Chapter 15 - Understanding

Nicole and her parents collectively gasped when they saw mana appear out of nowhere. As for Kairos, his lip twitched.

He couldn't help but wonder how someone was able to use mana already.

Nonetheless, there was no time to think about that now. There was an arrow to dodge.

And so, he took off his glasses.

Kairos did slightly regret not putting more points into agility earlier, but there wasn't really a way of him knowing, so he dropped that thought.

He imagined that having four points in agility and being able to see the future should be enough to dodge, thus confidently stared at the arrow.

While the man was still drawing his bow, Kairos suddenly felt an extremely strong pain in his head. Perhaps if he didn't increase his willpower, he would've directly blacked out. However, Kairos instinctively realized that the man had released his arrow, and that he didn't catch it.

And so, he tilted his head to the side right when that pain came. The future vision of that disappeared along with the pain.

However, right afterwards, it reappeared at the center of his chest.

Like last time, he instinctively spun to the side.

Then, the arrow shot forth.

It moved far faster than a bullet. To the human eye, there was basically no difference between its speed and the speed of light.

With a faint whipping sound, it shot towards where Kairos' head was, but suddenly curved downwards to his chest, then passed right by him.

A thunderous bang rang out.

The arrow slammed against the ground, severely cracking the pavement and even scattering a few fragments into the air.

Right after, the arrow disappeared, with only the aftermath as proof of its existence.

Cold sweat appeared on Kairos' back. Honestly, he really wasn't expecting it to be that fast. Even if his agility was several times higher, he wouldn't have been able to dodge it. The only reason he could was because of his future vision.

The man raised an eyebrow with clear interest.

"Huh. You actually dodged it."

Kairos took a deep breath as he put his glasses back on.

"And you really weren't joking when you said you weren't going to hold back."

The man chuckled.

"Of course not. I must say, you have damn good instincts."

Kairos smirked.

"And you shoot that thing too damn fast."

The man laughed and hopped off the building, landing next to Kairos.

"Not fast enough, apparently."

He reached out with his hand.

"My name is Chase. What about you lot?"

Kairos cleared his throat.

"I don't believe in shaking hands as it can transmit diseases, which we should be especially careful of in an apocalypse."

He then adjusted his glasses.

"Oh yeah, and my name is Kairos."

Chase rolled his eyes and lowered his hand.

"Alright. What about the rest of you?"

Nicole and the others were still astounded by the power output of Chase's arrow. However, they broke out of it after being called out.

Nicole sheepishly raised her hand.

"Um, my name is Nicole."

Sydney gave a slight bow.

"I am Sydney."

As for Harold, he tried to wave his hand casually, but the nervousness still seeped through.

"My name is Harold."

Chase nodded.

"Alright. Where are you guys off to?"

Nicole averted her gaze.

"Um, we were going to-"

"A nearby grocery store after taking a rest in this school."

Kairos cut her off. Chase gave him a strange look, but decided not to probe.

"Alright. I've already fortified one of the classrooms on the second floor, so we can use that."

Kairos nodded.

"Alright. But since we obviously can't fully trust each other, we should be at a distance. Also, I'm not comfortable with you taking watch by yourself."

Chase clicked his tongue.

"Alright, but how do you think I feel? I have to sleep while trusting you people."

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"There's not much you can do about that, now can you?"

Chase chuckled.

"I suppose not. Let me lead the way then."

With that, he led them inside the school.

This place was rather peaceful. Other than the dirt and blood the group tracked in from walking inside, it was more or less clean. The empty halls with lockers lined on the sides almost made the whole apocalypse seem like an illusion.

Kairos snuck a glance at Nicole, who ended up looking back in curiosity.

After that, he faced forwards once again.

Kairos began thinking about why this man wanted allies. Obviously, he wasn't weak. Even if Kairos didn't know he wasn't one of the top ten, the arrow was enough to show that. The immediate conclusion that came to Kairos was cannon fodder.

Perhaps there was something special he wanted, but there were too many monsters hanging around that place and he needed some sacrifices. However, that wouldn't make too much sense.

After all, instead of proposing a place to go himself, the man asked where they were going and pretty much accepted it.

Kairos was still thinking about it, all the way until they reached the second floor and entered the room Chase was talking about.

As promised, it was fortified, in a certain sense.

There were bookshelves placed where the windows were, blocking them. As for the doors, they were blocked by several layers of overturned desks.

After awkwardly climbing over them, they got to the center of the place which was relatively clean.

Nicole frowned.

"I don't want to sleep on the cold hard ground again."

Chase shrugged his shoulders.

"It's the apocalypse young lady. We don't have such luxuries."

Nicole looked down and didn't speak up once more.

Kairos stretched.

"I suppose it is time for us to have a proper rest. Since I slept the longest, I will keep watch first and for a little more time."

Chase rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger.

"I will keep watch with you."

Kairos blinked a few times.

"Suit yourself."

Nicole and the others seemed to be a little hesitant, but they eventually laid down on the ground, trying to fall asleep. As for Kairos he just remained sitting up next to them. A couple meters away was Chase, who was looking at him.

For a while, they were just silently staring at each other.

Eventually, several snoring sounds filled the room.

Noticing this, Kairos spoke up, but suppressed his voice so that it wouldn't wake up the others.

"You can just go to sleep. There isn't much of a point in staying up."

Chase simply smiled.

"Haha, I'm not that sleepy right now anyway, so I will hold off."

Kairos slowly nodded.

"Alright."

This entire time, he had been brainstorming why Chase wanted to have allies. Obviously, Chase didn't trust others, so concluding that he just wanted someone to watch over while he slept didn't feel right to Kairos.

If he was in Chase's place, Kairos would rather just set up some warning trap so that if anybody opened the door, the sound could wake him up.

Traps were far more trustworthy than people after all.

Kairos took a deep breath.

Maybe... it was because of the food?

He soon discarded that possibility after thinking about it. After all, there was no need to become allies for the supplies. Just killing was obviously the better option.

Not only would the supplies be acquired, but you wouldn't have to worry about people using them either.

Eventually, Chase spoke up.

"Hey, what happened to your arm there?"

Kairos snapped to focus.

"Ah, I was negligent and let a monster scratch me."

Chase raised an eyebrow.

"You were able to dodge my arrow but couldn't even dodge a swipe from a monster?"

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, the monster didn't give me a warning it would attack."

Chase scoffed.

"With the speed of my arrow, there basically wasn't a warning. Plus, the monsters almost always scream their lungs out before attacking."

Kairos sighed.

"I don't know what to tell you. At the end of the day, I got scratched by a monster."

Chase narrowed his eyes.

"Hah. I don't believe that."

Kairos looked at him, stupefied.

"Then what else could it be?"

Chase smirked.

"I think you have some power that you keep sealed in your arm. Am I wrong?"

Kairos' eyebrow twitched.

For some reason, the word, 'chuunibyou', flashed by in his thoughts.

"...I can unfurl the bandages to show you my injury."

Chase laughed.

"Oh, really? Then please do."

Kairos sighed and untied the bandage before taking it off. The wound revealed had already healed considerably, though the gashes were still very apparent. It would probably still take a little longer for the wound to scar over.

Seeing this, Chase seemed a little surprised.

"Huh. Is that just how your arm naturally is?"

Kairos pressed his lips together.

"Why would this be how my arm naturally is? I got slashed."

He stretched it out.

"Though I must say, taking off the bandage makes me feel like I've been released from prison. It was getting way too warm."

Chase clasped his hands together.

"So you're not going to put the bandage back on?"

Kairos shrugged.

"As long as I keep it clean, it should heal faster this way. The cuts are pretty shallow now."

Chase blinked a few times.

"So you really don't have any power sealed in your arm."

Kairos raised the fire axe.

"Just a normal guy with an axe. I feel like I should be the one asking you questions as you obviously have gotten some kind of power with the bow and magic."

The corner of Chase's lip twitched.

"I'm just a normal guy with a bow."

Kairos rolled his eyes.

"Come on. Not even you sound like you believe that."

Chase laughed.

"Hey, the definition of normal has changed quite a bit, don't you think?"

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"Sure, but that doesn't make you normal."

Chase smirked.

"What makes you say that?"

Kairos raised an eyebrow.

"I don't think I need to say anything. A simple look is enough."

Chase rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger.

"But... I feel that there is another reason."

Kairos intuitively understood what he meant, but decided to pretend to be oblivious.

"And what could that be? Your hairstyle?"

Chase chuckled.

"Just a suspicion."

With that, he rested his head against the wall.

Even during their conversation, Kairos was still thinking of how Chase could want allies. He felt like the answer was right at his fingertips, but he just couldn't connect it all together.

Kairos decided to ask some questions.

"So how did you find out a way to use mana anyway? I can't add anything into my magic stats."

Chase raised an eyebrow.

"You couldn't?"

Kairos shook his head.

"No. You were able to from the very start?"

Chase smiled.

"Yeah."

Kairos clicked his tongue.

"That's unfair. You can just use magic while we have to use our own weapons."

Chase shrugged his shoulders.

"It's not as though my mana capacity is infinite. It takes quite a while to recharge."

Kairos blinked a few times.

"You're still better off than us. You can always resort to using your melee weapon even without mana."

The corner of Chase's lip twitched. After a few moments, he sighed.

"Actually... I can't use any other weapons."

Kairos blinked a few times.

"Eh? Your arms don't look that flimsy."

Chase clicked his tongue.

"I shouldn't, but I'll just tell you. If I try to use something else, this damn bow gets offended."

Kairos slowly nodded.

"Ah. I suppose you can deal with a few monsters very easily, but once there are too many, you can't do much because of that."

Chase shrugged his shoulders.

"I guess, but there haven't been any big groups so far."

Kairos narrowed his eyes, feeling like Chase's tone was slightly off.

"But they likely will in the future, no?"

Chase sighed.

"Maybe. I don't know."

At this point, Kairos relaxed his muscles that he didn't realize he was tensing.. He had more or less understood why Chase wanted to team up.