*30 MINUTES AGO*
Everette rested his back against a wall in the alleyway while looking to his side. A creature about 9 metres long and roughly about 5 metres tall scurried towards a pile of food before liquifying and absorbing it.
He sighed and looked into the sky before falling into a deep thought, 'It's almost there... But is this actually a good plan.' He didn't think much about his plan of getting the beetle to attack Coll, but now he had mixed thoughts about it.
'If it can inflict a mortal wound and perhaps kill him, then that'll be great, but...' Thoughts about the possibility that others may be caught up in its chase flashed through his mind and caused his to have doubts about whether to go through with his plan or not.
His hands unconsciously reached into his pocket to pull out a brown coin. He then loaded it into his hand before flicking it up - he was planning on letting luck decide whether to go through with it or not.
'The lives of people are in the hands of a single coin toss...' The coin flew high into the air before plummeting down and bouncing off the ground. It flipped a few times before ultimately landing on its side.
His eyes widened at the slim possible chances of it happening before reaching down and getting it.
"Oh? What did it land on?"
"It landed on its side... Wait a second..." Everette quickly turned to look up from his kneeling position before a hand grasped his neck. He was then slammed into a wall.
"Agh..."
Everette gripped the hand clutching his neck and tried to pull it off. He stared at his attacker before a shocked expression stretched across his face - it was Coll.
He was wearing his usual black tracksuit that was decorated with a few cuts here and there. Coll's fingers were tightly wrapped around Everette's neck and were increasingly getting tighter.
He then looked to the side with a grim expression. His eyes landed on the beetles devouring the trails of food Everette set up. His attention then shifted back to Everette, who struggled to get Coll to loosen his grip.
Coll gently lifted Everette off of the wall before slamming him into it again. "Are you leading that thing to US?! Who are you, and what is your objective?"
After his fight with Patrick, Coll, who was already paranoid enough before, now held a crazy glint in his eyes. His hand tightened around Everette's neck before leaning in close to his face to intimidate him.
Everette smirked before spitting into his face. This caused him to be thrown further into the alleyway by Coll, who was wiping his face with his sleeve.
"You disgusting, little mutt!" He stretched out his hand towards his back and unravelled the bandaged object tied to his back. Coll threw aside the long white cloth and tightly gripped its hilt. He then approached Everette while raising his greatsword up high over him.
By now, Everette was already on his feet and summoned his sword for their potential clash. Coll's eyes narrowed in on the sword before opening his mouth to give out a warning:
"Last chance to tell me what you're planning to do before I split you in half." Everette didn't detect any kind of bluffs in his warning but didn't expect any to begin with.
"Oh? You make it sound like you're the stronger one." Everette wasn't actually sure, even with the theory that his level could probably be 17 or 18.
"Hmph! That's because I am. Who else do you know reached level 19?" An arrogant smirk stretched across his face. Everette's eyes remained still, reciprocating a smirk of his own, except it was a mocking one.
"And yet you almost lost against our driver."
Coll's eyes turned fierce before coming to a realisation, "So you're with that geezer, huh? Oh, I see... You're the bunch of newcomers." He's heard about a group of new faces sprouting up in their midst due to the mouths of those who couldn't keep their voices down.
A repulsive smirk spread across his face, " So that means you came with that girl, right? Y'know... The blonde one~..." Everette's body stiffened up, and he now had a cold expression.
Coll was able to catch onto his change in expression and began to chuckle maniacally. Everette quickly turned back to see it hadn't noticed the "fool" laughing out loud.
"That thing can't hear us. After my last encounter with it, I've discovered that they're actually deaf."
'He's right...'
Everette's eyes flashed with seriousness. Coll then licked his lips, "I've actually spoken to her, y'know. Oh boy, was she fierce!"
Everette's hands tightly gripped the hilt of his sword, 'Calm down... He's trying to rile you up.' Coll noticed that Everette was getting pretty pissed and continued:
"She had this look in her eyes as she stared towards me like I was an inferior in her eyes." He then swung his sword gently around with an aroused expression, "I usually don't like fierce girls; I'm into the more submissive types, you get me?" He paused before continuing:
"But oh boy, was she attractive... I tried to push her up against a wall, but she didn't even budge once! Oh, how I want to see what it would be like to dominate her in bed."
He then looked towards Everette, who was trying to hold himself back from attacking Coll and possibly alerting the beetle.
"Don't you think so too? I'm just getting excited just from thinking about it—!"
BAM!
Coll head turned to the side, followed by a loud BAM sound due to a punch connecting with his face. Everette's eyes flashed with aggressiveness and rage.
"Your ass must be jealous of your mouth because of all the CRAP coming out of it!" Following up with his punch, he swung his sword diagonally up at Coll, who dodged but jumping back.
A long cut stretched from my side to his shoulder. He sighed and glanced at his tracksuit, which was now becoming more and more ragged with each passing day.
He didn't mind, considering he now found a new toy to play with. He enjoyed messing with others and liked to break them down before tossing them to the side.
Currently, Everette has the potential to become the best toy in his eyes.
Everette held the sword in his right hand before dashing forward and swinging down diagonally, which was parried by the side of Coll's greatsword.
With his free hand, he constructed a string purely the colour blue. It stretched about 2-3 metres long from the tip of his index finger and attached it around the greatsword.
Coll's eyes widened in shock as he saw the creation of a string made purely of what he believed to be mana. Everette then jumped back while tapping the wall with the finger attached to the string.
Seeing that it would be an excellent opportunity to counterattack, Coll sprinted towards him and swung down his great sword. For some reason, he felt resistance even though he didn't see anything blocking it.
His eyes trailed along the string wrapped around his weapon, and he noticed...
'The string is attached to a wall!?' He pulled against the string and managed to make it disperse into the surroundings. He gazed cautiously at Everette, 'Could this be some sort of skill? Or has his guy actually managed to control that energy?'
Everette stared at the string dispersing into the air with a somewhat satisfied expression, 'I guess it was kind of a success.' After realising he was able to create the string-like construct, he wanted to experiment with any more uses for it other than battle.
'I can just detach it from me and make it connect to something else.' Of course, this does have the drawback of it disappearing on its own due to its supply of mana being cut off, which he found out.
Coll, still wondering what it was, noticed Everette closing in to strike. He brought up his greatsword and slammed it down - causing a crack to web out in the floor. Everette stepped to the side and swiped at him.
Coll was able to lean back far enough to where the strike only left a shallow cut horizontally on his chest. He then swung his fist with all his strength as a way to get Everette away from him.
Everette blocked the strike with the side of his sword but underestimated the force behind it. He was knocked back and skidded along the floor. He quickly jumped back onto his feet. He was now back near the entrance to the alleyway.
His eyes narrowed in on Coll, who seemed to have unmaterialised his weapon and went into a boxing stance. He seemed to have come to the conclusion that a weapon as big as that would be a disadvantage instead of an advantage in an area as narrow as an alleyway.
Coll then began a sprint towards him. He gave a left jab followed by a strong right hook when Everette dodged the first one.
'He's slow but—'
BAM!
Everette raised the side of his sword to block his right hook, 'The force behind every hit is powerful!' He could feel his arm shaking through his sword. Coll, using the momentum behind his punch, spun them around and launched Everette back into the alleyway.
Everette rolled along the floor before shakily getting up. He then raised his sword near his mouth and began mumbling something which Coll couldn't hear.
"About the beetle being deaf... You're right about that." A large grin spread across Everette's face. Coll gave a confused expression before noticing Everette bolting towards him.
Everette then raised his sword. Coll immediately assumed he was about to swing it down at him, so he stepped back. The blade's target then immediately shifted targets and was embedded in the ground.
"But they aren't deaf to vibrations! NOW MOURN!"
"Woof, Woof!"
The dog inside the green sphere cried out at Everette's command, and the vibrations travelling through the sword went into the ground. The vibrations travelled through the solid flooring and reached the beetle's body.
Coll then noticed a shadow stretching over him from behind and turned back around to see the beetle staring down at it. "Ah... Crap..."