The next moment, a young figure draped in a captain's cloak stepped out of the jungle. Behind him, countless cold and hard root vines surged forward like a torrent, as if a swarm of giant pythons pouncing towards the pirates already gathered at the cave entrance.

Clang! Clang! Clang!...

"What the hell are these things? They're impossible to cut through!"

Crunch, crunch...

The pirates couldn't cut through these root vines. Lacking any sense, the vines knew nothing of holding back. Once they wrapped around the pirates' bodies, they never let go, and then tightened suddenly.

"Ah, my bones are going to break!"

"..."

After Aiven detected the presence of the pirates, he immediately left the cave, letting Milan gather the crew of the "Conch" while carrying the still-weak Gary, and hurried here at the fastest speed.

Along the way, he also summoned the mutated root vines that lived in the ruins. These transformed creatures like root vines, frog-men, bone helmet lizards, and statue warriors were all rooted on this "island" as a defensive force and couldn't be taken away. It was a perfect time to let the smaller, more agile mutated roots show their residual warmth.

Seeing a navy officer about to have his arm severed, Captain Aiven, who had surrounded all the pirates by himself, launched an attack without waiting for the main force!

Ignoring the screaming pirate underlings, he summoned all the mutated roots occupying an entire passageway in the ruins. There was no need to personally intervene; dealing with these apprentice-level pirates was no challenge at all.

Aiven glanced around the scene, and the only person who caught his attention was someone who seemed to be an Extraordinary, only seen as a fleeting shadow lurking in the corner.

"How did they suddenly disappear?"

Swoosh——

Just as the question arose, the almost inaudible sound of cutting through the air suddenly came from Aiven's side, as a black dagger plunged towards Aiven's left rib like a phantom without substance.

Sly, lethal, yet without the slightest killing intent!

[Sword Style: Floating Boat!]

Facing this secret strike from a top-notch assassin, when Aiven realized the attack was upon him, with his swordsmanship skills, he could only forcefully execute secret swordsmanship to dodge sideways.

Aiven, who hadn't seen Duncan display his skills before, was suddenly shocked to realize that this Extraordinary, who seemed to lack presence among the pirates, was actually a highly skilled assassin!

As his body sidestepped like a small boat avoiding a fatal blow, Aiven swiftly drew his sword, slashing like lightning towards the direction of the dagger. It wasn't that Aiven couldn't attack accurately, but because even in the attack, the assassin didn't reveal his own form.

"A master!"

As expected, the sword missed!

While Aiven flashed back, he'd already summoned mutated roots to encircle the area, intending to use external forces to force out the concealed assassin.

His own spiritual sense, belonging to the wizard profession, fully expanded, capturing the assassin's movements with extraordinary senses!

However, Duncan, being an experienced assassin, was equally aware of the battlefield situation and would never give Aiven the chance to calmly hunt.

The essence of decapitation tactics is... a strike must be lethal!

With a heavy stomp, he leapt up, shooting like a dim light towards the retreating Aiven. At this moment, due to the intense movement, he finally couldn't maintain his invisibility, revealing a blue-skinned figure with indiscernible age, wielding two rapiers, one long and one short...

Thrust!

A rapid burst combo belonging to a skilled assassin, forcing Aiven unable to continue dodging, could only use a hand half-sword to forcibly block.

Clang——

The clash of sword blades emitted a prolonged trembling sound.

Though two rapiers, they exerted a domineering force no less than an armor-piercing awl!

However, with Aiven's constitution of 2.33, strength of 2.13, agility of 2.52, and spirit of 0.58 after consuming the "Essence Fruit," he barely managed to block this ready-to-strike assassination blow.

After two exchanges, Aiven also confirmed the opponent's identity.

"Mirage Sword Technique? Assassin Organization Vulture's Nest?!"

Duncan's originally calm as dead water gaze instantly shifted slightly when Aiven revealed his identity in one sentence.

What was the purpose of fleeing to the sea, away from home? Wasn't it to avoid being rediscovered by the continent's strongest assassin organization? Wasn't it to live peacefully as a "human"?

If news got out that he was still alive, Duncan believed that it wouldn't take more than a month for assassins to come one after another due to Vulture's Nest's influence. Unless another miracle occurred, death would be his only fate!

"Anyone who knows my origins must die!"

Duncan muttered bitterly to himself, and his already fierce and ruthless sword techniques changed again, as if summoning a sudden peak, instantly adding many perilous moves that seemed to lead to mutual destruction.

This "Mirage Sword Technique," favored by assassins, uses a pair of rapiers, one short and one long. In combat, it employs light and shadow, brightness and darkness, to create illusions for the opponent, inviting attack without warning.

Aiven, who had heard of it but never faced its practitioners, nor knew his opponent's mastery level, was momentarily caught off guard, regardless of his near-master-level peak proficiency in "White Sail Swordsmanship."

However, Aiven believed that with a bit of adjustment, the ultimate victor would still be himself. Now the opponent's moves seemed a hundred times more dangerous than initially, but for an assassin, when the concealed power strike fails, the outcome is already determined.

Aiven understood this; Duncan, even more so. No one understood better than him the strengths and weaknesses of his own abilities.

But he dared not let this Navy Officer who had recognized his identity leave alive. Today, either he would kill and leave himself, or they would die together!

He no longer wanted to live a life where he would not dare drink water, eat food, always on alert against every sound and movement in fear of assassins from the same profession! He wanted to live, wanted to live simply and freely!

Duncan's initially blue-green skin suddenly turned alarmingly red, veins bulging and pulsating, as if his blood was flowing backward.

Now, no longer needing his concealment abilities, he fully unleashed his death-defying assassin techniques.

After the two sides exchanged positions again amidst the skirmish, Duncan crossed his rapiers, raising them overhead. The only light source on the battlefield was the bonfire in the cave behind him.

Amidst the shifting shadows, the two specially-crafted rapiers seemed to flicker and waver, and as the wind gusted past the flashing bonfire, the blades simultaneously vanished from sight.

"Die!"

This was Duncan's strongest strike, harnessing the secret technique of the "Mirage Sword Technique" and the extraordinary ability of the "Ghost Lizard Shadow Thief."

[Secret Technique: Shadow Cut!]

Light and dark intertwined, the storm solidified, with only the bone-chilling killing intent advancing relentlessly...

Aiven, facing him, felt it most keenly, even though he had manifested four phantoms with [Sword Style: Jumping Wave], his Spiritual Sense kept warning him relentlessly that he would be mercilessly struck down wherever he dodged.

In this frontal confrontation, Aiven encountered a crisis of life and death no less than the former "White Shark Skuk" berserker's one deadly strike, feeling as if he was about to perish!

The needle-like premonition of danger made his pores stand on end, pupils contract, helplessly watching the fatal edge relentlessly approach within his premonition!

However, Aiven no longer needed to rely on himself to block this fatal strike.

Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!....

Behind Duncan, numerous mutated roots suddenly shot forward, binding his arms, legs, waist, and abdomen tightly in an instant.

Under Aiven's command, layers of roots climbed up, forming a large vine ball, making it impossible for Duncan to exert force, leaving only his head exposed.

When is a swordsman at his weakest? The answer: of course, at the moment he launches his attack.

"Ugh! Let go of me!"

Watching Duncan, now like a ball, continue to struggle and roar in an attempt to break free, was all in vain.

Aiven's expression, however, grew unexpectedly conflicted; his methods increased, yet he felt further from becoming a pure Knight.

Moreover, it was foreseeable that after fully receiving the legacy of the "Life Tree" school, his methods would only grow in number.

In the secret codex of the White Sail Swordsmanship, a Great Knight is described thus: "Only warriors who integrate determination and combat experience into their life and soul can condense their most intense beliefs into forces capable of interfering with reality, becoming a one-in-a-million Great Knight, capable of smashing steel and sharp arrows like breaking dry wood!"

Although at the apprentice and official Knight levels, those pursuing a stable Knight's path lacked even extraordinary energy, they would undergo a qualitative change at the Great Knight level.

But this qualitative change demanded extreme requirements from the Knight's physique and mentality!

To this day, Aiven couldn't help but doubt whether he could truly enter such a pure state.

His previous extraordinary levels were low, being a nascent extraordinary Knight and Wizard Apprentice, making it impossible for Aiven to imagine a Great Knight's distant future, a status still considered upper-class in the entire Kingdom. But as his powers rapidly advanced, he grew closer to adept levels as a Knight, and his apprentice stage quickly moved toward its end.

This previously inconsequential issue had now become an unavoidable one, placed right before him.

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