CHAPTER 44: A TAKEOVER (1)

Ash already had his titanroot armor. There’s no need to put on more armor.

He had never tested how his titanroot armor would deal against steel, but a memory of a bear’s claw barely scratching the weaker steelbark was still in his memory.

Even in the face of a knife flashed at him, Ash didn’t feel the slightest bit of danger from it.

Keen already took flight, not wanting to get dizzy by standing on Ash’s head.

Ash just put out his hands and reached straight for the knife.

But of course, with Ash’s effortless attempt to grab the knife, the man easily dodged Ash’s hand.

"You’re asking for it!" He shouted as the two other men took their place and surrounded Ash.

All three of them now had knives in their hands, seemingly not afraid to accidentally kill a random man in the street.

The man who had been talking all this time thrust his knife forward, aiming to stab Ash’s hand with it.

But with just a flick of his wrist, the knife flew from the man’s hand from the sheer force of Ash’s wrist.

’Oh? The passive strength buff from the wolf’s venom is actually quite strong.’ Ash was amused as he saw the man panic and hurriedly run to grab his knife.

"He’s a physical enhancement type!" The man shouted.

Seeing their friend vulnerable, the two men made their move.

The two of them hurriedly took a step back. Gaining some distance from Ash.

One of the two grabbed another knife and threw the two knives directly at Ash.

Ash could try to dodge, but he was actually curious.

Grabbing the edge of his titanroot cape, Ash swiped the cape to his front, using the cape as a shield.

To his surprise, the knives’ trajectory bent mid air.

They should have hit the cape, but they suddenly changed their trajectory to Ash’s arms instead.

Taken by surprise, Ash only watched knives try to stab into his forearms.

Keyword, try.

The knives did hit his forearms, but the titanroot camouflage easily repelled them.

Not even a scratch was left on them as the knives fell to the ground, losing all of their momentum.

"He didn’t only have a strength boost, but also tough skin!" The second man exclaimed as he used his telekinesis power to grab the knives back into his hand.

"I got this!" The third man spoke as he prepared his attack.

The second he retreated before, the man had been casting his spell.

A similar red glow that Ash had seen the city guards use before flared from the man.

Although the glow was comparably weaker, dimmer than the one he saw coming from the city guard.

Ash’s danger instinct flared up when he saw and felt the mana manifested by the man.

But his curiosity got the better of him.

Instead of sending out a root or a vine to stop the man, Ash just let himself be caught off guard as the spell manifested and a fireball flew towards his face.

But of course, Ash wasn’t a masochist.

Instead of taking a fireball straight to his face, Ash raised his hand, letting the fireball hit his forearms instead.

The titanroot armor and the fireball clashed.

The fireball exploded. The flames flared up as it tried to consume the titanbark armor.

The searing heat could be felt by the second man who was standing a few meters away from Ash.

’We got him!’ He thought as the explosion obscured his sight for a split second.

Alas, reality soon hit him.

The powerful flame that could have burned a tree to charcoal dispersed as soon as it exploded.

There was nothing in the vicinity that it could burn.

Not the air, and not the titanroot.

Ash just took a glance at his forearms, saw a very faint burn mark, barely visible to his very sharp eyes.

Ash tried rubbing the black spot with his fingers, and it disappeared just like that.

With nothing more than a couple of swipes from his finger.

The man who threw the fireball and the man with telekinesis went speechless.

No words came out of their mouths.

Their feet started wobbling as they slowly staggered backward.

"We... We should leav-" The fire mage stuttered. But before he could finish his words, the first man returned.

"Do you think you’re the only one with a physical enhancement ability!? I will make you bleed!"

With his echolocation, Ash didn’t even need to wait for the unnecessary loud scream to know the first man had picked up his knife and run towards him.

When the man did scream, Ash was ready.

Assuming the man lacked the mental capability even to be sneaky with his attacks, Ash assumed that the man’s ability was really a physical enhancement type.

And just to be safe, Ash used his cape once more as an added protective layer.

As a result, the man who claimed to draw Ash’s blood struck the cape instead.

The man’s ability carried enough power for the knife to break through bones with little effort.

And a flimsy cape shouldn’t even be a concern for the man.

The man should have easily pierced the cape and stabbed the knife even through Ash’s tough skin ’ability’.

However, that was not what happened.

With the sheer amount of force the knife had and the flexible yet strong titanroot cape, what happened was that the knife couldn’t stand the force.

As if it were made out of rice crackers, the knife broke into pieces when it clashed against the titanroot cape.

And it wasn’t only the knife that was broken.

The man’s wrist couldn’t handle the stress and followed the fate of the knife.

It hung limp now. A constant acute pain ran through the man’s arms.

The man screamed to the sky, forgetting for a second that there was an enemy in front of him.

But Ash’s unnecessary loud sigh caught his attention.

"HE’S AT LEAST A MID TIER 2, RUN!" The man shouted.

With that single command, the three men dispersed into the crowded streets of the slums.

Blending into the onlookers who were enjoying the fight as a pastime.

Ash could easily catch them. He could have as many appendages as an octopus if he wanted to.

But Ash had other plans in mind.

He just let them run away.

But not without something in mind.

"Keen, you know what to do. You don’t want to let your protein source get away, right?"

The answer came from the sky above.

Caw.