The difference between a level 4 and level 7 gift holder was huge. Barned knew this, but he still hoped that he could somehow manage to slip past them. He know that it was beyond reckless but he hoped that he would be lucky.
"Kuh!" Barned didn't even have the time to react. One the soldier closed the distance between Barned and him in just a second, leaving Barned no time to block his attack.
Crash! Barned felt the power of the kick on his stomach before crashing on the wall. His body was tougher than a average human but he took a lot of damage.
"Another brat?!" The half naked soldier finally looked at Barned and he was surprised. "I see… So one of them must be his girlfriend," he added as he approached Azalea and Rose with a twisted look on his face.
After seeing what was happening, the other soldiers immediately came to the conclusion that Barned was a weakling, and so they immediately relaxed. They didn't let their guard down, but they also didn't think that Barned would be able to do anything much.
Still, the one who appeared to be the leader ordered two of his men to go inspect the room. Seeing this, Barned hoped that his friend had already left.
"Don't fuck with me!" The two soldiers immediately stepped back and took a battle stance.
The one who shouted was none other than Alexander. Barnes begin to feel various emotion as he looked at the scene.
Among all of them, Barned was the weakest, he knew that. His gift was just an elemental type. As such, he worked hard, in hope that he would someday become as powerful as Derige.
However, Alexander, Felicia, Yoru, and Benjamin all had particular gifts. "Why?" he muttered, but he had also a light smile on his face.
"Don't go decide everything by yourself, Barned!" Alexander said before appearing next to Barned. His ability was teleportation. Even though he couldn't teleport too far from his starting point, it was a very powerful ability. Nonetheless, he was still a level 4 gift holder, so he could become more powerful in the future.
After that, Felicia's hair began to grow out and became thicker, gaining more mass. She wrapped her hair around Azalea and Rose, then brought them behind hair, as she rose up in the air while her hair turned some kind of spiders like.
"Wait, you—kuh!" The soldier was suddenly propelled backward even though he couldn't see anything. He was pretty confused.
"Disgusting," muttered Yoru who was not visible. Only Barned and Alexander heard her.
The other soldiers tried to rush ahead and attack the group of students who appeared suddenly before them, but the strongest among the group came forward. Unlike his appearance, and his attitude, Benjamin was the strongest when it came to the sheer destructive power of his ability.
"Aaaaa!" He darted forward, meeting the soldiers head on. His body turned into a magnet that attracted particle similar to what was found inside of gravitum. Then, when he didn't activate his ability, these particle would be released outside of his body as a form of energy.
Boom! Not expecting to see that sort of ability, the soldiers were taken by surprise.
"Why? Why didn't you leave?" said Barned. The reason why he asked them to leave was simply because he should be the only one who bear the consequences of his choice. He decided to help Azalea and Rose, and he knew exactly what that implied.
"You are not the only one who have the choice," replied Alexander, looking like he knew what Barned was thinking. "You are really stupid! Sacrificing yourself like… Tch…"
Barned knew that he couldn't stop them if they really wanted to come back. However, he also knew that he was being selfish. In this situation, their survival was should have been their priority, and if he decided to leave Rose and Azalea behind, his friend would have surely followed him.
However, Banred consciousness didn't allow to leave Rose and Azalea to the mercy of those men. His goal was not to save them, but to spare them from suffering. He was determined that he would kill them both and then die.
This was was his choice, and he couldn't drag his whole group with him. He knew that they were all powerful, and so their chance of survival wouldn't decrease even without him.
Moreover, fighting the soldiers was something that they needed to avoid at all cost.
"Tch! Damn brats…" There were five soldiers in total. Moreover, they called for reinforcement immediately as soon as Alexander and the others appeared. "Don't let them run away!"
This was the worst outcome. Barned and his group managed to avoid this outcome because they made good use of their ability while focusing solely on running and hiding. After the public announcement, Barned lead the group by taking the safest decision.
The reason for this was because even though they had particular gifts, winning against an experienced level 7 gift holder who had an elemental gift was almost impossible, considering that they were only level 4 and lacked experience.
"Run! We need to get out of her!" Barned shouted. However, it was already too late. A serious fight was unavoidable.
The five soldiers were all possessed elemental gifts, and even though they were not as strong as Timothy or Elena, they could also materialize their power and created armor covering their body.
In addition to this, their speed and the amount of primordial particle that they could manipulate were superior. Therefore, even though their gift might be not particularly rare, it was still very destructive when used as a weapon.
Benjamin was the first who tasted the power of a level 7 soldier. The soldier used his ability, which was lighting, to dash forward. At the same time, he had also made his attack unavoidable by controlling the particles in his surrounding and created lighting balls that were shot at Benjamin from all direction.
Boom! It all happened so fast that Benjamin couldn't protect himself. Even though he had a very dangerous ability, he needed some time to gather the particles into his body. Realizing this weakness, the leader had immediately decided to get rid of him.
"Kuh!" Even though Felicia attempted to use her hair to protect Bejamin, she was one step to late. Benjamin couldn't protect himself and took a lot of Damage.
"I am fine, get Bejamin out of there!" Barned shouted.
"Shitty brat!" The half naked soldier used his power to stop Alexander, and also Yoru from doing anything. The temperature dropped dramatically, to the point that the moisture in the atmosphere froze.
This revealed Yoru's silhouette, and because she was naked, the cold had damaged her skin. She tried to escape but it didn't take long for the cold to completely freeze her.
Alexander managed to teleport close to Benjamin, but he was immediately struck by a chain of lighting attack. He tried to avoid it by teleporting but the leader looked like he had already figured out the distance Alexander could teleport to at a time.
"Gah!" The attack was coming from all direction so there was no avoiding it. Even though Alexander was fast, the leader's was faster.
"Alexander!" Felicia cried with a frustrated look. However, she was not in better position. Her hair was burning, and even though they were tougher than regular hair, it wasn't yet tough enough to withstand the head of the fire generated by a level 7 gift-holder.
In addition to this, the elemental gift of all of the three remaining soldiers were fire.
Boom! Felicia was mercilessly bombarded with fireballs. Her body was completely burned, but she managed to let Azalea and Rose go upstairs with Amelia.
"Felicia!" Barned screamed in anger. However, his low body had already taken a lot of damage, and he was unable to move. Just in instant, all of his friend were taken down.
"Tch! Finish them off. It looks like we would not have fun today," the leader said disappointedly.
"Even the girls?" The half-naked soldier asked.
"Yeah, I have already called for reinforcement. I didn't expect them to be a bunch of brats." The leader sighed.
Tears rushed down Barned's cheeks, but he was powerless to do anything. He began to blame himself. Why didn't he just leave the two girls behind? Was his selfish action worth the life of his comrades?
The half naked soldier took out a platinum sword and approached Barned. Barned closed his eyes, full of regrets.
*****
"Found you." Looking down at the building where Banred and her group's fight took place, Neige muttered a few words.
Then, as if she was never standing there, she vanished, leaving only a dazzling afterimage behind.
Before the soldiers could even understand what was happening to them, their heads were already rolling on the ground. "Eh?!"
Standing in the middle of the room, Neige was holding a rapier like sword made of particles of light. After taking a graceful battle stance, with the rapier in front of her chest, rose had finally concluded that all of the soldiers were dead.
"I was late," She muttered.
After seeing what happened, Barned was at loss of words and just stared at Neige in awe.
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