Without much deliberation, Rat shouted. "Come on, men. Let us show this brat how we deal with those who disobey the way of us, Unkillable Rats. Fight on!"
"YES!" The thousands of thugs of all ages in their den rallied their resolves as their leaders told them to. Their conversation was clear to all of them and they were pretty much in a pinch if they were truly surrounded by people that want to end their reign of delinquency.
They were too far gone and absorbed in their criminal ways that they found it unacceptable to just end it now.
Some like Batter and those who align with his views about the organizational status quo felt about running away because they had nothing to do with this. However, they also knew the consequences if Rat and the others would crumble. They would just be suppressed in the shadows and not have the privilege to flaunt their existence.
This farce of cause and effect is what urged them to stand along with their devoted peers and show their enemy with what they got. Not knowing that everything was just a big misunderstanding that made them think that they had no way out.
'This is too surreal to register but there is no point in dwelling in their sudden change in attitude.' Aster commented as to how discontinuous their will of self and identity is. If their boss had not told them in motivation, they would be like puppets that had no strings.
Even if they really had wills of their own, they were too far gone to notice that they were blended into a structure of obey and serve by the cunning Rat.
This may be what Batter and all other independents by his sides are feeling. They think that they are in much opposition to strict hierarchy but they were already conforming to it because they took no action to show their disagreements.
They disagree but they keep it to themselves and the reason for indifference in society becomes apparent in this example. It all became their norm to follow and obey in silence such that they are not any different than the brainless worshippers of Rat that they scorn.
Aster wanted to deploy Red Mist but eventually decided against it. He wanted to go for another route in fighting wanted to go back to the rudimentary basics. What could be any other amalgamation of the basics than the Origin Body Art itself.
"Die!" Seeing their enemy stand in place was interpreted by others as treating their charge to the death as nothing. A special gangster yelled and showcased an unexpected weapon of choice. Gunpowder dispersed from his gun's barrels and unleashed the bullet that is normally quicker than the eyes.
Rat and his eyewitness vice leaders felt a bit of relief when they heard the gunshot. They knew the fearsomeness of Aster's mana skills, so they failed to consider the possibility of him reacting to such a weapon with his expertise. 'So what if you know how to teleport. So what if you control blood. So what if you can kill brutally. An unexpected person with an unexpected weapon would eventually catch you off guard.'
They might have just caught him off guard because a gun is a seldomly used killing tool after all. Such secret methods were courtesy of their other vice member who was merged in the crowd of goonies. He was aptly named Gunner for his thug name that was on par with infamous names such as Cinder and Rat.
Gunner was their trump card when it comes to unexpected enemies or better called unexpecting enemies. Rat was too panicked earlier that he failed to remember such sure-kill methods of his most secretive subordinate. Unfortunately, their expectations would always be crumbled in the face of Aster's versatility.
'What a surprise, indeed!' Aster's smile expectation was still in place. His shiny, white teeth would dazzle beauties but gangsters with good vision could not help but shiver from seeing a metallic ball caught in between his smiling bite.
The sneaky Gunner was also stunned but his years of experience did not make him falter as he blended into the crowd of delinquents like he did no major action at all. Even Aster's above normal senses could not spot him from the crowd of rambunctious men.
'Oh well. I just need to strain the man from a thousand people by means of elimination.' Aster shrugged while his tongue miraculously flicked the bullet in between his upper and lower teeth. There was no gunshot but its deadliness was not any different than how it was being shot from a gun.
"Aa!" A weird grunt of pain followed by a thud was made as a mob gangster died from having been shot. Aster even praised himself for his unexpected accuracy. It was directly buried into the gangster's forehead and considered among the most epic shots in gun history.
A headshot would always be bragged about by men who wanted to exhibit his masculinity over other men. Every other gangster noticed their gang mate being sent to his death but they moved on and continued to fight. They do not want to be the next one and the dumb solution they came up with was to send themselves head-on to kill the enemy that can give them the same fate.
It was frankly a suicidal move that would be the greatest stain or heroic move in their lives. Heroic in war but stupidity when in the views of a criminal. Since they were thugs, then stupidity it would be labeled as.
Aster did not even move from his spot as he waited for the lot of them to move into his reach.
"Take this!" One would eventually win the race and his reward was a punch in the gut that sent him flying towards Rat's elevated stage. The trajectory of him being blown away was designed by Aster to not hinder goons from behind so that he had one thousand men to punch and blow away with death.
Not any sign of the prolonged scream was heard because he was dead from having his spine broken with a snap.
This just made the leader figures rethink their evaluation of him. The vice leaders, that saw him for the first time, now knew to take him even more seriously than before.
"Fuck!" The trio, who knew him already, shouted in unison from seeing such display. No fluctuation in mana and traces of mystical skills was felt which could only mean one thing.
"This brat is also a fuckin' body cultivator!" Rat was gritting his teeth from saying those words. The muscular Grappler was already a freak in their eyes and despite his low evaluation as a human being, his abilities in terms of body power were already a miracle to them.
Vice Ganda felt his view of the world being widened to vaster horizons. "To think that a monster in body cultivation is right before my eyes.!"
All of the other vices in his vicinity nodded in reluctance while Vice Cinder's paranoia had already placed Aster in an unbeatable pedestal. "Boss, let us act now! He is too much of a freak to even be considered a human being. A space cultivator is already a headache but this body cultivation is already too much for us to handle."
'Run! Run! Fucking run! Where do I freaking run?!' Rat was screaming in his mind while he pulled himself out of desperation with his earlier realization. "We could not even fucking run but he would run out of steam. When we see Gunner fall, that would be the time that we act."
Cinder felt weirded out by his boss' rambling about running but he kept quiet. He grabbed a customized lighter with a rat insignia from his pockets as he readied for the fight of his life.
"What about our... men? Aren't they going to die if we continue our inaction?" Tank was the one to voice out disagreement as he sympathized with his subordinates. He was a strict and hierarchal nutjob but he had genuine care for the men he normally berated and abused.
"It is a necessary sacrifice." Rat said in indifference while the misunderstanding of Aster's capabilities and backing trapped him in place. He did not care for the thousands that would die but what he cared for was his way out of this predicament. 'Should I use the brat as a bargaining chip? Could I even have a chance when fighting him? Are those corrupt fools going to bail me from here? Scratch that! Those arrogant sons of bitches do not care for my survival at all. If I die, they would just replace me with another.'
'You may have killed Alioth but hopefully my team would match your viciousness.' The gang boss could only hope for Aster to run out of steam and be weakened. The image of the impaled Dren leader was still fresh in his mind and he desperately needed a reason to avoid such fate.
Their plans proved futile as Aster came punching and kicking goons to death.
With a kick in the knee, a gang member had no choice but to fall forward. Before the unfortunate person could drop to the ground, Aster gave a punch to the face that sent the person tumbling backward in the air.
Two mobs took this chance to attack him from behind but it proved futile because of the slaps that twisted their heads in place. It was a no-looker that sent chills to those that saw it.
Of course, the chills were courtesy of the devouring process of his skills-oriented for devil ways. Aster could have directly weakened their will and devour their souls but he wanted a normal factory fight, so a slightly abnormal factory fight is what he gets.
He was just grinning as he murdered everyone that came close. With a roundhouse kick, ten gang members had their chins dislocated and hanging. He followed it with another round to twist their heads out.
BANG!
Another gunshot was issued and treacherously aimed for his back. The ever-efficient Gunner hid in the crowd but the man was already clenching his fist in victory. But to no surprise of Aster, he just defied common ways as the direction where he was facing had suddenly reverted to face the incoming bullets with prodigious use of footwork and speed. Millimeters before hitting his clothes, his fingers had already stopped the bullets from going any further.
Gunner and his loaded gun disappeared again from a crowd of thugs that surrounded him from all sides. This did not stop him from continuing with the carnage as dead people piled up around him.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
'This is getting boring.' Aster said again as he stopped a triple count of bullets that came his way. They got stuck in between his fingers. He tossed them up and by flicking three times, three bullets passed through the poor bloke that hindered its straight line of motion.
"This would be the first time I used it in attack mode but it would surely not disappoint." Aster said to his enemies but it was drowned by their incessant noise. The Unkillable Rats were strangely motivated that it even scared him a little.
"Whatever, I guess!" He shrugged to indifference while more than nine hundred men shrieked in pain. The phenomenon of invisibility and supernatural dark particulates that could only be perceived by one's special sixth sense enshrouded the rowdy crowd. "Soul Devourer."
Rat and the vice leaders from afar were out of range as they saw how their subordinates unnaturally screamed and shrieked.
"Aaaaahhh!!" The sound filled the huge factory as they suffered from inexplicable torture. It is said that when the soul is being attacked, the sensation of pain is exponentially higher than the greatest pain that the body can register. The Unkillable Rats were suffering the same fate as the devilish skill slowly sunk them to doom.
In the middle of all of this, Aster formed his observations as if he was not responsible for such inhumanity. 'I guess Soul Devourer works best with devouring souls that are detached from corpses. If used in this method, it would just slowly enjoy ripping the soul's connection to the living entity.'
While the leader figures were stunned like stone, they allowed the overkill to happen for minutes as the wails eventually stopped.
Dead men became akin to a sea as a lone youth stood alone in the middle of it all. Chill filled the surroundings as the silence became broken when the youth said in apology towards nothing. "Sorry to the world for my psychopathic killings!"