Level 2 Iai Slash

Richard, who had blinked away, did not continue attacking the nearby Mutant Agents. Instead, he blinked to the outer edge of the encirclement.

Before plundering Inessa’s Blink, his blink distance had only been around a hundred meters.

Now, his blink distance was over five hundred meters.

Judging by the numbers alone, a blink distance of over five hundred meters was not particularly far.

But for ordinary combat, this distance was already more than enough.

After blinking to the outer edge of the encirclement, Richard raised the Masamune in his left hand and casually swung it without hesitation.

Zanshin!

As the Masamune came down, six Crescent Moon Sword Qi formed from magical power flew from its blade and sped toward the Special Forces Members in front of him.

These Special Forces Members had indeed been carefully selected by the Department of Mutant Affairs from the United States military.

But before mutants skilled in combat, they were no different from Ordinary People with no military training whatsoever.

Not to mention Richard—even Sabretooth could easily harvest their lives as long as he got close enough.

The purple-outside, white-inside crescent-shaped "sword qi" reached the Special Forces Members in the blink of an eye. Like slicing through a cream cake, they effortlessly cut through their bodies, turning them into chunks of flesh of varying sizes.

After reaching Level 2, the Crescent Moon Sword Qi created by Zanshin not only flew faster, but also possessed greater cutting power.

The Bulletproof Vests worn by the Special Forces Members were no different from paper before the Crescent Moon Sword Qi.

With a single Zanshin, Richard killed six Special Forces Members.

After killing the six Special Forces Members, he blinked away once again.

Now that he could use Blink proficiently in battle, continuously blinking around and defeating them one by one was the tactic best suited to him.

Before long, gunfire and screams began ringing out from every corner of the RV Camp.

Although the mission required him to kill every mutant agent in the RV Camp, Richard was in no hurry to deal with them.

The system’s task deadline was one hour. He planned to clear out the Special Forces Members first, then deal with the Mutant Agents at his leisure.

That would also prevent the Special Forces Members from taking potshots at him from afar while he fought the Mutant Agents.

Clear the mobs first, then deal with the elite monsters, and save the boss battle for last! Though this was not a game, that did not stop him from using this tactic.

After hearing the nonstop gunfire coming from every corner of the RV Camp, Aiden, Belt, and the others guessed Richard’s intentions.

But figuring it out did not mean they had any way to stop Richard from killing the Special Forces Members.

Blink was indeed not an especially rare X-Gene Superpower.

But the problem was that none of them could use it.

More precisely, there were only two mutants in the Department of Mutant Affairs Los Angeles Branch capable of blinking.

One was Inessa, whom Richard had already killed. The other was the division head of the Los Angeles Branch.

Though none of them could blink, Aiden and Belt had long guessed that Richard would use it to pick them off one at a time.

Without any hesitation, Aiden immediately said to the agents guarding Sabretooth and Clarice, "Bring the two of them over here!"

Upon hearing his order, Sabretooth and Clarice were immediately brought before him.

Then, he grabbed Sabretooth by the shoulder and said to Clarice:

"Make Richard Wesley stop, or I’ll burn your adoptive father to death right now!"

At first, Aiden and the others had not been very clear on the relationship between Clarice and Sabretooth.

Though Sabretooth had long been on the Department of Mutant Affairs’ Wanted List,

the Intelligence Department had never known that Sabretooth had adopted Clarice.

More precisely, if Sabretooth had not happened to appear in a video filmed by restaurant customers, Aiden and the others would never have known he had come to California.

After speaking, Aiden immediately summoned flames, covering his right hand with fire.

Sabretooth’s shoulder was scorched by the flames Aiden had summoned, producing a sizzling sound like roasting meat.

If anyone other than Sabretooth had been scorched by those flames, they would already have been letting out miserable screams.

But Sabretooth proved through his actions what a true tough guy was.

Though intense burning pain came from his shoulder, Sabretooth not only did not scream, but even wore a disdainful expression.

Just as Clarice could no longer bear to see Sabretooth tortured and was about to speak as Aiden commanded, Sabretooth’s voice rang out.

"You think this little spark can threaten anyone? The fire I use to light my cigars is bigger than yours!"

Sabretooth taunted Aiden with utter disdain.

Upon hearing Sabretooth’s mockery, Aiden, already in a foul mood, immediately said, "Since you want to die, I’ll grant your wish!"

The moment he finished speaking, the flames burning Sabretooth expanded with a boom. Instead of scorching only his right shoulder, they now engulfed his entire chest.

Just as the flames began spreading toward Sabretooth’s neck and legs, Aiden suddenly remembered something and dispelled the fire around him.

"Trying to provoke me into burning off the collar around your neck?"

"Don’t even dream of it!"

"Once you’re wearing this collar, you’re nothing but an old dog!"

After saying that, Aiden kicked Sabretooth, whose chest and shoulders had been severely burned, to the ground, then turned his gaze to Clarice’s face.

"Your adoptive father gets burned, and you won’t speak."

"But if your pretty face gets burned, I refuse to believe you’ll stay silent."

As soon as he finished speaking, Aiden raised his right hand, and a small flame appeared on his index finger.

Just as he was about to use the flame on his right index finger to force Clarice to speak, Richard’s voice came from over twenty meters behind him.

"Using disfigurement to threaten an underage girl? Is everyone in the Department of Mutant Affairs as much of a scumbag as you?"

Though only a little over ten seconds had passed, that was enough time for him to kill every Special Forces Member on the perimeter.

Aiden ignored Richard’s mockery and summoned a fist-sized fireball in his right hand.

"Drop the sword in your hand, or I’ll kill her right now!"

Upon hearing Aiden’s threat, Richard smiled and shook his head.

He switched the Masamune to his right hand, gripped its hilt in a reverse hold, and walked unhurriedly toward Aiden as if taking a stroll.

Though he moved slowly, Aiden, Belt, and the others immediately became fully alert.

As Richard walked toward Aiden, he calmly said:

"This makes only two times that I’ve met her."

"I’m not stupid enough to throw away my weapon for someone I’ve met only twice."

"If you want to kill her, then do it quickly. Don’t waste everyone’s time!"

What? Upon hearing his words, Aiden, Belt, and the others, as well as Clarice and Sabretooth, all showed surprised expressions.

Though he did not know whether Richard was playing psychological games with him, Aiden did not waste any brainpower thinking about it.

Seeing that Richard had no intention of dropping the absurdly long Masamune in his hand, he decisively raised his right hand, preparing to attack Clarice with the fireball floating above it.

However, at that moment, Richard, who had been walking toward him, suddenly vanished.

Blink?

After seeing Richard disappear, Aiden and the others all thought he had used Blink.

But that was not the case.

What Richard had used was not Blink, but Iai Slash.

More precisely, Level 2 Iai Slash.

In the game, Sephiroth’s Iai Slash was an aerial version of Zanshin.

But the Iai Slash provided by the system was different from the one in the game.

Iai Slash: Dash forward as if teleporting, slaughtering the enemies before you with lightning speed

After testing it, Richard discovered that the Iai Slash in the Sephiroth Template was very similar to Vergil’s Rapid Iai.

If he had to name a difference, Vergil’s Rapid Iai involved drawing his blade from its sheath in a true instant.

The Iai Slash he had now mastered, however, required only that he hold the sword in a reverse grip because it had no sheath.

Slash! Just as Belt and the others vigilantly scanned their surroundings, guarding against Richard suddenly appearing nearby to attack them, Aiden, standing before Clarice, dropped to the ground with a thud.

Aiden’s right hand had been severed at the root, and his head separated from his neck, spraying blood as it flew high into the air.

Richard stood behind Aiden’s corpse, holding the Masamune in his left hand.