In his werewolf form, Jugo stood nearly three ters tall. With a casual swipe of his hand, he tore apart the ceiling of the floor above. Kaito noted that the claws on the werewolf radiated a crimson light. He hadn't even touched the ceiling, yet the concrete slab and steel rebar between the two floors had been shredded by a ranged attack.
This guy is strong.
Jugo looked down, saliva dripping from his jowls. He took in the sight of the two n. "So, you're the two little fish that got away from us," he sneered. "You should have cherished the life you were given, yet you dare to co back here to die. How pathetic."
He took a step forward, advancing on Kaito.
"Be careful, Jugo! That guy is no pushover!" Basha yelled, leaning against the wall. She calmly applied a hemostatic spray to her severed arm, her eyes locked on Reed. She and Jugo were a practiced team. She didn't need to say another word; she knew he was going to break the enemy line by killing the stronger one first.
Reed hadn't expected to be standing before his mortal enemies, only for them to completely ignore him. The humiliation made his resentnt boil over, and his cursed energy surged, his pupils turning completely black. He suddenly raised his hand, a thick, dark cursed energy gathering, and then flung it at Basha.
Slice!
The werewolf, Jugo, intercepted the attack, his arm instantly corroding and dripping blood where the cursed energy struck.
BOOM!
At the sa instant, Basha's shotgun roared, blasting Reed and sending him flying. A talisman on his chest flashed and then shattered, absorbing the blow. Reed, his expression still dazed, crashed through the opening the cursed spirit had made and fell from the building.
The core mbers of [The Fifth Elent] were not just strong; their teamwork was flawless.
The werewolf, seeing Kaito just standing there, motionless, couldn't help but laugh. "What's wrong, kid? Scared stupid? You're not even going to take an opening like that?"
Kaito calmly watched the werewolf, whose attributes almost certainly surpassed the limit-break threshold. The destructive force of his casual swipe was almost comparable to his own Rakshasa's Palm. And he clearly had a powerful regenerative lineage. Interesting…
"Has anyone ever told you," Kaito said, rolling his neck with a smile, "that you talk too much?"
Jugo had been about to mock him further, but he froze. This freak with the unbelievably ugly avatar was mocking him? And about his trash-talking… the one thing his teammates always complained about.
Jugo's face instantly darkened. He flexed his right hand, his claws glinting, and his knees bent. His inhuman muscle structure coiled, and a terrifying power gathered in an instant.
"Any last words, kid?" Jugo couldn't control his trash-talking; it was part of his bloodline. It gave him superhuman vitality and wildness, but it also cost him his rationality and self-control.
Kaito's body trembled slightly, his muscles and bones letting out a series of sharp cracks. Faced with the werewolf's taunt, he just bounced on his feet twice, then sank his center of gravity, beckoning to the werewolf with his left hand.
"Tsk, tsk…" he said, the sound one would use to call a dog.
In that instant, Jugo felt all the blood rush to his brain. He could no longer restrain his killing intent. With a burst of power far exceeding 20 points of Strength, he exploded.
BOOM!
The floor shattered, leaving a two-ter crater. His body had vanished.
Kaito's pupils contracted, focusing. The werewolf was already in front of him, its right claw raised high, slashing down in an arc clearly ant to tear him in two.
But in that fraction of a second, Kaito's breathing changed. A white mist seed to appear before his mouth and nose as he took a massive breath. His muscles vibrated, and his body instantly responded. He stepped forward with his left foot, but his torso bent down, lowering his center of gravity to a point that seed to defy the laws of physics.
Kaito could feel the wind from the giant, crimson claw as it shrieked past his face.
SLICE!
The wall behind him was torn apart like paper, leaving massive claw marks.
The werewolf's attack missed, and he instantly tried to recover, but the man on the ground was already moving like a serpent, flowing under his guard and appearing behind him. Kaito raised both his palms, striking the werewolf's lumbar spine and thigh.
[Niko Style - Redirection Kata - Weeping Willow]!
An irresistible force erupted. Jugo felt his own forward montum betray him, completely uncontrollable. His own explosive power, combined with his opponent's, sent his body spinning horizontally out of control.
CRASH!
The werewolf flew straight through the very hole in the wall he had just created, plunging down dozens of stories into the street below.
Basha's pupils contracted. She couldn't believe that the powerful Jugo had been defeated in a single move. Her heart sank. With a single flick of her left hand, her shotgun was reloaded. She spun around, and at the sa ti, a blue portal opened in the air behind her. This was a rare item she had acquired, a [Portal] from a certain ga world. It had limited uses after a costly recharge, but it had saved her life and allowed her to counter-kill her opponents multiple tis.
Now, she planned to do it again.
BOOM!
The entire floor beneath her suddenly collapsed. Basha, who had been perfectly calm, suddenly panicked. Her steady left hand trembled for the first ti.
BANG!
Her shotgun fired, but the blast hit nothing. In the next instant, the air shrieked in front of her. Her opponent's figure was a long, distorted, blurry after-image.
So fast! was Basha's last thought.
SPLAT!
[Sage Art - Devil Lance]!
A shower of golden Hamon sprayed through the air. Kaito's hand pierced the woman's chest. The talisman on her body flashed for a second before shattering. With his Constitution now at 18 (with Hamon active), Kaito no longer had to worry about his own hand breaking. He clearly felt his palm pierce her chest, and the internal power of the technique vibrated, instantly liquefying her internal organs.
The woman's heart exploded. Kaito yanked his hand back and threw her body from the collapsing floor.
A figure, climbing the glass wall of the skyscraper like an insect, his Cursed Energy corroding the surface, saw her fall. He let out a shriek and launched a blast of energy, which struck her body in mid-air, dissolving it. A foul rain of blood and flesh fell to the street below.
[Your teammate, BS88565547 (Basha), has died.]
The werewolf, having just crashed to the ground, was already tearing at the wall of the building, climbing rapidly back up. But the crimson notification that appeared in his vision made him freeze. He lost his grip and slid back down.
"Basha… is dead?"
Jugo felt a searing pain in his scalp and spine, as a cruel truth he didn't want to accept pierced his final defenses.
"Gr… GRAAAAAAAAAH!"
The werewolf's howl of pure agony echoed through the dead city.
[Bat], who had been circling above, arrived just in ti to see the notification of Basha's death. His heart stopped. He imdiately landed on a nearby roof and tried to contact his captain.
"Boss, we have a problem! Boss?!"
There was no reply from the radio, only static. The fear he had been suppressing now exploded. He rembered the other plot characters who had entered the city from another direction. The boss had told them to let that group pass. Back then, he had still been able to contact Kai and Old Ghost. But now… the line was dead.
"WOOOO!"
A terrifying wolf-howl thundered below. [Bat] understood his partner's grief, but he knew that losing one's cool now was a fatal mistake. He gritted his teeth and leaped from the building, gliding back into the air. He saw the werewolf, his eyes glowing red, his body swelling even larger, pulling himself up the building. Jugo had gone completely berserk.
"Jugo, calm down! Jugo!" [Bat] shouted over the comms. "Wait for to get you coordinates…"
CRSHHH-TZZT…
He heard the sound of the radio being crushed. [Bat] watched helplessly as the giant werewolf tore its way through the building's outer wall, re-entering the unstable combat zone. It's no use. He's completely gone…
[Bat] was suddenly overwheld with panic. He pulled out another javelin and threw it at the other figure he saw climbing the glass wall, but the target instantly dodged inside the building. [Bat] didn't dare follow. He could only circle outside, his mind racing.
Jugo burst into the wrecked floor, swiping his claws. The crimson light from his attack, the [Soul-Scattering Iron Claw], instantly shredded the corpse of the bird-like Cursed Spirit.
"CO OUT!" he roared.
"YOU COWARD! CO OUT AND FIGHT !" Jugo had lost all reason, a true, rabid wolf. He began attacking the building itself, shattering load-bearing columns.
Kaito listened to the commotion. A grin touched his lips. He calmly grabbed the crimson card that had floated up from Basha's point of death.
[You have killed Reincarnator BS88565547 in a Team Arena world.]
[Karma Point 1. Current Total: 3]
[The private space of Reincarnator BS88565547 has been rged with your private space. You may view it upon returning to the Nexus.]
[You have obtained 1 Crimson Drop Card.]
Kaito stood on the collapsing floor below, looking up at the raging beast. He clapped his hands.
Clap! Clap!
Jugo's ears twitched. He heard the sound and looked down through the wreckage.
Kaito held up the Crimson Drop Card, waving it at the werewolf.
"The woman," he said, his voice laced with amusent. "She was pretty good."
This was the final blow that shattered the last thread of Jugo's sanity.
"ROOOAAAAAAR!" he howled, and launched himself from the broken floor, his claws swinging in a wide arc. The crimson energy from his attack sliced through the entire skyscraper, cutting it clean in two.
Kaito lightly leaped away, curling his body into a ball as the building began to collapse around him. He heard the thunderous roar of the tower falling, and then, with a weightless tap of his foot, he jumped out the side of the building.
"DON'T RUN!"
With a howl that seed to co from hell itself, the werewolf, his eyes blank white, broke his own limits. He kicked off the empty air, rocketing down from the sky, and actually managed to catch Kaito in mid-air.
The building collapsed.
BOOOOOM!
Everything was swallowed by dust and debris. [Bat], circling helplessly above, could only stare, not knowing what to do.
~~~
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