"!!!"

  At that moment, Haruki realized why he had been able to close the distance so easily.

  On the surface, it seemed like Haruki's speed was simply too much for Tina to track. But the truth was more calcuted: Tina had intentionally allowed him to get close, luring him into the exact range where her sniper rifle reached its maximum lethality.

  While a sniper rifle is typically a long-range weapon, its true suppressive power peak is actually at mid-to-short range.

  At this distance, the velocity of the bullet far exceeds the limits of human sensory perception. Neither the sound of the mechanical vibration, nor the muzzle fsh, nor the sniper's own breath can travel faster than the round itself. Often, by the time an opponent realizes a shot has been fired, the bullet has already buried itself in their chest.

  This was Tina's "Absolute Killing Domain"—the reason she sat at Rank 98 among all Cursed Children in the world. Any enemy who stepped into this radius was destined to be pierced.

  "!!!"

  Through his Sense of Fluctuation, Haruki felt the trajectory of the rounds incoming at a speed that was almost impossible to track.

  For the first time in his life, Haruki Aizawa felt the cold walls of a true dead-end closing in.

  In his past battles, he had always held something back, never truly finding himself in a corner where he was fully suppressed. This was the first time he felt the literal brush of the Reaper's scythe against his neck.

  In such a desperate situation, a normal person might have succumbed to despair, or regretted their arrogance. But Haruki didn't feel a shred of regret.

  The only thing flooding his soul was a wild, burning euphoria.

  The closer death drew, the more vividly he felt the fire of his own life. He truly understood now—he was testing his mettle against a worthy foe!

  Faced with three rounds that defied the senses—a crisis that should have ended him in a heartbeat—Haruki didn't panic. Instead, amidst a manic, focused heat, he pushed his potential to the absolute breaking point.

  RUMBLE!

  In an instant, a blinding light of crimson energy erupted from Haruki's body. A shockwave of blood-red mist billowed into the night, visible for miles.

  It was the fluctuation of a life burning at its peak—the omen of a swordsman who was about to tear reality asunder.

  In the heart of the pitch-bck night, a streak of incandescent red light tore through the air like a falling star.

  By activating Blood Burst, Haruki's physical attributes were multiplied dozens of times over. His perception reached a zenith where he could finally see the three bullets as they screamed toward him.

  As a top-tier sniper, Tina had fired her rounds in a staggered, overpping pattern that accounted for every possible evasive maneuver Haruki could take—based on his normal speed. She hadn't accounted for the fact that Haruki possessed a "limit-break" state that turned him into something entirely non-human.

  BOOM!

  Just as the bullets were about to shred his vitals, Haruki performed a mid-air contortion that defied the ws of physics. In his Blood Burst state, he could force his body to change direction without leverage, using pure kinetic discharge to "hook" the air.

  It wasn't a free power. Haruki could feel his vitality draining away with every passing second. He had to end this now.

  BANG! BANG! BANG!

  The sounds of the bullets breaking the sound barrier only reached his ears after he had already cleared them. He was now almost upon the building where Tina was perched.

  Because time was his greatest enemy, Haruki didn't bother looking for the entrance. He channeled the crimson energy into his legs and performed a single, earth-shaking leap.

  KABOOM!

  Like a rocket unched from a pad, Haruki shot straight up into the air, clearing half the height of the hundred-story skyscraper in one go.

  Since the Gastrea War, nd in Japan had become incredibly expensive, leading to the construction of "Super-Towers." Tina had chosen a particurly tall one to ensure her line of sight was absolute.

  Even with Blood Burst, Haruki couldn't reach the roof in a single jump. He smmed into the side of the building at the fiftieth floor, and this gave Tina her opening for a follow-up.

  "Haruki-san... you really are a terrifying man."

  Tina watched his impossible ascent through her thermal scope, her heart hammering against her ribs. She felt a surge of genuine admiration, yet her hands remained as steady as a machine's.

  She wasn't fighting out of loyalty to Rand or a desire to kill the Seitenshi anymore. She was simply lost in the thrill of the exchange, a heat blooming in her chest that she had never felt before.

  Tina was, in essence, the same as Haruki. Though she used a rifle instead of a sword, she possessed the soul of a warrior—one who hungered for the peak and craved victory against the impossible. Haruki's strength didn't make her retreat; it made her feel alive.

  CRASH!

  The sound of shattering gss echoed from below. Even without looking, Tina knew Haruki had breached the building and was sprinting up the interior at a speed that would put an elevator to shame.

  They were less than a hundred meters apart now. Her advantage as a long-range sniper was evaporating.

  But Tina didn't panic. She didn't even move. She sat silently, waiting for the exact microsecond Haruki would clear the roof's edge. That would be her perfect window. Tina wasn't just a sniper; she was a Cursed Child with a mechanized body. Long-range was her specialty, but close-quarters? That was her domain, too.

  "Go, Shenfield."

  Through the neural link in her brain, Tina commanded the mechanical moths—the tiny drones—to swarm. These "Shenfields" provided her with a 360-degree battlefield awareness, feeding her data on Haruki's heart rate, speed, and trajectory.

  She had also rigged several auto-turrets around the roof's perimeter.

  The moment Haruki breached the roof, he would be met with a crossfire of anti-tank machine guns and Tina's own point-bnk sniper fire. In her mind, the trap was absolute. No matter how much of a "monster" he was, he still had a human heart and human lungs. One bullet was all it took.

  "I'm sorry, Haruki-san. I win."

  She whispered the words to herself, but she had underestimated the "Sword Ghost."

  RUMBLE!

  As Haruki reached the top floor, his Sense of Fluctuation revealed the entire trap id out above him. He didn't slow down. He accelerated.

  He focused every drop of his crimson energy into his right arm. With a force that strained his muscles to the point of tearing, he unleashed a horizontal ssh that wasn't aimed at Tina—but at the roof itself.

  CRAAAACK!

  In Tina's vision, the very floor beneath her feet shattered.

  Haruki hadn't leaped onto the roof to face the guns. He had simply cut the top of the building off. The auto-turrets, the drones, and the mechanical moths were all sent tumbling as the entire roof structure colpsed into the floor below.

  But if Haruki had underestimated Tina's tenacity, he was about to be proven wrong.

  Even as she fell through the air, the floor vanishing beneath her, Tina didn't drop her rifle. She didn't look for a handhold. She accepted her death, but she was going to take her shot.

  CLICK.

  The sound of the trigger being pulled sent a jolt of arm through Haruki's very marrow. Tina was falling, spinning in mid-air, yet she managed to level her barrel and fire one st, perfect round.

  WHOOSH!

  The bullet was too close. At this range, even with his speed, Haruki couldn't move his body out of the way in time. His only chance for survival was his connection to the "Fluctuation."

  Since arriving in this world, Haruki had limited his use of Wave/Asura techniques, as they didn't fit the local "power system" and would draw unwanted attention. But he hadn't stopped practicing. As an Asura-path practitioner, he had mastered a new defensive art.

  "Fluctuation Burst!"

  Haruki compressed all the internal "waves" of energy in his body into a single, dense point, then released them in a violent, outward explosion of pure force.

  BOOM!

  An invisible shockwave rippled through the air, distorting the atmosphere and cracking the remaining concrete. The bullet, caught in the violent pressure wave, stalled and deflected just inches from Haruki's face.

  However, as the bullet whistled past, Haruki didn't feel triumphant. He felt a surge of doubt.

  Based on his calcution of the trajectory, Tina's final shot hadn't been aimed at his vitals. It had been intentionally "off"—designed to stall him, not kill him.

  Across the gap, he saw Tina. She wasn't fighting to save herself anymore. She had let go of her rifle and was simply falling back-first into the abyss, a hundred stories above the pavement.

  She wasn't trying to win. She was trying to end the battle with her own death.

  And that was something Haruki Aizawa could not accept.

  WHOOOOSH!

  The wind screamed past as Haruki dove off the crumbling edge of the building.

  ***********************************************

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