16.5

Eve turned away from the door after casually melting the lock to glance at the three men who had entered ahead of her. Two men were posing as guests, Mr. Braggins and Mr. Chimmel, while the third was a guard with unclear connections to them.

While her current Tier Three was a far cry from her actual Tier due to being sealed, she wasn’t exactly bereft of all senses. With the imminent approach of combat, her mind flowed into the welcome state of Savage Survival Mind. It was practically a default setting, easily reconstructed by her current power level.

Cold silver eyes watched the three men as they took steps forward. Braggins was a speed type, his body generating slight twitches as he fought to stay at a normal speed.

Kimmel, on the other hand, was smooth and graceful. His body moved, making it appear as if he had done every motion thousands of times before.

The final individual, the Rasmuchein guard, was like a walking block of concrete. He was a solid mass of muscle built to hold the line and take immense punishment until help arrived.

The tank to hold the line, the assassins to carve their way through it. Eve thought as she smiled lightly at the two gentlemen pretending to be guests. The two of them had turned to face her as she finished closing the door. Oh? It appears the jig is up.

Mr. Braggins had removed a slim punch dagger, while Kimmel now held a sheathed sword reminiscent of a katana. The guard whose name she hadn’t caught was now wearing a solid set of darkened plate glittering with golden runes. A shield and gladius-style sword gripped each hand as the guardsman faced her. The three men now formed an inverted triangle with Eve at the base.

“Oh my, is something wrong, gentlemen?” Eve said. She let her tone and gestures display confusion. It wasn’t hard, considering her mother had ingrained the habit through repeated lessons.

“Put her to sleep. We can’t have anyone interfering now.” Kimmel said with a dismissive glance at Eve.

“Aye, aye, captain!” Braggins said with a smarmy smirk.

The speed-based assassin rushed to her side, throwing a punch at Eve’s temple. She allowed the punch to touch her temple before a sickening grin crossed her face as his momentum bled away to nothing.

“What the hell?” Braggins said as his fist stuck to Eve’s temple like magnetized iron.

“Do you know the antithesis of speed?” Eve said, reaching up to grab Mr. Braggin's hand. “Magic magnetization.” The body was a plentiful source of magnetic fields, and this close, she had no difficulty twisting that to her ends for a brief moment. Repelling the blow was easy, but the lethal trick had been turning her magnetic field to exactly opposite of Braggins. Doing this generated the sticking effect that eliminated his advantage in speed.

“Get away, now, Braggins!” Kimmel said as he crouched down into a draw stance with his weapon. It was clear from his chilling eyes the strike he was about to make had no eyes for friend or foe.

Braggins eyes grew ruthless, and he decisively severed his hand with the punch dagger, splattering blood as he retreated.

Kimmel immediately took that signal to burst forward with speed that surpassed his now one-handed ally slicing directly at Eve’s neck. Rather than take the blow, or attempt to block it, Eve dropped under the attack, tumbling toward the retreating Braggin. Before the speedy opponent recognized the danger, Eve’s wooden sword that had floated alongside her leg shot into action. Moving directly into her waiting right hand, the blade struck out. Half of Briggin's right leg landed on the carpeted corridor less than a second later due to Sharpness. Rich red blood now pooled on the carpet and painted the entryway like a mad artist’s demented display.

Eve retreated from the traitorous guard who rushed to cover his fallen ally. It was telling to note that even missing a hand and leg, Braggins didn’t make any sounds of pain. Flicking her left hand, a simple throwing knife appeared in it as she moved back towards Kimmel in a blur of motion. She threw the knife at the katana-wielding assassin as she charged toward him. Kimmel parried the thrown knife with his katana’s hilt and showed disdainful regard toward the attack. At least, until Eve snapped her fingers, making the knife explode into a cloud of blinding dust.

“Petty tricks!” Kimmel said, dropping back down into a draw stance below the dust cloud. Air swirled around him as Eve felt him draw a furious amount of mana into his body. Feeling the sensation of death approach, she thrust forward, utilizing the same trick used to kill Pell in the College.

Even with the advantage of surprise, Kimmel managed to dodge the death blow. Eve could only puncture a lung missing the heart she had aimed for. It would be a crippling blow for a normal person, but it was barely a scratch in a System world. It was clear the assassins were trained to operate under the System in the manner best suited to their Skills.

A soft green glow appeared around Chimmel’s punctured lung as he retreated away from the door. He’d bent a portion of the mana he drew in to heal himself. Eve ignored him to slap the stairwell door’s frame. The same runes that concealed everything else in this corridor lit up before the exit vanished.

“Kimmel, we should retreat,” Braggins said, breathing labored.

“I’m afraid that’s impossible,” Eve said as silver runes lit up the 3rd floor’s corridor walls, ceiling, and floor in a blazing ever-growing chain from the concealed exit. “I may not be a prodigy in many things, but in the Element of Space, I likely reign supreme in this backwater planet.”

Ignoring her words, the assassins, and guardsman, grouped up. Kimmel removed a twisted piece of metal from within his clothes before pumping the accumulated Air mana into it.

A bright glow lit up the corridor before a brilliant flash of light occurred. When the light show ended, all three men looked surprised to find themselves still in the corridor.

“Surely, you didn’t think it would be that easy to escape?” Eve said.

Eve hadn’t wasted her time. Tiny compressed marbles of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth were formed with the help of her Ring of Elements. As the first expression of alarm appeared on Braggins face, she shot marbles of Earth, Fire, and Air at each assassin.

The marble of Air penetrated Braggins's remaining knee, dropping him out of the fight with a despairing face. The unknown guardsman from Rasmuchein took a solidified orb to the face, barely deflecting it. Kimmel faired the worst out of all three, as she had finally identified his mana as pure Air. Even though he had pumped a large amount into the escape item, there was still quite a bit within his body.

Air fed Fire, and the marble of compressed heat lit the katana-wielding man up like a fossil-fueled jet flare. Eve was impressed at the blazing display. She could see that once a certain breakpoint was reached, Air became nothing more than fuel to the Fire element.

The traitorous Rasmuchein guard glanced at both his allies before decisively spinning in place. The heads of both assassins flew up into the air to land with a bloody squish on the soft carpeting.

Eve’s eyes narrowed as the guard removed his armor and weapons while holding his hands up.

“I have committed infractions against the Rasmuchein. That won’t be for you to judge, though.” The guard said with a faint smile.

“Oh?” Eve said, stalking closer even as she mentally contacted Charlotte. I have a traitorous guard here. He turned on the assassins he was assisting. Should I terminate him?

Rasmuchein? Charlotte replied.

Indeed. Eve said, slowing her stride. She got the feeling bad news was on the way.

We can’t kill them. Charlotte said tersely. The Rasmuchein has agreed to keep himself out of the impending storm. Even if they are traitors, killing one of them would be extremely provocative.

So, he lives? Eve said, her eyes starting to glow. It would be so easy to execute the insolent guard. Making the body vanish and cleaning the area would barely cause a ruffle for her.

Alive, yes. Only alive, though, you understand? Charlotte said with venom.

Absolutely. Eve said, letting her wooden sword drop. As the sword floated back to her side, she continued striding further towards the guardsman. This close, she could scent the faint bitter tang of fear starting to creep into the man’s mein.

“I can’t kill you,” Eve said, watching the burst of relief appear on the guard’s face. “However, the Rasmuchein will only take offense if you are dead….”

Before the guard could react, Eve closed the distance until she was barely an arm’s length away. This close, she was in full view of the man’s eyes. With an effort of will, she relaxed her grip on the Charm Stat, releasing the full force of her power.

The fear vanished off the guard’s face as his eyes slowly grew slack—a tiny bit of drool leaked from the corner of his lips. The light in his eyes was empty like a snuffed candle.

“Hello,” Eve said, looking at the entranced man. She watched as he struggled to speak before his body stopped attempting to communicate. From her previous experiment with Ralph, she knew the mind was still there, growing fainter with every second.

“I can’t kill you, but there are things far worse than death,” Eve said as a contract wrote itself into existence between her and the guard. “Could you sign here, please?” She proffered a pen filled with ink for the guard.

There was no struggle as the barely coherent man moved to sign the contract with haste. While this trick wouldn’t work on those with the Skills or Spells to resist effectively, the guardsman wasn’t one of those few. Whatever paltry mental resistance he might have had been crushed under the weight of Charm. Eve’s own body was slowly weakening as the use of such a powerful burst of mind-bending might took its toll.

As soon as the contract was signed, she gripped her power, forcing it back into the container of her body. Eve coughed a mouthful of blood, which she kept from spitting out. Before she could say anything to the completely confused guard, Charlotte’s door opened, and she stepped out into the corridor. The concealing runes on her door blew in a fantastic display of light shrouding the younger women in a halo of majesty.

Immediately after exiting, Ralph and Justin’s door opened. Eve’s eyebrows rose as she could see corpses stacked like cordwood in the butler’s room. This wasn’t the first group that had been handled. Ralph saw where she glanced and merely straightened his impeccable suit with a sniff.

“Show off,” Eve said in a low voice but loud enough that she was sure the butler heard. She rolled her eyes as a wide grin flashed like a camera bulb across his face.

“Is everything handled?” Charlotte said in a tone of imperial command.

Eve bowed low with one hand over her heart and said, “As you commanded, mistress. All the problems have been dealt with. There remain none here to oppose your will. A few minor matters arose, but they are best discussed later."

Charlotte nodded before she turned to Justin and said, “Accompany me. We need to communicate the displeasure of our circumstances to the management.” The younger boy awkwardly allowed her to slip her arm into his as she dragged him off.

Eve managed not to grin as she said, “Mistress, the stairwell door is the other way.”

“Indeed, I’m glad this test of your memory showed it still works,” Charlotte said, barely pausing as she turned and pulled Justin in the right direction.

Eve let them get halfway to the exit before she murmured, “I think the lock might be melted shut, Ralph.”

The glare of irritation as Ralph rushed to open the door for his mistress was most amusing.