"Haaa...where did that dirty fucker run off to…" Paul had an exasperated expression. He couldn't even find the youngster after wandering in the forest for half an hour.
He decided to call Matt and check if he found the youngster even though he should have gotten a call from him if he saw him.
*RING!*
Paul was startled to hear Matt's phone ringing from behind and quickly turned around with a surprised expression.
"Matt? Jeez...you almost scared me. If you finished him already, why didn't you give me a call instead of creeping up behind me?"
Matt had a wry smile on his face as he slowly approached Paul and said in a jesting tone, "Haha, he is dead. I was just trying to mess with you."
Paul had an annoyed expression thinking that he wasted his time all this while. But his brows furrowed when he noticed something strange about Matt.
"Why did you remove your coat and cover yourself with it? And why do you seem...shorter?" His voice towards the end trailed off as he felt that something was off about Matt.
His gun was still in his hand, and he unconsciously let his finger slip towards the trigger. Even though he had no plans of hurting Matt, he felt a bad feeling because of his instincts he had developed over the years in his line of work.
Matt had a confused expression as he bent his body even further, "It's just that fucker tripped me, and I hurt my back. And….oh my god...look behind you!"
"Huh?" Paul suddenly twisted his neck around. But when he saw nothing, he quickly turned around only to have his eyes narrowed upon seeing the sharp tip of a knife closing towards his neck!
"Ughhh!!" Paul stumbled back as he clutched his bloodied neck, which had a slash just below his throat. Fortunately, the wound wasn't deep since he was able to react fast enough to move back in time,
"What the fuck, Matt!" He bellowed with a groan.
He felt like his neck was burning from the inside and gritted his teeth in anger and shock.
However, there was no response, but instead, it seemed like Matt was running towards him.
Paul was distracted because of the stinging pain. But he saw Matt's figure reaching for his gun!
Paul was totally confused, shocked, and angered by the strange turn of events. However, as he wrestled with 'Matt' to wring him off, he could vaguely see that this Matt's body frame looked nothing like the Matt he knew, now that there wasn't any coat covering him.
And even his height was nothing like that of the Matt he knew.
Feeling that something was definitely wrong, he gave a kick towards 'Matt's' abdomen, making him stumble back by over a meter.
'Damn it!' The youngster cursed inwardly, seeing that his plan was already foiled from the moment Paul called Matt's phone. He no longer could maintain the appearance of Matt as thirty seconds had long passed and he was feeling all his energy spent.
He felt like his head was becoming dizzy, and his vision was becoming blurry. He decided to run away for now and take down Paul later.
But how could Paul let this fake Matt go like that? Without any further thought, he turned the safety lock of his gun off and tried to shoot at this fake Matt, trying to slip away.
*THAK*
The bullet missed and hit the trunk of a tree, and the fake Matt seemed to be running away even further in a weird zig-zag manner.
Paul's face was reddened, and he feverishly clutched his neck before taking a good aim at the fake Matt within his sight.
He held his breath, and within a few seconds…
The youngster was running with a grin on his face thinking that it would take some time for Paul to recover from his temporary stunned state.
However….
*WHIZZZ*
"AAHH!" With a loud wail, the youngster crashed on the ground as he gripped the right side of his abdomen.
He rolled on the ground a few times before coming to rest by having his back strike against the trunk of a tree.
"Fuckkkk…he got my liver..." The youngster groaned in pain as he tried to stop the bleeding. He positioned himself as he rested against the tree and saw Paul slowly walking towards him while rubbing his eyes.
He wanted to run, but his legs didn't seem to listen to him, and his senses seemed to get muddled slowly.
"Hahaha, you dirty mutt. You think you can fool me?" Paul laughed sardonically, and his tone became even darker as he continued, "I don't know what weird tricks you used to impersonate my colleague but say goodbye to your worthless life."
But contrary to the youngster's expectations, he didn't feel any sense of fear or despair as death loomed before him. Instead, he felt a strange sense of relief as he thought to himself, 'Ah...finally, I can kiss goodbye to this shitty life…'
"Kill this daddy if you got the guts…" The youngster mocked with a tired laugh as he closed his eyes to prepare himself to let death take him away.
Paul's expression became ugly as he raised his gun towards the youngster's head.
…
One second...three seconds...even after half a minute, nothing happened other than just the sound of vermin in the forest.
With lots of puzzling thoughts, the youngster opened his eyes slightly to see a tall figure clad in a dark blue robe with long white hair dancing in the air, floating before him.
Since his vision was blurry and the sunlight cast a shadow over the figure's face, he couldn't discern their face clearly.
It was as if Paul magically disappeared, and only this figure was floating in the air before him.
However, vaguely seeing the grand robes and the long hair, he mumbled in a dizzy manner, thinking that he already died, "Ah...my goddess...have you come to take me to heaven? Please make sure I get a lot of beauties in heaven…"
But the imposing and gruff voice that replied to him was like a bucket of cold water being poured over his head, "What goddess? I am the immortal dragon, Aldress, the Abyssal King. Now pull yourself together since your destiny is about to change!"