The Astral soul system

"Shouldn’t we hurry?"

She asked,a bit concerned

When he didn’t reply she continued.

"He might warn them about us and then the rest of them will come to my house"

That was a good point, and he’d actually considered waiting for the rest to come meet them there but they most likely wouldn’t send all their forces, and he didn’t feel like hunting them down one by one.

As for him warning the others,he wasn’t very much worried.

He was hoping to cause as much discord as possible. Whatever little the one armed brute could add to that, he’d take

"Are you sure we’re going the right way? How are you tracking them?"

He pointed at the ground, then in front of them near a pole with a faint spot of red.

"Okay well what ne-"

He suddenly took a left turn and she followed.

"Did you learn this stuff at the academy?"

Hardly, there’s no reason she had to know that though.

He had easier ways to do this. One of them being soul brand but those weren’t necessary in this case. These guys were untrained, sloppy. They may have dealt with the blood but there were a dozen other trails they left in their wake. He may not have a natural sense for blood and hunting like Sable but he was better trained for tracking.

His half lidded eyes suddenly opened wider and he kicked a decently large rock into his hand before throwing it at a bush.

The sound of someone yelling followed as they rushed out,head bleeding before falling, concussed and dizzy.

He didn’t slow his stride or look back and just kept walking. If iris needed proof they were on the right path, here it was. Besides,he still couldn’t kill the guy without risking something.

Iris quickly ran to the downed gangster, looting the barely conscious body.

After a few seconds, she caught up, running back to him .

"There’s not much on him, but I checked and there should be two more people hiding in wait. You knocked him out before he could report so they still don’t know we’re coming"

Well that’s good to know.

As for the element of suprise, he internally considered if he wanted to keep it.

On one hand it would be easier to take the base if it was an ambush,on the other hand he wanted to get them as shaken up as possible before his arrival .

After a few seconds of deliberation he decided to take it by surprise.

He grabbed another rock, throwing it as hard as he could towards a pile of rubble from a dilapidated building. They heard another thud in the rubble and Iris got to looting as quickly as she could before catching up.

A few minutes later he took down the third and by now he felt he could see their base from here.

Walking forward for a few more minutes, he immediately sensed a large group of people coming up right ahead of them.

He didn’t slow down, sensing nothing from them.

Iris hid behind a trashcan, peeking out just enough to look.

As soon as they came into view he attacked first, taking the initiative.

He dashed right ahead, punching one in the chest and sending him flying. The rest immediately reacted. Pulling out all sorts of makeshift weapons.

One of them threw a chain, wrapping it around his arm. Instead of escaping he let it, holding on and pulling the gangster straight at him, and slamming his chain covered fist into his face, knocking him to the side.

Spinning it around he threw one end, wrapping it around another’s neck and pulling him towards him. His eyes briefly darted to his side and he stepped back, dodging a pipe coming for his head before grabbing it and slamming it down on the gangster’s own head.

He quickly defeated the rest, leaving them sprawled out on the ground before him before walking ahead

Iris came out from her hiding spot, following behind him and glancing back at the gangsters laid out on the ground.

It was like watching children throw themselves at a brick wall. He hadn’t even gotten a scratch on him.

She quickly picked up the pace, catching up and looking away from them. She didn’t even bother looting these ones, they were already miserable enough.

"Shouldn’t we interrogate one of them? Get the lay of the land?"

He could find his own way around

They spent a few more minutes walking around , sending off ordinary gangsters until they reached what looked like the main building .

"Hey! Who the hell are you?!"

He looked down and saw a bit of dried blood on the floor.

This is the place

Iris had hidden behind Zen’s back, making sure her face couldn’t be seen.

Zen was about to take another step forward when one of them suddenly threw a fireball at him.

He was a bit suprised, quickly raising his left hand to block it.

He looked at the glove that’s was more than a little singed before looking back at the gangster.

This is DEFINITELY the right place

Behind him, Iris was still clutching to him when a tiny glowing lady with white hair and in a black dress appeared right in front of her.

"Over there,go hide. Quick"

Theia said, pointing at the edge of the area which had plenty of places for her to take cover. She had a straight shot to it and although she wanted to keep staring at the little lady she did as she said and ran to hide.

Theia breathed a sigh of relief, returning back into the system.

He looked around at the gangsters that were now displaying their abilities .

He knew it’d get to this at some point.

The greatest rule this world followed was money equals power,quite literally. And then both fed into each other.

The only societal structure that could support a method like this,or at least the one humanity had chosen had boulders at the top, but they couldn’t stay that way without a foundation. Beneath them, bearing all that weight and pressure to hold them up had to be rocks, and beneath the rocks were pebbles, and beneath that was sand.

These guys were just pebbles, the head of the gangs who had all the power in this section of the city were the boulders, and people like iris were sand.

This system was the only reason abilities which could be mass produced were still not entirely commonplace.

Even the academy was guilty of this. It was the only way their reward system worked. It was the answer to a question Jade had posed about the nature of abilities.

Still he didn’t really care. He wasn’t cheif justice here to deliver the people.

Then why was he here?

Interest?

Irritation?

Boredom?

It wasn’t important. He couldn’t feel those things anyway. What mattered was what was right in front of him.

He looked around. Five people in total. One had the fireball ability. Another had metal coated skin so he felt he could make a good guess. The remaining three weren’t doing anything.

He was about to use the system to check when another fireball came headed straight for his face.

He held up his hand to block it a, his hand getting knocked back a bit by the force.

Before he could retaliate he heard something whistling through the air and instinct took over, moving his hand right over his chest and letting multiple sharp needles stab into his arm.

’Spines?’

He thought. They resembled that of a hedgehog, only multiple times bigger. Guess that was three down.

No need to keep his ability a secret then

He raised his hand and two shadow tendrils rose up out of the ground, binding the fireball gangster’s hands.

"The hell?! The hell is this stuff"

For a fraction of a second,Zen raised his brow but didn’t delay, dashing right towards the one with metal skin.

"Ha! Fool. Come break your fists"

He didn’t bother with the banter, grabbing him and flinging him towards the fireball guy, causing them to both crash into the building, bits of the wall crumbling and falling over them.

That should take care of at least one of them for a while.

He turned around and immediately raised his hands, grabbing what looked like a cross between a man and a dog.

This must be the fourth ability. A beast class transformation ability. Some sort of jackal type.

He gripped the two jaws that were trying to snap closed on his head and with how many times he’d almost been eaten,it was becoming a hassle.

Hearing flesh tear,he looked down seeing claws stabbed into his abdomen., drawing blood.

He could already hear the spine user bawling in laughter while the last one slowly stepped closer , holding his hand towards him.

*Spark*

His eyes suddenly widened as he noticed an arc of electricity pass through the open palm. For the first time since he’d come back he didn’t look half asleep.

*Crack*

The transformation ability user shook for a bit before dropping to the ground, his head facing backwards,eyes bulging and jaw ripped open, the haunting sight being even more disturbing as the body convulsed, transforming back

The gangster suddenly froze in place, shocked by the sight, and loosing focus of the ability. Taking advantage of that mistake,he dashed forward using shadow step, charge and anything else that could boost his speed, before punching him as hard as possible, his chest cavity caving in front the force and straight up exploding,bits of him flying out through his back.

Zen watched as the body dropped lifelessly.

That was the first time he’d just punched a normal person since getting the system.

It was like he’d been hit with a shotgun.

He sighed.

That was two people dead. Something he’d been looking to avoid.

Oh well.

He looked to his left to see the last one staring at him like he was a monster.

Seeing Zen switch targets to him, he immediately started screaming and panicking.

"No! No! Stay away!"

He yelled, shooting spines out from his hands like his life depended on it.

Charging forward, Zen dodged every single one and by the time the gangster had turned to run it was too late.

Zen overtook him easily before throwing a punch right at his jaw from below.

He could feel the bones shatter under his fist as the gangster fell to the ground, bleeding out of his orfices.

He’d reduced his strength slightly so the head wouldn’t just explode everywhere but it still seemed to be an instant kill.

No point sparing them now.

He turned around, about to walk into the building when he suddenly heard shifting.

He looked towards the rubble he’d thrown the first two and saw the fireball user pushing his way out of the rubble.

"Stop... right there"

He said, breathing heavily and bleeding everywhere. The other guy wasn’t moving yet and his skin was no longer metallic

Resilient

Zen mentally noted. Though this still wasn’t worth his attention.

He was about to just kill him off when he pulled out a syringe, sticking it into his arm and injecting himself with the suspicious substance.

"You’re dead"

He said before breaking out into deranged hysterical laughter