Hide’s right leg felt completely numb as, all of a sudden, agonizing paralysis violently robbed him of his momentum.

He gritted his teeth hard, his fingers desperately clawing at the rough concrete as he tried to drag his unresponsive body forward.

Just a few yards away, the terrified family huddled together on the wet grass of the ruined park. The father had thrown his arms over his wife and crying daughter, shielding them with his own body.

The killer’s blades were raised high, ready to butcher the innocent witnesses.

CLANG!!

Just as the swordsman brought his twin blades down toward the father’s exposed back, the space directly in front the assassin violently distorted.

Zenith materialized out of thin air, intercepting the attack at the absolute last possible moment. The large monster brought its heavy, armored knee up with the force of a freight train, driving it directly into the center of the swordsman’s abdomen.

CRACK!

The assassin’s eyes bugged out as he was sent tumbling violently backward through the air. He crashed spectacularly into the thick branches of the fallen tree, his twin swords clattering uselessly to the concrete road.

The family screamed, scrambling backward into the shadows of the park, entirely untouched.

Hide let out a ragged, desperate exhale, a wave of profound relief washing over him.

While he could not reach them on his own... Zenith was free to do so and Hide was free to command it as well. The Phantom had followed the command flawlessly.

The Family was safe.

But Hide was not.

A sudden, chilling drop in temperature made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He looked up. The curse using assassin was gliding silently through the air toward him, the thin dagger in his hand was now coated in horrific purple miasma.

The same curse that had dissolved the lady in the balcony!

Hide couldn’t move to dodge. The paralyzing rot in his leg was spreading upward toward his abdomen, sending agonizing spikes.

"Aegis!" Hide roared.

A large bunch of ark mana escaped out of Hide’s prone body. The massive, towering wall of dark iron and spikes materialized between Hide and the descending curse user.

Aegis raised both of its colossal, shield-like gauntlets to protect its master.

The suited assassin clicked his tongue in annoyance, twisting his body mid-air. He landed lightly on the pavement just a few feet away from the towering tank, immediately lunging forward to strike.

His cursed dagger slashed rapidly, carving deep, purple-glowing gashes into Aegis’s thick dark-iron plating.

But the assassin’s eyes narrowed in confusion as he was forced to jump back from a retaliatory punch.

The curse wasn’t working.

Zenith and Aegis weren’t living creatures. They possessed no blood, no organs, and no biological cells to corrupt.

They were simply constructs of Dark Mana. The A-Rank assassin’s deadliest weapon was completely useless against them.

While Aegis swung its massive fists, forcing the suited assassin to frantically evade, Hide lay on the ground, and only now had he gotten the chance to look at the system screen hovering in front of his eyes.

[Adaptive Override — Analysis Active]

Life Curse (A-Rank talent)

Location: Right leg

Source: A-Rank Human

Severity: Fatal

System Query: Initiate adaptation sequence for this specific attack type?

[Awaiting command.]

Hide’s breath hitched.

Fatal.

It was the absolute highest severity level he had ever seen the system display. The curse eating through his leg was a certain death sentence.

’Evolve,’ Hide commanded not wasting even a second.

Usually, the system took its time. But because the severity was categorized as an immediate threat to the Host’s life, the system completely redlined.

The text didn’t climb in increments. It simply blurred.

[Adapting - 0%]

[Adapting - 74%]

[Adapting - 100%]

It took exactly two seconds.

[Adaptive Override — Adaptation Complete]

Counter Skill Generated.

[Abyssal Healing — S (Active)]

– Allows the Host to heal all kind of physical damage and reverting back the injured organ to healthy condition.

"Got it," Hide rasped, a bloody, breathless laugh escaping his lips.

He didn’t have a millisecond to spare. The two seconds of adaptation was the absolute maximum amount of time Aegis could provide him.

A loud, metallic crash echoed in front of him. The suited assassin was simply far too fast and agile for Aegis to pin down. Realizing his curses were useless against the phantom tank, the A-Rank killer used his overwhelming speed to bypass the giant entirely.

He bounced off a nearby brick wall, flipping gracefully over Aegis’s swinging fists, and landed squarely inside the phantom’s guard, right next to where Hide was lying.

The suited assassin looked down at the helpless teenager. He raised the matte-black dagger, aiming it directly down at the center of Hide’s chest to finish the job.

Through his new talent, Hide tapped directly into the active skill belonging to Zenith. His body dissolved into darkness and appeared almost 20 meters away.

The assassin’s dagger slammed into the empty concrete, burying itself up to the hilt in the pavement where Hide’s heart had been just a microsecond prior.

The suited man’s eyes widened in absolute shock. He snapped his head up.

Hide was still heavily favoring his right side, his leg completely numb and useless. But the moment he became solid, he placed a hand on the main point of the curse and activated his new skill.

"Abyssal Healing."

A blinding, brilliant green and violet light erupted from Hide’s right thigh.

The pulsing purple web of the assassin’s Life Curse shrieked as if it were a living, dying animal.

Within a single second, the torn muscle fibers in his leg seamlessly knitted themselves back together. The deadened nerve pathways fired back to life, flooding his limb with absolute, perfect strength.

The green light faded, absorbing seamlessly back into his skin.

Hide slowly straightened his posture. He rolled his right ankle, planting his boot firmly onto the cracked pavement. He stood perfectly tall, not a single trace of the agonizing paralysis remaining in his body.

He slowly raised his head. His silver hair fell across his glowing, fiercely bright blue eyes as he looked at the suited assassin, and his face slowly split into a wide, completely unhinged, madman’s grin.

The suited assassin remained kneeling on the pavement, his hand still gripping the hilt of his dagger embedded in the concrete.

His dark, hollow eyes were trembling violently as he stared at the teenage boy standing before him. His mind, honed by decades of assassination, logic, and mana theory, was completely short-circuiting.

He had injected the boy with a fatal curse using his won life as the source. It was a spell that defied all conventional healing magic.

Yet, this eighteen-year-old kid, who had awakened not so long ago, effortlessly purged the curse from his own body.

He looked sideways to only find that his companions dead body was hanging on the talons of the beast.

The suited man’s breath hitched in his throat. His entire worldview, his absolute confidence in the Sihue clan’s supremacy, began to violently fracture. He let go of his dagger and slowly stumbled backward, a cold sweat breaking out across his forehead.

"You..." the assassin stammered. "What the hell are you...?"

Hide just tilted his head, the mad grin widening as he activated mana press and suffocated the terrified assassin.

"Monster," the assassin rasped, his voice cracking as he looked up at Hide. "You... you are a fucking monster."