Chapter 10

At that moment, both fighters moved at blinding speed.

The katana and mantis blades blurred into flickering illusions.

Their clashing blades crashed like roiling waves, one impact following another in a relentless tide. 

Each razor arc sliced through the air, generating an ear-splitting wail.

*Clang!* 

Murasame struck the mantis blade again with tremendous force. This time, neither fighter yielded ground. 

Standing weapon to weapon, Leo caught the sickening stench rolling off the cyberpsycho's body. In his peripheral vision, he saw the other mantis blade swinging in from the side.

He quickly ducked. The gleaming steel narrowly swept over his head, slicing away several strands of hair.

Before that blade could return, Leo tightened his grip on Murasame's hilt with his right hand, maintaining the lock. His left hand shot down to yank out a kinetic pistol from his belt.

He fired repeatedly into the largest target area—the man's torso—without trying for a fancy headshot. At point-blank range, the psycho couldn't dodge everything. Bullets pierced his chest and abdomen, small red bursts of gore blooming on his tattered coat.

But Leo's left arm was also sliced by the returning blade. Had he not pulled back in time, he would've lost the whole limb.

Yet again, the mantis blades whirled around for a wide horizontal slash. Leo turned his kinetic pistol sideways, slotting the gun body between the mantis blade's segments.

The two men, their two weapons, locked together in a grinding stalemate, each testing the other's strength.

Victory would go to whoever held out longer, and the psycho recognized this too. Bulging veins stood out across his face and neck. He had heavily augmented himself with combat-grade military implants, while Leo's body was baseline human. In a straightforward test of raw power, Leo was at a disadvantage.

Except Leo had never intended to overpower him. 

When he jammed the gun into the mantis blade's joint, he'd rotated it so the muzzle pointed downward.

*Bang! Bang, bang, bang!* 

Leo unloaded the last rounds of his magazine into the ground beneath their feet, kicking up a cloud of dust—and pulverizing the man's instep. The cyberpsycho grunted in pain, momentarily losing his balance. The force bearing down on Leo's blade slackened.

Leo seized the opportunity to dart aside. He slid Murasame—its blade glowing a deep crimson—back into its sheath and adopted an iai stance. Except his right hand stood a full shoulder's width away from the hilt rather than close by, an unorthodox posture.

"Die!" 

The psycho, maddened by pain and fueled by desperation, abandoned all defense. Like a wounded beast, he charged with a savage roar, determined to drag Leo into the grave with him.

Leo's face remained calm. 

His left hand, which steadied the scabbard, squeezed a small trigger embedded on its side. The family heirloom Murasame had a feature most katanas lacked: an internal spring mechanism.

Without warning, the blade shot out of the scabbard.

Leo's right hand closed around the airborne hilt, using the spring's force to strike faster than the eye could follow. He unleashed a diagonal slash so swift that the steel blurred. It cut smoothly from the psycho's right flank, slicing upward through soft flesh like a hot knife through butter. 

The crimson blade burst out at the left shoulder.

He cleaved the man clean in two.

…

Leo exhaled in relief, staring at the fallen cyberpsycho whose eyes gradually dimmed. 

His forehead was beaded with sweat, his back drenched. 

Now he understood why the sheriff had offloaded this job onto someone else. Even a meager town could muster a militia with the Second Amendment on their side, but when facing a hyper-augmented killer like this, ordinary citizens stood no chance.

In truth, Leo had been exceptionally lucky. Military-level implant users typically upgraded with a Sandevistan, dramatically boosting reflexes to the point that time itself seemed to slow. 

Fortunately, the psycho's Sandevistan had already broken down. Otherwise, Leo might have been the one lying in pieces.

A close call, but he'd survived. Time to claim that two thousand eurodollar fee.

More importantly, Leo was met with a welcoming surprise upon checking his notifications.

**You killed an enemy and gained 2 Potential Points.**

One cyberpsycho was worth the Potential Points of twenty regular mooks. 

Leo was almost giddy. After all that trouble, at least there was a solid payoff.

Once he'd caught his breath, he walked back to his SUV, where the local guide in the passenger seat gawked at him, wide-eyed.

Leo rapped a knuckle on the window. The startled man nearly jumped out of his skin. 

"H-How did you… kill that cyberpsycho?"

"Cyberpsycho, big deal," Leo said coldly. "Anyway, you saw it all, so make sure you back me up when we get back, got it?"

Initially, Leo had planned to collect some proof—like an implant eye or the mantis blades—to confirm the kill. But that felt too gross, and since the local had witnessed everything, he might be enough to verify the bounty. Besides he hadn't unlocked any scavenging skill...yet. So he had no idea how to go about it anyway.

Before leaving, Leo hesitated, then decided to check inside the shack. 

As he expected, the interior was a dark, filthy mess, strewn with garbage and devoid of light. 

Nothing worth looting. 

He sighed in disappointment, about to give up, when something caught his eye: buried in a corner was a battered laptop. With no lighting inside, it would've been easy to miss.

He dug it out. Reading through the data, Leo learned who the cyberpsycho had been.

… 

This man was a former executioner for Arasaka's secret "Troy" unit. 

Codename: "Headsman Zank." 

Arasaka, one of the oldest megacorps in the world (dating back to the mid-20th century), was a giant in weapons manufacturing, supplying practically every major conflict worldwide. 

"Troy" was Arasaka's covert team dedicated to eliminating anyone who betrayed the corporation.

Zank had grown addicted to killing through his daily hunt for traitors. Eventually, mission assignments no longer satisfied him, and he began murdering for fun. Perhaps it was the implants, perhaps the endless gore, but he started hearing the voices of those he'd slain, haunting him night and day.

Only in the act of killing could he find a fleeting sense of peace.

When he finally rebelled against Arasaka, his former comrades hunted him down, nearly killing him. However, despite his lessened mental faculties he still remained cunning…