Akito didn’t know how much time had passed but he could see a shadow walking towards him slowly – Akito knew who the shadow blur was – it was the assassin. Strangely, Akito found himself calm and not in least bit scared. Maybe it was because of what he just witnessed – an ordinary boy stood up in the face of great danger and didn’t blink. The boy was no more than six or seven, the same age as him, yet in the face of life threatening danger he fought till the very end. Akito didn’t know Shin’s condition but from Shin’s breathing he could only tell that for now Shin was alive. Akito didn’t know what would become of him after this but he only hoped that somehow Shin would live….

“I…..am…..not….trash….” A faint voice broke the silence in the room. Somehow, with great difficulty Shin stood up – his back leaning against the wall while his arms clung on to the open window for support. His once kiddish clothes were dyed red in his own blood. It even hurt for Shin to breath, let alone speak – yet somehow he managed to get that sentence out.

After that sentence the room went deathly silent. The calm face of the assassin cracked and Akito’s eyes went wide open in disbelief – was this kid crazy?

There were so many options available to the assassin – he could have chosen to ignore Shin, he could have proceeded to interrogate Akito, he could have begun looking for the girl. However, Shin was like a nail that refused to be hammered down. He was like a sore thumb sticking out. From his very existence to his unyielding spirit absolutely infuriated the assassin.

“Kid…it seems you have a death wish…” The assassin silently muttered to himself. “You’re lucky.” The assassin looked at Akito who was plastered into the wall. “You get to live five minutes ….”

“I…..am….not…a…kid….I…am….MAOU-SAMA!!!” Shin shouted the last bit after which he spat a mouth full of blood out.

‘Crazy…that kid is definitely crazy….’ That was all that Akito could think. Even at death’s door step, this kid could not think of anything but role-playing ‘Maou-sama’? He had to be a lunatic or something to not care about his own life.

The assassin shared similar thoughts to Akito.

‘Is this kid alright in the head? Where the hell did Maou-sama come from? Is that from some TV show? Is he living in some make belief world? Now that I think about it he was acting pretty out of character for child when the officer brought him in….it would be best to finish him and then slowly take my time with the bodyguard…too bad you didn’t stay down kid, I might have let you live….’

In the blink of an eye, the assassin appeared in front of Shin. “Brat, you have already wasted enough of my time. Just die peacefully…”

The assassin stopped speaking midway as he noticed Shin slowly limp towards him. The silver moonlight streamed through the window, highlighting Shin’s bloodied back. With the light falling on his back and a shadow cast on his face, Shin resembled a tiny zombie goblin?

“What…?” The assassin was trying to make sense of what Shin was trying to do when he noticed Shin curling his fingers and forming a fist.

“Hahaha…” The assassin began laughing like a mad man. He had seen some pretty crazy things while working as an assassin but this was a first; a six year old crazy child, nearly beaten to death, still had the will to fight. Even the strongest in all of Murim would lack such a fighting will. This kid who was completely ordinary and no strength literally put all of Murim to shame with his determination. The assassin laughed till there were tears in his eyes – for a moment he even pitied killing Shin because such determination in the world of martial arts could only be considered praiseworthy.

“Fine. One punch in honour of will.” The assassin humoured Shin as he presented himself to Shin with no defense – after all how much power could a single punch from a nearly dead child pack?

Shin wasn’t in his senses and kept slipping in and out of his consciousness, he could only feel teething anger from the humiliation he was receiving now; the enemy presented himself defencelessly to him – openly mocking Shin’s strength. The enemy wasn’t wrong in his assessment of Shin’s strength, even the strongest punch from Shin in his prime condition would have no effect on the assassin forget about his nearly dead beat state having any effect.

Yet somewhere Shin clung on to hope. Maybe, with this strike....he would be able to manipulate mana…he would be able to restore his dignity…

Tears rolled down Shin’s cheeks as he slowly raised his fist. He could feel no mana coursing through his meridians. He could feel no mana fluctuations in the air… he could only feel his over bearing weakness.

Destroy humanity? What a joke. Regret welled up in Shin’s heart as he realized he won’t be able to avenge his comrades…

Without any hope, without any strength, Shin flung his fist at the assassin.