Plunder.
After killing the pale-faced male agent who looked like he had just walked out of a hospital ward, Richard didn't hesitate for even a second. He activated his core ability immediately, not giving the corpse time to cool before extracting what he needed.
[New ability: Teleportation!]
[Ability of the same type detected. Initiating fusion!]
[Teleportation enhanced!]
[Teleportation level increased. Current level: Alpha!]
The notifications streamed through his consciousness in rapid succession. Richard didn't waste time savoring the upgrade. He opened his attribute panel at once to verify the changes for himself.
As expected, the Beta-level Flash had vanished from the list.
In its place stood Alpha-level Teleportation.
Including the newly acquired ability, he now possessed five Alpha-level X-gene abilities. The total number of powers hadn't increased, but the qualitative shift was undeniable. Teleportation, especially at Alpha-tier, was fundamentally superior to the limited Flash he had relied on before.
By the time he finished confirming the fusion, the teleporter's severed remains finally hit the grass with dull, wet thuds.
Only then did the female agent—whom Richard had identified as the tactical weak point—react.
Gravity Binding.
Although she couldn't pinpoint Richard's exact location, the ability she cast blanketed a circular area roughly twenty meters in diameter. The activation was violent and immediate.
Boom.
With her as the epicenter, the ground within that radius sank ten to twenty centimeters in an instant, as though an invisible mountain had descended from the sky. Soil compacted, grass flattened, and loose stones were crushed into the earth under the sudden amplification of gravity.
She was fast.
Richard was faster.
Before the expanding gravitational field could clamp down on him, he triggered the teleportation he had just acquired and enhanced. Space folded seamlessly, and he reappeared beside a massive tree over a hundred meters away.
Interestingly, unlike the pale agent's displacement, Richard's teleportation produced no strange black mist. Whether it was the result of the Alpha upgrade or a difference in individual mutation expression, his movement was visually clean.
From an outside perspective, it was indistinguishable from the Flash he had used before. Unless he explained the mechanics, no one present would realize he was no longer using short-range displacement.
The Red Devil, Nightcrawler, and the now-dead agent had all left distinct visual traces when teleporting. Crimson smoke. Indigo bursts. Black vapor. Compared to them, Richard's teleportation was stripped down to pure function.
He preferred it that way.
After evading the gravity restraint, he did not immediately counterattack. Without the teleporter to interfere, eliminating the remaining two was simply a matter of execution timing.
Still, the atmosphere shifted.
The surviving male and female agents' expressions grew heavier after witnessing how effortlessly Richard had neutralized their teammate. Jean and Logan, observing from a distance, also grew visibly tense.
The three agents hadn't been thrown together at random.
They had formed a fixed capture unit shortly after joining the Mutant Affairs Department, specializing in apprehending high-threat mutant targets that ordinary field operatives couldn't handle. If the military had an equivalent, they would be classified as special operations.
Now that unit was broken.
For a team built on precise division of roles—tank, control, mobility—the death of even one member introduced a structural flaw that couldn't be patched mid-battle. And on a battlefield, flaws translated directly into casualties.
They didn't understand why their teleporter had failed to escape at the final moment. There had been no visible restraint, no external interference they could identify. But neither of them allowed confusion to paralyze action. The giant male agent and the gravity manipulator immediately shifted into contingency mode.
They still possessed combat capability.
The problem was containment.
Without the teleporter to restrict Richard's movement and force positional mistakes, pinning him down became exponentially harder. Even with gravity binding, landing a decisive trap would be difficult.
Unlike them, Richard did not hesitate.
After confirming that Alpha-level Teleportation functioned seamlessly and without the range restriction of his former Flash, he launched his next attack.
His target: the giant male agent.
Teleportation.
In a blink, he appeared mid-air behind the towering figure.
Shock the Sky.
Four lightning-fast slashes cut downward in rapid succession, aimed directly at the giant's head. Because of the massive height difference, Richard chose this aerial four-strike technique rather than his standard ground-based combinations.
Shock the Sky mirrored Earth-Shatter in structure, but it was optimized for vertical execution. All four cuts descended from above, designed to sever neck and skull in one continuous burst.
The giant reacted with startling instinct.
Despite his size, he moved with an animal's reflex. His enormous body bent low, then twisted into a side flip that defied expectations for someone of his mass. The maneuver allowed him to evade most of the incoming arcs.
Most—but not all.
One authentic blade edge carved across his back, leaving a nearly one-meter-long wound that tore through thickened flesh.
Compared to decapitation, it was minor.
More troubling was what followed.
The wound did not bleed heavily. The moment blood surfaced, tissue began knitting itself together at visible speed. Muscle fibers reconnected, skin sealed, and within seconds the gash had shrunk significantly.
Richard immediately revised his assessment.
The giant's mutation was not simple size augmentation. His transformation enhanced durability, strength, and regenerative capacity simultaneously. He wasn't just bigger—he was fundamentally reinforced.
While the giant twisted to avoid Shock the Sky, the female agent cast Gravity Binding again, attempting to catch Richard mid-air.
Without the teleporter to lock him in place, however, she remained a step behind.
Richard vanished before the intensified gravity field could envelop him.
This time, though, her expanded tactic produced an unintended consequence.
In an attempt to increase her probability of trapping him, she expanded the binding radius to fifty meters. The larger the area, the weaker the gravitational amplification, but she had no alternative. A narrow two-meter trap would never catch him.
When the field activated, it caught someone.
The giant.
His massive frame slammed into the ground under gravity amplified hundreds of times. The soil cratered beneath him as he was forced to one knee.
The moment she realized Richard had already escaped the perimeter, the female agent canceled the ability. She didn't allow her teammate to endure the crushing pressure longer than necessary.
Freed from the intensified gravity, the giant rose immediately. Instead of scanning for Richard, he moved directly in front of the female agent and positioned himself as a shield.
The gesture was instinctive and almost gentlemanly, given the chaos.
It did not alter Richard's objective.
Prison Gate and Black Magic Crystal Summon were not especially overwhelming abilities in isolation. They were far from the higher-tier techniques he had been contemplating—Heartless Angel, Declaration of Fate, Supernova, or the One-Winged Angel form. But mission value wasn't measured by spectacle.
He would not abandon this objective.
Mind Transmission.
Richard teleported to a position slightly over twenty meters in front of the two remaining agents. He stood calmly, blade lowered but ready, gaze steady.
"You two aren't just ordinary colleagues, are you?" he asked evenly.
His tone carried no mockery, only assessment.
"If there's anything you want to say to each other, I suggest you say it now. Otherwise, you won't have another chance."
.....
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.