Swain mused on the tumultuous past of the galaxy, yet he never truly expected to encounter Trazyn. If that eccentric Necron, who enjoyed collecting all sorts of peculiar things across the galaxy, ever set his sights on Swain and locked him away in his museum, it would be the end. Swain wasn't some peerless beauty; being a mere display piece simply didn't suit him. As Swain pondered, he hurried towards another top-secret area, one independent of the main camp.
Saro Jin's pitch-black figure moved like a black panther lurking in the night. His left hand covered an enemy hidden in the shadows, while his right hand, holding a matte-finished dagger, silently slit the throat of a Shadow Assassin member, then supported the body against the wall. The entire process was swift and decisive, without a single sound.
"Swish!" A sharp combat knife ripped through Saro Jin's robe, and at the same time, another combat knife suddenly appeared from the darkness, thrusting directly towards Saro Jin's chest.
"I've been waiting for you," Saro Jin's voice, slightly hoarse from prolonged thirst, echoed in the darkness. It was like a patient hunter finally seeing his prey reveal its weakness. His flexible body, honed by years of salt mining in the salt lakes, erupted with unbelievable agility at this moment. Saro Jin's body twisted in an incredible manner, dodging the surprise attack from these two Shadow Assassin members, who were like vipers striking when the opportunity arose. The combat knife, at an incredibly tricky angle, slit the throat of one enemy.
"Your teammates have all been annihilated by me. It's not impossible for you, the last one, to surrender," Saro Jin stated, not retreating into the darkness this time.
"There are only dead shadow assassins, never surrendering shadow assassins!" The last remaining member, holding a combat knife, launched a final desperate struggle against Saro Jin. Saro Jin, holding his own knife, met this courageous enemy. Unfortunately, sometimes, courage does not equate to one's strength. In just a few swift moves, the last assassins' knife-wielding hand was seized by Saro Jin, and then Saro Jin's combat knife was already pressed against the opponent's neck. The cold blade rested on their skin, raising goosebumps, as if in fear of death. At this moment, Saro Jin only needed to exert a little force to easily cut open the opponent's throat.
"Exercise over. Winner, Saro Jin," a sudden voice rang out as the two stood in a standoff. The dim lights in the abandoned mine shaft flickered on, dispelling the darkness that had permeated for who knew how long.
"As expected of the instructor, we are still far too lacking..." The other two assassins, who had been lying on the ground, sprang up with a carp jump and exclaimed in admiration. Everything that had just happened was merely an exercise. Saro Jin had engaged in a confrontation with a three-person assassin assassination team. The result showed that Saro Jin had completely annihilated his opponents. He himself, apart from a cut in his clothes, was not even scratched, while the other three had injuries in fatal locations like the neck. The vastness of this disparity could be described as an unbridgeable chasm.
The reason for such a large gap between the two sides was that, at Swain's request, Saro Jin had been studying with Corax for the past two years. Corax was naturally very interested in Saro Jin, who had awakened his psychic abilities at a young age, and Saro Jin's talent was indeed outstanding. Not to mention being able to infer from one example, at the very least, many things Corax taught were understood instantly. The current Saro Jin already possessed a hint of the future Shadow Saint's demeanor. If the Great Betrayal were to proceed as before, in the future, even two Lucius would probably not be enough for him to cut down.
"Your stealth level isn't up to par yet. Starting tomorrow, I will conduct special training for you. I hope you are prepared. Dismissed for now." Saro Jin picked up the prepared water bottle nearby, took a large gulp, and then issued new orders to the assassins. As for why it wasn't starting now, it was naturally to give these guys ample time to prepare, especially mentally.
As expected, upon hearing about the extra training, all the Shadow Assassin members present let out a chorus of wails and howls. Saro Jin did not reprimand them, because only he truly knew how arduous such extra training was for the assassins. After one session of extra training, merely shedding a layer of skin was considered easy—literal shedding of skin. Physical damage was secondary; the most important thing was that learning Corax's Shadow Step was simply too difficult.
However, Shadow Step had a prerequisite: it required one to be a psyker to learn. But Corax found a new approach, adding many foundational training exercises based on this prerequisite. These basic exercises would be an extremely painful training process for non-psykers, because Corax's or Saro Jin's psychic energy would invade their brains for practice, and the feeling of their brains being put into a washing machine on spin cycle was not pleasant. The good news was that during such a process, individuals with a certain psychic talent had a chance to awaken their psychic abilities.
Not only for infiltration and assassination, the assassins seemed to have heard that Corax was already conceptualizing a combat system called the Path of Triple Shadows, to adapt to different combat scenarios. Although the Dark Raven Guard Legion typically gave the impression of specializing in stealth and infiltration, this was merely a preconceived notion. It did not mean that the Dark Raven Guard were not proficient in other aspects. No commander would allow his Legion to have such obvious strengths and weaknesses. The Dark Raven Guard also had their own armored forces and units skilled in frontal combat.
It is important to note here that the combat methods used by the Emperor's Angels of Death, the Astartes, in the Legion era and the later Chapter era were completely different. While both employed decapitation strikes, the approaches in the two eras were entirely distinct.
In the Legion era, decapitation strikes involved reconnaissance units determining the enemy's command post location, reporting it to the Legion commander, the main force of the Legion pinning down the enemy's main force on the front lines, and then overwhelming waves of drop pods would directly crash onto the enemy's command headquarters. Stormbirds would transport various main battle tanks to predetermined positions, and tens of thousands of Astartes would directly smash into the enemy commander's brains, showing them what the Emperor's Angels of Death truly were.
In the Chapter era, decapitation strikes involved determining the enemy's flagship location, dispatching boarding torpedoes carrying psychic beacons to board the enemy's warship, and then, upon arrival, activating a warp beacon. Subsequently, the built-in psychic beacons on Astartes Terminators would be activated, and dozens to hundreds of Terminator veterans would go in for a burst of output, completing the decapitation.
It cannot be said which one was better; both were different methods adapted to their respective organizational structures and the enemies they faced in different eras. But if one could simply crush the enemy with brute force, who would prefer the nearly suicidal methods of the Chapter era?