Mikael slowly withdrew his hand, and the man stayed quiet, too scared to try anything. Mikael began, “I want to know the number of soldiers in this Bastion, along with the strength of all the nobles.”

  The man thought hard before hesitantly replying, “I’m not sure of the exaumber.” Seeing a froear on Mikael’s face, he quickly added, “But I know there are at least 1,000 armed soldiers. As for physical enhancers…”

  “We probably have between 100-200 Tier 1 physical enhancers, approximately 80 Tier 2 physical enhancers, and for Tier 3, which I’m part of, I don’t think there are more than 20-30 of us.”

  Hearing that this man was a Tier 3 physical enhancer, Mikael was incredulous. ‘Seriously, they give serums to people like him, who clearly have zero bat experiend no willpower?’

  The man tinued, unaware of Mikael's thoughts. “As for Tier 4… I’m irely sure, but I believe we have around 5. And finally, for Tier 5, we have 2—the leader, Aaron, and el Aaliyah.”

  Mikael his information, then tinued his interrogation. “And where are the serums kept?”

  The maated but answered, too fearful of the sequeo stay silent. “They’re in a secured room he leader’s house—the biggest house north of here. The room is about 200 meters north of the leader’s house and is always guarded by two Tier 4 enhancers.”

  Mikael gave a cold smile. “I’ll end the interrogation here, but I pn to question other nobles. If their answers differ from yours, I’ll be back to kill you—and not before making you wish for death. If you told the truth, I won’t harm you, but if you lied, I guarantee you’ll regret it.”

  The man shook his head fearfully. “I swear, I told the truth!”

  Mikael studied his expression, then nodded, seemingly satisfied. In one swift motion, he drew his sword and decapitated the noble.

  The man died with an incredulous look frozen on his face.

  ‘Better to kill him,’ Mikael thought. ‘If he stayed alive, he could report me minutes after I left. But if he’s dead, it could take hours before anyone finds his body and raises the arm.’

  Mikael stepped over the headless body and looked out the window. He noticed that the number of soldiers outside had dramatically increased since he first arrived. ‘Have they discovered me?’ He observed the soldiers’ as and saw that none were approag the house specifically; it just seemed like there was a stronger presen the streets.

  ‘Hmm, maybe they think there’s an infiltrator. Ohing’s for sure—I won’t be able to move as freely as before.’

  Sigh.

  ‘Looks like I’ll have to move as quickly as possible, rush to the room where the serums are stored, and try to escape before the stro fighters in this Bastion close in on me.’

  After deg on his move, Mikael opehe window, slipped outside, and quickly climbed onto the roof. He began moving northward at a fast pace, staying on the rooftops and using the darkness of night to remain hidden.

  Some soldiers glimpsed a “shadow” out of the ers of their eyes, but by the time they looked, he was already gone.

  Soon, he reached a heavily guarded mansion. The guards wielded cold ons instead of firearms—likely enhancers. After a quick s of the area, he spotted a steel building behind the mansion.

  This time, there were no dark spots he could use for a stealthy infiltration, so he decided on a direct approach.

  He leaped from the roof and dashed forward at incredible speed, passing by the guards in a blur.

  “INTRUDER!”

  The guards, being enhancers, were able to spot him despite his speed.

  In seds, Mikael reached the steel building and swiftly sshed his sword toward the neck of one of the guards.

  The guards were taken aback. When you guard the same pce for a long time without i, you don’t expect to be attacked suddenly…

  Even so, these guards were Tier 4 enhancers with physical abilities slightly superior to Mikael’s, allowing the first guard to tilt his head back just in time.

  However, Mikael’s element of surprise allowed him to press his attack, decapitating the guard. The sed guard, now the only o, reacted quickly, sshing at Mikael.

  Mikael parried with superior swordsmanship, then sshed again toward the guard’s neck. The guard raised his sword to block, but, unfortunately for him, the quality of Mikael’s sword was far superior.

  Mikael’s bde cut through the guard’s on like a khrough butter, leaving him defenseless. In a quick motion, Mikael decapitated him as well.

  The entire enter had sted only a few seds, and the guards at the leader’s mansion were just beginning to respond to the ‘intruder.’ Mikael didn’t waste a sed; he opehe door and slipped inside.

  The interior of the building was a sterile, white b filled with advaeological equipment. Being the middle of the night, the b was empty. He quickly searched the b and found a gss et taining multiple small syringes filled with a blue liquid.

  The syringes were beled by tier. Otom shelf were dozens of Tier 1 serums, on the shelf above that were around 10 Tier 2 serums, followed by 6 Tier 3 serums on the shelf, 3 Tier 4 serums on the fourth shelf, and, oop shelf, a siier 5 serum.

  Crash.

  Mikael puhe gss et, shattering it into small shards. Ign the gss, he quickly grabbed one serum from each tier and safely stuffed them in a well isoted pocket of his backpack.

  As soon as he secured the serums, Mikael didn’t waste a sed. He opehe building door, then immediately stepped back.

  Ratatatata

  A hail of bullets hit where he’d been standing just a moment before. ‘Damn, just as I thought—they’ve got a whole group waiting. I was too slow… I o find a way out of this trap. Every sed that passes, more enemies are closing in.’

  ‘I should rush out when the guops and escape at full speed. The ones firing at me are probably regur humans, so if I get out of their rahey won’t be able to do anything.’

  Ten seds passed, and Mikael realized something. ‘Damn, they’re taking turns firing so there’s always someone shooting...’

  A determined glint appeared in his eyes. ‘I ’t dodge all these bullets, so I’ll have to take some hits.’ With that thought, he moved to the back of the b, gathering all his strength in his legs, then unched himself forward like a rocket.

  He charged straight through the rain of bullets, some of which struck him. Since his arms were raised to shield his head, the bullets only grazed his skin or lodged just at the surface of his muscles.

  The problem was that with his arms c his face, he couldn’t see clearly, and at the speed he was going, he crashed directly into the line of soldiers shooting at him.

  CRASH

  He felt the soldier’s body colpse uhe impact, though even Mikael took some damage from colliding at that speed. But he kept going, breaking through the encirclement while bullets tio whiz past him.

  "He's esg!"

  "Catch him, or the boss will have our heads!"

  Mikael heard them but focused solely on his escape. He quickly approached one of the walls but, knowing he couldn’t jump the full 20 meters and had no time to climb using his sword, he made his way toward aran the wall with a staircase inside.

  Before he began to climb, he gnced behind him and saw some soldiers running after him, still at a distance. He was faster. In seds, he was on top of the wall.

  The soldiers at the top were surprised to see him appear, but Mikael didn’t give them a ce to react. He leapt over the wall.

  Whump.

  He had inteo roll to soften his nding, but his backpack got in the way, f him to nd directly on his legs. Pain shot through them, but it wasn’t enough to cause real damage. Without hesitation, he began to run.

  After several kilometers from the Bastion aively safe, he felt an attaing. He dodged, tilting his head.

  A foot swung through the space his head had occupied a sed earlier. Mikael tered with a ssh aimed at the leg, hoping to cut it. Unfortunately, his attacker was quid pulled her leg ba time.

  Mikael stepped bad looked at his assaint—a striking woman in her mid-twenties, wearing a military uniform with a sword at her waist.

  He assessed her briefly and started to back away while keeping his eyes on her. He o put as much distaween himself and the Bastion as possible to avoid getting surrounded.

  Seeing him retreat, Aaliyah clicked her tohis isn’t fun. You o fight me!" When he ignored her words, she shrugged. "Never mind. I'll e to you." Then she charged.

  Mikael was taken aback by her speed—at least twice as fast as he was, maybe more. A thought fshed through his mind: ‘She’s a Tier 5... probably the Aaliyah the noble mentioned.’

  As she closed in, she sshed at him. Mikael raised his sword to block, but her superior strength pushed him back. Using his swordsmanship skills, he mao deflect the force of her attack.

  Her bde slid off his, exposing her left side momentarily, and Mikael seized the opportunity to deliver a powerful kick to her ribs.

  Thud.

  The kick ected, drawing a small grunt from her, but she was barely fazed.

  Mikael used the distra to tinue moving away from the Bastion in a random direaking it harder for ao track him.

  Meanwhile, Aaliyah touched her ag ribs and smiled. ‘Good. He’s strong enough to actually hurt me. This will be fun.’ She looked up, seeing Mikael retreating again, and her expression twisted with frustration. "Oh, stop running a’s have a good fight to the death!" she shouted, a battle-hungry grin spreading across her face.

  As he backed away, Mikael thought, 'I 't outrun her. She's faster than me, and I’m still close enough to the bastion that search teams could eventually reach me with reinforts.'

  A determined glint fshed in his eyes. 'I o kill her before they arrive.'

  While he was strategizing, Aaliyah closed in on him, now within rao strike with her sword. Mikael quickly parried, diverting her bde.

  Their swords cshed multiple times per sed, moving at a speed that would appear as a blur to a normal human. In this exge, Mikael was at a disadvantage, but he held his ground with his superior skill.

  g!

  He sshed toward her neck, but she parried his attack easily. What she didn’t notice, though, was that small cracks were starting to appear on her sword.

  Seeing his lethal i, Aaliyah smiled. ‘Ruthless—just as a warrior should be! He’s not swayed by the fact that I’m clearly a beauty; he goes straight for the kill. Too bad he’s weaker than me… but at least he has some skill, which makes this fight more iing.’

  The battle tinued, Aaliyah wearing a twisted, 'happy' grin. But Mikael wasn’t ed with her enjoyment; he cared only that her sword was nearing its breaking point, presenting him with an opportunity.

  Their bdes cshed again—this time, however, her on shattered. Mikael’s sword tis path uninterrupted, slig toward her neck.

  Feeling her bde break, Aaliyah's eyes widened. Seeing his sword aimed for her throat, she could sense death approag. She threw her head back just in time.

  A thin cut appeared on her neck, deep enough to cause serious bleeding but not enough to decapitate her. Blood poured from the wound, and Aaliyah instinctively pressed her hand to her neck, pulling it away to find it soaked in red. Her face grew a shade paler. As battle-hungry as she was, starih in the face left her shaken.

  Knowing her life was hanging by a thread, she abandoned her "fun" fight and sprinted back toward the bastion, hoping for medical attention.

  Mikael remaiill, watg her retreat. He wasn’t here to kill her specifically; he only o secure a safe pce to e the serums. Even if he wao finish her off, she was faster and would escape.

  With that thought, Mikael began to run in a diagonal dire, opposite the bastion.