"Uh…what?"
For once, Daneel was stumped.
What did falling in love with someone have to do with living an isolated life after retiring from one's profession?
Daneel was, right now, an expert who didn't need to care about what he said.
So, he asked.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
Hearing the question, the reptilian let out a deep sigh.
In anticipation of an epic love of romance and sacrifice, Daneel bent forward.
However, he only became stumped once again.
"Fu$k you. I have no reason to answer. You are our guest, but you can't make me tell you my secrets. I don't care what the Sect Leader does. F*ck off."
Hearing this, Daneel leaned back with disappointment, and a touch of anger.
Yes, this wasn't a movie or a game where people would recite their love stories whenever a stranger asked.
No, this was Angaria, where assassins apparently fell in love and stopped assassinating.
'Dammit! I want to know!', thought Daneel, cursing at the man.
Yet, he knew better than to ask again, as he had noticed the determination in his voice when he had declined.
[email protected] you too. The Sect Leader will be hearing about this. And I don't believe that sh#t about killing with your spells. I think you're just afraid you will lose.
Saying these words in an angry tone, Daneel got up with a haughty expression and prepared to leave the room.
The reptilian didn't even bother to reply, so Daneel declared this as a lost cause.
He was an accurate judge of character, and from the mannerisms of this reptilian who seemed like there was nothing more he could lose, Daneel could tell that he wasn't someone he could provoke using words.
So, he decided to spend his time on another of the 5 top assassins instead of wasting it.
After he reached the door, the reptilian finally moved, but it seemed to be only to get up and close the door.
'Humph'ing again, Daneel walked out and he was about to leave.
As he had seen before, this cottage was located on a part of the mountain which curved.
So, in the interest of clearly plotting out this place visually himself while the system also carried out a mapping function, he started to walk to the edge near the mountain.
His path took him quite near to all the flowers which were being cared for by the Reptilian.
At one point, almost when he was about to reach his destination, Daneel's thigh brushed against a flower.
Instantly, he froze, feeling as if his entire back was on fire.
Yes, fire. It was as if his body had decided that a tingling on the spine wasn't enough, as the danger he felt was so profound that it needed this much of a reaction.
Someone wanted to kill him. And it almost fell as if no matter what he did, that outcome wouldn't change.
Slowly, Daneel turned around to the direction from which this danger felt as if it was being directed towards him.
Of course, it was the cottage.
The reptilian who had been inside, waiting for him to leave, was now standing outside with eyes wide open.
His body seemed to be slightly shaking, but while Daneel watched, he got a hold of himself.
As if nothing weird had happened, he simply turned around and prepared to go back inside.
Seeing this, Daneel got an idea.
Yes, that sensation of danger had been terrifying.
Yet, at this moment, Daneel felt as if facing the danger was the only way to move forward.
After all, he had persevered through the danger of losing himself to pain all through the spars with Skrrag. However, what did he get from it? An amazing inheritance!
The Basilisk's Breath was solely a fighter inheritance, and although it would definitely help him a lot in magic too if he became able to use it freely, it still didn't amplify his spells in any way like the Ruler's Inheritance.
What if he could learn something more from this flower-loving geezer? Something about assassinating with magic?
It was a far shot, but he would never know the answer unless he tried.
Also, Daneel had come up with the method of sparring with the top assassins to understand them better.
After all, nothing built a bond between two people like a good ol' spar. At least, 2 people who trained on either path.
So, bracing himself and hoping that he was making the right decision, Daneel moved his thigh and brushed against the flower again.
There it was! The feeling of danger was back, and as Daneel turned around, he saw that the Reptilian, who had casually been walking back to his cottage, had turned around too and was now glaring at him again.
Bingo.
It was the flowers!
Toughening his heart, Daneel locked eyes with the reptilian and slowly raised his hand to the petal of the flower.
The sense of danger seemed to be increasing with each second, and as his hand touched the petal seemed to peak.
"System, stay on full alert. If he attacks, activate the Basilisk's Breath and move my body to escape the first attack. I should be able to handle the rest by myself."
[Acknowledged.]
This was what he had figured out in the short term. He couldn't control his body due to the lag between his command and the body's response, but the system suffered from no such thing. However, it couldn't control his body to fight.
It could only do the most rudimentary of actions, such as throwing him out of harm's way in this case.
Till Daneel got a grasp of this wondrous inheritance, he had to resort to this.
After getting the answer from the system, Daneel kept his eyes fixed on the reptilian and…plucked.
Weirdly, the moment he did, the threat disappeared, shocking Daneel.
What? Was he wrong?
However, when he saw everything around him slow down while the system said [Inheritance activated], he understood that the reptilian had already attacked but he had not even noticed it.
Feeling himself being flung to the side, Daneel refocused his vision on the area between him and where the reptilian seemed to be standing, and understood.
That was just an afterimage!
Apparently, when the reptilian had decided to attack, he had somehow managed to make the threat i.e the killing intent completely disappear.
He was worthy of being called a top assassin, indeed.
Right now, the reptilian was flying through the air in his direction with a V-shaped wall of wind covering his whole body.
The tip was facing Daneel, and as he watched, he realized that this was a very effective spell.
At the same time, it was cutting down the air resistance faced by the reptilian while also acting as the weapon that would slice Daneel's body in half if it impacted him.
The man had been right. When he cast a spell, he was going to kill.
His speed was astonishing, so much so that even though Daneel was seeing him slowed down, he was still moving quite fast.
This could make him understand just how incredibly fast he must be in reality.
If Daneel hadn't commanded the system, he would definitely have been dead by now, without a doubt.
But now, he had a chance.
Disabling the Basilisks's Breath, Daneel cast two spells: one was a condensed fire needle, and the other-a spell to kickstart the formation of a miniature cannon in the air.
This was the way a Paragon fought.
But any Paragon might have died the next second.
This was because after noticing that his attack had failed, the Reptilian had turned the offensive wall of air into a defensive one which flicked Daneel's needle away.
In the process, he also made sure not to hurt any of the flowers at all, which Daneel noticed.
The cannon was ignored by the reptilian, whose focus it was to end Daneel.
All Daneel saw was a blur once again after the reptilian's pause to handle his attack.
"Activate."
Once again, everything slowed down.
This- this was what having an inheritance meant-it meant having an advantage that would let one skip levels.
The reptilian cast a scissor of fire at Daneel's location next, before boosting himself forward once again, this time being even faster.
Daneel dodged again with the system, and shot two attacks.
Two more deflections, but the reptilian changed his attack.
Dispelling the sharp wall of wind that had accomplished nothing, he actually ran and…leaped.
In the air, a tornado formed around his body, giving an extremely high rotational momentum along with the forward momentum that was a result of the leap.
Like a human torpedo, the reptilian shot towards Daneel, and an arrow made of fire also formed at his head.
Daneel dodged for the third time, but before he could cast any attack, he saw something horrific.
The reptilian had shot through where he had been standing, but instead of pausing like before, he just went into the air and arced.
Once again, he was on the attack, and this time, Daneel had no time to dodge again.
Was this it? Had Daneel gone too far?
No.
The cannon was ready.
"Fire!"
Using the same concept of guns from Earth that he had used before, the cannon shot out a sharp spike of conjured metal at a dizzying speed.
He had aimed just right, so the spike would definitely go through the reptilian before he rammed through Daneel using the fire arrow and all that momentum.
As Daneel saw him realize this and change his movement, he smiled with triumph.
Yes! He had held his own against a Warrior level Mage Assassin! Someone who was feared by the entire continent!
For him, this was a great victory.
However, unexpectedly, it seemed that it really was a victory.
"Stop! I admit defeat!"
As Daneel heard this shout from the reptilian, he wondered what was going on, but he turned around and quickly realized that the spike would soon go through a row of flowers.
Without hesitating, he dispelled the metal spike, letting it turn back into metal elementary particles.
Also, he cast an ice wall that protected the flowers, letting no harm come to them.
By this time, the reptilian had stopped himself and was now standing a little distance away.
On seeing that the flowers were safe, he looked at Daneel as if he were a monster and said, "How the [email protected] did you fight like that?"
Smiling with true joy and pride, Daneel answered:
"Tell me about the flowers, and I'll tell you."