R-a - Volume 3 - Chapter 47 (Patreon)

R-a - Chapter 205 (In editing -v2)

Moving in a silent world was not exactly a common experience for Micheal. 

In his first life, he had fought against both humans and members of other races that possessed the power to ‘silence’ an area or region. Some races even had the ability to curse someone, blocking their sense of hearing, while others had spells that could manipulate what exactly a being heard, affecting one’s mind directly. 

He had been hit with examples of this before, but it was extraordinarily rare. The number of times he’d had to handle it in-battle could be counted on a single hand. 

With that in mind, right after he killed the two Great Ape users and downed the third, Micheal immediately made a beeline for the side of the warehouse.

Despite the explosions damaging the ground and shaking the area up, the wall of the warehouse was just fine. Belying its decrepit outside, this warehouse was surprisingly tough and secure as compared to the others, likely one of the things that helped the Beasts of Providence find it. 

On the ground, leaning up against the wall, was one of the signal-blocking Artifacts. It, likewise, was undamaged from the explosions, a resilient tool that continued to work in sync with its three other copies. 

Micheal’s sprint took him directly towards this Artifact, making his intent glaringly obvious. The mere threat of him destroying one of the Artifacts, something that could destabilize the signal-blocking barrier and potentially ruin the attack on the Farian secret base, was enough to force a response. 

And, as he had expected, a short moment after he began rushing towards the Artifact, his enemies reacted. Their answer to his maneuver was a rather predictable one, easing the burden Micheal's lack of hearing presented. 

One of the Blue Tailed Monkey users appeared in front of Micheal, blurring into existence. His arrival looked incredibly unnatural, his body distorting backwards, as if he was twisting through space. Micheal recognized him as the one that had fled to the rooftop, his first, original target. 

The two other Blue Tailed Monkey users joined him just a half-second later, distorting through space as well, all three blocking Micheal’s path as they brandished broadswords. The trio looked almost identical, lean, powerful warriors creating a steady formation to stop Micheal.  

‘They all have Fast Retreat.’ The observation was a rather easy one to make. The team of warriors all had the same, annoying power to dip and dive around the field of combat.

Up above, Micheal could vaguely sense that the three White Tailed Spring Monkey users were all taking aim. Behind him, he could also feel that the two speed-boosted warriors that he’d bombed were getting back to their feet, apparently not harmed enough. 

Taking this all in, that meant he had, at most, 3 seconds of time to attack the trio in front of him before being hit from above, and 5 seconds before being hit with a pincer attack from behind.

Micheal made those seconds count. 

The first thing he did was splay his hands out in front of him, almost identical to how he had attacked before. The titanium threads from his gloves flew ahead, layered with Advanced Tier Sword Energy. 

This time, however, instead of letting the threads fly forward freely… 

Micheal jerked his hands completely down. 

As a result, all ten of the titanium threads turned and drilled straight into the earth. 

The three Blue Tailed Monkey warriors had adopted a triangular formation, guarding the signal-blocking Artifact. Their particular Squad was most adept at ambushes and skirmishes, not direct combat. They never intended to confront Micheal directly and were fine with passively defending, buying time to allow their allies to enter the fray. 

If Micheal attacked like he had previously, the warriors would be able to temporarily block his threads. They wouldn’t be able to hold that position for long, but they would last long enough that it would no longer matter.

Micheal was able to surmise this intent and plan, based on not only their actions, but also their Ability choice. 

The Fast Retreat Ability was a great Ability for mobility… but it was a very specialized choice. At high levels, in the realm of powerful elites, it was an Ability that would never be picked over an Ability that could directly boost one’s combat power. The notable drain on one’s Soul limited its use to that of assassins, scouts, and other experts that needed a way to get in fast and get out fast. 

Knowing all of that, Micheal opted to make the best possible choice that existed. 

He didn’t try to attack these three at all. 

Instead, he struck at the three White Tailed Spring Monkey users up on the rooftop. 

Micheal’s titanium threads burrowed through the earth in a single second, moving forth and breaking free not outside the warehouse, where the battle was taking place…

But inside of it, out of sight from everyone, led by his Sword Energy. 

They then shot through the air and plowed straight into the sturdy roof, slicing through it like it didn’t even exist. While Micheal wasn’t able to aim with perfect precision, unable to see the threads he was controlling, he was able to guide them to strike through the rough positions of each of the White Tailed Spring Monkey warriors by relying on his connection to his Sword Energy. 

Due to the intense focus required for this, in those three seconds, Micheal was left completely undefended. 

He stood there staring at the three elite Blue Tailed Monkey users, without a weapon in hand and entirely open. If these warriors wanted, they could have taken a few steps forward and cut Micheal down with certainty. Micheal was well aware that he would be hard-pressed to mount even a basic defense if he wanted to continue his attack. 

Defying that logic, however, the triangle of warriors instead huddled even closer together, the simple threat of Micheal’s presence enough to force them to stand still. The image Micheal had made of himself was a psychological attack in its own right, a deterrence that made them briefly pause.

And it was because of that pause that Micheal’s attack had just enough time to land, fully unimpeded. 

The warehouse’s rooftop exploded, shards of stone cascading in the air as Micheal’s threads ripped the front of it apart from the inside out. He had split his threads up into three clumps of three, with a single free thread that solely focused on destroying the roof and ruining the footing of those on it. 

The attack came as a complete surprise to the warriors on the rooftop. 

All three of them had been in the midst of preparing to attack Micheal. They were focused in on him and his every action, but to a degree where they let that focus become blinded by their expectations. 

The female warrior with the energy rifle was positioning it to take aim at Micheal. Another female warrior had just made it to the edge and was gauging the distance between her and Micheal as she prepared to unleash a flurry of throwing stars. The last warrior, a male, was readying a large javelin to launch forward. 

They all expected him to attack the three warriors on the ground. Given that literally everything Micheal had done thus far indicated this, it was hard to fault them for rushing to attack back and save their allies.  

If there was one thing that Micheal had learned over the years, it was that the human psyche was ultimately fallible. 

When someone unconsciously made an assumption, their mind would hold to that assumption stubbornly, even when faced with confusion and doubt. When that assumption was melded with one’s natural instincts, it became even harder to overturn. 

Micheal’s very first ambush on the first Squad he had attacked had been very simple. He hid within the walls of one of the old homes, relying upon the norms of the human psyche to gain a split-second advantage. 

A wall is a solid object you can lean against. 

It’s a simple thought, a base assumption one makes when they realize a wall exists. If that wall looks solid, is something you’ve touched to confirm is solid, then in one’s mind, it is solid. 

When startled and surprised, the human psyche falls back onto assumptions like this. 

A roof is a solid object you can stand on.

It might not be a rational assumption, especially in the present era of superhumans, but it was one that was ingrained in humans from the moment of their birth. 

These warriors were well-trained elites, enhanced by the Seeds of the Vile King, and could overcome their shock almost instantly. At worse, they would give up a split second in their surprise before recovering, a minute period of time that a lesser warrior wouldn’t even notice, let alone be able to take advantage of…

Unfortunately for them, as previous Squads had swiftly discovered… 

Micheal was not a lesser warrior. 

His metal threads shot upward, a torrent of steel blazing with Sword Energy. 

By the time the agile warriors on the rooftop noticed the attack and began to try to dodge it, activating last-minute Artifacts and Abilities to aid them, it was already too late. 

All three of them instantly died.

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—-Points Notification—-

Points Obtained: 28,827

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—-Points Notification—-

Points Obtained: 31,820

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—-Points Notification—-

Points Obtained: 33,283

.

The titanium strings split each of the warrior’s in twain, the deadly force and power behind the surprise attacks overwhelming any defense their armor or Artifacts offered. At roughly the same time, a painful backlash of energy whiplashed down the metal threads as the attack finished, the failed defensive efforts of the now-dead elites causing Micheal to wince.  

That backlash broke three of the fingers on his left hand and badly sprained his left wrist. His right hand came away unscathed, but only because he used his left hand to absorb the brunt of the impact. 

Micheal ignored the notifications and twisting pain as he severed the threads coming from his gloves, freeing his hands with a thought. 

In the same movement, in the midst of this extremely intense moment in the battle, Micheal calmly turned his head to look at the corpses of the two Great Ape users he had killed earlier. He tapped on his Spatial Ring as he did this, pulling out a small bracelet. 

The two bodies lay where they had fallen, beheaded corpses that remained still, fully returned to their human state. More blood had pooled around them, combining with the rain to form a large, murky puddle. 

Floating above these two bodies, however, was something new. 

Two dark, black Seeds that fizzled about in the air ineffectually, just barely visible through the downpour.

‘It blocks the Seeds too!’ Micheal’s gaze sharpened as he reached this conclusion, storing the Signal Seer Bracelet he’d pulled out. 

This entire ambush and attack was not only a genuine strike at his enemies, but also intended to buy him enough free time to confirm this. 

The signal-blocking Artifacts that weren’t allowing the Farians to call for aid was working in the same way that overloading a Signal Seer Bracelet did. It locked Constantine’s Seeds in, disallowing them from returning and forcing them to dissipate. 

That meant he did not need to waste time storing corpses or actively overloading Signal Seer Bracelets to prevent them from returning. 

And, even more importantly… 

It meant that, as long as those Artifacts kept operating, none of the Seeds present would be able to leak any news to the Vile King. 

As long as he killed every one of his enemies here, not even a peep would be able to escape.

Micheal’s eyes glinted as he gazed at the three Blue Tailed Monkey users that were just now reacting, rushing forward to attack him as they registered their mistake. From behind, Micheal could sense the two speed-boosted Great Ape users sprinting at him, only a couple of seconds away. 

With six members of the eleven-man team effectively taken out, only these five were left here up top. 

All of this came together in Micheal’s mind as he realized a single thing. 

He no longer needed to disguise himself. 

A mere moment before these elite warriors collided with him, a long, crystalline blade appeared in Micheal’s right hand, glowing with red energy. 

Micheal raised this sword ever so slightly. He bent his knees forward and tilted his left hand back. Cool rain dripped down his face, falling to the uncaring ground down below. 

His ears were bleeding and ruined, trapping him in a world of silence. His back was burned, making his every movement resonate agony. His left hand was broken, fingers shattered with a wrist that barely functioned. The backlash of energy from his last attack was still running wild in him, giving him a splitting headache and fracturing his focus. 

In that last frantic moment, as he stood alone in a battered, broken body, as death came bearing in on all sides…

Micheal began to smile. 

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