Six blurs rushed out from a nearby building where they had been hiding and reforming. Vogue’s newly created clones, already fully ford and transford into their dragon states.
They attacked the five soldiers from all sides simultaneously, surrounding them in a perfect circle. Each clone moved with the sa enhanced speed and power as the original, creating a coordinated assault that was impossible to defend against.
The soldiers tried to react, tried to bring their weapons to bear, but they were hopelessly outnumbered and outmatched.
Before Captain John could intervene with his telekinesis, before he could shield them or throw another vehicle, the six clones pressed themselves against the soldiers and activated their trump card.
"Explode!" all six voices shouted in perfect unison.
Six massive crimson explosions detonated simultaneously in a tight cluster, the overlapping blasts amplifying each other’s destructive power.
"KABOOM! KABOOM! KABOOM! KABOOM! KABOOM! KABOOM!"
The combined force created an explosion that dwarfed anything that had co before. A mushroom cloud of fire and smoke rose thirty ters into the air, the heat so intense it lted the asphalt in a perfect circle around the detonation point.
The shockwave expanded outward in a visible ring of compressed air. It shattered every window within a five-block radius, set off hundreds of car alarms, and knocked down street signs and traffic lights like dominoes.
Captain John was hovering twenty ters above the street, but even at that height he was caught by the edge of the expanding shockwave. He raised both hands and created his blue barrier just in ti, the protective shield forming a sphere around his body.
The explosion slamd into his barrier with trendous force, pushing him backward through the air. His feet skidded across the rooftop he’d been floating above as he was driven back several ters before he managed to anchor himself.
When the flas finally died down and the smoke began to clear, John lowered his barrier and looked down at the devastation below. His expression was completely blank, emotionless, but sothing dark flickered in his eyes.
The street was a crater. The five soldiers who had survived this long were simply gone, vaporized completely by the overlapping explosions. There was nothing left but blood splatter, scattered rubble, fragnts of bone, intestines spread across the pavent, severed heads and arms lying in pools of spreading blood.
Thirty trained soldiers had entered this area. Now they were all dead, killed by a single player within minutes.
John took a slow breath and processed the situation with cold tactical analysis. He was just one of many captains who had been briefed about the players and then dispatched to different areas of the city for what his superiors called "the cleansing."
He hadn’t expected to encounter such a troubleso player this early in the operation. Most players should still be weak, still figuring out their abilities, easy to eliminate with conventional military force.
But this one was different. This one was a monster disguised as a teenage boy.
John had lost all his soldiers, n he was supposed to develop into super soldiers through the hidden quest rewards. Each death of a player was supposed to grant experience and enhancent items that would be distributed among his squad, gradually transforming them into enhanced warriors.
Now they were all dead, and all those potential rewards were lost. It was infuriating, though his face showed nothing but cold calculation.
He turned his full attention toward Vogue, who was climbing out of the storefront he’d been thrown into, brushing glass and debris off his shoulders.
"You’re seriously annoying," John said, his voice flat and emotionless despite the fury burning in his chest.
Vogue smirked at him, blood dripping from a cut on his forehead that was already healing. "In your next life, you wouldn’t be so stupid and arrogant, thinking anyone can be killed easily. I’m the reason why people fear strangers."
John’s eye twitched slightly, the only visible sign of his anger. "Just die!"
Veins popped up across his forehead and temples, bulging visibly as he channeled massive amounts of ntal energy. His face turned slightly red from the strain. He spread both arms wide to his sides in a dramatic gesture.
Instantly, a massive building behind him started to shake violently. The entire structure, at least ten stories tall and taking up half a city block, began to tremble. Windows shattered from the stress. Cracks spread across the facade like spiderwebs.
Then, impossibly, the entire building began to rise into the air.
Dust and debris fell from its base as it lifted off its foundation with a grinding, shrieking sound of tortured tal and concrete. The building rose higher and higher, ascending behind Captain John like the world’s most terrifying puppet.
The structure rotated slowly in mid-air, repositioning itself until its longest side was facing Vogue. John was using his telekinesis on a scale that seed impossible, lifting thousands upon thousands of tons of concrete, steel, and glass through sheer ntal force alone.
His arms trembled from the effort, sweat pouring down his face. Blood began to trickle from his nose as he pushed his ability beyond its normal limits. But his expression remained cold and determined.
"Let’s see you regenerate from this," John said quietly.
Then he thrust both arms forward.
The entire building dropped from the sky, falling toward Vogue like the hand of an angry god descending to crush an insect.
The shadow of the massive structure covered everything, plunging the street into darkness. The building’s descent created a roaring wind that kicked up debris and smoke. It was accelerating as it fell, gaining montum, tens of thousands of tons of mass moving with increasing velocity.
Vogue looked up at the descending building, his eyes widening as he calculated the impossible physics of what was about to hit him. Even his regeneration had limits. If he was crushed completely into paste and scattered across a city block, could he co back from that?
He didn’t want to find out.
"Ti Warp: Reversal!" Vogue roared.
The massive cosmic clock appeared in the air, its golden hands spinning backward. Ti began to reverse around the falling building.
The structure slowed in its descent, stopped, and then began rising back upward as ti flowed backward. It was returning to the mont before John had lifted it, when it was still sitting on its foundation.
But John had been expecting this. He’d seen Vogue use ti manipulation before.
"Not this ti!" John roared, and his aura exploded outward in a wave of blue energy.
The temporal reversal shattered like glass, broken by the overwhelming force of John’s willpower and energy output. The building stopped rising and imdiately resud its descent, falling even faster than before.
Vogue gritted his teeth and made a split-second decision. He couldn’t stop it. He couldn’t reverse it. He couldn’t block it.
So he would have to survive it.
"Dragon Form! Dragon Might! Black Sun! Pain Nullification Override!" He activated every enhancent he had simultaneously, pushing his body to its absolute maximum capability.
His transformation completed in an instant. Silver scales covered his entire right side. His wing burst from his back at full size. His horn grew long and curved. His right arm beca a complete dragon claw. His muscles expanded to their limit.
Vogue didn’t hesitate. Ti was against him, and he needed every advantage he could get against an attack of this magnitude.
"System!" he commanded ntally. "Upgrade Killing Edge Axe Technique by two grades! Now!"
[Upgrade Killing Edge Axe Technique from Human Grade to Earth Grade?]
[Cost: 1,000 Pain Points]
[Confirm?]
"Yes!"
[Upgrade confird]
[-1,000 Pain Points]
[Killing Edge Axe Technique upgraded to Earth Grade]
But Vogue didn’t stop there. One grade wouldn’t be enough. Not for this.
"Upgrade again! To Sky Grade!"
[Upgrade Earth Grade technique to Sky Grade?]
[Cost: 10,000 Pain Points]
[WARNING: This will drain your remaining Pain Point reserves]
[Confirm?]
"Do it!"
[Upgrade confird]
[-10,000 Pain Points]
[Pain Points remaining: 1,690]
Imdiately, the technique underwent a fundantal transformation. The crude fighting style evolved, refined itself, transcended its original limitations. The technique’s na changed as it reached a new tier of power.
[Killing Edge Axe Technique has evolved into: Revolving Star-Moon Blade Technique (Sky Grade)]
The new technique contained four distinct moves, each one vastly more powerful than anything in the original set:
First Move: Sky Cleave - A vertical slash that could split the heavens themselves
Second Move: Severing Moon - A horizontal cut that could bisect celestial bodies
Third Move: Sun Rupturing Slash - A diagonal strike that could tear through stellar bodies
Fourth Move: Supernova - The ultimate technique, a slash that embodied the explosive death of a star
Instantly, knowledge flooded into Vogue’s mind like a dam breaking. Advanced blade techniques, refined movents, perfect angles of attack, muscle mory patterns burned directly into his brain.
It felt as though he had practiced these moves for more than ten thousand years, repeating them billions of tis until they beca as natural as breathing. His muscles rembered motions his conscious mind had never perford. His body knew exactly how to move, how to position, how to strike for maximum effect.
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