Chapter 525 The Storm Ravages (1)

'Here we go, Tobs, gimmie that hot-fire BGM.' Kicking off the ground, Cynrik rushed forward and activated his Stealth Skill, vanishing from sight.

-Now playing "Chainsaw Man OST: Edge of Chainsaw (Main Theme) | EPIC VERSION" By Kensei Music.-

The hybrid electronic/heavy rock music vibrated his body, and upon hearing the unfamiliar song, Cynrik nodded contently.

'Chainsaw Man, heh, I guess it would have long since come out; I remember reading the manga back on Earth, and I was pretty excited about the anime, tsk; maybe I should try recreating some of my old favorites to earn a few extra bucks.' Cynrik thought as he stayed low to the ground while running full speed straight toward Team Romeoville.

-I wouldn't recommend that…as it stands, other LCs don't have confirmation that you are one of them, but if there are others from your period on Earth, and you suddenly start publishing famous works from your time, it would be a dead give away to your identity.-

Holding tightly to his shoulder with her legs flapping behind her body, Tobs stated, causing Cynrik to scoff under his breath.

'Come now, Tobs, do you take me for a fool? Of course, I would use a pen name and set up shell companies to deal with the money. Unless they are better hackers than me, there won't be a single way to trace it back to me.'

BOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM

Just as he made that statement, the ground in front of him exploded, cascading chunks of rubble into the air and weaponizing them into rocky missles.

Having seen the sudden collection of Mana not far ahead of him, Cynrik had barely enough time to dive to the side and avoid the explosion. However, the incoming rock missles had "targeting" capabilities, so they immediately fired at Cynrik while he rolled and slid to a stop.

'Tsk, fucking tracking skills,' Weaving through the hailstorm of rock, Cynrik danced around while continuing forward.

Not far away, Derrek barked orders at two of his mages; he knew Cynrik would try rushing in undetected since the details he obtained before round one showed the VSFA Captain was of the Assassin Class.

Using the same method of searching he had for the SRD event, the Psychic User on Team Romeoville had temporarily located Cynrik. Still, since his skill had a 3-minute cooldown and Cynrik was moving too fast to keep tabs on, the skill would only find him long enough to launch a well-prepared attack.

Understanding that Cynrik was about to close the distance and had more than likely located his group already since they had blown their cover, Derrek grabbed his team with strands of Mana and teleported them a kilometer away to the east.

Seeing this, Cynrik grinned.

'So that asshat's jumps are 1km with the entire team. Then how about we try this,' outstretching his left arm while running, a tremor ran through Cynrik's body as his shadow seemingly detached from its usual position, and soon, a second, inky pitch-black silhouette appeared while keeping pace next to him.

'One more,' Cynrik thought as he withdrew his left arm and mimicked his previous actions using his right arm; soon, three people were racing toward Team Romeoville, two [Umbral Clones] and Cynrik himself.

'Since my [Shadow Clone] evolved due to my Affinity changing, they got more helpful.' He thought while remembering the Skills description.

-Tier-3.5 Umbral Affinity Skill: [Umbral Clone]-

-The trice-evolved form of the basic Dark Affinity Skill, Shadow's Image. The User can take control or split their shadow and change its shape into one desired. Once it becomes the desired clone, it will move and act under the complete control of the one who summoned it.-

-Up to two Clones can be manifested; however, the stats of the second clone will be diminished significantly.-

-The clones will not be able to think or act without commands explicitly given by the one who created them.-

-Clones cannot use any skills requiring Mana, as they do not have an MP stat.

-The First Clone will automatically have 75% of the User's Stats except for HP and has unlimited Stamina.

-The Second Clone will have 50% of the First Clone's stats except for HP and has unlimited Stamina

-Activation cost: Minimum 10k MP. Chargeable.-

-The Clone will turn the Mana points used to generate it into its own Health Points. When the clone receives enough damage to drop its HP to Zero, it ceases to be under the User's control and will return to being the User's shadow.-

'UC1, flank left, UC2, flank right, keep a distance of one click between us at all times.' Giving the order to his new clones, Cynrik didn't need to watch as the two separated from him and put the desired distance between themselves and him.

'UGH, this would have been much easier if I could enter the Shadow Realm in VR.' Clicking his tongue as he changed direction and followed Romeoville since they had jumped again, Cynrik complained.

-That [Umbral Dimension Leap] **Evolved form of Shadow Leap** of yours requires access to what you've labeled as the Shadow Realm Cyn. Since that realm only exists in the real world, it's common sense that you would be cut off from it in VR.-

-Besides, depending on how good that Derrek guy is with his Space Affinity, he can probably lock you out of the Shadow Realm just like Geralt does.-

Still hanging on for dear life to Cynrik's shoulder, Tobs reminded Cynrik of the only other circumstance which would remove his access to the Shadow Realm.

Ignoring Tobs, Cynrik monitored the trap he was laying with his clones as he kept tabs on the teleportation of Romeoville and after the 6th jump; however, he noticed something, causing him to grin.

There was a pattern to how Derrek picked his jump location. East, East, West, North, East, East.

When the time came for the seventh jump, Cynrik had already corrected his approach, placing the weaker of the two clones approximately where he figured Romeoville would appear. Like clockwork, when the five-minute Cooldown expired, Romeoville appeared 30 meters away from the clone.

'Gotcha fucker, [Clone Swap,].' Triggering the Runic Diagram in his mind with the appropriate amount of Mana, Cynrik instantly teleported, switching places with the weaker clone, and rushed forward at full speed.

Panting heavily, Derrek told his team to be on high alert, and the others spread out, as was their standard tactic. Creating a wedge-shaped formation, with the three back liners **two archers and one healer* to the north and the rest observing the south, Team Romeoville scoured the distant horizon where they assumed Cynrik was coming.

That was their second mistake, the first being predictable teleportation locations.

Moving like a phantom, Cynrik appeared in the middle of their formation undercover of his stealth skill with both kodachis unsheathed, his target, the Psychic User who could track his movements.

Having noticed the Amethyst Particles surging toward the young man, Cynrik instantly knew this was how they located him before attacking earlier, and with his target chosen, Cynrik attacked.

Without hesitation or remorse, Cynrik slashed out, hacking off the young man's arms with the first attack and his legs with the second. Following his attack by executing a spinning back kick, he launched the poor limbless guy into the back liners like a bowling ball into pins before "Torso boy" could even scream in agony.

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