Ryuuto's patience snapped like a cheap switchblade.
"Man, you're really an eyesore," he muttered. A shuriken slipped between his fingers, its edge flashing cold under the lights. "If that's how you want it… guess I'll just kill you."
Deadshot spat blood onto the dirt. "You? Kill me? Keep dreaming."
He slapped a trigger on his chest.
BOOM!
The mini-bomb detonated point-blank. Sand exploded outward like a ruptured dam. Deadshot was hurled free of Ryuuto's grip, armor cracked, skin torn, but he staggered upright with a crazed grin.
"Die!"
His laser rifle snapped up, trigger pulled.
Earth Style: Earth Wall!
Stone erupted from the ground, forming a towering slab of rock. The laser slammed into it uselessly, scattering sparks.
Deadshot's face drained pale.
Ryuuto stepped out from behind the wall like he'd just stretched after a nap. "You're a special kind of stupid, huh? Fine. Let me show you something worse than dying."
His five fingers clenched.
Sand Waterfall Funeral.
The ground groaned. Sand surged like a living creature, swallowing Deadshot in a rising swirl that compressed into a massive pyramid around him. The pressure inside made the air warp.
Screams erupted around the training grounds.
"R-run! That guy's a monster!"
"Someone get help! This is murder!"
The sand pyramid pulsed—
BOOM!
The entire training field disintegrated into a crater of pulverized earth.
When the dust finally cleared, Deadshot lay broken on the ground, armor shattered, blood leaking from the seams. Foam bubbled at his lips. His eyes twitched open just long enough to see Ryuuto standing over him like a devil out of folklore.
Then he passed out cold.
[Ding! Ryuuto, congratulations on defeating mutant Deadshot. New mission clue detected.]
Ryuuto rubbed his temples. Finally. Thought he'd last at least five minutes.
"Oh? What's the clue? Come on, Shion, spit it out."
[Fine, Host. Whatever. According to the system: locate and defeat Freeze Man. Defeating him gives a 40 percent chance to drop a character data fragment and one spin on the lucky wheel.]
"Forty percent? You stingy scrap-heap of a system."
He exhaled sharply. Still… "Forty is better than zero. Guess I'm not done yet."
He blurred forward, shooting across the landscape faster than a winter storm.
Soon the world turned white. Goose-feather snow drifted from the sky, visibility dropping as the temperature plummeted.
"Kami, this place is cold. Only a psycho would live out here." Ryuuto hugged his arms, though the chill didn't bother him much. "Let's wrap this up fast. Still gotta get back and hang with Susan."
He drifted through the blizzard—
A shadow dropped from the sky.
Then came the attack.
A massive snowball.
A SNOWBALL.
It sailed at him like a meteor.
Ryuuto sidestepped lazily. "Really? A snowball? Who throws that at me? Do they want to die stupidly or creatively?"
A voice shrieked below.
"You dodged it?! You dirty human!"
A mob of… snowmen. Furry, stick-wielding, deranged snowmen. They rolled huge snowballs and launched them upward like artillery.
And they were yelling at him. Loudly.
Ryuuto pinched the bridge of his nose. He was about to leave them alone… until he heard one line:
"Capture him! Bring him to Lord Freeze Man!"
His irritation flared.
"Repeat that."
He dropped from the sky in a rush of wind, landing hard enough to shake snow off nearby trees. The snowmen froze mid-throw, sticks trembling.
"That name you just spat out. Say it again… clearly. Do that, and I might let you keep your… whatever counts as a life for you."
They didn't answer. Instead, they went feral.
"He insulted Lord Freeze Man!"
"Attack! Hit him with everything!"
"Turn him into an ice statue!"
A solid wall of snowballs launched at him.
Ryuuto's eyebrow twitched.
"You idiots really think I'm patient?"
He inhaled.
Fire Style: Great Fireball.
Fire Style: Fire Dragon Bullet.
Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu.
Three jutsu ignited the entire sky crimson. Fireballs screamed downward in a storm, vaporizing snow, melting ice, turning the blizzard into boiling mist.
The snowmen shrieked and bolted.
"He's invading our home! Run!"
"Warn Lord Freeze Man! That arrogant brat must die!"
Ryuuto dusted off his cloak. "Finally. Some peace."
A piercing roar shattered that peace instantly.
"Who dares rampage in MY territory? Who's the little punk too tired and crooked to value his life?!"
The snowmen skidded to a halt, joy exploding on their faces.
A figure leapt from the frozen cliffs, body coated in shimmering blue ice. Cold radiated from him so intensely the air crystallized. He fired a beam of icy light from his gauntlet, wiping out the leftover flames and creating a forest of razor-sharp ice spires.
He landed with a smirk.
"Boy. Name yourself. I don't kill nobodies."
Freeze Man pointed straight at Ryuuto, icy pride dripping from every syllable.
Ryuuto cracked his neck. "Cute introduction. Now come give me that forty percent."