Chapter 1520: Countdown

Rui's strategy was simple. Catch them off-guard with Greater Phantomind Void and Death's Sympathy soon after he drew them out with the tier-five Transverse Resonance, and take out as many as possible.

He had hoped to take out three of them before he was booted out, but he knew that that was pushing it. Contrary to their expectations, he never intended to use Greater Phantomind Void throughout the entirety of his fight. For one, it consumed most of his attention, making his reactions to attacks slower.

On top of that, they had two wide-scale Martial Seniors who could cover a lot of area with their attacks, Greater Phantomind Void was useless against such attacks, since they swept through a lot of area, hitting him regardless of whether they could sense him or not.

In a prolonged fight, he would probably still come out on top since spamming wide-scale attacks was a good way to burn through stamina, but there was only one problem.

This wasn't a duel.

This was an assassination.

The longer this fight went on, the greater the probability of failure. He knew that reinforcements had already been dispatched from the bases of Deacon Industries based on the protocols for assassinations during transit.

He couldn't take his own comfortable time with wearing them out before taking his time to kill them.

That was why he abandoned Phantomind Void after the first two kills. It had served its purpose.

Instead, he used Neo Godspeed. Time had slowed down to a crawl in his vision as he surged forward at top speed with Gale Force Breathing and Outer Convergence.

WHOOSH!

He had crossed the distance between them in just a split second, racing forward at incredible speeds, the sheer friction of which set ablaze an inferno that could burn down a town.

TAP!

He had caught them off-guard a third time, taking down a third target. The surprise from his stealth and the surprise from his incredible speed caught them off-guard multiple times.

It cost them three of their comrades.

'Three left, three to go,' Rui coldly tallied. 'Unfortunately, I have already finished all the low-hanging fruits.'

From here on out, he wouldn't be able to devastate them by exploiting just a moment of weakness.

They had gotten used to his long-range power.

They had gotten used to his stealth.

And his terrifying ability to cause death with just a tap.

As well as his speed.

This was the hard part. The distance between the Kandrian Empire and the Shionel Confederation was more than ten thousand kilometers. One would think that such a distance meant that help was far out of reach.

Unfortunately, this did not apply to Martial Seniors.

Especially if those Martial Seniors were desperate enough to use their Martial Hearts to travel.

And, unfortunately, they were. 'I have no more than fifteen minutes, tops,' Rui gritted his teeth.

That's how fast Martial Seniors were when they abandoned all reserve and used their Martial Heart to travel. This was something that Senior Sarak had warned against since it left one more vulnerable due to less stamina for their Heart, but that was not enough to stop the reinforcements in a time of emergency.

That was why the three remaining Martial Seniors retained their composure despite losing three comrades rather swiftly. The odds were stacked in their favor. Unless Rui had some massive surprises that none of them could possibly account for, there was absolutely no way he could overcome them this quickly.

Two of them were grade twelve, while the remaining one was grade eleven. Not even a high-grade Martial Senior would be able to kill all of them within fifteen minutes.

Unfortunately, they had underestimated Rui yet again.

WHOOSH!

Rui sped forward at blinding speeds. This time, they resolutely pushed back in time, having adjusted their timing. A myriad of wind-based techniques flew forward, flying towards Rui. Although their raw power was below that of a high-grade offensive Martial Senior individually, together, their onslaught was formidable.

Yet, it may as well have not existed to Rui.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

The three Martial Seniors watched with unadulterated shock as Rui weaved through their offensive onslaught in a manner that they never thought was possible. Every maneuver, every step, every shift...every move that he made seemed like it was choreographed ahead of time.

Almost as if he had seen the future.

Such was the power of the VOID algorithm and Neo Godspeed when used in conjunction. Out of all Metabody techniques, the speed metabody had always harmonized with the pattern recognition system in a way that the others didn't.

When the predictive was complete, Neo Godspeed shined in a way that was hard to comprehend. Not only was time slowed in his point of view thanks to the induced tachypsychia, but it also allowed his predictions to grow more precise, accurate, and deeper.

Dozens, if not hundreds of speedy attacks converged on him with the sole intention of keeping him away, more than anything.

Yet they all failed.

Their eyes widened as weaved past every single attack with incredible smoothness, surging toward his next target.

BOOM!!

An incredibly powerful wide-range shockwave emerged from one of them with remarkable power and speed, forcing Rui to defend as it flung him away. Yet the attack didn't discriminate.

It couldn't. It had also struck the user's comrades in addition to Rui, hurting them along with him.

"Sorry..." The man gasped. "But I couldn't allow him to-"

"You made the right decision," Another remarked, grimacing as they swiftly got back into position. "Wounds can be healed but..."

He glanced at the corpses of his comrades who had all died from a single touch from Rui, quickly turning back to Rui.

"Just twelve more minutes," He whispered. "We just need to hold out long enough for reinforcements to arrive. We don't need to win. We don't need to hurt him. We don't even need to look good. We just need to ensure that we and the boss don't die."