"If anyone should be groveling, it's you, begging for my forgiveness. Not only did you torch my office, but now you're here, messing with my business. Honestly, I have no reason to let you live. But…" Agaret smirked, his voice almost teasing. "Seeing your power, I'll make you an offer. How about you work for me?"
He seemed utterly indifferent to the charred remains of his office, even the ashes of important documents. It was clear none of that mattered if the man standing before him would agree to join forces.
"You think I'd stoop so low as to work for a piece of trash like you?" the man sneered. "You should be thanking God I'm merciful enough not to cut off your head right here and now. Honestly, I'm too morally upright to kill scum like you… but not every beast gets to walk away alive. And you?" He let out a chilling laugh. "Your odds aren't great. My sword doesn't always play nice."
"Big words from someone too scared to show their face," Agaret mocked, narrowing his eyes.
"My face is too handsome for the likes of you. If you saw it, you'd just die of envy. Letting you see my face before you die? That'd be way too kind. You don't even deserve to know my skin tone."
"You cocky bastard! Just like that mutt, Legis. All bark, completely delusional, and in the end, just another worthless corpse rotting in the gutter!" Agaret's voice dripped with disdain.
In a flash, a purple blade cut through the air, aiming to sever Agaret's head in one swift motion.
*Clang!*
A metallic arm shot out from Agaret's back, blocking the blade just in time. The high-frequency sword, sharp enough to slice through reinforced steel, failed to penetrate Agaret's mechanical appendage.
"Touched a nerve, huh? Legis must've been important to you," Agaret taunted, his grin widening. "Want to know how he died? It was pathetic—not even enough left of him to identify. Just a pile of meat. If I hadn't seen it myself, I wouldn't have known it was him. Hah!"
Agaret's laughter turned manic as a jet-black aura burst from his body. His muscles swelled, tearing through his clothes, and his eyes turned pitch black. He strapped a device to his head, covering the upper half of his face. The gadget connected directly to his brain, granting him a vision field akin to having eight eyes.
The mechanical arms—spider-like limbs forged from ultra-durable metal—moved with lightning speed. Agaret's presence became monstrous, his bulked-up frame crouching low like a predator preparing to strike.
"I'm not like those weaklings outside. And I'm nothing like Avid with his half-baked mods!" he roared, lunging at Asic with blinding speed. His black aura enhanced his reflexes and senses beyond human limits.
As Agaret closed in, his eight mechanical arms attacked simultaneously. Each spear-like limb thrust with deadly precision. Asic, still holding back his Overclock ability, parried all eight strikes with his high-frequency sword—barely. The eighth strike came dangerously close to piercing his heart.
"Hah! One sword against my eight arms? Let's see how long you can last!" Agaret snarled, increasing the speed of his attacks. Asic had to either dodge faster or push his limits further.
Channeling black lightning through his body, Asic fired a grappling hook to the second floor, trying to create some distance. But Agaret's spider limbs let him scale the walls effortlessly, keeping up with Asic's agility. The man's enhanced legs and nearly indestructible implants made him a relentless pursuer.
[Analysis complete: Agaret's combat power is equivalent to a late-stage Miner 4-star. His implants are constructed from Cadanium by XXXXX Corporation, integrated with model XXXX chips. Maximum attack speed: 166 kilometers per hour. Cutting through his implants with the current sword is improbable.]
[Probability suggests Agaret has undergone Genotype modifications. Likely Spider Giant or Tarantula model. Physical capabilities exceed human norms by 231%. The device on his head expands his field of view, enabling detailed tracking of Master's movements,] OC reported.
Asic's grimace deepened. At least OC could pinpoint the manufacturer of Agaret's equipment, proving these weren't ego-based powers but expensive tech. The real challenge lay in the Genotype technology.
Genotype involved extracting DNA from powerful monsters and engineering it into gene-editing serums. Recipients gained traits resembling those of the creatures. For instance, a Kangaroo model granted immense kicking strength, while a Cheetah model provided incredible speed. Agaret's spider-themed enhancements explained his monstrous strength and the ferocity of his spider limbs.
"OC, write a countermeasure program for Agaret. Now."
[Understood, Master. Compiling countermeasure program based on current combat data and database information,] OC responded. Asic felt his brain heat up, as if feverish, even without activating Overclock.
Within minutes, OC completed the program and uploaded it directly into Asic's neural system. Asic's movements became startlingly precise, anticipating Agaret's patterns effortlessly.
Agaret's manic grin faltered. "Just as I thought. You're adapting too fast… just like when you fought Avid. But your swordsmanship? That's on a whole other level."
Watching from a nearby room, Avid and Ejin exchanged uneasy glances. This was a completely different Asic. When he had fought Avid earlier, he hadn't even drawn his sword. Now, he wielded it with terrifying skill.
Avid's memory flickered to a tragic incident over twenty years ago—a criminal organization had kidnapped over 20,000 children for bio-enhancement experiments. Most had perished, their bodies unable to withstand the modifications. Only a few hundred survived, many sold as living weapons or rescued just in time. The survivors were known as Hades' Children.
The more ruthless and bloodthirsty they became, the harder it was to maintain self-control unless they were given explicit orders. In return, their combat prowess and sensory perceptions would be temporarily enhanced to extraordinary levels. Each individual had their unique totem, which could range from a knife, a gun, a hammer, or even something as mundane as a pencil. For the mysterious man clad in black, his totem was clearly a sword.
When he wielded a sword, it awakened the dormant instincts of the genetically modified human within. His heart rate skyrocketed, his physical responses sharpened, his thought processes accelerated, and every sensory input surged with unparalleled intensity. His combat capabilities practically doubled, but the cost was a loss of control, turning him into a killing machine obsessed with annihilating his target.
"Unlike the others from Hades' Children, he doesn't seem to have gone berserk," Avid observed. He had encountered several survivors from Hades' Children, and almost all of them struggled to function in everyday life. Many were plagued with psychological trauma or hallucinations. Those who weren't confined to psychiatric hospitals often turned to violent crime.
"A guy like this, helping a kid? The reason he didn't use his sword against me back then wasn't that he was holding back. He didn't want me to die… how insulting," Avid muttered, bitterness twisting his features. The memory of Asic's measured actions made him feel nauseous, as if he were being pitied by someone he never sought mercy from.
Meanwhile, Ejin watched the ongoing battle with bated breath, his heart pounding. The man was fighting to save him, and if he lost, Ejin's hope of rescue would be gone. Naturally, he rooted for Asic, indifferent to whatever transformations his savior underwent.
"Please, win… don't lose," Ejin prayed silently. The longer Asic fought, the more his skills evolved. Once, Asic's Asra energy had barely reached double digits, but now it had climbed to twenty-five. With the sword, his totem, it surged to an astounding fifty, albeit temporarily. The overwhelming power coursing through him made control difficult.
"Looks like you're not using your full potential," Agaret chuckled darkly, his eyes narrowing. Despite Asic's immense energy, it seemed like he wasn't utilizing it effectively. It was as though he had the power to perform level 40–50 skills but stuck to weaker moves in the level 5–10 range.
"If it's not because you don't know how to use it… then maybe your body has already hit its limit. Am I right, little pup?" Agaret sneered, channeling his Asra energy into his spider-like mechanical arms. The arms' strikes grew faster and deadlier, forcing Asic to focus intently on their movements. Even a single lapse in defense could result in a fatal wound.
"The human body, no matter how much it trains, has limits. Implants are the only way to surpass those limits—not just human limits, but the limits of living creatures! Human arms will never be as fast as mechanical ones, and no matter how sharp your eyes are, they'll never match the capabilities of my implanted optics. Every move you make is within my sight. If I wanted to turn you into Swiss cheese, I could."
"You talk too much. Two kinds of people piss me off the most: those who brag without getting to the point, and those who yap endlessly without taking action. If you can do all that, then show me. I'm too tired to keep listening."
"!!!" The insult stung Agaret deeply. His boasting, as Asic pointed out, was nothing more than hot air. Now that Asic challenged him, he was determined to deliver.
Agaret commanded his mechanical arms to operate at full capacity. The spider limbs had four speed levels; up until now, he had been using level three. He activated level four, the highest setting, which demanded immense energy and cognitive focus.
The eight spider limbs unleashed their full potential, moving so fast that the human eye couldn't follow. Only those with advanced optical implants could even glimpse their movements. Security cameras captured nothing but blurred images.
Just as everyone thought Asic would be torn to shreds, his amethyst eyes began to glow.
"Overclock Miner… Overclocking activated," OC announced.
The response time of every neuron in Asic's body accelerated. His muscles, pushed to their limits, screamed in protest. His grip on the purple katana tightened until blood seeped from his hands.
This was the first time Asic activated Overclock while wielding a sword. His heart thundered in his chest, as if on the verge of bursting. His brain burned with the intensity of its hyper-accelerated processing. Pain coursed through every fiber of his being.
**Chrono Arts, 3 Seconds Time Fold,**
**Azure Dragon School: Progenitor Wu Jin Style Martial Fusion Mastery**
The roar of a black dragon reverberated through the air as Azure Dragon energy surged into the high-frequency blade. Asic used the first two seconds of Temporal Compression to parry all of Agaret's spider-arm strikes. In the final second, he thrust his blade toward Agaret with precision.
**Sky Dragon Fangs!**
Agaret's enhanced vision caught the movement, albeit faintly. It wasn't time manipulation but sheer speed that gave the illusion of a temporal void. His optical implants barely tracked Asic's moves. Despite his spider limbs being too slow to counter, Agaret managed to leap back, creating distance.
As he thought he had escaped, Asic's grappling hook fired, latching onto Agaret's chest with pinpoint accuracy. Agaret's expression twisted in rage and shock as Asic closed the gap.
With a fierce thrust, the purple katana pierced Agaret's chest, surging black lightning into his core. The overwhelming current short-circuited every implant in Agaret's body, leaving him paralyzed and vulnerable.
"What happened to all that confidence? Your so-called unbeatable implants couldn't keep up," Asic mocked, his tone icy and unrelenting.
"Hmph!" Agaret's enhanced eyes caught glimpses of the movement. While it wasn't clear, he realized Asic's ability wasn't actual time manipulation but sheer speed so extraordinary it created the illusion of time vanishing. His implanted eyes barely tracked the blur, and the processor chip in his brain struggled to compute fast enough. His eight mechanical arms, damaged and sluggish from earlier strikes, couldn't retract in time. Agaret leapt backward, trying to widen the gap between himself and Asic.
Just as he thought he had escaped, a grappling hook fired from Asic's wrist. It latched onto both of Agaret's shoulders with impeccable accuracy. His expression twisted, shifting from confidence to raw disbelief.
"You bastard!" Agaret roared, his voice laced with fury. Asic pressed a button on the device, reeling himself toward Agaret with immense force. The sheer momentum sent the man in the black coat hurtling toward his opponent. With an unrelenting thrust, Asic's sword, imbued with the combined force of Azure Dragon energy and black lightning, plunged into Agaret's chest.
The impact sent devastating electric currents coursing through Agaret's body. Every implant short-circuited, unable to withstand the overwhelming energy. Even the highest-grade Cadanium components in his body failed to resist the surge. Agaret's limbs convulsed uncontrollably, his body paralyzed from the shock.
"Damn it!" Agaret's mind screamed. The unexpected power of the attack was threefold what he had calculated. His spider-like reflexes dulled by at least ten percent, a seemingly insignificant number but enough to spell his doom in this critical moment.
"What's the matter?" Asic taunted, his voice calm yet dripping with mockery. "You look like a washed-up loser. Weren't you bragging about your 'ultimate implants' a moment ago? Or was that just empty air?"
"You…!!" Agaret seethed, his pride stung to its core. The insult ignited an inferno of Asra energy within him, and a dark, malevolent aura erupted from his body.
'Unforgivable! This stray dog dared to tarnish my dignity!' Agaret thought furiously. Deep within his Fluxion system lay three specialized cards, each representing a pinnacle of his combat modifications. The first, named 'Genotype Tarantula,' permanently granted him spider-like abilities through gene editing. The second was an ordinary enhancement card, boosting his power under specific conditions. But the third, a golden card on the far left, was the most crucial. It was his ultimate trump card.
Agaret's mind raced, activating the golden card with a single thought. The air around him shifted, heavy with anticipation.
"Manifest," Agaret intoned, his voice reverberating with power. "My Ego."
**Door Thirteenth**.