He was physically tired.
He was wounded. Bruised. Cut.
He was mentally exhausted.
Yet he pulled himself together when he felt yet another surge of peril with Primordial Instinct.
WHOOSH
The assassin was stealthy.
Rui could feel the misdirection even as he approached.
Unfortunately for the assassin, Rui's mind was extremely difficult to misdirect. On top of that, his senses were extremely powerful. On top of that, Riemannian Echo was indirect sensing.
He was so resistant to being misdirected that Kane had stopped bothering to use Void Step when sparring against Rui. It was simply useless. At this point, he doubted whether any misdirection in the Senior Realm could even affect him.
Unfortunately for the assassin, the reports that the M had given them did not entirely capture how resistant to misdirection Rui was.
That was why he was waiting.
Waiting for one of the assassins to finally use it against him.
All so that he could pretend to fall for it and launch a trap at the opportune moment.
WHOOSH!
Rui evaded an assassination technique at the last moment, meeting eyes with him.
'Phantom Pain!'
BAM BAM BAM!!!
Caught off-guard, Rui managed to pound him with several blows.
"Rrrgrhh!!!" The man grimaced under the sheer pain from the technique.
Ordinarily, he would have retreated and immediately opted for guerilla warfare tactics. Yet the sheer pain from Rui's blow almost caused him to vomit what he had eaten for breakfast!
He shivered, trying to break out of a pseudo-paralysis caused by the ungodly hellish pain.
Yet he was a beat too late.
BAM BAM BAM!!!
Rui pinned him to the ground with a mounted position.
Murderous rage radiated from him, sending chills down the assassin's spine.
He didn't even bother going for a chokehold to finish it off as cleanly as possible.
BAM!!!
His fist crashed into the assassin's face.
CRACK!
"AAATRGRAHRGWGHHR!!!!" The assassin howled with excruciating agony as his nose was crushed under a single blow.
He shivered and shuddered with pain. His eyes flashed around, rolling backward as he tried struggling discordantly.
"I'm not a sadist."
The air grew perilous.
A deep, dark wave of bloodlust erupted from within Rui.
It was suffocating.
"I'm not a sadist…"
Rui's expression was murderous.
"…But your suffering does bring me joy."
Rui conjoined his hands into a single hammer fist, raising it high into the air.
"No…" Fear entered the assassin's eyes.
BAM!!! BAM!!! BAM!!!
SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT!
Fire Breathing. Hypertrophic Surge. Outer Convergence. Reverberating Lance. Adamant Reforging.
The weight of these five techniques drove his fist down with titanic power.
BOOM!!!
BOOM!!!
BOOM!!!
Soon enough, the howls of pain ceased. Perhaps it was because the man's vocal cords had snapped with all the screaming.
Perhaps it was because the man couldn't breathe, drowning in his own blood.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!!
Each impact caused a visible reaction in pain.
Yet, with each impact, they ceased.
BOOM!!!
The man's fingers twitched.
His face…he no longer had a face.
Where his face was was now a bloody, crumpled layer of flesh.
"Huff…" Rui panted heavily when he was done. His expression grew ugly as he beheld his own handiwork.
Yet he felt much better, having vented his frustrations at recent happenings on the hapless assassin, beating him within an inch of death.
It was cathartic. It also brought him back to his senses.
He was exhausted from the bottom of his body.
BADUMP…
His Martial Heart had dimmed tremendously since he started fighting. He had less than ten percent of his reserves left. It was to be expected. Not even he could fight off so many high-
grade assassins without using everything that he had to offer.
Suddenly, something changed.
The air changed.
He felt a deep sense of danger.
Deeper than any of the others he had faced thus far.
A whiff of a strange scent entered his nose.
A profound odor tickled his nose.
It was not ordinary.
His eyes widened as his pupils dilated.
His body grew excited.
A primal masculine urge flushed through his mind.
The blood pumping from the tachycardia of the Martial Heart was redirected to his groin as it swelled up, standing stiff and taut.
A gentle feminine whisper graced his ears.
"You've fought well."
STEP
She arrived before him.
There were no red lines streaked across her Martial Body, yet her Martial Heart was very much active. Her Martial Heart magnified the passive and active seduction-hypnosis techniques. It massively empowered the pheromone-
production metabolism of her body, producing enough to seduce an entire town of men instantly.
And it was effective.
Her dark skin was luscious. Her voluptuous bosom and hips. Her well-endowed Martial Body. All of it, designed to enchant the male gaze, hypnotized men who beheld her. Literally and metaphorically.
"You are tired."
Her feminine angelic voice was soul-soothing.
"You are hurt."
It was addictively comfortable. Men could lose themselves in it forever.
Many men had.
"It's ok," A seductive smile bloomed on her face as she reassured him, putting a hand on his chest as it slowly lowered to his hips.
Her touch was electric.
It was the trigger.
The trigger to commence her assassination.
Rui stumbled forward with widened eyes as his hands reached forward, cupping her beautiful face and her wide hips.
He stared into her beautiful golden eyes, leaning in.
Yet he didn't kiss her.
A single remark escaped his mouth.
"You're ugly."
Her body shook with shock.
Her eyes widened, stunned.
An expression of pure bewilderment appeared on her face.
Not once in her life had anyone ever uttered those words to her.
Yet she was unable to get angry.
The reason for that was simple.
She was too dead to be angry.
SPLAT!
"…Eh?"
She grew confused as the world suddenly lowered before spinning.
It was only when she saw her headless body standing before her assassination target's arm extended to his side, covered in her blood, that she realized what happened.
He had beheaded her with a single swing of his arm.
