14, and Goodbye

Chapter 36 14. Then, Goodbye

As Karl approached Patrick, Patrick, who had been aiming at an NCPD officer hiding behind cover, stopped.

His instincts sensed the threat.

Having lost his rationality, reduced to a mad beast, he instinctively knew who his greatest enemy was. Compared to the insignificant 'little rabbits' around him, whom he could deal with at will, Patrick now sensed a tiger approaching.

'Tiger Claw...'

The word flashed through his mind. Patrick didn't know why, but he could remember this word so clearly, as if it were etched into his brain, impossible to erase.

"Tiger Claw..."

So he muttered it under his breath. Karl, hearing him say something, stopped about twelve meters away.

'Is there any sanity left?'

Just as Karl thought this, yellow eyes filled with scarlet met his.

'Looks like not.'

Looking at those eyes, dyed red by the broken flesh around the sockets, yet still unable to hide the bright yellow glow of the cybernetic eyes, Karl felt he could see only madness.

"Come."

Karl simply smiled and issued a challenge to Patrick. As if receiving confirmation of the invitation, the moment Karl's words fell, Patrick's figure began to blur.

The passage of time seemed to slow down as he activated the Sandevistan once more.

The Sandevistan Patrick used was the 'Dynalar Sandevistan Mk.1', a type specifically designed for mercenaries and soldiers. In other words, it was a cybernetic implant made specifically for combat, not only accelerating the body's reaction speed and activating the flesh, but also incorporating a certain degree of combat assistance.

With the help of this combat assistance, even though Patrick had fallen into madness, he could still keenly recognize the enemy's vital points and attack them.

Patrick's figure arrived at Karl's side in less than the blink of an eye. A Mantis Blade stabbed straight at Karl's body, its trajectory aimed to pierce Karl's right arm, then pierce his lung from the side, and finally reach his heart.

"See... clearly..."

In the elongated time of Patrick's perception, he saw a smile slowly spreading, a tilt of the head, and words that should have been connected.

He kept up with his speed?!

Even though he should have been lost in madness, Patrick still felt a palpitation and chill.

But the Mantis Blade he had thrust out could not be retracted, and he could only maintain the motion and continue stabbing.

Karl watched all of this, his smile growing even brighter.

He guessed right.

From the first time he saw this Cyberpsycho use the Sandevistan, Karl had already made some basic guesses. After summarizing them in his mind, he had discerned the opponent's pattern of action.

A mind driven by madness will only act according to the most familiar and instinctive movements. In other words, for a Cyberpsycho, he will not change his fighting style, which is a ridiculous flaw in a fight to the death.

First piece of information: this Cyberpsycho named Patrick had used the Sandevistan twice before, and each time his trajectory was to attack around the opponent's right side. This meant that, in his instinctive consciousness, attacking from the opponent's right side was his most comfortable and proficient attack position.

Second piece of information: each time he used the Sandevistan, he could run fourteen steps. Both times, it was fourteen steps. A person who has fallen into madness will not have the rationality to stop using the cybernetic implant except for instinctive warnings. This meant that fourteen steps was the limit of his Sandevistan. The stride length of a normal adult male is 85 centimeters, so fourteen steps is 1190 centimeters, or 11.9 meters.

Karl was standing twelve meters away from Patrick.

He couldn't get behind Karl to use the backstabbing kill method he was most familiar with from the previous two times. He would only stop in front of Karl's right side, or at his side, to launch an attack.

As long as he understood the position from which the opponent was going to attack, and the approximate part of the body that would be hit, it was not difficult to react with slowness to counter speed.

The Monomolecular Wire that popped out struck the side of Patrick's arm where the Mantis Blade wasn't. The sharp Monomolecular Wire easily cut through Patrick's Subdermal Armor, severed half of his arm, and then touched the Mantis Blade.

The Mantis Blade could not be directly cut by the Monomolecular Wire, so after sensing the obstruction, the Monomolecular Wire exerted its essence as a wire.

Just like when a top is whipped, the wire wraps around the top upon contact due to the force, the Monomolecular Wire began to rotate and wrap around the Mantis Blade. Under the force of the pre-swing, Patrick, whose Sandevistan had reached its limit, could only watch helplessly as the Monomolecular Wire wrapped around his entire arm.

The flow of time returned to the body.

Patrick instinctively wanted to pull his arm back, to pull the Mantis Blade out of the entanglement, but his brain, lost in madness, forgot that the Monomolecular Wire was wrapped not only around the Mantis Blade, but also around half of his arm.

It would have been fine if he hadn't pulled, but as soon as he pulled, the Monomolecular Wire wrapped around the flesh began to cut Patrick's flesh in the opposite direction with considerable ease as Patrick exerted force. With just one pull, Patrick 'cut off' half of his arm's flesh from his own arm.

Finally, the Monomolecular Wire got stuck at the wrist. It wasn't that the Monomolecular Wire couldn't cut further down, but that the lift of the Monomolecular Wire had reached its limit under the restraint and pull of the Mantis Blade on the other half of the arm. The mutual friction between the two cybernetic implants produced a rather ear-piercing metallic friction sound.

Feeling the pain, Patrick had a moment of clarity in his madness. Realizing the danger and that things were not good, he finally understood that his right hand was beyond saving.

He raised the Mantis Blade in his left hand, preparing to attack with it in the current situation, but after all the commotion he had made, Karl had long been prepared.

A pistol was pressed against Patrick's forehead.

"Nice to meet you, yellow-eyed uncle."

Karl looked down at Patrick, whose figure was a little shorter than his own due to the pulling, and looked at the cybernetic eye that had been completely dyed red with blood, its yellow light also appearing dim. He bid farewell to this madman.

"Then, goodbye."