"So, you got me driving you out here, you do know schools out right?" The driver asked me, a not inconsiderable amount of concern in his voice as he looked at me in his mirror. I blamed the bloody clothes for that, but it wasn't like there was much I could do about that, the second I tried to enter a clothes store I'd have to deal with the concerned people wondering why a kid was covered in dried blood and torn clothing.

I'd managed to bribe him into taking me out here with the money from that duffle bag I'd stolen, which was quite soundly proving it's worth. I'd hoped that with how much I'd paid him I wouldn't have to deal with any questions or, gods willing, small-talk, but it seemed that I was wrong.

Seriously, why did he have to talk? It'd been a good ride so far, with both of us sitting in a comfortable silence and just listening to the radio. It was strange to hear 'Hips Don't Lie' be announced on the radio as a 'chart-topping new release', I remember having that in one of my old playlists that I'd leave on when I was going try-hard mode in a game.

Thinking back I still think some of the more stressful moments of my life had been when I'd found myself entrapped by social conventions. I was half-tempted to tell him that I'd give him $100 just to shut up, but that desire was promptly curbed when my objective drew closer and I knew I wouldn't have to deal with it anymore.

It was a school building, two-stories tall with plain concrete grey walls. Around the building were a dozen men, locked in place around the building. Reality shimmered around it, like I was staring through a cracked window.

[Santa Destroy High School]

{Recommended Level: 30+}

"Stop here." I spoke up, the taxi drifting slowly to the curb before stopping. There was a moment of silence in the taxi as the man shifted to look at me whilst I shuffled my way out the backseat.

"Take care ki-" the man was cut off as I shut the door and walked down the street towards the high school. There was a sign at the entrance that said something rather grim.

"Only the Strong May Survive."

"Jesus." I muttered. "Guess they really take social Darwinism seriously here."

Looking back I could see the street had cleared, the Taxi had long since taken off and left me alone.

Well then, I guess it's time to do what comes natural.

The helmet formed around my head as I pulled it out of my inventory and Murasama formed into my right hand, this time without its sheathe.

I crossed the boundary of the entryway and the fractured look around the building collapsed in on itself, the men who had been locked still all suddenly turned to look right at me. A look of surprise crossed a few of their faces but in the end they still grabbed their weapons and prepared for a fight.

I took the first step, bounding forward towards one of the men sitting on the steps leading into the building. He swung his bat at me but I cut right through it, the Murasama's ridiculous cutting edge mixed with my heightened strength allowed me to press forward with my slash and cleave through the man himself.

It was a sad fact that when it came to a close-quarters fight I was damn near unbeatable right now. I don't know why that fact saddened me, that was a question for a different time.

Instead I let myself go, throwing wild slashes and hacking away at whatever came close with abandon. I was barely able to keep track of where I was going as my body pursued the ones who tried fleeing into the school.

Sitting in a high school gym hadn't been John's idea of a good time, especially when it was with a bunch of other random assholes waiting to kill some idiot.

There were screams coming down the corridor, the type that assassins like them had heard a hundred times before.

The screams of someone in true despair before they died.

The ranking contender had arrived, and he was going to have to get through them before he got to the girl. He didn't really know why that was the way things were but it was how they went and so they just kept doing what they were doing.

It may have also helped that there was half-a-million in cash waiting for them if they managed to kill the contender, but that was just semantics.

The screams were getting closer and…

Then there was silence.

"Hey, on your feet. He'll be here any second now." One of the other guys spoke up, he was using a pair of brass-knuckles. What he was hoping to do against a sword with those things but it wasn't up to him to worry about it.

The doors at the far end of the room were flung open, or more accurately flung off their hinges as they were launched a few feet away from where they'd been embedded in the wall.

"Well fuck." One of the men muttered, staring at the blood-soaked midget wearing a motorcycle helmet. He was carrying a literal blood-red blade that was fucking glowing.

'Christ alive, and I thought the beam katanas were the weirdest thing going.' John thought, staring at the ominous looking blade.

The first bunch of suicidal idiots went off charging at the assassin, a dozen men cut down in the span of a few seconds as his blade cleaved straight through them, their clothes and the man beside them.

"Hey John, you think we should help the idiots?" David asked him, grabbing at his beam-katana hilt.

"Nah, let them tire him out and we'll just get him when he's tired."

It was a smart idea, though looking closer at the situation revealed a slight problem.

He wasn't tiring, if anything he was getting faster as he killed the others.

And then there were three.

"Hey, you sure we gotta fight this guy?" David spoke up, sadly before that avenue could be followed up on he was forced to dash backward to avoid a slash that would've taken his head off.

John's beam katana flickered into action, a slash set to cleave the midget straight through the torso forced into a block at the last second as the katana slammed into the beam and knocked John off balance with the sheer force behind the swing.

Before the freaky midget could follow up with an offensive he was forced to fight David, and despite David's sheer bulk it seemed he couldn't overpower the kids defense. In fact, looking closer it seemed that he was actually pushing him back, but it left him wide open.

Seeing his opening John struck again, a measured strike aimed to take off the kids head. At the last second the kid threw himself forward, pressing David off his balance and dodging the attack.

'Where the hell did he get that strength from?'

He was fast and strong but untamed. When the kid went on the offence he started slashing wildly, attacks that should've been easy to block or parry struck with enough force that it rattled the very bones in their arms.

It was a dance of sorts, the two men a duet designed to keep up pressure and to cover the other when they were knocked down whilst the boys was the equivalent of heavy metal head banging in a ballet recital; rough, crude and unfitting.

But it was working.

With each blocked hit, with each last second intervention, each hair-breadth dodge away from death, the men were tiring. They were pushing themselves to their very limits to keep up with the kid and it wasn't working.

David tried one last desperate attack, putting his all behind one slash aimed to cleave through the kids chest and destroy his heart. But the kid slashed back, a wild cut that would stop David's attack and protect himself.

When they collided there was a flash of light and then…

The beam-katana failed, the battery had finally run out leaving nothing to stop the real blade. David's body fell to the floor in pieces, the ruined remnants of his sword following shortly afterwards.

John fell shortly afterwards, locked into his despair over the death of his friend he was barely able to muster the will to raise his own weapon before he was cut down.

Before his body had even hit the floor the kid was already moving on, heading towards the final assassin in the building.

Leaving behind the gymnasium and the various bodies of the thugs that had stood in my way, I moved onwards into the school building. I couldn't find anybody though, no matter where I looked.

The classrooms were all empty, no teachers or students, and the same for every other room I checked.

"COME OUT AND FIGHT ME!" I yelled, my voice echoing down the hall. It was only when I walked past one of the windows that I noticed something.

This old piece of shit wooden hut looking building that had a stone path connecting it to the building.

"That… would've been nice to notice earlier." I muttered as I walked away from the window… then threw a fire extinguisher through it, shattering it before flinging myself through after it.

Not the smartest idea but fuck if I'm going searching for another doorway, plus it's not like anyone was going to see me do it anyway.

At least the walk there was quiet, the upside of having killed everyone else.

The interior was just as shit as the exterior, the roof was caving in and a cursory test of the lighting made it clear that they were long since non-functional.

"So your the ranking fight?" A feminine voice spoke up, looking around I saw a teenage girl, she had a giant poofy white afro and dark skin. She was wearing the stereotypical schoolgirl outfit and carrying around a regular ass katana. "I'm surprised someone so young has already made it so far."

Hey, you're not that much older than me.

"But don't think I'll hold back because of that, if you've made it here then you're a killer, a man slayer." She sneered pacing back and forth at the far end of the building. "I am Shinobu, the 8th rank registered assassin. Remember that name when the guardian of hell asks who sent you."

Shinobu? Running around with a Katana? Looking like a shitty afro samurai?

"Oh god, you're a fucking weeb." I stated, finding an immense level of pleasure at the look of indignation on her face.

"Those are your last words?" She gripped at her sword before flashing forward, a blast fired out of her sword cutting into me and flinging me into the wall. The rotten wood collapsing under the impact of my ass slamming into it, my sword knocked out my hand as my grip weakened in surprise.

[-2000 HP]

"Fucking ow." I muttered, pulling myself out of the wreckage. Before I'd even fully recovered she was on me, her slash's rapid, focused and deadly. All I could do was dodge and try and find a gap to attack in, she was far faster than the previous thugs I'd fought through but I was faster.

My sword lay abandoned on the floor and any plan that I could come up to recover with it always ended up with me remembering I'd have to get past this bitch.

Then again, there was a simple option.

[-1500 HP]

Her blade cut into me, halted deep within my body as my hands shot forward and crushed her wrist with as much strength as I could clamp down with.

I'll give her credit, she didn't even scream. Instead her other hand pulled back and struck me straight in the face.

[-50 HP]

I repaid her in kind, a heavy handed blow to the head as I trapped her with my grip.

Her head snapped back, nose pouring with blood, She tried to pull away but my grasp was as solid as iron, pulling her back into another punch.

Again, and again. Eventually she went limp, falling to the floor but I kept punching away until her skull caved in.

By the time I was done they would be lucky if they could identify her, her face looking more like a Picasso painting than a real person.

[You have Levelled Up! X3]

[Santa Destroy High School has been Completed]

[Would you like to claim the rewards?]

Not now, let's get away from here first and then we'll deal with that.

I levelled up 3 times beating a girl to death, a unique experience if there ever was one.

Fuck, I'll think about this later. Right now I just need to haul ass out of here.

Grabbing the Murasama on my way out I took off running, leaving behind the carnage for someone else to discover later.