Chapter 57 - Settlement

Kairos' future vision wasn't the most perfect ability, as strong as it was. Whenever Kairos decided to do something different based on something he saw in the future, there was a split second where his future vision would warp to shift to the new version.

And that split second was something like a blindspot for him.

That was why he wasn't able to notice that he had been shot through the leg before it already happened. Though he was able to feel the aching that came from after the injury, it was hard to distinguish it since his body was already aching from straining it to move all this time.

The girl with blue hair's eyebrow jumped ever so slightly, like she was surprised that she was actually able to get a hit off. With this, she was encouraged to continue shooting, and so that's exactly what she did.

Kairos rushed closer towards the girl, using the momentum of the spiked ball to make him go faster. At the same time, the girl once again pointed a finger gun right at his legs.

This time, Kairos was not going to make the same mistake.

He suddenly felt a pain rip through his leg, so naturally he moved it. Right when he did that, Kairos saw that the girl actually shifted the trajectory of her finger gun, predicting where he would go.

And so, while his future vision was warping, he tensed up his leg and made it twitch back.

A bang resounded right next to his foot.

A few fragments of scattered pavement grazed against his skin, but didn't do much else. Kairos lunged forth after she had shot, reaching out with his hand.

The girl with blue hair leaned back, just barely getting out of reach.

But that was when Kairos injected the bare minimum amount of mana to cast the pulse spell. It was released almost immediately.

A clear thump resounded.

The girl was struck in the abdomen. Although the damage caused was next to none, it still counted as a hit. Now, they were on even terms. The girl clicked her tongue as she gave up on shooting any more bullets.

Instead, she began pulling on the string that connected the paddle and the spiked ball. The spikes ended up grinding against the bone Kairos was holding. He clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white just so that he could keep holding it properly.

At the same time, he gathered mana to create another pulse spell, and let it loose.

The girl with blue hair tensed up as she went to the side, trying to dodge. However, Kairos had already seen that happen, thus was able to release the pulse spell promptly.

Then, it whipped out.

...Before doing nothing.

The girl with blue hair was caught off guard, seemingly thinking that she had lost. However, it only lasted a second before she continued to run away.

Kairos clicked his tongue.

He thought that maybe the spell had hit, but he just couldn't tell. Though from how the girl looked, that probably wasn't the case. This was because while the pulse spell was strong and quick to cast, it had very little range. Especially so when not charged up.

Compared to the fireball spell, the difference was obvious.

The girl was not willing to relent knowing that she still wasn't out. She continued to pull the string, causing the spiked ball to shift to one side once more. Then, she reversed her pull, causing the spiked ball to tear through the pavement and rush back to Kairos.

At the same time, she raised another finger gun, pointing it towards his legs.

Kairos narrowed his eyes.

He needed to look at the spiked ball if he wanted to defend against it, but he also had to look straight to tell where exactly the girl was shooting. It seemed that the girl had somehow figured out a way to work around his future vision.

And so, what he did was look at the spiked ball with his future vision, but continuously stopped himself from actually doing so.

It was quite difficult to pull off. There were several times where he almost accidentally looked at the spiked ball in reality, but he was able to do it nonetheless.

The girl with blue hair narrowed her eyes before firing the bullet.

Kairos was able to move his leg out of the way preemptively, even without the support of his future vision.

And then, the spiked ball slammed into his bone.

The girl with blue hair widened her eyes and hurriedly tugged on the string. However, Kairos wasn't going to give this opportunity up. He pointed his finger forth, letting a tiny fireball coalesce on top.

The girl with blue hair threw her body to the side, but Kairos wouldn't miss when he could see her actions a second ahead of time.

The fireball shot out.

And burst into a small flame onto the girl's abdomen.

...But at the same time, the spiked ball slammed into Kairos' back, creating a few tiny holes in his back.

The girl hurriedly shrunk the ball while also patting out the flames that had caught onto her shirt.

Kairos had seen that the outcome would be a tie. It definitely wasn't a victory like what he would've preferred, but at this point it was more than what he could ask for. That was simply because the girl was faster than him.

If she continued to run away, then he would have to use the fireballs to hit her. Although the fireball traveled fast, it wasn't fast enough to reach her over long distances. The only reason he somewhat kept up was that he strained his arm to push against the spiked ball that nearly killed him.

Kairos sighed.

"...Well played."

The girl with blue hair continued to pat out the flames.

"Yeah, you too! ...Hot! Hot, hot!"

The guy with white hair and the guy with green hair were the first two that rushed over, both eager to hear about the result.

The guy with green hair spoke up.

"Did we win?"

The girl with blue hair shook her head.

"Nah, sorry."

The guy with white hair then sighed.

"Did we lose?"

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"Not exactly."

Sam, Chase, and the others also got closer, wanting to hear the results. Kairos looked at them and blinked a few times.

"It was a tie."

The guy with white hair let out a chuckle and waved his hand dismissively.

"Damn, at least it wasn't a loss, man."

Sam laughed.

"I suppose we are quite the even match."

Kairos pulled his glasses back out and put them on.

"If it truly was a life or death battle, then it would be hard to say who wins. However, I do have to admit that both sides would face deaths."

Nicole looked down at her feet, fidgeting a little bit. She was eliminated without being able to do anything herself, so she felt quite embarrassed. As for Tori, she was holding onto the side of her head, trying her best not to look at the girl with blue hair.

Kairos sighed and looked towards the guy with white hair.

"I suppose in the end, I was wrong. You guys are far from a burden from what I've seen."

In response, the guy smirked.

"You ain't so bad yourself! I bet if you made those spells stronger, you would've blown us away!"

Kairos nodded.

"Anyway, my name is Kairos."

The guy with white hair put two fingers on his forehead before whipping them to the side, almost like some sort of strange salute.

"Sup, Kairos. My name's Eric."

The girl with blue hair raised one hand, waving enthusiastically as the other continued to play with the paddle ball.

"Hey! My name is Jenny."

The guy with green hair made a peace sign.

"It's Nick over here."

The other people in Kairos' group introduced themselves, just not as casually as them.

After getting to know each other, Eric tapped his chin as he swung the red ball around.

"So, back on the topic we were on a while ago. Where are you guys going?"

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"Not any particular direction, honestly."

Nick put one hand on his hip.

"Hah, same here. The main priority is still becoming the most famous rock band though."

Jenny smiled.

"You guys want to hear our performance?"

Kairos' eyebrow twitched as he really didn't want to start listening to them playing their music. He raised a finger.

"I think if you guys want to become more popular, you will have to find a big crowd that can listen."

Eric raised an eyebrow.

"What are you proposing?"

Kairos cleared his throat.

"It would probably be best to find a rather large settlement. That way, you can perform once, but reach many people. We should hurry and try to find a place like that."

What he didn't specify was the fact there was almost no way that a settlement had formed by now. After all, it was just a few days into the apocalypse.

How in the world would there possibly be some sort of settlement when people are just barely able to survive in the first place?

Those were his thoughts as he made that suggestion.

Nick nodded to himself when he heard that.

"That sounds like a great idea! Let's find that settlement, then!"

During this time, Sam had laid his hand down against the floor, in a section where the road wasn't torn or covered by corpses.

After a few moments, he spoke up and pointed one way with his finger.

"From what I can tell, there are quite a few people that have walked in that direction."

Jenny crouched down next to him and also laid a hand down next to his.

"Huh. I can't tell anything at all. You must be pretty good at tracking!"

Sam smiled awkwardly.

"Haha, no, no. I just have an ability that lets me see those kinds of things."

He stood up and looked off in the direction he pointed.

"I couldn't exactly catch what they looked like too closely, but there were quite a few people going in that direction. If nothing else, I could make out that they were humans instead of monsters."

Nick put the microphone stand on his shoulders and hooked his arms on top.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Eric raised an eyebrow while smiling.

"Hah! I can already see the crowd cheering for us!"

While Sam was taking the lead, the group walked on ahead. The three that had joined the group walked in a line, spread a few meters apart. Honestly, Kairos was expecting them to remain bunched up with each other.

Even if it wasn't for the sake of safety, he still expected people close to each other to separate themselves from the others.

After all, that was what he had seen.

However, it seemed that these three were rather open, even to people they had just met.

Jenny began humming to a tune, and eventually, she began making a steady beat with her paddle and ball.

Both Eric and Nick gradually began nodding their heads to it as well.

And in just a few moments, the very thing Kairos was trying to avoid, happened.

Eric began twirling the red ball to the beat, and began singing.

"Say, oops I got ninety-nine problems singing bye, bye, bye."

Nick rocked his head back and forth.

"Hold up, if you wanna go and take a ride with me better hit me, baby, one more time."

Kairos felt a little irritated at first, but he couldn't help but admit they really did know what they were doing, with nearly perfect coordination.

If he had to choose, listening to them sing was still better than just walking in silence.

And before he knew it, they came across something unexpected.

A settlement.