404 Chapter 404: Battle Frenzy (1/2)
\”Awesome!\” Harvey looked as if he wanted to stay and watch me crush the Frenzor Assassin (which obviously wasn't going to happen – I wasn't some God Mode Mary Sue who could win against a surgically enhanced superhuman killing machine so easily), but I shook my head and gestured for him to leave.
\”Trust me, you don't want to stick around. You've done your job – a great job, at that. Leave the rest to us.\”
\”You sure abut this, kid?\” one of the mercenaries asked, still firing. The warrior beside him snorted.
\”You don't recognize Richard? He's worked with us before – fought alongside Captain Brent, Redfield and Ana. He's reliable enough. Hell, he might even be stronger than several of us.\” he then grinned. \”In case you forgot, he has a nuke spell.\”
\”That's not going to help us much unless you want to wipe us all out along with the enemy…\”
I didn't pay much attention to the bantering mercenaries because I was more worried about the Frenzor Assassin. Despite the heavy output of firepower they poured upon him, he somehow survived all that and was lunging forward.
\”Damn it! What a monster! He's not going down at all!\”
The mercenary closest to the Frenzor Assassin shouted before the line collapsed. The bleeding, battered Assassin hurtled forward into the firing lines of the Silver Wolves, his neuro-gauntlet lashing out to scythe through any soldier unfortunate enough to be cornered while firing his needle pistol into the retreating mass.
Luckily, the mercenaries' body armor managed to protect them against those small arms fire, but it stilled look like they hurt. I saw one of them get bowled over, groaning as he clutched his chest. If it weren't for the kelvar vest, those needle-like rounds would have imploded his torso. The Frenzor Assassin continued to bear down on the withdrawing mercenaries, swinging his claw-tipped neuro-gauntlet around. Even though a mercenary avoided getting slashed into ribbons, he was sent flying into the wall by the thick, muscular arm.
Another mercenary fell over, shot in the back by the berserk killer. His body armor preserved his life, but he was winded from the thunderous impacts. The Frenzor Assassin didn't miss that his small arms failed to slay his target, and swung his neuro gauntlet down to finish him off.
Clang!
The neuro gauntlet never reached him. The adamantium-tipped claws screeched against my Bai Ri, and then I tried to throw him back. The berserker glared at me from behind that eerie skull mask of his, his blood-red eyes gleaming maliciously.
There was no consciousness or intelligence in those dark eyes. He didn't recognize me or single me out specifically – to the psychotic killer, whose brain had been addled by the potent cocktail of combat drugs pumped artificially into his system, I was just another target, an obstacle that got in his way of exterminating the other targets.
He didn't even take me seriously. I could hear him snarling incoherently as he slashed at me, but I parried it with my crossed swords. His augmented strength pushed me back and I stumbled, but I bent my back backward to avoid a vicious kick that would have snapped my spine in half and pulverized my torso if it had landed.
Even with physical reinforcement spells strenghtening my endurance, I was not confident of surviving a direct blow from him.
The Frenzor Assassin also seemed to realize that I was no ordinary foe and he drew his power sword from his back, almost juggling it in his left hand. Whirling around, he slashed at me, and I instinctively dodged instead of parrying it with my two swords. Just as well, because his power sword – shimmering with a blue field of crackling energy – cleaved through the walls, slicing through the solid concrete as if it was nothing more than tofu.
\”What in the bloody hell…?\”
My jaw dropped as I cartwheeled a few paces back, trying to maximize the distance between myself and my enemy. The Frenzor Assassin didn't even have to yank his power sword out of the wall. The crackling, glowing blade was passing through the thick concrete as if it was water, leaving a massive line in its wake.
\”Holy fuck…\”
This wasn't just the destructive capabilities of the Frenzor Assassin's power sword. In order to wield a weapon like that, he must have the brute strength to back it up. Otherwise, even if I was equipped with an identical power sword, I still wouldn't be able to effortlessly cleave through the walls in the same manner as he did.
Just how juiced up was this guy? I knew that he was on insane steroids, but this level of strength was exaggerated! No wonder the Frenzor Sect was known as the most terrifying and strongest killers among the Assassins Guild. Having withnessed his raw strength firsthand, and not for the first time too, I couldn't help but shudder at the thought that there was practically an entire army of these monsters lying in stasis somewhere.
Unlike me, the Frenzor Assassin knew no fear (he should be a Space Marine then…) and his mind was too pumped up on aggression-inducing combat drugs for him to form even a single coherent thought. With a roar, he lunged forward and swung his power sword in my direction. Simultaneously, his neuro gauntlet came from another angle, trying to eviscerate me.
\”Ugh!\”
I ducked under the powerful blow from his sword while I parried his neuro gauntlet. Even though I was blocking a one-handed strike, the strength behind his blow was enough to send me hurtling several paces backward. I barely had any time to recover my breath when his power sword swung at my head, the psychotic killer attempting to decapitate me. If I hadn't arched my back and flipped away, I would have lost my mind there and then. In the literal sense.
Desperately, I kicked him in the jaw, putting my full body weight behind the blow. The impact was enough to jar him and send him staggering a couple of steps, but he otherwise shook his head and then returned his murderous gaze on me. Evidently he couldn't feel any pain. Now that I thought about it, that was precisely what allowed him to shrug off what would otherwise be incapacitating shots from the barrage of fire that the Silver Wolves laid down on him earlier.
Even so, I unleashed black and white waves of destructive mana to blow him back. It worked, momentarily, but he was back on his feet again and swinging his melee weapons wildly.
Fortunately, that bought me more than enough time to complete a summoning spell. In this narrow space, it was disadvantageous for me to summon any Constellation spirits to aid me – they would just get in my way or get slaughtered near instantly by the Frenzor Assassin. Furthermore, my more powerful Constellation spirits wouldn't be able to fit within the tight confines of the corridor anyway. They would just end up being caged.
I did have another option, though. The chibi Green Dragon appeared on my shoulder and pink Sakura petals danced around both of my blades. I directed the countless razor-sharp petals at the charging Frenzor Assassin, slicing through his black skintight synthetic suit and drawing spurts of blood. As ever, the berserker was immune to pain and unafraid of death, and he barreled right through the cloud of deadly Sakura petals, heedless of the damage his body was sustaining. As long as he could reach me, he could rip the life out of me.
That was more than enough for him. His only goal was to kill. His life was a small price to pay for eliminating whatever targets stood in his way. Additionally, he knew that he wasn't going to be able to evade my overwhelming maelstrom of Sakura petals in such an enclosed space, so his only option was to smash through it directly.
And he almost succeeded.
Before he could reach within five meters of me, I calmly twirled Hei Yue and conjured several vines that ensnared him. Wrapping around his four limbs and his body, the vines went taut as they struggled to restrain him, hauling him back and away from me, and temporarily immobilizing him. The Frenzor Assassin snarled and tore through the vines, ripping them apart without any apparent effort, but even so the binds had delayed him for a few seconds.