Timeless Assassin

Yu Zu stared at the devastation all around Leo, his heart pounding heavily in his chest as he hovered in the air about a kilometre away, taking in the sight of thousands of his men lying motionless around the crater, their bodies scattered like discarded dolls while only one figure remained standing.

"You… Did you do this to my men?" Yu Zu said, pointing a shaking finger toward Leo as his face contorted with rage and disbelief.

"Seriously? That is what you ask me?" Leo said, raising an amused eyebrow as though the question itself was an insult to his common sense.

He turned his head slowly, as he lazily swept his dagger toward the field of corpses around him and displayed to Yu Zu the bodies twisted at odd angles, the weapons fallen from limp fingers, and the headless corpses lying around.

"Hello? Do you see anyone else left alive to have done this, you brain dead moron?"

He mocked, his tone light and insulting, as the words echoed upward through the open sky toward Yu Zu's ears.

"You… I will make you pay for this insult with your life!" Yu Zu said, his voice cracking as fury began to drown out his fear.

"How dare you insolent Cult rat insult the great Yu Zu?" Yu Zu raged, as his aura surged outward in a violent pulse, the air around him warping slightly as mana gathered thickly around his body.

"Run if you can…"

He warned, as he channelled all that dense mana into a blade and unleashed a powerful sword strike.

"[Cleaver Cut]!"

He declared, as the blade light tore across the distance between them in an instant, cutting through the air with a screech that rattled distant structures.

*Screech*

*Rattle*

*Rattle*

The very ground under Leo's feet began to tremble, however, instead of looking afraid, Leo fearlessly smiled, as though this was exactly what he had been hoping for.

"Too slow…" Leo said quietly, his eyes narrowing with calm detachment, as he shifted his weight forward.

*Step*

His heel lifted off the ground in an almost lazy step, yet the moment his foot came down again, his figure blurred out of existence, leaving the [Cleaver Cut] to crash into the crater where he had been a moment ago, as it obliterated the already lifeless bodies and carved a deep scar into the earth.

*BOOM*

*CRASH*

Yu Zu's eyes widened sharply, as his attack hit nothing but empty space.

"What… where did he go…?" Yu Zu said, as his neck snapped left and right in bewilderment.

However, before he could locate Leo, a faint voice arrived directly in front of him, at a distance that was closer than what he was prepared for.

"I am right here… you fool," Leo said, his tone calm as he appeared right in front of Yu Zu's face.

*WHOOSH*

The kilometre that had separated them moments ago no longer existed, as Leo now hung in the sky without wings or flight devices, his figure held aloft with such effortless control that it seemed as if gravity had simply forgotten him.

"The hell?"

Yu Zu cursed, as he barely had time to register Leo's body, before a glint of silver caught his eye.

*Swish*

Leo's right arm moved in a blur, as his dagger lunged forward toward Yu Zu's sword hand, the strike so fast that it seemed to skip the space between them entirely.

*CLANG*

Steel met steel as Yu Zu frantically twisted his blade into place, blocking the first thrust on sheer instinct, as the resulting shock made his arm shudder.

'What kind of speed and power is this…?' Yu Zu thought, bewildered, as cold sweat began to gather along his hairline.

"Shocked already? I expected more from you Commander, I haven't even warmed up yet."

Leo mocked, as he unleashed his next move, the [Thousand Phantom Slashes].

*Shing*

*Shing*

*Shing* *Shing* *Shing* *Shing*

Leo's daggers multiplied into a storm of afterimages, as his arms cut through the air with impossible precision, each movement flowing into the next with the grace of a dance, while every strike landed at a different angle upon Yu Zu's body.

Yu Zu tried to defend, as he swung his blade wildly, mana bursting from him in a desperate attempt to fill the gaps in his defence, however, every successful block against Leo's daggers only bought him a fraction of a second before three more cuts slid past his guard.

Shoulder plate, sliced. Chest guard, split apart. Waist armour, carved clean through.

Metal shards spun away from his body as fragments of his armour scattered across the sky, glittering briefly in the light before dropping uselessly toward the ground far below.

"Wait… stop…!" Yu Zu said, his voice breaking apart as pain bloomed across his body.

However, despite his plea of mercy, Leo did not stop.

His daggers continued to move with surgical cruelty, as they carved lines along Yu Zu's arms and thighs, severing tendons and disrupting muscle control without damaging any vital organs or delivering a killing blow.

*Slash*

*Drip*

Yu Zu's nose split with a thin line of blood as one strike flicked across his face, while another traced along his ribs, and yet another nicked the tendons behind his knees.

Piece by piece, his armour fell away as if he were being peeled open.

As in a matter of seconds, the once proud Commander of the Righteous Faction garrison on Nemo found himself stripped bare in mid-air, his once imposing figure now exposed and pathetic, his body a map of thin bleeding cuts that stung with every movement.

*Crack*

Leo's final strike landed on the back of Yu Zu's neck, a controlled hit that sent a sharp jolt through his spine, as his mana flow stuttered and collapsed out of rhythm.

"What… what is happening to me…?" Yu Zu said, his eyes widening with mounting horror, as his fingers twitched uselessly, refusing to tighten around his sword.

*Still*

*Fall*

Suddenly, his legs stopped responding. His mana, which had surged so violently moments ago, now scattered in disarray as his control over his entire body slipped like sand through numb hands.

As in the very next instant, the sky around him tipped sideways in his vision, as his body began to enter a state of free fall.

'No… no no no…' Yu Zu thought, panic swelling inside his chest as the clouds above shrank rapidly from his view.

*WHOOOOSH*

Wind roared past his ears as he plummeted toward the ground, his sword slipping free from his weakened grip, as it spun away uselessly.

'His tier… he is a Transcendent for sure… so how… how is he so fast…?' Yu Zu thought, as the question echoed pointlessly in his mind.

*CRASH*

He hit the ground with a dull, heavy impact, the earth cracking beneath him as a shallow crater formed around his naked, motionless body, his limbs splayed at awkward angles while dust lifted and then slowly settled over him.

He could still feel. He could still think. He could still see the fractured slice of sky framed by the broken edges of the crater.

However, to his absolute dismay, he could not move.

*Thud*

Leo dropped into the crater with a light landing, as if he were stepping off a low ledge rather than descending from a battle in the air, his posture relaxed as his daggers hung loosely at his sides.

"Commander, Commander, Commander…" Leo said, repeating the title in a casual sing-song tone as he crouched down beside Yu Zu, his gray eyes glinting with a cold amusement that sat somewhere between playful and cruel.

"I bet you smiled ear to ear when you watched that naked propaganda recording your Righteous Faction broadcast about our Cult's pride, Aegon Veyr," Leo said, keeping his voice soft and almost intimate, as if sharing a secret between old friends.

Yu Zu's eyes widened further, as shaky memories of briefing halls and mocking laughter surfaced in his mind, the shouts of his comrades as they jeered at Veyr's humiliation now feeling like a noose tightening around his own throat.

"So now…" Leo said, lifting one dagger and resting its flat side lightly against Yu Zu's cheek, as though testing the feel of the blade against skin.

"I am going to return the favour," Leo said, his smile widening just a little, as dread surged through Yu Zu's chest like ice water, while he finally understood that whatever came next would not be quick, and it certainly would not be merciful.

"Pray… pray for your sake that your underlings love you enough to risk their lives to come save you.

Because if they don't… Commander Yu Zu, I'm going to make you the joke of the universe."

Leo threatened, as he grabbed the Commander by his foot, and began dragging him away.