'Ray, look above!' Lianne warned me.
A gigantic man holding a huge metallic bat, was falling from the sky, aiming to land directly on me.
His objective was to disconnect me from my prey.
But I wasn't letting that happen. Increasing my speed further, I grabbed the masked man's foot and swung him towards the newcomer.
He activated some kind of skill, and the bullets he had fired before all returned back towards me.
It looked as if he had some lock on function in his skill.
'Lianne, shield!'
A mana shield formed over my body.
[Mental sanity dropped by 1 point]
The bullets all blasted on my shield and my surroundings turned into a domain of hell fire.
I slammed my burning shield into the masked man and made him collide with the falling giant.
The mana shield blasted and I was thrown away at the same time.
Planting my foot on the ground, I skid back several meters.
My shin bone cracked from this strenuous activity and my femur came out of my hip bone.
[Autoheal activated]
All of a sudden, the entire river area started to glow.
'Ray, it's a large mana bomb!'
I looked around to see who was pulling this funny joke.
Turning to see who had joined the fun party, I was greeted by three ugly statues; all of them charging their mana bomb and getting ready to attack me.
'More gang rats?'
I pushed my femur back into its proper place.
'Wait for your turns.'
With no time to rest, I dashed forward towards my opponents.
The masked man's body was tattered due to my brutal slam but he still raised his gun and shot at me. The bullet burst in its trajectory and the area connecting us turned into a wall of fire.
'Same trick, everywhere', I ridiculed them. Instantly, I crouched and rolled to the side.
A giant metal bat covered with fuming fluids swung like an arc over my head. It was deadly but it was slow like a turtle and I felt bored watching it.
[Unique Skill activated]
I push-kicked it towards the sky. My shoes melted as soon as it made contact with it.
[Strength doubled]
[Total remaining debt pain (95 RP)]
With my calf muscles now filled to the brim with energy, I jumped over the wall of fire, towards the enemy.
[Mental sanity dropped by 1 point]
'Lianne, give me the biggest fire you can!'
I created a tornado of fire with my hands, pulling out all of my available mana at once and spewed it all over the place.
Overpowering the wall of inferior fire, my golden mana raged with all its glory burning the whole riverside into golden ash.
I covered the entire place with fire to stop them from escaping.
'Ray, I think they won't survive thi..'
Then I jumped into the prison of fire.
My entire body, my skin and muscles, my clothes, all of it started burning at once.
[Autoheal activated]
The masked man was still alive.
"You...!"
On seeing me, he dropped his gun and punched me with his fists covered with fire mana.
I pulled my head back and evaded his jab hook.
My lips burnt down due to the excessive heat of his punch.
He threw in another without wasting a second.
At the same time, the giant guy who was protecting himself with his water elementalism blasted a ginormous mana cannon at me.
I side stepped and caught the masked guy's punch causing my hand to melt all the way to my bones.
Pulling him in front of me to act as a shield against the giant's water attack, I used his body to protect myself from death.
The parts of the masked man's body that got hit vaporized instantly.
"Ugghhhhh!" He let out a voice of pain.
Putting my intact hand around him in a choke hold, I twisted his head and broke his neck.
A hot vapor hit my skin.
"Aaaarrrrggghh!" The other guy screamed in place of the one I killed.
One down. I had to kill one more.
Enraged by seeing me kill his partner, the giant lunged at me, his fists covered with deadly burning fluids.
'Mana shield!'
His punch landed directly on my shield, and I pushed him back staggering him.
My shield broke and I rolled down to the ground and grabbed the gun that the masked guy had dropped.
Seizing his moment of weakness, I shot at the giant, straight in his head.
Time was still flowing slowly for me so I watched him start to fall on the ground. Gravity was working late but it would surely catch up to him.
'Ray, the bomb has started to blast! Escape now'
The whole area around us started to turn from golden to white.
'It's a mana bomb and surviving it would be difficult even for you!'
Like a bullet, I dashed out of the danger area and picked up Taeyang.
Holding him carefully, I created space between us and the area that was about to explode.
Kaboooooooooooom
The blast only covered a small area but it was quite powerful.
I looked down to see Taeyang's conditon. My body which had completely turned into a dark mess of burnt waste, was holding him as he slowly bled to death.
'Ray, your body is going to die. You need to amplify the autoheal so that...'
[Autoheal amplified]
[Total remaining debt pain (100 RP)]
'Heal him'
I laid Taeyang down.
'...'
Putting my hand over his abdomen, I pushed out the divine mana onto my palm and put my fingers in, directly inside his wound.
Lianne directed my hands and I pulled out the tiny fragments of the lodged bullet using my divine mana which acted like a magnet.
As I pulled my hand out, his bleeding slowed down and his tissues slowly reattached themselves.
I turned to look at the three remaining rats I had to kill.
'This should give him some time. Ray, now you should sit down to fasten your heali..'
[Mana manipulation activated]
[Mental sanity dropped by 1 point]
I lunged towards my final targets. I didn't intend to kill all of them.
They tried to react to me charging at them but they did nothing except stand still in my hastened sense of time.
I ended the lives of two of them instantaneously and I knocked the last one out.
Searching for the nearest possible refuge, I recalled Taeyang's mother's place.
Swiftly, I came back and picked Taeyang up.
'Search for his mother's shop'
'It's up ahead'
Walking without too many unnecessary movements, I carried him to the shop. It was empty inside.
I laid him down on a table.
Then I dashed out again to grab the rat I had captured.
Breaking his legs and arms, I threw him inside the storage room.
[Mental Sanity dropped by 1 point]
The duration of my skills ended.
I sat down beside Taeyang and braced myself for impact.
This wave is going to be the biggest one yet.
Unlike my previous fights, I had kept my unique skill running without paying anything.
'Lianne'
She didn't reply.
'I am sorry.'
The tsunami of hell hit me at once.