#50: The Priest Of Pain — I Became a Genius Assassin in a TRPG

As the waves of the night sea boomed heavily, Solomon kicked off the ground.

Toward the blood-red orc in a suit, the Priest of Pain.

The level 2 shadow spell <Veil of Darkness> that had wrapped around the area was shattered. If he cast it again, there was no guarantee it wouldn’t be broken again the same way as before.

‘Let’s be more careful here.’

Along with the Ghost Whale bone blade overlaid with <Black Sword>, he re-gripped the Nightfall automatic crossbow with his other hand. Thankfully, the opponent wasn’t a spirit. A living enemy.

“Hup!”

At that moment, a wall of blood surged up again from around the blood-red orc’s feet. At the same time, the bolts also sharply adjusted their trajectories to avoid the obstacles in their path.

One of the dwarven masters’ engraved features after the silence spell, the auto-guidance function.

Like guided missiles recalculating their routes, the bolts split left and right and flew in toward the target beyond.

Taat!

Right then, the orc burst out through the wall of blood that had risen in front of him. Just as the multi-shot bolts curved around to target his back, he shook off that clumsy pursuit from behind and forced a breakthrough straight through, as if committing to a single-point charge.

“!”

Solomon panicked at the distance closing in the other way. The Priest of Pain, the blood-red orc covered in tattoos, held no weapon in his hands. But he understood right away.

Hwareureuk!

The tattoos inked on the back of his hand flared like fire, and blood layered itself over the priest’s fist. Shaping into a blade that scattered a chilling edge.

‘<Blood Sword>!’

The spell itself was similar to Solomon’s <Black Sword>. In other words, even though he claimed to be a mage, the opponent was using the same kind of martial fighting method as Solomon.

Chwaaak!

The swinging blood-red blade collided with Solomon’s shadow blade. The instant they clashed, the blood-red orc, the Priest of Pain, kicked off hard to the side. It wasn’t hard to understand what that meant.

Because the volley of bolts that should’ve been lodged into the target’s back had instead turned into a barrage aimed at Solomon.

‘Damn it!’

Solomon also twisted his body fast to avoid the barrage. Thankfully, the bolts’ guidance function lost its effect around then and stopped fluttering.

‘Here….’

Solomon fell silent for a moment. At the end of that silence, he manipulated the Nightfall automatic crossbow. Gears, drive parts, and the main frame meshed together, folding into a form that could be stowed on his belt.

Cheolkeok-cheolkeok!

Solomon slid the Nightfall automatic crossbow into the Quick-Loader Belt. Blade and automatic crossbow. He gave up dual-wielding and held only the Black Sword in his hand. Leaving the other hand exposed.

“Hooh.”

The Priest of Pain looked at Solomon as if he found it interesting.

“So you know the secret to kissing.”

“…What the hell are you talking about?”

Solomon asked back, dumbfounded.

“When you kiss a beautiful woman, you should focus only on the woman in front of you.”

“…….”

“In other words, kissing the woman in front of you while aiming a crossbow… means you’re not fully focusing on the ‘kiss.’”

Solomon fell silent, incredulous. Then the Priest of Pain revealed the Blood Sword in his hand and spoke.

“Whatever you are, assassin, swordsman, mage, whatever you call it, it doesn’t matter. I only wish to say that when you kiss, focusing on the kiss is the best ‘secret to kissing well.’”

“…I see.”

Solomon let out a hollow laugh, dumbfounded. In front of someone who’d come to kill him, the man was speaking with the breezy tone of some motivational lecturer.

“So, you’re saying focus on the kiss.”

Solomon re-gripped the hilt as if to say, whatever happens, happens. Not the automatic crossbow, but only the Ghost Whale bone blade imbued with <Black Sword>. And he left the other hand as it was.

This was a time that required focus. Of course, he wasn’t saying he’d share a kiss with the orc bastard in front of him.

“Let’s go again.”

After the short exchange, the Priest of Pain kicked off the ground. Kooong! The asphalt beneath his feet cracked and split with that burst of leg strength. The distance closed with absurd power and speed combined.

“!”

Solomon steadied his stance. Taking that speed and weight head-on was suicide. So he focused on the enemy’s Blood Sword coming at him and evaded by letting his center flow outward.

Kaang!

Because he deflected the blade’s center outward, he didn’t take the impact at 100%. Even so, it was strong enough to make both legs supporting him tremble.

Chwaaak!

In the several clashes, the first wound belonged to Solomon.

“Keoheok!”

A diagonal slash across his ribs. Fortunately in his misfortune, it didn’t graze his organs and ran along the outside of his body.

‘He’s strong!’

He could feel it instinctively. How two hotel contractors had ended up dying one after another.

And unlike before, the opponent no longer gave Solomon room to respond. Even if he couldn’t break his stance in one blow, he chained a second and third attack, trying to thoroughly collapse Solomon’s posture.

Kaang!

Blood Sword and Black Sword collided. In the meantime, the orc’s other hand drove in to strike Solomon’s exposed solar plexus. Sword and fist.

“!”

Thankfully, Solomon wrapped and knocked aside the fist coming for his solar plexus.

It was something he could do only because he wasn’t holding the automatic crossbow.

The instant he knocked the fist away, the Blood Sword surged in. Solomon immediately re-gripped the Black Sword and knocked the blade outward.

Before he could even think he’d knocked it away, the Blood Sword’s tip stabbed down again, aiming for Solomon’s wrist.

Kaang, kang!

Like two snakes tangling over and over, fighting desperately to bite the vital spot at the back of the neck.

What they aimed for wasn’t the opponent.

The swords the two held were both weapons and vital points themselves. From the start, it was knife fighting meant to neutralize the opponent’s sword and cut the nearest artery.

At this point, the opponent’s vital point wasn’t an obvious place like the neck or heart.

The wrist holding the sword, and the arteries around that wrist.

This was no longer a mage’s fight. Thoroughly, it was the most straightforward kind of swordsman’s fight, waged with two blades.

When the Blood Sword swung, the hand not holding the automatic crossbow took on the role of a shield.

Parrying not the blade, but the trajectory of the wrist holding it. He pushed the opponent’s forearm away, secured distance, and made room for the Black Sword to counterattack.

An endless exchange of blades. The world’s sound disappeared. He fell into such an intense state of focus he couldn’t even understand it himself, and his consciousness was clearer and more transparent than ever.

It felt like a world where nothing existed except two swords, black and red.

‘Strange….’

A sensation that couldn’t be fully described by the word unfamiliar. Something like what you’d call the realm of a swordsman.

In that very state of focus, a single opening came into Solomon’s view.

‘Now!’

Solomon didn’t miss the small opening that connected through the gap.

‘<Hide>.’

A tiny gap. In reality, it wasn’t even a situation that could inflict a fatal wound on the opponent. At most, a very small stab wound. But Solomon’s real goal was different.

His body melted into the night air for an instant.

In truth, it was only a split second. He reappeared before you could even think he’d vanished.

A forced ambush in invisibility, no questions asked.

“Hup…!”

Chwaaak!

That strike clearly knocked aside the Blood Sword and pierced under the priest’s collarbone through the opening.

It wasn’t a vital point. It also wasn’t an attack aiming for the back in a sneak attack state. The core wasn’t the damage itself. It was the fact that he had wounded him with an ambush.

The fact that the opponent was bleeding from a wound. It was time for the build Solomon had honed to finally shine.

Fighting blade-to-blade as a swordsman, fair and square, ended here.

From here on, the assassin’s utterly ruthless method would step in.

‘Succeeded in inflicting bleeding with an ambush.’

Bleeding-type abilities learned as the subclass, Reaper.

──
「Induce Excessive Bleeding」
: On a successful melee ambush, the status ailment Bleeding lasts longer and does not fade easily.

「Crimson Harvest」
: When attacking an enemy afflicted with Bleeding, increase damage by 2
──

To make a bleeding build work, you had to wound the enemy, whether you liked it or not. And it had to be in the form of a melee ambush.

Even for that, Solomon closed the distance in a somewhat forced, straightforward way.

“Life is overflowing.”

The Priest of Pain murmured amid the flowing blood.

“An amount that can’t be explained by providence, beyond reason….”

The words were complicated, but the meaning was clear. Solomon’s 「Induce Excessive Bleeding」 was causing a volume of bleeding that normally couldn’t exist.

And with the additional damage applied while in excessive bleeding. With this, the build had roughly taken shape enough to run.

───
Usable spell slots

: Level 1 spell slots 5 uses (⚀⚀⚀⚀⚀)

: Level 2 spell slots 1 use (⚁■■)

: Level 3 spell slots 0 uses (■)

‘One level 2 slot left. Level 1 is full.’

Solomon checked the situation coldly and reset his stance. If he used Veil of Darkness again, it would obviously break the same way as before. Thankfully, with his overflowing level 1 slots, the situation was quite favorable.

“To think you would truly be my death.”

Before he knew it, the pool of blood dripping beneath the blood-red orc’s feet was not an amount to laugh at. It wasn’t normal bleeding, but as if he were sick and his clotting function simply didn’t work.

“…….”

Solomon didn’t answer. Nothing would change.

Kwaang!

Right then, the blood underfoot began to churn like a raging current. At the same time, the blood-red orc kicked off the ground as well. As the fight dragged on, the one becoming disadvantaged was the opponent. That was why he had no choice but to move differently than before.

Like a burning candle with no way back.

As the distance closed, the Blood Sword swung. Even in the movement itself, there was the raw force of having no retreat.

Kaang!

The swords of blood and shadow crossed. Before he could even think they had crossed, the distance opened, then locked again. Solomon didn’t retreat and answered the fight head-on.

Without greed to drop the opponent in a single blow, he instead used the opponent’s forced movements against him and aimed for exhaustion. Even so, in the continuing bleed, it became clear. The opening in the opponent who was starting to stagger.

‘Now.’

When the time came, Solomon’s body melted into the air again. An invisibility spell. Even so, it wasn’t to hide himself or conceal his presence.

Chwaak!

Once more, a forced ambush in invisibility unfolded. It wasn’t for the ambush’s damage itself, nor to drive a stake into the fight with it.

It was to stack the status ailment 「Induce Excessive Bleeding」.

‘That makes it 2 stacks.’

Chwaaak!

Again, an amount of bleeding that defied common sense poured out. Like a body whose clotting function didn’t work due to illness, endlessly spewing blood.

Stagger.

In that endless bleeding, the blood-red orc’s posture collapsed. Now. Solomon didn’t hesitate.

Kwagik!

The distance closed, and a strike drove in. The tip of the Black Sword piercing the orc’s chest.

“It was a good… fight.”

After that blow, the Priest of Pain dropped to one knee.

“Pain that cannot kill us only makes us stronger….”

Even with death in front of him, smiling more satisfied than ever.

“Pain that kills us leads us into endless peace….”

“I see.”

“It pains me that I could not finish the task I had to do… but it cannot be helped.”

“A task?”