At least I thought the man was lunging forward, but he stopped right in front of me and the mob. The students who were holding me threw me to the ground.
"You can have him!" one of them shouted, the fear evident in their voices.
"Yeah! Just don't kill us!"
"Please let us go!"
Saying that, they quickly spun around to leave. The handsome man gazed after them, his lip curling in amusement. He glanced down at me, but I sat up and glared at him defiantly.
"What do you want? Why are you looking for me?"
Well, he already told me that he wanted my life, but the fact that he hadn't killed me yet offered hope that he was simply being melodramatic. I couldn't help but hope that I might survive. Otherwise, I was going to fight tooth and nail to the bitter end.
Not that I would stand a chance against a monster who could punch the head off muscular Teacher Qiang…
Instead of answering my question, the man chuckled and continued to look at the fleeing students. He then glanced at me, almost as if he was pitying me.
"I can't believe you're risking your life and sacrificing so much for such worthless trash." He sighed heavily. "Is it worth it?"
"What?" I gaped at him, not comprehending. "What are you talking about?"
He ignored me and turned his attention back toward the retreating mob. Raising his hand, he chuckled darkly.
"Did I say you can all go?"
"Huh?"
"Why?"
"Didn't we deliver Shu Cong to you?"
The students turned around, panicking. Some of them didn't waste any time and quickly sprinted away, only for something to wheeze past me.
"…eh?"
I blinked, feeling blood trickle down my cheek. I didn't see anything, yet I could have sworn something just breezed past me. Something invisible, perhaps. Not wind, yet it was just as intangible. And several times deadlier.
There was a scream. Turning around, I caught sight of a spray of blood at the end of the corridor. The students who had chosen to run were falling over. to my horror, I saw that their legs had been severed, blood pumping out of the broken arteries in their thighs and pooling together to form a red sea. They wailed and flailed about, trying to claw toward safety with their hands.
Another breeze, and their hands were amputated at the wrists, causing them to shriek in pain once more.
Those who had frozen remained intact, their eyes shifting from their comrades to the man with the raised hand.
"W…why?" One of the students blurted out, tears leaking from his eyes. He pointed at me. "Didn't you already get Shu Cong? W…why?"
The man shrugged indifferently, and then he grinned. Maybe it was my imagination, but for a moment I could have sworn I saw fangs…the points of his teeth sharpened like the tips of daggers.
"Because you piss me off?"
"W…what?"
"Why?"
"What did we do?"
The man sighed and shook his head in exasperation. He raised both hands and shrugged again, with more emphasis this time. His lips curled into a sneer.
"When you are stomping on ants, do you need to waste your breath justifying to them why you're killing them?"
"Eh?"
The man ignored the stunned, teary faces of the male and female students who had mobbed me and threw me to his mercy. He turned to me, but I was at a loss for words. The grisly event that was unfolding before my eyes…it felt so surreal, almost as if it was a dream.
Yeah. This had to be a dream. A nightmare. I just needed to wake up soon.
"And Shu Cong…I'll show you how futile your efforts are." The man tuned back to grin at me. I felt cold fear seeping throughout my body and was unable to suppress a shudder. Even though I prayed that I would wake up soon, the nightmare refused to end. For now, all I could do was glare defiantly at the man, who continued to gloat. "You'll never be able to protect anybody. These people aren't worth your protection. Trash like these…are better off dead."
He flicked his fingers. I shivered, not knowing what to expect. Was he finally going to kill me?
Then I realized the cold silence. The lack of heaving or heavy breathing. The soft noises that the students made when shifting slightly or scraping their shoes against the floor. All of that was strangely absent.
Then the wet thumps.
Slowly, I turned around. Behind me, the entire mob of students had been sliced neatly in half, bisected at their waists. The upper halves of their bodies were sliding off to land on the ground, and their legs and hips toppled over eventually. The only survivor was Pang Zi, who had remained out of sight and unconscious this entire time. I didn't draw attention to him and instead focused on the man before he could notice that he had left my chubby friend out.
"W…hy?" I finally managed.
"Hmm? Like I said, they pissed me off." the man shrugged. "Even though we were enemies, you were a worthy opponent. To see you reduced to this because of these fuckers…it didn't sit well with me. Just think of it as me doing you a favor."
He then grinned and stepped toward me, cocking his arm back for a punch.
"Well, as much as this is a pity, I'll have to take your life now. It's too dangerous to allow you to live."
I tensed and dove to the side, barely escaping his fist. My assailant blinked and he smiled, looking impressed.
"Ho…you actually dodged that. No wonder you became the…"
He threw another punch before he finished his sentence and the rest of his words were drowned out in a sonic boom. Once again, I threw myself to the side, rolling away from his attack. His fist demolished a wall and sent nearby desks and chairs flying.
Whirling about, he kicked at me, but I was moving away as quickly as I could. He didn't hesitate to swing his leg down in an axe kick as a follow up, but even as I evaded it, the moment his foot crashed onto the ground, he destroyed the floor and left a massive hole.
Below, students screamed as debris rained down upon them. As worried as I was about them, I didn't have the luxury to check on their wellbeing. I had problems of my own. Gritting my teeth, I sprinted toward the corridor.
The man laughed and flicked his hand. Having seen his technique earlier – the same one he used to cut apart my schoolmates at a distance – I had anticipated it. Somehow, I was able to intuitively tell that he was aiming for my head and I ducked. The next one came at my legs, but I managed to dive to the side, avoiding getting my lower limbs severed at the thigh.
I was lucky. The idiot had revealed his tricks earlier when playing around with my schoolmates.
"How are you evading my attacks? You haven't started cultivating yet. At least not during this time period."
The man sounded astonished. However, he kicked off the ground and flew toward me. I ducked even as I threw an instinctive glance over my shoulder, and realized that I wouldn't be able to avoid this punch.
There was purplish-black qi gathering around his fist, taking the shape of a grotesque monster's face. The phantom image appeared to howl, wisps of ominous smoke trailing from its horns and fangs. I realized that this punch was going to blow away the entire corridor and there was not a single thing I could do to escape it.
Worse, I spotted someone rounding the stairs and stepping into the corridor. Another student? A teacher? What was he doing here?! Shouldn't they all be running away after the commotion?
"Don't come up here!" I yelled. "Go back down! There's…!"
The newcomer ignored me, striding around the stairwell and proceeding toward the corridor. My eyes widened briefly when I saw that I didn't recognize him. He wasn't wearing a school uniform like the other students, so I assumed he was a teacher – one I hadn't met before. He was dressed too casually, though…
But his attire was the least of my worries right now.
"Get down!" he snapped at me.
I blinked but immediately obeyed, throwing myself to the ground. I knew it was futile, though. No matter how low I pressed myself against the floor, that demonic energy around the murderer's fist would wash over the entire area and annihilate me along with the whole corridor.
The newcomer didn't seem to be fazed by that. He hurdled over me and I watched in shock when a golden sphere of energy materialized around his fist. He yelled as he threw a punch of his own, his fist colliding against that of the mass murderer.
A massive explosion ensued, the shockwaves reverberating across the corridor and buffeting me. I grunted as I was slammed into the far wall, the wind knocked out of me. Fortunately, it seemed that my body was mostly intact.
That was more than I could ask for.
Breathing heavily, I glanced up. Apparently the newcomer had canceled out most of the killer's destructive energy with his own punch, but the windows on either side of the two had been completely shattered.
Heedless of the collateral damage they were causing, the two of them traded blows, the newcomer meeting the murderer's punches with his fists. He parried, blocked and countered, thrusting his fist toward the killer's face. The murderer snarled as he was forced to shift his head to the side, but blood trickled from a graze on his cheek. He retaliated with another punch, but the newcomer deflected it with an elbow before catching the assailant's knee with his palm.
The walls and floor around them cracked, the concrete unable to withstand the tremendous impacts that were being caused by their exchange. The murderer continued to pummel away, his arms a blur as he tried to overwhelm his opponent with the sheer volume of his punches. The newcomer stood his ground, much like an unyielding rock, absorbing blow after blow.
No, I was mistaken. The newcomer wasn't simply enduring the punches and kicks. He was actually adjusting to the flow. If I watched carefully, he was deflecting his opponent's strikes by tapping or knocking the killer's arms or legs aside instead of catching them full-on. It was almost like Tai qi. He was redirecting the force of the murderer's attacks to the side, dissipating the violent qi into the air while using his opponent's strength against him.
Spinning around, he allowed the murderer's fist to blow past him. Even at this distance, I could still feel the energy from the punch buffet me, and the wall behind me cracked further. Coughing, I kept my gaze on the fight, having no intention to leave.
Perhaps that was stupid, but I didn't know what else to do. If I ran now, where would I go? If the killer won the battle, he would come after me. More people would die. Also, it was frustrating not knowing what was going on.
I wanted answers and I had the feeling this newcomer might provide them. He saved my life, after all. I didn't know if I could trust him, but at the very least I knew that if he wanted me dead, he would have let me get obliterated by the murderer's blow earlier.
Once again, the newcomer adjusted his stance, allowing yet another powerful kick to pass by him. He then snapped his leg up in return and kicked the killer in the solar plexus. Caught off guard and still partially off balance because of the kick he had just executed, the murderer was unable to block the blow.
The newcomer didn't hesitate and he kicked the murderer through the wall and out of the building. I watched, amazed, as the killer vanished amidst a pile of debris and was sent sailing into the opposite campus building. He smashed a hole through a wall and disappeared into its interior, his figure buried by rubble.
"Holy cow…!"
I couldn't believe my eyes. Gaping at the incredible sight, I almost didn't notice the newcomer approaching me. He skidded to a stop and stretched out his hand impatiently as he issued a single order.
"Come with me if you want to live."