theory, she did indeed truly 'kill' me once, although I did release water a bit too much. But she can use her own spiritual essence before reaching the Throne... indeed a monster."

"So, I am even more puzzled by this."

The assassin from the Order of Time crossed his arms: "I can completely guide out her potential for you; why did you require me to stop here?"

Yes, it was Anselm who required Ocalian to stop at this stage—because he completely anticipated this assassination, what Hitana would do in the end and what the final outcome would be.

And, Ocalian had not received any requirements from Anselm during the entire assassination process; it was completely his free play; Anselm just foresaw that outcome, then let Ocalian stop there.

This made Mr. Assassin have his hairs stand on end at the dangerous and terrifying degree of this young Hydra, while also being more puzzled.

Because Hydra was obviously cultivating this animal miss; why refuse to let her become stronger?

"Because this is enough."

The youth gently stroked the girl's brow that was wrinkled due to fatigue and pain.

"No need to go further toward the beast, dear Hitana."

Hydra so gently narrated his malicious curse:

"You just like this, indulge in the victory I brought you."

"In the sweet victory of happiness and joy, without blood hatred and pain."