Dysfunctional - An Assassin's Guide to Reincarnating in Another World

Point-of-View: Shiro Blanc

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He's strong, and he's fast, more so than I am...but with Berserker active, he's too blind to fight properly. And without Berserker, he's not strong enough to beat me. I've got this. It's finally time to kill this rotten bastard.

As he shot towards me, I evaded and slammed my knee onto his side with immense force, feeling his ribs shatter as I sent him flying across and skidding along the ground, before he jammed his fingers into the dirt to halt himself and let out an enraged roar as he blasted out a massive wave of flames at me.

I canceled it out with an large Obliteration Magic blast, which swallowed up his flames and continued swirling down towards him rapidly, before he fired out his own Obliteration Magic to cancel mine out.

He then teleported behind me with a vicious snarl and slashed his trident at me, I ducked under his slash and tore open his stomach with an upward swing of my tail, which he grabbed and pulled away before I could slice through his throat, before I sliced open his palm as I yanked my tail out of his grasp.

Damn it, I just barely missed his heart!

"That hurts...! I'll kill you dead!" He yelled furiously, as he started to heal himself and blasted out flames from his mouth.

I quickly activated an Absolute Defense barrier in front of myself to block the flames, before he teleported off to the side and fired out a drill-like Obliteration Magic blast at me.

I swiftly teleported out of the way to evade it, before using Beckon to pull him towards me, grabbing him by the throat at he closed in and then swung him at the ground with all my strength.

Right before he could crash, he turned intangible and fell into the ground...is he trying to escape into the dino cavern?

It's no use, this barrier is a sphere, it extends down too...sure enough, he emerged back out a few seconds later, invisible but I could see him thanks to these glasses.

The instant he reappeared, I fired out a massive Obliteration Magic blast down at him, which he just barely avoided by teleporting away.

I wasted no time in following after him using my own teleportation, unleashing an intense blast of flames and lightning as he was still intangible.

He's slower than before, and less rage-y...I see, he must have reached his time limit with Berserker, or maybe he deactivated it on his own, either way he's being more careful now, but he's also a lot slower and weaker. It's over.

I kept firing at him to prevent him from deactivating his intangibility, and the instant he reached its time limit, I quickly teleported down to the ground and burst out several earth spikes from all around him, converging in from every direction.

They pierced him before he could teleport away, eliciting a cry of pain from him as he just barely managed to avoid getting pierced through the heart and throat, by swinging his trident across and narrowly managing to break a few of the spikes before they could pierce his body.

He then gritted his teeth and jammed his trident into the ground, bursting forth a huge wave of water.

I quickly formed an Absolute Defense sphere around myself and burst out streaks of lightning, using his attack against him and electrocuting him, forcing him to abruptly cut off the technique before it could fully fill the barrier with water.

I then teleported to the top of the barrier where there was no water and fired out several lightning blasts in rapid succession...I'll fry him to death!

Suddenly, he managed to turn intangible again and escape the earth spikes that were holding him in place, before he slammed his fists onto the ground, kicking up a dust cloud, obscuring him from my vision, right as a sharp water arrow burst out from the surface towards the side of my head.

It was too fast to teleport away from in time, I just barely managed to tilt my head back, the projectile shattering my glasses and blinding my right eye, which I healed in seconds, feeling pissed off.

I glanced at the watch to make sure of his position, before firing out an arrow-like Obliteration Magic blast down at him, which cut through the water and struck his position, before I dissipated it before it could cut too deeply into the ground.

The cloudy part of the water then cleared up, and I got him back in my sights...with a large, gaping hole in the middle of his chest, his body not even stirring as the water around his body turned red with blood...is he dead?

I grimaced as I struggled to breathe...there isn't much oxygen left in this barrier, I'll get light-headed at this rate. But if I take it down and he's faking right now, he'll disappear from the indicator in the watch.

I'll just have to risk it...he's reverted back to normal from his True Anima state, and has no mutations in his base form, so there's a good chance that he can't breathe underwater without his True Anima.

I fired out another Obliteration Magic arrow-like projectile down at him, blasting off the top of his head, before hesitantly undoing the barrier, the water flooding out and blanketing the area, slowing growing shallower as I teleported back down and kicked at his body cautiously.

Okay...he seems pretty dead to me. Most of his life force has probably dissipated already, but since he had such a high power level, there'll be a somewhat significant amount left to absorb.

Finally, it's ov-...hm? What the...?

This can't be right...I'm not feeling anything, no life force to absorb at all. My eyes then widened in realization, as I got a look at his clothes...when I sliced him with my tail earlier, his shirt got cut...but it's intact now, except for the hole by the chest. 𝐟𝓇ℯ𝐞𝚠𝚎𝒃𝑛𝒐ѵe𝚕.co𝚖

"No...no, no, no, fuck!" I snapped in frustration, as I slammed my fist onto the muddy ground.

That smokescreen earlier, and the water arrow that destroyed my glasses...now, I get it.

He used the dust cover to shroud himself and keep me from seeing him use transform, probably on a chunk of earth of something. And then he destroyed my glasses to prevent me from seeing him while he turned invisible.

He must have figured I'd still be able to keep track of his location with this watch, so long as the barrier was still up. He likely stayed right on top of the dummy corpse, and then evaded before my Obliteration blast could hit him.

And once I deactivated the barrier, he escaped. He might have sunk down into the dino cavern underground, or even teleported away.

Tch, don't tell me he used the trident's finishing move to use up the oxygen within the barrier by reducing the space in it, which was what prompted me to take it down at all.

I fucked up, again...I've been absorbing the life forces of captive criminals to boost my strength, something which he'd have no way of knowing.

Which meant that I was stronger than he likely estimated, he probably assumed I was no stronger than I was back when we fought in Abyss...the odds were stacked in my favor, but once again, he managed to slip through my grasp by the skin of his teeth.

That damned bastard...he's sharper than I thought, I might have subconsciously let my guard down after he used Berserker, and then even more after I had him on the ropes once that technique ran out. He must have realized that, and used that sliver of an opening to escape.

And to come up with an escape plan like that in that situation...I'm not even sure that I could've pulled that off if I were in his position. Damn it...damn it!

There's no telling what he'll do next...if he disappears again for twenty or so years, who knows how powerful he'll be?

I can only keep powering up so long as there are still criminals to absorb life force from...and I've already consumed most of them.

I can't exactly start going after innocent people like he does, and I highly doubt people will be willing to volunteer to have their life force absorbed and get killed in the process. Even if I don't consume of all it, their lifespans will be shortened unless I take an absolutely miniscule amount.

But that'd be pointless, I'd get barely a fraction of a boost to my power if I do that. And animal life forces don't make a difference at all, be it mammals, insects, birds, reptiles or even the dinosaurs.

I flopped onto the mud with a grimace, clenching my fists...I should've just kept firing out Obliteration Magic till I was out of Mana, I should have ensured that not so much as a trace of him was left. I got careless...and there may not be a next time, not anytime soon, at least...

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