The night in the lower district of Veylor City was unusually silent—too silent. Even the wind felt like it was holding its breath. Shadows stretched long between the narrow alleys, the lanterns flickering as if warning the living to turn back.
Lucia sensed something off. Not with her eyes—her mana sensitivity. The air felt heavy, throttled, as if something was swallowing the natural flow of mana around her. She wrapped her cloak tighter around her trembling hands.
Her life changed drastically after the bounty went public. A girl with naturally overflowing mana—mana pure enough to power an entire district. To some, she was a blessing. To others, nothing more than a living battery.
Tonight, she was prey.
A blur moved across the rooftop. Then another. Lucia's heart jumped.
"Not now… not again…"
A whisper sliced through the air, colder than steel.
"Target acquired."
Before she could move, a shuriken whistled straight toward her forehead.
But it never hit.
A hand grabbed it mid-air. Firm. Unshaking. Irritatingly casual.
"Seriously?" Yeshwanth said, flicking the shuriken away as if it were trash. "At least use something expensive if you're going to try murder."
Lucia blinked, stunned. "W-why did you protect me?! You said you didn't care—"
He didn't bother looking at her. His eyes were locked on the rooftop shadows.
"Money," he said bluntly. "It's always the core to success. And right now, protecting you gets me a mountain of light credits."
Lucia felt something twist in her chest. She wasn't sure if it was annoyance, disappointment, or something else, but this wasn't the moment to care.
"Come out," Yeshwanth demanded. "Or I'm dragging you out."
Silence. Then—
Three shadows dropped from the rooftops like falling blades. Their masks were obsidian black, etched in blood-red symbols. Their movements were too smooth—too synchronized. They weren't thugs. They weren't mercs.
They were trained assassins… no, something deadlier.
Ninjas from the Umbral Isles.
The first assassin stepped forward. His voice was a rasp of cold steel.
"Our mission is simple. The mana vessel dies tonight."
Lucia's breath stopped.
She clenched her fists. "Why… why do you want my mana so badly?"
"You were born overflowing with power you don't deserve." The second ninja spoke. "Power belongs to those who can use it. Not fragile vessels like you."
"And your death," the third added, "will fuel our clan for decades."
Lucia felt her knees weaken. Not out of fear—but guilt. She'd known her mana caused disasters before. She'd known too much of it made her dangerous. She'd known the city suffered just because she existed.
Part of her really believed dying might be the only way to stop the chaos.
The ninjas sensed that hesitation. They moved in like wolves smelling blood.
Yeshwanth sighed, rolling his shoulders.
"Okay, that's enough emo delusion for tonight," he muttered. "If anyone's killing her, it won't be you idiots."
The lead ninja didn't even respond—he just lunged.
His blade gleamed violet with toxin.
Lucia screamed.
But Yeshwanth didn't dodge.
He stepped forward deliberately, taking the full brunt of the attack head-on. The blade grazed his arm, but his expression didn't even twitch. Instead—
Something snapped open in him.
A pulse. A vibration. A crackle in the air.
Lucia felt her lungs freeze as if something invisible had wrapped around her throat.
"Keshodinde," Yeshwanth whispered.
A disc-like object formed in his palm—circular, rotating violently, connected to a thin glowing thread like a reinforced yo-yo string. But this wasn't a toy. Its edges vibrated with energy strong enough to slice stone.
More terrifying was the effect it had on the assassins.
The moment the rotating disc spun fully, the air around the ninjas warped.
Their bodies froze.
Completely.
They couldn't move even a finger.
The lead ninja's eyes widened in shock. "What—what technique is this?!"
"Keshodinde," Yeshwanth said again, voice flat and sharp. "It gathers data. Strength. Weak points. And all the stray energy you idiots leak."
Lucia gasped. The area around the assassins shimmered—threads of faint light flowing out of their bodies like streams of stolen soul.
Keshodinde wasn't just a weapon.
It was an extraction technique.
And it forced paralysis by using their own mana against them.
"H-how long can you keep it active?" Lucia stammered.
He didn't turn. "Long enough."
That was a lie. She could see the sweat forming on his neck.
Keshodinde required monstrous energy to sustain. And Yeshwanth wasn't made of infinite fuel.
The ninjas understood it too.
"He can't hold it. Kill him first."
They forced their bodies to move—even under the crushing pressure—bones cracking, muscles tearing, but their deadly training pushing them through the paralysis.
One broke free first.
He dashed behind Yeshwanth, blade slicing toward his spine.
Lucia screamed again. "Behind you!"
Yeshwanth didn't turn.
He flicked his wrist. The spinning disc shot out like lightning.
WHIP-CRACK.
The yo-yo blade wrapped around the ninja's wrist and ripped it clean off.
The assassin's scream shredded the silence.
Yeshwanth yanked the string. The disc snapped back into his palm smoothly, dripping blood.
"Next."
Lucia's hands trembled. This wasn't just fighting. This was survival brutality. Yeshwanth wasn't trying to knock them out—he was dismantling them.
A second ninja leapt at him.
This time Yeshwanth met him head-on.
Their bodies collided like two storms. Punches. Kicks. Steel ringing against steel. The ground cracked under their feet.
But the assassin was faster.
He managed to slash Yeshwanth's chest—deep.
Blood sprayed.
Lucia gasped. "Yeshwanth!!"
He didn't flinch.
Instead, he grinned.
"Good. Now I don't have to feel guilty about going serious."
He adjusted the disc string length and launched Keshodinde again.
The yo-yo blade went wild—ricocheting between alley walls, slicing through the battlefield in unpredictable patterns. The assassins dodged as best they could, but the disc moved like it had its own mind.
Because it did.
It recorded every movement, every breath, every angle from the earlier extraction.
It predicted their dodges.
SLASH.
The second ninja collapsed, his leg severed.
Only one remained now.
Their strongest.
He cracked his neck and stepped forward calmly, unbothered by the carnage.
"You've improved since the rumors, Yeshwanth," he said. "But power borrowed from a trick tool is still borrowed."
He activated a scroll in his hand.
Purple flames burst around him—burning away Keshodinde's influence.
Yeshwanth clicked his tongue. "Great. A seal breaker."
Lucia's heart dropped. "That means—"
"Yeah," Yeshwanth said. "Keshodinde can't freeze him anymore."
The final ninja blurred.
He didn't attack Yeshwanth.
He went straight for Lucia.
She stumbled back, too slow.
The blade was three inches from her throat—
"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH MY MONEY SOURCE!"
Yeshwanth exploded forward.
Not rushing… teleporting.
He slammed into the ninja with enough force to shatter ribs. The assassin flew into a stone wall, creating a crater. But he stood back up—bleeding, but smiling.
"You're almost out of energy," the ninja said.
Yeshwanth's breathing was ragged. His arms shook.
He was reaching his limit.
Lucia sprinted to his side. "Yeshwanth! You're pushing too far—"
"Lucia," he said sharply without looking. "Take out the vial in my left pocket."
She froze. "Y-you mean… the Cell Recovery Potion?! That's incredibly rare—you'll burn your body from the inside—"
"Exactly. That's why you don't inject it until I tell you."
She pulled it out. The small vial glowed blue—dangerously bright.
The assassin noticed it too.
He charged.
This time faster than anything Lucia had ever seen. Faster than sound. Faster than thought.
Yeshwanth kicked Keshodinde into maximum spin and slammed the disc into the ground—creating a shockwave that forced the assassin to retreat for a second.
Barely a second.
But enough.
Yeshwanth's hand shot out to Lucia.
"Be ready!"
Then he sprinted at the final ninja.
Their clash was pure chaos.
Blades screaming. Sparks flying. Bones cracking. Asphalt exploding under their feet. Every punch felt like thunder. Every dodge brushed death.
Lucia couldn't even track them. They moved like distortions of reality.
But she could see one thing clearly:
Yeshwanth was slowing.
His breathing staggered.
His vision blurring.
His feet dragging.
And the ninja saw it too.
"You're done," the assassin whispered in Yeshwanth's ear as he locked blades with him.
"No," Yeshwanth growled, eyes blazing. "You're done."
He twisted Keshodinde's thread around the assassin's arm and used the recoil to flip himself upward—kicking the ninja under the chin with explosive force.
The assassin's mask cracked.
Yeshwanth landed hard, knees buckling.
"Lucia!" he roared. "NOW!"
She didn't hesitate.
She jabbed the Cell Recovery Potion injector into his back and pressed the trigger.
The liquid burned through him like fire.
He screamed.
His muscles spasmed.
His veins glowed electric blue.
Lucia felt tears sting her eyes. "Yeshwanth… please don't die!"
The assassin rushed toward them for the final kill—
But Yeshwanth stood up.
Slowly.
Painfully.
But fully.
His eyes glowed.
His bleeding stopped instantly as cells regenerated at impossible speed.
"Round two," he whispered. "Let's finish this."
There was no more holding back.
He threw Keshodinde with a roar.
The yo-yo blade tore through the air like a meteor.
The ninja dodged—
But Yeshwanth had predicted it.
He pulled the string—hard.
The disc curved mid-air like a hunting beast and sliced straight through the assassin's chest.
The ninja froze, eyes wide.
"No… impossible…"
Yeshwanth walked up to him, grabbed him by the collar, and whispered:
"You lost because you underestimated the price I'm willing to pay."
He crushed the assassin's throat.
The body collapsed with a dull thud.
Silence flooded the alley.
Lucia stared at Yeshwanth—terrified, grateful, confused all at once.
He dusted his hands off and walked past her casually.
"Payment better be worth this," he muttered. "I'm not risking my life for cheap credits."
Lucia whispered, voice trembling:
"Yeshwanth… thank you. Even if it was for money… thank you."
He didn't turn.
"Don't thank me yet," he said. "As long as I'm stuck protecting you… more freaks will come."
But Lucia saw the truth under his words.
He didn't protect her for money.
He protected her because he chose to.
And that scared him more than any ninja.