Leonard strangled him with one hand. He had a vicious gaze still intoxicated in the recent killings he had done.
Leonard had the Brag talent which annoys the targets around him. Targets affected by the skill would be annoyed and turn away from him, allowing him easy access to their vulnerable backs.
With his new found power, he felt he became invincible. As far as he knows, every Sinner that he encountered easily fell for the skill which allowed him to kill them easily.
With his newfound power, he had this feeling that his words should weigh more and his name should be known to all.
Seeing Aiden ignore and disobey him, he felt disrespected.
Aiden tightened his grip on the runestone. He had worked hard to get it, and he wasn't about to let Leonard take it from him.
"I'm not giving it up," he said firmly.
Leonard chuckled. "You don't have much of a choice, do you?"
Aiden tried to escape but the other party doesn't flinch. He knew he had to defend himself, but he also knew that Leonard was a skilled fighter. Being able to clear a group of Sinners means he was strong physically and has talent and skills that match his personality.
Aiden had to use his only talent skill, Steal, to create an advantage.
But before that...
A golden glow shone outward his pant pocket. He absorbed the Calisthenics runestone he was hiding and became one of his skill.
[Calisthenics (Novice): Consume 1 energy every 10 minutes to automatically perform a set of exercises. Each session will increase in strength, stamina and endurance by 0.1 points. Maximum of 10 additional overall stat points.(Novice). Cooldown: 1 hour. Upgrade Requirements: Perform 1000 sets of Calisthenic exercises manually.]
"You shouldn't have done that." Leonard growled and raised the meat cleaver over his head.
Aiden used Steal to take the meat cleaver from Leonard's hand.
Surprised by the sudden loss of his weapon, Leonard failed the attack. He stared at his empty hand for a few seconds before feeling a sharp pain on his sides.
Aiden had swung the cleaver, scratching Leonard on the side.
Leonard grunted in pain and entered into shock. Instead of trying to fight and brawl with Aiden who was pinned, he tried to get off and run away.
Aiden wouldn't allow that to happen.
The situation has changed now. The hunter became the prey and the prey became the hunter.
"Alright, bro, I was just joking. Let's talk about this." Leonard tried to play as the fool and saw Aiden's determined gaze. He hurled a thousand curses in his mind as he backed away.
"Stay away from me! I'm handsome! I'm so handsome!"
Earlier, Leonard felt he was invincible because of his powers. Together with how easily he survived and killed other people, he thought he was unstoppable. Reality slapped him in the face after getting scratched on the side. Though he only received a minor cut and his ribs stopped the meat cleaver, he was reminded that surviving humans can still fight back and not all can be easily slaughtered.
Aiden ignored the resistance notifications that flashed by and slowly got up, towering over Leonard.
"I didn't want to get involved with you but you forced me."
This was his only chance to make sure that Leonard won't come after him in the future.
Thinking of how he can finish Leonard without him being able to fight back, Aiden forced himself to something he didn't want to do.
Aiden waved his hands in the air and two fresh eyeballs appeared on his palm.
He felt the sticky fluid and the nerves on his skin and almost puked on the spot.
The only thing that stopped him was the sudden outburst of the eyeless person in front of him.
"AHHHH! WHAT IS THIS! IT HURTS! YOU... YOU DEMON!"
Aiden growled back. "This is your fault! You didn't give me any choice. Even if I don't want to kill you, you already have a bad encounter with me and I can't leave any loose ends. Especially, loose ends like you who loves to trouble others."
Aiden threw the meat cleaver with as much precision as could. The meat cleaver bludgeoned Leonard's forehead and caused the man to fall on his back.
Aiden didn't waste time and immediately dashed over and picked the meat cleaver to hack the man down.
Aiden remained there, panting and covered in sweat. He had never killed anyone before, and the weight of what he had just done was beginning to sink in.
He kneeled beside Leonard, searching his pockets for any valuables. He found a few coins, but nothing else of value.
As he stood up, Aiden felt a sense of regret wash over him. He had been forced to kill Leonard to protect himself, but he couldn't shake the feeling that there had been another way.
He looked down at Leonard's lifeless body, and he couldn't help but wonder what had driven the man to act like this. Leonard should have been a skilled fighter, and he obviously can take care of himself. Such a waste of talent and skills...
In this world, there are always people who only wants to bully the weak since the weak cannot fight back. These people doesn't care about their victims and only cares about themselves.
Aiden knew that he couldn't dwell on it now. He had to keep moving forward and continue his journey in the new world. He still has a friend waiting to be saved and a family he needs to go back to.
Looking at the mess he just made, he couldn't shake the feeling that this was just the beginning of the violence and bloodshed he would have to face in order to survive.
Leonard's body slowly withered as if the life inside the body has finally disappeared.
[You killed a Son of God Candidate. You will receive a random talent from the target. You received Brag(Master).]
[You unlocked the Scale of Good and Evil. Random events will happen at random times. The event can be good or bad depending on where you're located on the scale at the time of the event.]
[Scale of Good and Evil: -10(Evil)]
[A random event has occured. It has affected your current goal.]
"Scale of Good and Evil? Random events?"
Aiden wasn't expecting to receive a series of notifications after what he had just done. He tried his best to understand everything as fast as possible but that only gave him a bad feeling about the future.
Currently, he's on the evil side of the scale and that meant the random event that just happened had a negative impact to him.
He readied himself for the worst that could happen.
Any moment now, something bad will happen to him. Aiden started to think of the possibilities that could make things more harder than it already is.
With the amount of energy he had, it was a sure death if he got surrounded by a wandering pack of Sinners. Or he could suddenly meet Leonard's friends if he ever had one in the dormitory.
A few moments passed but nothing happened. No wandering pack of Sinners found him by accident nor random people appear wanting to avenge Leonard.
"Strange... why is nothing happening?"
Aiden shrugged it off and investigated the new talent he received.
Just like the Steal talent that he had, the Brag talent also had no cooldown and has lower consumption than regular skills.
It also has multiple effects and can be used for escaping, incapacitating targets and taunting enemies depending on how you use it.
After learning the effects of the talent, he finally understood why Leonard kept praising himself. Though he had some idea about the effects, confirming things was a lot better than mere speculations.
"With the Brag talent I received, I surprisingly increased my survival rate by a huge margin. As long as I'm careful and doesn't run out of energy, I can deal with almost every situation!"
Aiden was glad with the sudden pie that fell from the sky.
"Since I have two talents now, I have more options on how I can deal with trouble. The things is... though I love to have more talents, it seems like I have to kill others..."
"Upgrading skills to become talents will take a long time, but..."
Aiden suddenly had a sharp glint in his eyes.
"If trouble comes to me on their own, I will never hesitate to defend myself."
Unbeknownst to him, a thin pale dark glow was wrapping his body that cannot be seen by the mere naked eye.