Chapter 171: Eyes of Speed
———Lerim———
<8: 09 am>
“What!?” I yelled out, completely caught off-guard by this bad news.
“<Yeah, that guy sneaked out of the hospital late at night, leaving the room in a wreck.>” He said, clearly concerned about his whereabouts, not to mention the possible consequence. “<No one has any idea where he has gone to. I don’t even know how he sneaked out with his wounds only beginning to recover.>”
Damn it, just when I had a plan going, he had to escape at the worst of times. I know full well he’ll do something crazy the moment he wakes up, I just didn’t think he would use the first opportunity he has to do so. If only his legs were torn off instead…
“A guy with two missing limbs should be easy to track down, right? There’s no way he doesn’t leave any trails behind with the condition he is in.” I asked, wondering if it’s possible to track him down. It’s not like CCTV suddenly disappeared after the Eclipse. Sure, many got wrecked by people rampaging about, but I’m sure they got some of those fixed up by now. No way he can just avoid all of those, unless he is jumping around at high speed and at which point someone should’ve noticed something so irregular.
“<Easier said than done. That guy probably left the city at this point.>” He said, feeling defeated before we could even begin a search.
“Useless…” I muttered. Can’t believe he is throwing in the towel already. I know there isn’t much support for guilds with how the government and anyone else sponsoring the effort decreases their contribution for many reasons, but that guy is gonna be a big problem if left unchecked, who knows what a guy who probably has very little to lose will do. “Just keep an eye out for any abnormalities. You have a bit of authority in your position, right? Use it.”
“<I’ll try. See you later.>” He said, sounding rather unsure of how much he can help.
*Beep*
And he hung up. Talk about everything going wrong. At least that guy isn’t a known murderer, but he is a massive dick with how much he likes to push others by fighting them. The main problem is if he will go down a downward spiral and turn for the worse. At his current state he probably operates at less than half of his usual strength, but he is still one of the stronger combatants around here.
What a massive headache. Let’s just forget about this for now. I have two days left and I would like to get a good practice in today.
First off. I should get some food. I still have a lot of food kept in the massive container I have. Let’s reheat a few and go through it quickly.
“Agh.” Still freezing cold with all the ice in here. Somehow this empty closet I have still hadn’t broken down yet with all the ice and all kinds of experimental magic I used on it to keep the inside all cold. Ice magic is such a pain to set up in general, but the payoff is great.
Got a few boxes out, now I have to slowly reheat them and make sure they aren’t just frozen blocks. Doing it low and slow, going fast would just end up incinerating them.
Feels like fire magic is just naturally a lot easier than ice. I know Karra said that the ice element is called cold, but I’ll stick to saying ice.
…Alright. All done. Let’s open them up to eat… This one has some gamey-looking meats, this one has some seafood, and this one is… Well, more meat. Most monsters are animal-like so they have a lot of meat on them. Plant monsters and such are so rare and I’m pretty sure most of those parts that are ‘edible’ are just pure fiber.
Alright, time to eat, then burn off all the calories with a nice workout.
Hmm… Got a bit of bulk, but not too much muscles right now, so nothing to worry about at the current time. I doubt I’m getting any gigs for a while with how much trouble that guy has gotten into, even if he was literally threatened. I have time to get softer arms and legs back.
*Ring* *Ring*
Ugh, now what? I’m in the middle of something here!
*Beep*
“Hello? Who is it?” I asked since this is a different number. I don’t think I recognize this one.
———Wiina———
<1: 01 pm>
This area is quite full of life. Compared to the last one that was more akin to a dry expanding field, this one has a lot of greenery in comparison. I saw the closest road to this place looking a bit desolate and not all that green. I guess the power that be can just revitalize lands easily enough. Certainly helps out with the environment a bit, giving us reprieve from breathing in toxins everyday for decades by now.
Now then. I can sense two large groups of people on different sides of this Fantarban Realm… Hm? This large shadow casting over me is…
What can be best described as a deer with its body stretched out like it is some sort of twisted umbrella with a bunch of long spider-like legs keeping it moving, being comparable to multiple story buildings, underneath its body is a giant gaping maw with a lot of sharp teeth ready to grind its prey into minced meat.
*Slice* *Splat*
Before it could lower its body and try to swallow me whole, I lazily swung my sword at it from below and cut it into two pieces before it could get close. I had to make sure I didn't get hit by any of the organs falling out of this thing. I can clean up blood from my clothes just fine, but I’d rather not get dirty in the first place.
Now back to what I was doing before being interrupted by the biggest fish of this area, time to subdue a group of wrongdoers. Rico is dealing with the group up north in Canada. I’ll be dealing with people from our homeland.
…It’s been a while since I can just fight casually and not worry too much about casualties and such. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to play around a little bit.
Hmm… From what I’m sensing, they’re not making any moves just yet, and it is the same on the northern side.
“Yo. Glad to see you on schedule.” Rico greeted once she arrived at the scene. “...Well. I don’t think we should waste too much time, unless you wanna get a preview of this place for some reason.”
“I’m good with that.” I said before turning towards the direction of the gang I’ll be fighting. “Hope you show some restraint.”
“Knock it off, I can do whatever I want.” She said as she walked away. “And besides, I could say the same about you.”
And with that, she began walking towards the group up north. Neither side is making a move, so this will be rather easy as everyone is grouped up.
*Zoom* *Shine*
I teleported to their location and quickly set up a barrier covering the entire hideout. The place they are staying in is massive, and their numbers are in the hundreds already.
I’m sure many of them noticed the sudden change in lighting, this barrier is quite bright and illuminates the entire area to be some akin to a brightly lit indoor.
Many are running out of their hideout in droves. Some big guys, some small guys. One thing is for certain, there are a lot of guys. A few dozen of them in total. Not seeing the strongest guy coming out of the building though. I guess the boss wants to leave this to the underlings.
“Who the hell are you!” One of them yelled out. Guess my name hasn’t quite reached out that far. A consequence of mostly just dealing with local problems instead of country-wide.
“The end of your freedom. Hope you have a good ride so far, because it’s ending right now.” I said as I took one step forward towards the horde. This isn’t the first time I’ve been outnumbered, and their strengths are… Well, it’s impressive considering the current standard, but considering who they’re up against, they’re just a bunch of worms.
“Hahahaha!” They all start laughing out loud, not believing what I’m saying at all. Typical. They are so lacking in discipline they have no idea what just arrived at their doorstep.
*Bang*
I shoot at a long metal rod someone used as a weapon and break it in an instant, the weapon cracked with one half fell to the ground with a loud thud. Suddenly the whole group stopped laughing.
“Not so funny now, is it?” I taunted them with a smirk, which caused many to have their faces twisted in rage. A bunch of hotheads, it seems. “If you couldn’t be bothered to make the first move, then I guess I should-
Before I finished, they began running at me in droves. Looks like they will be the ones to make the first move then.
They are going at me with everything they got, sprinting at maximum speed with their weapons raised, ready to pummel me to the ground as if that’s gonna be enough. In case they forgot, I was the one who put up this giant barrier to prevent them from escaping in the first place.
Certainly a bunch of naive fools. One has to wonder if the leader would be any better. Then again, if they were smart about it, I don’t think they’d set their new hideout so close to a Fantarban Realm. While some monsters stay in the territory, a few can leave and terrorize nearby settlements. Who knows what their plans are to conquer this place and possibly make their way into another country unprompted. I guess the military around here is quite lax with the monsters going about, no one in their right mind would try to sneak through the border through this place.
There are a lot of possibilities from madness to ambition to stupidity, but that could be distracted at a later date if I wish, and I’m not that curious. In the first place, Rico is probably planning something quite nefarious if she doesn’t plan on killing them outright, and at that point I’m not sure if their mental state will stay intact.
…Kinda weird how in a combat scenario my time perception changed so drastically to match my speed. Weird how that works, but it kinda makes sense so I can actually keep up with what I’m doing, but then again, my body has that instinctual reaction to keep myself from getting hurt that works on autopilot already. I’m not really sure how it works for regular folks, but there should be a similar mechanic in place, if probably way less powerful. This body of mine gets the best specs of any living creature.
One thing for certain, it makes everyone look like they are moving at the same pace as a snail. It feels like I could wait for a few minutes before even reaching me, even if in reality they are sprinting at me at full speed and should reach me in… six seconds at the earliest.
Anyway, I guess I can just casually walk up to them and start hitting them.
*Smack* *Kick* *Punch* *Slap* *Smash*
They could barely even react as I casually strutted up to them and started hitting them once or twice and sending them flying. Just even a little bit of power put into it would’ve turned them into minced meat, so I need to make sure to keep the output just enough to incapacitate them and not kill them.
Could I have just used a sleep or paralysing spell to incapacitate them immediately? Yeah, but I used them so often at this point it has gotten so dull, and I’m not pressed for time here nor are there any bystanders that could get involved, so I can drag this out a bit and not go for the practical option.
…Oh. I ran out of people to incapacitate already. Now that I think about it, I should’ve made sure my time perception is actually fair for them to work with. Eh, no use crying over spoiled milk, there is still the leader and a few henchmen still inside the building.
*Crash*
Suddenly a giant bipedal cat jumped out of the building and now standing in front of me with dark blue fur and being a giant at almost ten feet. He looks really mad. Had to be expected since he sees guys working under him all beaten to a pulp like that.
*Swing* *Hop*
He didn’t mince any words and tried to attack me with his claws which were easily avoided. I simply do a small hop over it and float us slightly above his shoulder.
*Kick* *Crash*
I stayed afloat and kicked him in the back of the head and sent him flying and crashing into the dirt.
…Is he gonna get back up or is that seriously all he can do?