Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 590 - 502: Dance of Frenzy

Chapter 590: Chapter 502: Dance of Frenzy

The guns fired in unison, the sound making Rinne’s heart race with a thunderous rhythm.

At this point, they knew the magic formula had worked. Hosoda Yoshiyuki had successfully reached Kano Masato’s side, and was already engaged in close combat. Only he would carry so many terrifying weapons.

"Over there! We can catch up!"

"It’s close! Let’s go now!" Hearing gunshots and explosions, Seeking Shadow and Lu Jing sprang into action, leaping towards the depths of the forest.

Watching them take off, Rinne also lunged forward, hurrying to keep up with Lu Jing.

When Lu Jing heard footsteps behind him, he glanced back, saw Rinne trying to follow, and shouted in haste, "What are you doing? Don’t follow!"

Perhaps it was well-intentioned, but at that moment, Lu Jing’s words were like a dagger, swiftly slashing through Rinne’s pride, leaving nothing but a thorny trail of wounds.

Rinne immediately halted her steps, her lips pressed tightly together in silence.

This was a time of fierce battle, with no room for idle talk or delays. Lu Jing had already left.

Even though it tore at her heart, Rinne couldn’t voice a defense for herself. She clearly also had the ability to fight—why wasn’t she allowed to face the enemy? Did Lu Jing see Rinne as merely a "logistical partner" instead of a teammate to rely on in life-or-death struggles?

She felt belittled...

Watching Lu Jing’s figure disappear, Rinne let out a silent sigh.

There was no place for a Hacker Witch in such an intense battle, and hacking skills were also ineffective against ninjas.

Regardless of how unwilling Rinne was, Lu Jing’s actions made sense.

Thinking about it, Lu Jing had always been a Green-clothed maid from a colossal corporation, showered with care and nurturing—destined for a bright future as a genius Anti-Magic Witch. In contrast, Rinne was just a street Hacker Witch, drifting among various mercenary teams, a character too common in every city.

Chiyuki Sajou, ever understanding, noticed the change in Rinne’s expression and knew she was uneasy. She spoke up to comfort her, "They are fighting with Kano Masato, and that guy is a Ninja Master. Besides, you staying here to protect us also matters."

Armed with four short-handled daggers—two for throwing, two for close combat—Rinne took a deep breath, nodded separately at Chiyuki Sajou and Nidelaide, ignoring them, and then dashed into the forest alone, ready to join the fight following the direction of the gunfire.

"Shouldn’t we have had her stay to protect us?" Nidelaide exclaimed in a panic, afraid of ninjas returning and hacking him and Chiyuki Sajou to pieces with their swords.

"How good is your combat ability?" Chiyuki retreated into the temple.

"I could take down a fat otaku, I guess," Nidelaide speculated.

"...Regardless, I hope they win quickly," Chiyuki said sharply, looking up into the distance. Several dark dots streaked across the clouds, suggesting an airborne force was approaching. If these flying machines arrived, the situation would get particularly tricky.

Meanwhile, Rinne dashed fiercely through the dense forest, benefiting from past experience. This time, she wore light army-green hiking boots, with sports-tech cushioning to reduce exertion and rugged soles to lessen the impact of rough terrain, aiding her in gravity-defying movements.

In just a few minutes, she covered a significant distance. Gunshots, the clash of swords, and the roars of ninjas mixed together, creating a bloody and dazzling scene of death in the center of the forest.

Rinne doubted if she was qualified to join such intense combat.

But no matter what, she wanted to fight openly alongside her team. She could fight, especially when the subjective time slowdown implant was activated. If she fought while it was working at full capacity, Rinne would be stronger than ever.

This time, even if death was the outcome, she wanted to die together with her teammates.

An evil wind howled.

"Yi-yi-yi-ya!" A ninja hidden in the treetops suddenly leaped down, performing a complex aerial maneuver while launching a kick aimed at Rinne’s head.

The advantage of direct combat was the accumulation of rich experience. Having already been ambushed by a ninja on the outskirts of Xijin Town, Rinne was no longer as passive as before. Upon hearing the wind, she moved to the side and gained some distance. Activating her magic power, she ran vertically up the tree trunk. As the world spun around her, she also avoided the ninja.

"Namusan! What an abnormal gait!" the ninja exclaimed in surprise, lunging at Rinne with a Ninja Sword in hand, eager to impale her on the tree trunk.

"Nice to meet you for the first time!" Rinne ran rapidly along the tree, circling the trunk and easily avoiding the ninja’s powerful assault, which only managed to pierce the tree bark. "Ninja-san, I’m Rinne!"

"Nice to meet you, Rinne-san, I am Yufu!" The ninja bellowed and rounded the tree to attack Rinne. She cleverly used her magic to adhere herself to the trunk in a sticky manner, which gave her exquisite mobility. No matter how tall the tree was, she could easily move on its trunk, branches, and even leaves, completely ignoring gravity, which left the ninja spinning in confusion.

"Let’s ramp it up!" Rinne climbed to the treetop.

"Yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-ya—Fireball!" Yufu jumped vigorously upward, reaching the treetop where Rinne was; he then punched out several different magic seals, lifted the face-covering cloth, and quickly unleashed an enormous fireball from his mouth!

Rinne leaped down from the tree, the spot where she had stood now engulfed in flames. In the blink of an eye, the fire roared, and the mighty blaze consumed the wood voraciously!

Heat waves rolled in all directions, and Yufu, using the Teleportation Technique, moved in front of Rinne again, swinging his Ninja Sword at her.

Subjective Time Slowdown!

An electric current coursed through Rinne’s spine, accelerating her neural perception and action. With great force, she thrust the dagger in her hand toward Yufu’s chest, the strike as violent as a hammer blow, the blade piercing the cloth and hitting the body. Instantly, Yufu’s form turned into a large cloud of smoke, and Rinne’s blade had only struck a piece of wood as wide as a human body!

She whirled around to pinpoint Yufu’s location and saw that he had shifted behind her using the Substitution Technique and was now attacking—

Slash!

Rinne turned substantially and swung her blade with a spin, slicing open Yufu’s chest with the short dagger in her left hand!

This time, she felt the sensation of cutting through flesh, and Yufu’s complexion changed. Rinne’s left hand quickly transformed, moving from below and upward, stabbing the ninja’s chest with the blade! Crushing bones, piercing the heart!

She pushed him forcefully backward, driving the blade deeper, then withdrew it. Only then did she leap back to create distance.

Blood splattered.

Under the effect of the subjective slowdown implant, Rinne’s complex movements were completed in an instant! She switched off the implant, and the world rapidly returned to normal speed while Yufu staggered back, losing his fighting strength.

With the dagger in her right hand still stuck in the wooden substitute, Rinne created distance between her and Yufu. She pulled the dagger out of the wood and then adjusted her stance, holding both blades horizontally in front of her in a neat defensive position.

Yufu was on one knee on the ground, eyes firmly on Rinne, as blood continuously flowed from his wound.

Rinne drew both daggers from her waist and threw them forcefully at him, piercing his body from left and right—a sentence of execution.

"Goodbye!" Yufu shouted, and then his body rapidly withered away. Rinne could almost see a tuft of "soul smoke" drifting off as the ninja’s spirit and form perished!

She had taken down an elite ninja!

Rinne gasped for air, her heart thumping wildly, satisfied with her martial prowess.

She turned to rush deeper into the battle and join the besiege of Kano Masato, but a severe pain suddenly surged through her head.

Twisting—!

Implanting enhanced parts made of metal and wires into the human flesh was in itself a violation of natural principles, especially the as-yet-uncommercialised subjective slowdown technology, which had strong side effects.

She crouched down, blood flowing from her nose, a buzzing sound emitting from deep within her skull, like the heavy tolling of hundreds of giant bells, awakening illusions and false memories that did not belong to her.

Implants nestled in her back in the form of synthetic alloy spines, and her mind echoed with the scenes of the deaths of the two previous owners, shot dead and head blown off!

Gunfire continued to echo from the depths of the forest, adding to Rinne’s unbearable headache as illusions woven with reality made it hard for her to discern truth from hallucination.

Who was she, really? She saw hundreds of riot security officers shooting at her, saw herself running wildly through the city, saw how she fell from the sky. She watched herself as she watched herself, strange winds, mournful whining, crying, and the sound of flames burning intertwining together.

It was driving her to the brink of madness.

Rinne, overcome with agony, could no longer take another step.

More ninjas retreating from the front rushed over. They had been scattered by Hosoda Yoshiyuki and were trying to escape, but upon seeing Rinne stiffened in place and Yufu killed by her, they were filled with rage.

They were determined to slaughter Rinne to death.

"Yi ya!

"Go to hell!"

"Kill her!"

"Waaaaah!" The ninjas roared as they surged forward, attacking and shooting from different directions.

Rinne looked up to see them, her eyes blank.

...

Elsewhere, Lu Jing was impaling a ninja against a tree with the Four Points True Gold. He glanced back, hearing a piercing scream, his heart pounding. He quickly retreated back the way he had come, hoping to avoid the worst, but after not even three hundred meters, the sight in front of him made his body shake violently, nearly causing him to faint.

How could this have happened...

"Rin, Rinne..." Lu Jing murmured.

Rinne!

She was covered in blood, her body smeared from head to toe with bloodstains, each hand holding a dagger and two more stuck in the heads of ninjas. Even more ninjas were lying around dismembered and bleeding profusely.

All the ninjas around her were dead, nine ninjas completely dismembered!

This horrific, bloody scene, with the ninjas’ sliced limbs and severed heads strewn all over the ground, the overwhelming smell of blood, and only Rinne standing bloodied, etched deeply in Lu Jing’s mind.

The blood was not just that of the ninjas but also Rinne’s. She was bleeding from her eyes, nostrils, and the corners of her mouth, giving her an especially ferocious look.

Violent and powerful, it was only now that Lu Jing realized how much she had underestimated Rinne.

Horrifying.

"I... I wanted to protect you," Lu Jing murmured, "I wanted to keep you away from the dangers of swords; I wanted to..."

Rinne walked past Lu Jing, her bloodstained hand caressing her cheek, then continued towards the edge of the forest.

"Kano Masato is right there," Rinne pointed her dagger towards the direction where gunshots were still sounding. Rinne’s pace did not falter, "Enjoy the slaughter to your heart’s content."