-Vol 5: A New Life-

-Confronting The Kid-

A few hours later, both Kenshin and Joy were caught in a rock and hard place. They were still standing in a small place, without moving an inch. For hunters of their level, standing fro days without also moving won't be a problem, but standing while doing nothing was really driving them insane. Besides, they couldn’t even move, not when the damn tiger was sleeping while facing their direction. By now, they were sure that the kid had already noticed them, which was driving them insane even more. To be discovered but still ignored by the enemy was a kind of humiliation hard to swallow for the two hunters.

Aside from just standing silently like a statue or a clown, they couldn’t do anything else in this situation. At the same time, Keshin’s plan of testing his strength against the tiger also failed because of Joy’s presence. Kenshin had many ways to escape from his current situation and even mount some sneak attacks, but with Joy’s presence, they all were useless. He couldn't just abandon him here.

‘Wait!’ Suddenly Kenshin remembered an artifact that could store living people inside. He had confiscated it from that necromancer he fought. Staring at Joy, he pulled it out from his inventory. Right now, he was busy observing the tiger, a perfect opportunity for him to pull him into the box, or else he would agree no matter what. Also, Kenshin knew there were some limitations to this equipment. Although it can keep anyone inside the space, there was a prerequisite that the target should be willing or fully unprepared for it to succeed.

Right now, Joy was carefully observing the kid and his pet, completely unprepared for the ambush of Kenshin. Nodding to himself, just as he was about to proceed with his plan, a huge explosion rocked the very place they were standing. After that, a few figures appeared from the dust-covered region. It was the team lead by Aoi and an old man. Seeing them appear, Kenshin stealthily stored the [Pandora’s Box] back inside his system. The explosion also startled the kid who was lazing on the destroyed hotel floor. The tiger was the first one to respond, it instantly lunged at the group while increasing its size into that of a normal tiger. It seems the tiger can freely manipulate its size and power. At the same time, the kid backed away and kept himself out of the fight’s periphery.

“Hmmm!!” Kenshin felt something as amiss after seeing this. This kid had a pet strong enough to destroy a moderately large city and many hunters within in a matter of hours, how can he be weak enough to run away from a few hunters? Kenshin started to brainstorm, the kid stealthily backed away and hid himself behind an upturned table. It's at this moment Kenshin realized that he was simply unable to feel any form of energy from the kid. At first, he thought he was just thinking things, but upon closer inspection, he realized that it was indeed true. The kid didn’t have any single fluctuation of energy coming from him.

“What are the chances?” Kenshin wondered as he saw the kid. Seeing him, Kenshin thought of a possibility. Currently, the tiger had vanished into the dusty distance, fighting with the group of hunters lead by Aoi and the old man. Narrowing his eyes, he tried to use [Dragon Sense] to have a better understanding, but still, all he could feel was the feeling from a normal kid, nothing special. Moreover, he couldn’t even feel a sense of danger coming from the kid, which wasn’t the case when the tiger was still present. All this thing led Kenshin to believe one possibility, it might be that the kid might be in a weakened phase or might be he didn’t have any strength himself, instead use pets like the tiger to fight for himself.

Kenshin decided to take the risk.

“Joy, listen,” Kenshin called Joy who was too busy squinting his eyes, trying and failing to develop x-ray vision to see the fight beyond the dusty cloud. Joy turned around and looked at Kenshin with squinted eyes, “What?”

Instead of answering, Kenshin pointed his finger towards the hiding kid who seemed to be trying his hardest to draw something on the floor. Form the distance, it looked like a reverse trigram diagram. Joy instantly became alert seeing this, turning around, he asked in a hushed voice “What is he doing?”

“I don’t know, but I think he might not have any power of his own, instead of his ability steam form controlling of those powerful monsters similar to the tiger. What do you think? Do we intervene and engage him?” Kenshin asked about Joy’s decision after hearing his theory. Joy looked pensive, as if he couldn’t decide whether to act or not, finally he took a deep breath and nodded at Kenshin, “It won't hurt to try out.” Joy wasn’t a fool, seeing the kid didn’t participate in the battle between the hunters, he also started to suspect something.

They looked at each other and nodded their head. Taking a deep breath, Joy wore his [Thunder Knuckels] and Kenshin equipped his [Blackmoon Beheader] as they jumped at the kid after counting from one to three in their hearts. With just a single step, they both circled around the kid who was busy drawing the reverse-pentagram on the floor with a marker. Their sudden appearance startled the kid, who looked up with furrowed brows.

“Who are you?” the kid asked with a voice that didn’t belong to a kid of his age. He looked with narrowed eyes towards Kenshin, from his instinct, he could tell this man was actually more dangerous than the other.

“That’s what we should be asking, who are you? You even went as far as destroying a city and massacring countless people within. Who the hell do you think you are?” Joy raved as veins showed on his face and head. he was that angry. Meantime he remained silent, deciding to observe everything.

“Who do I think I am? You are just mere animal bound in a cage, while observed from outside for amusement, what right do you have to ask me with that tone? Do you think just because I don’t have magic in my body, I am useless? let me tell you, my race, the Sylphs don’t depend on the magic to become strong.” As the kid said these, suddenly his body began to glow red as many tribal runes became visible. At the same time, Kenshin and Joy felt the gravity around them became several times higher. The floor beneath them began to crack from the pressure of increased gravity. Not only that, even the roof began to crack from the force of gravity.

“Kenshin, what the hell is this?” Joy asked as he endured the pressure of increased gravity with his body. Although he was standing normally, the pressure he was feeling was immense.

“Its Gravity. this kid somehow increased gravity around us.” Kenshin answered. The pressure on him was truly minuscule, its as if he was just lightly pushed down by someone from the top, that’s it. It wasn’t even to the stage of being uncomfortable. At the same time, he started to furrow his brows. The words of the kid about how they don’t need magic to fight had struck Kenshin hard and also made her think about something. Aside from magic, there was another thing that can make someone strong enough to affect the reality and surrounding around them, that being their WIL. If so, then it might be possible that this could use his WIL to affect gravity. But, just how high one’s WIL must become to affect the natural laws around them? And what was the limit of such strength?

Kenshin wanted to know the answer to these two. As such, he used his WIL to counter the gravity around him, as expected the weight of gravity decreased by a few factors around him. turning around Joy, he said, “Counter this with your WIL, the gravity will lessen by a few factors.”

“Hoho! It seems you know about this unique energy of will and belief. Interesting!” as he was standing close to them, the kid also heard it and smiled ridiculingly at them. To him, these two measly humans can't do anything to his overwhelming WIL, so what if they can also use the same energy?