As per the original plan, Raven and Ferdinand split up after reaching their destination.
"Check the timing and the code to meet up with Bramwell and the others. Are you sure you can walk out with the body alone?" Raven asked as he adjusted his backpack.
Ferdinand grinned proudly, "What's there to fear? I'll just carry the body back in broad daylight, let them see for themselves and watch them get furious."
Usually so stoic, Raven couldn't help but show a rare smile at Ferdinand's boastfulness. After gearing up, he pointed toward the distant, dark, and ominous place, "We'll be waiting for you."
Ferdinand nodded, then, just as Raven turned away, he slapped him on the back and said, "Take care, bro."
Probably because good things were happening, Raven couldn't help but reveal a bit of his true nature. He rolled his eyes at Ferdinand and teased, "Not a bro, but a rival. After dealing with external threats, the internal struggle is yours to lose. You definitely won't be my match."
He ran his hand through his buzzcut, confidently saying, "You wouldn't understand. I look like a handsome man, and my loyalty to Arabella is unwavering. What we have is love—true love."
Raven shook his head, too lazy to listen to Ferdinand boasting. He grabbed several black sacks in his hand and carried a large backpack as he strode forward.
Ferdinand watched Raven leave, glanced at the date on his wristwatch, and realized he'd have to wait for a few more days. If he was right, Arabella was probably causing a bloodbath right now.
Ferdinand's guess was indeed correct—Arabella was indeed making a bloodbath. However, she had already finished her first round, and now the second round, a two-on-one battle, had begun.
Arabella took the initiative, calculating the seconds. She didn't have time to waste with them, as her plan wasn't focused on this.
She glanced out the window, then pinched a shard of stone between her fingers. With a swift motion, she flicked her wrist, and the stone shot out, making a sharp sound as the window shattered. Faceless Ghost clinging to the outside of the wall never expected Arabella had such a trick. The glass rained down on him, and as he dodged, he inadvertently exposed his position.
In the stairwell, Taras reacted swiftly. As soon as Arabella moved, he pinpointed her position by sound and fired. His fire suppressed her, allowing him to climb to the third floor. At the same time, Faceless Ghost, exposed, propelled himself through a broken window and fired.
But there was no one!
Taras reached the third floor, and upon seeing that it was empty, he immediately stopped firing and went on alert. Both he and Faceless Ghost shared a look of surprise.
The next moment, a strange wind whooshed through the air. Taras's expression changed, and with a jump, he performed an aerial kick, sending the flying object back. As soon as he landed, he heard a sharp sound, and a streak of silver flashed toward his submachine gun. Taras sidestepped and kicked the silver weapon, using the force to propel himself backward and shoot. After several shots, he landed firmly on his feet.
When the top-tier masters clashed, one strike was enough to determine the outcome. Ordinary people would have no time to react to Arabella's attack, just as they would be unable to withstand Taras' counterstrike.
Taras and Arabella exchanged several moves back and forth, and Faceless Ghost wasn't just a bystander. As Taras flipped, the demon took action. There was a gap in their skills, so Faceless Ghost resorted to his specialty—hidden weapons.
Hidden weapons, as they were called, were used in two ways: up close, they were deployed with covert hands, attacking suddenly and catching the opponent off guard, leaving them unable to defend. From a distance, they were used with strong, steady strikes, swift and powerful, leaving the opponent no chance to counter.
His skills were exceptional, and his hidden weapons were extremely lethal, reaching the level of using the leaves to kill somebody. However, in real combat, those flashy moves were useless. He preferred to use dagger.
When dagger used as hidden weapons, the large size could be swung to directly sever someone's head, taking their life. The smaller was more portable and targeted vital points on the body, capable of killing in a single strike.
He clasped the flying dagger between his thumb and forefinger, adopting a horizontal strike aimed directly at Arabella's face from afar. In the instant the dart was thrown, Arabella let out a soft laugh. With a flick of her left hand, the Simon Flail in her grasp seemed to come alive. It swept through the air like a striking serpent, transforming into an unyielding staff. The dagger and the flail collided midair with a sharp, deafening clang, accompanied by a shower of sparks. Without missing a beat, Arabella spun on her heel, cracking the dagger once more and sending a deadly flick toward the Faceless Ghost's skull.
Taras acted swiftly, yanking Faceless Ghost backward just in time. In one fluid motion, he leaped forward, driving his knee into the air and sending a powerful kick straight at the sweeping Simon Flail. Just this single move alone, were it not for his unparalleled strength, would have been impossible to counter. After all, facing the force behind Arabella's strike, he knew all too well that a mere misstep could result in broken bones.
Taras faced off directly, while Faceless Ghost took advantage of the moment, tossing a dagger with a swift motion, targeting Arabella's lower body. He gambled on the fact that with the Simon Flail in her hands, she would be unable to defend against the kick and would be caught off guard, unable to retreat in time.
But he severely underestimated Arabella. Her speed, both in offense and defense, was terrifying. As soon as her flail attack was disrupted, she immediately leaped into the air, performing a split mid-air, and with a sharp flick of her wrist, brought the flail down onto Taras again. From her elevated position, her other hand flicked, releasing a hidden weapon aimed at Faceless Ghost. In one swift motion, she avoided being struck and simultaneously launched a two-pronged attack. Her combat ability was so advanced that offense and defense flowed seamlessly in the blink of an eye.
The hidden weapons Arabella deployed were both fast and deadly. Faceless Ghost had never expected her to use concealed weapons. When she had earlier thrown a stone to shatter a window, he thought it was just a simple use of her surroundings. He never imagined that she would pull out a special dagger — a common but notoriously difficult-to-master type of throwing dagger. Arabella was truly a master of concealment; no one had the faintest inkling that she possessed such skill with hidden weapons!
For fighters like Arabella, Taras, or AE, who dominate in raw combat power, hidden weapons can seem almost trivial. There are so many types of hidden weapons that mastering them is time-consuming, and in the eyes of such top-tier warriors, an opponent's hidden weapon seems like a toy in slow motion, hardly a threat. The only reason Taras could use hidden weapons effectively against Arabella was because he was relying on Taras's main assault and, in his own right, he was strong enough to wield them with deadly force.
The hidden weapons Arabella threw were designed to kill. Taras had to deal with her flail while also trying to avoid her hidden weapons. Faceless Ghost felt a cold breeze and quickly hurled his flying dagger to intercept hers, rolling on the ground to dodge. However, his speed was still a step behind. Arabella's hand gesture was difficult but effective, holding the special dagger with her palm facing up. This required immense power from her wrist but allowed her to release multiple daggers in one motion. Faceless Ghost blocked two with the dagger and dodged two more, but one narrowly grazed him, ripping a chunk of flesh from his body. The daggers had sharp, needle-like tips, and if one had pierced his shoulder, it could have crippled his arm.
Blood spurted like a fountain, and Faceless Ghost, even through his mask of disguise, could feel the cold sweat trickling down his back. His heart raced as he fully grasped the terrifying gap between fifth place and first place. Meanwhile, Taras, with one hand still tangled in the Simon Flail, didn't even turn his head as he called out, "Are you alright?" Before Faceless Ghost could respond, Arabella's cold snort echoed: "Worry about your own life first."
With the Simon Flail now in Taras' grasp, Arabella wasted no time. In a flash, her right foot kicked forward, followed by a left leg strike with the flail, and then a rapid left-legged slash. Three moves in quick succession, faster than a lightning bolt. Taras, keeping pace, blocked each strike with ease, using the flail's momentum to his advantage. Arabella spun mid-air, whipping the flail high for a devastating head strike. Taras, following the momentum, blocked again, but as his grip loosened, Arabella's wrist flicked, and the Simon Flail unraveled like a long, serpentine creature, sweeping free from his grasp.
Though the defense was successful, Taras was still pushed back a step, the sheer killing intent in Arabella's strikes making him stagger. In just a few moves, she had outmaneuvered their combined efforts. And that was before the gunfight had even begun—an arena where Arabella excelled above all.
Lazily, Arabella flicked her hands and feet, her smile widening as she proposed, "Blade, how about we fight unarmed? If you can beat me, I'll surrender."
Taras furrowed his brow, suspicion creeping into his voice. "What are you playing at?"
Arabella grinned. "I've heard that we're evenly matched. How about we have a little contest? If you can land even a single hit on me, I'll admit defeat."
Taras cracked his knuckles, his smirk widening as he remembered their first encounter. He had always been wild and unruly, raised in an orphanage where no one ever reined him in. In truth, he wasn't an orphan by circumstance — his parents had been murdered during a home invasion when he was very young. From then on, he harbored a deep hatred for criminals.
Like Arabella, Taras was a genius. While he didn't care much for academic studies, he devoted himself entirely to martial arts. As he grew older, he traveled the world, learning from masters in different countries. His natural talent, combined with his relentless work ethic, allowed him to master every martial art he encountered and reach an exceptional level of skill. But even after mastering the techniques, he knew that true strength came from refining his body and gaining real combat experience.
He was an orphan, wandering the world as wars erupted across nations. Civil wars and multi-nation conflicts were a constant in his life. He had fought in independence wars and defensive battles, surviving through countless brushes with death. After growing into adulthood, his exceptional abilities and extensive combat experience caught the attention of an international police organization, which covertly recruited him. His past was erased, and he was officially made an agent tasked with rooting out evil and bringing justice.
He pointed at Arabella, full of confidence, and said, "Alright! Arabella, then let me personally catch you again."
Faceless Ghost took the submachine gun handed to him by Taras and retreated to a corner to tend to his shoulder wound. After the recent skirmish, he understood clearly that in a one-on-one fight, only Taras and AE were capable of going toe-to-toe with Arabella. Everyone else, including Marcellus, would be signing their own death warrants. It was better not to seek death.
Taras and Arabella began their battle, and the Faceless Ghost stood in the corner, dumbfounded. He finally understood what a beastly fight was like. The two of them fought furiously, with every area they passed either having the walls shattered by kicks or dented by powerful punches. The fight was as fierce as a storm, and the entire floor was large enough to give them space to unleash their full combat abilities.
On one side, Taras effortlessly lifted a machine weighing over a hundred pounds and hurled it toward Arabella. In a fluid motion, she kicked it away with a powerful thrust of her leg. On the other side, she closed in, cornering Taras with unrelenting pressure. With a swift chopping motion, she aimed to lock his wrist, following up with a series of fierce tiger-like thrusts and strikes. Taras, moving with practiced ease, blocked with his forearms, then countered with a barrage of elbow strikes aimed at her head. Arabella intercepted with a cross-handed block, twisting her body as she launched herself into a wall flip, delivering a spinning kick. Taras, with a fluid arch of his back, narrowly avoided it, but Arabella's kick slammed into the wall with such force that it left a massive crater, the wall trembling violently as dust and debris rained down.
The fight grew more intense and passionate, with each strike becoming heavier. After hundreds of rounds, there was still no clear victor, but due to the speed of their movements, the hundreds of exchanges passed in the blink of an eye.
At the height of their intense battle, as Taras executed a spinning side kick, Arabella's brow furrowed. Her movement faltered, a split second too late to block. The gust of his leg swept through the air, forcing her to stagger backward several steps. Taras, seizing the moment, pressed forward with a brutal follow-up—a mid-air somersault kick aimed directly at Arabella's face. Under normal circumstances, she would have easily dodged with a swift downward shift, but this time, something was different. She froze, her hand clutching her chest in pain, her face contorted in agony as she stood rooted to the spot, utterly defenseless.
Taras never expected his kick to land on Arabella. He tried to retract his attack, but couldn't stop the momentum. With a single strike, Arabella let out a muffled grunt, her body sent flying. She was already standing by the window, and with the force of the kick, she was thrown out and fell straight through the window.
"Arabella—" Taras exclaimed in shock. Before she had even hit the ground, his hand was already reaching out, trying to leap to the window to save her. At the same time, the Faceless Ghost raced to the window, but by the time he reached it, it was too late to catch her. Still in shock, he leaned out and looked down, but there was no sign of Arabella!
She had been kicked out of the third floor, and Arabella had actually managed to use the momentum to escape? Taras and the Faceless Ghost exchanged a glance. Remembering how Arabella had clutched her chest earlier, and recalling that she had been severely injured and rescued just half a month ago, they feared that her injuries had flared up again.
