-Vol 5: A New Life-

-Power of Death-

“Ha!!” with a shout, Joy closed the gap between the man and him, but the man again used his weird skill and vanished, leaving behind an afterimage. The electric imbued fist missed its mark and uselessly flickered in the air before the magic died down.

Appearing a few meters to the left of him, the man appeared with a smirk on his face. Narrowing his eyes, he gave Joy another smirk before taunting “Give up. A muscle brained fellow like you could never hope to match to my speed. Haha!”

“Dammit! I don’t believe I can’t catch a slippery loach like you. Just you wait. The moment I catch you, you will be dead meat.” Gritting his teeth in anger, Joy glared at the grinning man. After that, he shouted loudly and ran at him again. But the man used the same skill again and vanished, leaving behind only an after image.

“You are really an annoying fellow. You could never hope to match my speed, let alone making me dead meat. Your struggles are pointless. Just give up and go back or else I won't be polite anymore. Trust me, when I attack, the opponent usually ends up dying.” The man warned as he took another few steps back from the line of Joy’s attack.

“Hmph! How many times are you gonna repeat that? This time you have already told that line the fifth time. If you are so mighty, why don’t you show me?” *pitui* Joy angrily spat on the ground as he disdainfully stared at the running away man.

“This one is my final warning. Honest!” standing a few meters away, the man holding the box shouted, looking frustrated as he did so. It seems she was really boasting, or else, he would have already attacked. That or he was not doing purposefully in order to guard the box. Either way, Joy was convinced that this man wouldn’t attack him no matter what, and that’s what drove him mad. Thankfully, his mission wasn’t to defeat him, rather hold him long enough for Kenshin to think of an idea. But as a powerful hunter, it really hurt his pride when he was being mocked relentlessly by this irritating man.

He didn’t have a system to see the stats of this man, but Joy’s got a feeling that this man was weaker than him. It's only his speed that’s on a different scale. Maybe it was because of a Skill of his. In the first place, skills were something that could break the balance of stats, so it was no wonder if this man could outrun Joy.

But one shouldn’t belittle the physical capabilities of a first awakened hunter. Their endurance was simply so enormous that even a level 99 hunter couldn’t compare to them. This man could outrun him all he wants, but Joy wasn’t worried. Sooner or later, he knew this man would get tired, and that would be his time to shine.

“Come on! Don’t be a pussy. If you want to kill me, then come. What use of speaking so much nonsense?” angered at this man continuous running, Joy shouted in rage, trying to goad him into attacking him.

“You!” the man too couldn’t take it when he was called a pussy, but he forcefully held it in. Gritting his teeth, he thought ‘If it is not for this baggage, I would have made short work out of this muscle brained fool. I can’t ignore the boss’s words, or else, even death would become a luxury for me.’

“Hey! Hey! What happened? Are you just all talk? If you got guts, then come fight me fair square, why run around?” as he said so, Joy activated his skill [Boost] to powerup his movements and overall power. Joy’s magic skill comes under the category of supportive, rather than full-on the offensive. He could boost the properties of anything and everything by a certain margin.

Take a glass, for example, if it smashes directly against the wall, it can smash into pieces. But if Joy uses his [Boost] skill on its hardening, when it was thrown around the next time, it can smash the wall rather than breaking itself down like last time. Joy’s skill is universal and can be used on everything, even on other hunters. That’s why even without its lack of offensive ability, he stepped into the realm of level 100 in just 10 years of his skill’s awakening.

Of course, by the standard of other powerhouses, it was considered extremely slow. But unlike them, Joy was a lone wolf and would do everything on his own without anyone’s help. Besides, he didn’t have a system to guide him through the path of level up or have a title bonus that could give him an instant burst of strength.

Joy’s body gave off a pinkish aura before he thinned up a little. Then suddenly, his movements started to become faster and smoother. He leaped like a monkey at the man who stood a few meters away, watching him in full alert. Before he could prepare, Joy already within his personal space, with his thunder knuckles sparkling in thunderous might. The man was completely ill-prepared and hence couldn’t react to Joy’s strike.

Boom!

When the thunder knuckle impacted against the chin of the man, it sent it flying with a loud booming noise. Joy leaped once again and appeared above the still airborne man with the box. Pulling his hands back to its maximum, he punched the man’s stomach heavily. With another booming noise, the man lodged inside the concrete below.

A bitter light flashed on Joy’s face. Although he was successfully landed some hits on the man, it was still useless. Before his, every strike landed, a purple shield would appear out of nowhere and successfully block his blows. As a result, the man was completely unharmed even though Joy had successfully landed some blows on him.

The man came out of his body shaped hole formed on the concrete road and calmly patted his clothe off any dust. After that, he carefully put the box on the concrete beside him. Rolling his neck and giving off an audible crack, he looked calmly at Joy.

“You puny human. Now you have done it. Congratulations, you have successfully angered me. Now you have to bear the consequences. I will kill you in the worst way possible.” As the man calmly said these, a thick black smoke came out of his body that chilled Joy’s heart. Soon enough, many small tribal markings appeared all over his body. The man himself become paler than the vampire girl as a bone necklace formed on his neck. He retrieved a bone wand from his chest and held it in his right hand.

“I will show you the power of him, who rules over death and decay.” With a shout, the man shook his wand as a whitish light came from it and entered the ground. Two seconds later, the ground cracked as a boney hand came out of the concrete. Ten skeletons holding rusty sword and shields surrounded Joy while slowly inching towards him.

“Behold the power of Death that only a chosen few can control.”