"I trust you, Boss."
Alice replied immediately with a firm nod.
"What do we need to do?" Lia asked, her expression determined.
Rei turned to Leo since he knew where he sat.
"Bastard, don't look at me." Leo rolled his eyes. "Of course, I am with you."
"I can't look. I am blind," Rei replied with a smile before taking a deep breath. "They inspected our ship, so they will soon find our location and get our faces, which we can't allow to happen."
"I have made this plan with the worst-case scenario in mind, which means that one of the leaders of this planet is Xander's ally. So, follow the instructions, and we may escape."
…
In the next two minutes, Leo used his ability to subtly mess up their database that kept recording. However, cameras were still working but weren't storing the recordings in the database, and all existing data was corrupted.
Afterward, all four left the room.
Alice, Lia, and Leo left the hotel and approached the nearest station according to Rei's plan.
Meanwhile, Rei alone returned to their spacecraft with Amby's help while talking with Terrana.
"Rei, if you enter the spacecraft, those two people keeping an eye here will immediately notice you and might target you," Terrana said.
Rei walked into the hotel lounge and soon reached the exit.
'Thanks, buddy. I would've been troubled without you,' Rei replied to Amby, who had sat on his head and directed Rei as they both communicated.
Amby was an animal, but above that, it was a phantom creature with higher intelligence than normal animals.
Rei received where to walk and avoid incoming people with Amby's help and quickly reached the spacecraft.
As he reached there, Rei instantly felt gazes on him and also people taking pictures due to his ability, 'He Who Sees Through.'
However, he didn't pause and continued walking before entering the spacecraft.
"They've noticed you and also took pictures," Terrana said with a grave expression.
"Doesn't matter," Rei grinned as he walked towards the emergency pods. "Prepare all four escape pods of this ship. I am entering one of them.
"Next, start the spacecraft and set its autopilot with your instruction to float it near the station and continue to maintain a simple connection with it. Direct our pod near the station as well."
*Badam…*
Suddenly, Rei felt a tight squeeze in his chest, and a faint image of a black crown appeared in his head. The same one that he saw when he opened the mailbox last time and came out of it like some sort of illusion.
"What the fuck is this now?" Rei cursed, shaking his head to remove this image from his head. He had to leave and start his plan for his and his gang's survival!
"What happened?" Terran asked.
*Squichhh?!*
"It's gone," Rei said while using his hands to feel the escape pod. "Open this pod and prepare. Amby, take Terrana's core after she finishes with auto-pilot instruction to crash it."
"People might die if the government didn't evacuate them," Terrana said.
"I don't care. Quickly do it," Rei said with his pod's door open. "And come here with Amby."
"Understood."
After ten seconds, Terrana finished everything and ejected. Amby grabbed Terrana's core on its fluffy tail before it flew towards Rei and sat on his lap.
"Let's begin."
…
"Someone went inside the spacecraft, Leader Lu. What do we do?"
Leader Lu (Fatty Lu): Xander is coming there. Leave the matters to him and focus on your tasks.
Subordinate A: Umm, the spacecraft suddenly started.
Subordinate B: and four escape pods also launched from it.
Leader Lu: Idiots! Stop it. How did they know we were on their tail?
Subordinate A: We underestimated them. Our tech is not the highest there is, after all.
Leader Lu: Whatever, since they left through the pods, then locate them and capture them. Wait, you said only one person entered the spacecraft, right? Then why four pods?
Subordinate A: Yes. He wanted to distract us and succeeded. We don't know which pod is his.
Subordinate C: Sir, the people that left that spacecraft are four, and we found the room they booked. But they are not here. The hotel's database is also ruined somehow, so we can't know how they look. But I'll try to find them by asking people.
Leader Lu: Hurry up! As for the ship, instruct a battalion and make it surrender. And since it's on auto-pilot, take it under our control.
…
Xander stood on the parking lot as he watched the ship floating up while the four escaped pods that left it went in two directions before separating further.
'Mark of Prey.'
Calmly resting his hand on the straight sword at his waist, Xander used his Quirk.
Xander turned toward where he sensed his prey's location and narrowed his eyes. 'Station.'
Xander immediately called Lu Deitris.
"My prey is going to station. Track the escape pod flying there and tell your subordinate to give me a fast bike."
…
"Will Rei reach us in time? I am worried," Lia said as she, Alice, and Leo stood in line to enter the spaceship, leaving for another solar system.
"Yeah. He also can't see anything because of his Taint," Alice said, getting antsy all over.
Lia and Alice didn't want to leave Rei alone, especially with his Taint activated. But Rei was severely stern and didn't give them time to say anything.
He planned to board the travel spaceship and escape with others. They got the tickets, but it would launch in six minutes, and Rei said that this spaceship was their only chance to escape without the enemy knowing.
If all four went together, Rei suspected that it would lead to their instant capture, so he had to make distractions, and if possible, he also wanted to get rid of Xander for good.
Leo was silent with his fists clenched. "All we can do is wait for Rei's instructions. We will be needed, so stay ready."
Suddenly, uproar started as people saw a spacecraft approaching at a very low altitude. A bunch of flying bikes and air-combat vehicles were trying to stop it.
Since Lu knew it was on auto-pilot, he decided to subjugate the ship with their tech by piercing it with a weapon and invading it to stop it.
Alas, he didn't know that it was a modified ship connected to Neo Artificial intelligence.
…
"Disable the pod. We will crash the pod in that garden near the station," Rei said. He could also see his spacecraft floating near the station. 'They won't dare to attack it anytime soon.'
"Understood," Terrana's core blinked as she replied, her voice coming from Rei's comm watch as she connected her communication channel to it.
He was using information that the enemy had against them. It was clear that the ship was on auto-pilot, but he could still control it with Terrana for a simple task, or rather a gamble.
A few people were relaxing in the garden, but they quickly ran away when they saw a pod approaching them, ready to crash.
*Dhooff! Ckhrrree….*
The pod crashed in the garden.
*Vroom!*
Just as Rei got out of the pod, his eyes twitched intensely.
'What's happening?' Rei felt and focused before soon finding that his First Seal's characteristic was screaming.
Soon, he saw something through his [Phantom Eyes] characteristic.
A faint shadow of a man was not visible clearly, but behind him were five floating common wraiths, all looking different but same creepiness.
"How will you escape now?" Xander indifferently asked before unsheathing his sword.
"So you still caught up, eh?" Rei stretched his arms after coming out of the pod. "I guess I am really in a bad pinch."
Xander was observing Rei since arriving here and shook his head. "You are weak, at least statistically. So I hope you can make this hunt more interesting with your fighting skills."
"If only these damn eyes could see." Rei grinned. He took a card from his pocket and activated it as it became his weapon.
Sword-Katana, Piercing Judge.
"Interesting sword," Xander commented before calmly moving forward.
'Amby, use Peace Shot on this guy,' Rei instructed, hoping to buy some time.
Xander also saw the squirrel on Rei's head but ignored it, for it was too weak. He knew about phantom creatures, but this was not worth mentioning.
However, Peace Shot was a 100% accuracy skill.
Amby's eyes glinted reddish-pink before it shot a pair of hearts that instantly hit Xander's mind.
'A mental-type skill?' Xander frowned as he started feeling wobbly.
The killing intent he was producing and the preparation for battle was vanishing.
*Sheeen!!*
Xander saw Rei's blade instantly extending while feeling the effect of Peace Shot.
*Creeee! Clank!*
But his hand moved quickly as he parried the extended blade.
"Damn, you parried it?" Rei exclaimed. "Cool."
Xander's expression turned dark. "This mental-type skill affecting me will not save you."
"I didn't bet on it, so don't worry," Rei replied instantly before attacking again.
Soon, flurries of clashing blades resounded in the garden.
Rei had no other choice but to go all out in offense. He could only faintly see Xander's shadow and not his sword. So he could only attack that shadow without holding back and preventing Xander from initiating attacks on him and keep him far.
However, the one being pushed back was Rei! Xander slowly moved close while dodging and defending to erase Rei's advantage of extending the blade.
'Freak! I thought I was good, but this bastard…' Rei increased his offense, fully focused and reaching his limit.
He only had time to think since he was on the offense, but that would soon disappear.
However, he had already made a plan and hoped to succeed.
While they were fighting, Amby entered phantom mode and killed those common-rank wraiths attached behind Xander!
[20 Phantom energy gained.]
[29 phantom energy gained.]
[25 phantom energy gained.]
But Xander's defense also went up a notch, and he started parrying stronger, slowly but surely coming closer!
Peace Shot's effect was wearing down!
"Good. I can see the desperation in your moves," Xander said, being able to talk during the fight, which showed his superior sword mastery compared to Rei!
Rei was fully focused as he had to keep Xander away from him since Xander's sword was a normal sword; it couldn't extend. However, Xander was gradually approaching him like an unstoppable force.
Xander's physical strength was also higher than Rei's, on the same level as Alice's. However, Xander's offense was off the charts with his sword; each of Xander's parries was putting pressure on Rei instead!
"It's getting boring," Xander uttered, his eyes gleaming with faint red.
If he hunted the prey he marked, he could absorb his prey's life force, increasing his lifespan. He would also get Hunter's Trophy that he could store and whenever he wants to buff himself.
Of course, he could only mark five prey per month, and this month was ending with Rei being 5th prey.
Or so he thought.