After seeing the wolf's body dropped to the ground, Noir watched it turn to ashes before disappearing and returning to the Earth. The only thing left there was a pale green beast core from the wolf.
Noir approached the thing. It pondered for a few seconds before swallowing it, and another translucent blue panel appeared before its eyes.
[Innate talent has been unlocked!]
[The fearsome Death Dog who Devour Life and feasts upon Creation]
[Innate Talent 'Devour' has been added to your status]
Seeing that his strength gradually returned to how it was supposed to be, Noir sat comfortably while wagging its tail, unknowingly absorbed to the status panel before it.
However, the joy soon dimmed when a sudden jolt of pain wrecked its body, making it whine in pain. Another translucent blue panel appeared, informing the status of its master.
[Your resonator was in a critical state!]
*!!!
An excruciating pain began to assault its nerves, making Noir's body stood up in alert, gritting its jaw Noir began to rush forward, approaching its master, while ignoring the pain in the hope that nothing was too late.
*****
Time backward, when Cain and Noir just separated, He took the right path and looked around his surroundings, trying to find a perfect place for him to maneuver, which is the only way for him to fight in this scenario.
He looked back and found the man following him with a nasty grin on his face. Cain's face paled. He began to stretch his black cloth toward a fire escape on the right and swing his way toward it.
"Haha, another trick!".
With just a few steps, the man covered the distance between the two of them. He readied his fist in, clenched tight, and thrust it toward Cain.
Cain's body flinched, and all his hair stood to no end, seeing that the man's fist was coated by a green aura. In the nick of time, Cain managed to avoid his death by dodging his body to the side.
A strong blast from the man's fist obliterated the fire escapes, giving Cain a headache on how to counter his opponent. Cain understands the disparity between them, not only in strength but in techniques, experience, and even mental fortitude. He was far away from calling himself a proper Resonator.
"You are indeed a hard one to kill, huh!".
While gravity does its work, bringing the two toward the ground. Cain hurriedly moved by stretching his black cloth toward two sides.
The man landed and chased Cain, who shot upward, But just before the man reached him, Cain's figure had pulled down toward the ground.
'Okay, prepare yourself, me!'. Encouraging himself, Cain, under the veil of darkness, stretches his black clots on both sides.
"Again with that, hmph, I wonder how long you can maintain that trick of yours".
'Now!'. Cain saw the man rush toward him, shooting like a meteor from above; he tensed his hands and slammed them together, followed by two trash bins filled with any kind of rotting food and stuff, clamped themselves toward the man.
*bam!
Thanks to his perfect timing, the man was squished between the two bins, and Cain did not forget. He began to utilize this chance to disappear into the darkness, waiting until his partner had done its job.
"Silent Step!".
After Cain activated his new Skill, he resigned from doing some swing because it was too conspicuous. Instead, he crawled under the darkness around him, shifting from one place to another, behind the shadows to hide his body.
Also, if things got busted and the man could find him, Cain could use the bins, trash bags, and other stuff around him to distract the man for a while.
"Aah! You have done it, kid!".
With a bang, Cain could hear the bins obliterated, and a vengeful voice echoed within the darkness, giving him a slight chill and piercing his skin.
Under the shade of Bins, while its foul smell made Cain want to throw up, even so, he grits his teeth, inhales deeply, and slows his breath, letting him be swallowed by darkness. He looked slightly above and found another fire escape, then began to form a plan.
"Where are you, Kid!? Don't think that you can hide forever, in front of me!".
The man howled, and then his body began to glow. Both his fists clenched, and he was enveloped by the same green energy he had used to obliterate a fire escape earlier. He walked away, casting his fierce gaze toward the dark alley.
He stopped in front of a bin, and then, with a twisted smile on his face, he thrust his fist forward, creating a whirlwind that blew away many things in the surrounding area, but the boy was not found.
"Hmph, he hid well…!?".
All of a sudden, the man's body flinched as he saw a piece of black cloth from behind his sight; it began to wrap around his neck, blocking the airways and choking him. Then, when the man wanted to act, his body lifted up, leaving the ground while the tightness in his neck increased.
Below him, a few steps from the man's stand, Cain showed himself; his face was red, and his body was tensed all over while pulling the black cloth that slipped past the gap of the fire escapes above.
The man struggled to tear the cloth on his neck, but it was so tight and wrapped firmly that there was no gap for him to enter. When he tried to reach his back, Cain had foreseen this and let the cloth stretch toward the far end of the stairs, near the wall, and follow the path under, unreachable by the man's hands.
'Uurk! Hold on, Cain! You can do it! Just one more push!'. Cain felt all the flesh on his hands tear, bearing the weight of the man's neck that was so hard to break.
"Y-you!".
The man's eyes gleamed in a dangerous light, and his body shook. Then, with a wave from his hand, unnoticed by Cain, an invisible power of wind clumped together before creating a massive ball. The ball blasted forward, following its caster's will.
Cain noticed it too late. His body blasted away, he lost his breath for a moment, and the sharpness of the compressed wind shredded his skin all over. While his mind blanked, he lost control over his body for a moment, letting the black cloth slip from his grasp.
[Experience up!]
[Guardian Beast Noir has been promoted to rank One Star!]
[Attributes(Shared): Darkness could be used]
[Innate talent Tenacious strongly activated]
[Lessening the pain]
His consciousness almost slipped from his grasp; it returned with a jolt, and Cain opened his eyes wide, his pupils dilated into dots. The searing heat covered all of his body, which was stained with blood. Cain's resolve was firm; he clenched the black cloth tightly and started to pull.
The man, overjoyed to see the cloth loosened for a moment, turned to his greatest mistakes. As he loosened the tension in his muscles, trying to take a deep breath, the cloth began to wrap once again, and now it was much more intense compared to earlier.
"Kahak!".
"Aaaah!".
Cain howled like a maddening beast. He put all his being into a single thing: pulling. He ignored the opened wounds and blood that flowed from his body. His innate Skill, Tenacious, is the one who kept his consciousness intact.
"Haaaaa!".
"!?".
The man's body shook after realizing that the Life of his partner dimmed within him. A translucent panel appeared before him, but he couldn't care less about any of it, because his vision also slowly started to dim and consciousness began to leave his body.
He knows it too well, that if he closed his eyes right now, the man would definitely die. However, a part of him already accepted it, and the other stubbornly refused to do it.
With the loss of his partner, the man's mind began to lean toward the first attempt. Gradually, his mind is weakening and feeling okay even if he is dead.
For the last time, the man spread his hands apart, and then, with the last laugh, the man's neck snapped, ending his Life for good.
[Experience up!]
[Congratulations! You rank up!]
[Resonator Cain Rank! 0 > 1 Star!]
[Innate talent tenacious has been strengthened]
[All wounds began to recover!]
[Karma Received 46%]
[Skill…]
[...]
…
*Woof! Grrr!
Cain, whose consciousness was focused on a single point, began to react with a twitch after hearing Noir's voice close nearby. He opened his eyes and saw his partner pulling his pants, telling him to stop before hurting himself more.
"Noir?".
*Woof! Woof!
He lifted his head and saw several translucent blue panels blocking the view of the man's condition. However, after seeing the messages, exhaustion invaded his body, and Cain suddenly lost his strength.
After following Cain's instructions, the black cloth returned to his side and then dived into his own shadow beneath. The man's losing its holding, falling to the ground with a thud, unmoving.
Seeing the state the man was in, Cain suddenly collapsed, but before he hit the ground, Cain had stood there, becoming his bed, and now Cain lay on top of Noir.
"Thanks brother!".
*Woof!
Noir wagged its tail happily, seeing that Cain still had the strength to talk. Before Noir decided to leave the place, Cain tapped its leg.
"Noir, go toward the man's body first, there is something we must ascertain".
*Woof!
Following Cain's instruction, Noir approached the man's body, and when they watched him closely, his face, creepily smiling in the face of death, brought an eerie atmosphere to them. Cain tried to ignore the man and began to rummage the man's clothes while on top of Noir's back.
He ransacked everything he deemed it valuable. After a moment of searching, he found the crystal ball, and when he took it in hand, it was the fragment the man was talking about. After that, he pondered for a second.
"What should we do about this?".