"Let's go back; I need to handle the other one," said Alex while carrying the now unmasked man.
Contrary to the latter's assumption, Alex didn't eliminate every one of the bandits. The tattooed man and Starx still remained. However, the masked man, overwhelmed by fear upon witnessing the carnage, neglected to carefully assess his surroundings. Even if he knew Starx and the tattooed man were still around, his fear would probably make him decide the same way.
".... f*cking...."
As Alex approached, he heard cursing and yelling, which made him sneer.
The one cursing was obviously the tattooed man, frustrated because thick smoke hindered his escape each time he tried.
Since Alex didn't want to kill the man, he simply used the smoke to stop him from escaping while he moved to catch the masked man.
'Hmm, I'm getting an idea,' thought Alex, hand on his chin.
With a thought, he controlled the smoke that had been hindering the tattooed man.
"At last!"
Finally free, the tattooed man didn't waste a second before trying to escape.
However, he came to a halt when the smoke that had been obstructing his path came back.
Yet, this time, the smoke wasn't in a gaseous state but shaped like a knight wielding a spear of at least 3 meters.
'It's a bit crude, but it will do,' thought Alex while making the smoke knight walk towards the tattooed man who forgot that he needed to escape, witnessing the incredible scene before him.
'It's actually a bit difficult to make it walk,' remarked Alex.
When the smoke was in a gaseous form, it was easy for him to control it, but it wasn't the same in a solid form, though it wasn't really difficult either.
The problem here was that he was trying to make the smoke mimic how a person acted, trying to make it walk and do things like that, which he had never done nor tried.
The few times he gave the smoke a solid shape, he shaped it into something that he himself could wield or use, like a chair or a spear. Here it was different; he was required to control each of the movements of the smoke while in a solid form, which is the reason why the movements of the smoke knight were awkward.
However, Alex wasn't a smoke sovereign just for show; he quickly got the hang of it, and his smoke knight's stride became a bit more refined while losing some of its awkwardness.
The smoke knight tapped the butt of its spear on the ground, then rushed towards the tattooed man, who still had a disbelieving expression.
Since the knight was made of smoke, it didn't weigh much to begin with, so the speed it displayed was astonishing.
A fraction of a second later, the knight closed in on the tattooed man and swung its spear at him.
Surprised by the smoke knight's swift moves, the tattooed man barely managed to swing his great sword to counter, but surprisingly, the sword passed right through the smoke knight, destroying it.
Both Alex and the tattooed man frowned at this.
The tattooed man frowned because he thought that the smoke knight would pose him some resistance; Alex frowned because he was struggling to use the smoke knight.
'Since I was too focused on the movements of the knight, I forgot to make it more solid,' Alex analyzed.
However, soon, his smile returned.
'I may have made a mistake, but thanks to it, I now have an example of a battle style.'
The instant he had this thought, he shaped the smoke that had returned to its gaseous state into the knight again, this time behind the tattooed man.
The knight thrust his spear at the unsuspecting man the instant it was formed.
However, the tattooed man was still a level 4; such a sneak attack wouldn't work on him.
Just as the spear was about to pierce the man's head, he spun and slashed at the knight.
The knight's arm that was wielding the spear got cut off, causing the man to grin.
However, what he seemed to have forgotten was that the knight was a mere construct of smoke that Alex had made. He might have easily cut off its arm, but Alex could easily reform it back, which he did.
Both the cut-off arm and the spear that had become gaseous shaped back, and with a precise and swift attack, the spear slashed at the man's right eye.
"Arrrggg..."
The tattooed man groaned in pain and quickly retreated with his palm pressed against his eye to prevent the blood from gushing out.
'Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t, I lost my eye!!!' he lamented.
His remaining eye became bloodshot once he spotted Alex, who had returned and was about to drop the masked man's body on the ground.
"Everything is your fault!!!!"
Forgetting that the reason he was fighting the smoke knight was to escape from Alex, the man lunged at Alex with his fastest speed.
"I will f*cking kill you!" he shouted.
However, he couldn't get to Alex before the smoke knight appeared in front of him again.
The tattooed man slashed at the smoke construct, obliterating it in an instant.
"Scram!"
Before the smoke could shape back into the knight again, the man was already near Alex, swinging his sword wildly toward Alex's head.
'Huh? What-'
Just as his sword was about to cut off Alex's head, he briefly noticed a flash, and a split second later, a fist that weighed like a falling anvil crashed against him, sending him hurling away.
With a resounding thud, the man crashed against the ground.
Cough Cough
He coughed blood, weakly and steadily stood up, but his legs wobbled, and he collapsed on his knees.
His vision was blurry, the wound of his missing eye more painful than ever, each breath labored and painful, his spine seemed like it was on its way to snap in two; although Alex's fist only touched his face, it was like his whole body had taken the full brunt of the attack.
Step Step
The tattooed man felt someone approaching him and looked up.
He gazed at the man standing over him and felt like he was a mere ant in front of him.
'Ha, I'm indeed pathetic,' he painfully sighed.
"You are...amazing," the man said with a ragged breath.
'Huh? Did he lose it?' wondered Alex, hearing his enemy suddenly praising him.
"Thanks, I guess," he replied.
"You are...amazing, but you...are not the only one amazing person in...the world!"
As he said this, the man flashed Alex a bloody smile.
An instant later, the tattoos on the man's body started glowing an intense red color!
'What is happening?' wondered Alex, observing the situation with interest.
The man suddenly began to convulse, thrashing on the ground while pained screams escaped his mouth.
"Kill him! Now!" shouted Starx, who had been silent the whole time.
Feeling the urgency in the young man's voice, Alex sprang into action. He didn't know why the young man seemed afraid of what was happening right now, but he didn't need to understand that the situation was fishy.
However, it seemed that Alex took too much time before deciding to act.
"What the...."