Chapter 62: The Red Toy Box
Hima looked at the remaining three kneeling men, a look of utter boredom on her face. "No... this isn't fun at all," she whispered.
Without turning around, she gave a small flick of her wrist. The guards understood the signal immediately. They stepped forward and unfastened the chains from the prisoners' hands and feet, ripping away their blindfolds. The three men collapsed for a moment, blinking at the harsh light.
Hima's smile widened, but it didn't reach her cold, red eyes. Another guard stepped forward, dropping a loaded pistol and two combat knives in front of the prisoners before retreating into the shadows.
"Pick them up," Hima commanded. "If you can kill me, you walk out of here as free men. If you don't try... you die anyway."
Desperation took over. One man lunged forward, gripping a knife with a white-knuckled fist. He aimed for Hima's throat, but she didn't even flinch. As he reached her, she delivered a lightning-fast punch to the center of his face.
CRACK.
The sound of his skull shattering echoed through the courtyard. The force was so immense that he didn't even scream; he just crumpled to the ground, dead before he hit the concrete.
The other two panicked. They scrambled for the pistol, aiming it at Hima and firing wildly.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Hima moved like a blur, her body swaying with fluid grace as she dodged the bullets with millimetric precision. In a heartbeat, she was standing directly in front of the shooter. She drove her fist into his stomach, the impact folding him in half.
Before the last man could react, Hima reached out and gently tapped his chest with her index finger.
BOOM!
A localized Vane blast erupted from the point of contact. The man didn't just fly back—his torso was vaporized in a flash of red energy. Pieces of charred armor and flesh rained down on the pavement.
Hima wiped a stray drop of blood from her cheek, sighing. "Too weak. They're all so incredibly weak."
She turned toward the head guard. "Anyway, did any of you find anything on the Kera Group?"
The guard swallowed hard, his eyes fixed on the corpses. "M-Mam... those three were actually informants for the Kera Group. We could have interrogated them to find the group's secret location... but you've killed them all."
Hima paused, tapping her chin as if she had just remembered something trivial. "Oh... right. My mistake." She shrugged her shoulders, her expression turning indifferent again. "Well, forget it. We'll find another way. Clean this mess up."