Chapter 74: Time Stop [Part 2]

"Is that him?"

They turned their heads back and their pupils dilated. Standing by the gates, the very same Gray haired young man could be seen. His eyes cold and dark, as he ordered.

"Bring me someone with a healing ability.".

For a moment, there was a slight pause as they questioned this man's sanity. Not only did he infiltrate their base, killed two of their men and humiliated them. But he also had the audacity to return and make a demand.

"H-Hahaha… Instead of running you chose to come back here?! YOU FOOL!" The orange haired man chuckled. He covered his face with his palm, hiding his bulging eyes before suddenly adding. "Kill him."

At that very instant, countless blades swings could be seen directed at Gray from every direction all around him. Simultaneously, Gray's feet sunk into the ground immobilizing him as a poisonous intertwined vine, drilled from out of the ground towards him.

That was only few of the countless abilities directed at him in that very moment. It was a barrage of unforeseeable attacks.

Despite that- No matter how powerful the attack. Before his new ability, it was all futile.

Once again, everything had halted in it's tracks. Light no longer seemed to fill the room as it all turned black and white. The furious expressions of the horned ones could be seen on their faces as their attacks rested ahead of them.

In this world, it was frighteningly quiet, the only sound Gray could hear was his own breath and the sound of his steps.

Time had stopped, once more.

As he stood there ahead of the attacks, he was reminded of when he had first stopped it.

Gray could not recall how long he had spent in the world of pause time during that moment. Only fragments of what he had done could be connected as his mind had been clouded in a mixture of all kinds of negative emotions. The side to him revealed was a side to him he never knew existed.

Punch… After punch… After punch… With the monster's having no clue as to what was hitting them, by the time time had began to move, it was already to late for them. They exploded from within as all the accumulated internal damage caused their organs to burst out.

Every monster, in Gray's fest of rage, one thing he could recall was that he hadn't missed a single one.

When he came to it, he was already standing in the center of the arena, right in the middle of the bloodbath as he held onto his fragile sister's body. His fists ached as blood could be seen flowing down it.

At the same time he had received certain notifications.

[System Error]

[Quest Has Been Completed.]

[Rewards: ??? has been awarded.]

[100 XP has been awarded]

[XP required to level up: 388/400]

[A Very Rare Skill Orb has been awarded]

A compressed skill orb, the size of a baseball, smaller than any of the others Gray had appeared within his pouch as both his hands had been occupied with carrying his sister. A bright grey light flashed across the room as a result of it.

[System Error]

[Warning: Unknown effects of continuous use, User's life is at risk.]

Despite having gotten the warning however, he used it once more. With use the fragments of what happened during time stop began to form a shape in his memories, at the same time, he felt like he was losing a part of himself.

Snapping himself out of his thoughts, Gray could feel the time for which he could use this ability, quickly decrease. Because of that his attention was quickly diverted to all the horned ones frozen figures and their attacks.

Without wasting any more time, he began his counter. Gray walked up to the closest one, an orange ranked. Out of all the others, his sword was the one which was closest to cutting Gray.

*CRASH!*

Gray slammed his knee into his face, watching as it caved itself in. He proceeded to unleash another two clean strikes to the man's temple, before contemplating on whether or not to break his horns. He chose not to, for now at least.

"First one down…" He muttered

-

-

-

'Huh…? What is this…?'

"WHAT THE HELL IS-"

*PAM!*

The orange haired man was interrupted due to him having been sent flying into the wall as his stomach sunk in. It had received countless heavy blows in the exact same spot out of nowhere, all in the very same instant before he burst away.

*BAM!* *BABABAMM!* *BAAAMM!*

It wasn't just him, but most of them, all those who had been the closest and Around Gray were suddenly propelled away, each one of them had visible fist, knee, elbow prints all around their bodies. Some even had their eyes aching as they dropped to their knees.

Gray had attacked most of their weak spots, making sure to knock out as many as he could with the chin and temple. One thing he didn't do was aim for the nuts under no circumstance.

"H-How…? HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE!? WE ALL ATTACKED YOU!! HOW ARE YOU UNSCATHED!?" The orange haired man shouted, blood could be seen flowing down his nose as, to Gray's surprise, he still held onto his conscious.

Most of the horned ones had activated their abilities, and yet… Gray was completely unscathed, standing right beside the red horned princess.

She was the only one out of all of them who he hadn't attacked, after all, out of all them. She had never made a single move to attack him.

The two stared at each for a few moments before she made the first move.

"Stop." She raised her hand, gesturing for them to stop with a smile.

Upon doing so, the eyes of those who were still standing, getting ready for another attack while he was distracted, dilated. Their Katana's trembled as they struggled to hold them self back from executing the attack.

"Stop?" The Orange haired man asked. "Why stop?"

"Because if he wanted it, as of this moment, you would all be dead." She replied.

"Princess… I do not mean to be rude, but we were given direct orders from his majesty to kill any who dared to invade-"

The orange haired man was interrupted, by the girl who's tone now carried more pressure. "Did you not hear me? You are to stop, there will be no discussion."

Upon hearing this, the man bit his lip, causing blood to flow down it as his hand trembled from holding back his anger. He lowered his head, before gesturing at them to pull back.

They reluctantly did as ordered and and lowered their weapons, they guards still up. Turns out Gray hadn't dealt with all of them.

The girl proceeded to turn to Gray. He was a whole 10 centimeters taller than her, resulting in her having to look up to face him.

Her irises glowed a golden light, almost similar to Gray's who's eyes glowed a bright yellow.

"You said you need a healer right?" She asked before glancing at the red gem on her battle Axe. "This gem can heal most lethal wounds. So, who am I healing?" She asked.

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250 - Powerstones - 14 Ch / Week

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Every 10 Golden Tickets - 1 Extra Chapter release, end of month.