"Because the sweet little Emperor is planning to seek exile, if he does that then it'll really be a pain to deal with! Now keep up or get left behind!"

Rus.h.i.+ng forward with no regards for a proper formation or any other military doctrine Dax cleared rooms at a blistering pace as he advanced in a steadfast manner towards the centre of the castle, the imperial throne room. He didn't make it far before running into resistance, however, as when Dax rounded a mild corner while running along a wall he was met with a dagger which suddenly appeared out of a shadow. Normally such an attack wouldn't be much of a concern as he was wearing his XMRA, but Dax's intuition told him that the dagger steadily closing in on his right eye would tear right through anything standing in its way until it stabbed into his brain.

(s.h.i.+t!)

Making an instant decision based solely on his intuition Dax sacrificed his left arm to block the strike as he twisted his body mid jump to avoid the dagger which tore straight through his arm and split it apart lengthwise a 3rd of the way to his elbow, narrowly missing his head. 

"Well, that sure is some greeting. Although I am invading this place it still is quite rude to try and outright kill someone like that."

Drawing his cursed sword with his only remaining hand, Dax took a low defensive stance as he held the cursed blade in a reverse grip and covered his injured side while attempting to make small talk to distract his opponent which was currently emerging out of a shadow in front of him. Having emerged fully out of the shadow, Dax identified his opponent as some sort of demi human, although he couldn't nail down the race. Wrapped from head to toe in black cloth and bandages, only a small sliver of the a.s.sa.s.sin's violet eyes were visible which seemed to scan Dax for openings in a way he had never seen before.

(AUTO REPAIR ENGAGED, TASKING GREYMATTER IN AFFECTED AREA... DONE, 30 SECONDS TILL MINIMUM FUNCTION CAN BE REESTABLISHED.)

(Dax, are you okay?)

(Yeah, or I will be in about half a minute. More importantly, do you think you can block that dagger?)

(Of course I can block it, how do you think I am~✿ With a bit of mana I can even cut right through it~)

While his sword was being its usually noisy self Dax appraised his opponent, finding none of the usual weak spots he would normally be exploiting. To make matters worse, serval more figures were emerging out of the seemingly living patch of shadow behind the first a.s.sa.s.sin, with Dax's instincts telling him that they were all at least as good if not better than their peer who had drawn first blood.

""Dax!""

As both Solaris and Alice finally caught up to Dax they immediately saw his injured state and felt a blind rage build up in their bodies, after all, who would be able to remain calm when they saw people they like getting seriously injured?

"Contact front, multiple confirmed hostiles!"

Noticing the girl's mounting rage shouted out the same command he and Lux used when training to make them realize the situation they currently found themselves in.

This is not the kind of opponents they could take lightly.

(AUTO REPAIR COMPLETE, MINIMUM FUNCTION ESTABLISHED. AFFECTED AREA OPERATIONAL @ 30% STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY.)

(What's the estimated time till 80%)

(CALCULATING, STAND BY…)

Luckily the arrival of Solaris and Alice had given Dax's injury time to heal to an acceptable level and with his hand once more in working order he immediately used it to purge most of his XMRA armour except for the pieces which covered his arms and legs as it couldn't protect him it was just dead weight which would only slow him down, revealing his usual casual wear which he wore under the armour. Meanwhile, Alice and Solaris seemed to have grasped Dax's intentions as Alice slowly exited out the back of her exoskeleton and drew her service weapon and a dagger while Solaris started absorbing the ambient mana.

"Well, I believe I felt a presence following me last time I raided this castle…. Was it perhaps one of you fine ladies?"

With what seemed like the final a.s.sa.s.sin emerging out of the living shadow, Dax took the opportunity to make the first move as he flared in both mana and bloodl.u.s.t. Closing the range to the closest a.s.sa.s.sin almost instantly, he flicked the cursed demon sword into a normal grip as the blade turned bright red, then he swung it down towards the a.s.sa.s.sin with a considerable amount of force behind the attack, aiming to cleave the person in half down the middle before advancing. Falling into Dax's trap the a.s.sa.s.sin raised her dagger to block the sudden strike, but to her surprise, the ominous red blade cut right through her weapon without it offering any sort of protection. Reacting instantly to that discovery the silent a.s.sa.s.sin broke her stance and hooked to the side to avoid Dax's strike, then she brought what was left of her dagger to bare against Dax's exposed throat.

(d.a.m.n she good, really good in fact… Now I want her for myself.)

(This is not the time to be chasing women! Besides, don't you have enough already!?)

(I meant I want her as an ally, but whatever.)

While answering his extremely fl.u.s.tered sounding demon that seemed to scream inside his head whenever it wanted to, Dax let go of his sword as he stepped backwards to dodge the attack against his throat with only a few millimetres of clearance, then he stepped back into range and used his now free hands to strike the a.s.sa.s.sins hip and chest at the same time, sending her flying before he caught his sword which was still in mid air.

"You guys really are skilled, why don't all of you come and work for me, dear shadows of the emperor?~"

Sidestepping and blocking the two additional strikes which came the second he exposed himself Dax still had plenty of room to breathe, even when facing multiple of the most skilled a.s.sa.s.sins in the empire.

The same could not be said for Alice and Solaris however.

"Kuh! s.h.i.+t, Sol!"

"On it!"

Even after Dax had given them some time to prepare by rus.h.i.+ng into the hostiles, the angel and human pair still struggled to keep up while they were constantly forced to give up ground and slowly retreat to avoid being flanked and wiped out. While Solaris and Alice exoskeleton (in remote operation mode) supported Alice, she herself was the only person on the front line. Narrowly avoiding a slash which would have taken her one arm, Alice lept a few meters back before firing a few shots from her fully automatic pistol in an attempt to buy some time while golden crystal swords flew right by her head towards the Shadows.

(f.u.c.k they are relentless, although not as much as Lux.)

Gritting her teeth as her earlier manoeuvre didn't by her more than a few seconds of breathing room, Alice decided to step forward herself as she sliced at an opponent. The only two factors that worked to Alice's advantage her was greatly enhanced body which had been radically strengthened when she was healed by technology from Dax's world and the small amount of training she had received from Lux. She could quite clearly tell that her opponents outcla.s.sed her in terms of raw skill and technique, luckily Lux had drilled her extensively in how to deal with opponents which outcla.s.sed her. Alice's opponents could also clearly feel that difference in their experience and because of that they continuously tried to exploit openings, but as Alice had spent most of her time under Lux training on how to deal with that, as well as Solaris' support it ended in a stalemate as long as Alice continued to give up ground. While fighting Alice also sent commands to her exoskeleton through the neural link in her armour, making it shoot its shoulder mounted Rex-0999 machinegun every time a shadow threatened to break through her defences and strike at Solaris which continued to hurl out spells at a truly impressive rate. 

Creating another volley of crystal shards Solaris' suit lit up on a purple glow while responding to her requests, but even after trying out a particularly dense hail of shards she still only succeeded in landing grazing hit, something which was starting to annoy the archangel in question greatly.

(d.a.m.n it all! Why can't I hit them?!)

But instead of letting the frustration go to her head Solaris started paying even greater attention to her targets while her eyes started glowing in a faint golden hue under her helmet. Observing the mana which was leaking out from her targets Solaris finally realized how they managed to avoid her spells.

(They are reading my mana… s.h.i.+t.)

By reading the faint amount of mana leaking from Solaris' crystals, the shadow's could effectively mentally reconstruct her spells, making them able to predict how they would track them. Still, such a method was supposed to be extremely taxing, as the Shadows constantly had to mentally reconstruct countless spells in real time in order to predict them, but even after a few minutes of fighting, they showed no signs of slowing down.

(if my current output is not enough to overpower them I simply need to increase it!)

Deciding it was worth to use ascension even if her output would drop a little while she recovered after the fight, Solaris started absorbing even more mana trough her wings, which acted as a clear giveaway to anyone observing her.

(You stupid f.u.c.king half pigeon!)

Glancing over to see Solaris easily falling for the opponent's trap, Dax realized that he needed to save his subordinates within the next few seconds, or they would die.