Hitman With A Badass System-Novel

The creature deflected Adelia's katana with its claw. Sparks flew from the collision. Adelia almost lost the katana due to the massive force. She quickly slid under the creature. The creature stomped the ground as Adelia leaped away from it.

"GRRRHHH!" The creature roared. It opened its thin wings. Adelia anticipated the creature's next attack. As it flapped its wings, Adelia raised her hand, creating a jade shield to block the wind blast. The creature did not back off with one flap. Instead, it flapped its wings again and again. The dungeon began to tremble. Bits and pieces of the ceiling crumbled down.

"Oh no. You are going to kill us both," Adelia snickered. She quickly dashed at the creature to prevent it from destroying the place. The creature swung its front legs. Adelia slid under its arms and cut its thigh. Blood spurted out as the creature roared in pain. The creature stumbled down. Her blade cut several inches deep into its thighs. The creature stomped the ground. Adelia tried to leap away, but the shock wave blasted her onto the wall behind before she could escape.

The creature's eyes burned with rage and pain. To Adelia's surprise, the creature picked a handful of soil and rubbed it in its wound. The creature again surprised Adelia by taking the torch and burning its wound. Finally, the bleeding stopped. Adelia had to admire the creature's intelligence. This time, the creature dashed at Adelia with lightning speed. Even Adelia failed to roll out of its path. As a result, the creature swatted Adelia like a bug. The force threw Adelia onto a wall. She coughed blood. Without twisting any second, Adelia quickly retrieved a healing potion from her space ring and chugged it down her throat.

She immediately felt revitalized. Cuts and bruises on her body faded away. Seeing her use the healing potion, the creature shrieked. It pounded its chest as though it hated her using the potion.

"Do you hate that ugly?" Adelia antagonized the creature. Once again, the creature dashed at her faster than before. Adelia did not move. On the contrary, she pressed her feet on the ground and stayed still. When the creature swung its claws, Adelia bent backward, evading the claws. After missing the target, the creature lost its balance for a second. Adelia immediately utilized this by leaping onto the creature's back. She used arch energy to speed up her moves. Before the creature could retaliate, Adelia landed straight on its back. She plunged the katana into the creature's neck. She was about to slice its neck, cutting the cord, when the creature jumped upwards. Since Adelia was on its back, she hit the ceiling pretty hard. The force almost turned her inside into outside. She fell off its back as her katana was still stuck into its back.

The creature quickly grabbed Adelia and hit her against the ground. It sent Adelia flying with a single kick. Adelia's vision blurred. Blood oozed out of her nostrils and mouth.

"I am fucking done with this," Adelia coughed. The creature pounded its chest once again. It waited for Adelia to use the healing potion. On the contrary, Adeluia picked herself up without using the healing potion. Her pupils flickered. When she blinked, her human pupils turned vertically slit like a snake's. Under the creature's furious gaze, Adelia's body transformed. The creature took a step back in feat. In a few moments, she went from human to giant snake. She stood nine feet tall.

"Hssssss," Adelia hissed. She slithered toward the creature. It hit Adelia with its claws, yet its claws couldn't even graze her skin. Her body moved around the creature. The creature tried to leap away, but Adelia coiled around the creature. The creature was trapped. She slowly squeezed the creature with her body.

"GRRRRRR!" The creature roared as it violently swung its claws left and right. Adelia didn't feel anything. Her skin scales were like steel. No matter how hard the creature tried, it couldn't harm Adelia. The creature's roar slowly turned into a scream. Its eyes glimmered with pain. Slowly, Adelia crushed the creature's bones. The more she squeezed the creature, the louder the sickening crunch sounded. The creature's scream slowly lost its volume. Gradually, the creature stopped moving. Blood spurted out of every pore in its body.

Suddenly, a stream of blood sprayed out of the creature's body. The creature's body looked crooked. Adelia moved her head above the creature. She slowly opened her mouth as jade smoke flowed from her mouth. The jade smoke enveloped the creature, slowly turning its body into ashes. Adelia's katana fell down with a clinking sound. Finally, Adelia transformed herself back into her human form. The creature was reduced to a hot pile of ash.

"Ugly bastard," Adelia snickered. She picked up the katana and unsheathed it. After killing the creature, Adelia resumed her journey. The creature made her realize this place was more dangerous than she initially thought. She became vigilant, focusing on her surroundings. Luckily, the torches lit up further she moved. Once again, everything became silent. At that moment, even a point-dropping sound would sound like a bell. Only her shadow and the silence accompanied her forward.

She wondered how long it took the Dark Lord to build this dungeon. Although she was a Half Immortal, the runes around her suppressed her cultivation. Without the device around her wrist, she couldn't have survived the creature. If someone else had entered this place somehow, they would have been the creature's food by now. The silence lasted for a few more minutes. Then, she began to hear the undead growling once again. Compared to the creature, these undeads were just an annoyance in her path. She thought about using spells, but the walls and ceiling looked unstable. Before getting her hands on the armor piece, she couldn't risk flooding the dungeon.

The undeads staggered toward her from the darkness. She counted at least twenty undeads before her. Despite their number, Adelia showed no signs of distress. Instead, she just smiled. Once again, she unsheathed her katana. With just a swing, she cleaved two heads clean off their shoulders. Unlike the creature she faced earlier, these undeads possessed no intelligence. Even after Adelia killed two, the others reached out to her as though nothing had happened. Adelia did not even flinch as she cut down the zombies without slowing down. Her sword swings were several times faster than the zombies. Before they could touch her, they lost their heads.

The black goo splattered across the dark walls and the ground. As much as she loved killing the undead, she reeked of rotten eggs and meat because of the black goo. Fortunately, there was no one beside her. After cutting down the undead, she saw a ray of light in the distance. She hastened her steps. A few minutes later, the narrow tunnel opened into a spacious hall. The moment she stepped into the hall, the place lit up. She noticed a couple of huge braziers with blue flames burning atop. In the dazzling blue light produced by the flames, Adelia noticed several statues around the hall. But what drew her attention more was the black chest in the center. The chest was sat on top of a pillar. When she looked closer, she noticed a giant lock with five keyholes. The ray of light peeked through the ceiling and illuminated the dark chest.

"The armor piece must be inside," Adelia mumbled but didn't take another step forward. She looked around the hall, counting the five statues.

"Five keyholes, five statues. I have a bad feeling about this," said Adelia. Each of the statues looked distinct. One of them resembled the bat creature she fought earlier. The others looked weird and bizarre. Adelia took a deep breath before taking another step. Deep down, she expected something to happen. Just as she expected, one of the statues trembled the moment she stepped forward. This statute looked like a gargoyle. Pieces of stone crumbled down from the stature, revealing its jade skin. The creature was the size of an adult lion. At Least the gargoyle wasn't as big as the bat creature earlier. That was a subtle advantage for Adelia in this battle.

The gargoyle-looking creature shook itself, yanking the remaining stone pieces on its body. Adelia vaguely saw a golden key on its neck. If she had to guess, she would say this key would fit the keyhole in the lock. As she took another step, the creature noticed her. It locked its crimson-red eyes with her. Coincidentally, the creature was exactly as strong as she was. It was at the Body Strengthening stage. She closed her eyes for a moment to focus on her inner energy. Unfortunately, the runes were still suppressing her cultivation. The creature scratched the ground with its front legs before running toward her. Since they were both at the same cultivation stage, it was a battle of strategy and technique instead of spells and energy. When the creature was just a meter away from Adelia, she stabbed it with her katana.

Cling!

The katana didn't even penetrate an inch. Instead, Adelia's hands went numb. She felt as though she had stabbed a boulder. The creature hit Adelia with its head and sent her flying. While she was in the air, the creature bit the katana. The creature spat the katana to the other side of the hall. Adelia growled.  As she picked herself up, the creature roared.

To her surprise, the roar turned into a peal of laughter. Adelia was stunned. She didn't expect the creature to laugh at her. Moreover, it was mocking laughter. She burned with rage being ridiculed by a creature such as this.

"It's on," Adelia cracked her knuckles. Her eyes glimmered with rage. Without waiting for the creature to attack her, she dashed at it. She didn't retrieve any weapons from her space ring. Instead, she chose to fight with her bare hands.