Hitman With A Badass System-Novel

Chapter 598: Shortcut to Victory

Cling!     

The energy swords and Michael's metal swords clashed, creating sparks of fire. Both of them didn't go for any spells but fought using their weapons. Still, a clash between two Fusion stage cultivators wasn't a joke. Each time their swords clashed, the ground beneath them trembled. To Michael's surprise, the reaper was an exceptional swordsman. Otherwise, the reaper couldn't have defended Michael's barrage of sword attacks. Michael was one of Elon's most powerful offensive swordsmen, and the reaper had the best defense. So their clash was something magnificent to witness.      

"This is exhilarating!" Michael raised his voice. Their battle produced barrages of lightning cracks, creating flashes of colorful rays. Then, unknowing to Michael, he pushed the reaper from one end to another. They left a deep trail in the ground and almost split it in half.      

Boom!     

Michael pushed the reaper against the hilt peak and swung his sword to cleave the reaper's head. But the reaper was able to evade as Michael's sword hit the mountain, carving a deep 'V-shaped cut. The entire mountain shivered. To defend himself, the reaper shot towards the sky. Their speed was equal to a bullet. An ordinary cultivator wouldn't be able to see their bodies but only the crumbling rocks raining down.     

"You're good," The reaper shouted, flying towards the mountain peak.      

"Did you think it's going to be easy?" Michael suddenly threw his sword upwards and fought with one sword and his bare hand.      

Boom!     

Boom!     

Boom!     

Michael defended the energy swords with his swords while throwing punches at the reaper using the other hand. Every time the reaper missed a punch, it landed in the mountain. As a result, the mountain trembled. More and more chunks of rocks crumbled down onto the ground. Their battle sounded louder than any thunderclaps.      

Fortunately, there was no village or city underneath the floating mountain. Otherwise, the huge chunks of rocks crumbling down would have greatly damaged the people.      

"ARGH!" The reaper threw his one energy sword away to fight with one sword. He let out a thunderous battle cry before swinging his sword more violently. He wanted to put Michael onto the defense.      

"Hahahaha" However, the reaper saw Michael burst into mad laughter. The reaper could swear he saw a dark silhouette behind Ghost as he fought. But he shoved all his other thoughts to the back of his mind. A single slip of focus could end his life after all. Despite the cultivation difference between them, Michael gained the upper hand.      

Typically, a Fusion stage level 4 cultivator would have a difficult time fighting a level 8. Yet Michael was anything but typical. Four levels of difference were nothing to Michael. In fact, he was stronger than the reaper at the moment because they both hadn't used a spell yet.     

"Iron Gauntlet!" but suddenly, the reaper cast a spell. Since the Fusion Stage cultivators didn't need to utter the spell, Michael was caught off guard by the sudden appearance of a giant gauntlet behind him. The giant gauntlet was at least ten meters long and five meters wide. Even though the gauntlet was created using Celestian energy, it looked like it was made of pure iron.      

Boom!     

"Lightning Dash!"     

Michael cast the lightning dash to turn himself into a lightning bolt and dashed upwards before the iron gauntlet bashed the mountain. When the gauntlet collided with the mountain, the mountain cracked. As a result, the water flowed into the crack, and the majestic waterfall slowly disappeared.      

"I liked that waterfall," Michael growled.      

Luckily, they both reached the peak, and the moment Michael reached the peak, he raised his hand. The sword Michael threw into the air before fell directly into his hand.     

"Wing Blast!" Before the reaper could cast another spell, Michael raised his hand, sending a powerful blast of wind to the reaper. The wind blasted the reaper onto the mountain peak while Michael still hovered in the wind.     

"Eagle wings!" The reaper quickly cast another spell, as the ground beneath him emerged to form a shield resembling an eagle's wind around the reaper. The wall shield protected the reaper from the wind blast. Still, the wind blast was powerful enough to destroy half of the shield.      

"Wing blast!" Michael sent another powerful blast of wind to destroy the rest of the shield. But when the wind blast obliterated the wall, the reaper was nowhere to be found.      

Out of nowhere, the reaper materialized behind Michael in the air. Michael's neck hair immediately stood up, sensing the danger, yet Michael was a second late to react in time. It was not Michael who was slow, but the reaper was fast. Fortunately, the reaper aimed with the intention to pierce Michael's heart, but Michael evaded getting stabbed through the shoulder.         

Finally, after stabbing Michael, the reaper stopped moving, and so did Michael.     

"Not bad," Michael grabbed the energy sword sticking out of his shoulder and grinned. Instead of showing signs of pain, the reaper saw a devilish grin when Ghost turned around. The energy sword radiated intense heat and would burn the victim's skin. Anyone who got stabbed with the sword would definitely be in severe pain despite their cultivation stage.     

The reaper had seen countless cultivators scream and even cry in agony after being stabbed. But for the first time in his hundred and fifty years old life, he had seen someone grin.  Michael wasn't faking it or using APD either to fight the pain. In fact, Michael didn't feel any pain at all. His body and soul were infused with dark flames, one of the most powerful primordial flames in the universe. The heat radiated by the energy sword was nothing compared to the heat of the dark flames.      

As to why Michael grinned, it was because he had found out he felt no pain from the heat radiating sword at all. Initially, when the reaper stabbed him, he felt a sting, but afterward, he felt nothing.     

"Wind blast!" Michael grabbed the energy sword with one hand and sent a blast of wind with the other, blasting the reaper away. At the moment, the two of them were hovering in the mid-air above the floating mountain.      

"This is true power," Michael smirked, slowly pulling out the sword. The red light emanated by the energy sword flickered in his hand. When Michael pulled out the energy sword, the reaper saw the wound closing visible to the naked eye without Ghost taking any healing potions.      

"Why don't we finish this fight?" Michael snickered. On the other hand, the reaper reached out for the energy sword in Michael's hand, trying to summon the sword.      

The sword frantically trembled in Michael's hand to escape his grasp. Seeing the sword couldn't escape Ghost's grasp, the reaper creased his brows underneath his mask.      

"Return to me!" the reaper shouted. But no matter how hard the reaper tried to summon the sword, the reaper failed to get his hand on the sword.      

"Impossible," The reaper panicked because the sword could not be controlled by anyone weaker than him. He had special runes on the sword to ensure the sword would always return to him. At that moment, a weaker cultivator like Ghost overpowered the sword, which shouldn't have been possible.     

The reaper's mind was boggled until he lost the connection with his sword. Soon, the reaper felt weak and exhausted. He even tumbled down a few meters without any control over his body.     

"What's happening?" The reaper asked Michael, feeling his connection to the Celestial energy slowly declining.      

In a couple of moments, the reaper went from the Fusion stage to the Core Strengthening stage cultivator, rapidly weakening by the second.      

"I found the cure for the molten plague. So it wasn't challenging to weaponize the plague," Michael smirked.     

"The air you breathed wasn't purely natural. In simple words, I poisoned you without even you noticing," The reaper's vision blurred as he started to vomit dark blood. Additionally, the reaper's skin gradually turned gray, and his hair lost its shininess.     

Michael looked down for a moment before turning his gaze back at the reaper.     

"Wow, you'll be a human omelet by the time you hit the ground. Your reapers friends will have a hard time scrapping you off the ground if they found you, that is," Michael laughed.      

From the moment he sensed the reaper, Michael began to release the fear toxin from his APD. Simply put, Michael defeated the reaper even before the battle started. Michael just wanted to see his Fusion Stage powers and how powerful his spells have gotten. Otherwise, Michael could have dragged his conversation with the reaper until the Fear toxin took effect.     

By battling the reaper, Michael found out his vulnerabilities.      

"You weaponized the plague? Why?" the reaper asked, coughing up more blood.     

"Why else? Money. By this time next week, the entire Awor will be struck by the plague. Desperation will take hold of Awor, including the empress. A man with a cure will be like a god at that time. I can name whatever the price I want,"     

The reaper didn't utter any word for a moment. He had seen hundreds of ruthless and evil beings in his life, but Ghost was the evilest two-faced demon he had ever seen.      

"You still have time reaper. You may not know who put the bounty on my head, but you know the location of your guild. Reveal the location, and I'll give you the cure. We can pretend like this never happened," Michael offered the reaper a choice to live.     

"You have a minute to decide reaper. After that, you'll fall to death," Michael didn't show any emotion in his tone.      

As the reaper slowly lost the connection with the arch energy, his mind told him to take the offer. The reapers were known for their brutality and ruthlessness, not for loyalty to the guild. They always valued their lives and money over allegiance to the guild. Thus the reaper was tempted to reveal the location in exchange for the cure. He couldn't simply trust Ghost's words, but he had no choice either.         

"Tik Tok reaper…tik tok…"