As Erik heard what Nathaniel said, his anger soared. However, he had to expect some retaliation from the young man, given how crazy he was. In a weird and distorted way, Erik understood why he was doing this.
"Long time no see, uh?" Nathaniel said, sneering.
"Nathaniel, I didn't think you would come all the way down here to meet me. To what do I own the pleasure?" Erik replied.
"You know damn well why I came here…" Nathaniel replied.
"I see… And you did even bring some friends along… What, you weren't confident enough to defeat me? Is that all you amount to?" The awakener asked. Nathaniel's rage surged upon hearing those words.
"If I were you, I wouldn't be so bold… And besides, what's up with that ridiculous mask? Are you cosplaying? I didn't think you had such stupid hobbies…"
pǎпdǎ Й?νê1,сòМ "Yeah, Yeah. But aren't you wearing a mask too?" Erik asked. Nathaniel completely forgot about it, but he also had one on his face. With hatred, he looked at the man who ruined his life, Erik, and then said, "Whatever, I don't even know why I am bothering talking to a dead man."
"That's what you came for, right? To kill me?" Erik asked.
Erik's heart pounded in his chest. He knew Nathaniel was in trouble but didn't know how the others were, so he had to study the situation slightly. He quickly scanned them with his analysis and found out that they were slightly better than average kids their age; from their posture, he could infer they weren't trained in any martial arts, but from their looks, it was clear they had killed someone before.
"Indeed, I came for this…"
"Hahahaha, you disgust me, you little piece of shit…" Erik tried to back away, but one of the goons stepped forward and attacked him.
The awakener unsheathed his sword and swung it at the young man, who stopped just in time to avoid the move. He stopped just a couple of centimeters before the weapon slashed his throat. His face paled; the man before them was much stronger than they initially assumed. The others then dashed toward him, including Nathaniel, who was already channeling mana.
Erik's mind raced. He had to find a way out of this. Fighting Nathaniel wasn't simple, but the battle would be much more complicated with five more people. He took a deep breath and focused on his mana. He channeled it through his neural links and sharpened his sword. He needed to keep his mana reserves as high as possible, or he would end up dead.
The first goon lunged at him, but Erik sidestepped and kicked him in the stomach. Erik's opponent stumbled back, clutching his gut.
The second one tried to cut his throat with a very wide movement, showing the awakener that he was indeed correct and that these people couldn't even hold a stick; however, the blade suddenly elongated as if it were a growing tree branch. That was likely the individual's brain crystal power; Erik had trained himself to avoid the signals of brain crystal power usage, so he wasn't troubled by it; nothing could surprise him anymore. Erik blocked the blow and swung his sword at his opponent's face, but Luke intervened and stopped the attack, losing the knife but saving his comrade.
The blade made a shallow cut on Luke's hand, and blood came from it. Then Nathaniel punched Erik. The attack released a strong shock wave that the awakener barely dodged.
"Circle him!" Nathaniel said while attacking the young man. However, Erik didn't have to restrain himself here and could use his whole strength to avoid the attacks. His opponent noticed this and was suddenly enraged.
"Did you hide your strength all this time?" Nathaniel asked.
"I did," Erik said while smiling at his attacker. Something that made him angrier.
The other goons hesitated momentarily, seeing the blows exchanged between Erik and Nathaniel. However, fearing their employer wouldn't pay them, they all ran toward them and tried to circle Erik. Erik's prowess didn't intimidate Nathaniel; he charged at him in a fighting stance and swung his arm with amazing speed and power.
Erik dodged the attack and grabbed Nathaniel's wrist. He lifted him in the air and threw him to the ground.
"Huack!" Nathaniel released a short but loud sound due to the pain.
<Fuck,> Erik thought. That would for sure attract the thaids. However, he thought about it for a second. <Maybe I can take advantage of this…>
At that moment, a plan was formulated inside Erik, but he wasn't sure they had heard Nathaniel. He decided to set up a trap, taking advantage of the fact that his pursuers didn't know there were monsters nearby. He knew it was risky, but it was his best shot to get rid of his pursuers.
Nathaniel was on the floor, dazed. Erik tried to kill his opponent by thrusting his blade, but Luke and the other goons intervened. A blade elongated and went toward Erik's throat; another guy summoned a javelin and threw it at Erik. The awakener avoided the attacks but missed his chance to kill Nathaniel. He then took the opportunity to run; he needed to reach the thaids. He sprinted down the alley, his heart pounding.
"CHASE HIM!" Nathaniel shouted to his men as he watched the awakener run away.
If Nathaniel's previous shout didn't alert the thaids, now this did. This made it so that the monsters started heading toward Erik and the others; their screeches and growls could be heard from their positions. Behind him, the awakener heard the sound of footsteps. He glanced over his shoulder and saw that Nathaniel, Luke, and the other goons were chasing him.
Erik's heart raced as he picked up his pace and pushed himself harder; however, he was significantly faster than his pursuers, so he had to slow down a bit once he realized not even Nathaniel could keep up with him. He could see the end of the alley up ahead, and he knew he had to make it there if he wanted to have a shot at survival. His heart got colder, and he started to feel a strong urge to kill that almost made him give in to his most basic instincts. He knew he needed to keep his emotions in check if he wanted to escape this situation unscathed.
Just as he reached the end of the alley, he felt something slam into his back. Nathaniel just supercharged his mana in such a way as to increase his attack range significantly and hit Erik while he was giving him his back. The awakener stumbled and fell, skidding on the pavement.
"WE GOT YOU!" Nathaniel said. Erik gritted his teeth; his heart pounded in his chest as Nathaniel, Luke, and the other goons closed in on him. Erik observed his surroundings, hoping to spot some thaids, but the city was deserted, the streets empty, as the people were either outside the city to fight the monsters or hiding inside a shelter.
Erik had hoped to find some thaids at the end of the alley; he knew they were coming toward them but didn't know if they could make it in time.
Nathaniel sneered at him. "You should have let me kill you before all this pointless situation began, Erik; I would have been merciful. Now you're going to pay for having tried to resist."
The goons circled him, their eyes cold and calculating. Erik took a deep breath, tightened his grip on his weapon, and prepared for the impending fight. It was true that he didn't find the thaids, but he still had several powers at his disposal. The young man channeled mana.
Nathaniel lunged forward with his trident. Erik smiled something that Nathaniel saw right away. At that moment, six long and spiky bones came out of Erik's body and were hurled toward the six kids' throats. Five of them managed to avoid the attack, but one of the goons got his neck pierced.
[HOSTILE HUMAN KILLED: MANA ABSORBING PROCESS STARTING.]
[0%...1%....5%...30%...70%...100%]
[MANA SUCCESSFULLY ABSORBED, STARTING CONVERTING PROCEDURE.]
[3...2...1...0]
[MANA SUCCESSFULLY CONVERTED INTO EXPERIENCE. 318 EXPERIENCE POINTS AWARDED TO THE HOST.]
"What the fuck?!" Luke shouted. Nathaniel was surprised; what he just saw was unprecedented. Bones came out of Erik's body as if he were using another brain crystal power.
"What did you do?" Nathaniel asked.
"Are you surprised? Did you forget that I'm an awakener?" Erik asked.
"An awakener? What story is this?" Luke asked. "You talked about no awakener, Nathaniel!" he shouted.
"SHUT UP!" Erik's enemy shouted. "It doesn't matter if you have other powers, three or four. I will still kill you!" He then lunged at Erik again after he stood up and went into a fighting position. During this minor altercation, Nathaniel went deeper into madness, and now, the revelation that Erik had other powers made jealousy surge into him, which obfuscated his thinking. He had to kill the awakener. However, at that moment, a group of thaids came out of the adjacent street and ran toward them.
"FUCK!" Luke shouted. He and the others gripped their weapons and charged their neural links.
Erik waited for the monsters to come. That was the best opportunity he got.
At that point, Erik started running at full speed away from the thaids, and Nathaniel followed suit.
"NATHANIEL!" Luke shouted. "YOU, MOTHER FUCKER, COME BACK HERE AND HELP US!"
But the young man was too enraged toward the awakener; he wanted to kill Erik even more now that he learned he had a third power.
He was curious to know how the hell he was able to achieve that and thought that was probably due to his awakening. However, the jealousy consumed him, and he went away, unaware that, without the others, he was unlikely to stand a chance against Erik at this point. In the meantime, the thaids attacked the four remaining kids.
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