Chapter 286 Mission End (Part 1)
Bill was nearing the end of his power as he felt like he could fall down and pass out at any moment. However, he didn't want to go out just yet, not until he was sure that Victor was completely dealt with.
He knew that just like him, Victor should be nearing the limit of his stamina and power as well so he quickly deactivated his mutant gene to relieve some of the strain on his body.
Nathan was celebrating internally as he witnessed Bill land such a spectacular blow on Victor, thinking that they had definitely won while Erin still had a somber expression on her face as the wounds that had been inflicted on Bill led him to unlock the second stage of his mutant gene were also fresh in her heart.
Although Erin didn't have the strength necessary to evolve her own mutant gene into the second stage, she was just as heartbroken and hurt as Bill with her also reaching new levels of power as she achieved a new level of her Ice ability.
The smiles on Nathan's face quickly turned into confusion and Erin's heart sank even further as they observed Bill's glowing tattoos fade away and his eyes returning to their original color.
They watched as Bill staggered over toward the wall where he had just smashed Victor into and began manually removing pieces of the wall to find Victor's body.
'Is he still not defeated?!' Nathan questioned in his thoughts as he and Erin began walking towards Bill.
Erin still had her mutant gene active as she approached Bill who just uncovered Victor's mangled body from underneath a large boulder.
Blood was leaking from everywhere, many of his bones were broken, and he appeared to be barely breathing. It didn't feel like Victor would be getting back up again anytime soon.
Seeing Victor's state Nathan finally relaxed as he was worrying over nothing. Nobody would have been able to survive that attack from Bill, and although he was quite jealous of Bill being so much stronger than him now, he had to acknowledge his strength. He didn't really know what was going inside Bill's head right now but chalked it off to him making sure Victor was defeated.
After taking a couple of deep breaths and staring at Victor's mutilated body, Bill finally took a couple of steps back and started to stagger over toward the end of the tunnel where a single door with two dead bodies lay.
However, as soon as Nathan dropped his guard and wanted to find out where Bill was going, his perception picked up signs of danger. He quickly turned back around to see Victor's eyes open and him holding onto his sniper rifle with one hand aimed straight at Bill's head.
Bill was still facing the other way so he didn't know what Victor was about to do.
As a broad bloody smile appeared on Victor's face and his fingers squeezed the trigger, Nathan had to decide in a split second on what to do.
He was too far away from Victor to be able to stop him from squeezing the trigger and firing in time as he no longer had the speed buff that he would have received if he still had the Blood Wolf transformation ability.
So the only other option was to push Bill away from the path of the bullet. Nathan didn't know if he was fast enough to do that either, but he didn't really have a choice as if he didn't make a move this instant, Bill would be dead.
Nathan quickly summoned all of his strength as he dashed forward towards Bill as fast as he could, praying that he would be able to reach him in time.
Time slowed down for Nathan as even taking a single step felt like an eternity had passed. Nathan wasn't one to have friends or people that he cared about. A few weeks ago, the thought of risking his own life to save someone else was something he would laugh at as it sounded completely absurd to him, and yet here he was.
'What happened to me? I wanted to become strong, I never wanted to rely on someone else ever again, and I wanted to take my revenge! What happened to me?!' Nathan said to himself as he pushed himself forward while Victor's fingers squeezed the trigger tighter, just about to shoot the bullet.
Suddenly, the images of him battling Bill and training with his team surfaced in front of his eyes. The way these people fought and battled with great comradery and respect for one another. He didn't want to admit it but he actually enjoyed his training sessions with them and yet his conscience was trying to find a way to justify his own belief.
His belief was that everyone was going to betray you and there were no such things as family and friends. The memories of his past continued to surface whenever he felt uncertain and confused. He felt all of this too good to be true. Even though he treated them with zero respect, they never turned their backs on him but rather tried to get close to him.
Nathan felt a big rift inside him, and it was still present today. This rift began on that fateful night when Nathan had enough of things and wanted to see Mako's true colors, believing he was right about the true nature of people. But, the opposite happened – Mako not only defeated him but also apologized and offered to be friends, changing his perspective forever.
On one hand, he had all the different experiences that he had gone through in his past, and on the other hand was Mako, someone that completely defied everything that he knew to be true about people.
For some reason, that he didn't even understand himself, he felt inclined to find out more about the path that Mako and his friends walked. Could have there been a whole other reality that he didn't even know existed?
This had caused the rift to grow and favor the new side, shadowing over the past trauma that he had lived through and now when he observed his teammate in danger, his mind didn't even think about his own safety as the only thing he wanted to do in that moment was to save Bill.
Not even a single second had passed as Victor was about to squeeze the trigger with Nathan still a bit too far from Bill. At this rate, he still might be able to reach him in time, but it meant that the bullet would most likely hit him instead, and yet even moments before his potential death, Nathan felt happy.
This was the first time that Nathan had actually felt surety and happiness while doing something in a long long time, and he didn't really care for his own life as this was a feeling that he would give everything to experience again and again.
Time resumed back to its original speed as Nathan rushed towards Bill and was able to successfully push him out of the way. He knew that the bullet would be tearing through him any moment as he closed his eyes and accepted his fate, but instead, Nathan didn't feel any pain at all.
He continued to move forward and landed on top of Bill as he successfully managed to stop them both from getting hit by the bullet.
Nathan opened his eyes in confusion as definitely thought that he wasn't fast enough to save both Bill and himself from Victor's bullet, but as he turned to look toward Victor, everything made sense.
Victor could be seen whimpering in pain with more blood splattered on the floor alongside his trusty rifle that had his severed hand still holding onto the trigger.
Erin stood beside Victor with her combat knife near his throat as she was fuming with anger after witnessing what Victor was about to do.
Erin still had mutant gene activated and thanks to that her perception was a lot better, but still not as great as Nathan's. Since she was very close to Victor and was able to see him lift his rifle to shoot Bill in the head, she reacted even before Nathan as she dashed forward and pulled out her combat knife which she used to sever Victor's hand before it could squeeze the trigger.
Nathan quickly got off Bill and offered him his hand to pull him back on his feet, a gesture that really confused Bill as he expected Nathan to be the last person to ever do this.
He was confused about the sudden shove but as he got up and turned back around, he quickly put two and two together and realized what had just happened.
Anger and rage filled Bill's heart once again as he saw that Victor was still not dead and even in his last moments, he resorted to getting one more kill.
"YOU BASTARD!" Bill shouted as he walked back toward Victor as fast as he could.
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