[Ding! Current role-playing completion rate +5%!]
Seeing the percentage climb once more, Ryuu felt a rush of pleasant surprise, though he quickly pieced together the logic behind it.
I didn't even make a conscious effort to act this time... However...
Unleashing world-class swordsmanship is naturally the truest way to embody Hawkeye Mihawk. Is that why the completion rate jumped another 5% in one go?
If that's the case...
A sharp smirk tugged at the corner of Ryuu's lips. Without a moment's hesitation, he began to rapidly wield the small dagger in his hand.
Up in the air, Vaccine Man had barely reoriented itself after dodging that first massive emerald strike when the horizon flashed violently again. This time, an absolute deluge of green flying slashes blanketed the sky, screaming directly toward it!
"What!?"
The monster's expression twisted. Caught completely off guard by the sheer volume of the assault, it had zero room to maneuver. Its massive frame was instantaneously swallowed by the emerald light!
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Amidst a deafening barrage of explosive impacts, Vaccine Man was sent hurtling backward through the air by the sheer kinetic force of the strikes!
[Ding! Current role-playing completion rate +5%!]
Ryuu's spirit surged as the system's timely notification chimed in his mind once again.
On the ground, Fubuki had finally recovered her composure. Watching Ryuu stand tall with that unflinching, hawk-like gaze, a brilliant light ignited within her beautiful eyes.
He... he wasn't joking around?!
Fubuki couldn't help but recall his seemingly arrogant declarations from just moments ago. But looking at the reality playing out above, it hadn't been arrogance at all. He was simply... stating a fact.
He could actually suppress Vaccine Man with nothing but a common pocket knife!
The sheer absurdity of the realization left her completely dazed. Although the Hero Association hadn't officially designated a disaster level yet, her seasoned intuition told her that Vaccine Man's destructive scale was easily a Dragon-level threat. To dominate a Dragon-level monster with a dagger? What kind of unfathomable realm of strength was this?
Meanwhile, Vaccine Man managed to stabilize its body mid-air. Its purple face distorted with rage, but when it looked back down at Ryuu, a heavy gravity replaced its initial dismissiveness.
"Wretched human insect...!!"
It could no longer ignore him. The stark reality was right in front of its eyes: this man was generating cataclysmic offensive pressure with a mere sliver of metal. However, realizing that the previous barrage hadn't actually inflicted any deep physical wounds, its anger quickly morphed back into malicious confidence.
Its eyes gleamed with savagery as it launched a counter-offensive!
Blinding blue energy erupted from its hands as it began to thrash its arms wildly toward the ground.
Vroom! Vroom! Vroom!
Dozens of azure energy spheres—each packing the exact same devastating force as the initial blast—showered down like a chaotic meteor storm, carving brilliant, lethal trails through the sky.
Fubuki's heart skipped a beat.
While this barrage lacked the singular mass of the blast that leveled half the city, it was infinitely more perilous. The sheer density of the incoming projectiles left absolutely nowhere to hide!
Yet, Ryuu didn't even blink. He simply increased the speed of his wrist, swinging the dagger into a blur.
As the blade danced, a chaotic web of silver light enveloped his front, locking together into a brilliant green barrier. The moment the incoming meteors made contact, the emerald light erupted outward, meeting the storm head-on!
Slices! Slices! Slices!
The exact same phenomenon replayed itself, but on a grander scale. Ryuu's flying slashes neatly bisected every single energy sphere that crossed his path, continuing upward toward the sky. Because of the sheer velocity of his swings, the counter-attacks condensed into a roaring, upward-surging storm of green blades!
"Aaargh!!!"
Vaccine Man was violently blasted backward a second time.
Fubuki felt a surge of genuine excitement. Seeing the monster repelled again was definitive proof that this mysterious swordsman possessed the definitive upper hand in combat.
However, as Vaccine Man stabilized itself once more, Fubuki's excitement froze.
Just like before, the monster's hide remained largely intact. It became clear to her that while Ryuu's techniques could easily overpower Vaccine Man's energy projection, the baseline damage wasn't enough to pierce its monstrous durability.
Vaccine Man, naturally, realized this too.
Though being repeatedly batted away by a human infuriated it, the fact that it was completely unharmed filled it with twisted arrogance. It burst into a manic, echoing laugh.
"Do you see it now, you pathetic worm?! This is the absolute evolutionary divide between us!"
"A fragile, mortal shell like yours will perish from a single scratch. But I am different! My baseline defense is an absolute wall that your pathetic little toothpicks can't even scratch!"
Vaccine Man threw its arms wide in mid-air, its hideous face painted with absolute malice.
Ryuu didn't bother wasting his breath. He let his blade do the talking.
With a fluid motion, he unleashed another volley of green slashes.
"Hahaha! Are you truly that dense?!"
Relying entirely on its massive durability, Vaccine Man chose to disregard the incoming energy entirely, diving straight through the cutting gales directly toward Ryuu.
"Your attacks cannot harm m—"
But mid-sentence, the moment a specific green slash connected with its chest, Vaccine Man's booming laughter died instantly in its throat.
Below, Fubuki's eyes widened to their absolute limits.
In that singular fraction of a second, she clearly saw the green crescent cleave straight through the monster's chest, leaving a horrific, deep fissure that bared the white bone beneath!
Fubuki dazed in total incomprehension. It was just absorbing those hits perfectly a second ago... how did it suddenly get carved open?!
Up in the sky, a look of profound terror surfaced on Vaccine Man's face as the overwhelming kinetic force of that specific strike sent it spinning through the air.
Dark, greenish blood sprayed across the sky!
Vaccine Man was bleeding!
Down on the battlefield, Ryuu looked up at the falling rain of monster blood. There wasn't a single hint of surprise on his sharply chiseled face—only a calm, knowing smile.
It was true that Vaccine Man's defense was top-tier. A "Basic" level of Hawkeye Mihawk's strength truly couldn't pierce it.
But right at that moment, Ryuu's inherited power had broken past the basic threshold, ascending to a completely different tier.