That slash was brutally fast and surgically precise.
The sudden plot twist stunned everyone into silence.
The scar-faced leader’s thugs still wore idiotic, predatory grins frozen on their faces, standing stock-still like statues.
Gu Xinran, Tang Yuqing, and the rest of the girls covered their mouths in disbelief, stunned that Logan had made such a bold, aggressive opening move right in the middle of a dozen hostile targets—and followed it with a lethally efficient strike.
"B-Boss!"
The scrawny thug snapped out of it first, lunging forward to catch the swaying leader.
Instead of collapsing, the scar-faced leader shoved him away.
He didn’t go down. Instead, he forced his torso to straighten up slowly.
Glancing down at the deep, bone-revealing gash across his chest, he watched dark blood ooze steadily from the wound.
To everyone’s shock, his face didn’t twist in agony—it warped into a grotesque, manic grin.
"Heh... hehheheh..."
"Good. Damn good!" The leader jerked his chin up, his bloodshot eyes locked dead on Logan. "You actually pissed me off!"
The second the words left his mouth, a bizarre shift occurred!
A weird, earthy-grey light surged beneath the bare skin of his upper body.
*Crack! Crack!*
Accompanied by an unsettling grinding noise, a full suit of rocky armor erupted outward straight from his living flesh!
The stone shell instantly sealed over his upper torso, clamping down so tightly over his horrific wound that the bleeding slowed to a crawl.
A heavy, indestructible aura rolled off his transformed frame in waves.
Logan’s pupils constricted.
A combat skill!
The scar-faced leader was also a Tier 2 professional, and he had unlocked a defense-type ability!
No wonder the guy was so cocky.
"Now..." The leader rolled his stone-armored shoulders, kicking up dull crunching sounds of grinding rock.
He looked at Logan like a stray cat eyeing a dead mouse, speaking with malicious cadence. "I’m going to snap your limbs off one by one, you little maggot."
"And then, you’re going to watch closely while my boys take turns breaking all your little girlfriends until they scream!"
The vile threat sent a fresh wave of terror through Gu Xinran and the other girls, making them shake like leaves in a storm.
Logan’s expression hardened into ice.
He could tell the enemy’s aura had spiked dramatically after activating his skill.
He needed raw, overwhelming power!
Seeing Logan stand his ground without begging for mercy, the scar-faced leader grew even more arrogant.
He didn’t even bother attacking first, casually planting his feet and spreading his arms wide.
"Come on, kid! Hit me again!"
He licked a smear of blood off his lip, shooting a filthy, leering look toward Gu Xinran and Tang Yuqing.
"Put your back into it! If you can’t even crack my Rock Armor, I’ll make sure you have a front-row seat to what happens to your girlfriends next!"
"Ha-ha-ha! Boss is a beast!"
"Once the Boss drops his Rock Armor, who the hell in this wasteland can touch him?"
The surrounding goons erupted into roaring, obnoxious laughter.
The scrawny guy joined in with sycophantic praise.
"Exactly! Big bro’s skill is top-tier defense for the Black Mountain Guild!
Even big boss Hao couldn’t leave a single dent on it back in the day!"
"Forget Hao, even our supreme grand boss might not crack that defense!"
Basking in his subordinates’ worship, the leader puffed out his chest, envisioning Logan groaning on his knees while the girls sobbed beneath him.
He lived for crushing other people’s hope inch by inch.
However, he missed one critical detail.
While he and his lacklings were high on their own supply, an eerie, crimson mist began quietly coiling around Logan.
[Blood Burst Slash]!
This was his only offensive skill unlocked upon hitting Tier 2!
His ultimate finisher!
"Actually..."
Logan spoke up.
Under the bewildered stares of everyone present, he slowly raised his seedling blade.
"I’ve been wanting to test just how tough a Tier 2 defense skill really is."
The second those words dropped, he moved!
No fancy footwork, no complex setups—just a pure, unadulterated vertical chop!
The moment the blade swung, the blood-red mist wrapped around him rushed forward like a tidal wave, funneling directly into the steel!
The edge of the seedling blade instantly ignited in a dense, blinding crimson glare!
A savage, violent pressure—as if wanting to carve the world in half—erupted into the sky!
The smug grin on the scar-faced leader’s face vanished instantly.
An overwhelming, primal dread of death seized his entire nervous system!
He wanted to dodge!
He wanted to raise his axe to block!
Too late!
The crimson blade arc expanded across his vision at terminal velocity!
"No—"
He barely choked out a single syllable of despair.
An instant later.
The red blade smashed down with unstoppable force.
*Clang!*
A sharp ring echoed, sounding like shattering metal.
Before the horrified, unblinking eyes of the thugs, the rock armor they worshipped as an unbreakable fortress split apart like wet tissue paper the second it met the crimson arc!
Zero resistance!
After cleaving through the stone shell, the razor-sharp seedling blade maintained its brutal momentum, driving straight down from the top of the leader’s skull!
*Splat!*
A muffled tearing sound.
The blade sheared cleanly through the entire body.
For a single heartbeat, the entire forest fell into absolute silence.
The sheer terror and disbelief froze permanently on the scar-faced leader’s face.
He stood rooted to the spot, completely motionless.
One second later.
A fine red line appeared right between his brows, running straight down his nose, across his lips, splitting his chin, and trailing all the way through his stone-armored abdomen.
And then.
Right before the petrified eyes of his crew, his entire upper body—along with his invincible rock armor—neatly split along that red line and slid apart into two symmetrical halves.
Gushing rivers of scalding blood and ruined internal organs splattered heavily onto the dirt below.