10 Seconds

"Hey! Can you hold out? Don't you dare die!" Louis hurriedly shouted toward the other side of the Ice Wall.

Although Yu Fura wasn't as strong as Kureo Mado, he was still an Associate Special-Class investigator. Having Nishiki Nishio fight him was asking a little too much.

But Louis had his own considerations. If he took on Yu Fura, he might not win, and Nishiki Nishio might not be able to beat Shizuri either. Better to pit their strongest fighter against the enemy's weaker one, and their weaker fighter against the enemy's strongest.

Whether Yu Fura defeated Nishiki Nishio first or Louis defeated Shizuri first would decide the outcome on this half of the battlefield.

"Who do you think you're looking down on?!" A bloody slash from a katana already marked Nishiki Nishio's chest, but it didn't look fatal. He immediately released his kagune, ready to go all out.

"Do you enjoy worrying about other people that much?" Shizuri charged straight at him. She had figured out her task: hold Ice Mask back while Associate Special-Class Fura dealt with the serpent-masked man first. But her fighting style wasn't defensive. It involved closing to a dangerously short distance and fighting hand to hand.

So, just like Nishiki Nishio, she intended to stake her life on the fight.

"Sorry, I don't have time to spar with you." Listening to the fierce sounds of combat nearby, Louis turned back. Beneath his mask, his eyes gradually took on a faint blue-white glow, a sign that his ability was activating at full power.

Under the effects of his crystallization ability, his two level-three daggers became level four within seconds. Both their hardness and sharpness rose a notch. These were the weapons he needed to clash head-on with an Associate Special-Class Ghoul Investigator.

As for Shizuri, a First-Class investigator...

Louis considered it for a moment. He actually had plenty of tricks the Ghoul Investigators had never seen. If he wanted to end the fight quickly, perhaps he could put them to use...

Shizuri had already charged up to Louis. As usual, she intended to use her martial arts to keep him locked in close combat until one of them won.

But suddenly, she sensed something wrong. The air around Ice Mask was unusually cold, giving her a bad feeling.

This was Louis's ability to use cold to create crystals. The closer he was, the more efficiently he could form them. If an opponent was weaker than him, he could freeze them into an ice sculpture as soon as they came within reach.

And Shizuri had already charged right up to him.

Bang!

A muffled explosion rang out, sending countless tiny, translucent ice crystals bursting from around Louis. They swept toward Shizuri like a blizzard.

This is bad! Shizuri realized something was terribly wrong, but she couldn't stop her body as it hurtled forward through the air. She could only curl up, shielding her vital areas with her arms and legs.

Yet these tiny crystals didn't seem to cause any actual damage. When they landed on her skin, they simply melted like snowflakes.

While she was still puzzling over this, she felt a large, icy hand seize the back of her neck. Its strength was astonishing, lifting her straight into the air. A surge of cold flowed from that hand, invading her internal organs in an instant.

But this blizzard-like move wasn't Louis's finishing blow at all. It was only meant to obscure Shizuri's vision. His real aim was to bring his hand into contact with her skin.

No... Shizuri wanted to fight back, but her limbs felt as though they were filled with lead, barely able to move. Even her consciousness was beginning to blur.

"The human body is fragile like that. Even a slight change in temperature can severely impair its functions."

"When a human's body temperature drops below twenty-six degrees, there's a risk of death. At twenty degrees, they immediately lose consciousness and may even go into cardiac arrest. Below ten degrees, they'll die in a very short time."

Louis gripped Shizuri's fair neck without holding back, ruthlessly draining her body heat. "And I can lower your body temperature to dozens of degrees below zero in just a few seconds."

The fight was over.

"How could I... lose here..."

Shizuri heard Louis's words before she lost consciousness, and despair spread across her face. She had never imagined an S-Rank Ghoul could be this terrifying. She hadn't even lasted ten seconds against him.

As her words faded, Shizuri's body went limp.

Most of the time, this move was only useful for subduing people weaker than him. It wasn't much help against stronger opponents.

Louis narrowed his eyes. After confirming that she had lost consciousness, he tossed her to the ground.

He had only lowered her body temperature to around twenty-five degrees to incapacitate her. Her body's heat-producing functions were still working, and at this ambient temperature, she would wake up after a while.

Louis's former comrades in the Special Ability Army had all called him the ice guy, but what he manipulated wasn't actually ice. Its solid form merely looked somewhat similar.

"She should be fine after going home and running a fever for a few days."

Louis withdrew his gaze, drew the two level-four crystal daggers at his waist, and vaulted onto the Ice Wall to look toward Nishiki Nishio's battlefield.

It took less than ten seconds. Surely nothing could have gone wrong in that time...