The second assassin lunged forward to buy the first assassin time, his blade coming for Moon’s throat in a committed strike.

Moon ducked beneath it at the last moment. His sword rose and struck the chest-plate covering the second assassin’s stomach. Moon’s sword managed to penetrate the armor, but only caused a shallow cut.

Although Moon’s attack didn’t disembowel him due to the armor’s help. The raw force behind it still rocked him.

Moon looked at the first assassin, who was clutching his bloody chest with one hand and staring up at Moon through the blood streaming down his face.

"Last chance." Moon said quietly. "Where is your master?"

The assassin’s lips pulled back in something that might have been a smile if his face still worked properly.

"Closer than you think."

Moon’s sword came down.

Rather than taking the man’s head, his sword sheared through his shoulder joint in a single clean cut, removing his entire arm off his torso.

Purple lightning arced across the wound the moment the sword passed through. The assassin’s severed arm dropped to the rubble with a wet thud, and a high, shrill scream tore out of his throat, breaking apart at the edges.

Moon watched him for a moment, "So much for being a top Second Order assassin. You don’t even have the pain tolerance of a child."

The man’s remaining hand pressed against the stump, blood pouring through his fingers, his eyes wide and wild with the shock of it.

"You—"

"If you go around cutting hands off," Moon said coldly, "you should be ready to get yours taken too."

Before the assassin could react, before he could speak, before his mind could catch up to what was happening, Moon’s sword was already moving again.

The second cut took his other arm.

It came off at the shoulder in the same clean line, dropping onto the rubble beside its twin. He fell backward onto the ground, his ruined shoulders spraying blood into the frost that had gathered around Moon’s boots.

Moon wasn’t going to let him die before experiencing the specific horror of watching two arms leave your body one after another.

He wanted them to know what he had felt when his own arm dropped to the rubble at his feet, but at twice the expense. Moon was petty enough to repay you in full, with interest.

The armless assassin firmed the pain before thrashing around and leaping away from Moon.

Moon turned away from him, "Don’t worry, I will deal with you later. For now, you can stay with two arms. As an assassin, you are basically useless now."

The assassin had lost his two greatest weapons, his arms. Without them, his combat prowess dropped significantly. Of course, he was still dangerous, but not nearly as much to the current Moon.

The second assassin was already coming.

He had watched his partner get dismembered in the span of two seconds. His feet drove him forward as his blade rose.

He came at Moon in a full committed charge, activating a movement skill judging by his quick, difficult to predict approach.

Moon met him in the middle.

Their blades clashed. The second assassin swung again immediately, and again, and again, each strike heavier than the last. Moon parried the first two. The third he sidestepped. His sword came around and opened a fresh cut across the assassin’s collarbone, adding to the dozen already there.

"Why don’t you follow me willingly rather than not? Yield now, tell me what your master is doing, and I will give you a quick death once this is over."

The assassin’s eyes flashed.

"Go to hell."

"Suit yourself."

Their blades met one more time before Moon leapt back, creating a sudden gap between them.

He threw his sword into the air above his head.

The assassin’s eyes tracked it upward. His grip on his own blade tightened. The move was strange enough to make him hesitate, which was exactly what Moon wanted.

Lightning began to crackle in Moon’s remaining hand.

The current condensed rapidly, coiling and folding. A raised head with white burning eyes formed in the span of a handful of seconds.

Purple wolf hovered on his palm, its jaws parted on a lightning snarl.

The assassin’s eyes narrowed.

He had watched Moon use it earlier, against the wiry man. The wolf had been powerful even then, when Moon was not in his current Surpasser form.

Now the mana packed into the wolf’s construction was many times denser than the version the assassin had seen before.

If that thing landed, he would at the very least be heavily injured, or worst case scenario... dead.

He began to move backward, buying himself time to think. His mind raced through the possible ways to counter. A deflection would only redirect the current into his own body. Interception was also difficult.

Before he could settle on a plan, Moon released the wolf.

The lightning construct leapt across the space between them in a single explosive bound.

The assassin’s face grimaced. His own aura flared and he channeled his strongest remaining skill into a counter-strike, a wide arcing slash of mana that carried enough force to cut down a big building

At the same moment, Moon’s sword dropped back down into his hand.

He caught it mid-descent and charged.

The assassin swung his sword, and the wide slash traveled towards the path where the wolf was passing through.

As if alive, the wolf moved at the last possible moment, twisting mid leap, and emerging on the other-side without losing any of its incredible momentum.

The assassin’s strongest attack cut through the air and continued travelling before hitting a half-collapsed portion of the arena, turning it into rubble immediately, sending dust flying through the area.

The assassin’s face darkened.

"Shit!"

Whether he had known about the wolf’s ability to redirect mid-flight and forgotten in the heat of combat, or whether he had never known about it at all, wasn’t clear. Either way, his face said he understood exactly what he had just failed to do.