8 Targeted (2)

Azura had his eyes widened at the sight of the glowing green marks.

He vaguely remembered that the monsters he encountered yesterday night also had similar markings on their bodies. The Werewolf bore one on his lower abdomen, while the Lich had one on the back of its hand.

Even though the color that it glowed was different, it should be another variation.

I also had one, on my chest, but how can I activate it?

Shaking his head, he refocuses on the matters at hand and looks at the hostile guys.

Unknown to why Matthew sent these two guys for him, it was safe to assume that somehow, Matthew knew that he was a Hybrid. Despite being bullied all the time, Matthew never called him to meet him like this.

Mostly, Matthew would bully him when they bumped into each other like earlier.

But how? I didn't even do anything to advertise that I'm a fucking Hybrid? How did he know?!

Just then, Isadora stepped forward with an evident frown.

"Are you insane? This is the university, a public place! CCTVs are around, and the two of you dare to activate your Avatars?" She asked the two guys in disbelief. Activating their powers like this is a blatant recklessness—risking being found out by other people.

Listening to this, one of the guys, a redhead tilted his head and smirked.

Pointing to the surroundings, he replied, "No CCTVs here, this place is a complete blindspot"

Isadora looked around and found that it was true.

Then again, Azura picked this place precisely because of that, there were no CCTVs.

However, it seemed that decision was going to come and bite him.

'What should I do here?' Isadora pondered in silence. 'Just what is the deal with Azura, I've known him to always be a regular dude, so from where did he know that I'm a Hybrid? But since Matthew wanted to meet him, it's safe to say that he could also smell Azura's scent'

Swish!

As she was pondering, the two guys had their bodies emitting a faint brass aura.

'For now, I'll try and get him out of here' Isadora nodded.

Responding the same, a mark on her inner arm glowed light green as she prepared to fight.

"Stick close to me if you do-"

Just as Isadora was about to tell Azura to stick close, her eyes widened seeing that without a hint of hesitation, he already turned around and sprinted the other way. She was at a loss for words, Azura didn't even attempt to warn her.

"Catch him!" the redhead guy exclaimed and ran after him, ignoring Isadora altogether.

Pant...

Pant...

Man, fuck that. Two nights in a row I got attacked by monsters? My luck is fantastic!

Azura quickly sprinted with all his might and headed out of the park, along the way—his mind was fretting about where to go to lose Isadora and the two guys. Eventually, he decided that he would run to the parking building, aiming to find the security guards.

From Isadora, he found that they were not supposed to use their powers publicly.

Due to that, the security guards are his hope of surviving.

Upon reaching the entrance of the parking building, his eyes darted left and right, searching for the security guards to no avail, "Where the fuck are they? Come on, it's your damn job to guard this place, and you're not even here?!"

Cursing the security guards out loud, Azura turned around and saw a figure behind him.

It was the redhead, his form shadowed by the moonlight.

His glowing green eyes are the spotlight.

Scared, Azura ran inside and raced to the upper floors as it was the only direction he could go with the redheaded man hot on his heels. As he ascended, he could feel the foreboding air following closely behind him.

Just then, his guts were telling him to duck right this instant.

Instinctively, Azura followed his guts and leaped forward, avoiding a slash aimed at him.

"Akhh!" He landed on the rough ground with a grunt.

Raising his eyes, he bears witness to the redhead guy's back in front of him.

His glowing green eyes peeked over his shoulder menacingly.

But what concerned Azura most were the redhead guy's fingernails which somehow already turned into razor-sharp claws. It looked fearsome too, certainly able to rend flesh. Recoiling in terror, Azura's eyes widened in sheer dread.

Soon, he was backed into a car as the redhead guy turned around to face him.

"I already told you to come with us. Now that you made me angry, I'm going to hurt you a bit before bringing you back to Matthew" the redhead guy whispered raspingly, a sinister smile adorned his face.

Azura felt his throat constricted when he heard this, "A- Alright, I'll go wi-"

Mid-sentence, he saw the redhead guy already dash towards him and swipe him in the face.

Hurtled across the floor, Azura gasped, feeling a burning sensation on his cheek.

Not even given time to check his bleeding cheek, his attention was pulled to a bright notice.

In contrast to the usual silver screen, this notification appeared entirely shrouded in black, its text shifting from black to blood-red which caught him by surprise as this appearance was a drastic change to the norm.

[A hostile entity is planning to hurt Your Majesty!]

[Kill Quest has been issued!]

———

Kill Quest

Description: In the world of Hybrids, only the strong is revered. No entities may bore hostile intent toward Your Majesty without preparing themselves to face the consequences—and the penalty for hurting Your Majesty will always be death!

Eliminate all hostile entities: 0/2

Rewards: 200 Adaptation Points and 5 Bonus Stats.

———

Reading the notification briefly, Azura sucked in a cold breath in utter shock.

E- Eliminate all hostile enemies...?

Even though the System changed his body somehow, he never thought that it would issue a quest. This was the first time a quest had been issued, and it instructed him to kill which was something that he was not confident in doing.

Aside from never killing anyone before, the redhead guy is way stronger than him.

He's a monster, a Zombie, so Azura was pessimistic.

However, before he could contemplate further, his pupils dilated in alarm, seeing the redhead guy come rushing towards him for the second time. Reacting swiftly, Azura raised his arm to deflect the incoming claws, but his surprise intensified as he did so.

Bam!

"Eh...?" Azura grumbled in shock when he found that he managed to block the attack.

It was strong, his arm was in pain, but he managed to do it.

Looking at this, the redhead guy also seemed to be surprised as he looked at Azura with wide eyes. He was not expecting that Azura would be able to block his attack as normal people—aside from the extreme athletes wouldn't be able to match his strength.

"You- You're a Hybrid too?!" the redhead guy exclaimed.

Upon hearing this, Azura tilted his head as he thought the redhead guy already knew that.

Growling in anger, the redhead guy put more strength into his strike and hurtled Azura again across the concrete floor. However, unlike before, Azura didn't succumb to dread and calmed his breathing instead—analyzing his situation calmly.

He's stronger than me, but not by a lot. I could block his attack.

At the thought of this, his eyes flickered with newfound light as he remembered something.

System, upgrade the Superhuman Body right now!

[Processing... 100 Adaptation Points have been used!]

[Congratulations, Superhuman Body talent has been upgraded to the 2nd rank!]

Since his imitation earlier, he gained enough adaptation points to upgrade his talent.

Immediately after the last notification, Azura could feel his muscles contracting and relaxing, and it was quite painful for a fleeting moment before it stopped. He could instantly feel that he was stronger than before, his muscles were bigger.

"Raarggh!" 

Azura snapped out of his mind and saw the redhead guy come swinging at him again.

Kicked by his adrenaline, he quickly stood up and leaned back to dodge the swipe before he retaliated with a punch directly to the redhead guy's face. A cracking sound resounded from that punch, showing that some bones were broken.

Additionally, the redhead guy was sent stumbling backward.

Looking at the redhead guy, Azura could see that his face was slightly uneven on one side.

It was confirmed that his punch broke some bones.

Even then, the redhead guy kept on coming without a hint of pain on his face.

"Damn you, Orphan! I'll kill you!!"

In under a minute, the two already exchanged numerous times, and Azura managed to land a couple more solid hits to the redhead guy's face and abdomen. It was clear that his punch—fueled with everything he has did something, but it didn't stop the redhead guy from coming back again and again.

Must be because he's a Zombie, he's damn resilient!

Although the redhead guy could still move, his attack patterns were becoming sluggish.

It was easier for Azura to avoid his attacks now.

But amidst the fight, after punching the redhead guy on the nuts, hoping that he would feel that one more, it yielded no effect. Man, you got some hard-ass balls to keep going after a punch like that. If only I had a knife or something...

If he had a knife right now, the fight would've been over long ago.

The redhead guy is already swinging randomly, his blows missing their mark entirely for the past minute. Just then, Azura frowned as he lifted his right hand. Gasping in disbelief, Azura was struggling to comprehend what he was seeing.

As opposed to his hand, he saw a blade instead.

His entire right hand had turned into a blade, and he didn't know how he did it.

Dodging a horizontal slash from the redhead guy, he used his right hand, already turned into a blade to stab him in the stomach. He did this knowing that the redhead guy wouldn't stop no matter what.

Remembering that the redhead guy is a Zombie, he made another stab to his throat.

Splash!

Blood squirted out and smeared his face crimson.

Observing the motionless figure of the redhead guy, Azura withdrew his hand and staggered backward, collapsing to the ground, his breaths heavy and labored. His gaze moved to the redhead guy's neck and stomach, both stained with crimson, drenching his own shirt.

Realizing that he had killed a person, Azura felt a tingle coursing down his spine.

However, his attention was pulled to his right hand again which was slowly reshaping back to its normal form, from a blade to a regular human hand, "How- How in the world did I do that? What kind of monster am I?"