The man coughed, wheezing uncontrollably as a cold sweat broke out across his entire body. Survival instinct completely overrode his pride and his mission.

"I... I am sorry," the man stammered, his voice cracking as he desperately kept his hands flat on the floor to show he wasn’t attacking. "I made a mistake. I will go away. I will leave right now."

The man scrambled to his feet, his bare skin pale and shivering. He took a hasty step backward toward the door.

But as he stood up, he suddenly felt a strange, unnatural chill crawl directly down his spine. The temperature in the room hadn’t changed, but the shadows gathered in the corners of the high ceiling seemed to be... moving.

Driven by a primal sense of dread, the assassin slowly looked up.

His entire world broke.

Up until now, he had been so completely focused on Hide that he hadn’t noticed the massive terror occupying the ceiling. Clinging entirely upside down to the ornate plaster, completely camouflaged in the shadows, was a massive, horrific black reptile. It looked like a normal chameleon, apart from the fact that it was at least 10 times larger than a normal one and was forged entirely from shifting darkness that took shape of razor-sharp steel plates.

The reptile had its mouth opened and its long tongue was holding a sharp sword right above his head. But it was the eyes that completely shattered the man’s sanity—two hollow, featureless voids staring directly down at his face, evaluating exactly how many pieces she could tear him into.

The sheer, eldritch dread radiating from the phantom filled the assassin’s heart to the brim. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t blink. He was paralyzed.

Before the man could even scream, Hide moved.

He crossed the room in a blur of motion, his hand shooting forward and grabbing the man violently by the back of his neck.

"Let’s get some fresh air," Hide muttered.

Hide dragged the struggling, whimpering assassin across the plush carpet, completely ignoring his frantic attempts to pry his fingers loose. The glass doors of the balcony opened on their own, the sweltering, humid night air of Ufrifa immediately rushing into the air-conditioned suite.

Hide didn’t stop at the threshold. He dragged the man all the way to the edge of the titanium railing. With a simple, effortless flex of his enhanced Strength stat, Hide lifted the grown man entirely off the ground and hauled him straight over the edge.

Hide stood casually on the balcony, leaning one hip against the railing, his arm fully extended over the dark abyss.

Dangling from his grip, completely naked and entirely helpless, was the assassin. Below him was absolutely nothing but a dizzying, vertical drop of twenty-eight floors. The neon lights of the bustling Ufrifan metropolis blurred together into streaks of color hundreds of feet below. The hot desert wind howled past them, violently whipping the man’s legs around in the empty air.

"How do you like heights, my friend?" Hide asked, his voice calm, conversational, and completely devoid of empathy.

The man was stunned beyond belief. He stared down at the terrifying drop, the sheer vertigo completely scrambling his brain. He couldn’t muster the courage to speak. His jaw hung open, a pathetic, breathless whine escaping his throat as his hands desperately gripped Hide’s wrist. If Hide’s fingers slipped even a fraction of an inch, he would be turned into an unrecognizable smear of red paste on the pavement below.

Hide sighed, leaning slightly further over the railing.

"I suppose you like them? No?" Hide tilted his head, his glowing blue eyes piercing through the dark. "Otherwise, you would be talking."

Hide’s fingers deliberately loosened, just a millimeter. The man dropped an inch.

"WAIT!" The assassin finally shrieked, his voice tearing out of his throat in pure, hysterical panic. Tears of absolute terror welled in his eyes as he thrashed wildly. "Please! Please wait! Don’t drop me!"

Hide stopped. He looked down at the weeping, naked man dangling above the city, his expression as cold as ice.

"I will talk," the assassin sobbed, his pride entirely shattered by the monster holding his life in a single hand. "I will tell you everything. Just pull me up!"

Hide stared at him for a second longer, letting the sheer terror fully solidify in the man’s mind. Then, with a casual flex of his arm, Hide hauled the grown man up and over the titanium railing.

He threw him forward. The assassin crashed onto the plush carpet of the balcony, gasping and shivering as the hot desert wind bit against his bare skin. He scrambled backward until his spine hit the glass door, curling his knees to his chest.

Hide stood over him, blocking out the neon lights of the city behind him.

"Start talking," Hide commanded, his voice a low, lethal rumble. "Who are you? Who sent you here? And what exactly was your objective in my room?"

The naked man swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing. He looked up at Hide’s glowing blue eyes with absolute dread. He opened his mouth, his voice trembling so badly he could barely form the words.

"M-my name is Kevin," the assassin stammered, frantically keeping his hands visible. "I... I was sent by—"

"My, my."

Hide froze.

The voice hadn’t come from the shivering assassin on the floor. It was a emotionless and dead voice, and it had echoed directly from the empty air above Hide.

Hide’s enhanced perception flared violently. He snapped his head upward, his eyes instantly tracking the dark, open space above the balcony. There was nothing there. Just the dark, semi-translucent dome of the mega-city high above.

"You really are a bit slow, aren’t you?"

Hide’s blood ran completely cold. The voice had shifted instantly. It didn’t come from above this time. It came from directly in front of him.

Hide didn’t think; he simply reacted. His Agility pushed past its absolute limit. In a fraction of a second, Hide shifted violently backward, gliding across the polished floor of the balcony to create distance, his hands already moving to summon his twin blades.

His eyes locked onto the space where the voice had originated.

But there was no one there.

Hide stood in a low, defensive stance, his breathing shallow. He looked down at the floor near the glass doors.

The assassin was gone.

There was no body, no blood, no shimmer of a stealth talent escaping into the night. The man named Kevin had vanished into thin air.

The only evidence that anyone had ever been there was hovering just inches in front of him where the assassin had been sitting. It was a tiny, perfectly round circle of glowing golden mana. It pulsed once in the dark, emitting a faint, high-pitched hum.

And then, it simply extinguished, fading into nothingness.

Hide stood alone on the balcony, the sweltering desert wind howling past him. His fists clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white.