The Ice Clan Branch HQ was alive with tension. The bright yellow glow of electric lamps lit up the hallways as soldiers patrolled the perimeter.

  In the main office inside, Trevor Cryoson leaned against his desk, narrowed eyes trained on the soldier before him.

  "What do you mean he's gone?" Trevor's voice was dangerously low.

  The soldier hesitated. "Sir, Pyrus Cryoson is nowhere to be found. We suspect he's already escaped—"

  BOOM!

  A violent explosion rocked the building, shaking the walls and shattering the nearby windows. The alarms blared awake, and then, all at once, fire tinted the night sky outside.

  Trevor's eyes widened, "What the hell—"

  Outside, a dark figure stepped out of the fire, wearing a black jacket and a skull mask.

  He calmly walked forward, his silhouette flickering in the firelight.

  The Ice Clan soldiers instinctively opened fire using Cryokinesis, their hands giving off a frigid blue glow as jagged shards of ice shot toward the intruder.

  But the moment the ice came near him, it melted.

  Water splashed onto the ground, dissipating in steam as the figure didn't even flinch.

  "What the hell?! Our ice isn't working!" one of the soldiers yelled in horror.

  "Who is this guy?!" another soldier screamed.

  But just as they were about to react further, the masked man hurled himself forward.

  CRACK!

  A soldier collapsed at the force of a perfectly placed blow to the throat.

  WHAM!

  Another soldier was flipped over backward, his head slamming into the pavement.

  THUD!

  The poor last one barely managed to scream before he was knocked unconscious by a brutal elbow to the temple.

  The masked figure, however, didn't seem even the slightest bit winded.

  It was obviously Kai in disguise.

  He walked right through the front door like a specter, dodging guards with the ease one would expect from a professional mercenary. Kai took them down one after another, but he was careful not to kill them.

  His promise to Celine repeated in his mind.

  Trevor was already on his feet when Kai kicked the door open.

  The wooden frame splintered as Kai kicked it off its hinges.

  But a soldier next to Trevor panicked and threw out a desperate ice attack at Kai. But before the soldier could even finish his action—

  Kai grabbed the man by his collar and smashed his face against the wall.

  He collapsed on the floor.

  Kai turned his gaze to Trevor. "So… You're the bastard trying to sell off his own niece." His voice dripped with sarcasm, but his eyes seethed with restrained rage.

  Trevor smirked, folding his arms. "Cut the act, Ciphera. You think a mask can fool me?"

  Kai canted his head. "Oh? You've heard of me?"

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  "You're the Mercenary Champion of Z City; of course, I've heard all about you. But if you think you can just walk in here and order me—"

  Kai advanced. "Let's cut to the chase. Give up your position to Celine, and I won't break every bone in your body."

  Trevor's eyes blazed with anger. "Over my dead body!"

  The moment Trevor's hand shot out was to send a whirlwind of ice and frost that covered the room in an icy tempest. The frost spread up the walls as the temperature plummeted ever lower.

  Half of the HQ was covered under a thick pile of ice.

  Trevor smiled. "Hah! Let's see you survive that."

  Out of the icy mist came a low chuckle.

  "That's too bad."

  Trevor's smile faded. "No way..."

  As the freezing fog began to clear, Kai was revealed—completely unharmed.

  "Say… as a Cryokinetic, how much cold can you handle?"

  Kai had quickly blurred forward, snatching Trevor by the throat and lifting him off the floor with one arm.

  And then the freeze clamped down—from Kai.

  The temperature within the room dropped, and Trevor froze even more.

  Under ironic circumstances, his very own skills, which had so far attributed to him great menace, were inadequate in stopping his own freezing—which nonetheless hit him.

  Turning blue, with icing constricting every inch of his exposed skin, his mouth gasped for air as he clawed at Kai's arm.

  But then—

  Trevor's hand jerked, and before Kai could react, he plunged a foreign object into his mouth.

  A pill.

  A split second later—

  An explosive surge of ice energy burst from Trevor's body, forcing Kai to let go and leap backward.

  On his knees, Trevor broke into a tremor, followed by torrents of unstoppable and chaotic energy.

  Almost instantaneously, his wounds healed, and his eyes blazed with icy white light.

  "Heh… those pills really do the trick," Trevor murmured, clenching his fists, frost crackling all around him.

  From Level 7.4, he was now at 9.4.

  Kai's eyes widened. "No way... he just took an Amp Pill!"

  "Time to die," Trevor said wickedly, smirking as he lifted his hands.

  With a swing of his arm, he sent massive spikes of ice ramming into the HQ, launching Kai straight through a wall. Kai even felt the frost bypassing through his Energy Barrier; Trevor was too strong. He can't handle temperatures that are too low in the negatives.

  The fight spilled out of the windows and onto the rooftops of adjacent buildings.

  Trevor chased after him, raining down huge frozen lances that Kai eluded by leaping from rooftop to rooftop.

  "Even though you're the new Mercenary Champion," Trevor snarled, "you can't beat an experienced fighter!"

  Kai barely dodged another of Trevor's icy spears, skidding across the rooftop as steam rose up around him.

  The city caught fire beneath a storm of ice, water, and destruction amidst the furious firefight going on between Trevor and Kai.

  Minutes later, Kai noticed it—

  Trevor's attacks were coming slower, losing precision.

  "The pill's effects are wearing off..." Kai thought. "Just need to make it last a little longer."

  They continued the fight, and then Kai saw Trevor faltered mid-attack. That was his opening!

  Pushing every bit of power left in him, Kai sped forward, fist full of lightning.

  Trevor watched in horror as the punch collided with his chest, charged with electricity.

  A cacophony of thunder smashed through the air. Trevor was launched backward at an incredible speed, crashing into the HQ.

  Kai dropped to one knee, fatigued. But he managed to get himself back up.

  He figured that his final attack wouldn't be enough for the kill against Trevor.

  Pushing himself forward, he found Trevor writhing on the floor, foaming at the mouth, twitching his relatively wild body along the stonework beneath it.

  Kai frowned. "What...?"

  Then it all clicked. It wasn't his attack. It was the side effects of the Amp Pill.

  "Hey," Kai said carefully, placing a finger on Trevor's neck.

  There was no pulse. Nothing.

  Trevor Cryoson was dead.