Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding...
The 'Reed Specials' Beast Soul, currently perched on Max's nose behind his helmet highlighted a red outline around every single person in the clearing, minus his three little buddies, they had a pleasant green highlight instead, not that Max really needed the help from the glasses to keep track of his targets.
'The ol' heads-up display never gets old!' Max thought while getting ready to strike.
Max tapped his heels on the flanks of his Kirin mount, causing the majestic beast to throw its head to the side and let out a low, crackling snort as it surged forward like a lightning bolt.
The leader of the mob barely had time to widen his eyes before Max was already in his face.
A look of shock finally registered and the long, solid red Sacred Blood spear came up in a desperate, last-second defensive guard.
It didn't matter.
Max brought the colossal, buzzing beam saber-katana down in a brutal, vertical cleave.
The high-frequency plasma-like edge didn't just break the Sacred Blood weapon—it sheared right through the red spear and straight down through the leader's chest armor.
The raw, superheated energy of the blade instantly vaporized flesh and bone, perfectly cauterizing the wound in a split second.
Not a single drop of blood hit the dirt as the leader collapsed to the ground like a severed marionette.
Before the rest of the mob could even scream, Max leaned back on Zephyr's back and shouted more special move nonsense out.
"Soul Sword! Scatter!" Max commanded Zephyr to turn with his mind, pulling the Kirin into a violent, tight 360-degree spin.
As the beast whirled, Max unleashed a massive horizontal sweep with his glowing blade.
In mid-swing, he released his electromagnetic grip on the weapon's solid form.
The colossal blade exploded outward into a swirling hurricane of shimmering, ultra-dense metallic particles.
The momentum of the 360-degree spin flung the God Dust cloud across the entire clearing, perfectly enveloping every single red-outlined target in a thick, choking fog of micro-oscillating metal.
Max brought the Kirin to a sudden, dead halt, his outstretched palm crackling with raw, purple energy surrounding it.
"Chains of Heaven! Electro-END!"
Max pumped a massive surge of electrical energy bolts, courtesy of [Electromagnetism], directly into the fog.
Even the air itself screamed as a blinding web of hot pink, purple, and blazing white colored electricity ignited across the metallic cloud.
The dust acted as a hyper-conductive grid, bouncing thousands of high-voltage arcs between the particles and directly through the bodies of the trapped, would-be assailants.
There was a span of three seconds as the clearing filled with the deafening roar of a localized pink and purple thunderstorm, followed by the sickening smell of burning ozone and flesh.
For those three, agonizing seconds, the mob violently spasmed inside the blinding cage of lightning, their armor glowing white-hot and breaking, along with their now exposed bodies, until the current finally subsided.
Max clenched his fist, magnetically recalling every single grain of the God Dust back into a tight swirl around his hand before storing it away in his sea of soul.
Where a hostile assembly had stood just moments ago, there was now only a grim collection of smoking, charred bodies slumped on the frozen grass.
Max casually rolled his shoulders, resting the base Cursed Wolf Dagger against his leg as the Kirin snorted a small puff of static smoke.
From the safety of the shop doors, Wang Wei and Yang Ming walked out, completely ignoring the carnage as they bickered back and forth.
"Pay up, you absolute fraud!" Wang Wei yelled, shoving his palm directly into Yang Ming's round face. "I told you he was gonna use the 'God Dust-Spirit Sword-Web'! You said he was gonna use the 'Haha the knife was a railgun all along' from that close of a range... Give me my five Mutant Beast Souls!"
Yang Ming groaned loudly, slapping the hand away as he reluctantly transferred the Beast Souls over. "...We should just call it a tie...who could really see what happened there, it was too fast."
"A tie?!" Wang Wei scoffed, accepting the five Beast Souls with a massive grin. "The boss literally screamed 'Electro-end!' at the top of his lungs! You lost fair and square, take your L in silence! I swear... If your sister wasn't so hot I'd be tempted to slap you right now for being so stupid."
"If you mention Yang Lianhua again, I'll beat you to death!"
"...Sorry, my bad, Brother Ming. Hey, so... did she break up with that loser she was seeing?"
A super creepy grin floated onto Wang Wei's face after bringing up Yang Ming's sister, Yang Lianhua, immediately after being asked not too, pestering his best friend as he always did.
"If so, you know I would rather spend time with her than her brother."
"Seeking death then?" Yang Ming squinted at Wang Wei, daring him to go on.
Wang Wei paused for a full five seconds while blinking a little bit more than he should have before saying:
"Seeking a fine booty, you mean?"
Yang Ming snorted and then suddenly threw himself at Wang Wei, tackling him to the ground. The two rolled around cursing, while more or less slapping the crap out of each other.
"Fine! Be that way! You aren't invited to the wedding anymore!"
"Asshole!"
Max rolled his eyes behind his visor, letting out a low chuckle. Typical morning at the shop.
"Okay, okay, enough, you nerds... Take the bodies and dump them in the middle of the trees... the froggies will get rid of them soon enough."
"You bet, Brother Flux, those toads are always hungry, awful nice of you to barbeque them ahead of time, so thoughtful boss!"
Yang Ming and Wang Wei jumped up from their battled on the ground, dusted themselves off and got to work right away, while going back to cracking jokes immediately.
The two summoned Beast Soul mounts and threw the bodies on top, after going through their charred remains. Upon death, the Beast Souls belonging to the group of people Max had just wrecked had vanished, but most of them wore standard Alliance Military combat suits underneath.
Every time something like this happened, Max would just let his guys loot the dead, he didn't care for anything that they may have been carrying on them asides from physical money.
Max hadn't used his small windows of opportunity to go to the Alliance, not even once, so he wouldn't need any data cards or personal items they may have that may have survived his energy attack.
There were strong people out there in the Alliance that frequented the other, higher level sanctuaries, some who would be capable of making short work of Max at the level of strength he was at currently, most 'Demi-gods'-as Humans and other creatures were called when in the Fourth Sanctuary- held a sometimes literal earth shattering fitness of 10,000-100,000!
Max most certainly knew his limits and didn't want to ever get cocky and pull an Icarus. He was having way too much fun to screw it all up.
Biao Zhang walked up to Max while Yang Ming and Wang Wei trotted off towards the forest to give the local creatures a BBQ treat.
"How many of those 'Toxic Twist Toads' exist in the forest area of the island now boss?"
Biao Zhang sent his Sacred Blood armor back into his sea of soul, revealing the man underneath. He was wearing a set of light sweats, a shop apron, and had his long hair tied back in a knot.
He looked the same as he had five years ago, perhaps maybe a bit younger even, with all of the genes he had absorbed.
All three of Max's helpers were fully maxed out on geno points from the First God's Sanctuary, minus super geno points of course.
Max had more or less speed leveled them all up.
Wanting capable helpers and 'go-fors' had activated Max's generous side, causing him to damn near force feed them Mutant and Sacred Blood meat to get the three up to snuff.
"Enough to keep our perimeter clear of foot traffic, but not enough to hurt business, if you read the warning signs at the edges of the tree lines we put up." Max replied, dismissing the Cursed Wolf Dagger back into his sea of soul with a soft scattering of light accompanying its departure.
He dismounted Zephyr, patting the Kirin's flank before it shrunk down into its regular, cute form. "I've been managing their population density just enough to keep them in check. Come on Zhangy! You know they're more or less a self-cleaning, organic security system. They will attack the crap out of anyone, except us four."
Over the years, the large population of toxic twist toads, being quite clever for Mutant class creatures, had come to realize that the four human populating the island would only venture into their neck of the woods to drop off free meat; the only one they were actually afraid of was Max of course, as he would pick them off once in awhile when their numbers got too large.
The slimy little ninja-like toads had enough sense to leave the 'alpha' of the floating island alone, as the handful of their kind that tried to attack Max, like the one on his first day on the island did, would end up very dead every time.
Max had received one of his favorite Beast Souls from killing that toad: a poison edged 'kunai and chain' possessing a sickly color that matched the bright poison amphibian's prior aesthetics.
Zephyr hopped into the air and then floated up to settle on Max's shoulder, before hopping onto Biao Zhang's face for a quick lick and returning to Max again, promptly falling asleep with it's tail half wrapped around Max's neck in a show of affection.
"We're about two days away from Steel Armor Shelter... You looking forward to going back there or what?"
Max reached up and scratched the Kirin underneath its jaw as he asked Biao Zhang for his opinion on returning, causing the cute little Beast Soul pet to purr, making it sound like a cat while it rested its head against Max's.
"Yeah, it's been awhile for sure... I never really missed the place though, Brother Flux. I mean, we were pretty weak before you showed up, and between the Special Squad gang and the other gangs there we didn't have much of a chance at getting any decent meat with them around, hogging everything... So it'll be a nice feeling to kick all their asses and show them who is boss!"
"We've all come a long ways, Brother Zhang...don't forget that we are headed there to watch something hilarious... I know that there are three main forces there right now running things, The Son of Heaven Gang, the Special Squad and the Fist Gang..."
Max had read the Super God Gene Beast Soul book a few times over at this point, and was very familiar with who was running things in Steel Armor Shelter currently.
"We aren't going to mess with any of them though. I just want to watch the show and then move on."
"Ah, fair enough, I suppose." Biao Zhang wrinkled his nose and let his confused look hang on his face. From his point of view, their boss Flux never cared about what anyone in any shelter had to say.
Biao Zhang just didn't realize that Max had already decided not to mess with anything in that particular shelter, especially after Han Sen showed up, as to not cause some sort of butterfly effect.