A Hitman's Guide To Becoming A Hero

Nicholas’s arm pulled back midair as he tightened his fist for the punch, his muscles contracting, their outline visible even through his coat.

{Strength: 120 → 170}

Against a monster of such size, Nicholas knew his previous strength wouldn’t be enough to deliver a killing blow.

This time, he didn’t want to merely hit it.

He was going for the kill.

The dragon glanced at him midair and, for a fleeting moment, felt completely unbothered.

Such a small body couldn’t possibly gather enough force to threaten it.

Oh, how wrong it was.

Because in the very next moment, the air began gathering around Nicholas’s fist, as though pulled in by a gravity that shouldn’t have existed.

Even the dragon’s massive frame was dragged forward by the violent current forming around Nicholas as he closed the distance.

The dragon’s vertical pupils shrank as it felt the violent current surrounding the punch. It tried to pull away, but it was already too late.

Nicholas’s fist connected.

BOOM!

From the point of contact, the air exploded like a nuclear warhead.

So powerful that shockwaves nearly spread across a radius of twenty kilometers. The dragon’s massive frame was sent tumbling through the air in an uncontrolled motion, crashing into several buildings.

Flattening the landscape as its body plowed through the earth.

All the heroes stared in a mix of awe and shock as the current of the waves blew past them and only one thought echoed in their minds.

’How strong is Phantom?’

The moment he arrived, the battle itself had changed. One man had instantly changed their fate from certain doom to possible victory.

Slammed a dragon down to the earth with a punch able to clear out a city.

They watched Nicholas descend from the sky after delivering the punch, unbothered by the pull of gravity as he landed smoothly.

Nectron had one thought in his mind, ’He’s stronger than me... No, he’s stronger than all of us put together’

In that brief exchange, they had instantly come to the realization.

Phantom could become the strongest hero alive.

They weren’t the only witnesses to this, far in the distance, another group that had just entered the town, had also caught a glimpse of what had happened from afar.

Eric watched from the distance, "What in the world just happened" the words slipped from his mouth as he watched the jaw-dropping scene

All the other heroes beside him, stood with shocked expressions on their faces.

In another corner of the town, another group had witnessed the scene as well. Watching from the skyline, Hexi felt a cold chill run down his spine.

His eyes wide open with terror as he watched the scene, ’Scary mind, scary mind... Phantom scary’ He thought as his hands curled around his hair ripping them out.

Shadow also stood on the rooftop, staring at her shadows muttering words to herself.

Zayx stood with an expression of someone who’d been thrown a slap to the face, his eyes shaking with terror, ’I wanted to face him again. I wanted to kill him for destroying my people... my insects...’

"We can’t interfere in this battle, getting the girl with him around will be impossible. We have to leave" Shadow finally said.

"What do we tell master? We can’t just leave without completing the mission—" Zayx felt a cold shiver before he completed his sentence.

Shadow’s wide eyes stared into his, distant and cold, "Do you want to die? You can go ahead and try completing the mission if you want to"

"You’re right, we should leave. This is too dangerous, we can get her when he’s not around" Hexi finally said.

His eyes never left Nicholas for even a second, afraid that if they did, he’d appear right next to them.

Shadow looked back at Nicholas, or rather the shadow beneath him, ’His shadow was already so strong the last time we met, how did it grow so much stronger within such a short time? Terrifying... Truly terrifying’

Unlike the others, who had only witnessed the result of Nicholas’s punch, Shadow could see something they couldn’t.

His shadow.

The thing beneath him had become denser.

Larger.

More oppressive.

It felt less like the shadow of a human and more like the shadow of a disaster.

Shadow’s breathing slowed.

The others thought they had just witnessed Phantom’s full strength.

She didn’t.

In fact...

It felt as though he had held back.

Just the thought of it made her skin crawl.

"We can’t leave here until they’ve stopped the impure, but I know where we can hide"

Without a second thought, her shadow split open and she slowly sank inside.

The other two quickly followed her as well, the scene they had seen would haunt them for another week or more.

Nearly half the town had been reduced to ruins by the dragon’s fall. Its colossal body had carved through streets and buildings alike, dragged across the earth by the overwhelming force behind Nicholas’s punch..

"ROOARRRR!" It let out a loud fledgling cry as its scales had been broken apart, black blood pooling out of the large injury that now lay by its side.

Walking casually towards it was Nicholas.

{You have shocked your audience}

{Threshold charm points reached!}

{New Skill available for copy: Hero Melody

Plague Touch acquired}

{Allows the user to turn any item they touch into a plague item and can alter the shape, size and construction of the item to fit into any form the user wishes.}

{New skill available for copy; Hero Night Ninja}

{New skill available for copy: Hero Pyron}

{New skill available for copy: Hero Rope girl}

{New skill...}

’Interesting..’

A flood of notifications clouded his face, but Nicholas didn’t need all that distraction now, he simply turned off the notifications as he walked towards the fallen beast.

But there was one ability he was definitely going to copy.

{Ability: Plague Touch copied}

{Copy Slots: 2/5}

{Void Usage time has been expended, skill will enter cool down}

{Cool down time: 10 hours}

Nicholas didn’t mind all the notifications, he simply pulled out his baton as he reached the fallen dragon.

Its vertical pupils stared at him, shrinking as it saw its own eyes in the visor of the x glasses.

The baton in Nicholas’s hands slowly changed form, taking the shape of a sword.

He stood in front of the fallen beast and with a powerful swing of the sharp blade backed by his tremendous strength the blade cleaved through the head of the beast, like a hot knife through butter.

SWISH!

"What?! All that wasn’t recorded?! No!!" Julie’s loud voice suddenly tore through the town.