The Author's POV

-Click!

Closing the door behind him, Ren stood in front of the door.

The room was dark, and apart from his breathing, no other sound could be heard.

Standing in front of the door, Ren looked at the narrow corridor that led to the living room of the small apartment.

-Click!

Turning on the lights whilst keeping an eye on the living room, Ren slowly took off his shoes.

Though he couldn't see the whole living room due to the corridor narrowing his line of sight, Ren knew that hiding inside of the living room were assassins waiting for him to enter.

Looking left and right, Ren summoned his sword and channeled his mana towards the tip of his sword.

"Oof, I am so stuffed. I can barely move, guess I'll quickly head to bed"

Making small talk at the entrance of the room, a translucent ring slowy formed in front of him.

-Voom!

As soon as the ring fully formed, Ren pushed it forwards.

Slowly, the ring moved towards the living room.

-Shua! -Shua!

As soon as the ring crossed the corridor and entered the living room, two black-clad silhouettes appeared out of nowhere and attacked the ring.

-Crack!

Breaking into a million particles, the ring scattered in the air.

Staring at the particles scattering in the air for a split second and noticing something wrong, the two silhouettes immediately turned towards the entrance of the room.

-Tap -Tap -Tap

Appearing from the other side of the living room, Ren's indifferent figure walked out.

Expressionesly looking at the two black-clad individuals, Ren took a stance as a white glow emanated from his body.

Nodding towards the two silhouettes, Ren placed his hand on the grip of his sword

-Click!

The second movement of the [Keiki style] : Horizon splitting slash

-Vuam!

As if a bolt of lightning had descended, a bright light illuminated the room and a horizontal white streak of light appeared on the necks of the two silhouettes.

Before the silhouettes could make out what was happening, they felt their world turn upside down as they slowly saw their headless bodies standing upright before them.

-thud! -thud!

-Click!

Removing his hand from the sword, Ren apathetically walked towards his room, ignoring the two heads rolling on the floor.

Along the way, his shoulder twitched a couple of times, but he ignored it.

Though his injury still wasn't fully healed, with the effects of [Monarch's indifference], he could ignore the pain that was coursing through his shoulder.

Heading towards the nightstand next to the bed, Ren opened the drawer and took out a red leather book.

Deactivating [Monarch's indifference] to save mana, Ren felt his emotions return to him.

"khhhh..."

As his emotions returned, Ren's face repeatedly changed as he felt his shoulder twitch uncontrollably.

Taking a minute to suppress the pain, Ren opened the red book and read through its contents.

-Clank! -Clank! -Clank!

Surrounded by three black-clothed individuals, Kevin swiftly moved around his apartment hacking at them with his sword whenever he saw an opening.

-Clank!

"khhh..."

Parrying Kevin's sword, one of the black-clad individuals signaled to the other two people to attack at the same time.

Noticing their sign, Kevin forcefully twisted his body and defended against two attacks coming from his left and right side.

-Clank! -Clank!

"khhh..."

Barely blocking the attacks, Kevin took a few steps back as beads of sweat dripped from his forehead.

Looking at the three black-clad individuals before him, Kevin couldn't help but curse.

"Damm it"

Whoever the trio was, they knew about his attack pattern and the sword art he used.

From the way he attacked and his habits, they knew them all. It seemed that whoever they were, they had done their research on him and had come prepared.

Frowning, Kevin continued to pressure the trio but it was to no avail as whenever he attacked, his faints would easily get read by them. Blocking whatever he threw at them.

Moreover, what made things worse for Kevin, was that whenever they counterattack they managed to precisely and cleanly direct their attacks where he was most vulnerable, almost as if they knew where he was going to attack.

The more Kevin fought, the more he realized how adapt to his fighting style they were. It was almost as if they had been trained precisely to counter him.

It was to the point that they were coordinating perfectly with each other, defending exactly where his true sword intent showed up and attacking exactly when he was most vulnerable.

Taking few steps back and looking at the trio, Kevin let out a long breath. Though he was in a bind, he remained calm.

Normally, considering how difficult the situation was, Kevin would've already used [Overdrive] by now. However, that was only if it was about a week ago.

...Now, now things were different.

-Vuam!

Releasing his <D-> ranked pressure, Kevin's attacks became sharper and stronger whilst the trio's attacks started to become more sluggish and predictable.

Dodging one of the attacks coming from the right, Kevin jumped in the air and stepped on the sword that came towards his left side, propelling his body in the air.

Twisting his body in the air, Kevin channeled wind psyons at the bottom of his feet and stepped on the air.

Redirecting his body to the other side of one of the black-clad individuals, Kevin hacked his sword towards his head.

Caught off guard, the black-clad individual tried to defend himself, but it was to no avail as Kevin's figure disappeared and reappeared right behind him, piercing him straight into the heart.

-Spurt!

"One"

Removing the sword from the black-clad individual's back, Kevin stared at the other remaining two individuals in the room.

Tensing his calves, Kevin's body shot in their direction.

Stabbing towards the black-clad individual on the left, a red glow slowly started emanating from Kevin's body.

Seeing Kevin's sword coming in their direction, the black-clad individual on the left took a defensive stance whilst the other black-clad individual hacked in Kevin's direction.

Just as the black-clad individual on the left was about to block Kevin's attack, Kevin forcefully twisted his foot and redirected his attack towards the guy on the right, catching them both off guard.

-Criiii

Grazing the black-clad individual on the right's sword, Kevin tossed his sword to his other hand and stabbed it towards the guy on the left whilst simultaneously using his fist to punch the guy on the right in the stomach.

-Baam!

Curling his body due to the heavy punch from Kevin, the black-clad individual on the right dropped his sword and held his stomach in pain.

Redirecting his attention towards the remaining black-clad individual, Kevin stabbed his sword in his direction

-Clank!

Parrying Kevin's sword, Kevin thrust his sword again towards his head.

Expecting the sword to be redirected to his heart, the black-clad individual did not notice the slight glint in Kevin's eyes as his sword continued making its way towards his head, piercing him straight through his brain.

-Spurt!

"Two"

-Clank!

Turning around, Kevin easily parried the attack coming from the other guy and kicked him in the stomach.

Stepping back to avoid Kevin's foot, Kevin reappeared on the remaining black-clad individual's left flank and pierced him in the liver.

-Spurt!

"Three"

-Thud!

Removing his sword from the body of the last black-clad individual, Kevin frowned and immediately headed towards the exit of his room.

Though he wanted to check the bodies of the people that assaulted him, he could hear a commotion outside of his apartment.

Despite being unsure of what was happening, he knew that something serious was currently happening outside of his room.

-Click!

"What's going on?"

Opening the door and exiting his room, Kevin couldn't believe the sight that laid ahead of him.

Blood curdling screams resounded across the whole first floor as the corpses of students and black-clad individuals could be seen sprawled everywhere.

-Clank! -Clank! -Clank!

The sound of metal clashing reverberated throughout the corridors of the first floor as students could be seen fighting for their lives everywhere.

Multiple black-clad individuals appeared everywhere, attacking students from all sides as absolute mayhem shrouded the whole first floor.

"Kevin!"

Snapping Kevin out of his daze was Emma's distraught voice as she fought against multiple black-clad individuals with her short swords.

Her perfect figure danced around them as her swords constantly clashed against their attacks.

However, despite managing to hold her own against the black-clad individuals, Emma was on the verge of losing due to their numerical advantage. This was shown by how her movements were becoming more sluggish by the second.

-Spurt!

Quickly dashing in Emma's direction, Kevin hacked towards the nearest black-clad individual, killing him instantly as his sword disappeared and reappeared on his neck.

-Spurt! -Spurt! -Spurt!

Like a shura from hell, Kevin hacked and stabbed everyone in his way. Along the way, he would help a couple of students who were on the verge of getting killed by the black-clad individuals.

...

-Spurt!

"Huff..huff...you okay?"

After killing multiple black-clad individuals, Kevin appeared before Emma as he heavily panted for air.

"Huff..yes, thanks"

Similarly gasping for breath and nodding her head, Emma's eyes darted all over the place as she looked at all of the battles happening around her.

"What's going on? where are the professors?"

"I don't know"

Shaking his head, Kevin looked just as confused as Emma...

Logically speaking with everything that was happening around them, the professors would've already have come down to help them as they wouldn't stand there and just watch their students die.

It had to be noted that a lot of the students here were sons and daughters of very influential figures. Their deaths would put a heavy burden on the lock, therefore, there was no way they wouldn't be here right now defending them.

Yet with everything going on around them, they still weren't here. That only meant one thing...

Thinking that far, Kevin clenched his fists and looked at Emma who seemed to have had the same thought as him.

They were on their own...

-Woosh! -Woosh! -Woosh!

Snapping Emma and Kevin out of their thoughts, three streaks of lights appeared before them as three black-clad individuals not so far from where they were standing fell on the ground.

Quickly turning her head and looking in the direction of where the arrows came from, Emma exclaimed

"Amanda!

Just as Emma was about to head in Amanda's direction, the sound of the air being sliced increased in frequency as more arrows continuously shot out from Amanda's direction.

-Woosh! -Woosh! -Woosh!

As the arrows repeatedly shot from Amanda's quiver, they reminded Kevin and Emma of a swarm of locusts that devastated ecosystems.

-Spurt! -Spurt! -Spurt!

With each arrow that left Amanda's bow, a black-clad individual fell on the ground.

Some of the black-clad individuals managed to parry Amanda's arrows whilst others couldn't. In the end, as soon as Amanda ran out of arrows, the hall was quiet as most of the black-clad individuals were either dead or seriously injured.

Running towards Amanda, Emma said

"Hey Amanda, have you seen Jin and Melissa?"

Putting her bow down, Amanda walked in Emma's direction and nodded

"I met Melissa on the other side of the first floor, she's currently with Han Yufei"

"Than what about Jin?"

A new quiver filled with arrows appeared on Amanda's hand as she shook her head

"I saw Troy and Arnold together but Jin wasn't with them so I don't know"

Frowning, Kevin thought for a moment before saying

"Considering how the assassins targeting me knew how I fought, there's a chance he's still fighting against them"

Remembering how difficult his fight with the black-clad individuals was, Kevin looked towards Emma and Amanda and said

"Let's go help him"

"Yes"

Nodding her head, Emma looked in Amanda's direction and said

"...you coming?"

"Yes"

Nodding her head, Amanda followed Kevin and Emma towards Jin's room which was only a few blocks away from where they were.

Along the way, as they traveled through the first floor, Kevin alongside Emma sweeped through all of the black-clad individuals they met on their way.

From behind them, Amanda continuously shot arrows to support them whenever the chance called for it.

With her help, Emma and Kevin didn't need to worry about watching out for sneak attacks, making their lives much easier.

After a couple of minutes, Kevin and the rest managed to arrive in front of a door with the number [575] engraved on the side

"Is this the place?"

Nodding her head and looking at the number of the room, Emma confirmed

"Yes, that's his room number"

-Click!

Opening the door, Kevin entered the room and looked for Jin

However, as soon as he entered the room all he smelt was the heavy scent of iron.

Frowning, Kevin walked inside of the room and entered the living room.

...and there he saw it.

In the middle of the room was Jin's lifeless body laying down on the floor next to four black hooded individuals whose limbs were all torn into a million pieces.

Opening his eyes wide in disbelief, Kevin stopped dead in his track.

"Hey, why did you st--"

Appearing behind Kevin, Emma entered the living room, and just when she was about to speak, she stopped halfway through her sentence and gasped in shock.

Following Emma, Amanda entered the room, and similarly to Emma, she gasped in shock.

"Jin!"

Snapping out of his stupor, running towards Jin, Kevin placed his finger on his neck and checked his pulse.

"There's no way Jin's dead. There's just no way!"

Looking at Kevin hastily checking Jin's pulse, Emma couldn't help but repeat her words as she stood rooted on her spot in disbelief.

"..."

After a couple of seconds, Kevin looked towards Emma and Amanda.

He tried to say something, but no words came out of his mouth.

It felt as if a massive lump was stuck in his throat, preventing any sound from coming out of his mouth.

His mouth opened and closed multiple times, like a fish gasping for air

...in the end, after a couple of seconds of trying, no word came out from his mouth.

However...despite Kevin's inability to speak, everyone in the room understood what he was trying to convey.

....Jin was dead.