"I spy with my little eye someone who's going to die." The assassin laughed merrily as he exploited Lith's shock to push away the Gatekeeper and struck at his neck to finish him off.
The first dagger had pierced Lith's chest, but thanks to his reflexes, which had allowed him to stop at the last second, and to the Skinwalker Armor, it didn't go deep. Lith knew that a normal weapon couldn't cut his skin, let alone his armor.
Which meant that they were anything but normal.
'No one can move that fast. How did he predict my exit point?' Lith thought.
His mind spun at top gear as he used the dagger in his left hand to defend himself while he stepped back. The blade in his chest only needed one more push to pierce his heart and Lith had no desire to test if he still needed it to survive.
The assassin wasn't willing to let him go, but keeping his arm so close to the opponent left it exposed. He was forced to retreat to avoid losing his wrist to the Gatekeeper, but he left behind a gruesome present.
He dodged Lith's slash while twisting and pulling the dagger away. The movement ripped the flesh apart and turned the already deep wound into a gaping hole. Life fusion started to heal the damage the moment it was inflicted, yet it only made things worse for Lith.
As Solus had predicted, the assassin's blades were coated with some kind of venom that the light element boosting Lith's body was now quickly spreading through his blood system.
'Fuck! I can't use darkness fusion to cut my pain receptors this time. Otherwise I won't be able to notice the venom's effects until it's too late and it cripples me. I need to focus light fusion on flushing it out of my body.' Lith thought.
"I was wrong. You're such a disappointment, mate. So much for Treius' killer and the destroyer of the Black Star." The assassin sneered as he relentlessly attacked Lith with inhuman speed and surgical precision, not giving him any time to think.
The wound on his chest burned as if someone had stabbed him with a burning spear and was twisting it inside his flesh. The venom coursing through Lith's veins made his heartbeats hurt like his blood had turned into sand and now it was scraping at every fiber it met on its wake.
With every heartbeat, the venom spread further. With every breath Lith took, his brain went on fire, blurring his vision.
'This is no normal venom. I'm analyzing it with Invigoration and it's magical in nature. What the actual fuck is going on?' Solus was desperate. Her words fell on deaf ears and she knew it.
Lith was too focused on survival to listen to her advice and she was too shocked from mana sense failing her in such an obnoxious manner to think properly. Lith's knees suddenly went weak while he was trying to keep his footwork on par with his enemy's and two small cuts opened on his legs.
The assassin was not only inhumanly fast and precise, but he was also well trained. Since he had failed to overpower Lith he had changed his tactic. The cuts by themselves were enough to slow Lith down and the new doses of venom they carried with them made his situation even worse.
Then, all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place and Solus regained her cool. She took a lightning wand out of her pocket dimension and shoot at the assassin. He managed to dodge it, but his assault was interrupted.
"Not cool man. How did you do that?" His eyes were flaring with mana. He had clearly managed to follow the wand's movements with Life Vision.
'Son of a gun!' Solus cursed while weaving several spells at once. Lith had only one breath of time to rest before the opponent came charging through the barrage of lightning bolts she unleashed.
That single breath allowed Lith to regain his footing as well as his focus. The detoxifying spell from his magic ring coupled with life fusion gave him a brief respite from the blinding pain that was crippling him.
'This venom alternates waves of pain with sudden weakness. If I had used darkness fusion to cut off my pain receptors, I would have missed the pain fading right before my body goes limp and I would already be dead.
'I only have a few seconds before the spell stops blocking the symptoms.' Lith thought
He stored the Gatekeeper inside his pocket dimension and had Solus assume her gauntlet form. He deflected the first blade with his own while using his open palm to thrust at the opponent.
The assassin smirked, thinking Lith had lost it. He lunged with all of his strength, boosting himself with air and fire magic to cut Lith's arm from wrist to shoulder in one fell swoop.
Only when his blade struck the stone covering Lith's arm did he realize something was wrong. The impact made him almost lose his grip on his weapon as Lith's palm stuck at his nose, crushing it flat.
Blood started to stream and his vision became blurry as the sudden injury made them watery. He tried to step back, but Lith had stomped on his left foot, crushing it and locking him into place.
The palm slid on his face, followed by an elbow blow that shattered his jaw.
The stunned assassin had no idea what was happening. His enchanted garb was supposed to absorb most of the damage, yet it seemed to be nothing more than a tacky cloth in front of the Ranger's assault.
Solus had simply taken out Zolgrish's Eraser from her pocket dimension at the exact timing of the impact, shutting down the magical protections. Also, by cutting off his pain receptors, the assassin had missed both the pain and the stomp.
Now his foot was stuck under Liths', making it impossible for him to get away. At that distance, his weapons were useless, whereas Solus's gauntlet reached its apex. Whenever the thin blades struck the thick stone, the impact made his hands go numb.
They couldn't cut, nor express the full strength of their wielder, whereas the stone gauntlet was fast and hit like a hammer. The assassin ducked under the claws aimed at his face, but they still managed to make a small cut on his forehead.
After his breathing, the assassin also had his vision impaired from the blood trickling in his eyes. He activated life fusion to stop the bleeding, only to suddenly feel that something was wrong.
Solus had coated her claws with Balkor's venom to return him the favor.
It was a special substance devised by the god of death, which directly attacked its victim's mana core. The assassin felt no pain, yet he noticed his fusion magic getting weaker, making the difference in physical prowess between them grow even wider.
He activated one of his magical rings to turn the Ranger into a popsicle, but at that distance Lith had the time to react at his weak mana flow by grabbing and crushing his hand so that the twisted finger threw the spell in a random direction, making it useless.
The assassin lost one of his daggers, which Solus promptly stored away, and tried to use the remaining one to stab Lith in the neck. Lith reacted by deflecting the blade with his stone covered arm while the dagger in his left hand pierced the assassin's right side and cut him open until his ribcage stopped it.
