Gun-Fu

"Miss Fubuki!"

Lilith cried out in alarm, raising both hands as a blue barrier condensed in front of Fubuki. Loka and Short Hair had just risen from the ground when they shouted—

"Watch out!"

Bang!

Two bullets arced through the air, trailing white streaks as they pierced Lilith’s chest.

Crack—pfft!

The two bullets, curving in from opposite sides, accurately struck the same point before Lilith. The first shattered her ranged-attack protection talisman, while the second punched a hole straight through her chest.

The woman’s face turned pale, shock lingering in her eyes as she collapsed weakly. The scent of blood instantly thickened.

Lily of the Three-Section Staff crawled out from the driver’s seat. Ignoring her concern for Lilith, she quickly rolled over to Fubuki and dragged her backward.

The man in the white suit stood around six feet tall, lean rather than bulky, yet his muscles were smoothly defined, giving him a sharp and capable air.

A black-sheathed katana hung at his waist. He lowered his hand and adjusted his black-rimmed glasses, making no further move against Fubuki.

"Mercenary Tao, you disappoint me. To think you’d mingle with Reincarnators of this level."

His voice was cool and detached, and he clearly had no fear of Mercenary Tao’s Fierce Reputation.

Bai Cangshu shook his head, his muscles and bones crackling.

It was as though he had not seen the woman who had previously spoken up to "persuade" Saitama get shot and collapse. With a flicker of his gaze, three figures had already been marked by Gaze of Arrogance.

The suited man who had attacked Fubuki with white lightning, the fat man holding a pair of silver-white pistols, and the red-robed woman with her eyes closed and hands spread open, seemingly using some sort of ability.

"It’s Soul Mage Shiro. They’re the 5569 Squad!"

Loka knew far more than Bai Cangshu about the various squads in the Second Tier. As he swiftly replaced the ammunition in his submachine gun with special armor-piercing, explosive, and poison-coated rounds, he began running and fired at the man wielding twin guns.

The intelligence on the 5569 Squad was far from complete. The only thing widely known was that their team included a Title-level Reincarnator who used soul-based spells—Shiro.

Their other members changed frequently, so they were generally considered weak.

Though Loka was furious over Lilith being attacked, he had not lost his reason. Almost instinctively, he chose to attack their weakest member.

Short Hair’s eyes narrowed at the same time as he unleashed Mental Shock.

His target was the red-robed woman with her eyes closed.

But in the next instant, Short Hair’s head jolted violently. Two streams of blood ran from his nostrils as he opened his eyes in astonishment.

"Her Mental Power is far greater than mine…"

The red-robed woman opened her eyes as well, meeting Short Hair’s gaze. His vision instantly went black, and he fell flat on his back.

The moment Loka’s attention wavered, bullet trajectories flashed past his ears.

His two submachine guns were actually being suppressed by two pistols.

The enemy’s bullets had been imbued with some kind of power. Every shot seemed to predict his position, and after only a few shots, his ranged-attack protection had been shattered.

Bang!

A sudden cold shot rang out. Bai Cangshu’s left hand seemed to vanish, only to abruptly appear beside his left cheek.

A spinning bullet was caught between his two fingers. Beyond the force of gunpowder propelling it, the bullet carried an intensely rotating force.

Gun-Fu—an impossible technique in the real world, yet naturally real within the Infinite Dimensional Space.

Bai Cangshu tilted his head. The heavyset man in the jacket felt his heart skip a beat, while Mercenary Tao curled his lips into an exceptionally cruel smile.

"Watch out!"

The red-robed woman spoke. The fat man codenamed Hirano’s pupils contracted as his trembling gaze swiftly focused. A figure nearly two meters long appeared before him, its fist like a black serpent, utterly unlike a human arm.

Hirano’s Gun-Fu enhancement belonged to Gun-Fu Beta, a type of Gun-Fu favored by users of short firearms. Though he specialized in shooting, his martial arts were not weak.

His heart raced, and adrenaline surged through his body.

To deal with the high-speed charging Reincarnators that shooters feared most, Hirano had constantly spent Singularity points on specialized training at the Cultivation Institute.

All so he could adapt to this kind of high-speed close-range assault.

Hirano crossed his hands, pulled both triggers, and lowered his body.

Bang! Bang!

The instant he fired, he flicked his wrists, and the bullets began spinning fiercely.

God’s Right Eye lit up between Bai Cangshu’s brows, making the spiraling trajectories clearly visible. He was moving so fast that the air dragged all his hair straight behind him.

At the same time, because of Mantra, Bai Cangshu had a crystal-clear grasp of every movement these people made.

That was why he had marked them with Gaze of Arrogance the moment they met.

After witnessing the anomalies Tatsumaki and Saitama created within Mantra, Bai Cangshu’s logic for judging strength had become simple and clear.

He believed the most fundamental trait of a strong person was that they could not be captured or seen through by his Mantra.

Any Reincarnator whose movements could be completely captured by his still-immature Mantra was, in his eyes, nothing more than a weakling, no matter how great their reputation.

Bai Cangshu slightly turned his head, and the bullet grazed past his temple. The distance was exquisitely calculated—close enough to scrape his skin and trigger the effect of Flame Dragon Scales, yet not enough for the bullet’s impact to injure his brain.

Pfft—

The bullet deflected away. Hirano’s heart merely sank. He could not see such details; he only felt that the shot had felt strangely off.

Whoosh!

In the next instant, Radiant Flame ignited across his body.

Hirano’s skin burned painfully. Panic rising in his heart, he immediately slid backward. It was a special technique of gunners—he slid more than twenty meters, and with a tap of his foot, he had already opened the distance.

But in the next moment, he discovered in shock that the distance between himself and Mercenary Tao had not changed at all. His opponent had likewise raised his toes and slid across the ground using only his heels.

One advancing, one retreating—their movements were perfectly synchronized, and the distance between them remained unchanged.

Mental Shock!

From the moment Hirano broke off from suppressing Loka and suddenly fired at Bai Cangshu, to Bai Cangshu instantly closing in, the shift between offense and defense had taken only a few breaths.

Only then did Melisandre react. Her eyes widened as she looked at Mercenary Tao.

Boom!

Bai Cangshu’s body paused, and Hirano immediately leaped backward.

Bang!

Almost at the instant he jumped, the bullet had already struck Mercenary Tao between the brows.

Headshot Strike!

One of the Wandering Gunner’s abilities, this attack guaranteed a hit on a vital point.

As Bai Cangshu’s head snapped backward, his left hand pointed through the air at the fat man in midair.

Hum—

The golden Dodon Ray tore through the air in an instant.

Shiloh had remained where he was, watching his two teammates fight. At this moment, he raised two fingers and chanted rapidly.

"Pride of the heavens, iron walls, dragon stride, lion’s roar, tiger’s howl, wolf’s charge—before the collapse, sever heaven and earth. Binding Spell #81: Danku!"

A white barrier instantly flared to life, and the golden blast struck it, erupting in a violent explosion.

Amid the spreading smoke, a woman’s terrified scream rang out.

"Ah!"

It lasted only half a cry before vanishing amid the dreadful sound of flesh being torn apart.

Shiloh’s expression changed. With a wave of his hand, he saw Melisandre’s terrified head, along with more than half her body, being held in the bloody Mercenary Tao’s hand.

Melisandre had actually been torn apart by hand before she could even deploy a defensive barrier?!