Charlot practiced for a while longer and then put on the Mask of the Cat again.

  Wearing this wondrous artifact mask was akin to having the fi instructor. It allowed him to experiehe most refieiques of dagger-throwing and close-quarter bat, where every strike erfected and fwless.

  Charlot firmly believed that as long as he tio put in the effort, he could truly master throwing knives. Even without the Mask of the Cat, he would still be able to wield them skillfully.

  "I probably do have some talent fed bat, like shooting and throwing," Charlot murmured to himself.

  As darkness fell pletely, Charlot finally stowed away the Mask of the Cat and his assassin's dagger. Satisfied with his progress, he estimated that in aen or so days, his throwing keique would be ready for actual bat.

  However, he also noticed a shorting in his khrowing teique.

  trolling the knives required him to use Bloodfme Aura, which he also o recall the khere was a range limitation to trolling ons with Bloodfme Aura. If the distance exceeded the limit, the e would be lost, making it impossible to throw at full power, and the knives would slow down signifitly.

  Of course, the solution was simple: he could purchase a batch of ordinary throwing knives and use them without any iion of retrieval. The Bloodfme Aura could instead amplify the power and speed of the knives.

  An eveer solution would be to ission a set of extraordinary throwing knives capable of automatically returning to him...

  Charlot, however, was unwilling to spend that much money—nor was it necessary. After all, he still had his Anti-Space Le Rifle!

  Charlot practiced throwing knives partly because he found the skill intriguing, and partly because using Bloodfme Aura to manipute the Blood Rose and Vampiric Axe would be from improved teique.

  Among the other three personas that the Mask of the Cat could ma, one of them was naturally Aubrey Tildon Atwood, whose extracted skill was—shooting!

  The shooting skills of this president of the Fierce Horse Detective Agency far exceeded Charlot’s own. While Charlot’s uy-level shooting training merely allowed him to snuff out a dle at twenty paces, Aubrey Tildon Atwood’s marksmanship could shoot down birds mid-flight.

  To Charlot, Aubrey Tildon Atwood's gunmanship was nothing short of godlike, a mountain far beyond his reach.

  The other two personas were strao Charlot. Their extracted skills were Knightly Spearmanship and Swordsmanship, respectively.

  Charlot only observed these briefly before losing all i. While his martial skills weren’t exceptional, he had studied traditional academianship during his time at the national institute and uy. pared to that, these two individuals’ Knightly Spearmanship and Swordsmanship were nothing more than mediocre teiques—not even worth practig.

  By now, it was already te at night. Charlot didn’t bother returning to his room. Instead, he reed on a deck chair, closed his eyes, and quickly seemed to drift off to sleep.

  An hour ter, Charlot still hadn’t stirred. A shadow silently rose, revealing three glimmering throwing knives in hand—just as a gunsh out.

  The brown-haired, gray-eyed assassin wielded his bdes with lightning speed, parrying the bullets with a series of metalligs. He let out a soft excmation: “You knew I was hiding nearby all along?”

  Charlot had no i in answering. When he ractig with throwing knives earlier, he had activated Eye of Insight. By sheer ce, it had sed the assassin lurking on the roof.

  The Eye of Insight automatically activated in the face of danger, but this assassin had extraordinary abilities that perfectly cealed his killing i. Therefore, Eye of Insight couldn’t warn Charlot in advance. But once he actively triggered it, the assassin’s stealth was futile.

  Charlot iionally waited for the assassin to make his move. He knew regur bullets wouldn’t harm this oppo, but the Anti-Space Le Rifle was too cumbersome to fire stealthily.

  After firing a shot, Charlot dropped the Magnum Mauler, leaped up, and shouted, “Senior! Lend me a hand!”

  The brown-haired, gray-eyed assassin flinched in shock. He was well aware of the First Rose’s reputation. Menielman was not famed solely for her beauty; she was a true high-ranking Transdent, her swordsmanship ruthlessly unparalleled.

  The assassin’s knives spun in his hands as he engaged Charlot in a fierce exge of over ten moves. Just as he attempted to retreat and recover his strength, he suddenly felt a sharp breeze behind him. A Vampiric Axe sailed toward him. He barely mao tilt his head to avoid it, but the axe suddenly “jumped” and smashed into the back of his head.

  Charlot had initially been cautious of the assassiraordinary speed. However, after dedug that his oppo’s ability was Leopard’s Hunt, he became far less apprehensive.

  While Leopard’s Hunt provided a burst of speed, its energy ption was enormous and unsustainable. After each wave of attacks, the user would ime to recover a their bat state.

  At first, Charlot didn’t dare divide his attention. But now, he could leisurely exploit openings to ambush the assassin with the Vampiric Axe.

  Struck hard by the Vampiric Axe, the assassi dizzy, but his “intellect” returned as he yelled, “There’s no Menielman here at all!”

  Charlot ughed. “Of course not! If Senior were here, one move would be enough to kill you. Why would I o lift a finger?”

  Ehe assassin unched a storm of furious attacks.

  Charlot met each strike calmly. The Arsilo Family Swordsmanship in his hands once again resonated with the opening movements of the Twelve Angelic Melodies—Fire of Dawn! With the advantage of Eye of Insight and the Magical Rapier, he defended himself steadily.

  The two cshed for over a hundred exges. Although Charlot remained on the defensive, he was far more posed than during their previous battle.

  Half of this progress was due to the throwing kraining he had done earlier. By instinctively paring it to the Arsilo Family Swordsmanship, Charlot gained a deeper uanding of the teique.

  The Arsilo Family Swordsmanship was famed for its bizarre, ruthless, and uably swift strikes, as quick as fshes of lightning.

  Charlot had gohrough numerous battles, but many of the swordsmanship’s subtleties still eluded him. He had simply executed the ied moves without fully grasping their essence.

  During this intense fight with the brown-haired, gray-eyed assassin, a sudden fsh of insight struck Charlot, unlog several new variations in his teique.

  The Magical Rapier flickered like a fme, infused with the essence of the Fire of Dawn.

  The assassin unched six secutive krikes, f Charlot’s rapier aside, thereated swiftly and leaped onto the roof.

  Charlot hurled the Vampiric Axe, but two throwing knives shot toward him in response. Forced to deflect the knives with his sword, Charlot momentarily lost trol of the axe. The assassin easily dodged the Vampiric Axe and disappeared into the darkness after a few swift bounds.

  Charlot grabbed his Anti-Space Le Rifle and also leaped onto the roof, but not even the Eye of Insight could detect the enemy now. Clearly, the assassin had already fled far away.

  Sighing, Charlot muttered to himself. He didn’t relish being targeted by such a formidable assassin. With abilities like stealth and Leopard’s Hunt, this oppo was incredibly troublesome. Twiow, Charlot had mao ihe assassin, but each time, the killer escaped.

  “Acc to the rules of the Orc Assassin Alliance, if I kill this assassin, they’ll only send more people. How am I supposed to solve this problem?”

  “For now, I have no way of dealing with this assassin anization...”