As Ray and I walked toward the dumpling stall, a sound reached us first the crack of bone, followed by cruel laughter. Ray tensed beside me as we rounded the corner into a narrow alley, where five young men had cornered an elderly vendor against the weathered stone wall. The old man's fruit cart lay shattered, its wooden frame splintered beyond repair as oranges and apples bled their juices into the dirty ground.
"Please," the vendor wheezed through broken teeth, one eye swollen shut "I have grandchildren to feed please let me.... "
One of the thugs said
"Should've thought about that before setting up in our territory," one of the thugs sneered, his hands bursting into blue-hot flames that melted the cobblestones beneath him. They were no amateur i could tell just from a look the precise control spoke of years of experience before i could observe more
Ray started moving forward at speed.
"Hey, Ray, where are you going? The stall is this way, hey..." I called out loudly Ray shot me a stare. "Can't you see those men are assaulting an old man?"
With a flat voice and a hint of coldness, I said, "so what That is none of our business do i need to be a Hero and fight- before i finished my words ray ignored it like a passing breeze and continued forward "Ray... hey... I'm talking here... can you hear me?" After a sigh, I muttered, "This kid is a handful i wouldn't even look at this type of matter I have seen this kind of senieroes 100 of Time's
Even then taking a deep breath, I moved. With a sound like flickering air, I was already in motion. In one fluid motion, I drew the wooden blade from my wrist a seemingly simple weapon. "Five against one they easily outnumber us but even then i moved looking at The five of them stood in a circle at the corner of the alley, the distance between them only about ten meters. My voice carried a coldness that made the thugs turn to me
The leader was a muscular youth with a dragon tattoo writhing across his scarred neck assessed us with the calculating eyes of a seasoned fighter. His body began to change, muscles rupturing through his skin as scales brust across his torso. His transformation was controlled, deliberate he'd had clearly mastered the balance between bestial strength and human intelligence now it was a interesting thing to see
"You've wandered into the wrong alley, kid," he growled, his voice distorted by an elongated jaw filled with razor-sharp teeth. "Today... my luck is that bad? Some little kids are trying to go against me? !" His voice was filled with irritation as his eyes turned red all of the thugs moved with coordination at the same time , spreading out to surround us. I could tell these were no normal street punks they were trained if i need to say that should also have killed somebody by now looking at them i think they are the packs of wolfs who'd fought together countless times in real battles.
"Rudra," Ray voice sounded warned, i knew it better than him "We're outnumbered and"
The fire-wielder struck without warning, not with a wild blast but a concentrated jet of blue flame that would have incinerated a normal man instantly. My wooden blade intercepted it. "Wow, this wooden blade can actually handle things of this caliber," I thought, surprised by its toughness. But the force still drove me back several steps, my sleeves smoldering. Before I could recover, the ground beneath me turned to liquid as another thug previously hidden in the shadows—manipulated the stone itself.
I leapt free, but a wolf-beast was waiting, claws raking across my chest, drawing first blood. Four parallel gashes tore through my tunic. For a fleeting second, something like surprise flashed across my face.
And ray found himself engaged with a water-controller whose liquid tendrils hardened into ice-spikes mid-strike. Ray barely deflected the first barrage, one spike grazing his cheek deep enough to leave a thin trail of crimson.
"Hey... Icy... you!" The thug fighting Ray now looked at me with rage. "Come here and play with me!"
From the start, neither Ray nor I had used our keys' abilities. Ray could have ended this in a split second if he had just summoned his "Guardian."
As for me, one of my keys was half-done, and the second was a "supportive type." Even then, it could have helped a little, but I chose not to use it.
As I recovered my balance, I sighed, looking at Ray. "This kid is making me work hard... I can't..." Slowly, my eyes turned cold.
I couldn't waste my energy on thugs like this. I didn't even know when I would be summoned into The World of 48H; it could happen at any moment.
With a deep breath, I closed my eyes as all of the thugs rushed at me simultaneously.
But suddenly,
Now, all attention was on me. With a flickering sound, a ten-meter green square appeared, enveloping all of the thugs. I didn't need to be in air to use this technique so closed my eyes again, and when I reopened them, a series of heavy thuds sounded one, two, three, four, five. In the next second, all of the thugs were on the ground, unconscious, with those same oranges and apples scattered near their mouths.
"I would have killed them if this kid weren't here..." I muttered.
Then I paused. What am I even thinking? To begin with, I wouldn't have gotten involved with these thugs in the first place.
Ray's eyes were wide open. It hadn't even been a second, and he had kept his gaze on me the entire time yet all of the thugs were down.
sighing, I muttered, "I wasted my energy unnecessarily..."
After a brief silence, Ray, still in shock, asked, "What did you do to them, Rudra?"
Tilting my head, I looked at him, then down at my own wounds. By now, all of the wounds on my chest had vanished
"Huff... Huff... I just hit their vital points... something I learned somewhere." (From No. 9, actually. Not learned remembered at the start when two kidnapers kidnap rudra one of the kidnaper had hit him with it )
"It was hard for my first time to hit vital points with precision, but in the end, I managed... that's what matters "
"That's not what I ment what I ment was when did you hit them? I didn't even see you move !..."
"Uh... Oh, about that... Didn't I demonstrate a technique to you before?"
"That teleportation technique?" Ray asked.
With hesitation in my voice, I said, " yes , or i don't know whatever to call it teleportation"
After a moment of silence, Ray continued, "Didn't you say you could only perform it three times? So how?"
A sudden shift came in my voice, growing even colder. "Something happened to me... my body has changed my senses have sharpened , strength, agility everything in me is more developed now ... and I think about it the biggest change is the amount of energy I can store in my body . It has increased dramatically."
I whispered to myself, Is it because of that black fog appearance, or...?
Suddenly, Ray asked, "How much did it increase?"
Giving him a look, I replied, "The amount of energy I can generate and store has increased by six times. Even now, it's still little compared to Valenor. If I compare mine to his, it's about 0.5 of his energy."
Ray's eyes widened. "What? 0.5? How is that possible? Isn't that too little?"
"Yes, it is "
Even if i produce more energy i can't store all of this energy into my body only i need to form a core ( rudra knows because of ray had given him few fantasy novels to read )
"But on the other hand, how can you perform a teleportation technique? I heard it consumes a lot of energy even for one use, and you did it five times..."
With a flat voice, I replied, "I don't know. Actually, I think I can perform it one more time, meaning I can use it six times in total with my whole energy "
"Wow, Rudra, you've made some dramatic improvements in yourself," Ray said, but his voice was dull i think I get what was it
I could say he was happy that kind of human he was but looking at my improvement he was angry towards himself not towards me
After a moment, Ray helped the vendor salvage but suddenly i noticed a unique mark of his hand a it was black it resembled a Plum blossom flower " hay rudra what are you looking at help us " i shiged
We helped him what we could from the destroyed cart, gathering the few unbruised fruits while the old man murmured prayers of gratitude. When he tried to offer us money with trembling hands, Ray gently refused.
"Let's go," ray said, already walking ahead of me
"The dumplings will get cold" he said
I lingered there for a moment longer,
Looking at the Mark on his hand it gave a different feeling my instinct were telling me, that old man was a dengerous thing
Ray screamed
"hay rudra come "
I moved slowly looking at old man after few steps i pushed my thoughts aside as we made our way through the crowds