In a blink of eye, Lexar sees Jerome’s figure in front of him. He tries to move his body to jump back, but it does not accept any of his command. Standing motionless, he can just only look at Jerome rising his leg and then swings it down with a loud wind sound. The cat’s head is squashed like a soft tomato under the man’s feet.

(What the hell was that?) Lexar thinks with a terrible headache assaulting his mind.

His eyes opens after they suddenly became black after the stomp. Jerome is no where to be found out, but Lexar finds himself standing in a factory. However, before being able to figure out what is going on. A black iron mass falls down and crushes the cat beneath with gravity force of 1 ton.

(Arrggghhh ………) Lexar screams in his mind as he feels his bones crushed.

When Lexar can open his eyes again, he finds himself above the sky and falling fast to the ground.

(No way……) His thought comes to a stop as he crashes with the ground.

The cycle repeats as Lexar experiences death in different ways with only a second to perceive the pain before dying again. After the 10th death, pain has accumulated on his body so much that he wants to die for real. It is so unbearable to him that he wishes that his mind can shut off forever.

Eleventh death, Lexar lies on a chopping board. There is a chef with a sadistic smile holding a butcher knife next to him.  The knife hits the chopping board loudly and cleaves the cat in half. Up until now, it has been instant death for him to think anything. However, this time is a slow death and he is able to stay conscious for a few second before moving to the next place.

“Heal” Lexar instinctively mutters as he seeks a way to alleviate the pain.

A warm flow spreads out his whole body and removes all the accumulated pain he has. Two parts of his body slowly connect each other as strings of meat reach out each other and connect. The surrounding world becomes distorted and slowly vanishes from his sight.

When his consciousness is back, all the pain has vanished but the lingering mental strain proves that his “death” was not simply illusions or dreams. No attack has come to him and Lexar is back inside the hospital room. Jerome is still standing there, but his appearance has changed completely. The healthy colored skin is replaced with sickly white skin. The hands become skinny and longer than normal hands. His clothes has changed to a black elegant tuxedo with red cloak. Through potential eye, Lexar can see the negative energy emitting from his body, especially the eyes where it’s concentrated. Jerome’s current eyes definitely do not belong to human as the irises are yellow with the diamond shape. Turning to the girls, Lexar notices that they are staring at Jerome’s eyes absentmindedly. 

(So it was the work of those eyes. But first I need to release them from the illusion first.) Lexar figures out what happened.

“Heal” The cat casts his skill on the three girls. After experimenting yesterday, he figured out that his skill consumes a certain amount of positive energy and there is no cool down or other limitation, which means he can use it continuously as long as he has enough power.

After waking up from the “death”, Makoto, Hinami, Yuuko all fall on the ground with hands holding the body and breathe heavily. Their backs are drenched with sweats, sticking the clothes on their back and showing the bras beneath. Fear can be seen on their faces and trembling bodies. If Lexar performed heal several seconds later, they would become unconscious at the moment.

“You stupid cat! What did you just do?” Jerome screams angrily while covering his eyes.

Blood flows down from his eyes after having the targets escape from the heal spell. The heal spell is beneficial for normal creatures, but poses dangerous for the beings made of negative energy, as its nature is same as the white flame. Jerome was connected with the targets in some senses, which allowed Lexar’s skill to inflict damage on him.

Turning to see the trio, they are still shaking in fear deeply. It seems the shock from the “death” affects them more seriously than Lexar. With their current state, he doubts they can fight anymore.

Jerome who has recovered his eyes with the black flame takes his hand off the face and looks at Lexar with a furious expression. Not only did he detect their plan earlier than expected, he also negated one of his special abilities so easily. Right now, the cat which has no fighting power is the top priority target.

Noticing the intense hostility, Lexar realizes that he is the target of Jerome.

(This is good. At least, the girls will have some time to recover. I don’t know if I can do much but I have to hold him as long as possible.) Lexar plans in his heart.

Mustering the positive energy within him, Lexar enhances his body strength and hardness, and covers his entire body in white flame. The claws protruding from his pawns are sharp as blades and longer than what the normal cats have three times. Strengthening his body with positive energy is one of the new applications he found yesterday. Along with the strength gained from “contracting”, Lexar has the power that can rival with those called “super man in real life”. A full body slam from him can break a normal brick wall, and his claws are sharp to the point that metal alloy can be cut like a cake.

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Noticing the cat’s fierce aura, Jerome becomes more cautious as he analyzes his opponent. The weak domestic cat has become a dangerous beast in his view. Although he does not want to admit it, the cat in front of him now is even more dangerous than the girls. It is not about special ability or fighting power. It is the feeling of fighting a seasoned warrior. That cat is like a blade only showing up a little from the sheath, and when the blade is completely drawn, it will cut down any enemy in an instance. Jerome has already understood that the cat is special, but he is still taken by surprise again. His intuition warns him that the cat will be the biggest obstacle to his master’s plan.

“I will definitely kill you.” Jerome says while creating a rapier and a pistol in both hands. Jerome’s forte is actually sword and gun play, not hand to hand combat. In a serious battle, he would not let someone approach too near and grab him like Yuuko did. Moreover, he did not expect a girl to practice such an ungraceful martial art. They were two reasons for his clone to lose against Yuuko. However, the current he is fighting with full power from the start. It will not be an easy battle like with his clone.

One man and one cat are staring at each other in silence, waiting for the other to strike first. Jerome who has aimed perfectly for the cat pulls the trigger first. A gun shot comes and at the same time, an air blowing sound vibrates. Lexar shots himself toward the man head on. As the bullet approaches him, the cat twists his body in mid air, evades the trajectory of the bullet, while extending his claw and cutting the bullet in half.

The cat flies like a spinning rocket toward Jerome’s face. He swings down his rapier to intercept the attack. Spark flies as the claws and rapier clash. With the left front leg holding against the rapier, Lexar pushes the weapon sideway while thrusting his right front leg at the enemy’s face. Jerome crouches down to evade it and the cat flies pass him. Missing the target, Lexar lands on the wall behind with four legs then shoots himself at the man’s back. With fast reflex, Jerome evades sideway and counter-attacks at the same time. Metal clashing sounds fill the whole area as the man and the cat exchange strikes with each other.

However, it is obvious that the cat is on the offense side. Using the momentum and his small body, Lexar jumps off between walls and the ground to attack at difficult angels to defend, while gradually increasing the speed. Jerome, on the other hand, is struggling against the troublesome series of attack. With his fast reflex and excellent technique, he could fend off any attack only if his opponent was a human. The swiftness and irregularity of the cat’s attacks are hard to defend. Not only he has to break his stance to guard against attack from unexpected angels, he has to spin around rapidly to catch up with the speed, which makes him slightly dizzy and creates gaps in defense. His body is in one piece but that is because he recovered the injuries with black flame. In only 5 minutes, he was cut more than twenty times, while his opponent suffered no wound. The gun was replaced by another rapier as it was impossible to aim at the cat. Even if he shot accurately, the cat would just block the bullet with his claw easily, and the gap he made would create an opportunity for the cat to scratch him.

After jumping around with high speed for a whole 5 minutes, Lexar also feels quite tired and dizzy. Thanks to his experiences driving vehicles with high speed, he is able to endure the motion sickness better than normal people, but such intense activity is still too much. He stops the attack and stands facing against Jerome. Both sides look at each other with heavy breathing. They are both tired and want  to rest a little bit, in order to prepare for the decisive attack.

“*gasp*…. You will pay for stopping your attack, stupid cat ….*gasp*” Jerome says.

“Meow Moe Meo Neo (Try it if you can)” Lexar taunts him with a provocative middle claw.

A gun forms in Jerome’s hand and he shoots at the cat. The same scene occurs as Lexar shoots himself toward Jerome while slicing the bullet, followed by Jerome evades his attack and Lexar lands on the wall again.

However, things are different this time. As Lexar shoots himself to strike again, the gun is replaced by a tower shield with spikes on its surface. With such a fast momentum while on air, it is no doubt that Lexar will ram on the shield and get pierced by the spikes. If with a little chance that the cat manages to change the trajectory, the speed will slow down significantly and Jerome will grab that chance to cleave the cat in half.

“Checkmate.” Jerome smiles as the cat nearly rams against the shield.

…………………………

* Three seconds before contact *

Time slowed down as Lexar jumped off the wall.

As soon as Jerome brought the shield in front of him, the cat body started spinning in the air. The rotation speed was slow at the first second but then greatly increased in the next second.

30 cm apart from the shield, the rotation speed has reached 120 rpm. The cat figure has become a black long spindle spinning with a crazy speed. At this moment, white flame rises up and covers the whole body. The black spindle becomes a black and white fire ball.

(Choukyuu Haou Den'eidan) Lexar screams out the name of special technique.

With the intensity of heat and propulsion force, the metal on the shield melts instantly while the hand holding it is burnt to crisp. The fireball shoots through the shield wielder before extinguished. Lexar lands lightly on the ground near the girls then turns back to see the outcome of the match.

Jerome with a still smiling face stands there. However, there is a big hole that takes more than 90% of the surface of his upper body. His arms are both gone and the only things intact are the lower body and the head.

“How…… can  this ……. be?” Jerome speaks before his head becomes a skull and burnt into white ash, as well as his remaining.

There is no pungent smell anymore. Only the smell of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide come from the burning.

“I never think that there is a day I will say that this is a good smell after all” Lexar comments after confirming his victory.