CHAPTER 41: DEATH HAND

For Truston, who had to maintain the rock exoskeleton, all the attacks he did and the last major one, he had depleted a lot of his essence’s potency.

Hence at the last moment, at his limits, there was little he could do against the attack.

Wincing and gritting his now bloody teeth, Truston fell to the ground with his back, his rock exoskeleton crumbling off of him.

The now free-hands Haldon took two steps forward, bent forward, and grabbed the sword’s handle.

Pulling it out slowly, he smiled as Truston let out a sky shattering wail.

Breathing heavily, Haldon flicked his sword holding hand, making the sword disappear.

He was not fairing any better. His abilities, and the mystical artifacts, had also made him consume a lot of his essence.

Standing above Truston, his chest rose and fell with a smile on his charred face.

Truston’s head rolled to the left. Their fight had ended close to the building of the metal workshop. There, in the crumbled rocks of the building’s wall, Truston felt a familiar intrusion.

His heart beat slowly as an uncontrolled wet gurgle escaped him. Unlike before, the force tugging at somewhere deep inside him, felt like it held a profound threat to him.

But he could manage, still resist. But why? Why hold on?

Whoever these people were, with the strange magic, went through all the trouble just to get revenge on him. If they are to be believed, they want revenge on Haldon too.

The man, mage, standing above him with that victorious grin.

Truston still didn’t understand what it was they wished to achieve with their strange magic but, if their goal is to kill Haldon too then at his death bed, he’ll be a willing participant.

His eyes rolled back up to face Haldon.

"I’m glad how things turned out." Haldon said, "I was starting to get bored with our routine."

Truston’s watery eyes saw past him and into the vast starry night sky. He didn’t blink, and after a few moments he took his last breath.

Seeing this, Haldon stopped standing tall with his back straight and fell down to one knee, cursing. His muscles, core and mind had been strained. Not only had he killed Truston but the earlier two rank one mages he’d dealt with.

They might have been rank one, but they had still put up a fight.

He calmed his breathing, but just then, he felt that familiar intrusion once more.

Right.

Haldon thought as he got back up.

With my mystical artifacts, I didn’t think my fight with Truston would drag to such an extent.

This time round, with his essence potency depleted to such a state, he could not shrug off the intrusion like last time.

He’d decided the best course of action would be to not face "them" right now. Or today.

His heart tightened as he pulled his neck back to avoid the incoming projectile aimed at his neck. The choice was already made for him.

With his spatial sense, he sensed the four figures surrounding him even before seeing them.

That young boy who’d shapeshifted to a rat and the young girl who’d shapeshifted to that short brown haired man he’d killed.

The other two were the groper mage and the bearded man.

"Look." Haldon gestured to truston’s body, "he’s dead. Your little friends’ deaths are avenged." he sounded friendly, like he’d done them a favour.

They didn’t respond and Haldon’s agitation to the intrusion was growing by the second.

It was that boy. With his black hair and expressionless face.

Already tired, Haldon felt the heat wave come back once more.

"It’s in your best interest not to do this." Haldon said. "I’m not just a nobody in the mob, and Bagdona has taken interest in you. But that’s all it is, interest. You do this, however, and it’ll be more than that.... "

The Alia vessel lifted her hand and earth broke off from the ground, forming into sharp ended shapes.

Seeing this, Haldon lifted his chin and took his pose. For him, with his current state, summoning the sword would not be the best thing. At the opportune moment, however, he would. He just needed to create it.

The fate path ring, though risky, was still on his finger. So was the space path ring.

The projectiles shot at him. His feet danced and dodged. One sliced his left cheek, others his hips and thighs.

She’s a rank two elemental path mage now? How?

Last time Haldon had met the girl, she was a mere rank one.

The rest kept their distance, closing off his escape routes. It wasn’t just them, with his spatial sense, he could sense the rats.

Finding a chance, he bolted in the direction of the bearded man. His heart raced, not really scared of the attacks, but whatever the boy was doing to him, felt like it was of great threat.

If he wasn’t in such a state, he would have gladly enjoyed taking a chance with his attackers, even if he could not win, that’s just the kind of person he was.

He was still fast, even the passive boost in attributes for rising to rank two put him well above any regular human speed.

The heat wave grew intolerable. And made his tiredness now feel agonizing.

Charging at the bearded man’s direction, the other three attackers followed him.

With their distances closing, just as Haldon had predicted, the projectiles stopped coming.

Don’t want to hurt your own, eh?

Bearded man swung at his hairless charred head. Haldon easily dodged and threw a kick at the man. He felt bearded man’s augmented body, it was like striking a wall.

A force path mage now? He’d been a regular human before.

He didn’t expect Alia to already be on him that fast as elemental path mages didn’t get that much of a boost in terms of their speed, But she was, so was the groper mage who’d once worked under him. The boy kept his distance.

With all of them in that direction, Haldon dodged their attacks, backflipping out the way and running in the opposite direction.

He’d given up on a counter attack and decided to focus his remaining essence on his escape.

He ran back, jumping over Truston’s body.

While still in mid air, his heart tightened. It had only been a step jump.

He sensed Truston’s rock hand rise and grab his leg.