"It's you! Little Red-!" Gyeong-mi gasped, clenching his wound to cut off the stream of blood gushing to the ground.
"It's me." Asher stood up, twirling his scythe-blade between his fingers. "Don't bother these guys. I'm keeping them alive for today."
Dino yanked the metal wires tied to his knives, snatching the weapons from the air as they sailed back to him.
The man's eyes widened as he saw the dents and bullet holes punched through the blades of the knives, rendering them completely useless.
He made a cautious hand gesture toward the woman in red.
"Was it the Chimère Office that paid you off?"
Little Red tilted her head, as if pondering her answer, then nodded.
The man continued. "How much did they pay you? We can triple that number if you leave."
Asher chuckled. Suddenly, he burst into cackling laughter.
His head twisted upward.
What a perfect opportunity to say 'I owe the Chimère Office my life'... Asher mentally shook his head, banishing those thoughts.
Although it would make for an interesting plotline, it would also open a whole other can of worms, especially with Mei.
'Be believable, come on.'
Luckily, with the way Little Red built her reputation over the past few weeks, coming up with a fitting reaction was pretty simple.
And it was even simpler with Asher's phenomenal acting.
Dino flinched as Little Red abruptly stopped her laughter, flicking her blade to point at the man's neck.
The woman lowered her head, just enough for the glint of her eye to reveal itself.
A sticky, overwhelming sense of bloodlust froze the Stray Dogs in their tracks.
"I don't switch sides," a snarl built in Little Red's throat. "One step closer and I'll rip you apart."
Gyeong-mi let a grimace slip past his expression.
But he was far too gone to turn back now.
Instead, the leader of the Stray Dogs turned his grimace into a grin as he pulled out a glowing purple syringe from his pant pocket.
Pumping the liquid inside himself, Gyeong-mi winced as a searing heat gathered at his elbow joint, regenerating his flesh with visible speed.
Little Red raised an eyebrow as the man clenched his new arm, tossing the empty syringe behind him.
The restored arm seemed to give Gyeong-mi a renewed sense of confidence.
"Well, that's too bad, Red. We had a nice partnership." The tattoos snaking around the man's dark skin grew and twisted into thorns, emitting a blaze of white light that lit the smoky air.
The Stray Dogs grinned as they each followed in their leader's footsteps, activating their augmentations well past their limits.
This was their finale, after all. Their last chance to make the Capo Killer suffer.
Soon, the previously dark street was brightly lit by a sea of molten crimson tattoos.
Asher smirked.
In his eyes, he only saw delicious, delicious experience points.
[Living Red (Dimmed): 92% until next upgrade]
[Mark: 94% until next upgrade]
Through his various deals with the Stray Dogs, nearly every one of the Syndicate members was marked. And surely Gyeong-mi and Dino's blood were satisfying enough for his living crimson cloak.
Gyeong-mi chuckled as Little Red stood frozen, deep in thought.
"Regretting it now, woman?"
Asher blanched. Excuse me?
"No, I was just thinking of the optimal way to soak my outfit with blood." He really was. "With that being said..."
The mercenary cast her gaze at the cobalt-blue moon.
"[Mark]."
Gyeong-mi flinched as the night sky began to weep with blood, dripping onto the moon to create a garish wash of crimson. That was what the marked targets saw.
At the same time, Asher growled, crouching down once again as his muscles and tendons compressed themselves.
[Choosing multiplier... x1.4! All stats will be multiplied by 1.4!]
[Duration: 3 minutes.]
Everything in Asher's vision turned into a shade of red.
*BOOM*
Asher pounced. His scythe-blade dragged behind him, etching into the street with a trail of blazing sparks as he flickered past Gyeong-mi and Dino.
Even the most perceptive eyes could only see a red blur, flickering behind its first victim.
Little Red's target crumpled like a ragdoll as his spine folded around a sweeping kick into his stomach.
The body crunched into paste against the concrete wall.
Instant death.
The tattoos on the dead man's body faded away, and the ink leaked out of his opened flesh.
A horrified silence fell.
Before the Stray Dogs could react, Asher crouched again, readying himself for another rabid dash.
A hollow whisper snaked out of his lips, almost silent.
"Three minutes left..."
A three-minute slaughter.
...
Sophie tore her hand away as the masked Don's sleeve whipped past her, leaving behind crackles of purple electricity.
She analyzed her surroundings as her body automatically dodged the barrage of attacks.
A few meters beside her, Sayako was busy dealing with some transparent threat. The former Dark Cloud Blade held back the invisible onslaught, slowly backing away to the roof's edge.
As Sophie flipped backwards to avoid another of the masked Don's sleeves, she noticed the remaining Don behind her.
The man's fingers were splayed out, and he was facing Sayako and the third Don with a pleading light in his eyes.
Apparently, he still wanted to make peace.
"Don't go after Sayako; if anything, we should focus on the Marionette first!"
...Or maybe not.
"Not cool, dude." Sophie clicked her tongue, twisting her neck to the side as the crescent-moon polearm thrusted past where her neck was an instant ago.
A bead of sweat dripped down the girl's cheek.
Fighting against two Dons was a bit too much for her, even with her abilities. She could tell that each Don's raw strength was higher than hers.
If she didn't have [Puppet Movements], she would have died by now.
"-!" Sophie winced as the masked Don's sleeve brushed past her skin. A faint stench of burnt flesh permeated the air as a layer of char developed below her skin.
Sophie didn't notice it then, but her calf was already black with burn marks. Even a mere touch of the electrified wire sleeve was deadly to the average person, almost like how a bug zapper was deadly to insects.
Faced with the assault of the two Dons, Sophie could not retaliate. If she did, she risked exposing herself to a counterattack.
A single misstep could kill her. After all, the two Dons in front of her were nearly half of the combat strength of an Urban Plague, the Kurokumo Clan.
Sophie filed that fact into her brain for later. Maybe it was still too early to go after Urban Plagues yet.
It took all her concentration simply to hold her ground.
A minute painstakingly passed, with countless close brushes with death.
Through monumental effort, Sophie's body was nearly untouched. Except for the burns on her calf, she was left unwounded.
Yet, exhaustion had begun to set in.
The girl's joints creaked, lubricated with a sheen of sweat that stuck to her skin like syrup.
Her dress glued to her skin, dampening her movements ever so slightly.
And that was enough for a single slip-up.
With a wince, Sophie received her second wound of the night. A deep gash sliced through her forearm as the white-haired Don's polearm tore past her.
Blood gushed down her skin, to the tips of her fingers. The wound was so deep that even her bones were exposed.
She couldn't go much further like this.
A dreadful certainty fell upon her.
The Dons were not worn down at all. Their skin was dry, and their breaths were languid. If they were tired, their relentless attacks certainly didn't show it.
The two Dons abruptly stepped back. The white-haired one gave Sophie an ultimatum as the masked Don stood in silence.
"You are not our target. If you give us the location of the Capo Killer, we can stop here. Before you die."
Sophie caught her breath as she thought about the man's words.
...
Asher blinked as another vision crossed his mind. Sophie asked him for his advice.
[You have killed a marked target! Progress for next upgrade: 97%]
"H-Hey! Fight us first, you bastard!" Gyeong-mi and Dino screamed at Little Red as the woman absentmindedly removed her hand from the chest of yet another Stray Dog.
Asher didn't respond, only crouching again.
Gyeong-mi let out a subconscious whimper. Each time Little Red crouched, one of his men would invariably die.
He had seen it happen, seven times in a row now. The mercenary was too fast; each of her movements was like a blur to him.
However, Asher's mind was elsewhere.
'Little Red, you take over for a minute. I have to talk with Sophie.'
With that, Little Red's soul was placed in control of Asher's body.
Asher could still sense stimuli from her body, and he could retake control at any time, but now his movements were on 'autopilot'.
Asher moved most of his consciousness to Sophie to discuss their next move.
"Hah... Hahaha!" Little Red laughed with relief as she clenched her fist, this time entirely from her own will.
Her hand drifted to the handle of her gun, then she stopped.
She wanted to savor this moment of freedom.
Her finger ran across her scythe blade.