Chapter 97 - Battle For the World (II)

Chapter 97

Battle For the World (II)

“Hey Beck, how’s Jonnathan?”

“Ah, he’s still sick!”

“Wow, really? How long has it been? A week?”

“Ten days, going,” a middle-aged woman gasped in exasperation. “At least his fever subsided. It’s mostly cough and throat now.”

“What did the school say?”

“What can they say? ‘Don’t send ‘im in before he becomes better’ is what I got. Shame. He was finally becoming comfortable leaving the house.”

“Ah, he’s a smart kid. He’ll catch up soon enough.”

“Sure hope so. Right, did you hear about Rebbeca’s cousin?”

“No? What cousin? Which Rebbeca?”

“The one with… you know.”

“Oh~~the one with the–”

“Yes, yes.”

“Right, so, what about her cousin?”

“Apparently, he came from America to stay with her because he got divorced.”

“How did we not hear about him?”

“Nobody knew! Even Rebecca’s kids were surprised!”

“Ah. That woman sure knows how to keep a secret.”

“Ugh, tell me about it.”

“Supposedly, the bloke’s quite a looker! Sheila said that Tammy’s husband got real angry with her because of it!”

“Eh? Always nice to have some eye candy ‘round here. Most lads look more like they crawled out of dental textbooks than proper blokes.”

“Want to go check him out? I heard he hangs at Shaw’s!”

“Sure, we can go later!”

Such stories quickly spread through the small town of Thurleigh situated far north of Bedford. As the town didn’t even crack a thousand people in the populace, the newcomer’s arrival was quickly heard and discussed by anyone and everyone present, and curiosity burned like a fire.

In the meantime, Ethan sat by the window of a small pub–the only pub–in the town, sipping coffee and staring out the window absentmindedly. He’d been staying in town for three days now, and ‘dull’ couldn’t even begin to describe it. Most of the townsfolk were on the older side of things–even older than him–and the favourite pastime, beyond gossip, was going to the church.

It wasn’t much different than some of the smaller American towns that Ethan had visited, but it hardly helped with the dullness. Nonetheless, he had to wait. Per the plan, they were slowly corralling her toward north, though in a very roundabout way. In Ethan’s mind, it will likely be another five days before she lands here, in Thurleigh, for a brief layover.

Until then, Ethan had already prepped a few things–namely, the scroll was with him, the outline of the entire town, including all the small and narrow passageways, was memorised to the tiniest detail, and he’d already simulated the fight against her thousands of times in his mind. Though he used a very limited version of her Class that she displayed, he also added on a whole slew of abilities that other, similarly-themed Classes had to be prepared for anything.

Ability to create shadow-copies of one self, ability to teleport to any shadow within the field of view, or even to directly manipulate shadows, ability to use shadows as binds… hundreds of variations, all taken into account for one, singular battle.

This wasn’t a special sort of preparation–not really. All battles among the Awakened, especially toward the higher levels, were largely about who prepared more. Those ‘geniuses’ who had godly reflexes to fight ‘moment-to-moment’ quickly learned that it doesn’t matter how quickly you can react to something when you don’t understand what it is. There was no such thing as an instinct-guided fighter, for they all died young and naive. Ethan, certainly, wasn’t the sort; though he wasn’t particularly cautious, he was exceedingly paranoid. Though it seemed a contradiction, it worked well for him–he could brave Fields and Tunnels that would paralyse others, but he would also spend months and months studying them.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have that luxury this go-around–rather than months, he had days to not only understand his opponent, but also plan how to deal with whatever hell she was hiding–for she was definitely hiding a lot of things.

“Hey,” he was suddenly woken up from his mindless thoughts by a rather soft voice. Without him noticing, someone had sat opposite of him–to his surprise, it was a rather beautiful woman that appeared to be in her late twenties. Blond-haired and blue-eyed, she seemed entirely at odds with the town, so much so that Ethan’s first reaction was that the woman had masked herself. But that was impossible–he’d gotten a report just thirty minutes ago that she was still tens of miles away. However, his paranoia was ever-present, and deeper scrutiny began to pool doubts.

She had the feeling of a non-Awakened, but the way Mana bounced off of her was unnatural, as though she was deliberately fighting it. The look in her eyes was prudent and piercing, and the way she positioned was perfect for a fight-or-flight scenario.

“... how’d you find me?” Ethan probed, causing a woman to smile rather widely and confirm his suspicions. Cursing inwardly, he elected not to do anything for the time being. Though he was caught off guard, she clearly wanted something from him–she could have easily left the town, having realised the trap.

“Do you know how many times in my life I have been hunted like a dog?”

“...”

“Thousands. No, tens of thousands,” she said, twirling her fingers lightly. “I’ve experienced it all. It was a cute attempt, but your men are rather incompetent. When I saw the direction the wind was blowing, it wasn’t difficult to pinpoint the town. Then, I just had to figure out who stood out like a sore thumb. How about a recently-divorced cousin of a local with dementia who moved back in just a few days ago? That seemed to fit.”

“So, why stick around?” Ethan asked.

“I wanted to meet you,” she said, smiling. “The man who turned back time.”

“You’ll die for your curiosity, you know?” Ethan smiled back.

“Oh? Are you really confident in killing me?” she asked, appearing unbothered.

“The area is locked,” Ethan said, revealing the torn scroll from his clothes. The woman frowned for a moment, but her brows relaxed into a smile right after.

“I can just run circles around you until the array lifts up,” she said. “In fact, that might be more fun. Put you in your place. You are not qualified to hunt me.”

“... why are you doing this?” Ethan asked. “I assume you know who’s in that Tunnel. He’ll eradicate the entire planet–you included–within days.”

“How much do you know about all of this?” she asked.

“I’m told you’re probably doing it to liberate a prisoner from that orb,” Ethan said casually. “Though, if that truly is the reason… I will be beyond disappointed.”

“Oh? Why?” the woman asked.

“Condemning the entire world to hell for… love?” Ethan grinned mockingly. “What are you? Sixteen years old?”

“... that only tells me you have never loved.” she said after a brief pause. “There is nothing not worth sacrificing for it. Unfortunately… you will never get the opportunity to learn.”

“I’ve loved plenty,” Ethan replied. “And I love plenty still. But there are certain things in this world that undo your right to be called a human.”

“Good. I don’t like being called a human.”

“Right,” Ethan chuckled. “To you all… it’s just a game. Another world blown to dust. Another species gone extinct. Is it fun? Playing a God?”

“... very much,” the woman grinned. “Why? Are you angry’”

“Again, not angry. Just… disappointed,” Ethan sighed. “At least that beast in the Tunnel, for all its evil, is rooted in that anger and hatred he has toward humans. He’s primal, but inspiring. You? You… you are just a teenager’s diary come alive. It doesn’t matter, though. I already said that you will die.”

“... I’ve fought innumerable battles throughout thousands of years of my life,” she said. “I’m at least fifteen Levels above you. My Class, even if neutered heavily, is still from the epochs of legends. My items are all the best you can find on this planet. So, tell me… how exactly do you plan on killing me?”

“With a sword,” Ethan replied, pulling up his finger and pointing it toward the centre of her chest. “Right through your heart.”

“... give it a go, then,” she grinned, seeming expectant. “I really wonder how strong the best this world has to offer is.”

Ethan kicked out, the table flipping, and swiftly took out a sword from his inventory, aiming it directly at the woman’s chest. She grinned indifferently and pulled out a sword as well, deflecting it. Just then, however, her expression changed as she swiftly darted to the side; however, she was a nanosecond later–a blade made wholly of blood managed to nick her left thigh just as she kicked through the window and onto the street. Pain assailed her as she felt herself stagger.

It was then, also, that the rest of the pub reacted to the two of them–cries of horror erupted as everyone began to run away madly, with Ethan casually stepping through the broken window and onto the street, not rushing toward the woman who was now holding two swords and an expression of pained pride.

“Now,” he said unassumingly. “You… can’t run.”

“You were afraid I was going to run?!” she growled. “Little fucker, I will rip your skin off and set your body on fire for this!”

“They always run,” Ethan’s playful countenance vanished, his voice cold and distant, eyes glazed in cold, apathetic indifference. “But… go ahead. Let’s see what’s faster–your ability to skin me… or my ability to repair it all.”

The two stood in silence for a moment longer before bursting forth toward each other. The woman vanished in a trace of smoke as a thousand shadows straddled along the ground toward him, encircling from all angles. Ethan ignored the vast majority of it and quickly identified the main body–these sorts of abilities were rather useless at this Level, regardless of Class, as anyone capable of identifying Mana markers could see through them, and Ethan was an expert at it.

Blood blades pooled above him as he struck forth, entirely ignoring the sudden onset of hundreds of cuts that the fake shadows inflicted. Though the sudden spray of blood looked horrifying, in reality, he only took around 200 points of damage. While for other people this would be deadly, to him, it couldn’t even be considered a tickle. Nearly 2000 Health and insane regenerative capabilities made sure of that.

At the same time, his attacks arrived at the woman. Though she managed to deflect most, she still got hit by several strikes of the blood blade. A vast gash opened up over her left shoulder blade, and though it closed swiftly, she was still inflicted by the ‘Bleed’ status over 10 times in a short duration.

She flew backward, creating distance as she conjured up ten thousand shadows around her that wiggled like tendrils. They all shot forward a breath later, intercepting Ethan who was running towards her. Once more, he cleaved forth, ignoring the blind angles. The tendrils punctured through him, creating several dozen holes that bled profusely for a moment before closing up.

By the time he reached her, he’d lost nearly 600 Health–a deathly loss to virtually every other person alive… but not even half of his health. At the same time, likely due to the massive Mana expenditure, the woman seemed stunned for a moment–but it was long enough for Ethan to bore several blood blades into her and nearly cut off her entire arm before she melded back into the shadow and appeared about twenty feet to his right.

Her look of anger and confidence vanished, replaced by one of wonder and trepidation.

“No wonder you’re confident,” she said, wiping the blood from her lips. “You’re one of the vampyric classes. Interesting. Very, very, very interesting,” she grinned once again, grabbing her swords tightly. “Let’s see how much you can bleed, blood boy. Don’t disappoint me, now that you’ve ignited my hopes.”

“... oh, shut the fuck up already,” Ethan rolled his eyes. “Taunt when you’ve done more than tickle me. I should be taunting you instead. Saying stuff like ‘oh, wow, are your swords made out of wheat ‘cause all they did is make me yearn bread’ or something stupid like that.”