The Reincarnated Hitman

Chapter 22: Poisoned

The Green Mamba.

As much as they were known as ambush predators, they were also known for something else,

Their burst speeds.

Thanks to that, Zero was now bearing multiple scars on his arms, and from said scars originated multiple green veins.

He had been poisoned.

His sleeves had been torn, so there was no covering them up, and he was clearly presented with a view of how fast the poison was spreading by the second.

This meant that his timer had been cut even shorter, yet his expression remained unchanged.

Ophion, on the other hand, had an annoyed look on his face as he looked at the white-haired kid before clicking his tongue.

Zero hadn’t been the only one who had sustained injuries in this fight; the snake man hadn’t gone unscathed either.

His healing had visibly slowed down, and there were multiple unhealed wounds riddling his body.

There was also the fact that his pragma was quickly running out due to how much he had regrown his body parts in this fight.

As a Gamma level awakened human, he had expected this fight to go completely his way, yet he had been quickly proven wrong.

Ophion was stronger and faster than the kid, and added to the fact that his poison was within the kid’s system, he expected this to be an easy win for him.

But somehow, the white haired kid was still standing.

No matter.

At the rate his venom was currently spreading, it would take only a few minutes for the kid to lose all sensation.

"I might as well play with you till then," Ophion said with a grin as his arm finished regenerating.

He launched himself towards Zero again at speeds that made it hard for the eyes to track.

Just before the snake man could reach the kid, Ophion disappeared, reappearing directly behind Zero.

The frontal rush was a feint, one that was impossible not to fall for.

His clawed fingers aimed for the kid’s head as his intention was to inject as much venom as possible into the Zero’s brain.

But just before his hand reached the target, his eyes suddenly widened.

Ophion quickly jumped back, clenched his arm in pain and looked towards the kid.

In Zero’s hand was a katana drenched in blood, and on the floor beside him was a twitching arm, one that belonged to the snake man.

"T-that’s impossible," Ophion couldn’t help but let out.

He was certain that the kid fell for his feint, so how had he managed to turn around fast enough and attack without the snake man realizing it?

Zero, on the other hand, continued calmly looking at the snake man....well, he was looking in Ophion’s direction, but all he saw was a blurry figure. freēwēbηovel.c૦m

As much as he seemed unaffected by the venom, the truth was quite different from how he currently looked.

Thanks to the venom in his veins, he was slowly losing his vision, and ordinarily, that would put any human at a disadvantage, awakened or not.

But unlike others, Zero was a hitman, one who had perfect control over all his senses.

So losing his vision only made him rely more on his other senses, which were arguably better since they were almost impossible to fool.

Ophion looked back at his arm, tried to heal it again, only to realize that it was not working.

He still had enough Pragma to at least regenerate two more limbs, so what the hell was going on?

A sense of unease slowly started settling in as he tried multiple times over, only to have not a single cell regenerate.

"That’s one minute," Zero calmly spoke up, causing the snake man to look at him in confusion.

But he was uninterested in explaining; instead, he just lifted his free arm as a gun formed in it, and he shot at Ophion again.

Again, Ophiom caught the bullet, looked at it and realized that it contained the same liquid from earlier, causing him to chuckle.

"How stupid can you be?" He said as he crushed the bullet, this time, without drinking the poison within.

"That wasn’t for you," Zero responded.

A moment after his words, the liquid in Ophion’s palm exploded into smoke the moment it came into contact with air.

The snake-man’s eyes glowed as he inhaled the green cloud of smoke, but before panic could set in, he realized it was nothing more than poison.

And he was immune to poison.

Or at least that’s what he thought as he burst out in laughter, "You really had me there."

He looked at the expressionless Zero as he continued, "Unfortunately for you, though, I’m immune to poison, no matter the form."

Zero was silently watching his opponent laugh for a while before abruptly stopping.

"As I said," he said, looking at Ophion, who now had a frown on his face....not that Zero could tell anyway, "that wasn’t for you."

The snake man fell to his knees as he struggled to breathe.

"T-the hell did you do to me?" Ophion asked as he let out another wheeze.

"Poison," Zero simply responded.

"That’s impossible," he wheezed out again, "I’m immune to it..."

"That’s true," Zero nodded, "but you’re only immune to conventional poison; this one, I created myself. "

"And no," he added as the snake man tried his hardest not to breathe in the smoke cloud, "it’s not the smoke cloud."

"This was just a catalyst."

The reason for Ophion’s current situation was the posion he in the bullet he had invested.

An Advanced version of the Neuro-Strychnine Zero was used against backlash.

Unlike the former, though, this one needed time to properly settle into Ophion’s bloodstream before needing a catalyst to activate it.

That catalyst is the smoke cloud currently hanging around the wheezing Ophion.

As if to add insult to injury, Zero added, "In a few seconds, you’re going to feel a pain unlike anything you’ve ever experienced as your muscles start pulling themselves apart."

A moment after his words, an involuntary grin suddenly appeared on Ophion’s face; the contraction of his muscles had begun.

Next came the muscles around the fingers on his remaining arm; they suddenly pulled back, making the fingers turn in the wrong direction.

"AAGHHHHHHHH!"

Ophion let out as he fell to the floor, writhing in pain, but his pain was far from over. freeωebnovēl.c૦m

The poison ensured that his sensitivity was doubled, allowing him to feel every bit of pain, worse than it actually was.

****

It only took thirty seconds, but Ophion finally stopped struggling as the life was snuffed out of him.

On his face was a permanent grin, and tears rolling down his face.

Even if Zero could properly see him right now, there would be no change in his expression.

Instead, he turned towards the direction of his sister, opened his palm, and let Genesis form something within.

With heavy legs, he slowly walked towards her, feeling his lids getting heavier by the second.

He forced himself to stay awake as he reached his sister, still in the wheelchair, but with her condition worse.

Without hesitation, Liam stabbed the syringe he had created with Genesis into her neck, using the last of his strength to push the plunger down.

After that, his legs suddenly lost strength as the syringe and everything else he had created suddenly disappeared.

Liam then fell towards the floor, his lids slowly closing, and there was nothing he could do to fight it.

The last thing he saw was the elevator door opening, and a blurry female figure walking out of it,

Before darkness took him.