The World's Top Assassin at the End of His Rope

What did a gap of 30 in battle power mean? Mercenary Tao was getting a firsthand lesson.

He was a little slower, a little weaker, and a little less resilient. Even with his greater combat experience, the gap in raw ability left him unable to land an effective attack on Jiang Nan.

"Huff, huff!"

Mercenary Tao gasped for breath. The smug smile he always wore had long since vanished, replaced by sheer frustration.

Jiang Nan, on the other hand, looked thrilled. Fighting Mercenary Tao was incredibly satisfying. The intensity was just right: he could go all out without putting his life at risk.

"Well, well, you're not all that impressive, are you?" Jiang Nan taunted mercilessly.

Mercenary Tao gritted his teeth and snarled, "You won't be able to withstand my next move. If you've got the guts, don't dodge!"

Sensing Mercenary Tao gathering his ki, Jiang Nan knew he was about to unleash his prized Dodon Ray. Since Kid Goku had tanked it with a battle power of 160, there was no reason Jiang Nan couldn't withstand it.

"Show me everything you've got!"

Jiang Nan drew a deep breath and braced himself for Mercenary Tao's attack.

Delighted that his provocation had worked, Mercenary Tao shouted and tensed every muscle in his body. After charging up, he thrust a finger toward Jiang Nan.

"Dodon-Ray!"

Jiang Nan saw Mercenary Tao's fingertip light up, and a beam shot toward him like lightning. His heart tightened. The Dodon Ray seemed very similar to the energy blasts he fired from his fingertips, but he had no idea how powerful it was.

In that split second, Jiang Nan raised his hand to answer with an energy blast of his own, but the Dodon Ray was already upon him. With no time left, he could only take the hit with his palm.

Szzzz-

Sure enough, Jiang Nan could withstand the energy assault with his body alone. Still, he distinctly felt the fiery sting in his palm, reminding him of having his palm struck by a teacher back when he was a child at school.

Once Mercenary Tao exhausted himself and could no longer sustain the beam, Jiang Nan inspected his hand. His palm was slightly scorched, and numbness accompanied the pain. He shook his hand to ease the discomfort, then sneered, "That's your ultimate move? That's it?!"

Mercenary Tao's eyes widened. "H-how is that possible? What kind of monster are you?" he muttered.

Just as Jiang Nan was about to answer, Mercenary Tao suddenly shouted toward a spot behind him. "Piri Rete, you finally caught up! This brat has burned through a lot of stamina. Hurry and help me take him down!"

There was, in fact, no one behind Jiang Nan. Mercenary Tao was simply bluffing. He secretly slipped out a Hoi-Poi Capsule and held it in his palm. This was his backup plan: the capsule contained a sharp, fine blade. Now he only needed to wait for Jiang Nan to leave an opening.

As an assassin, Mercenary Tao didn't care whether his methods were underhanded. Any method that worked was a good one. If Jiang Nan's attention slipped for even a moment, Mercenary Tao could seize that chance to deliver a fatal blow.

But Mercenary Tao had miscalculated. Jiang Nan had already learned to sense ki, and he knew exactly what kind of man Mercenary Tao was. So he decided to turn the trick against him.

Jiang Nan turned around in apparent panic, and Mercenary Tao's eyes lit up. Now!

Mercenary Tao used the last of his stamina to attack. As he lunged at Jiang Nan, he pressed the button on top of the Hoi-Poi Capsule. With a pop, a fine blade nearly a meter long appeared in his hand. He swung it at Jiang Nan's neck with tremendous force.

A cold gleam like a crescent moon sliced straight through Jiang Nan's body without the slightest resistance.

Huh???

An afterimage!

Jiang Nan's real body appeared behind the afterimage, just beyond the blade's reach. In that instant, Mercenary Tao felt as though he had plunged into a bottomless abyss, and Jiang Nan was the demon lurking within it, ready to devour him.

Just as Mercenary Tao sank into despair, convinced he was about to die, Jiang Nan clasped his hands behind his back instead. He didn't take advantage of Mercenary Tao's countless openings to deal a fatal blow.

"No more tricks up your sleeve?" Jiang Nan asked with a straight face.

Mercenary Tao's face alternately flushed and paled. Humiliation. Utter, blatant humiliation!

With a yell, Mercenary Tao swung his blade at Jiang Nan again. But firing the Dodon Ray had consumed too much of his energy, and his movements were now much slower.

"Well, well, is this a seniors' performance? My grandma chops vegetables faster than you swing that blade!"

"Oh dear, those steps are awfully slow. Are you imitating an old lady crossing the street?"

"Well now, why are your punches so weak? Too old to muster any strength? Not getting enough calcium?"

Jiang Nan toyed with Mercenary Tao while attacking him verbally. Consumed by fury and shame, Mercenary Tao resorted to his last weapon-the very trump card Jiang Nan had been watching out for all along: a High-Explosive Grenade.

Mercenary Tao took the grenade out of another capsule, shouted "Die!", and hurled it at Jiang Nan.

Mercenary Tao had kept the grenade hidden only as a precaution. It wasn't a particularly impressive trump card, since it was merely a conventional, high-performance military explosive. Its blast was nowhere near comparable to the Androids' self-destruct bombs later in Dragon Ball.

Jiang Nan knew the grenade couldn't kill him, but an explosion at close range could still hurt him badly. After all, in his memories, this very grenade had crippled Mercenary Tao.

That was why he had been wary of the grenade from the start. If Mercenary Tao had been willing to die, he could have found a chance to get close, locked Jiang Nan in a tight embrace, and detonated the grenade to take them both down. That might truly have inflicted serious injuries on Jiang Nan, but Mercenary Tao would likely have paid with his life.

To prevent that possibility, Jiang Nan had deliberately provoked Mercenary Tao into losing his head. Sure enough, once his emotions spiraled out of control, Mercenary Tao threw away his only chance to seriously injure Jiang Nan.

Whooom-!

A flash of white light streaked past, and Jiang Nan's energy blast struck the grenade while it was still in the air. Detonating explosives required a series of chemical reactions. With its structure destroyed before that could happen, the grenade instantly became a dud.

"Is that... the Dodon Ray?!"

Mercenary Tao cried out involuntarily.

Jiang Nan sneered, "It's just a little trick for using ki. Did you really think it was some incredible ultimate move?"

Mercenary Tao had exhausted every means at his disposal. By now, he had lost all will to fight. His mind held nothing but the desperate desire to survive.

Thud-!

Mercenary Tao dropped to his knees before Jiang Nan. He knocked his forehead against the ground and pleaded, "I surrender! I was only doing a job for money. Please, give me a chance! I swear I'll never work as an assassin again!"

One word caught Jiang Nan's attention, and his eyes suddenly lit up.