Lachlan stared at his bloody fist for a couple of seconds till he was shaken from his daze by the sounds of groans and sobs coming from his front.
There laid Robby, his face paling by the second as his eyelids trembled. His fist was entirely mangled and looked unusable. It wouldn't be a stretch to say his hand would be disabled if it wasn't healed by a high-leveled healing ability-wielder— or a team of them, albeit lower in level.
Lachlan didn't let his mind wander and knew better than to get distracted in the middle of a fight, so instead of focusing on his newly acquired strength and agility or the severity of Robby's wound, he turned his full attention to finishing him off.
With that idea fresh in his mind, He hurriedly grabbed the knife that was pricked through Nicholas' eye and swiftly yanked it out. As it separated from Nicholas' eye, a blood trail followed in the air, as it was pulled out too hard, coloring the vegetation in the periphery the blood fell on red.
Shortly after, the knife tore through the air as it shot towards its next target, producing a "Whooosh" sound in the process.
As Robby saw the approaching knife coming closer and closer to him, he was shocked and screamed without any hesitation, "WAIT- WAIT, DON'T DO THIS, I'LL DO ANYTHING!" as he staggered backwards in an attempt to escape.
Unfortunately, he couldn't get too far before the knife viciously skewered itself right through his throat, causing his screams and pleading to come to a halt. What replaced it instead was the sounds of gagging— and the sight of blood seeping from his wound, occasionally even gushing out as the knife definitely hit an artery.
The blood flew out like a fountain, coloring Lachlan's uniform red as blood splatters appeared on his face. If someone saw him now, they would undoubtedly mistake him for a demon— or perhaps something even worse…
Before long, the sounds of gagging came to an end, and what replaced it instead was the sounds of silence— with the occasional faint noises of fighting coming from the background as the clash between Oliver and Brice's gang was still ongoing.
As Lachlan looked upon the deceased Robby, and turned his head to look at the other deceased person beside him, Nicholas, his heart slightly squeezed, and he felt a little bit nauseous.
He knew he would have to kill somebody at some point to get an ability, but it felt too soon, and now that he had actually gone through with it, and could see the two lifeless corpses that he had so viciously murdered a couple seconds ago, a chill couldn't help but creep up his spine.
"Why am I so pressed!" he wondered to himself silently. "They're bad people who wanted to lure an unsuspecting girl into the forest and violate her! They're the scum of the earth who deserve to be killed!"
Lachlan reassured himself but still felt guilty somehow like he had sinned— even though he had expunged the world of two rapists— who could perhaps become something worse in the future…
With much effort, and the sound of the system ringing in his ear, Lachlan was shaken from his thoughts as he hastily turned his head to the system's screen to analyze. additionally, he threw the guilty thoughts he was experiencing to the back of head.
‹You have killed Robby Erwin›
‹Ability: Thermal Vision›
‹Ability level: 1.7›
‹Reward: 170 exp›
‹Would you like to activate the Plunderer Skill?›
Lachlan looked at the screen with a frown. He didn't want thermal vision, but he really wanted an ability, no matter its level, so he grudgingly answered, "Yes, activate the plunderer skill…."
‹Plunderer Skill Activated›
‹Attempting Merge…›
‹Attempting Merge…›
‹Attempting Merge…›
‹Merge Successful›
‹X-Virus cells will infuse into your body now…›
‹Intense pain may occur…›
Lachlan smiled broadly and felt his cheeks flush from excitement when he saw the success of the merge, "finally," he exclaimed, wanting to try out his new ability as soon as possible. But as his eyes skimmed across the last line, he froze, "Wait, not this again—" he fretted as a sudden pain emerged from his stomach.
"Aghhh—" screamed Lachlan in between clenched teeth. He lifted his shirt and leered at his tummy and was shocked by what he saw; his abdomen was exuding a greenish, mystifying glow.
As soon as Lachlan realized what it was, as he had seen the infusement process before during his siblings infusement, he beamed! And the pain, which was so unbearable before, seemed to have alleviated a little as the knowledge of it being the infusement process relieved his mind.
The pain continued for what felt like ages— but was only a couple of minutes in real-time until it finally came to a stop.
Lachlan, who laid on the muddied ground face up, exhausted from the pain with beads of sweat rolling down his forehead, looked at the popped-up screen in his face with immense joy.
‹New ability has been bestowed to the host: Thermal Vision!›
‹Ability level: 1.7›
Lachlan looked at the System prompt with a broad smile and felt his chin tremble from excitement.
Even though he was drained from the infusement process and felt his eyelids drooping, he wanted to try his newly bestowed ability as soon as possible, so he peeled his eyes from the screen and got up from the ground.
After the infusement, he felt the knowledge of his acquired ability being implanted in his mind and activating it shouldn't be difficult. Lachlan pictured in his mind thermal vision, and as he did, his eyes started tingling until his vision progressively became dark, with orange and red spots showing at certain places.
Those spots belonged to creatures that gave off a heat signature, and they were bright, very bright. Lachlan could also feel his vision becoming more acute. Before, he felt like he needed glasses, but now his vision felt clearer than glass. Even the most miniature spiders that were crawling on some adjacent leaves could clearly be seen in the darkness of the night, and It only made Lachlan even more excited. He wanted to test out the ability for a little bit longer but kept himself from doing so for the time being.
Instead, he nimbly pulled the knife out from Robby's throat and cleaned it on his garments before peering towards the ongoing battle. There, he saw Oliver bloodied and bruised, with dabs of blood coloring his uniform crimson.
The three boys were mercilessly attacking him from all angles, leaving him no time to rest. Luckily, Oliver was able to dodge, block and counter the blows with his ability, but there were still blind spots he couldn't see that resulted in occasional blows to connect.
Lachlan could also see that the blue-orb that the skinny student shot repeatedly made Oliver slower and slower. It was most definitely a debuff ability, which explained why he was losing the battle as time passed.
Lachlan knew he needed to do something quickly, so he stopped looking at the fight and ran over to the other boy who was knocked unconscious by Oliver. It was a bald student with a ferocious face and an unkempt beard, with blood dripping from his mouth, falling into the tiny fissures lingering on the ground.
Lachlan touched the side of the boy's neck and felt a pulse, indicating he wasn't dead.
"Great," whispered Lachlan to himself as he got down on both his knees and dug out the knife he put in his back pocket. He aimed the knife right for the young man's chest but right before it was about to enter and kill the boy, Lachlan stopped.
He felt the same chill he felt before creep up his spine again, telling him it was wrong.
"Should I not do this…" he thought.
Lachlan felt confused and reluctant to kill, but as he stared down the fight between Oliver and the others, he steeled his mind as he plunged the knife right through the young man's chest. It bore through his chest, and the young man instinctively awoke from his unconsciousness as he felt the pain radiating from the newly-formed wound at his chest.
Before he could scream though, a firm hand covered his mouth and held it tight together.
The young man looked up in a panic and saw a pair of chestnut eyes glaring deep into his own. The eyes shimmered with crimson, and before he could do anything, the person with the shimmering eyes repeatedly stabbed into his chest, causing blood to fly out in all directions. Even his innards became caught on the knife, resulting in them disenthralling from his body as they landed on his uniform and the ground beneath him.
Lachlan was technically butchering the student violently, and as he did, the panicked eyes of the student stopped moving and became dull— and the muffled screams which attempted to leave his mouth never came.
He was dead, and Lachlan slowly removed his hand from the young man's mouth as he threw the knife away towards the side.
The system prompt that showed up after every kill showed up once more;
‹You have killed Liam Hemingway›
‹Ability: Arrow Generation›
‹Ability level: 3.0›
‹Reward: 300 exp›
‹Would you like to activate the Plunderer Skill?›
"Yes," affirmed Lachlan. "Attempt merge…."
‹Plunderer Skill Activated›
‹Attempting Merge…›
‹Attempting Merge…›
‹Attempting Merge…›
‹Merge Successful›
‹X-Virus cells will infuse into your body now…›
‹Intense pain may occur…›
At that, the mystifying green lines emerged from Lachlan's stomach once more, covering his abdomen as they reached out and touched every corner of his body.
Unexpectedly though, the pain, which was so excruciating beforehand, wasn't as bad now, It was bearable, and Lachlan felt like he could stand on his feet and power through it. Lachlan suspected that it had something to do with the system and that once you've become acclimated to the pain and the infusement process, it wouldn't be as bad anymore. Thinking this, Lachlan felt gratitude towards the system, and before long, the screen popped up once more.
‹New ability has been bestowed to the host: Arrow Generation!›
‹Ability level: 2.0›
Lachlan was ecstatic when he got this ability. It was an actual combat useful, and not an ability with limited practicality like ‹Thermal Vision›, but still, disappointment couldn't help but be shown on his face.
The reason for his displeasure was because the ability level had been lowered after he had gotten it.
His nostrils flared, and anger boiled within him, but he felt like he understood why the level decreased after his anger had passed. Abilities were increased by constant training, and Lachlan had just gotten these abilities; so it would only be logical for the level to decrease initially prior to training.
After becoming clear-minded and rational again. he leered back towards the ongoing fight and waited for the opportune moment to intervene. After all, he wasn't satisfied with just two abilities; he wanted all of them— and he wouldn't let the guilt he felt stop him from climbing to the top and showing those around him that he was the strongest— even if his hands would become soaked with blood in the process, it was a necessary tradeoff in Lachlan's eyes...
Additionally, he wanted to help Oliver, he hadn't just risked his life by coming here, but he had done it for him. It showed commitment and that he was true to his words, something not many people were in today's world.
At that moment, Brice landed a heavy blow on Oliver that caused him to fly into a nearby tree, making him spit blood.
"Puhh!" echoed throughout the forest, followed by a "Thud," as he hit the tree and its sturdy bark.
Not longer after, the three boys began running towards Oliver.
Oliver saw that the three young men were coming in hastily, so he used his ‹Speed Manipulation› ability to shoot out the bark that had fallen near him.
The bark flew across the sky, and the two boys took cover behind Brice as it got close. It bounced off his force-field, and they continued their sprint after the danger had passed.
Oliver felt dread at that moment but continued shooting whatever he could find in the periphery. Rocks, soil, bark, and leaves. All of which were close. After all, he could only manipulate the speed of the objects near him, and the objects to use at his periphery were limited— so when the objects around him became sparse— fear couldn't help but overtake him.
When the trio of boys got so close that they were only about a meter away from Oliver, the two apart from Brice slightly retreated. They knew from the look of Oliver's face he would no longer pose a challenge, so they held themselves back, looking from the sides at the bloodbath to come.
Brice smiled wickedly, and at that moment, to make sure the high-leveled student in front of him would be knocked out, he removed the force-field from his body and concentrated it to an extreme around his fist in preparation for the strike.
His grin became even wider as his fist shot out with tremendous speed, yet, before it could hit, something stopped him in his tracks which caused his arm to fall limply to the side.
The two boys who were next to Brice leering at him with excited faces suddenly froze.
They saw something which made their eyes bulge out of their sockets.
Likewise, Oliver, who was expecting to be hit any second, tilted his head up when nothing came.
What he saw shocked him, and he stammered in a frightened voice, "What- What the h-hell"
Brice had two arrows in his back, which tunneled all their way through his ribcage and appeared out of his chest. He had been thoroughly impaled, and blood trickled down his chest in copious amounts.
Brice felt pain radiate from the wound, and he couldn't help but stammer to Oliver in front of him in a shocked voice, "W-what did y-you do… me!"
Oliver answered, "I did no-noth—" yet before he could, two more arrows that came out of the darkness of the forest pierced through both of the boys' heads that were standing next to Brice, entering through the the back of their craniums, popping out through their eye sockets, painting a gory picture.
When Oliver saw this, he trembled and darted his glance around the darkness.
He saw nothing but the lonesome trees that were laminated in the moonlight, and the only sound which entered his ear was the occasional breeze and flutter of leaves that sent chills down his spine.
"W-Who's t-there!" he screamed, fear evident in his voice.
Just then, a silhouette appeared from behind one of the trees, bringing with it the soft crunch of leaves as it slowly walked towards Oliver.
"W-Who are you!" he screamed, as he backed up towards the tree and squeezed out all the power within him to use his ability.
The silhouette came closer and closer till it finally came into view for Oliver to get a glimpse of its face.
When he saw who it was, he shouted passionately, "Run Lachlan! Someone is shooting arrows out of the forest!"
"I know," responded Lachlan, "…I was the one who killed them."
"W-w-what…" stammered Oliver as his eyes widened and his features trembled.