My SSS-Rank Grim Reaper System
Chapter 229: VIKTOR’S FIGHT
[San Corvo — Shipyard — Day 44 — 8:00 AM]
The boat was almost ready.
The shipyard master had finished the second hull point at dawn — ahead of the estimated time, because the shipyard master was the kind of person who found it insulting not to meet a deadline and even more insulting not to beat it if he could.
Max inspected the work with his hand on the wood — touching each repair point, testing the resistance, listening to the sound it made when he tapped lightly with his knuckles, as if the boat could tell him something his eyes couldn’t see.
Viktor sat on the dock with his coffee. The last day in San Corvo. The team was still at the market — Seraph with Alex at the morning training, the girls at various points on the island gathering the last things they needed before setting sail.
The dock was quiet.
The sun was still low.
It was Viktor who saw them first.
Three people on the north dock.
Not sailors. Not merchants. The posture of people trained to move without drawing attention, which inevitably drew the attention of anyone who knew what to look for.
And on the chest of the one in front — the faint signature of a Fragment‑tracking enchantment. The kind the Temple used to follow active bearers.
Viktor set his coffee down on the dock.
"Max."
Max looked up from the hull.
Viktor gestured with his eyes toward the north dock.
Max saw them.
He evaluated.
"Temple hunters?"
"Three." Viktor. "Levels 79, 82, and 85 based on posture. The one in front has the tracker active."
"How did they find us?"
"The boat carries the spiritual trace of five Fragments after weeks of use." Viktor. "If the Temple activated oceanic trackers after the Academy incident, it was only a matter of time."
Max looked toward where the team should be.
"Do we warn them?"
"Yes." Viktor stood up. "You warn them. I’ll keep them busy."
Max looked at him.
"Just you?"
"Go warn them." Viktor without changing his tone. "I’ll keep them busy."
---
The three hunters reached the south dock with the efficiency of people who had done this kind of approach many times and who knew exactly when and how to close the distance before the target had time to react.
They saw Viktor standing by the boat.
Alone.
The level‑85 hunter at the front assessed the situation — an older man, no visible weapon, no active Fragment signature, on the dock next to a boat under repair.
"Where is the F1 bearer?" said the level‑85 hunter.
"I don’t know what you’re talking about," said Viktor.
The hunter activated the tracker.
The boat’s signature — five Fragments, weeks of use, the spiritual trace so dense the tracker read it effortlessly.
"The boat carries the Fragments’ signature." The hunter looking at Viktor. "Where is the team?"
"I already told you I don’t know what you’re talking about."
The hunter evaluated him for a second.
"Level 88," said the level‑82 hunter beside him, after activating his own reading enchantment. "The old man is level 88."
The level‑85 hunter reevaluated.
Level 88 was higher than they had expected to find on the dock.
But there were still three of them.
"Step aside," said the level‑85 hunter.
"No," said Viktor.
---
The level‑79 hunter attacked first — the youngest of the three, the most impatient. An immobilization enchantment launched at Viktor with the speed of someone who had practiced that movement thousands of times.
Viktor didn’t dodge.
He absorbed it.
Not with a shield, not with a magical countermeasure. With his open palm, the enchantment arriving at the center of his palm and staying there — contained, not dissolved, held at the point of contact with the precision of someone who knew exactly what to do with the energy he had just received.
[Hemomancy — activated]
The blood in Viktor’s palm — which none of the three had seen because there was no visible wound — responded to the absorbed enchantment. Blood Magic using the immobilizer’s energy as a catalyst, converting what the hunter had launched into fuel for what Viktor was about to launch back.
[Blood Needles — activated]
Twelve hardened‑blood projectiles emerged from Viktor’s palm in the time it took the level‑79 hunter to process that his enchantment hadn’t worked.
Twelve poisoned‑blood projectiles.
The level‑79 hunter took eight of the twelve before he could activate any defense.
[Level‑79 Hunter — Blood Needles — damage + poison: active]
[Level‑79 Hunter — out of combat in 30 seconds by paralysis]
The hunter fell to his knees with the eight projectiles in various points on his torso and arms, Viktor’s poison acting fast because Viktor had spent forty years perfecting exactly the right concentration to incapacitate without killing in the minimum possible time.
---
The other two hunters didn’t wait.
The level‑82 one launched a magical‑channel suppression enchantment — the kind designed specifically to cut off the target’s access to their abilities, the one the Temple used against Fragment bearers and that worked just as well against any magic user.
Viktor felt the enchantment coming.
[Shadow Meld — activated]
He disappeared.
Not in the sense of becoming invisible — in the literal sense of merging with the dock’s shadows, Blood Magic combined with the stealth technique Viktor had developed over decades of work in the Circle, turning his body into an extension of the dark space between the dock’s pillars and the boat’s hull.
The suppression enchantment arrived at the point where Viktor had been.
Nothing.
The level‑82 hunter searched for the target with the Predator’s Sense equivalent that the Temple trained in its elite hunters.
No signature.
"Where—?" the level‑82 hunter began.
[Blood Whip — activated]
The blood whip came from the shadow beneath the dock — five meters in length, Viktor’s blood hardened into a form that could cut through wood and light armor with equal efficiency. The first arc found the level‑82 hunter’s arm where he carried the suppression enchantment carved.
The enchantment on the arm collapsed on impact.
[Level‑82 Hunter — suppression enchantment destroyed]
[Level‑82 Hunter — HP: reduced]
The whip’s second arc aimed for his legs.
The level‑82 hunter jumped back — enough to dodge the second arc but not enough to prevent the third from reaching his right ankle.
[Level‑82 Hunter — mobility reduced
---
The level‑85 hunter had been evaluating during the first twenty seconds of combat.
Twenty‑six years of experience as a Temple elite hunter. He had faced Fragment bearers, necromancers, ancient magic users, SS‑rank creatures. He held the highest rank of the three for concrete and verifiable reasons.
He evaluated Viktor in those twenty seconds.
Blood Needles with fast‑acting paralysis poison. Shadow Meld with perfect execution. Blood Whip with simultaneous reach and precision. And level 88 sustained throughout the fight without any sign that Viktor was anywhere near his limit.
*This isn’t a normal level 88,* the level‑85 hunter processed. *This is someone who has been using these skills for decades and has them integrated to the level where they require no conscious effort.*
*This is going to cost.*
He activated his three hunting enchantments simultaneously — the enhanced signature tracker, the magical‑channel amplifier that multiplied his techniques’ power in combat, and the area immobilization seal that the Temple reserved for its highest‑rank hunters.
[Area Immobilization Seal — 10m radius — activated]
The entire dock within the seal’s radius became heavier — not physically, on the magical plane. Moving within the radius cost three times the normal effort. Activating magical skills within the radius cost twice the energy.
Viktor emerged from the shadows.
Not because Shadow Meld had failed — because he had processed the situation and decided that fighting from the shadows within the area seal’s radius would cost more than it was worth.
He looked at the level‑85 hunter.
"Good technique," said Viktor.
"Thank you." The hunter without irony. "How many years with Blood Magic?"
"Forty‑two."
The hunter processed that number.
"Then you know that inside my seal, you’re going to spend twice the energy on every skill."
"I know."
"And you’re still going to fight?"
"Yes." Viktor. "But not with skills."
---
What Viktor did next was in no Temple combat manual, because it wasn’t a technique.
[Assassination Arts — passive — activated by combat context]
The area immobilization seal made movement cost three times as much.
Viktor moved anyway.
Not fast — moving fast inside the seal would have cost three times the effort and would have exhausted his reserves before the point of contact. Viktor moved slowly. With the precision of someone who had calculated exactly how much movement was necessary and how much was waste.
The level 85 hunter launched the first attack—a straight chain spell, the kind that rooted the target to the spot.
Viktor shifted two inches to the right.
The spell passed.
The hunter adjusted. Second attack—wider, compensating for the previous dodge.
Viktor moved three inches forward.
The spell passed to the left.
The hunter frowned.
"How—?"
"Blood Scent," Viktor said softly. "Passive. I’ve spent forty-two years reading the adrenaline in the target’s blood before the target even decides what to do." A pause. "I know where the attack is going before it even leaves."