06. Cripple no.1 and Master Q

7 minutes ago,

after making sure pocket's location using his mana sense, cripple walk swiftly toward the building which has a few thugs guarding its entrance, his pace wasn't like how crippled person would had normally at all, he was even faster then any normal man.

curently maron city is in the middle of summer, it was rare for rain to happen. nonetheless when it comes, it would be raining cats and dogs.

the sun just set, and the usual crystal clear summer night sky was billowed with black cloud. occasional sound of thunder from afar rumbled closer and closer

he arrived in no time, rain drops began drizzling down from the gloomy sky getting heavier and heavier, his thin limping body was soaked in an instant.

the thugs that saw him approaching were already standing in front of the door leading inside, with a sneer and arrogant look the three of them blocked cripple right at the entrance.

without asking anything one of the thugs in the front already throwing his fist toward cripple!

seeing the fist coming, he side steped towards the thug's left side.

the fist flew just a few hair-breadth away from cripple's face! right before the thug even realized his punch had missed, his strength already left his body, his eyes grew lifeless and he fell forward face-down with a thud!

fresh blood could be seen flowing out mixing with mud below his chest, witnessing what had happened, the other thugs were immediately stunned!

'what happened?'

yet before they even roused from their dumbfounded looks, silent blue projectiles penetrate their chests right to their hearts one after another.

this time cripple didn't hold back, he casted aside his thought of not killing them, sure when he was still subject no.1452 he was forced to kill many targets in his assassination test but he wasn't particularly fond of it.

unfortunately for now, time wasn't on his side and he didn't want to leave any detrimental factors behind, what if the incapacitated thugs regains their conciousness? they would surely asks for reinforcement or even taking out weapons and battling him, wouldn't that be his and pocket's grave then?

cripple was very clear and cautious about what he could and couldn't do, his past life skills and abilities dictated it so.

right then he knew, using brain control (mind control) against an adult would exhaust his mana reserves faster than using mana bullet. in order to save more mana, he even compress the blue bullet to be as small, sharp, and strong as possible.

after much practice he realized that mana bullet's shapes was determined by how strong his imagination are rather than his mana output.

he also got another discovery, he had actually used 2 types of power to use magic or in this case mana, all along. first was his refined mana and the second was actualy much more indistinct, it was mentally based power in other word his own 'imagination'.

utilization of mental power was unlike 'mana reserves', it couldn't be calculated by numbers. cripple found out about it when he overexerted his mental strength while experimenting, at that time he felt unbearable splitting headache, it was horrible experiences.

needless to say these was all what cripple had assumed by himself!

after dealing with the 3 thugs at the entrance, he swiftly stepped inside, the heavy rain simply covers all the battle occured.

there was single alleyway with wooden stairway at its end, on both walls leading the alleyway there were several wooden doors, each one was parallel to the other. some closed the other were opened.

boorish laughter could be heard from inside the rooms. apparently from his mana sense and hearing, most thugs were playing together in the rooms, clanking of glass bottle and occasional angry shouts resounded the building, sometimes promiscuity sounds could also be heard from inside the closed rooms.

he swiftly limped forward as he sensed around 25 or so thugs were here in this floor.

when he was passing the first and second doors. he casted mana bullets with precision, penetrating the wooden walls on both sides, boisterous voices inside abruptly stopped! each and every thugs inside had fallen one by one with pinky-sized hole on their chests, so was 3rd and 4th doors everyone simply didn't know how they were killed.

one of the thug from 6th door felt that the atmosphere were suddenly turned quite eerie in the other rooms, he left his other partners still playing the cards on the table, he held his liquor bottle then opened the door just to witness cripple limped passing him by!

occasional lightning from the building entrance flashed inside, illuminating cripple's back!

colors fading from the thug's face, he jumped back in surprise yelped loudly while at it.

the other thugs quickly glanced over, they saw the thug was now fallen on the floor with a thud.

cripple cursed slightly under his breaths, he quickly casted mana bullets toward all of them, alas there were more thugs this time inside the room, most of them reacted too late and the more vigilance ones was now scattered behind the tabble or cabinet, hiding while taking whatever tools they could get on passing. batton, dagger, even bottles.

without asking anything they glanced each other, one of the thug found the hole on his cabinet, he tried to look over. yet,

puff!

the unlucky thugs could only saw blue flash before his left eyes before falling back lifeless, the flash simply destroys his eye penetrating his skull easily.

gasp could be heard from the other surviving thugs, they witnessed the unlucky one on the floor with bloodied eye socket now dead.

dread pervading their mind, before cripple make another move, the four suddenly launch forward! leaving their hidden space lunging towars cripple hoping to catch him off guard, they were long time partners after all, forming tacit understanding with each other.

the distance between them and the door were only a few steps, soon they arrived before cripple, brandishing whatever they had on their hands!

yet when their weapon almost reached cripples body, it suddenly blocked by unknown force!

crash!

glittery white sparks spewing from the mana shield! it was magical to behold. while they were stunned. in that very second, 5 boney fingers pointed at them, blue flashing light penetrated their chests instantly killed all of them except one!

the ones surviving was actually just lucky, he side stepped in surprise when his strike was suddenly blocked, making him survived the whole ordeal.

the last thug suddenly rolled forward on the floor, trying his best to avoid contacting cripple, then with as much speed he could muster, he began to climb the stairway as fast as he could in terror.

cripple glanced at him, he checked his mana reserves which now only had half of it remains, then with grim expression he followed swiftly upstair.

***

inside master Q office,

BAM!!!

dishelved man barged in forcefully into the room while shouting.

"BOSS! BOSS! HELP! HE IS A MONTER!"

master Q was stunned, then he instantly released his hand much to relief for pocket.

"what the f*ck happened?!" exclaimed master Q, he saw one of his underling were now faced-down on the floor seemingly unconscious. he didn't noticed blue flash landed on the thug's back just now.

he then squinted his eyes while focusing on the dim stairway, he could heard something knocking against the wooden door coming closer quickly from the stairway, master Q office was just right in front of the stairway.

without warning something coming straight at him with great speed! master Q had great reflex, he raised his hand to block the seemingly blue projectiles flew toward his head.

bam! bam!

he was shocked on how much power behind the projectiles as he took a few steps behind.

after he regaining his footing he saw thin crippled boy now kneeling beside pocket, checking her pulse without caring about him.

"F*CK! HOW DARE YOU! WHAT'S GOING ON, WHERE'S THE OTHER!" master Q was enraged, realizing there wasn't single underlings coming as of late much to his irk. "...MOTHERF*CKING USELESS!"

after checking pocket conditon, cripple let out sigh of relief, she was injured yet it wasn't life threatening, he wanted to inject some mana to her in order the reinvigorate her body. still, since he hadn't used this method before, he wasn't sure about the effect.

"wheeze* criffle?"

pocket hadn't lost her consciousness yet, she could feels her buddys warm hand holding her own gently, some kind of inexplicable power was now being transfered to her from cripple's hand, nonetheless she couldn't feel anything other than her buddys warm hand.

"i'm sorry, i was late..." whispered cripple with a smile, he let out sigh of relief that his mana worked brilliantly, nevertheless he couldn't transfer much at the moment.

pocket peered to look straight to his face, although cripple right eye were missing with only empty socket could be seen on his face, making his gaunt face looks teribly horrifying, but now in her mind, this horrifying face was glowing brightly as if he was the sun itself pouring its light to her.

while admiring cripple face, all of sudden he embraced her and rolling away from there while protecting pocket as gently as possible.

BANG!

there was a fist as huge as cripple's head striking toward their previous spot, master Q with grim face stared straight at cripple.

cripple quickly pushed pocket behind the old sofa, he then took his walking stick slowly treading away from that spot, carefully tried to shift master Q attention from pocket to him.

the rain outside was getting heavier and heavier turning it into a storm, lightning now flashed frequently followed by deafening thunders, illuminate the dim-litted room.

"cripple no.1, what're you doing here?" questioned master Q, his voice was hoarse as ever.

cripple was silent, his left eye wanders around assessing the space, there was office table, several cabinet with several small ornaments on it, upfront there was low table with several liquor bottles strewn on it, and a lot of weapons rack behind it. the weapons were varies such as sword, blade, spear and even crossbow, unfortunately it was unloaded,

his mind was working at full speed. after his soul transmigrated over, the first time cripple no.1 saw the person before him, he felt something unusual.

now after he knew that his eye could see mana and with proper absorption technique he learned, seeing master Q again, he could finally understand that master Q was someone simillar to magician yet completely different. unlike any other magician he saw in the past 3 days on the streets, the mana master Q had has completely different nature. it was akin to synthetic rubber to natural rubber.

while master Q slowly making his way closer. he questioned once again.

"...what did you do? you dare to craft weapons behind my back? you want ro take revenge huh? did you forget about your leg and eye?huh? hahhahahaha!..."

master Q was simply didn't know that cripple was now full-fledged magician capable of controlling mana without spell.

it couldn't be helped as magician usually chant some sort of spell or using magic circle to attack. yet cripple didn't do any of that, making him believed that cripple was using some sort of concealed weapon.

"....whatever." master Q snorted, then lunged forward!

fwish!

master Q threw a punch! yet cripple anticipated it by side stepping, letting the fist flew passed him, cripple wasn't idle either, he pointed his finger toward master Q chin, then he shot mana bullet towards it.

pang! pang! pang!

he shot 3 times! but master Q's head only moved slightly from the impact!

cripple strode sideways once again in attempt to put some distance, master Q rub his chin slightly, with grin he faced cripple once again.

"huh? interesting, rat! show me your weapon!"

then flurry of attack came like a storm from master Q, he would punch, chop, and kick. nevertheless, cripple would barely avoid him with a few hair-breadth away each time he dodged.

fwoosh! fwoosh!

cripple regulates his mana circling his body sparingly, enhancing his body capabilities. alas as time passed his breathing turns irregular and his movement began to slow down.

it can't be helped. after all, his current body wasn't in his prime condition, he was thin, scrawny, and crippled.

moreover, his vison was extremely restricted, with only left eye remaining. his peripheral vision was detrimental to him, in this occasion what he was focused on was to dodge without attacking.

master Q was surprised as he attacked, he wasn't expecting this rat he was facing could moved so fast! he almost couldn't believed his eyes as he saw how proficient cripple dodging his attack, sure he wasn't too infested in this, but still...

fwoosh! fwoosh! swish!

seeing cripple movement, he finally turned a little bit serious,

master Q suddenly feinted his right punch, when seeing cripple dodged to the left, he stopped his fist then with extreme speed he turns his body around.

cripple could tell his opponent intention yet at this moment, his body was already at its limit! he could only helplessly received master Q spinning back kick!

casting his mana upfront he conjured mana shield in an instant!

bang! sparkle!

white sparks spewing right in front of him, master Q was completely shocked as he saw his right foot hanging in mid-air blocked by faint shimmering light. the occasional flickering would shown that cripple was being protected by some sort of faint white sphere.

master Q instantly pull his foot back, he hops back putting distance between them.

he then grumbled, "what was that rat! did you picked up something?"

now his eyes was flickered with dangerous light, yet desire and greed was now shown on his face.

"...give your artifact to me rat! it was too good for you! then...." he said with menacing grin. "...i'll let you die without pain!"

master Q misunderstood the white sphere were coming from some sort of magic artifact, this world had had magic after all. it wouldn't be surprising if there were one or two lucky soul finding some artifact.

cripple kept his silence, slowly he crept aside unnoticed by his opponent.

"...seems like you won't obey then? fine..." suddenly his body flashed forward!

BANG! SPARKLE!!!

with even greater momentum master Q once again kicking forward! cripple knew he couldn't dodged such attack, helpless he could only reinforce his shield!

'...my mana reserves was only more than a quarters left! this is bad!...'

cripple knew this couldn't goes on, as battle of attrition was a bad news to him, just when master Q strikes him, cripple could see unnatural mana gushing out of his opponent body wildly.

seeing his attack was blocked once again, master Q didn't grew restless, in contrary he began his flurry of attacks bashing cripple's mana shield again and again.

cripple witnessed with dread as his mana reserves depleted at horrifying rate!

master Q attack increasing in momentum once he saw the shield surrounding cripple grew dimmer by seconds.

finally cripple made his decision, he retracted the shield when another kick went toward him. gritting his teeth cripple's body went sideways letting master Q burly foot flew passed by his left.

crash!!!

the burly foot landed on pointed swords and blades display destroying everything on its way, it didn't stop! master Q attack momentum broke a hole behind the swords rack through the wall! dust and wooden debris swept the scene instantly.

'...a chance!...!

in an instant, cripple pointing 5 fingers toward master Q's left side, blue projectiles shot through and landed on his opponent eye, jaw, temple, ear, and his left chest where his opponent heart at.

pang! p'pang! p'pang!

before cripple barely able to saw clearly. from behind the floating dust, burly hand as fast as lightning reached toward his neck without warning!

'...cursed!'

with no other choice cripple raised his now worn down walking stick right in front of his face.

crack!

his walking stick broke instantly and cripple bodys darted off due to inertia.

BAM!!!

cripple's back rammed backward to heavy office tabble! his body withered down, blood flowing out of his nose and mouth.

"cough* cough*," cripple gritted his teeth trying to stay conscious. he was now leaning back to the tabble, regulating his ragged breaths as much as he could.

burly silhouette could be seen walking out the dust.

'...what to do now?....'

~~~