Killer's Intent

《 Chapter 2 》

Artifacts were extremely rare, and nobody seemed to know their origins except for the fact that they had mysteriously appeared along with the first Skill users.

What they did know was that the mysterious Artifacts gave its wielder power that was equivalent to having another Skill at the cost of draining the person's energy. For temporarily having a second Skill, the trade off was worth it, as they would be able to use the Artifact again after replenishing their energy.

What was even better was the fact that regular people were able to harness the powers of Artifacts as well, making them extremely valuable and highly sought after.

Over the course of many years, many people had attempted to create or replicate Artifacts, but every attempt had been a failure. This had led to many speculations that the Artifacts had been created by a very powerful Skill user, and the remaining Artifacts had only doubled in value.

While it was a good thing for them, having to deal with another type of Skill was a headache to Kieran.

The vines were especially tricky, because he knew that if he were to get caught in them, he would either be killed immediately or get a major injury that could greatly affect his fighting abilities. For Kieran, neither was a good option.

He had to finish this fast.

Metal clashed against metal as he blocked Dominic's strike. He was just about to counterattack when he felt vines wrapping around his ankles. In the next second, he twisted around, barely dodging another stab, and cut the vines that were tying him down.

Suddenly, he felt an explosion of pain and looked down to see an ice dagger stuck in his left shoulder.

Fuck.

He heard a sneer behind him. "Looks like your luck's running out, Kieran. You can't fight the three of us forever."

Gritting his teeth, he whirled around to exchange blows with Dominic. While fighting with an ice blade in his shoulder would definitely decrease his fighting ability, he knew that he would most likely bleed to death first if he decided to pull it out.

"That may be true, but I won't be going down without a fight. Let's see what ends first, my luck or your life?"

He turned to parry Tiffany's attack as she suddenly appeared behind him. Another burst of pain came from his injured shoulder, but Kieran ignored it.

Seeing that Tiffany was there attacking him, it was safe to assume that Casen was the person controlling the vines while attacking him with his ice daggers at the same time. Kieran couldn't wait to drag that sneaky bastard out of the dark and bash his head in with his own ice dagger.

He was about to attack again but felt vines wrap around his uninjured arm, preventing him from doing any damage. He cursed under his breath, slashing at the vines while jumping back to avoid Dominic's sword.

In the blink of an eye, Tiffany appeared behind him, but he was ready for her and was easily able to block her dagger. But instead of teleporting away, she continued to fight him as Kieran felt Dominic swinging his sword at him from behind.

He flashed behind Tiffany and kicked her towards Dominic. As he hurriedly changed the direction of his sword to avoid hitting her, Kieran slashed down with his dagger, making a deep cut across her back.

She stumbled, and quickly teleported away. She wouldn't be able to fight anymore without being a burden to her teammates.

Kieran scoffed. She should have stuck to what she was good at.

Suddenly, the flute music changed.

The vines instantly tripled in size, growing until they were more than two meters tall. He sensed a fierce killing intent, and immediately threw himself to the side as the vines crushed the location he was at moments before, the force leaving numerous cracks on the ground.