Chapter 42: The Messy Battle

"The three of you go and lure the person behind it out.

"Try to stay a distance away from him.

"I will take another route to flank him with a surprise attack."

Alex was confident in his friends’ abilities so he decided to let them engage with the person on their own, while he waited for the right moment to strike.

They nodded at him and all of them got out of the room together.

Alex headed into the path on their left while the others headed towards the open area where the young man crawling on the ground was.

Riley walked slowly until he was at the entrance of the corridor and he raised his palm at the young man, gesturing for the young man to stop.

"Stay where you are." he said while Terry and Brian tried to sense the surroundings to see if they can track the person behind this.

It didn’t take them too long to do so.

"He is hiding behind the curtains on the other end." Brian whispered to Riley and said.

"Both of you unleash your abilities at him while I try and get to him." Riley pointed his chin at the young man who was on the floor and said.

The projectiles from their abilities were much faster than his so it was better for them to do so instead of his bubbles.

Terry and Brian nodded.

"On the count of three. One... Two... and Three..." Riley counted to three and he ducked to the ground.

Whoosh.

He could feel the heat from Brian’s fireball and the silver glare from Terry’s sharp metallic rods shone onto him.

The fireballs and sharp metallic rods shot at James with tremendous speed and he had no choice but to get away from where he was.

He leaped out from the curtains and he could hear an explosion behind him.

Then, a heat wave came onto his back.

He landed onto the ground and glanced to his side at the curtains.

Flames raged when they burned the curtain and a few sharp metallic rods had nailed the curtain onto the wall.

Oddly, he felt excited even though he had realized that these men were much stronger than he was.

He glanced at Riley who was approaching the young man on the ground and he smirked.

Riley was only a few steps away from the young man.

"Help me..." The young man lifted his head with whatever little strength he had left and said.

But the words weren’t the only thing to come out from his mouth.

Green smoke also came out from it and Riley quickly used his ability.

Boom.

The bubbles that had appeared in front of Riley exploded and the resulting shock wave dispersed the green smoke away.

"Argh! Help." The young man started to scream in pain and he started to rot where the green smoke had touched onto him.

However, that was not all.

More of the green smoke appeared from the exposed wounds where his skin and flesh had rotted.

Riley leaped away from where he was to get away from all the green smoke, and when he landed, James was there on the left side of him.

He saw James coming at him with a right hook and he gave James a side kick onto the abdomen of James.

Thud.

The kick landed but James opened his mouth and blew out a cloud of green smoke at him at the same time.

Thankfully, with his enhanced physique and reaction timing as an SS Level Awakened, Riley side-stepped and got out of the way from the green smoke.

In the meantime, James, who was hurled a few meters away by Riley’s kick, coughed out a mouthful of blood, and he wiped the blood off his mouth.

His adrenaline was pumping and he somehow felt ecstatic by what had happened.

James grinned with his bloodied teeth showing and he drew in a deep breath for his next attack.

But before he could do so, Terry and Brian tried to stop him.

Whoosh.

Fireballs shot at him and he had to stop what he was doing and leap to the side.

It was a wrong move.

When he was in the air, sharp metallic rods came at him and he had nowhere else to go.

James could only lift his arms in front of his body to protect himself from it.

Splatter.

The sharp metallic rods ruptured through his arms and body, nailing him onto the ground.

"Argh!" James cried out in pain but he smirked when he saw familiar footsteps some distance away from him.

It was Professor Charles.

James gave out a roar and green smoke emitted out from his wounds.

The green smoke started to react with the metallic rods that were nailing to the ground.

The metallic rods dissolved and James broke free from them.

He staggered back up to his feet and he stared at Riley and the others.

This place was a heaven for him and he wasn’t going to let them destroy his sanctuary.

Anger rose from within and he lunged at Riley in the next moment.

Riley wanted to unleash his bubbles at James but he frowned when he felt fear instead.

Somehow, it frightened him with James lunging at him.

"What are you doing?!" Brian shouted at Riley when he saw Riley not doing anything and standing there.

He quickly hurled a fireball at James.

Terry also helped with his sharp metallic rods.

However, with the fireballs and sharp metallic rods coming at him this time, James didn’t flinch away from them.

He went at them head on.

Alex, who had arrived from another corridor, frowned at what he had witnessed.

He knew that Riley wasn’t someone to freeze on the spot after going through so much with him.

There was something else happening at the moment but he didn’t know what it was.

He could only get ready and make sure to strike at the right moment.

As the fireballs and sharp metallic rods got closer and closer to James, Professor Charles narrowed his eyes, held his hands onto his gold-rimmed glasses and unleashed his ability.