Chapter 199: Working on it

Kyle knew one thing for certain: he wouldn’t be leaving this house without a fight. They were here for him.

The fact that they had blocked the signal waves meant they had come prepared and weren’t opponents he could afford to underestimate.

Even if the base couldn’t contact him, it would take about half an hour before they believed something was actually wrong, and another fifteen minutes to arrive here.

Forty-five minutes.

That was how long he had.

"Who sent you?" he asked, tapping his chest plate and feeling the familiar warmth of the barrier surrounding him.

The one seated on the couch, who appeared to be the boss, replied, "It’s pretty common knowledge, man. Hitmen like us can’t reveal our client’s name."

Kyle hummed thoughtfully. "Well, I can make a pretty good guess."

Ava was the first person that came to mind. He had heard enough rumors about her to know she hated failing to capture a target.

And Kyle had become an exception, even if there had been valid reasons for it. He had revealed his secret, and the Central Authority had personally ordered her to back away.

Still, expecting rationality from people who tortured children for fun was like bashing your head against a wall.

Utterly pointless.

"Now, now. Don’t start daydreaming in the middle of a battle. You don’t want to get impaled and call it backstabbing." The man said before gesturing toward the other person in the room. "That guy will do his best not to kill you, but he’s a bit of an erratic one, so be careful."

Kyle narrowed his eyes at the man standing nearby.

Even though he stood perfectly still, his fingers twitched occasionally. The naked bloodlust pouring from him made his intentions painfully obvious.

’Alright, let’s see...’

Without relying on the system, Kyle activated God’s Eye and focused on assessing the man before him.

In the past, he would simply ask the system for a status window.

Now, he was trying to gauge his opponent’s strength on his own.

The attempt ended in failure.

No tabular data appeared before him. Instead, a faint reddish hue surrounded the man.

A warning.

A shade of danger.

"Alright, enough talking."

The standing man spoke for the first time and took a step forward.

Kyle immediately tensed. Instinct took over as his hand moved toward the blade holstered at his waist.

The two men stood facing each other, each holding a blade in their hands, eyes locked.

Kyle narrowed his eyes, composed his breath and then,

"Kyahahaha!" The man laughed hysterically and charged at him at an impossible pace.

Kyle barely had the time to react so he simply moved to his left and jumped lightly to completely get out of the arc of the blade.

*SLASH*

And yet, he felt something brushing against his barrier.

The man didn’t slow down.

He pivoted mid-laugh, blade reversing in his grip, and came back around in a tight arc aimed at Kyle’s throat.

Kyle ducked under it, felt the rush of displaced air above his head, and drove his elbow into the man’s ribs as he passed.

Solid. The man had mass behind that lean frame.

"Ooooh, he dodged! He actually dodged!" The man spun on his heel, grinning like a child who’d just discovered fire. "Most people just freeze! You’re not going to freeze, are you? Please don’t freeze, I’d be so disappointed."

Kyle didn’t answer. He tracked the blade hand. The footwork. The weight distribution.

’Come on. Slow down.’

He pushed through God’s Eye, reaching for that familiar crawl of perception where the world stretched and every micromovement became readable.

Nothing.

The man feinted left, cut right, and buried the blade into Kyle’s side.

The barrier caught it with a dull *thrum*, absorbing the force, but the impact still shoved him half a step back. The man stared at his own knife like it had personally offended him.

"What is that." He pressed his palm flat against Kyle’s ribs and shoved the blade harder. The barrier held. "What is that? That’s not fair. That’s genuinely not fair, I had the angle perfect."

Kyle grabbed his wrist and twisted, breaking the grip, and put a knee into the man’s stomach before shoving him back.

The man stumbled, caught himself on nothing, and laughed again.

"Okay! Okay, I see. You’ve got a trick." He rolled his neck, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet. "I like tricks. Let me show you one."

He moved, and this time Kyle genuinely lost him for half a second.

The blade appeared at his forearm. Then his collarbone. Then dragged across his back in three rapid passes, each one precise and deliberate.

The barrier flared with every hit, a warmth spreading through the chest plate, and Kyle spun, parrying the fourth strike with his own blade in a shriek of metal that lit sparks between them.

The man leaned in close, eyes too wide, breath steady like he was on a gentle morning walk.

"You’re parrying. That means you can see me." He sounded genuinely delighted. "Can you really see me? Or are you just guessing?"

Kyle pushed him off and slashed across the space between them. The man swayed back just far enough for the blade to miss, then immediately surged forward and drove a knife into Kyle’s shoulder joint, twisting it.

The barrier strained but held.

"Aw." The man’s smile faltered for just a moment. Then he headbutted Kyle square in the face, stepped back, and tilted his head like a curious dog. "How thick is that thing? I keep hitting you and you keep standing there. It’s very rude."

Kyle’s vision swam from the headbutt. He blinked it clear and settled into a lower stance, blade raised.

Think. He’s faster. Don’t match speed, match timing.

"You’re quiet," the man observed, circling him slowly. "The quiet ones are always the interesting ones or the boring ones. I’m very nervous about which one you are."

He lunged again, no laughter this time, pure forward motion with the blade aimed low at Kyle’s thigh.

Kyle stepped into it rather than away, let the strike glance off the barrier at a deflected angle, and slashed across the man’s forearm in return.

First blood.

The man stopped.

He stared at the thin line of red across his arm, his expression thoughtful and unhurried.

Then a slow grin spread across his face.

"Oh, good," he said quietly. "You’re the interesting kind."

His body coiled like a spring.

Genesis began gathering around him at a frightening rate.

There was no doubt about it. He was charging himself far beyond anything he had shown until now.

The amusement on his lips faded, settling instead in his eyes as they narrowed with murderous intent.

The man seated on the couch tensed.

"This fucker..."

He rose halfway from his seat, but it was already too late.

The other man had become a blur, his figure dissolving into a shadow as he shot forward at a speed the human eye couldn’t track.

A speed capable of breaking the sound barrier in a short burst.

If he struck his target at that velocity, the fight would end instantly.

A deafening boom exploded through the room as the assailant flashed past Kyle.

Kyle’s hair fluttered.

His body shifted slightly.

His fingers twitched.

Nothing more.

Then the third man saw it.

"C-Charlie?"

His companion’s body split apart.

The bisected corpse tumbled to the floor, breaking into several pieces as blood sprayed across the room.

The hunter was hunted.

°°°°°°°

A/N:- Thanks for reading. Drop a comment.