“He’s still standing! Kill him!”

If I had any thoughts that it was the church they were attacking, they ended when all of the assassins charged at me while ignoring Anne who was still stunned on the ground.

“Be careful, Master. They’ll have soul-reaping weapons.” Carmine warned, before bringing out and slamming her shield into the ground. “Fight me instead!”

A strange flow of mana shot out from Carmine, and I realized that she had activated a skill. It was a Taunt skill, and it seemed to work, as roughly one-third of the assassins suddenly turned and began to charge her instead. That was a pretty useful skill, and I was happy for her help.

I didn’t need Carmine to tell me that these guys were dangerous though. I noticed the menacing-looking daggers in the hands of the ones still coming at me. As much as I liked to claim that I was immune to malacrum daggers, the truth was that malacrum daggers were still as effective against me as soul-reaping daggers, and when it came to my god soul, soul-reaping daggers were unaffected by the presence of my god soul.

Soul-reaping weapons damaged both the body and the soul. If a killing attack was landed with a soul-reaping weapon, then just as the name suggested, the soul died. While god soul left me immune against the miasmic infection induced by malacrum daggers, my soul could still be chopped up and damaged. Every time I was cut by a malacrum dagger, I accrued damage to my soul. For a normal person, that was a really bad thing, and the equivalent of having your life slowly whittled away. That said, Waters of Life could gradually heal such damage. It was a miraculous substance, and it was no wonder people would go to such an extent to find some.

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“Don’t think you have it easy. Those are just the small fries. We’re the real threat!” One of the assassins barked as I looked at the ones leaving for Carmine.

It made sense that the ones who were easily swayed with Taunt would be the lower-level assassins. A proper assassin wouldn’t be so easily influenced by a little bit of mana, or they wouldn’t be a very successful assassin.

“Alysia, try to leave one of them alive.” I brought the sword our and started my attack.

Alysia’s reach was far greater than their daggers, so even though they outnumbered me, I still had an advantage in reach. They tried to break into my space, but they probably wouldn’t have guessed that I focused on explosive movements. These assassins depended on speed, and they likely thought I’d be slow and lumbering thanks to my height and the size of my blade, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

“Quick Attack! Water Jet!” I struck an unsuspecting assassin down just like that, severing his body and soul, and then I turned and shot out a jet of water, sending another that had leaped at my back spinning away.

These guys weren’t pushovers though. They also weren’t lone wolves. The remaining assassins had formed a circle around me and did a coordinated attack. They had sealed off every direction I could go, and the one who appeared to be the leader grinned as he thrust a dagger right at my heart.

I had armor like Carmine. Why would I have been wearing it at that moment? I also didn’t have one of those fancy dress rings from Jespain. That meant that this strike would be fatal, body and soul.