When Aiden's headless body collapsed to the ground, Bert and the remaining agents froze in visible shock.
They knew Richard possessed Flash. But Flash was not invincibility. Whether used for retreat or assault, it required reaction time. There was always a window—however small—between disappearance and reappearance.
Inesa had learned that the hard way.
She had recognized that Eight Blades Flash differed from ordinary slashes, yet still failed to escape. Not because she lacked proficiency, but because she misjudged the timing. By the time she reacted, the blade had already landed.
Had she treated Richard as a lethal threat from the start instead of underestimating him, she might have survived longer.
Back then, Richard didn't even possess Level 2 skills.
That context made Aiden's death even more unbelievable.
Aiden couldn't Flash, but he had trained extensively against Inesa's teleportation attacks. Within the Operations Department, they had sparred countless times. He understood displacement tactics.
And yet—
He hadn't even launched the fireball in his hand.
He had simply died.
Richard wasn't surprised.
At ten to twenty meters, Level 2 Iai Slash was faster than Flash. There was no visible pre-cast. No energy buildup. No spatial distortion warning.
In game terms, it had no startup frames.
Aiden never even realized Richard hadn't teleported.
Richard turned immediately toward Clarice and Sabretooth.
The authentic blade flashed twice.
Swish. Swish.
Two clean silver arcs passed their necks—not flesh, but metal. The suppression collars split apart and fell away.
The moment Sabretooth's collar dropped, his regeneration surged back to full force. Burned flesh reknit visibly, charred skin smoothing over as if rewinding damage.
Richard didn't pause.
He raised his right hand.
"Thunderbolt."
Boom.
Lightning split the clear sky without warning. Dozens of silver-white bolts of varying thickness descended violently toward Bert and the remaining agents.
Thunderbolt was now Level 2. Still, Richard didn't expect it to kill them outright.
It was distraction.
After Aiden and the rock-body mutant were eliminated, ten agents remained. He didn't know all their abilities, and he had no intention of letting them coordinate.
The lightning forced immediate defensive reactions.
Some agents raised energy barriers. Others dispersed in evasive patterns. Frost, kinetic pulses, and shields flickered into existence.
That was enough.
While sustaining the storm, Richard vanished again.
He materialized behind two agents mid-movement.
"Earth-Shaking."
Four brilliant arcs exploded outward.
They didn't even turn in time.
The authentic blade cut cleanly through both, reducing them to uneven pieces before their powers could stabilize.
Flash.
He disappeared again.
Lightning continued to fall. Thunder rolled across the RV campground in relentless succession.
Screams joined the storm.
Electric cracks. Footsteps scrambling across gravel. Flesh tearing. Bone splitting.
The sounds blended into a brutal rhythm.
Richard moved through it like a conductor. The authentic sword became his baton, dictating tempo and crescendo.
Blood sprayed across vehicles. The metallic scent thickened the air. Severed limbs struck the ground with dull thuds.
The symphony lasted barely more than ten seconds.
Then—
Silence.
When the final lightning bolt faded and the echoes died away, every mutant agent lay dead.
Bodies were scattered across the campground in various states of destruction. Shock and regret were frozen into their final expressions.
Richard exhaled slowly.
He ignored the corpses.
Ignored Clarice's wide eyes.
Ignored Sabretooth's calculating stare.
He activated Plunder.
Notifications cascaded across his vision.
[New abilities acquired: Flame Control, Freezing, Rock Body, Energy Absorption, Ion Shockwave, Super Strength, Super Physique, Super Self-Healing, Beast Instinct, Enhanced Senses, Telekinesis.]
[Duplicate abilities detected. Initiating fusion.]
[Super Strength enhanced.]
[Super Physique enhanced.]
[Super Self-Healing enhanced.]
[Flame Control convertible to skill "Inferno." Convert?]
[Freezing can strengthen skill "Blizzard." Strengthen?]
Richard selected "Yes" immediately.
[Skill Inferno awakened.]
[Blizzard strengthened.]
[Blizzard – Level 3 (1/2000)]
[X-Gene abilities updated.]
[X-Gene Abilities: Plunder, Super Strength, Super Physique, Super Self-Healing, Flash, Mind Isolation, Mind Charm, Bounce, Rock Body, Energy Absorption, Ion Shockwave, Beast Instinct, Enhanced Senses, Telekinesis.]
Twelve mutant agents killed.
Eleven abilities acquired.
Several overlapped—Super Strength, Super Physique, Self-Healing—absorbed into existing frameworks.
Six truly new categories remained.
He barely glanced at them.
There was only one thing he cared about.
Dimensional Slash.
As that thought formed, the system responded.
[Mission "Son of the Devil (I)" completed.]
[Reward issued.]
[Skill Dimensional Slash awakened.]
Richard opened the skill panel immediately.
[Dimensional Slash – Level 1 (1/100)]
The description unfolded automatically.
[Dimensional Slash: A technique derived from Yamato. Distorts space around the target and continuously strikes with high-intensity slashes capable of tearing through dimensional boundaries.]
Richard's grip tightened slightly around the authentic sword.
Space distortion.
Dimensional severance.
The next stage had begun.
.....
Want to read ahead by more than 60 chapters. Then join my p@treon Right Now.
Link: p*atreon.com/BookReaderBoy (Remove the *)
Also Free members get 2 advanced chapters for Free as well.