Mark propelled himself right into their midst, cleaving the first of his targets into two fine halves with his sword before any of them could react to his appearance. The one who stood beside Mark slashed down with his sword and watched as the blade slammed into the man’s back and rebounded as if it had struck steel, stunning the target who struggled to maintain his composure.

“Wow, I guess the force on the blade was not enough for it to shatter upon striking my skin. The fact it rebounded either means the enemy must have some skill in handling the distribution of power across the blade or they must be pathetically weak.” Mark stood to his feet and held his chin as they all rained attacks on him, “This is going to be useful battling opponents when I need to reserve my strength and the efficiency of my weapon…”

After he was done, Mark dropped his hand from his chin and looked around himself with a calm expression on his face. He had used [Flickering Madness] a second before entering his dazed state, and under the effects of the skill not a single one of their attacks had touched him or the dead on his shoulder.

In the next second, he stabbed his sword into the guts of the enemy before him, turning around and dragging the sword out to cleave the head of the one who stood beside him before dashing to the last and pegging it into the wall with the blade. As soon as he had confirmed their deaths, Mark turned to the elevator, kicking open the doors and stepping inside.

The brutes had already wrecked the door so it was of no use to him now. As he pushed buttons, he wondered what the others on the next floor were doing to stop him. He thought it would be best to just speed run to the boss and finish everything with one massive attack — bringing the building down on everyone and finishing off the survivors.

“Hmm.”

Mark frowned as the makeshift elevator refused to start. He pushed more buttons, wondering which meant which as he was not conversant with the local language. After some time, he thought he'd be better off finessing his way to the top of the building rather than wasting his time trying to get the elevator that might not even be an elevator to elevate him to his destination.

In the next second, Mark calmed himself and then he was propelled upward at a fast speed, his head used to smash a hole through the plating of the elevator copycat. As he flew forward, his eyes locked on to the area that he sensed the enemies from, and shifting the direction of his flight, Mark smashed into the area through the doors and flew across the room calmly.

Arrows were fired at him from the side, and noticing them, Mark evaded calmly before skidding to a halt with the elevator before him. He lifted his leg and kicked it down, finding two more targets doing their business inside. They were busy tampering with the controls, and only noticed him until he was already upon them like a raging storm.

One of them burst out speaking in their native tongue, but Mark just raised his blade and all of the targets were reduced to pieces. As for the arrows? They were merely fired by a machine hidden in a room that was rigged with explosives, it would have dealt him a good lesson for his stupidity but he ignored it after noticing the trap, and went for the targets instead.

There were only four of them hiding here, the remaining mass of the force was on the final floor where the fool who sent his minions after him hid. He turned to the body on his shoulder again, a cold gleam flashing in his eyes. After he was done with thinking, he marched into the elevator and propelled himself up once again, repeating the process from the earlier floor.

But, after he had burst into the final floor Mark did not rush his advance. He simply walked with the bloody blade in his hands. He counted about twelve here, and they were all gathered in a single room waiting for him. As he reached the room they all waited in, Mark sighed, and he stepped away from the door and watched as it exploded in his face.

He remained calm, stepping into the room where he met over eleven standing around their boss who sat behind his desk. Mark dropped the body he carried on the ground, and he flicked the sword in his hands, wiping the blood still dripping off the blade. As soon as Mark was done with his sword, he dashed forward and rushed the boss at a fast speed.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Your lot is always in such a hurry."

As soon as Mark heard the creature speak, he flickered from his position and the ground blew up beside him. He turned to the smoking tiles, and down into the hole that had revealed after the smoke had cleared. He turned to the boss who had a mad gleam in his bright red eyes. Mark was calm as all of the eleven fools charged at him with their blades.

"My lot? You all are always so foolish, believing that you can hold on to that little you own in the of those who stand beyond you. The little you own includes your worthless lives." Mark turned to the first target, and he disappeared from his position, appearing beside the Kinli'Ku and stabbing his sword into its neck, dragging it out in that same instant and dashing to his next target.

His blade was swung, and the next Kinli'Ku was halved mid-air. As they all landed to the ground, two had already fallen to his makeshift blade. Unlike the former idiots he had killed, the remaining ten reacted fast, dashing away from their positions and reforming their formation far away from a calm Mark who observed with a cold glint in his eyes.

“You always think you can just come and collect as you wish. Not today though, I have trained a lot for this very moment — the day when someone would try to take what is not theirs.” The boss of the goons spoke in a cold voice, “None were strong enough to reach this point, I am both excited and afraid. Why don’t I give this everything I have?”

Mark's heart skipped a beat, and he used [Flickering Madness] before rushing forward at a crazy speed, his eyes locked on the enemies before him. Arrows rained all over the room, and explosions followed at a sporadic rate. The room quaked from the explosions, and Mark who stood in the midst of it all frowned as he emerged from the flames with a cold glint in his eyes.

His blade was lifted, and in a flash of light, blood was sprayed all over the area. The nearest duo were cleaved in an instant, and as soon as the others noticed this, they prepared to dash again but a perceptive Mark noticed their movements beforehand, He had about [40%] reserved energy left, and that was enough for another use of [Flickering Madness].

The room was rigged with booby traps, and he did not have enough reserved energy for all of them. He decided to just kill all the enemies he could and then finish off the final target without using too many skills. He did not have the time to bother himself with useless threats like these, it was bad enough the system was not rewarding him for their deaths.

Mark dashed like a spectre, and in quick slashes of his blade, the heads of five more targets were severed from their bodies mid-reformation. Just as he was in the middle of his massacre, the block of a strange ore he had sensed earlier shot out of its hiding place in the wall and smashed into his ribs, causing Mark’s eyes to widen from the shock of how painful it was before skidding to the side.

Spears rained down from the ceiling upon him, but he quickly sidestepped before dashing to the boss, deciding to ignore everything else. Noticing this, the one behind the desk grinned and pulled a weapon out from under his desk and it was a ranged weapon with a build very similar to a gun. The sight of a weapon like that developed a curiosity in Mark.

“You think we cannot collect too? We have collected a lot from those who thought they were the collectors. The truth is, only those who are strong enough would collect from others. You are strong, but you are not strong enough…” The boss grinned as he fired the gun at Mark. He had waited for a chance: and the moment when the enemy dashed to him with no way to evade was the perfect one.

"Like I said, you all are always so foolish." Mark wore a cold expression on his face, and in a blink, he was propelled to the side. Before anyone could react, he was propelled forward to the boss who'd already fired in the direction he was dashing in earlier, "Believing you can hold on to your worthless lives. Strength lies absolute, before every dumb desire."

In a quick slash, the Kinli’Ku’s head was sent rolling to the other side of the room before anyone else could react. As soon as he was done with the target, Mark wiped his blade and turned to the remaining targets. As he turned to face them, they all charged towards him with their strength and he calmly welcomed their desperate attempts at survival.

In quick and efficient strikes, Mark hacked all of them down and watched as they separated into two halves. As he watched them collapse to the ground, and calmly stared as the blood soaked the tiles beneath him. He cast the sword in his hands aside, turning to the notification that had shown before him,

[Path — Heart of Blistering Ice Activated!]

[Skill, Hail Storm Armour Unlocked — 100XP Received!]

[Evolution possible… Do you want to integrate an unlocked path into your system? Y/N]