"There's only one way!"
Eiji took a deep breath, his expression filled with unyielding resolve.
"What way?"
Kanata, the rich lady, was visibly shocked.
Surrounded by three immensely powerful Blazer killers, could he still come up with a way to turn the tables?
As expected of the man I've set my sights on!
And then—
Eiji swiftly sheathed his Bling Blade, turned, scooped up the dumbfounded Kanata into his arms, and with both legs spinning like wheels of fire, bolted straight into a nearby alley, stirring up a fierce gale.
"Nige runda yo!"
There was, of course, only one method!
And that was—run for it with everything you've got!
Frustrating as it was, only an idiot would stick around and keep fighting!
The two enemies and one lion seemed utterly thrown off by his sudden retreat, standing frozen for a brief moment before finally giving chase.
But to their astonishment, Eiji's escape speed was simply too fast. In a blink, he vanished without a trace, leaving the three of them eating his dust.
A moment later, the chainsaw girl suddenly leapt into the air, stepping upward as though on invisible stairs.
She was reflecting gravity.
By reflecting gravity, one could effectively fly—an extremely rare and bizarre application of reflection abilities, yet she had achieved it.
But even after ascending to high altitude, she was unable to track his escape.
Several minutes passed.
She descended back down.
Then, together with the shadow assassin and the lion, all three of them went still, like lifeless puppets drained of power.
A while later—
Gurgle gurgle…
With a watery ripple, a new patch of shadow emerged at the center of the three.
With a splash, a girl's head surfaced, golden hair soaked and clinging to her skin.
"Cough, cough…!"
She choked like someone who had swallowed water, her wet apron plastered to her curves, golden locks stuck messily to her body.
"Failed…"
Her eyes filled with deep, bitter resentment.
He got away.
Even after deploying three of her "characters," he still managed to escape.
She tried to stand, but dizziness made her legs give way, and she sank to her knees again.
"Too much focus… and burned through seventy, eighty percent of my mana…"
Sara lay on the ground, her mood sinking to rock bottom.
Beside her, the two figures and one lion's silhouettes gradually faded, the black shadows dissolving like snowflakes, and eventually vanishing as though ink dropped into water.
Before long, the street was left with only Sara.
Pursuit was no longer an option.
"…I won't give up."
"I'll make you mine… no matter what!"
Breathing heavily, Sara stood once more and stumbled off into the distance.
A terrifying, obsessive gleam filled her gaze.
The notion of giving up simply didn't exist in her mind.
***
Meanwhile—
Eiji carried Kanata through the night streets like a gust of wind, occasionally stopping to avoid overhead surveillance. After a full ten minutes, the lingering sense of danger finally left his mind, and he let out a long sigh of relief.
"You okay?"
Kanata climbed out of his arms, her face filled with concern.
"Yeah… honestly, I'm kinda good at running away."
Panting hard, Eiji still managed a proud grin.
His footwork was naturally top-notch, on par with a Level 5 adventurer from Danmachi World, and combined with his Absolute Godspeed ability and honed danger intuition for dodging assassins, his evasion skill was basically maxed out.
"Not exactly something to brag about… but as long as you're alive, it's fine."
Kanata gave him a strange look, her eyes falling to his still-bleeding right arm, and her expression instantly softened with worry.
"I'll call in a private jet right away—let's get you to a hospital!"
Eiji didn't refuse.
Kanata quickly pulled out her phone, called the standby pilot, sent over their location, and confirmed pick-up in ten minutes.
"But seriously… who the hell were those people just now?"
Now that the danger had passed, Kanata finally had room to consider the deeper problem behind this attack—and just the thought of those unbelievably strong enemies made her head ache.
"For someone to consecutively dispatch three Blazers of that caliber, all targeting you…"
A chainsaw girl whose reflection ability could bounce back everything.
A shadow assassin, capable of ambushing from darkness without a sound—enough to kill instantly.
And finally, a special lion-type creature whose actual ability remained unclear, though its roar was devastating enough to flatten the entire street like a typhoon.
"But it might not be three people."
Eiji's breath had evened out by now, and hearing Kanata's speculation, his expression turned a little odd.
"That shadow assassin… his severed arms fully regenerated in under thirty seconds. That kind of medical technique would rival the famous 'Doctor Kiriko.'"
Though a regeneration chamber could do it too, it'd take a decent amount of time—nowhere near that instant.
Kanata, being the heiress of the Totokubara Group, naturally knew of Neon's number-one doctor. She had no choice but to nod.
"Of course, it might not have been medical tech. But if it wasn't… that's even scarier—because it would mean our real opponent here might only be one person!"
Eiji raised a single finger, grinning dazzlingly.
The brighter he smiled, the more Kanata's heart chilled.
"One person? No way!"
She cried out in disbelief.
"You didn't clash with them directly, Kanata—so you wouldn't know."
Eiji sat down on a bench in a nearby park, motioning for her to join him.
"The chainsaw girl's attack pattern was, in my eyes, incredibly monotonous. Like she was just mindlessly repeating the same move over and over."
Most people would've lost their nerve facing such an overwhelming opponent, let alone find room to analyze their patterns.
But Eiji's powers of observation were terrifyingly sharp. Even mid-battle, he could dissect and predict his enemy's moves, always seeing a step deeper.
And of course, as an extra test, when he realized brute force wouldn't work against the reflection ability, he'd sneakily released a wisp of charm magic.
But there was no reaction whatsoever.
"Which means those two and one lion might not be actual humans, but some sort of constructs created by a Blazer ability."
Eiji laid out his final theory.
That half-minute the shadow assassin vanished beneath the shadows wasn't for some top-tier healer to patch him up, but rather for his creator to rebuild him a new set of arms.
Kanata felt her skin crawl.
Because if this was true…
"Those Blazers had completely different abilities! If it's really just one person behind them… then you're saying the enemy can even copy other people's Blazer abilities?!"
Even if it was just Eiji's theory, Kanata couldn't help but instinctively reject the idea.
It was too insane.
Completely unprecedented.
"It's only a guess for now… but if it's true—"
Eiji's voice grew heavy.
Then this opponent…
Would be terrifying beyond reason.
***
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