Chapter 217: Salvation or Downfall

As the scythe was about to strike down, Hayato's expression suddenly shifted—from his previous nonchalance to a look of ecstatic delight. His movements became so swift that they left little time to react. With a sudden motion, he flung a handful of sand straight at Aizawa's eyes!

The sand, hastily grabbed earlier when he had dodged an attack by falling to the ground, became a crucial tool in Hayato's arsenal. The grains flew through the air, tracing a sharp arc like a lightning strike, carrying an undeniable threat.

The suddenness of the attack caught Aizawa completely off guard. The sand clouded his vision, forcing his scythe to veer off course. Its intended trajectory warped, unleashing a destructive shockwave that tore through the battlefield.

In those fleeting seconds, Hayato seized the opening. With a spinning kick, he struck Aizawa square in the abdomen, sending him hurtling several meters back. Aizawa lost his balance, his body crashing heavily against a tree. He staggered, repeatedly rubbing his eyes in an effort to regain his sight, momentarily losing control of the battle.

Hayato stood firm, a cruel smile tugging at his lips, his eyes alight with both exhilaration and provocation. His breaths were labored, but his demeanor brimmed with anticipation, as though savoring the chaos and preparing to dismantle Aizawa completely.

However, that smirk quickly turned sly as Hayato's body shifted with spectral agility, readying himself to retreat. But Rinro had already anticipated his move. With his dual firearms in hand, their barrels glowed with an eerie blue light as thousands of ice bullets rained down, sealing off all avenues of escape.

Rinro's onslaught was relentless, the blue gleam of the bullets forming deadly trajectories that converged upon Hayato. The battlefield became an intricate web of icy death, leaving Hayato with nowhere to flee. Each bullet glimmered with lethal precision, targeting every possible gap in his defenses.

Yet, Hayato seemed unfazed. It was as though he had foreseen this. As the hail of bullets descended, his figure blurred into a phantom-like shadow, weaving through the storm of ice with impossible agility. Each movement was sharp, calculated, and eerily precise, his evasion so seamless that it seemed he was toying with the bullets.

The bullets whizzed by, exploding in showers of frost, but Hayato remained untouched. Until—

A single ice bullet grazed Usagi's back. She let out a pained gasp, "Ngh...!"

That fleeting moment of pain caused Hayato's expression to harden. He shielded Usagi with his body, exposing a fatal opening in the process. An ice bullet struck his arm, frost rapidly spreading, threatening to freeze the entire limb. Hayato clenched his teeth, fury blazing in his eyes.

At that instant, a dagger, seemingly rebounding from nowhere, landed in Hayato's grasp. His eyes flashed with resolve as he hurled it with all his strength toward Rinro.

The dagger tore through the air like a missile. Rinro's pupils dilated in shock as he dodged, but the blade still grazed his forehead, leaving a deep, bleeding cut. Blood streamed down, staining the cold ground beneath him. The force of the impact sent Rinro staggering backward, nearly losing his balance.

"Rinro! Are you okay?" Shiji shouted in alarm.

Rinro wiped the blood from his face, his expression dark. "That lunatic... He's completely unpredictable."

Taking advantage of the chaos, Hayato vanished into the storm of ice, his figure melting into the darkness. Usagi's faint whimpers lingered in the air as her silhouette disappeared with him.

Shiji's chest tightened as he watched Usagi's form swallowed by the shadows. Her weak, anguished expression replayed in his mind—an image of someone teetering on the brink of life and death. Clutching his head in despair, he choked out, "Again... she's disappeared right in front of me..."

Next time... Will she still be alive? Will I see her again? The questions echoed endlessly in his mind, drowning him in guilt and anguish. Unable to suppress his emotions any longer, he threw his head back and roared, "DAMN IT!!"

Rinro, clutching his bleeding forehead, wore a grim expression. The wound only deepened the frost in his gaze as he stared at the direction Hayato had fled. No one could tell what thoughts churned in his mind.

Aizawa, his vision restored, spoke in a cold, detached tone. "Let's go."

Shiji was unwilling to accept this outcome. Gritting his teeth, he shouted, "Aizawa! He can't have gone far! If we chase him now, we can still catch him—"

Aizawa cut him off icily. "Akari must already be arriving to reinforce us. And the most dangerous one, Kanto... is watching from the shadows."

Before his words faded, he swung his scythe, unleashing a spatial slash at an improbable angle. A bullet in mid-air was crushed by the force, vanishing without a sound.

Shiji and Rinro's expressions grew dark. They hadn't even noticed the bullet's presence until Aizawa acted.

Retracting his scythe, Aizawa's voice was as cold as the wind. "If you didn't sense the enemy or see them, and a single bullet still landed on us, you should know what that means, Shiji."

Shiji froze in place, his clenched fists trembling. His teeth ground audibly, his knuckles white. He knew the truth—they were being toyed with, their actions as futile as a struggling insect caught in a web.

He stood silent for a long moment before slowly turning away, though his gaze lingered on the direction Usagi had disappeared. His eyes burned with anguish and fury as he slammed his fists into the ground, as though trying to crush his helplessness into the earth.

"Usagi..." he murmured, his voice heavy with pain. Yet within his gaze flickered a spark of resolve. Though retreat seemed inevitable, his rage remained unquenched.