Chapter 14

Arbhar High School

Classroom B2,

Inside the room, staring out the window to the parking lot, Eric Dalten watches Steffan massacre the policemen who arrived to stop the Ghosts. One by one, he proceeds to kill them with his bare hands, accompanied by the screams of the students watching this unfold.

After the last remaining policeman falls to the ground, Eric looks around the room at the assailants and contemplates fighting them.

Before making up his mind, he notices something odd about the girl sitting next to him who is also looking out the window. She is crying, like many other students, however, unlike the others, she can’t seem to tear her eyes away from the brutal sight outside the window.

What's with her? Is she just scared? No. It seems different then that.

As if to answer his question, he then hears her murmur to herself in a pain filled tone.

“Daddy.”

And that’s when it hits him.

‘Wait. Isn't her Dad a cop?’ he thinks, remembering back to their introductions on the first day. With his eyes widened, he looks out the window, trying to see who she is looking at. After following her line of sight, his eyes land on one of the killed policemen.

The corpse is lying face down on the hood of a car. However, this corpse has been ripped in half, with only his torso and head remaining. Eric cannot tell where his legs went.

He quickly turns away, suppressing the urge to vomit. Covering his mouth, he suddenly hears the leader comment on the scene outside.

“Hey, that's actually one of his cleaner jobs,” Alex says with a genuinely surprised expression. “I'm surprised there's not more severed limbs.”

Eric stares intently at Alex, and finds that an aquellable rage is starting to form from hearing those words. He suddenly stands and walks over to position himself behind Alex, who does not notice as he continues to peer out the window. To Eric’s movements, Charlotte and Ulrike react slowly as they do not expect much from him should he attack.

Eric bends his legs and centers his weight. As he does so, his right leg from the knee down to the foot begins to glow a faint red.

His leg then explodes off the ground and rounds itself into the middle of Alex’s back, with the kick producing a loud bang upon impact. Alex is sent flying through the window he was gazing out of, shattering the glass on his way out. He smashes into the ground hard and continues to skid across pavement until he hits one of the stationary police cars.

Eric’s classmates stare in astonishment, their mouths gaped open. They look at where Eric’s foot had launched from the floor, and notice a significant spider web-like crack in the classroom floor tiles, as if his foot had been sprung upwards with tremendous force.

Eric power, which he received from his Power Gem, is the ability to store up kinetic energy and release it out of the bottom of his foot like a spring.

Charlotte and Urlike, who had watched a random teenager attack their leader, join the other students in astonishment. They look outside and see Alex flat on his back, trying to regain his lost breath.

A kid did that? Even after we’ve enhanced ourselves?

The thought that he might be Chris Sheffer in disguise crosses their mind, but they quickly discard this notion. Ulrike, reacting almost immediately upon seeing this, pulls a knife from his pocket and lunges at the student.

However, Eric, who notices movement out of the corner of his eye, turns to see a creepy looking man charging at him with a knife in hand, and side steps the knife, narrowly avoiding it. He then further retreats and springs backwards out of the now broken window, landing lightly on his feat and sliding backwards.

Alex hops to his feat and, together with Steffan, surrounds the clearly dangerous student. Urlike and Charlotte join in the encirclement after phasing through the classroom wall and out into the parking lot. Eric now stands in the middle of four Ghosts, all looking at him with deadly glares on their faces.

They surrounded me so quickly without any communication. They’re experienced in group battles.

He slightly rotates his head to glance back at Steffan while keeping Ulrike and Charlotte in his peripheral vision. Although he is preparing to fight them with a brave face, this is his first time in a real fight, and he is quite scared, his heart is beating harder than it ever has before. He squeezes his fist, trying to strengthen his own resolve.

I know there's a bounty hunter in town. Hopefully he'll get the memo and come save us. If and until then, I gotta hold these guys off. I'll just consider it training for when I become a hunter myself.

Eric’s legs light up again, as he prepares to use his power once more, and then he pounces towards the Steffan, the nearest to him, attempting to drive his leg into his enemy’s chest.

But Steffan reacts quickly and phases his upper body through the leg, causing Eric to shoot through his target and tumble onto the ground. However, as he slides across the pavements, he regains his bearings and springs off his back onto his feat.

When Eric faces his opponents again, he sees the same muscular man who he targeted charging at him. He closes the distance between himself and Eric before throwing a right hook at the teen. Eric dodges to the left, but upon doing so, feels a slicing pain in his left side.

He touches the painful spot with his hand and notices blood spewing from his skin. Questioning how he received the injury, he looks forward to see the creepy looking man with one hand extended towards him as if he threw something.

Damn! He threw the knife he had earlier!

Eric plants his glowing foot and springs towards Ulrike, thinking it best to take out their long range attacker. Eric tries for a tackle, only for his target to turn intangible. Ulrike, while phasing through Eric, who had been caught off guard, simultaneously stabs the teen in the middle of the back with a knife which was hidden in his sleeve.

Eric stumbles after being stabbed, and in this moment, Ulrike shifts his position and delivers a hard kick to the left side of Eric’s face, sending him rolling across the ground to Alex.

Stopping his momentum, Eric gets up onto his knees and raises his head, only to see Alex standing in front of him.

Alex drives his fist into Eric’s face, sending the teen flying backwards into the brick outlining wall of the school. Upon impact, a light crack forms in the brick and a terrible breaking sound can be heard.

“That sound ... my ribs,” Eric wheezes, tears forming in his eyes from the pain. He struggles to catch his breath while blood pools in his mouth and nose.

I think I lost my front tooth as well. My right side's got road rash and the other has a knife wound, not to mention my back.

As he thinks this, his attention is directed towards the blood flowing down his back, emphasizing to him how bad his stab wound is.

The knife might've punctured my lung as well. Damn it, I couldn't even last 30 seconds. Hopefully …

Before he can finish his thought, he sees Kika looking at him from a window with a worried expression.

No ... don’t Kika.

He attempts to shake his head ‘no’ at her but finds that he cannot muster the strength. As his consciousness slowly drifts away the window next to him explodes out, shocking him awake.

Kika climbs up onto the window sill and proceeds to provoke the attackers.

“Hey assholes!”

As she yells, she fans out her fingers, and between these fingers form little red-orange balls of energy.

“Get the fuck away from him!”

She then performs a backhand throw, launching these red-orange energy balls at Alex.

What the … are those orbs what caused the explosion?

Out of the three that she threw, two of them miss on either side of him, but one stays on target and belines for his feet. He jumps backwards to avoid being hit but still knocked off his feet, taken aback by how powerful the explosions are.

Another freakishly strong kid?!

Recollecting himself, he takes a look at the ground where he had stood and sees that the cement has been completely torn up from the explosions she caused. His eyes widen in shock.

“Charlotte, take her out now!”

Charlotte, nearest to the window, immediately reacts to his command. Charlotte jumps up to the elevated Kika, who is standing on the window sill and not the ground, and aims a sharp kick at her jaw. Kika tries to block with her arms, but Charlotte phases her leg through so the kick passes right through the block and still lands on Kika’s chin, sending her smashing into the classroom ceiling.

She then crashes back down into the tile floor with a loud thud. The chucks from the broken mineral fiber ceiling accompany her fall and scatter around her upon landing. Many of the classmates are screaming Kika’s name as she lies on the ground.

Charlotte, after jumping up and knocking Kika off the window sill, lands onto the sill herself. She glares at the rest of the students, seeing if anyone else wants to try and attack. Most of the students cower away from her or avoid her gaze, all except one.

In the middle of the room, she spots a dark skinned student staring her down with an intense look. This student is Randy, the last of the three Power Gem students.

A Southerner, huh?

She can understand why the student is not as scared as the rest. The people of the Southerner race are naturally a lot stronger than regular people. In fact, they are all born as awakened. However, Charlotte does not put much thought into this as most Southerners, despite being strong, are no match for her in her current state, and therefore writes him off.

But she does not expect him to have a Gem ability, and is surpirsed when he cocks both his arms back before extending them towards her.

Stretchy arms?

Although unexpected, she reacts quickly and phases through the incoming arms, allowing them to pass through her.

When Randy realises something weird just happened, he tries to retract his arms but Charlotte grabs them while he’s doing so. As a result, Randy is instead pulled towards her face first, and Charlotte takes the opportunity to drive a knee into his face.

Another gruesome sound reverberates upon impact, and he is sent hurtling backwards. He lands beside Kika, joining her in being a bloodied mess on the floor. Both of them are completely unconscious and his arms remain slightly stretched as he lays on his back. The other students surround Kika and Randy, yelling their names and checking on their well being.

Charlotte exits the classroom and walks over to Alex, both with a concerned look on their faces.

“What the hell are with the kids in this town?” she asks Alex.

“No fucking kidding! We came for one brat and took out 3 of them! Plus some cops! And Sheffer decides to take a sick day!”

Alex has just about lost it. This small, backwoods Territory, which was supposed to be peaceful and safe, has revealed many crouching tigers and hidden dragons.

Ulrike joins their discussion after collecting the knife he had thrown during the fight with Eric.

“This is a real shit show, ain't it?” he asks, cleaning his blade with a cloth. “What are you gonna do now?”

Alex hesitates before answering. “At this point, it might just be easier to raid the hospital and escape with the sisters! All of our planning went to shit! Now, the kid and the bounty hunter will launch an organized attack! Or, even worse, the Empire will catch wind of this and send a strike force to mop up the mess! FUCK!”

Because the Territory does not have a Conqueror in power, it is then technically still a part of the Global Empire. The Sheriff of the town has the authority to call in reinforcements should the situation become unhandleable.

“So listen, I think we should …”

CRASH!

Upon hearing this, everyone, Ghosts and students alike, turn their heads to the crash sight. With concrete chucks scattered everywhere from the impact, the Ghosts eye the figure in the small crater with disbelief.

“Chris Sheffer?!”

***

On his commute to school, Chris has been updated about who the Ghosts are and why they are trying to kill him. His earnest excitement upon learning the information amused Ethan slightly and made him realise even more how badly the teen was craving excitement, even if the excitement stems from people aiming for his life.

Still jogging, the two are enjoying a fun, meaningless conversation, something which Ethan is unfamiliar with, and this prompts Chris to make fun of his awkwardness.

But, interrupting their conversation, Ethan’s eyes sharpen as he looks in the direction of the school.

“What?” Chris asks.

“I couldn’t sense it until now but it seems like the Ghosts did attack your school.”

Chris’s shoulder tense up as a worried expression covers his face.

“Let’s hurry if you're so worried.” Ethan tells him.

The two vanish from where they were jogging and the concrete breaks under their acceleration. Chris rips his glasses off his face and puts them away. As he has walked this route many times because of missing the bus, he can do it with his eyes closed so his back eyesight is not an issue.

Chris pushes his speed to his limit, worried about his friends whom he thinks are defenseless. His shoes start to burn and his clothes to rip under the high speeds. However, his protective aura keeps them from doing so.

The school is located at the top of a hill, and Chris hits this hill at high speeds, launching himself over the front gate. Realising he might smash into the school building, he kicks his feet downwards into the ground as to prevent himself from doing so, but his kick also creates a loud bang and a well sized crater in the parking lot cement.

After he pulls his feet from the concrete, he hears someone yell his name from behind but does not turn to see who. Instead, he stares straight into the classroom in front of him and finds Kika and Randy sprawled out on the floor in a pool of blood.

As if this wasn’t shocking enough, he turns his head in response to a groan and finds Eric, who Chris is also friends with since he’s dating Kika, leaning against a wall covered in his blood.

Everyone, including the almost unconscious Eric, stares at Chris in amazement and confusion, but Chris doesn’t notice as he is too focused on his friend’s injuries. He looks back to Kika and Randy sprawled out on the floor.

“Are they ok?” he asks the classmates surrounding them. His concerned and grim expression causes many of the students to avoid his gaze.

“I ... I think so,” one of the students answers.

As Chris lets out a sigh of relief, Alex and the rest of the Ghosts are having a hard time believing he showed up on his own accord.

“He actually came to us,” Alex says with a huge grin forming on his face, but this smile is quickly wiped away. As he takes a step forward towards Chris, he is stopped in his tracks by the sound of a sudden voice.

“This is a fine mess you've made Alex Spencer.”

He looks up to see a man with white bangs, a sword and a black long coat staring down at him from the school roof. His cold gaze seemingly freezes Alex in his tracks.

Everyone present knows exactly who it is, even if they have never seen him before.

T-this is the bounty hunter? This man's presence alone is enough to make you shiver.

However, Alex is snapped out of his trance by another voice.

“Are you the leader?”

“Eh?” Alex looks down to see a scrawny young man death-staring him.

“Why did you hurt these guys? I thought you wanted to kill me.”

“Yeah, well, they technically attacked us first. Anyway, kid, my plans have been completely ruined. Now that the bounty hunter is here, I’m going to fight him instead of you. Besides, you also hurt my girls yesterday so how about we call it even. I think that's …”

BAM!

Alex’s face is suddenly smashed by Chris’s fist and he is sent flying over the school gate, down the hill and into a town street, covering a distance of at least a hundred yards mid flight. Before he hits the ground, he actually phases into the street instead of smashing into the cement. Disappearing into the ground like a Ghost, his momentum from the hit continues while underground, and after a couple blocks, he resurfaces and slides on his feet to stop.

He groans loudly while holding his face, blood dripping profusely from his nose and mouth.

So fast! I barely had time to react. If I hadn't phased through his fist for the last half of the punch, I would be down for the count.

In mid thought, he is startled by the sudden arrival of Chris who appears in front of him. He jumps back in surprise.

I can’t even see him move! This is bad. I had expected this type fight with the bounty hunter, not some school boy.

Alex, resolving himself for a tough fight, unzips the pouch around his waist and pulls out four needles. Chris, cautious as to what they are for, retreats a few steps.

“Damn. Last resort.” Alex says, sticking all four needles in his own neck. Chris’s eyes widen as he did not expect him to use the needles on himself.

Alex smirks, his confidence slowly flooding back into him. His eyes become bloodshot and a faint orange aura forms around him. This aura continues to grow stronger and more violent, eventually causing the dust bits around them to levitate off the ground.

“NOW ... COME AT ME!” he screams with all his might, eager to test his new strength. As he has never taken any more than two shots at a time, he is now completely overwhelmed by the strength he possesses after taking five.

However, Chris doesn’t hesitate at this display and immediately launches forward with a right punch. Although Alex phases and Chris completely passes through his target, he does not stumble like in his fight with Ethan. Instead, he plants his foot into the ground, steadying his weight, and follows up with a roundhouse kick.

The kick is off center and unbalanced, but still very powerful. Although Alex reacts and phases through it, the wind gust generated from it blows away the dust which was levitating around him.

Chris isn’t discouraged and follows it up with a right-left punch combo before trying a knee. His fighting style is random and amateur-ish, but his incredible speed keeps Alex on the defensive, barely able to keep up. Even with the power boost from the serum, Alex continues to struggle.

I have no choice. I'll go with a cheap trick.

Chris continues to try different combos of punches and kicks, gradually increasing his speed as he becomes more comfortable. Once Alex is completely unable to keep up, he decides to use this cheap trick and just phases every part of his body. This way, it ensures that Chris cannot hit him unless he stops phasing.

As expected, it works. He watches Chris struggle to find ways to hit him, but every attack passes through. Chris, in his infinite wisdom, decides to try a reverse roundhouse kick to ‘surprise’ his enemy, but instead loses his balance.

In that instant, Alex phases into the ground and resurfaces behind Chris. The teen tries to turn around to face him but is blind-sided by a strike to the cheek bone. He is sent rocketing into a nearby radio shop and crashes against the back wall.

Ok. I got in a solid hit.

Alex, for a moment, looks satisfied with himself, but his expression immediately crumbles when Chris walks out of the radio shop with only a few scratches. His mouth isn't even bleeding from getting punched. Instead, he’s just massaging his right cheek as if a toddler had slapped him.

“Are you actually taking this seriously?”

This question pisses Alex off and his orange aura intensifies once more.

If I can’t take him out with one hit, I guess I'll have to wear him down!

He then phases into the ground again. Disappearing from sight, Chris sharpens his eyes and frantically looks around for an incoming attack. Although barely reacting, when Alex pops out of the ground and tries to punch Chris, he finds that his fist has been caught.

Using his grip of the fist, Chris swings and throws his opponent at a nearby light pole. However, Alex phases through this pole and manages to land back on his feet.

Though he missed an opportunity to do damage to his opponent, Chris is still satisfied that he, an amateur, could predict and react to Alex’s attack, and therefore has a faint smirk on his face. Alex, seeing this smirk, clicks his tongue in anger and charges at Chris, deciding to change his tactic.

Chris expects him to phase into the ground like before, however, Alex continues to charge and eventually phases through Chris himself. Being caught off guard, he cannot turn around in time before Alex lands a blow on the back of his head.

Chris’s head is butted forward by the hit, causing him to skid on his face before smashing into the same light pole he intended to throw Alex into.

Alex regains a bit of his confidence by doing this, but he really shouldn’t. Although Chris lies face first on the ground, he is basically unhurt.

‘Thank you previous me for taking off your glasses,’ he thinks while trying to push himself off the ground. But before he can do so, he is met with a solid fist strike to the middle of his back. He lets out a gasp for air while Alex smiles, drilling his fist into the teen.

Due to the impact, cracks form in the concrete under Chris’s chest. The air having been knocked out of him, he is rolled over by his opponent and picked up one-handed by the face.

Alex, with a solid grip on Chris’s head, then aggressively, with all his might, smashes the head back down into the pavement, creating more cracks as a result. Chris, dazed, becomes angry and smashes the ground with one of his fists, collapsing the road and bursting the water pipes underneath.

Alex is startled by this and retreats away from Chris, allowing the teen to springboard back onto his feat. Alex laments about giving his enemy such an opening.

Stupid mistake.

Not giving him any time to think, Chris rushes Alex again to attack, only for him to keep phasing through and attacking from behind. He strikes Chris in the neck, the shoulders, the spine and so on.

This process repeats itself many times, Chris continually getting beaten while trying to find some way to successfully land a blow.

Come on. I know there’s a way to attack him. Ethan said there was always a weak point on an opponent and that I should look for it next time I’m in a fight.

Chris bull rushes again for Nth time in a row. Alex, who hates the feeling of phasing through another person, becomes fed up with this process. He decided to revert back to phasing into and popping out of the ground to attack.

Chris sees this as an opportunity to catch Alex off guard, since last time he was able to predict where he would attack. As he watches Alex drop into the ground, he starts predicting where he’ll resurface.

He then makes his prediction and turns his body. However, he predicts wrong and is struck from the side. He slides back from the hit but manages to stay on his feet, wearing down what little amount of sole his shoes have left

After seeing his power so many times, a thought then dawns on Chris, providing him with some enlightenment.

Why does he go into the ground sometimes but not others? If he’s constantly making his body pass-through-able, then he should be constantly sinking. Unless, he’s phasing everything besides his feet.

A smile creeps across his face and he decides to test his theory. Alex watches his opponent bull rush him once more, and almost gets annoyed by his persistence, but notices that he is charging slower than usual. Since he will be receiving an attack instead of dishing one out, he readies his stance and prepares to phase through Chris again, despite not enjoying the feeling.

Chris raises his right fist and acts like he is throwing the hardest punch of his life. Alex smirks, thinking his opponent easy to read, and prepares to pass through him. But …

CRUNCH!

A loud breaking sound is heard as Chris drills his foot into Alex’s as hard as possible. Apparently, the punch was a faint in order to get Alex to lower his guard, and it worked.

Chris’s theory was right. His feet are still tangible, even if his body isn’t. He lets out a short cry before Chris pushes him into a bakery with one hand.

Still, this one-handed shove sends Alex smashing through the front door and the back wall, eventually being stopped by a large metal object which is crushed by his momentum. Flopping to the floor, Alex looks to see what he hit and his eyes land upon a destroyed steel fridge. In fact, not only was the steel fridge required to stop him, but the brick wall which lay behind it. A wall which now sports a large, unrepairable crack.

Alex, due to the impact, coughs up blood onto the floor. His entire body aches.

J-just one shove caused this much injury?!

Alex looks around to see a small group of bakers dressed in pink huddled in a corner, scared out of their minds. They were definitely not expecting someone to come crashing into their shop, especially right before the morning rush.

Alex, ignoring them, stands up and limps of the bakery. He passes the quivering owner with looks that says ‘You got a problem?’ Needless to say, this is not the same baker which Ethan had investigated earlier (Chapter 10).

Alex can barely walk. His foot has been smashed and a few ribs have been cracked for sure, not to mention some internal bleeding. Meanwhile, his opponent has minor scrapes and bruises.

Alex limps out into the street and sees Chris patiently waiting for him, as if not sure what to do. His nonchalant attitude pushes Alex over the edge.

I hate doing it, but it's time for a Hail Mary!

(Author’s note: Hail Mary in this world is not a football reference, nor a religious prayer, but is a legend about a South Continent Queen who took an impossible final stance against the invading North Continent Empire and won by using a secret unknown weapon. However, in this context, the phrase still means a final, last ditch effort.)

Alex and Chris continue to stare each other down as he makes his way back to the fight. Chris looks slightly hesitant because he has figured out that Alex is no match for his strength. Although he’s mad at him, like before, Chris doesn’t particularly like to beat on someone unnecessarily.

“You look half dead. Just give up, dude. You're going to get captured anyway.”

Alex's aura explodes once more with anger as he tempers his will.

“Shut up you dumb fuck. Hit me for real.”

Chris is a bit taken aback by this lively and courageous response. He dashes towards him and is in Alex’s face in an instant. He aims his fist for Alex’s stomach and strikes him dead center.

Thinking he caught his opponent off guard, since his fist didn’t pass through like before, he is surprised to feel a strange sensation in his own stomach. He shifts his sight down to see Alex’s arm phasing into his abdomen. Like always, the limb is slightly transparent while phasing, and before Chris can react any further, Alex smirks in his face.

“Die!”

[Object Repulsion]

The arm becomes completely solid as Alex cancels his phasing while it's still within Chris’s body. Because of this, Chris explodes backwards from the arm at an unbelievable speed.

He smashes completely through the radio shop. Then through the candy store the next block over, and then the coffee shop on the next block. He continues to smash through five blocks worth of shops and buildings, obliterating them all and killing a good number of people within those shops.

Alex, meanwhile, is writhing on the ground, yelling in pain while gripping his right arm which he used to blow Chris back.

“Canceling my phasing while in a physical object hurts like a bitch!”

Alex, after calming down a little, lifts his head to see the damage he created, and he can’t believe his eyes. The radio shop had been completely destroyed and he could see that the other shops behind it met a similar fate. The level of destruction is monstrous and he can hear people screaming for help on the other streets.

“I-I didn't expect the repulsion force to be this strong! Guess that's what happens when two things try to occupy the same space.”

He looks at his arm and finds that nothing is out of place. Despite this, the move he performed strains the nerves and creates a strong pain reaction. He finally leaps onto his feet while still holding the arm, smiling while looking at the carnage.

Nothing could've survived that. At least, if he did, there's no way he's standing.

He then notices his aura growing considerably weak and he feels the strength leave his body.

“The serum is about to wear off. Good thing I just finished the …”

BOOOOM!

A huge explosion happens five blocks away. Alex quickly turns to see what’s happened, and only to find large pieces of debris 50 feet in the air. The strange thing is that an explosion capable of this should have caused a shockwave, but this did not happen.

He stands there dumbfounded, until he realises where the explosion originated from. The final place that Chris had crashed into, and thus the teen must have caused the loud boom.

“D-don't tell me …”

Alex stands still for a minute, hoping to god that his hunch is wrong, only to see a figure with torn clothes climb over the pile of debris that was the radio shop. The figure’s head is bleeding and he possesses massive bruises all over his body. He clutches his stomach and appears to be heavily breathing. He seems to have made his way here after climbing over five blocks worth of destroyed shops.

Despite this, he pulls an old man’s body from the radio shop rubble and sets him aside before confronting Alex with a pain filled expression.

“Do you know how many people were killed by what you just did?!” he screams at Alex, tears filling his eyes.

Alex, the target of his anger, just stands there, absolutely dumbstruck. He breaks out into the coldest sweat of his life.

“H-h-how?! How?! How the fuck are you still standing?! Why the hell are you such an unbeatable obstacle! All I wanted was to break out guzel and faith! Why was that so hard?! Why did you and that fucking bounty hunter do this to me?!”

Alex stumbles back from being too light headed after yelling. Chris's expression darkens upon hearing his words.

“Break them out?!” he asks astonished. “They shot up a park and killed a cop, yet you ask why he and I didn't want that! You're all killers! You guys hurt and killed innocent people and yet you say you're the victims?! Give me a fucking break! It was you guys who came here and messed up everyone's lives, including your own!”

Alex clearly sees that Chris is getting angrier and angrier, but he still fights back.

“I don’t give a fuck!” yells Alex. “This shitty world never gave me a damn thing! And the one time I found those that could actually care about me, they were taken away! I don’t give a fuck about other people because no one else does either! That’s just how the world works!”

Chris’s eyes widen at Alex’s words and his aura explodes, growing to encompass the entire area and levitating large chunks of debris everywhere around him. Alex, who is unable to sense power like Ethan, still understands how strong one must be to accomplish this. He stares in awe as Chris continues to become angrier.

“That’s just how the world works?! I don’t fucking think so! There will always be good people no matter where you go! You just happen to be hanging out with the bad ones! There’s no way that the massive world I’ve always dreamed of seeing is that shitty! And for you to claim that you know it all is the biggest pile of bullshit I’ve ever heard! I’ll never forgive you for anything that you’ve done!”

Chris takes a deep breath after yelling so much, which calms him down slightly.

“Oh, and for me being an unbeatable obstacle … I don’t know! I was born this way! Maybe you're just weak!”

These are Chris’s honest feelings. For him, he was very surprised that Alex was as weak as he was considering how dangerous his reputation made him sound. Although Ethan explained to Chris that he was strong even among elite Awakened, he never grasped this concept until now.

For Alex, Chris’s words dig a hole in his heart. Not because of personal reasons or anything, but because the serum just wore off. If he wasn’t a match before, he definitely wasn’t now and this causes him to panic.

As Chris begins to step closer, Alex turns around to run back up the street towards the school, only for Chris to appear on the other side of him. His eyes widen in shock at how fast the teen is, which does not go unnoticed.

Chris, confused, since Alex could perceive his speed up until now, slaps him across the face. Alex, just from one small slap, stumbles to the ground as multiple teeth fly from his mouth. His jaw is clearly broken as well.

Just from one hit?

And then Chris’s face grows cold as he stares at Alex.

“You're so weak now. Did those needles only give you temporary power?”

Alex, with wide eyes that confirm Chris’s words, tries to stand and run but finds he is barely able to walk. Chris’s face tenses with rage.

“You mean you can’t handle being hit anymore! After all the shit you did, I can’t even beat you without killing you!”

Chris doesn’t mind if Ethan kills his opponents, but Chris couldn’t stomach it if he did. Frustrated at this development, he grabs Alex by the collar and curls his fist, only to find that he can’t hit him. He knows he’ll kill Alex if he does.

“Dammit!”

He instead just lightly punches him, knocking Alex out instead. He wipes the tears from his face and throws Alex over his shoulder before carrying him up to the school where Ethan is.

Upon returning to the school parking lot, he looks around and finds Ethan, also noticing that medical personnel have shown up. He thinks as to why he didn’t see the ambulances while fighting Alex and assumes they came in through the other entrance on the other side of the lot.

He walks up to Ethan, having wiped off his previous saddened expression, and aggressively drops the unconscious Alex on the ground next to him with a smile.

“And with that, my work is done.” he says in a light hearted tone.

He stares at Ethan with expectant eyes, hoping for some praises. But this expression disappears when he spots, behind Ethan, the dead bodies of the three other Ghosts members, all in very poor condition. Not only this, but Ethan doesn’t have so much as a scratch, which annoys him as he had to fight so hard to defeat just one.

“You look like you had a tough time.” Ethan says to him, annoying him further. He then points at the other Ghosts members while wanting to ask something, but the condition of the bodies makes him want to hurl.

Forcing himself to not be sick, he asks …

“How the hell did you manage that? I had such a hard time.”

***

Parking lot

Before,

“Now that the bounty hunter is here, I’m going to fight him instead of you. Besides, you also hurt my girls yesterday so how about we call it even. I think that's …” BAM!

Alex’s face is suddenly smashed by a fist and he is sent flying over the school gate, down the hill and into a town street, covering a distance of at least a hundred yards mid flight.

“ALEX!!!!” yells Charlotte, her eyes wide with shock.

Chris, after punching Alex in the face, turns and looks up to Ethan.

“Ethan, I'll be right back!”

“Hmm” Ethan nods his head in acknowledgement. He then witnesses Chris jump over the school gates and race down the hill after Alex. His ears pick up the three other Ghosts talking to each other about chasing after Alex Spencer, but he pays it no mind. He just continues to look down on them from the roof with an icy stare.

“Well, remaining three. I would forget about you boss at the moment. Even though you are just 3rd rate henchmen, I won't hold back.”

“SHUT THE HELL UP! I'M NOT A HENCHMEN!” yells Urlike.

“Did I hit a nerve?” he asks in a mocking tone. He cracks his knuckles before drawing his sword from its sheath.

“The muscular one killed all the cops, correct? I'll start with him.”

Steffan was the furthest away and nearer to the police cars, ten or so meters away from the other two.

“And look at that. He singled himself out for me.”

This is when Charlotte points at Ethan, interrupting him.

“Heh! Dumbass! Solid objects don't affect us! That sword may as well be a butter knife!”

“Silence. Idiots like you shouldn’t open their mouths unless asked a question they're capable of answering.”

Ethan is a completely different person to his enemies compared to when he is with others. This is because he has spent most of his life surrounded by people who are trying to do him harm, and therefore his true personality shines under these types of conditions.

“How dare …” Steffan tries to yell, but before he can finish his words, Ethan Shan Steps in front of him and slices off his head. Blood immediately shoots from the neck as the body falls limp.

Dead.

Charlotte and Ulrike watch in horror as Ethan catches Steffan's head and tosses it up and down like a basketball. Ethan's face has Steffan's blood all over it, but it never changes. He never once changes his cold expression.

On the other hand, in response to his actions, screams can be heard from the classrooms who were watching, but Eric watches in awe.

“This ... this is a bounty hunter.”

Ethan drops Steffan's head and faces the other two.

“I had already predicted, based on your crimes, that you guys possessed the ability to phase, and I could tell he wasn’t phasing when I sliced him, because there would be a change in his Geinta. Therefore, it means that you guys react to incoming objects and phase that part of your body accordingly. However, you can't phase through a blade that’s too fast to react to.”

Ethan swings his blade through the air, throwing the access blood onto the ground. Snapping out of his daze, Ulrike quickly draws a knife and holds it in his right hand.

“Charlotte! You flank ar …”

Ethan appears behind Ulrike, holding a severed right arm that had once held a knife. Blood starts spewing from Ulrike's shoulder and before he gets a chance to scream in pain, he is stabbed through the back. The last thing he sees is a blade through his chest.

Dead.

Charlotte screams with terror upon seeing Urlike’s death. She pees herself and her knees almost buckle before she tries to turn and run away.

Unfortunately, Ethan appears on the other side of her and she turns around into a blade already slicing down onto her head. In one sing, Ethan slices from her skull down through her torso, completely cutting her in half. So much blood pours out from her almost unrecognizable corpse.

Super Dead.

The people watching from the classroom are mortified, while Eric watches with starry eyes. A bit worrying when considering his mental health but his focus isn't on the killing methods but on Ethan himself. Apparently, he’s found his role model.

***

Arbhar General Hospital, Room 018

Right Now,

At this moment, patient and criminal Guzel Krylova, one of the sisters from the park shooting, has just opened her eyes for the first time since yesterday's incident.

“I wonder if they were smart and saved themselves? Alex isn't stupid. I'm sure he didn't do anything rash.”

If only she knew.