Hitman With A Badass System-Novel

Chapter 653: Puma, The Hunter

Using the X-ray vision, Michael noticed several traps on his way. One of the traps was connected to a large log above. Once he trips the wire, it would bring down the log in an arc, knocking down the poor soul.  To get more information from this hunter, Michael needed to get out of his sight. His mind quickly formed a plan. He slowed down, letting the hunter get a bit close. When the hunter was directly behind him, Michael threw the sword, slashing the trip wire. As soon as the sword cut the wire, a large log came down, swinging. With his superior agility, Michael jumped on the log at the speed of a lightning flash and leaped away from its trajectory.  The log traveled swinging in the air. For a moment, the hunter's sight moved from Michael.          

    

Michael heard a rustling sound. The hunter slid under the log to escape it. Fortunately, the split-second distraction enabled Michael to do something the hunter never had expected. He used the arch energy to get to a tree top with a single leap. Michael jumped from tree to tree, canceling the noise with arch energy. The traps, the quotes the hunter spoke, and everything about this place told Michael the man was obsessed with hunting. A man such as him would have keen senses and tracking abilities. So Michael left no trail for him. After leaping off the log, Michael's feet never touched the ground as he flew a few inches above the ground, not enough for the hunter to differentiate between running and floating.     

After leading several trees, Michael willed the system to equip his black dress. Michael manipulated the darkness to cover himself. It was enough for him to blend in with the dark knight. Hanging on a tree way above the ground, Michael used thermal vision to track down the hunter.  To the naked eye, the hunter was invisible due to the Gilli suit and the darkness. But to Michael, the hunter was clear as day. Michael adjusted his X-ray vision to take a closer look at the hunter slowly moving forward. The man crouched down, looking for food prints or disturbances on the ground to locate Michael.     

Michael felt like a predator. His mind almost screamed at him to make some clicking noises, just for fun.      

"Where are you?" the hunter asked Michael. Despite the lack of tracks, the hunter remained calm. He almost sounded amused.     

The hunter eventually looked up to see if Michael was up in the trees.      

"I can hear your heartbeat, Ghost,"      

To Michael's astonishment, an arrow soared through the hair, hitting the tree just missing his face by a couple of inches. If it wasn't for Michael's superior reflex, the arrow would have penetrated his head right away.     

Michael immediately leaped onto another tree and yet again, the hunter hit the tree with an arrow as fast as Michael's leap.      

"Hear my heart beat huh?" Michael smirked.     

"I gotta give it to you Ghost, you are a damn good climber," The hunter said. There was a bit of admiration in his voice.      

"Thank you. I would shake your hands but,"     

Michael's words were abruptly cut short when an arrow hit the bark beside him.      

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"I will shake your hands…" the hunter paused for a moment,     

"After I cut your hand out of your body,"      

"Is that so?" Michael said, rapidly leaping from one tree to another. Since the trees were closer to each other, the hunter wasn't surprised by his acrobatics. In stark contrast, Michael was using arch energy to leap back and forth.      

To disorient the hunter once again, Michael ordered the system to form a shield around himself, preventing the hunter from hearing his heartbeat. The hunter's arrows finally stopped hitting the trees. He looked around, frowning behind his suit made of dark leaves.     

While the hunter was searching for Michael, he took out a dagger and cut his palm. As soon as Michael's blood gushed out of his palm, the hunter fired an arrow precisely at the point where Michael touched the tree with his bloody palm. Michael heard the hunter take a long whiff as though he was smelling the blood.      

"Darkness, hearing heartbeats and smelling blood. He's a vampire," Michael connected the dots and learned the hunter's origins. There was no doubt in his mind. To be more sure, Michael decided to see if the hunter has a regenerative ability. The APD healed the cut on his palm. When the blood disappeared from his hand, Michael leaped from tree to tree. In a few moments, he closed the gap between them and appeared right on top of the hunter. Michael dropped from the tree, landing a few inches behind the hunter. Immediately, Michael slashed the dagger left and right cutting the hunter's back. Caught off guard, the hunter roared. Blood spurted out from the hunter's cuts.      

Michael pulled out the camouflage on his body. As expected, Michael saw the wound closing up. With a speed beyond mortal limits, the hunter turned around, swinging the longbow in his hand. Michael quickly leaped back.     

"You're a vampire," said Michael. The man before him was tall, muscular with broad shoulders, and had a thick mustache. Moreover, his eyes glimmered with killing lust.      

"ARGH!" the man roared as Michael saw the two long fangs. Even in the darkness, the two fangs were visible to the naked eye. A slight surprise emerged in Michael's eyes. Compared to Avon, the vampire before him was several times more menacing. The vampire did not attack Michael head-on but throw a smoke bomb at his feet to disappear from Michael's sight. The thick cloud of gas quickly surrounded Michael, preventing him from following the vampire's tracks.     

The vampire's speed surprised Michael. He did not use arch energy to boost his speed. Rather, it was purely skills honed by probably hundreds of years of practice or hunting.  Once again, Michael leaped into the air, reaching the top of a tree. He completely concealed the sound of his heartbeat with the help of the system.      

"System, scan him. I want to know how he managed to teleport me here," Michael ordered the system in his mind.     

[Full scanning would cost the host 10,000 badass points]     

"Do it,"         

    

[Keep your eyes on the target until the system finishes the scanning. It will be done in five minutes]     

With a smirk on his face, Michael took out a few vials containing human blood. He was using these vials to brew some potions but now, they were going to help him distract the vampire. He tossed a vial to the other side. When the vials shattered, the vampires fired an arrow.      

"Life is funny, isn't it?" asked Michael. His voice echoed through the silent forest.      

"One second you were the hunter and the next, you became the hunted," The vampire knew Ghost was using the trees to traverse. So naturally, he kept his eyes above. Unfortunately for him, the darkness prevented him from locating Michael.  His ears couldn't pick up the sound of Ghost's heartbeat.      

Coupled with Michael's lightning-quick speed, the vampire struggled to locate him.      

"Teleporting me to the southern continent, that's a good move," Michael conversed with the vampire. He confused the vampire by tossing the blood vials to another side.      

"But picking me as your target, bad move," Michael's voice became cold.     

"You made several mistakes, vampire,"      

Whoosh!     

An arrow hit the tree Michael was hanging on. Still, it couldn't hit Michael. He was simply too fast. The vampire was indeed good and almost on par with Gaya in archery. However, Michael used the arch energy to boost his speed. Moreover, it was a dark night when Michael was the strongest.     

"Mistake number one. You let me learn the layout of this place,"      

Another arrow penetrated the bark. The vampire avoided hitting the place where the scent of blood came from. He learned Ghost was using the blood vials to distract him. Instead, the vampire focused on Michael's voice.      

"Mistake number two. You didn't do your homework. Otherwise, you would have known what I am capable of," said Michael.      

He increased his speed more. As a result, the vampire had a hard time locating Michael.      

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"Mistake number three. You talk too much,"      

Finally, the system finished scanning the vampire.     

[The system has detected a teleportation talisman on the vampire's belt]     

"A talisman. Hmm," Michael thought.     

"Can you lock down this place? It would be a shame if the vampire used the talisman to escape,"     

[That will cost you fifty thousand badass points host]     

"Just do it,"      

Although fifty thousand badass points was a huge sum, it wasn't more valuable than the information Michael could get from the vampire. After killing Avon, he had badass points to spare, four hundred thousand badass points to spare to be precise. A pulse of energy shot out from Michael. It was completely invisible. An oblivious man would see no difference in the forest. Even the vampire had no idea that Michael destroyed his escape plan.     

Finally, Michael stopped leaping from tree to tree like a monkey and jumped down. The vampire immediately jumped backward. But to this moment, there was no fear in the vampire's eyes. Instead, Michael only saw excitement.     

"It had been so long since I hunted something worthy," the vampire calmly said.     

"Before we do this, what should I call you?" asked Michael. The two of them had approximately ten meters of distance between them. At this moment, neither of them made any sudden movements.         

    

"Usually, I won't indulge my prey by saying my name. But you, you are different. You earned the right to know my name. I go by the name Puma,"     

"Let me guess, cougar sounded crappy so you went with Puma," Michael ridiculed the vampire without a shred of fear in his eyes.  This lack of fear made Puma's blood boil in excitement. He couldn't wait to bring out the fear on Ghost's face.     

Puma snickered looking at the smirk on Michael's face.      

"I will let you have your amusement before I rip off that head of yours," Puma dropped the bow in his hand and slowly unsheathed the red dagger from the sheath dangling on his waist. He licked the dagger menacingly.     

"Let's dance," said Michael.