Garreth POV ( continued)
After that he stretched his hand toward me, pointing with the finger that had the cut. Then he smiled and disappeared. I was shocked and had a bad premonition. I ran quickly into the ruin. Each blockade felt like paper as I passed through them while running.
At the end I saw a room where the boy stood, his finger inside a pulsating ball. He faced away from me, his left side toward me. I moved and slashed at his hand, but he teleported using the pulsating ball as a pivot — his finger remained inside.
I thought of the cut and quickly cut my own finger, trying to insert it too. But I saw the pulsating ball moving into his finger. I stood frozen for a few seconds. Then he smiled and opened his palm, standing opposite me with his palm facing me.
I was angry — beyond angry. I tried to slash again but suddenly felt a massive push. I was thrown against the far wall of the ruin.
I blacked out. Then gained a little consciousness. I tried to move: left hand — nothing; right hand — nothing; left leg — nothing; right leg — nothing. No limb moved. I also felt my ribs breaking; maybe my jaw was broken too. I tried to open my eyes but they were covered in blood. Finally I opened my right eye a little and saw the boy in front of me, holding a sword pointed at my neck. I tried to deploy an aura, but I couldn't. And then… I don't know what happened.
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Adrian — POV
This guy attacked fast, but with Sixth Sense and Omniscient he looked slow. Because of teleportation he couldn't touch me. After some time he tried a creative move: he slashed where I stood. I kind of understood what he was trying to do because of Sixth Sense, so I played along. I teleported behind him. He accelerated toward me, but I teleported just before he slashed.
This time he was closer than before. I had a shocked expression — though I was only acting. If he thought I was pointless, he might take a risk and go inside. For two hours I entertained this knight. But I wasn't doing it for fun.
I was using Sixth Sense actively, feeling intentions and trying to find the room. In truth, I knew there were many blockades in this ruin but only one room contained what I needed. It took two hours — it's not easy to read unclear intentions.
After I located the room, the knight tried something new. He threw many aura slashes and I successfully dodged — almost. While dodging, he came to slash my finger and I felt sorry for him, so I let him cut my finger a little. Think of it as my apology.
Then he smiled. I prepared. I extended my finger toward the him, smiled, and teleported. I arrived at the right place — my finger was inside a pulsating ball. Soon there were heavy thuds and within three seconds he was there. He really was SS-Rank.
He slashed, trying to cut my arm off, but I teleported with my finger still inside. He then cut his own finger; that frightened me. I didn't know what would happen if he inserted his finger too. But he was late — the pulsating ball was absorbed by me. I assimilated it and began absorbing Nature Mana.
When I finished, I raised my palm toward the knight and used the newly acquired power. The power absorbed Nature Mana for a few seconds while I channelled it. He came to his senses and looked furious — so furious I thought he might smoke from his ears. In anger he swung his sword, but before he could complete the swing I used the Nature Force.
The result made me very happy. Garreth flew over 80 meters and slammed into the ruin wall. His state was worse than sorry; he had blacked out — I could tell he lost consciousness before he even flew away.
I walked toward him and observed the damage. His left hand had three or four bones protruding. His right shoulder was dislocated and his arm bent in a way a human arm shouldn't at the elbow. His left leg bled badly and was bent sideways. His right leg was badly broken in many places. His chest had a dent; multiple ribs must be broken. His head bled from the huge impact — maybe his skull was fractured.
When I reached him I drew my sword. He was regaining consciousness. He tried moving his limbs in sequence but couldn't; he slowly checked his body and must have reached the same conclusions I did. He tried to open his eyes but couldn't.
I shook my head. To end his suffering and to prevent him from revealing that I had obtained a Nature Force, I lifted my sword to his neck. I saw him open his right eye a little, with difficulty. He tried something — maybe to deploy his aura — but he failed. My sword pierced him.
I didn't care if he lived, but he might reveal I had a Nature Force. Of course having a Nature Force is not a crime. But people already knew I had teleportation. If they discovered another Nature Force, they might suspect I had a method to find Nature Forces — and I could not handle that.
I sighed and left the ruin, walking slowly. As I passed, I saw how he had utterly destroyed the blockades along the path: stones crushed, others thrown hundreds of meters.
From the sky the path looked like a spiral — I walked in a spiral to leave. It might have made more sense to break through a wall and go straight out, but the ruin walls were very strong. I could have teleported out, but I had killed Garreth and didn't feel good about it.
I don't know when I will get used to this.
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Soon I reached the outside, and the scene shocked me. The knights actually held the upper hand. The Claw members were hurt and injured — the knights were injured too, but my teammates were worse off. I extended my hand like I had against Garreth. I am not physically fast, so I had to act in advance.
I saw Lucas on the ground with a knight ready to kill him. I teleported behind the knight and used the Nature Force: the knight's head was gone. I teleported again behind the knight Emma was fighting; he fell headless. In quick succession all five knights fell — headless — as I teleported and killed them in rapid sequence.
The Claw members were confused. Emilia saw me and asked, "Sir, were you the one who…?"
I nodded. Their expressions were hard to read. They all fell exhausted.
"Drink high-level healing potions and high-level stamina potions," I told them.
Raven said, "Sir, we will heal naturally. Why use something so expensive?"
"You didn't sign up for this. Lucas was at death's door. Think of it as compensation. As for money… that's the last thing I care about." I had already given them 5 platinum coins, but I was too relieved to worry about small things.
Soon everyone recovered — almost fully. We began our return to the city; we needed rest. While flying I saw eleven Sky Dogs approaching us and one rider ready to attack. He fired a slash but I used the Nature Force to destroy it. We all descended.
I announced, "I will give you one chance — surrender."
The knight at the front replied, "We came here on a mission. We will leave after we complete it." Their confidence was visible by the fact that : they still wore the duke's crest on their armour.
I sighed and, once again, ten knights fell headless in quick succession. To be sure — because I thought this knight might be SS-Rank and absorbed some Nature Mana to defeat him in one move so I also wasted time— I spoke: "I warned you."
His face twisted; he couldn't see what had happened. After about half a minute I moved again. The last knight fell too, and my legs shook. Raven supported me. I coughed up some blood and quickly drank two or three high-level healing potions.
But the work wasn't over. I teleported again. Two men who had been watching, ran when the last knight was killed. I appeared in front of them and said, "Thinking of running away?"
One said, "We are not the duke's men."
The other almost facepalmed.
The distance was too far to see who fought; only the result was visible.
The fact one of them knew about the duke meant they at least suspected something.
I chuckled. "I believe you."
The second man asked doubtfully, "You do?"
I nodded. I could sense his intentions — he wasn't lying.
The first man said, "Then we're in a hurry. See you another time." They ran.
I teleported into their path. The other man asked, "What?"
"You are not the duke's men, I believe, but you're somehow related. So you need to die." Both gasped.
"We are from the Information Guild," the first man said fearfully. "You can't harm us. The Guild will retaliate."
I sighed. "No, they won't. You were incompetent and lost their trust the moment I caught you."
They saw how easily I had defeated the knights and realized they couldn't fight me. I didn't frightened them and killed them quickly. Even after sending such force, the duke had hired the Information Guild — he was getting desperate.
I coughed blood again and felt the world spin. I fell to one knee and drank three or four high-level healing potions.
Then I returned to the Claw members.
"Let's go," I said.