Chapter 18: Chapter 18

Ethan watched the incoming enemies with a serene expression as his cloak fluttered in the wind. The light of the afternoon sun was reflecting from the shiny armor of the tier-4 cultivator who was riding a horse-like creature. Around him were the friends of Nuvian, on their feet, trying to keep their pace with him.

The shiny armor was a human, so there were two humans and two elves. They stopped about 40 yards away from Ethan. The shiny armor dismounted from the creature and called for Ethan. 

‘’Is it true what they told?’’ He looked overly cautious for someone talking to another who was two tiers under him. ‘’Oliver’s team tried to rob you but failed, and you spared their lives?’’

Ethan gazed at the others as he tried to pick up clues from their body language. ‘’That’s right,’’ he confirmed.

‘’Then you’ll have to come with us. We will confiscate your belongings and confine you in a residence of the McGregor’s until they return and confirm your story,’’ the shiny armor said as it was the most natural thing in the world.

‘’And if they changed the story or had already died after I left them to be?’’ Ethan asked with a frown. ‘’Then what? I’ll just die?’’

‘’Do you think this is a negotiation?’’ the elf who Ethan punched earlier barked.

The shiny armor threw a displeased look at the elf before speaking to Ethan, ‘’Listen, kid, Oliver’s father is my captain. If it were him who came to you, you’d be lying on the ground bloodily and explaining everything from the start. Now I’m giving you a choice. If your claims are true, then you might have a chance to live this through.’’

Ethan started to walk toward them slowly. ‘’Listen, sparky, I have spared Oliver’s team because of a variety of reasons. Do not mistake my actions for weakness. Whether I might live or not, is not something you or the McGregors decide.’’ He stopped about 25 yards away and unleashed his [Mana Aura]. ‘’Returning your kindness, let me give you a warning as well; I don’t do well with threats.’’

The shiny armor’s frown deepened as the other's pose faltered. ‘’Then I guess I’ll drag you back with missing limbs,’’ he said with determination. ‘’Atac–’’

Two [Shadow Spikes] appeared, one at the forehead of the tier-3 elf, the other at the front of tier-4’s mouth. With wide eyes, the tier-4 moved his head at the last second, and the shadow spike tore his cheek from the inside. The tier-3 wasn’t so lucky; he collapsed to the ground with a confused expression and a hole in his forehead.

Ethan sent two poisoned spider legs with [Fabric Tear] to the tier-2’s and ran for the tier-4. He needed to finish this fight quickly because this man had at least two rank-2 skills, not to mention the stat difference. Just before he blinked, he saw that somehow the others deflected the spider legs, but Beet slashed the neck of the one like butter and went for the other.

Calling his daggers, he blinked to the enemy’s behind and struck his nape. A shield from yellow light appeared, and the dagger ground against it with sparks. As Ethan was thinking that sparky was the perfect name for the dude, he saw him turning with grit in his teeth which was all the more clear from his torn cheek.

He blinked 10 yards back to evade the incoming fist, and it turned out to be a good call because a sound wave came after the fist. Ethan now knew that he couldn’t dodge his attack closely as even the collateral damage would hurt him. He sent two more shadow spikes, but the same shield appeared, saving Sparky undamaged. Bullshit, there gotta be a weakness. How did I injure him in the first place?

Sparky appeared in front of him in just two steps. This time Ethan didn’t escape but blinked next to him. Raising his hand, he sent two spikes from his sleeve to the eyes of the enemy. Sparky closed both of his eyes, and Ethan took advantage to stab his dagger into his teeth from the torn cheek. 

He shattered Sparky’s teeth, but in exchange, Sparky shattered his ribs with a punch. Taking rough breaths with agony, Ethan now understood that the shield skill was connected to Sparky’s skin. A kick came toward his kidney as he blinked again, but the sound wave made him stumble and roll to the ground. If he didn’t have any internal bleeding, he certainly did now.

Ethan blinked before Sparky was upon him and kept blinking around him while sending shadow spikes to his shield as a distraction. Once he had the opening he was looking for, he blinked right in front of him and grasped his throat, clenching his hand. Even when Sparky sent a knee to his tight, he didn’t let go. Once he got the right angle, a shadow spike rose from his sleeve, right into the hole of Sparky’s nose, reaching to his brain. They both fell down to the ground at the same time. Ethan looked at Beet and saw it was also about to end its fight. He checked his health before taking out a potion and drinking it.

Health: 172/700

Mana: 430/1000

Stamina: 488/600

‘DING! You have leveled up!’

The potion gave him 500 health, almost filling his bar entirely. As his ribs and bones started to heal, his rationality returned, and he tried to grasp what had just happened. I should’ve drank this potion earlier. Two more hits, and I would’ve died. But with how fast he was, I could've only had the chance after blinking more than five times. [Blink]’s range is too short. And I’m too fragile. There were no defense skills like that shield in the shop. I need to fix those weaknesses somehow.

It didn’t take long for Beet to kill the last elf. There were flesh pieces everywhere, fingers, a foot, an ear. Apparently, Beet killed the guy bit by bit. It looked like a scene from torture rather than a fight. Ethan was going to give him a potion as well but realized that he was almost uninjured. 

‘’Don’t get smug now,’’ Ethan teased the tiny beast walking toward him. ‘’I didn’t see you jumping to the tier-4 Sparky.’’

He looked at the four bodies around them before realizing his hands were shaking even after drinking the potion. He almost forgot when was the last time. In the VR, he killed thousands of people, and after so long, he thought he was used to the bloodshed, but it looked like that wasn’t the case.

In the VR games, it wasn’t unusual to see someone you’ve killed just a few days later. Perhaps, that mentality assured him that this was just a game, that he was doing nothing wrong. 

He lifted his hand to his eye level and tried to stop the shaking but failed. ‘’Or perhaps this is not just a psychological reaction but a biological one as well,’’ he murmured. Staring at the uncontrollably shaking hand, he let his thoughts wander to the dark times, which he learned to accept rather than forget.

In the alleys of a ruined city, Ethan was carrying a basket full of fruits. Turning the corner, he saw three men beating another with metal pipes. He immediately hid behind the wrecked car next to him. One of them looked toward him, but thanks to his small body, just the tire was enough to hide him. He was not even ten years old. 

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Even if the men found him, there was nothing on him appealing to them except for the fruit basket. He found this inside a trash can, and all of the fruits were in good condition. If he ate them slowly, it was a week worth of food. Which meant he was ready to confront even the three adults with metal pipes.

It was months after the chaos started, but it only got worse as time passed. Some people saw this as an opportunity and ransacked the police stations, while some even went for the army bases. Once the other people realized that no army was coming to end this shit show and that every day there were more psychos with guns on the streets, doing whatever day wished, they also saw violence as their only salvation.

With time, food became a problem even for the adults, not to mention Ethan who was only good at sneaking around. The kids in the sewers did some jobs together, but his cut was only enough for him not to starve in those jobs. No matter what his contributions were, they never gave him more. That’s why he started to do solo scavenging. Even if it was more dangerous, it was much better than being dizzy and having a fever all the time.

The men turned to leave once they were done. He held his breath as they passed by the car and moved toward the sewers like an anxious mouse.

Using the main entrance with his basket was utterly stupid, so he chose to enter from his favorite spot. There was an opening where the sewage water joined the biggest reservoir. The sun coming from the metal railings illuminated half of this opening, but it still looked like a dead-end cave. Where in fact, it went all the way to the main area of the sewers.

Carefully walking in his secret passage, Ethan arrived at the dorms. It was a name that the kids called for the dry room-like structures, probably built in case of a flood. There lived more than a hundred children, mostly orphans.

Just when he was closing his room, he heard the incessant coughing sounds of another kid. It was the new kid who was even younger than himself. Camila and Tom brought him last week, but he was sick, and it went even worse as time passed. Camila and Tom might be kind enough to bring him here, but they were definitely not giving him any food for free. Gritting his teeth, Ethan entered his own room, put the basket down, and took an apple with two bananas before leaving again for the sick kid.

At this hour, most of the kids were out searching for food. He found the sick kid alone, lying on the ground with some cardboard on him. Waking him up slowly, he fed the kid bananas and helped him to drink some water. The half-awake kid did what he was told in a daze. Ethan put the apple in the kid’s pocket and whispered, ‘’Eat this at night. I’ll try to bring more tomorrow.’’

He went back to his room and slept almost instantly, only to awaken with a kick to his stomach. 

Opening his eyes with a groan, he saw one of the meanest kids in the sewer in front of him, John Bender. He was 14 years old, and even the bigger kids were afraid of him.

‘’Good mornin’ sunshine!’’ John said with a wicked smile, enjoying the high-pitched melody in his tone. ‘’I heard you have a good haul in hiding?’’

Ethan tried to get up, but John gave another kick to his nose. ‘’No, no, no. Please, keep lying down. I’ll do the labor,’’ John said and went for Ethan’s junks, finding the fruit basket underneath in a short time. With a big smile, he walked to Ethan and grabbed him by the neck with his free hand, ‘’Good job! Next time, come directly to me, and maybe I’ll give you a taste without any hassles.’’ He smashed Ethan’s head to the wall and left the room while popping a grape into his mouth. 

Ethan lay on the ground with a loud buzzing in his ears, blood leaking from his head. He knew this was not the first time and won’t be the last time, but it was what it was; he had passed the point of caring long ago. Even when he realized that he had pissed himself, he didn’t move a muscle and just sought comfort from the cold stones of the sewer until he heard the voice of someone.

‘’He’s not that dead, right?’’ Tom said.

‘’No, just passed out,’’ Camila replied.

‘’How did you know about the fruits?’’ Tom asked.

‘’I found an apple in Adrian’s hand. Who else but he feeds a dying kid?’’ Carmela sneered. Taking Ethan’s worn-out blanket, she covered herself with a blissed expression and sighed happily.

They left after taking a last look at his dregs, but Ethan still didn’t move. He kept lying like he had merged with the dusty floor. Only hours later, he sat up with a blank look in his eyes and kept sitting until it was night. Then he got up with effort and dragged himself to the corridor of the entrance before blending into the shadows with a rock that was bigger than his fist.

He never even once thought about going against kids like John, but that blanket, somehow, was the last drop. Ethan waited for more than an hour, and when he heard the voice of the laughing John, his heart started to beat like it was going to explode while his grip on the stone got even tighter.

As John passed him with his friend, Ethan jumped with a scream. He bashed the stone to the back of his head. The tighter he held the stone, the faster he released everything he held until now. He remembered every beating he got, he remembered the rotting body of his father, he remembered the face of his panicked mother when she left the house, and he remembered the satisfied sigh of Camila when she donned his blanket.

When he stopped remembering, he realized that he had hit John much, much more than he intended. John’s friend was already running to the center of the sewer. Ethan dropped the stone and got up before turning to walk toward his favorite spot with faster and faster steps until he was running with tears running down his face.

At his favorite spot, under the moonlight, he wept for an hour, clutching an old watch. Until a thought struck him, ‘’This changes nothing,’’ he murmured absentmindedly. ‘’They will gossip as they pleased, and the rumors will vary in every other room.’’

Standing up, this time, he took an even bigger rock as well as a broken and molded pipe. He pounded the pipe repeatedly until it barely resembled a weapon and walked back to John’s corpse while murmuring to himself, ‘’I must control the rumors. I must show them what they should talk about.’’

Ethan found John’s body and tried to sever his head. It took more than 10 minutes, and he vomited three times. Once done, he held the head by the hair and walked toward the center of the sewers with his free hand shaking uncontrollably.

He stared at his shaking hand and made a fist with it. In his mind, the images of Alice and Camila overlapped together as he looked toward the bodies lying around. ‘’Whether it’s a blanket or a cloak, it always ends the same. It’s like life is taunting me to break the cycle,’’ he muttered. 

Relocating everything to his ring, he mounted the horse-like creature of Sparky and rode it toward his destination with Beet on his shoulder. After riding a griffin for years, riding this tamed beast was a breeze to him. And perhaps, it was his stony eyes that made the beast even more docile.

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