"I'm heading to the Tiger Gang lair" I said as soon as I arrived in front of the group.
At that moment that I noticed Lydia's stare.
"What am I too handsome for you" I teased the dark haired beauty.
"Hmph! Keep dreaming" Lydia turned her head away from me with her arms crossed before her chest. I smiled when I noticed the slight blush on her cheeks for a moment before it disappeared.
I smiled slightly before turning to Candice. It was time to get serious and I could see the expectation on her face.
"Would you like to come with me?" I asked
"Why do you make it sound like you're going alone?" Rina asked. I looked at her
"Because that's what I plan to do" I said
"What? No way I'm coming with you!" Jordan declared. He tried to stand abruptly but immediately felt the backlash from all his injuries in that moment. Blood leaked from his lips as he coughed and sat back down with a groan.
"Jordan you are currently injured so much so that even a normal human could kill you just as easily as my current self" I said and looked at him. "Plus I can feel that you've gotten weaker too. What's that all about?"
To say that I was surprised would be an understatement. I could instinctively sense, like a sixth sense, that Jordan's level should be equal to my own and yet at the same time he felt weaker than that at the same time. I mean I knew that my stats were probably higher than normal at this level but regardless of that Jordan just seemed to be a little too weak.
Jordan clenched his jaw for a moment and frustration filled his gaze but he responded anyway.
"I unlocked my special trait and it came with a skill called
"Yeah that explains it. Anyway you can't go into a battlefield like this even if that new armor you are wearing is giving you a boost it doesn't change the fact that you're still too injured to fight" I said after a moment of silence. "First we'll find a safe place where you can lay low for a little while. Lydia, Rina and Nale will stay with you in that time. When Rina recovers her mana she'll heal you as much as she can. Lydia will have to stay to protect them as well as keep an eye on Nale"
"Wait you're really going to go in alone?" Lydia asked. I could feel the concern in her voice.
"I won't be alone" I pointed at Candice. "I'll take her with me"
"What! Why her?"
"Because she knows the way. Besides I don't think she'll stay even if I told her to"
"And you think I will?" Lydia retorted
"I'm counting on you to stay" I said.
Jordan couldn't come because he was too injured to do so. Rina also couldn't because she didn't have any wide range attacks other than
Lydia was smart enough to see through all these issues and I knew she wasn't the type to leave her friends in danger too.
"Fine I'll keep an eye on them" she sighed
…
Jordan released a breath of relief as he dropped onto a red couch. After taking the stairs almost three floors up with the state his body was in, it felt as if he had been forced to mine for six days straight without proper food and rest. His body was aching all over and he could only close his eyes at this point.
A few feet from him Rina sat on a stool, her pale face had regained some of its color as she recovered some of her mana. Lydia and Nale were standing close to each other on the other side of the room. Lydia had her arms crossed, inadvertently causing her assets to rise slightly. Even with the purple battle robe on one could tell that she was still a B-Cup at best.
The room they were all in was the former manager's office. They were currently in the office building that Jordan had battled the Colossal Ravid.
"Do you think your friend will be alright on his own?" Nale asked. He didn't bother to hide his doubt. Sure, Huey could take on Damien with apparent ease but from Nale's point of view the Tiger Gang boss was far stronger than that. On top of that he had a small army of men armed with guns that were taken from the police station down south, a police station which Huey was already familiar with. He just couldn't see how it would be possible to take on all that with just two people.
"Huey is confident in his strength but more than that…" Lydia said as she recalled the final moments of the past battle with the Second Star Order Monsoon Eagle back at the school grounds. "…he is extremely talented when it comes to combat and I have no doubt that he will come out on top"
…
At that moment two silhouettes run through the post-apocalyptic streets of York Town Western Sector. The direction they were heading towards was a familiar apartment complex surrounded by brick walls around all four of its corners.
At the back of the building inside the wall about twenty cars stacked up on top of each other as if it were a game of Tetris. Anyon would know at a glance that these cars were nothing but scrap metal now. At the front of the building six men armed with rifles stood guard just behind two large grey closed gates.
"Hey how long do we have to stay like this?" one of the men who had a cigarette in his mouth complained. They had been here keeping guard since last night and they needed a long break.
"Until the vice leader comes back remember?" another replied this time it was a bald man in his late thirties.
"All of this just because of some bitch who doesn't know her place" another spat on the ground as he hugged his rifle tightly to this chest. He had a knife scar on his cheek
"Right!" Another exclaimed his face showing an annoyed expression as he spoke.
The other two remained silent but still looked at each other before shrugging. This wasn't the first time these four had been complaining and it most certainly wouldn't be the last. They would just have to wait until the others returned with the woman who had taken their boss' eye and pray that it would be soon because they too were starting to get tired.
…
In the highest floor on the building as well as the most luxurious room Jace grunted at himself in the mirror. His right eye had long been patched up with white bandages and given his improved health stat the bleeding had stopped a while ago too. But it didn't change the fact that he had lost an eye.
'What the fuck is taking too long?'
Jace was getting impatient, given Damien's skill he should have been able to find the bitch long ago. He tensed his fingers so much so that the sink under his hands broke effortlessly. Jace's expression became dark as he wiped the white dust off his hands and stepped out of the bathroom and into a beautifully decorated bedroom. The windows were covered by velvet red curtains, the floor was dressed in intricate brown tiles and even the large king-sized bed was no exception. No doubt, this room was the most expensive in this entire building.
On top of the bed a beautiful blonde woman with a bombshell of a body lay naked. This sight would have been enough to cause nosebleeds for days but the red liquid that painted her porcelain inner thighs as well as the bruising on her arms, face, back and even legs was a enough for a cause of concern. Not to mention that her breathing sounded haggard.
Jace looked on without a care in the world. He was king. He was strong. He could do whatever he wanted and nobody could do anything about it.
He dressed in a black shirt and grey pants made of soft cotton then he reached for a small police radio and snapped it in his belt. Before walking out of the room and into a corridor where two men were standing on either side of the door.
They immediately stood with their backs straight.
"Boss!" they greeted in unison. Unlike the rest of his men these two each held swords in their hand and by the aura they both gave off it was clear that they were Evolvers in the First Star Order. Their levels were 6 and 5 respectively.
"Any word from Damien?" Jace asked. As he walked down the corridor the two Evolvers following behind him.
"None sir" the level 5 Evolver replied. He was a round faced man with a large nose. He had dark short hair with a slightly round body.
Jace frowned slightly at this and he couldn't help the feeling in his gut. In the past it was a feeling like this that got him out of many sticky situations and he had learned to listen to this gut feeling every time.
"Lloyd" Jace turned to the level 6 Evolver who had sharp dirty blonde hair with sharp sword-shaped eyebrows. Compared to Brad he was taller and leaner. "Get the men to pick up their arms and be on high alert right this instant"
Jace then looked at the level 5 who went by the name of Brad and said:
"You go with him"
After giving out his orders Jace walked to the end of the corridor before entering the elevator. Power was still running in this building so it was working perfectly. He had been on the 30th floor on the apartment complex.
When the elevator opened up on the lobby floor he was greeted by seventeen more men. They were armed with Glock 17's, rifles and shotguns.
"Boss!" they greeted. Some of these men had not always been Tiger Gang members and had merely been simple tenants in this apartment but had been forced to join in order to survive, but after spending a week with the gang they were slowly getting used to the unspoken rules of the place.
"Mh…get ready for anything" Jace simply said and walked past them all. The feeling in his gut coming back stronger than it was previously.
Something big was going to happen soon and he knew it.
Oh how right he was.