Carla's head tilted to the side, her eyes wide open with surprise as a trail of blood flowed down the side of her cheek. She slowly brought her right hand up to touch the wound left by the bullet she barely managed to avoid due to her cat-like reflexes, and felt her heart tremble.
Never in her life had she come so close to death. Even fighting against those blasted Espers, she had never suffered this much!
But her trial was not over yet. From the muzzle of the pistol aimed at her face, there was only a distance of about two or three meters. With her reaction speed at exactly 600 milliseconds, she was hard-pressed to avoid the next shots fired from the gun by Kaizer, who simultaneously shifted the car into Sport mode.
However, his expression became grave when he noticed that the monster opposite him easily—relative to his perspective—dodged the bullets by a hair's breadth, wearing a vicious smile on her face as her right hand manifested claws. She was grinning crazily, the blood flowing in trickles from the side of her face highlighting her madness.
"I am going to skin you alive!" she shrieked as she swung her claws forward.
At this time, Kaizer could only duck and avoid the crushing blow that tore off the roof of his vehicle, reducing the headrests into sliced leather with ease. While leaning, he didn't forget to step on the reverse sharply, sending his car flying backward and startling the assailant on the hood who was so focused on him.
Carla was thrown off the hood but did not hit the floor, as her back turned at the last second to allow her to land on her feet. She glanced upwards to see that, unlike what she expected, Kaizer did not try to hit her with his car but drove out of the park at full speed while trying to escape.
"Hoh? Interesting, hehe," Carla chuckled as she leapt up and reached the top of a nearby building along the route Kaizer was passing.
The young man himself was sweating as he cursed audibly. The moment he saw her dodge bullets as if she were a character from The Matrix, Kaizer understood that no offensive means he possessed could deal with her unless it completely evaded her superior senses and monstrous reflexes.
Trying to hit her with his car would only total it, as he would miss and put himself in a perfect position to be captured by her, so he booked it!
But what made him curse now was why, in a city that was populated by more than ten million people, there was fucking nobody in sight!
Where did everyone go? Was there a festival? Or did they get news that he was about to be eaten alive and decided to hide at home?!
And it wasn't that they were missing visually, no. Kaizer could not allow himself to be deceived into thinking that if he turned the corner, there would be a crowd of people to deter this monster because he could not sense any emotions—minus the one of playful hunger—from anyone!
His range wasn't small, being around 500 meters when not making eye contact and a full kilometer if he did, so it meant that within this range, there was no one!
Even the cafe he just came from, which had a serving staff, was empty as if they had all disappeared into thin air!
Wait, disappeared…?
"Hahaha, you've only just realized?" Carla laughed with amusement as she suddenly appeared in the open back seat of the car, leaning into the seat casually.
Kaizer turned the steering wheel sharply and crashed the car into a nearby wall, using the force of the halted momentum to send himself flying out since there was no roof nor was he wearing any seat belts. Of course, this sounded like he made a cool flip in mid-air with a look of 'as planned', but no, he hit a nearby light pole and fell down in a nasty way.
Ironically, the cool factor went to his assailant, who he hoped to disorient, as she flipped in mid-air and landed against the wall, clinging to it like a spider. Carla looked at the dazed Kaizer who rose to his feet and charged into a nearby alleyway with a hint of curious interest.
Kaizer kept running through the alleyways while making sharp turns at corners, angling towards a certain direction. His movements were so purposeful that Carla, who was curious, didn't want to take any risk and immediately overtook him, landing in front of him in a cat-like posture.
"That's about enough. I've had fun playing with you, but this domain will not last forever and I really have to enjoy my meal~" Carla said with a teasing voice.
Kaizer stepped back with a solemn frown and wracked his brains for a way out of this. His weapon was useless, and he did not have a second magazine for it, nor the chance to reload even if he did. His foe was faster than the eye could follow and could avoid anything he threw at her.
He was untrained, unskilled, and frankly just a rich young man with a strong sensitivity to emotions.
He was… dead.
Kaizer felt like the rug had been pulled out from under him at this moment. The realization that nothing, nothing he had could logically resolve this conundrum, almost made his shoulders slump in defeat.
He always acted cool and reserved as if he did not care about anything, but it was truly at this moment, when he realized the onset of death amid growing despair, that he realized he had so many regrets. His parents who loved him and he loved back, his aunt who always showered him with love, his cousin who had some strange animosity with him that she still cherished, his various unfinished animes and webnovels…
There should have been more than that but… haha. Kaizer could only smile bitterly when he thought of the way he had lived his life these past few years, without a group of friends he would miss nor a lover he could say he would never leave behind.
Kaizer sensed it at this moment, the emotion from his assailant that showed endless murderous intent. This time, Carla was not playing, her next move would not miss, and it would not miraculously leave him alive enough to get up again.
The next blow was the killing blow.
It would be his end.
And Kaizer did not want that. He didn't want that at all. Even if he had to die, it had to be on his own terms, when he had lived a full and meaningful life.
Carla disappeared from his line of sight and his mind sent alarm bells ringing throughout his body, because he could sense the death that was coming for him quite intimately.
And it was in this moment, that Kaizer raised his right hand and released all the pent-up frustration, anger, and fear he had been holding back for seven years since he first saw that woman who had suffered abuse and been overwhelmed by her experience.
His eyes, already a lovely blue color, shone with a resplendent and almost blinding light, as he roared:
"STOP!"