You know what’s among the most annoying enemies to fight? Which I disdained the most? Tricky foes. So fucking annoying. This was why I disliked fighting excellent enemies that had a similar type of fighting style to mine. They were often the tricky ones, as how I was often the tricky one to my enemies. Part of why I disliked dealing with ninjas.

  That being said, this opponent of mine at the moment was simply ridiculous and frustrating to face. He may have been the trickiest opponent in a while. Fucking illusionist fuck. Ever since being in this world, I had never seen an opponent like this.

  He was sneaky as hell. Somehow, whenever he switched up with his illusion version, I couldn’t catch him do it. He was able to slip away from me with the briefest of windows, less than a second. Just like me, he moved fast. I guessed he would slip away from the rooftop to the side of the buildings, below the rooftops, and turn around and attack me from my flanks.

  That being said, I couldn’t confidently say that what I was fighting before me was an illusion or the real one. I couldn’t be neglectful, lest I get struck, mistaking the person before me as an illusion. That was why I always assumed the person in front of me was the real one.

  At any rate, I was locked in. At first, all I was trying to do was flee from him. But now, I was determined to kill the motherfucker. He had to pay for wounding my beautiful skin. I had yet to heal the scratches on me, because I hadn't gotten the chance to do it. If I shifted my focus away for a moment, I was worried he’d get the upper hand on me.

  I already had pieces of my barrier protecting me, just like I always had done.

  I thrust my dagger at the enemy before me. However, he dodged, and at the same time, I sensed an attack coming from my right side. I may have my barriers, but his weapons were small enough, and he was fast enough to aim through the gaps. This was expected, but it should make things harder for him. That was the point.

  He was aiming at my elbow. Luckily for me, I reacted fast, and shifted the barrier slightly, blocking his blade. If I were a bit slower, I would have been done for. He quickly backed away and sent a couple of magical slashes at me.

  I swiftly dodged each one. And after the last one, Seiji suddenly came up in front of me, striking forward with his short katana. I raised my daggers to block it. Against my expectations, the kodachi merely went through my defenses.

  Illusion!

  I swiftly shifted sideways, just in time for a kodachi to come in for my head, glowing with magic. I withdrew a bit, reaching the edge of the roof, when the ninja continued his attack. To figure out if it was real, I pointed a finger at him, sending a lightning bolt at him. It dodged. That could indicate that it was the real him. However, it was not the first time that an illusion had dodged my attack.

  He ran up to me, and our blades met.

  The real one.

  We glared at each other.

  “You killed many of my students. I have many lives to avenge,” he said.

  We withdrew our blades together and swung at each other again. We blocked each other’s offensive attacks, but then he suddenly clenched his fist tightly with a blade in hand and punched me in my torso. Considering that I was protected by a magical barrier, he opted to bludgeon me. I was blown away, launching me off the roof and heading to the ground.

  I kept my composure and swiftly landed on the street. Such strength. As he stood on the roof, I looked up at him with a slight frown. I could have used more magic spells, but I have already gone past my planned mission time. I was already feeling a bit tired. Using more intense magic would only endanger me, as my body would get tired more quickly. And using more magic might cause our fight to go loud — all this time, we were fighting quietly in the night. Going loud would call soldiers all over the city to our location. I would not like any more interlopers.

  We were to settle this as how stealthy fighters should.

  He landed on the ground and charged at me. I dashed towards him and thrust my blade, but it went through him.

  Tch!

  This was becoming frustrating.

  I quickly flipped my dagger and blocked the master ninja’s attack — he came from the dark alleyway. It would seem he switched as I fell. I parried his other blade and immediately stepped forward to strike. But he withdrew into the darkness again.

  Instead of following him, I quickly fell back, and sprinted through the empty streets. He had the advantage in that area, so I should search for my own stage. I rushed into a small alley, hoping to use the shadows as cover, but he suddenly appeared above me.

  He spun in the air as he shot towards me. Using a bit of wind, I evaded, and he cut through the pavement. Seeing that chance, I stepped forward, and conjured strings to my daggers and threw them with a swing at the ninja. He swiftly dodged as he headed straight for me.

  I shifted my shields and used it to block his attacks as I quickly withdrew my daggers. Sensing the daggers, he backed away before he got hit from behind. I caught my daggers back.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “You have an interesting way of using your daggers,” he said. “You seek another place to have an advantage, but you seem to forget that I live in this city. I know every street and alley. I can predict where you’ll go, and how to engage you.”

  Shit, he’s right.

  He had the home-court advantage. Now that was just even more annoying. I thrust my hand suddenly, unleashing a bright flash of light, temporarily blinding him. He didn’t expect that, and he involuntarily covered his eyes with his hand. I dashed at him and attacked. He forced his eyes open and attempted to block my attacks. However, I managed to land a slash on the side of his stomach. But it was far from fatal.

  “Bravo.” He quickly dashed backward and threw multiple sharp metal sticks at me.

  I waved my hand, releasing a powerful wave of wind, disrupting all the sticks. I noticed him walking back into the shadows.

  Uh oh.

  I quickly fled the alleyway and returned to the wider street.

  Dammit, the shadows are supposed to be mine!

  To think I was being pushed back like this. He pursued me and caught up with me. I fought back, but he dodged my attacks. It was then that another him appeared from behind me. He dashed with intense swiftness, and I failed to dodge in time. The barrier on my body and left arm broke. To drive him off the moment my defenses were reduced, I swung my daggers in the air, shooting a pair of magical slashes at him.

  Dammit.

  I quickly restored my defenses as he fended off my slashes. To my annoyance, his wound was already healed, or at least, the bleeding had stopped. Of course he had the luxury of doing that. He had the upper hand in this fucking fight.

  I knew what he was trying to do. He was tiring me out. He must have noticed that I was starting to get tired. And my reaction time had slowed slightly.

  There’s no fucking way a ninja is going to get the better of me.

  How I fucking hated them. I wanna slash them to fucking pieces, especially this old shit!

  I took a deep breath, keeping myself calm. Getting too emotional right now wouldn’t help me. I was starting to think I should go all out on the mage assassin thing and use more magic. However, what if he dodged all attacks or managed to survive somehow? If I became exhausted because of that, that would be the end of me. If this was another kind of enemy, I could have endured it. But not on this one.

  I could nuke the place, but I was not that desperate just yet. And if I did that, my assassination mission would be one hell of a fuck-up. I refused to be seen as a failure. Should keep casualties of the uninvolved at a minimum. Assassination missions typically never involved civilians — especially killing them. That would only bring more trouble than necessary, like the authorities or some shit.

  If I nuked the place, it would turn my assassination mission into a complete mess. Miyako wouldn’t like that. I’d only use the nuke option as a very last resort — I might be less hesitant if this weren’t an official operation. Besides, as I said, I was not that desperate just yet.

  I still had another technique in mind.

  I took a deep breath. “Your illusion magic is quite annoying. How you managed to create such a spell is commendable.” Just the details, the simulation in your mind to manipulate that thing would be extremely hard and taxing to the mind. But mixing that with absolutely silent movement as a ninja, you wouldn’t need to worry about the illusion making footsteps. Basically, just focus on fooling the sense of sight.

  “And you survived me this long. You truly are a master of your craft.”

  I smiled. “I am. I’ve been through hardships, through hell, subjected to many trials. They sharpened my senses to the maximum.”

  “Who trained you?”

  “Heartless people who cared about nothing but results. As a child, I went through hellish training.”

  “As a child?”

  “Have you ever tried being blind?”

  The old man raised an eyebrow. “Blind? Navigating the darkness is part of my job.”

  “True. But have you been beaten up while blind? Tortured while blind? Dodge contraptions that would seriously injure you?”

  “...”

  My expression darkened, just remembering those moments disturbed my heart. “And I’m not referring to just walking through darkness. I mean actually seeing nothing.”

  “What?”

  “A man robbed of their sight is blessed in their other remaining senses. That is their only salvation to navigate the world unseen to them.”

  “What are you trying to say?”

  “A blind man who knows how to wield a sword is someone to be feared.” I sheathed my daggers and pulled out a handkerchief, wrapping it around my head, covering my eyes. I saw nothing.

  Blind people may be incapable of seeing, but their senses like hearing, touch, smell, were enhanced to an incredible degree. There were a couple of blind assassins in the organization. They creeped me out a bit, but they were magnificent and deadly assassins. They could sense and kill you from several meters away. Even I would be hard-pressed to evade their senses.

  However, I was trained not only to at least try to counter that but also to borrow their sharp senses. The program I belonged to sought to create a masterpiece. And a masterpiece had to have sharpened senses above others. But it was hard to employ and train those senses at will.

  That was why, to train the other senses, one had to be taken away. It started with a blindfold; we navigated corridors, then we fought against each other. You can imagine how hilarious it would be, missing the opponent all the time — but eventually, we would hit each other.

  But after the blindfolds, we were injected with something that temporarily blinded us. The professor would have us be blind for days straight. They subjected us to everything that stimulated the other senses. Not all of them were free from pain.

  It was hard, but I adapted. It was among the things that helped me to work in the darkness, but that was nothing compared to actually being blind. This time, I didn’t have a serum to temporarily blind me. However, the blindfold should be enough for this guy.

  “Are you serious?” he sounded puzzled.

  I slowly took a deep breath.

  “You would fight me without sight? It was your sight that had saved you from my attacks.”

  I tapped my foot on the floor, feeling the vibrations, the sound, the echo. I felt the soft, cold breeze touching my skin. I saw nothing, but I sensed everything around me.

  “Sometimes to win, you need to cut a limb.” Of course not like I would actually cut any limb of mine.

  “... Fine then, show me what you are capable of.”

  He should be ahead of me. Normally, he would be charging straight at me. However, I sensed no vibrations on the floor, no subtle shifting of dust, no sound of any kind. However, I sensed them coming from my left. I faintly heard the sound of the wind being parted by his blade with incredible speed.

  I swiftly pulled out my dagger and blocked the blade. A faint whooshing sound came at me, and I dodged his other attack. I pulled out another dagger and swiftly slashed him. I felt contact with flesh.

  “Hm?” I heard him fall back. I didn’t know where exactly I hit him, but I did well. “You actually sensed me.”

  I smiled. “Your tricks won’t fool me anymore.”

  Did I mention how I disliked this technique? Not seeing anything sucks. But alas, gotta use it.

  Doing some shoutout swap. If you're interested in the story below, feel free to check it out!