Chương 91: The Variable

Matthias looked at them with a faint smile before looking away. He held nothing but contempt and disregard for them. Kyle looked at the furious Rowan and Barrett with furrowed brows.

"Calm down. He's the highest power holder here. Don't antagonize him." Kyle said in a low voice.

"I know, it's just…" Rowan was shaking with rage. To see the man who stole his partner just a few hours ago standing arrogantly in front of him as his superior filled him with anger. However, what he felt more was powerlessness. He couldn't do anything to his enemy, even though he stood right in front of him.

"I understand..." Rowan took a deep breath and said, barely calming down. Kyle's pupils suddenly shrank. He pushed Rowan away before unsheathing his sword and swinging it forward.

"Clang!" The air before him distorted as a tall and lean goblin appeared out of nowhere. It was a goblin assassin. Although it had blocked his strike with its dagger, the force of the strike pushed it back. The goblin assassin grinned at them before the air around it distorted, quickly turning invisible.

"... Thanks," Rowan said, still a bit shaken.

"It's fine." Kyle shook his head and vigilantly looked around. While talking to Rowan, he felt the air shift as the goblin thrust its dagger towards Rowan's back.

'The goblin's camouflage distorted at the moment of its strike. It seems that it can't keep perfect camouflage during high-speed movement.'

'That is to say, the moment the goblin assassin is the most likely to be perceived is when it attacks.' His eyes glowed a faint blue as he looked around. His ears twitched, and his nose moved, trying to determine the goblin assassin's location by sound and smell. Unfortunately, it was almost impossible to do so. The air was filled with the stench of corpses and blood, and goblin and human roars filled the battlefield. Especially from the major underground entrance ahead.

Neither the knights nor other adventurers paid attention to them. This was a battlefield. No one had the time to pay attention to them. Rowan and Barrett moved to stand in a triangular formation with Kyle, guarding each other's backs. They vigilantly scanned their surroundings, looking for traces of that goblin assassin.

"Where's Silas? Isn't it his role to deal with the assassins?" Barrett roared, keeping his eyes on his surroundings. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Kyle didn't respond. His mind was quickly working, trying to find a solution. After a while, he finally caught on to a lead.

'This might work.' Kyle's eyes flashed. He slowly relaxed his hearing and sense of smell, instead pushing his [Clairvoyant Eyes] to the limit. Since he couldn't find it through his other senses, he would have to focus on his sharpest sense, his eyesight.

'No matter how stealthy that goblin assassin is, it can't fly. Thus all I need to do is to look for its footprints!' Kyle looked at the nearby ground, covered with rubble and dust. As he continuously pushed his focus, the distant explosions and cries slowly faded away, followed by the horrendous smell of blood and corpses. Everything in his sight seemed to slow down.

The blood drops falling from the nearby rubble to the ground and the dust floating through the air; everything seemed to be in slow motion in his eyes. A faint afterimage appeared less than a centimeter away from each moving object, indicating where the object would move next. Kyle felt his eyes starting to sting, but he didn't even blink. His gaze covered every corner within 10 meters, not allowing the slightest abnormality to escape his notice.

After what seemed like an eternity, an unusual movement caught his eye. The dust on the ground 9 meters to his left slightly jumped. This was undoubtedly caused by an extremely faint footstep.

"I caught you!" He shifted his weight and tightened his grip. His mana quickly shifted to his legs. In the next second, his calf muscles bulged as his feet sank into the ground. He instantly crossed the 9-meter distance and swung his sword.

"Gah?" The goblin assassin cried in fear and puzzlement as it barely managed to raise its dagger, blocking the sword strike. However, the impact caused its arms to sink towards its body, injuring it. The goblin assassin tried to activate its invisibility again and run away, but another blade swing unexpectedly came from its back, beheading it in one swift motion. In its last moments, the goblin assassin saw the one who beheaded it. It was another Kyle.

A look of shock and confusion appeared on its face as it couldn't fathom why another human with the same appearance appeared behind it. Unfortunately, its consciousness fell into the darkness without ever getting an answer. Kyle flicked the blood off his blade and sheathed it, then walked back towards Rowan and Barrett, passing through the dissipating afterimage. [Phantom Sword Dance] At its maximum, he could generate four lethal afterimages through this combat skill, but that consumed almost 20% of his mana.

However, by lowering the number of afterimages, the mana cost decreased. He could manually decide whether to use 1 or 4 afterimages. And for this goblin assassin, 1 afterimage was more than enough.

"Holy shit, that was cool!" Barrett shouted with a look of excitement. From his perspective, they were vigilantly looking around when Kyle suddenly appeared next to the goblin assassin, split into two, and beheaded it in one swift motion.

"That was amazing, Kyle," Rowan said with a look of admiration. He raised his arm and waved for Kyle to do the same. Kyle was a bit surprised, but he immediately understood his intentions. He grinned and raised his arm before the two swung it at the same time. It was a dap. The crisp clang sounded through the battlefield.

"Me too!" Barrett lit up. He raised his arm and impatiently waited for Kyle to dap him, which the latter didn't hesitate to do. The two swung at the same time, their palms connecting with a sharp clap.

"Nice!" Barrett grinned. Kyle also grinned. He shook out his stinging hand, then focused back on the battlefield. The situation wasn't getting better. The goblins never seemed to run out no matter how many were killed. He could still faintly feel the shockwaves outside the town, so that battle still hadn't ended yet. The situation fell into a stalemate. Now it was a question of who would crumble first. …That was if there wasn't a variable.

"BOOM!!" Kyle felt as if the whole world was shaking. He quickly steadied himself and looked around, trying to find the source of the sound. The scenery around him seemed to turn red as one heaven-reaching blood-red pillar burst out from the ground after the other. Three giant red energy pillars burst from the ground, forming a triangle. The closest one was a mere hundred meters away. The other two were situated in the northeast and northwest corners of the town.

The battlefield seemed to pause as everyone stared at the red energy pillars in shock.

"What is that?" Kyle's expression was extremely solemn.