Seeing that the daggers did little to slow down Tarkhan, Mr Rogers gritted his teeth. Tarkhan was undoubtedly the strongest person he had seen since his mentor. His mentor was the most powerful of all, possessing a True Channeller Tier-2 rank.
He was on the roof of a nearby building, after he had killed the occupants using his gang. No one ever suspected that he was a gang leader, because whoever got too close would be silenced immediately.
His pride as an Accomplished Channeller could not be brought down because of a brute like Tarkhan. He needed to make an example out of him, by exterminating his entire family!
If he did not do so, Liam or Maylin might come back and wreak havoc on him. There was no hesitation in his actions at all. His academy, Cruelty Burial, had a mantra that described this world.
"The strong do what they can, while the weak suffer what they must." It was a dog-eat-dog world. Everyone was used as stepping stones. In truth, the real reason why Mr Rogers wanted to initiate an attack on Tarkhan was to steal his secrets and position.
The part where Tarkhan had grabbed him had triggered him off, leading him to pull off his plotting earlier. He shivered with excitement as he thought about torturing Tarkhan and doing all sorts of experiments with him.
"Frozen Ground." A Mystic would not show themselves until it was necessary. Mr Rogers only needed to hide in the shadows and wait for Tarkhan and Liam to slowly freeze up, before striking them to death with other aggressive spells.
As Tarkhan continued to crush the goons, he could feel his body slowly stiffening. The ground beneath him had formed a layer of ice without him knowing about it. Since Liam has shied away from the combat going on, he was not affected by the frost at all.
"Level 1 Spell Frozen Ground!" Tarkhan moves out of the center with an extremely high speed. However, the ice patch instead started to expand towards Tarkhan, determined on freezing him up.
Since Tarkhan's body had already been affected by the Frozen Ground spell, he could not avoid the rapidly advancing ice patch, which only served to lower his speed more.
"Liam! Run away! There's no way you can beat the Mystic!" Tarkhan yelled time Liam, who was standing at the corner of a dark alley.
When the villagers heard the words Mystic, they quickly returned to their homes, shut their windows and doors, and herd their children back in.
They knew about the existence of the Tempered and Mystics, and they did not dare to offend them, for fear of dying a horrible death.
As a traveller from another world, Liam remained calm. The daggers had targeted him too, basically marking him for death. Even if he ran away and let Tarkhan die, he would only bring disaster on himself.
Retaliation was his only option for survival at this point. The mastermind who had attacked them must still be nearby, so he decided to bide his time and wait for them to reveal themselves.
As Mr Rogers looked at Tarkhan slowly losing, his initial frown had turned into a grin. The daggers were breaking through Tarkhan's defences through him losing strength, causing him to weaken even more.
"Stop! I need him alive!" Mr Rogers' voice rang out to his gang members as the daggers began to draw blood. He emerged from his hiding spot, dropping to the ground from the roof.
Even though he was not a Tempered, Mr Rogers still wanted to drop to the ground, which caused him some pain. However, he was sure that no one around him posed a threat to him. That scrawny Liam could not hurt a fly, even if he wanted to.
Mr Rogers panted heavily as he moved closer to Tarkhan. Most Mystics were thin and frail on the exterior after channeling mana and refining their spirits, but Mr Rogers was a unique case.
Sweat was leaking out from every pore on his skin, and his podgy frame was covered in sweat stained clothing. His greasy skin and bald spots on his whitening hair only served to increase people's disgust of him. It was no wonder that people did not see him beyond the counter. He was simply too repulsive.
As he trudged closer to Tarkhan, his speed started to grow with his excitement. It was not long before he got to where Tarkhan was lying on the hard pavement.
"Trying to threaten me? Prepare to regret it for your whole life! Hahaha!" Mr Rogers spit on Tarkhan's head, trampling all over him with his hefty weight. As Tarkhan had lost his strength, he could not even lift a finger to resist.
As Mr Rogers continued on to stomp on Tarkhan's head repeatedly, no one noticed a monstrous arm swinging towards his head. Mr Rogers' head was instantly turned into bits of grey matter and bone. The blood splattered across Tarkhan and the pavement, along with the ruffians who were watching Mr Rogers dominate Tarkhan.
"Uwaghhhhh!" The ruffians screamed. They were normally the one killing people, but seeing their new leader die this brutally. Even the previous leader died by a precise spell to the head.
What they feared even more was that the monstrous arm's owner was actually Liam. He had been hiding his true power all along! They trembled in their boots, as they shakily took their daggers out.
"Stop coming clo..clo...closer, or we will stab you!" A sole ruffian tried to act tough, and pointed the knife at Liam. He turned around to reaffirm himself of his safety in numbers, only to see that his fellow gang members had already run away while he distracted Liam.
"I applaud your bravery." Liam used his arm to lift force the ruffian down to his height.
"But there's a fine line between bravery and foolishness." Liam crushed his head with an immense grip strength, exploding it like a watermelon. He had become desensitised to death after seeing it happen so many times.
There was no mercy for those who showed the slightest threat to him. As for Tarkhan, he had already fainted from the poison, so he did not have to silence him. Tarkhan was still useful to him, as he could teach him about the path of the Tempered.
Liam shrunk his arm, which had an intense pain coming from it. He had exhausted the muscles in the body, as he had maintained this state for too long. He also needed to eat to recover his strength.
First, he needed to loot the bodies of the people he killed. The ruffian he killed did not have much belongings on him, only a few bronze Deltas and a poisoned knife.
When he approached Mr Rogers' body, he saw a shiny book reflecting the colours of the rainbow peeking out from his clothing. This was weird, considering that it was not affected by the liquids leaking out of Mr Rogers' body.
When Liam picked up the book, he could feel a gigantic pressure put on him by the book. There was a crystal inlaid on the book, which showed the face of an elderly person looking down. Liam immediately destroyed the crystal by changing back to his monstrous arm form.