Vogue himself landed twenty ters away on the side of the Vogue Fashion building. His fingers dug into the brick wall, claws extending from his dragon-transford hand. He hung there on the vertical surface using nothing but his finger strength and nothing else, his body parallel to the ground far below.
With squinted eyes, he glanced at the center of the explosion. As the wind carried away the thick smoke, his gaze hardened when he saw the results.
Of the three tanks, only two had exploded completely. They were nothing but twisted tal and burning wreckage, completely destroyed. But the one which Captain John had been standing in hadn’t exploded at all.
There was a shimring blue barrier surrounding the tank in a perfect sphere. The barrier had absorbed the full force of the explosion without even cracking. Inside the protective do, Captain John stood with one hand raised, clearly the source of the defensive technique.
Five soldiers beside him had also survived, protected by being within the barrier’s radius when it activated. Their expressions showed shock and fear at how close they’d co to death.
All the other soldiers had been ripped to shreds by the combined explosions. The street was littered with body parts. Heads, skin, bones, intestines, all scattered across the pavent in a grueso display.
Captain John’s eyes were filled with pure rage when he saw the carnage. The barrier faded as he lowered his hand, the blue energy dissipating into nothing.
John placed his other hand behind his back and his body imdiately started to float upward, defying gravity. He rose out of the tank’s hatch smoothly, ascending until he was hovering twenty ters in the air, perfectly level with where Vogue clung to the building.
"You killed my n," John said, his voice carrying clearly across the distance. "Therefore, you must die."
Vogue stared at him in silence for a long mont, his red-silver hair whipping in the wind. Then he spoke, his voice calm despite the situation.
"You’re not a player. Why did you try to kill ?"
John’s expression shifted slightly, sothing almost like amusent crossing his features. He shrugged, a casual gesture that seed wrong coming from soone floating in mid-air.
"I don’t mind telling you since you’re about to die anyway. There’s a hidden quest, just like the ones you players get. When we kill humans who haven’t beco radiants, we get small rewards. But when we kill players?" His smile widened. "We get even better rewards. Experience, equipnt, special items. The system encourages us to hunt you."
Vogue’s face paled slightly as the full implications hit him. This Omnibus System was just too cruel, wasn’t it?
It was turning two different groups of people against each other, forcing them to fight for survival and rewards. The system had created a scenario where locals would hunt players and players would hunt each other, all while radiants killed everyone indiscriminately.
It was seeing which group would survive, which strategy would prove superior. It was simply too devious and calculated. It was as though a pair of gods had put these chanics in place just to watch humans fight and battle each other for their entertainnt and for minor rewards.
Vogue sighed deeply and murmured, almost to himself. "The weak get eaten and the strong get stronger. It’s always been that way."
Then he looked directly at Captain John and his voice hardened. "It’s a pity you t ."
John’s stoic face suddenly smiled, a cold expression that didn’t reach his eyes. He raised his hand toward the street below.
Imdiately, a small car on the ground began to shake and then lifted into the air, defying gravity just like John himself. The vehicle twisted and compressed, tal shrieking as it was reshaped by invisible force.
Within seconds, it had ford the rough shape of a massive blade, half a ter wide and three ters long, with jagged edges made from torn tal and broken glass.
Two more cars rose up and underwent the sa transformation, creating two additional improvised blades that hovered beside the first one.
The three massive tal weapons floated beside Captain John like loyal servants awaiting commands.
"Pity, you say?" John spoke with a raised eyebrow, his tone mocking.
Then all three blades suddenly shot forward, launching at Vogue with the speed of arrows fired from a bow.
Vogue kicked hard against the wall with both feet, his dragon-enhanced leg strength creating a crater in the brick as he launched himself away. The first massive blade stabbed directly into the spot where he’d been clinging just a millisecond earlier, punching through the wall and embedding itself three ters deep into the building’s interior. Chunks of brick and concrete exploded outward from the impact.
Vogue twisted in mid-air, controlling his trajectory as he fell. But the second massive blade was already surging toward where he was about to land. Captain John had predicted his movent perfectly, positioning the attack to intercept him when he was most vulnerable.
Vogue pulled out his enhanced Nevulium machete with his right hand as he fell. The mont the tal blade ca within range, he slashed outward, activating Falling Star to maximize his cutting power.
"Shing!"
The enhanced machete, reinforced with Nevulium essence, cut through the twisted car-blade like a hot knife through butter. The massive weapon split cleanly in two, the separated halves spinning away in different directions before crashing into the street below with trendous clangs.
But the third blade was already upon him, it sliced horizontally right through his midsection, cutting completely through his torso.
Except there was no resistance.
It had passed through nothing but Vogue’s afterimage, a visual echo left behind by his incredible speed. The real Vogue had already moved, his Big Dipper Step creating multiple false images that confused targeting.
The actual Vogue landed hard on the street, one hand touching the ground to absorb the impact. His red-silver hair whipped around his face as he imdiately locked eyes on his true targets.
The five surviving soldiers who had been protected by John’s barrier were trying to regroup, taking defensive positions behind the wrecked remains of their destroyed tanks. They raised their weapons the mont they saw him land.
Vogue didn’t give them ti to aim properly. He activated Ti Step, and the world slowed down around him dramatically. At the sa ti, he pushed Dragon Might and Black Sun to their maximum output simultaneously.
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