"This is the price for your arrogance, you bastard!"
Seeing 'Raymond' instantly filled with holes by dozens of fire pillars under their joint attack, even half of his head was destroyed, Killian laughed cruelly.
But the smile on his face didn't last long—it soon froze.
"How is this possible?" he muttered involuntarily.
He saw that 'Raymond', who had been riddled with holes, stood calmly and asked mockingly, "Is this your strongest attack? Trash will always be trash—really pathetic…"
While 'Raymond' spoke, magma flowed faster over his body, quickly covering the damaged areas, including his half-destroyed face.
In an instant, as the magma flowed, all the damaged parts were restored as if he had never been hurt at all.
'Raymond' had completely returned to normal.
"No, impossible... It must be an illusion... How can something this crazy happen..." Killian whispered nervously.
For some reason, the more he looked at 'Raymond', the more he felt that 'Raymond' had injected himself with the Extremis Virus—an upgraded "Pro Max" version, at that.
His body radiated high temperatures, launched flame-like attacks, and had regeneration abilities—what else could this be if not the Extremis Virus?
Indeed, even the Extremis Virus had different levels.
The version Killian injected himself with was the most perfect version he had ever developed. It was very stable and much stronger than the normal Extremis Virus, both in terms of combat and healing abilities.
However, the drawback was that it was too expensive. Even with his resources, it was difficult to produce on a large scale.
Thus, a cheaper, normal version of the Extremis Virus was created.
Although its overall performance was weaker than the perfect version, it had the advantage of being cost-effective. Its only downside was extreme instability, meaning not everyone could handle it, and users often exploded when under stress.
But this wasn't an issue for Killian—human life was cheap to him.
Even if only one in ten survived injecting the normal Extremis Virus, it was still worth it to him.
The cost of producing the perfect Extremis Virus was at least a hundred times higher than the normal version!
Even accounting for the losses from instability and explosions, there was still a tenfold cost difference. Compared to this huge cost gap, losing a few people meant nothing.
But after seeing 'Raymond's' abilities, Killian suddenly felt that his perfect Extremis Virus wasn't perfect at all.
Based on what 'Raymond' just showed, both his fighting power and his unbelievably fast healing were countless times stronger than Killian's.
If Killian had taken that kind of damage, it would have taken at least an hour or two to recover, and even then, recovery might not have been complete.
In contrast, 'Raymond' recovered completely in just a few seconds.
"Did he also create something like the Extremis Virus—an even more perfect version?"
"No, impossible! I don't believe it!" Killian shouted crazily.
He was deeply insecure but outwardly arrogant. He couldn't accept that the result of years of his hard work was easily surpassed by someone else!
"Number Seven, Eight, Nine… Finish him off!!" Killian practically roared his command.
Right after he shouted, three people from the group surrounding 'Raymond' suddenly charged straight at him!
Their speed was far beyond normal human limits, but honestly, it was nothing compared to 'Raymond'.
Even the person known alongside him as the "two monsters of the Navy," who could move almost at the speed of light, struggled to hold his ground against him—let alone these three little guys.
Yet, he had no plans to dodge because he didn't just want to crush these weaklings; he wanted to completely destroy their confidence!
Inside his mind, Kuro of a Hundred Plans was confused: "What are they trying to do? Offering themselves up to die?"
The Exorcist said dismissively: "Just the last struggles of trapped beasts."
Livebearer laughed strangely: "Heh heh heh, it's not that simple. The world is never short of hunters who think they've already won but end up losing their lives because they were careless."
Tao Pai Pai was unhappy, dissatisfied that Raymond had chosen Akainu instead of him for this fight. Becoming increasingly annoyed with Akainu, he grumbled: "That arrogant guy, I really hope these losers manage to kill him!"
Raymond chuckled lightly: "If it were you, even if you managed to beat them, you might end up in trouble. But Akainu's power perfectly counters them. Even if their numbers were multiplied by a hundred, they wouldn't pose the slightest threat to Akainu."
"These losers could trouble me? You're looking down on me too much!" Tao Pai Pai couldn't stand hearing that.
As one of only two Silver-rank personalities, he always competed directly against Akainu, never backing down.
But now Raymond was telling him these weaklings who Akainu could easily crush could cause him trouble. Wasn't that an insult?
"Just keep watching. You can argue after seeing what happens," Raymond suggested Tao Pai Pai hold his objections for now.
Only then did Tao Pai Pai swallow his anger and continue watching.
Their conversation occurred entirely within Raymond's mind and lasted only a moment in reality.
At this very moment, the three people called out by Killian had already reached 'Raymond'!
Seeing that 'Raymond' didn't dodge, the three men were delighted.
They surrounded 'Raymond' from different directions, joining hands and showing fanatical expressions:
At the same time, their bodies suddenly began trembling violently. Their skin and faces rapidly swelled and expanded!
A huge ball of fire shot skyward, accompanied by an explosion loud as thunder!
The shockwave from the explosion instantly blew away the nearby Extremis Virus fighters close to 'Raymond'!
Fortunately, their bodies were strong enough that even after being thrown away, they weren't seriously hurt—just embarrassed.
Not only them but even Tony and David's groups, who were standing some distance away from the battlefield, nearly got blown off their feet.
Luckily, David quickly created a protective shield with his telekinetic power, blocking the force of the explosion completely.
"Is this what you meant by 'just watch the show'?" Tony asked David with clear irritation in his voice.