CHAPTER 49: WHERE IS YOUR STRENGHT?

Streams of water trickled from the sharp edges of the fan and landed in the mud, hammering it and letting tiny drops of mud sprinkle on Kai’s face as he ducked under the fan with just an inch left between him and the passing edge. Kai rushed inside the man and hammered three short punches to the body, ribs, stomach, and ribs again like he practiced with the sandbags.

The man’s expression changed, tightening from happiness to the mixture of sadness and pain.

Kai pushed further, ready to strike the blade of the daggers to the man’s throat, but just as he moved the daggers upward, the man dropped his elbow and slammed it hard at the back of Kai’s neck. Everything Kai had seen flashed in a white glow in his vision for a moment before hitting his face to the ground, making the rainwater splash over his lips.

He placed an elbow on the ground, pushing himself up while popping mud out of his mouth, but just as he managed to raise himself slightly, the man kicked him in the side, flipping him over.

Kai gasped, loosened the handle of the daggers, and grabbed his ribs, then rolled away and crashed onto a collapsed wall. The man raised his foot, crashed it into the ground where Kai had been a few seconds ago, but Kai slipped, shoveled mud in both hands, pushed himself up, and lunged them into the man’s face.

As the man stumbled back, he unconsciously loosened the grip on the fan when he threw his hands on his face, clearing the mud from his eyes. Kai belly-tackled the man’s leg, trying to drag him down. After a minute of struggle, the man stumbled half a step but still didn’t fall, yet Kai clung himself tighter, pulling him with everything he had, then pulled the cloth from the mud.

Cracks appeared in the mud as the cloth erupted from the mud and made the handle of the daggers above. And the moment the dagger landed in Kai’s palm, he raised it and struck it in the man’s foot, letting him cry out heavily but shook his leg and threw Kai away.

Kai turned, rolled, then landed on one knee, panting. But at that same time, the man lowered himself, clutched his right foot, then shouted.

"BASTARD! YOU ARE DEAD."

The man closed his eyes, placed his hands in the mud, wrapped his fingers around the metal fan, then lifted himself slowly, and when he finally straightened himself, he cracked his eyes open and screamed.

Though it was just screams coming out of his mouth, the debris began shaking, and the rain stopped mid-falling as if time itself had stopped.

"You dare pierce me with your filthy daggers. Then care to withstand my wrath of time," the man said, banging his left palm and the right arm holding the fan together, then vanished into thin air.

’Where is he?!’ Kai thought as he spun around with wide eyes, trying to figure out if the man had vanished for good. But the moment Kai turned to the left, he felt a sharp object fly by his shoulder and leave a cut on him. And when he threw the daggers at his shoulder’s angle, it ended up landing in the mud with a thud sound.

"Where is your strength!"

Loud voices echoed wherever Kai turned, followed by laughter, yet he found no one there, not even an evaporating sound as the rain began falling again under an unusual force.

For ten minutes straight, cuts appeared all over Kai’s body from his face to his legs, and when he saw something like the space in front of him opening, and saw the man’s yellow eyes glowing, he closed his eyes, pulled the cloth letting the daggers fly toward him, caught it, and tightened his grip on them.

Kai began remembering every last move he learned from Gray during their training sessions and grinned. He moved to his left, blocking a cut meant for his head, and followed whoosh sounds and vibrations appearing and vanishing.

After just two to five seconds of blocking, he loosened the dagger in his right hand, swung it, letting it create a spinning wheel, and when he threw it upward and pulled it back, a loud growl echoed.

As the sound ended, Kai cracked his eyes open and smiled, seeing a red liquid snaking down from the blade of the daggers, then swung them, letting blood drop and land in the mud. And when he straightened and inhaled deeply, a loud crashing sound echoed, followed by coughs.

"MONSTER! No... no... no one has ever defeated me since I began using the space-time manipulation combat skill," the man said, his voice breaking between coughs and bubbles of blood. He kept on crawling on his back, moving until he had no place to go as he reached a collapsed wall and stopped.

Streams of water kept leaking down from Kai’s face, mixing with blood and mud as his chest rose and fell like it was trying to break itself open just to breathe. His arms trembled from the pain, the strain, and the weight of what he’d used them for.

The man dragged his nails against the broken concrete, trying to push himself away.

"Get... get away from me..." the man said, rasping, his voice collapsing into shallow wheezes.

Kai didn’t answer, he simply stood there, his shoulders lowered, the daggers hanging as if they weighed more than himself, while he kept his glowing eyes fixed on the bleeding man in front of him. Mud dripped down the blades of the daggers, tapping into the soaked ground one drop after another.

The man kept on clawing his fingers at the wall behind him, slipping and scraping.

"Monster... you... you... you broke it... you broke the time seam... no... no... no one survives that," he said, moving his arms from the wall and slamming them in the mud, blasting dirt on himself and the boy moving toward him.

Kai swallowed hard, spat out mud and blood, and kept on staring at the man, then dropped to both knees. He clenched the daggers so tight his knuckles turned white, then closed his eyes and began steadying his breathing.

...

A loud rumble echoed in the far distance, rolling like something struggling through the broken earth as headlights pierced through the rain, cutting across the twisted rebar and piles of torn concrete. Then, a black military truck slowed as it reached the shattered entrance, its tires grinding against debris.

After two minutes of stillness, the engine sparked, letting evaporated air and smoke gush out of the exhaust pipes like breath. Then slowly, the military truck drove under the wide red banner with the inscription "Welcome to the City of Babel," and began moving through the road and rumbling over the corpses of dog-like creatures torn into pieces.

Flesh burst, bones snapped as the tire climbed, slid, then dropped with a muddy thump that shook the whole vehicle. Streams rolled from the hood of the truck, the headlights cutting through smoke and water, revealing more bodies ahead.

"Do you think they’re still alive?" Gray said, brushing his hand across his face and his hair, then onto the dashboard where his two katana swords were calmly resting.

He slowly tilted his head, looked at the driver holding the steering wheel and blinked twice, then tore his gaze back to the road and squeezed his eyes.

"Are you still thinking about them? Don’t worry, I think I now know the reason they chose that small kid. If anyone can survive in this city, it would be only him, and no one else," Wang said, tilting his head slightly at Gray while tapping his thumb on the steering wheel as he turned it left, letting the truck turn as well.