Child of Destiny

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

In a dense forest, a shadow kept on shuttling through the bushes and trees before disappearing without a trace.

This shadow was like a ghost within the forest.

This was Shin, who had been training his Phantom Swordsman Skill and the other techniques under this class category.

He had spent quite a lot of time on this floor since he logged in earlier. He had also taken down quite a few targets that had been assigned by the tower.

However, all these targets that he had taken down were limited to the level of the Sand General on the first floor. Anyone stronger or more skilled than it was was still out of the question.

After all, Shin was still familiarizing himself with these new abilities and techniques despite gaining a decent mastery over them.

The first floor was meant for discovery and understanding these skills. This floor, on the other hand, wanted him to deepen his understanding of them and hone his skills when wielding these newly found techniques and abilities.

This was his initial guess when he first stepped onto this floor. But that thought later changed when he started the assassination assignments.

On top of these two, Shin later realized that one of the goals for this floor was to integrate all three core abilities of the Phantom Swordsman Class into one, forming a newly found power.

On this floor, Shin had to explore more about these abilities and techniques and merge them into one.

Shin had basically understood most of the things that he needed to learn about ‘Phantom Dance’. He had even integrated it with most of his techniques, particularly his martial movements and foot techniques.

This left him with the Phantom Assassination and the Phantom Swordsmanship to deal with.

He had also gained enough understanding about them and reached a decent level of mastery that allowed him to integrate his style with them.

After taking down the less powerful targets on this floor, Shin had gained a decent amount of insight that would let him combine the three core skills.

…

Roar!

A monstrous beast that looked like a hybrid between multiple creatures.

It had the head and body of a lion, which was dyed in a deep crimson color. Such a dark and eerie color seemed to indicate that it was dyed in blood, which would most likely come from its victims.

Its tail was similar to a scorpion’s, which had a lot of spikes around it that looked like a bunch of thick needles of a porcupine.

It also had a pair of huge bat-like wings on its back that were spread wide, reaching dozens of meters with its span alone.

There were a bunch of holes on its wings, which only made its appearance more intimidating instead of being miserable.

The sharp spikes that were sticking out at the edges of its wings also made it more dangerous.

It was a Manticore!

Roar!

This manticore released an intimidating and enraged roar after sensing that someone had intruded on its territory. It seemed to be trying to warn the intruder to retreat before they suffer serious consequences.

Unfortunately, the opposing party seemed to have ignored its warnings and continued to charge deep into its territory and even charged straight into it.

Roar!

This further enraged the manticore, making it stomp its front paws on the ground, sending a powerful shockwave in every direction.

Boom!

At the same time, it flapped its wings hard, generating strong gusts that circled it.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Immediately after, multiple small tornadoes were formed around the manticore, seemingly capable of destroying everything in its surroundings.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Even the surrounding trees were uprooted from the ground and ripped into shreds by these powerful tornadoes, adding them into the spinning wind that they generated.

Shin, who was the intruder of its territory, could not help but frown deeply after seeing this scene.

He knew that this was going to be a bit of trouble, but he did not expect that the opposing side would greet him with a skill that covered a large area.

He was quite thankful that his opponents for this trial were not humanoid creatures skilled in martial arts, just like the Sand General on the first floor.

However, facing monsters that were capable of using such abilities was much more troublesome to deal with, especially when the trial for this floor was already tricky to deal with.

The earlier targets that he had already taken down were a bit simpler. After all, they did not have elemental powers or any kind of special abilities.

They only had raw power and tough skin. They were nothing but monsters that relied on brute strength and powerful defense, which were extremely easy to deal with.

So long as Shin managed to find their weaknesses, taking them down would not be a problem.

However, this manticore before him was obviously not following the same rules. It greeted Shin with such a powerful skill right off the bat, not giving him enough time to adjust.

“This is supposed to be my first target right after eliminating all the easier ones,” mumbled Shin before pursing his mouth. “I guess increasing the difficulty a little is quite reasonable.”

“Moreover, I can try the techniques that I have just created by combining the three core abilities of the Phantom Swordsman Class,” he added while watching the manticore send the tornadoes toward his direction.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

In response, Shin quickly used the ‘Phantom Dance’ and executed his ‘Ghost Evanescent’.

Whoosh!

His figure flicked and disappeared from his location.

The manticore then saw that Shin had transformed into countless phantoms, which were flickering constantly and completely obscuring his exact location.

The manticore was quite an intelligent beast despite its bloodthirsty nature. Its eyes were moving left and right, locking on the life force that Shin’s real body was emitting, which also helped it find his location.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

It then controlled the tornadoes with flaps of its wings, directing them toward multiple directions and covering a larger area.

Seeing this, Shin responded.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

All the ghostly figures disappeared, decreasing his numbers to nine phantoms that looked extremely real and lifelike.

Moreover, from the manticore’s perspective, all these phantoms were real entities due to all of them possessing enough lifeforce that indicated that all of them were alive.

Shin was constantly switching places with these phantoms at extreme speed, making it look like he was appearing in nine different locations at the same time.

This was one of the states that Shin had mastered after his hellish training on the first floor of the tower.

This was the true Phantom Dance.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

While the manticore was still confused with this, Shin immediately activated his ‘True Sight’ ocular skill to read the flow of mana in the air and look for the gaps that he could use to break through the incoming tornadoes.

Not long after, he managed to find the weaknesses of these violent gusts of wind and broke through them.

Whoosh!

Seeing that all nine phantoms managed to fly past the blockade of tornadoes, the manticore became even more enraged.

Roar!

At the same time, it twisted its body before whipping its tail forward and releasing all the spike needles attached to it.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Countless needles suddenly flew forward. They were carried by the spinning tornadoes and flew in random directions, attacking everything on their path.

Shu! Shu! Shu!

The entire place seemed to have been filled by these needles, piercing a hole wherever they went.

Shin also knew that he would not be able to dodge them by simply swapping places with his phantoms, so he immediately changed his approach.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

All the phantoms suddenly charged at one another before merging into one.

This action would surely reveal Shin’s real body, making it easier for the manticore to target him.

Swoosh!

However, he did not care and continued to sprint toward his target.

Whoosh!

Right after the phantoms merged into one, they seemed to have melded with Shin’s body, creating a series of overlapping images that were following his movements.

From the other party’s perspective, Shin seemed to have turned into a shadowy figure that was constantly swaying left and right, followed by the overlapping afterimages created by the phantoms.

Because of these actions, his movements became extremely hard to predict. They looked extremely elusive and impossible to read.

He looked like a ghost that was constantly pacing in and out of existence.

This newly created technique was inspired by one of the legacy skills that he rarely used, the ‘Mondi’s Movement’.

However, instead of being a skill, he turned it into a movement technique that incorporated the essence of ‘Phantom Dance’.

‘Phantom Series: Movement Technique – Spectral Waltz’

It was because of this movement technique that all the needles that were supposed to turn anything they went through into a Swiss cheese were unable to do so to his body.

He was able to avoid all of them without even suffering any scratches on his body.

Swoosh!

Right after passing through all the obstacles, Shin was already almost upon the manticore, which was unable to respond to his actions quickly.

Shin was not intending to waste too much time with this monster. He wanted to finish it off as soon as he could, then proceed to the next target.

This monster might be powerful, but all his newly created techniques were quite powerful.

Adding the fact that this was supposed to be an assassination trial, he believed that he had to give his all in every attempt he launched against his target.

The earlier attempts against the weaker targets had already helped build enough foundation, so what was left for him to do was to give his all and execute as many targets as possible, and with the fastest speed that he could achieve.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Right after, the nine phantoms suddenly separated from Shin’s body and surrounded the manticore from every direction before launching a series of attacks.

Shing!

The real body, on the other hand, suddenly swung the [Yamato] as strongly as he could while he was shuttling through multiple places by constantly switching places with all the phantoms.

‘Phantom Series: Killing Move – Phantasm Flush’

Shing! Shing! Shing!

Multiple sword silhouettes suddenly flashed around the manticore, slicing through its body countless times.

Swoosh!

Not long after, Shin’s figure suddenly appeared behind it. He stood there silently while holding his sword and its sheath before his face, currently in the middle of sheathing it.

Click!

Right after the sword guard hit the lid of the sheath, locking it, it produced a subtle sound that reverberated through the place, which was currently silenced by his previous actions.

Boom!

Immediately after, the body of the manticore behind him suddenly collapsed on the ground before dissembling into multiple pieces of diced meat.

……