Waste Not

Chapter 36: Waste Not

"I handed them over to you so they could tell you some information, not so you could torture them."

A gentle smile appeared on Xu Yue's face. Though it looked warm, it filled the others with icy dread.

They were utterly incredulous and shocked, not even knowing how to respond.

He really was a Reincarnator?!

"Biba, shouldn't you give me an explanation?"

Xu Yue turned his head toward the handsome pink-haired man beside him. He seemed too disdainful to speak to those underlings and went straight for their leader.

"This was my mistake. I only recruited these men recently because I valued their skills and talent. Leave this matter to me."

Biba wore the same sunny, gentle smile. Then, with a wave of his hand, the Hunting Party's samurai behind him opened fire in a volley.

There was no room for explanations, nor any chance to make them. The sudden encirclement and attack made their scalps tingle.

Even with the strength of lower-rank ninja, facing dense gunfire from every direction without cover was extremely troublesome.

They all roared in fury and brought out every trick they had to defend themselves.

Some blocked the shots, while others relied on defensive skills to take them head-on.

The masked man dressed as a ninja, their leader, swung his tachi so swiftly that it formed an impenetrable barrier. The blade seemed to be made of some unknown metal, batting aside every bullet fired at him like a net.

Not only that, he also eased the pressure on the others beside him.

This sudden display of strength shocked the Hunting Party members responsible for firing.

It was understandable for a lone shooter's attacks to be dodged; quite a few of them could manage that themselves. But even a surrounded barrage with no cover had failed to work!

They had endured one round of fire with their lower-rank ninja-level strength, but they were still covered in wounds and gasping for breath.

Their eyes were filled with terror as they looked at Xu Yue.

How was this possible?!

This couldn't be real!

It shattered everything they knew about Reincarnators!

As far as they knew, even some lofty bigshots could not take the dominant position in a Mission Space!

Back then, Dragon Soul, once the world's number one legion, and its strongest expert who had suppressed the Reincarnation Space for centuries, had still been reduced to ashes by a story character due to another's scheme, meeting his doom.

It made no sense at all...

"Run!"

The samurai's Steam Guns had a limited firing rate. Having weathered one volley and gained several cuts himself, the masked ninja roared as he lunged toward the weakest point behind them.

Too terrifying! This was too terrifying!

Judging by the direction they had come from, this should still have been a beginner's area for trainee Reincarnators!

How could there be such a powerful newcomer?!

He had to escape, he had to escape!

This guy was even more terrifying than that demoness. He had to take this information back!

Several Shuriken dropped from his sleeve into his palm. The next moment, he was ready to kill the samurai behind him who had knocked down the earthen walls to surround them. As for whether his teammates could escape, that would depend on their own abilities!

But just then, a warning flared in his heart, and every hair on his body stood on end.

Two Shuriken identical to his own were silently spinning toward him from opposite sides in curved trajectories.

He had no idea when they had been thrown, nor had he anticipated them at all.

The two Shuriken had practically sealed off every escape route.

If he tried to block them and got delayed, he would have no chance of survival. The battlefield here was too unfavorable, and they were completely surrounded!

"Hah!"

With an explosive shout, his bones cracked strangely as he twisted his body at an unnatural angle, narrowly evading the two Shuriken one after the other.

But in the next instant, a sharp "ding" rang out.

The two Shuriken collided where their arcs intersected. One ricocheted at an even trickier angle, shooting toward the masked man's back with vicious speed.

Having exhausted all his momentum with no room left to adjust, he felt a sharp pain in his back. His chest was pierced clean through, spraying blood and flesh.

After staggering forward another two steps from inertia, the masked man began to stumble. His ninja mask had been completely dyed red with blood.

He swayed as he turned, wanting to point at Xu Yue, but he could not say a word. Seeing that his teammates had already been dealt with, he could only collapse to the ground with a face full of unwillingness. After twitching twice, all life left him...

Xu Yue pulled Kurusu's katana from a corpse, flinging the blood from its blade before smoothly sheathing it in Kurusu's scabbard. That gentle smile still remained on his face.

Against firearms, even firearms of this level, their cost-effectiveness became fully apparent once there were enough people wielding them.

Without this group of samurai assisting him and using widespread suppressive fire to make these official Reincarnators think of retreating, it would have taken Xu Yue some time to deal with them himself.

Now that the samurai had seen those powerful foes who could withstand the Volley Gun Formation get eliminated so easily, their eyes were filled with reverence when they looked at Xu Yue. They were all members of the Hunting Party and were not weak themselves. Precisely because of that, they understood the vast gap between the two sides!

As for the three newcomers trembling in the corner, since they had not been targeted, they had only suffered a few grazing wounds from ricochets. They were not seriously hurt; the Kabaneri's defenses were fairly decent.

Looking at the few men lying dead in pools of blood, Xu Yue turned toward Pink Hair beside him.

"Biba, it seems the Hunting Party can't choose people based solely on their strength."

A fine case of waste not. He had rooted out the moles while also gaining leverage over Biba.

"This time, I was careless. Still, I never expected your strength to be so formidable. I'm afraid that even without my men's help, you could have dealt with them personally."

Biba still wore an expression that made people instinctively trust him, though a trace of wariness toward Xu Yue lingered in his eyes.

Although Biba was one of the rare male Kabaneri, he was not confident he could defeat Xu Yue after witnessing that display. His opponent's abilities were no weaker than his own.

Whether in strength or in other aspects.

"You flatter me. Without these loyal samurai, I couldn't have done it."

Xu Yue smiled, unconcerned. On the surface, Biba, like him, enjoyed wearing a mask. At the very least, before that mask was removed, Biba would act according to its rules.

Unfortunately, everything both inside and outside Biba's mask had already been thoroughly exposed by the story, while Biba knew nothing at all about Xu Yue...

Ahh, two updates today.

It's Monday, so please support me in every way. Come at me head-on!