Iron-Blooded Orphan walked forward, a glow of red glistening from his metal helmet. Even though his full armor was heavy he walked as if he was as light as a feather. "Are you sure about that?" He asked. Everyone could've sworn that he was gritting his teeth from behind his helmet.
"That's more like it!" Death Reaper screamed with excitement, swinging the chain scythes in his hand. As its momentum flowed like water, it became a blur in everyone's eyes.
Since the signal was already fired, there was no need for all the participants to wait. All of them started running towards Death Reaper, hoping that the distraction that is the Iron-Blooded Orphan would be more than enough. They wanted to get out of there, the sooner they did so, the higher their chances would be of getting a Superhero License.
"Stop pushing!"
"Aghk~! You're stepping on me."
"Argh! Don't pull my shirt!"
"I'm getting there first."
But that's exactly what Death Reaper was hoping for. With a sinister grin on his face, he stared at the nearest person in front of him and activated his superpower. "Freeze," He muttered.
The person in front suddenly froze, his eyes rolling up until only white could be seen. And with a groan, that person stumbled forward, causing a chain reaction of people falling over on top of one another. Only those who were smart enough to remain a little bit behind were safe from the stampede.
Although Iron-Blooded Orphan was positioned in front, he didn't fall over. Instead, he accelerated his pace, rushing towards Death Reaper while swinging a broadsword that he got from behind him. The broadsword emitted a bright white light, coming from the Iron-Blooded Orphan's superpower.
"Fourfold Slash!" He screamed, bringing the Broadsword down towards Death Reaper.
Despite wearing an armor that covered his entire body, Iron-Blooded Orphan actually moved pretty fast. In a split second, he was already in front of Death Reaper, and by the time Death Reaper realized that he was about to suffer an attack, there was no time for him to dodge.
Death Reaper's pupils dilated as adrenaline rushed through his body. In that split second, he managed to keep up with Iron-Blooded Orphan's speed as he put up his chains scythes. He had hoped to completely thwart the blow, but he wasn't expecting the power that was unleashed from such a simple attack. What he didn't think about was that he was actually hit four times at once, and he only blocked with the equivalent power of one blow. Had he listened to the Iron-Blooded Orphan's scream, he would've realized that Fourfold Slash doesn't mean four times the power, but four times the quantity.
Every bone in Death Reaper's body screamed with pain as the vibrations of the blow hit his chain scythes, making his body tremble violently.
However, Iron-Blooded Orphan wasn't done yet As soon as his attack hit, he inhaled and started hissing. "Water Breathing... First Form... just kidding!" He exclaimed, hacking and slashing at Death Reaper with no reprieve.
At first, Death Reaper thought that he was going to recite some sort of a sword attack but he stopped short, giving Death Reaper no break.
Grunting, Death Reaper started to dodge and parry the barrage of attacks that Iron-Blooded Orphan brought down on him. He gritted his teeth and tried to use his superpower on his opponent once again. However, it didn't seem to work. It's as if Iron-Blooded Orphan was completely immune to his debuffs and status effects.
"Is. that. all. you. got?!" Iron-Blooded Orphan jumped up and brought his broadsword down on the Death Reaper.
He hit him squarely on the head.
A drop of blood.
Then blood started trickling from his head.
Gasp! A couple of examinees exclaimed.
"Not yet, not yet," Death Reaper forced a smile on his face, wiping the blood off his forehead. It was a heavy blow, but it didn't really deal that much damage... or at least that's what he thought. Actually, the poison had already invaded his body. And a few minutes from now, he'll be paralyzed, just like how he froze the first person running and caused everyone to collapse behind him.
"You shouldn't have done that, now you leave me no choice." Death Reaper said, his sinister smile growing even more sinister until it almost touched the ears on the sides of his face. His eyes turned into slits as well, just like a conniving snake about to launch itself towards a person.
Suddenly, the blood on his face disappeared in an instant as his eyes glowed black and red. His sinister smile became genuinely scary as they heard some bone-breaking noises from behind the Death Reaper.
Then it emerged, some sort of energy wings or something of the sort. It resembled coagulated blood, freely flowing behind Death Reaper's face. There were indecipherable designs on the wings, and the way it moved was simply out of this world. Death Reaper began laughing. "How's that for a change?"
A couple of projectiles were launched toward the participants, pinning most of them on the ground. Even Iron-Blooded Orphan, who was wearing full body armor, was thrown away by the projectiles, and then some of the projectiles managed to pin him on the ground as well.
"Grrr what's this!" Iron-Blooded Orphan exclaimed. No matter how much he tried to swing his mace around, it was to no avail. Who would've thought that he'd be defeated even before he managed to get his Superhero License Exam?
"This? Well, it's a kagune, Death Reaper explained. "I'm kidding. I actually have the power to control blood, but I liked this design."
"I see... so you've seen the ancient series, huh, it had a nice ending," Iron-Blooded Orphan muttered.
"Heh, of course, I know that, I"ve read the text as well. And I have all copies of them."
What Death Reaper didn't know was that Iron-Blooded Orphan was actually buying some time in order to recover his energy. He knew he could defeat the Death Reaper in one fell swoop, he just needed the right timing and enough power.
"All right, let's go," Satoshi suddenly muttered behind them.
And apparently, he was the only one left behind the start line.
Follow current novels on freewe(b)novel.c(o)m