Chapter 28 - So Long

Tori began panting hard as she carried Chase's trembling body. She couldn't help but frown.

"Why are you so heavy!"

Chase gasped.

"How could you call a damsel in distress fat?"

Tori's eyebrow twitched. She opened her mouth to reply, but quickly shut it. Suddenly, she leaped up while holding Chase close, impressively vaulting over one of the aisles. Right afterwards, a large chunk of metal smashed at their location.

Upon landing, Tori grimaced as she used all she had to stabilize herself and continue running.

"You really can't move yourself?"

Chase chuckled.

"Honestly, it's hard to even speak. A fish on land would probably outperform me in agility right now."

A deafening bang resounded as the giant monster directly bashed through the aisles, continuing to chase after the two running away.

While this was happening, Kairos was looking towards the entrance of the store. Nicole and her parents were all looking at the monster in astonishment and fear. However, Kairos was paying attention to the red rain that was pouring down from outside.

Although it did not make much noise, the water from the red rain began seeping into the store, prompting Kairos to call out.

"Get away from the entrance!"

Nicole was the first to snap out of her stupor, hurriedly running away. As though that was a signal, the other two promptly did the same as well.

When Nicole looked back, she frowned.

"Is that blood?"

Kairos furrowed his brows.

"I don't know, just don't touch it!"

The red rainwater began seeping into the grocery store, slowly removing the safe ground they had to stand on.

Kairos climbed on top of one aisle and gestured with his hand.

"Get on top of one of these."

He then looked towards the monster that was currently chasing after Tori and Chase.

"I'm going to go help them."

Without waiting for a response, Kairos began jumping between the aisles, almost like he was playing a platformer game. There were several times where he saw himself fall in his future vision, but quickly changed how he landed each time, saving him from falling.

At first, Kairos was going fairly slowly, hopping between each one and making sure that he was stable. But after a few rounds, he just began running at full speed, only briefly pushing down with one foot on each aisle.

Like this, he quickly reached the monster just as Tori was beginning to despair

Kairos recalled how Tori had jumped onto the monster earlier, and tried to imitate it, jumping straight towards the giant monster.

And he succeeded.

However, Kairos quickly realized that getting a stable footing on the monster's back wasn't going to be easy. He saw himself slipping with his future vision after getting his feet on its back.

Though he attempted to shift the positioning of his feet upon landing in reality, he still saw himself slipping. Kairos frowned and decisively plunged his fire axe into the monster's back, pushing through the thick layers of muscle.

The monster immediately let out a roar and reached over to his back. Kairos could feel the vibrations while on its back and saw the hands rapidly approaching him.

However, before they could reach their target, Kairos hoisted himself up with the fire axe, like he was rock climbing. He promptly abandoned it, then grabbed onto the handle of the knife that had been impaled into the monster's skull.

Kairos held onto the monster's shoulder for support, then pushed inwards with all of his might. The bones had already been broken through, leaving only some sort of tight muscle that was really hard to push through.

Kairos' hand trembled as he continued to push down on the knife. Honestly, he wasn't even sure if this would kill it.

But he decided to bet it all on this.

The monster then reached for Kairos angrily, aiming to crush his body into a pulp.

Its arms cast a shadow over Kairos' body.

Yet, the person in question was not scared.

After all, he had already seen the outcome of this situation.

The monster abruptly fell limp, crashing against the floor like a rag doll.

The head continued to move, opening and closing its jaw repeatedly. However, other than that, there was nothing it could do.

Tori looked over her shoulder, then let out a sigh of relief when she noticed that the monster was killed. She abruptly dropped Chase, who got the wind knocked out of him after he hit the floor.

His eyelid twitched as he sucked in a cold breath.

"If I didn't know better and let my head hit the ground, I could've gotten a concussion or even died."

Tori clicked her tongue.

"Sucks for you."

Chase blinked a few times.

"You really don't know how to treat a damsel."

Tori kicked him in the side.

"You're a man! Stop calling yourself a damsel!"

Chase grimaced in pain, but still forced a smile.

"It's discriminatory to say males cannot be damsels!"

Tori clenched her fist.

"The definition of damsel is an unmarried woman!"

While those two were at it, Kairos took a deep breath. He pulled out his fire axe with a forceful tug, then walked around to the front of the monster's head, staring right into its eyes.

Kairos smiled as he rested the handle of his fire axe on his shoulder.

"It's kinda strange how our positions switched like this, Chad."

The monster continued to open and close its mouth, only able to produce the sound of its teeth clacking.

Kairos sighed.

"I know you weren't trying to help me, but honestly, you were protecting me for a while in high school. So thanks for that."

When Kairos was nearing the end of grade six, he had been a victim that had frequently been bullied by the other students and was known not to fight back.

Since he did not want to attract attention, he simply decided to take it.

However, there was one day when a group of three kids came up to him and attempted to take his glasses. Kairos saw this happen in his future vision and promptly dodged.

However, the kids continued to try and take his glasses.

Though Kairos was fine with being physically injured, these glasses were not only expensive, but one of a kind. They helped him deal with a large amount of his mental stress, thus were incredibly valuable to him.

However, the kids kept trying to take it.

And eventually, Kairos was forced to push one of them to get them off. He was relatively gentle and was able to force back each of them using his future vision to predict their attacks.

The three kids backed off. However, it quickly spread across the school that Kairos really liked his glasses.

And as such, many people would try to steal his glasses, especially for those three kids earlier.

Kairos got extremely pissed off by this.

And so, one day he decided to take action.

Kairos waited until it was recess, and as expected, the three kids were back at it again. Honestly speaking, Kairos just saw this as three kids that were just messing around, not really understanding that their actions were hurtful.

Which was quite a strange thought considering he was also a child.

However, Kairos wasn't confident that he could constantly protect his glasses from the others. There were already a few close calls.

And as such, he wanted to set an example.

Once the three kids walked up to him on the tarmac, they naturally reached for his glasses with their hands, smiling mischievously the whole time.

But this time, Kairos threw his fists.

With a dull thump, it landed right onto the kid's face.

The kid stumbled back, and frowned angrily. As for Kairos, he found his fist stung pretty badly from that hit.

The three kids immediately tried to gang up on him, but it wasn't like they were professional fighters. With the advantage of his future vision, Kairos was able to easily evade them.

In the end, he was able to slam one of their heads against the brick wall of the school, knocking them out. He was able to shove another kid, who fell on his back and got the air knocked out of him, making him cry.

As for the last kid, he tried to turn around and run. However, Kairos didn't want that to happen, so he tripped him.

From there, all three of them were down.

Kairos didn't really think what to do at this point, but then thought that these guys would probably come back to take revenge. If that really did happen, that would be far worse.

And so, he decided to break their arms.

Kairos pushed their elbow down onto the ground and pulled their arm back in the direction that it wasn't supposed to go.

Naturally, this was extremely difficult. He instead decided to step on their elbow while pulling up on their arm as hard as he could.

It was still difficult, but he was able to snap it.

Excited by the success, he proceeded to do it to the other two kids.

Most of them ended up screaming extremely loudly, but Kairos didn't mind it as that would probably intimidate the others more.

In the end, Kairos was also a dumb kid.

He was in essence, just like the others, not understanding how much harm he was causing.

In the end, all three boys were permanently crippled.

Kairos was going for the intimidation tactic, and it worked.

It worked a little too well.

In the end, he was expelled and had to finish the rest of grade six at another elementary school.

The parents of those three children tried to press charges, but it turned out that Kairos was too young in that specific government to be considered able to commit any crimes.

Kairos realized he messed up.

However, when he went to a completely brand new middle school, he was picked on again.

But there was this one bully that was considered the top of the food chain there. That bully was Chad. He arbitrarily chose Kairos to pick on, and while he was never nice, Chad cared more about sports than bullying. It was the satisfaction of exerting power that appealed to him more than anything else.

At the same time, Kairos was able to spread rumors that Chad would not let anyone else bully him. Kairos became his 'property'.

With that, while nobody dared become his friend except for Nicole, his life all the way to high school was relatively easy save for a few special cases.

Kairos looked at what Chad had become now. He raised the fire axe high with a smile.

"So long, my bodyguard."

Then, he let it slam down.

The monster's skull split in two, and its jaws gradually slowed to a stop.

[Killed Creature (Daring Kill - Two Ranks Superior to Killer) - 1.0 points awarded]

[First Ten To Daring Kill (Eighth - by ID: 345315364923) - 15 points awarded]

[Recalibration...]

[Points awarded will be evaluated as though the host is rank E due to (Daring Kill) accomplishment]

Kairos' eyes widened considerably. Though it was pretty reasonable that the giant monster's rank was higher than normal given its strength, he was still a little surprised by how many points he had gotten.

However, it seemed that there were also downsides to his feat, as his rank was now considered E. That meant the monsters that would normally give him 0.3 points, would now give him 0.1 points.

While this was not a good thing, Kairos had been considering trying to evolve his rank anyway. He took this as a calling to do so.

However, there were other issues to deal with first.

The rain was still bleeding into the store.

Kairos looked towards Tori and Chase.

"Hey, let's get to the second floor of this place."

Without waiting for their response, he waved towards Nicole and her parents who were on top of an aisle, looking at him with their mouths wide open.

"Let's go to the second floor!"

They seemed to get the message.

Tori got her katana back and walked away, prompting Chase to cough awkwardly.

"Could you... carry me? I still can't move."

The corner of Tori's eyebrow twitched.

"...You really are a damsel."

Chase was taken aback.

"That's just unfair."

Tori rolled her eyes with a smirk and picked him up.

As for Kairos, he lagged behind a little, crouching behind an aisle and opening up his status panel.

"Alright.... let's do this quick."