362 God Of War [1]
The nearby cafe's wall shattered in an explosive burst, sending huge chunks of broken bricks, dust, and concrete flying everywhere as the masked man crashed through it.
Raymond, shocked to see his attack connect, turned his head to face Chase. He raised his thumb and said, "Nice work! Try not to give him any footing!"
For a martial artist, proper footing was crucial unless they possessed a movement art to bypass that requirement.
Without proper footing, they couldn't properly execute their attacks since the foundation of most weapon arts relied on precise movements.
Chase, still taking cover behind the pole, nodded.
Anastasia, perched atop that very same pole, gracefully hopped down. She shot a quick glance at Chase after landing and declared, "I'm going in."
Chase nodded.
Although he hoped that Raymond's attack and the crash into the cafe wall had broken the man's spine, rendering him incapable of continuing the fight… he knew better than to hope for wishful fantasies.
The unsettling feeling from before still gripped his heart. He could almost sense the cold grip of death tightening around his throat.
He could feel that this fight wasn't going to end well. But why were they having so much, damnit! It was a four versus one!
He stared seriously at Anastasia and said, "Be careful out there. I will do my best to support all of you before joining the fight myself. I... I have a bad feeling about this."
Anastasia nodded at the intensity of Chase's words before she could even grasp what he had said. She had never seen him so… serious and focused before.
"Okay, I will–"
However, before Anastasia could finish her sentence, the tide of the battle took a turn for the worse.
Through the large cavity in the cafe's shattered wall, something stirred within the cloud of dust right in front of Raymond.
Before the black-uniformed officer could react, a halberd shot through the dust toward him like a bullet.
"....?!" Raymond barely had enough time to raise his dagger and awkwardly deflect the incoming attack while trying to avoid its trajectory.
Klang—!!!
Sparks ignited as Raymond's long dagger clashed against the hurtling halberd, but he couldn't swat it away.
The halberd brushed past Raymond's face, leaving behind a thin red line in its wake just below his right eye as drops of blood fell from the wound.
If the halberd's blade had been a few inches higher, it could have gouged out Raymond's right eye.
He staggered back from the sudden attack, and before he could regain his footing, Raymond saw the cloaked man bursting out of the cloud of dust, lunging at him.
He noticed that the man had lost both his short spear and the halberd.
'Good, at least he doesn't have any weapons now!' Raymond thought with a hint of joy.
He swiftly stomped his foot on the ground, regaining his balance, and bravely swung his dagger at the cloaked man, who was just inches away from him.
But Leo simply slapped away Raymond's dagger arm with his left hand while thrusting his palm into the black-uniformed officer's vulnerable abdomen.
Thwack—!!!
"Khuuuak!"
As soon as Leo's palm made contact, the wind was forced out from Raymond's lungs as he felt some of his ribs break before being hurled back like a ragdoll.
His body crashed against the unforgiving concrete, skidding along the length of the road like a flat pebble on the water surface before coming to a halt.
Coughing up more blood, Raymond struggled to rise to his knees, but the poor guy wasn't even given a moment to catch his breath.
As he got up to his knees, he saw that the masked man had already closed in on him from the corner of his eyes. Once again, he was just inches away.
Leo had used this the chance to unleash a dreadful roundhouse kick on the kneeling officer.
Raymond clicked his tongue, pushing aside the concussion he received from the crash. His dagger had been wrenched from his grip during the fall, so he raised his left arm to block the incoming kick.
Kach—!!
But Leo's shin cut through Raymond's skin, tore through his muscles, ripped his tendons, and shattered his bone, severing his arm like a hot knife through butter.
"....Ah… Argh…. ARGHHHAAAAA!!!"
It took a second or two for Raymond's mind to register his missing arm. His lips quivered and his trembling eyes widened in panic as blood spurted from the stump where his hand should've been.
An organ-rending pain seeped into his bones as he opened his mouth to let out a shrilling wail of agony.
Convulsing, he hunched over as blood gushed from the severed nerves on his chopped arm like a crimson fountain, forming a pool around him.
It was only now that a dreadful thought clawed its way into his mind, igniting a primal… almost animalistic sense of… fear.
This man... He didn't need a weapon... His entire body was a weapon!
Without wasting any time, Leo dashed forward once again. He straightened his palm like a blade and thrust it directly at Raymond.
Klang—!!!
Fortunately, before the masked man could cleave Raymond's head from his body with his arm, Nero intervened.
The protagonist used his long sword to block the cloaked man's arm, shielding Raymond, but only for a moment.
Leo raised his leg and drove it squarely into Nero's chest, right where the tip of his short spear was still lodged.
Thwack—!!
"Arghh!" Nero gritted as pain erupted from his wound but summoned enough strength to push away Leo's arm.
Coming to their rescue at that very moment, Anastasia threw herself into the battle headfirst. She charged at the cloaked man and unleashed a flurry of punches, her fists enveloped in gauntlets made of pure azure mana.
Leo took a single step back and engaged Anastasia in close-quarters hand-to-
hand combat.
Anastasia was impressive.
Even against Leo, she managed to hold her ground. She was quick on her feet and she delivered punches with blurring speed.
After watching what happened to Raymond, she deftly avoided Leo's arms and legs, almost always staying just a little out of his reach.
She dodged the attacks that she could evade and tried to minimize the damage from the blows she couldn't escape.
Meanwhile, Nero's face twisted in pain, but he ignored it and turned to Raymond, who was still on his knees.
Raymond was tightly clutching his chopped arm just above the stump to put pressure on his veins and the blood flow.
"Raymond, are you alright?" Nero asked.
It was a stupid question. The man had just lost his arm and was barely holding back cries of agony.
Of course, he wasn't alright!
Raymond, however, bit his lower lip and nodded. He took a deep breath and slowly rose to his feet. "I… Augh! I am fine."
With the help of mana, he flexed all the muscles above the stump on his severed arm to stop the blood flow.
It was a little trick he had learned during his military service but wished he'd never have to use. Well, so much for that wish.
After staunching the blood flow, Raymond, along with Nero, joined Anastasia in the battle against the cloaked man.
Fighting with one arm and a broken short spear plunged in the chest was not exactly easy, but they were managing somehow.
Soon, Anastasia also began to accumulate wounds and injuries. None were fatal, she made sure of that, but they were piling up.
From a distance, Chase continued to control the battlefield, often turning the ground under Leo's feet malleable or shooting earthen spikes at him.
However, none of his party tricks worked on Leo anymore after the first one.
Now, their battle was not about victory but survival.
All of them, except Chase, were heavily wounded.
They didn't mind that anymore because their focus had shifted from remaining unscathed to coming out of this battle a little less broken than the enemy.
Which... wasn't going well. Until now, the cloaked man had not received a single wound.
He effortlessly blocked Anastasia's powerful strikes, skillfully deflected Nero's sharp sword with his bare hands, and deftly countered all of Raymond's attacks.
They had been cautious until now, but one more mistake and one of them would pay with their life. Defeat was imminent.
And just at that moment, one of them made a mistake…
Leo deftly redirected one of Nero's slashes by gently pushing his blade aside and quickly lunged at Anastasia, launching a low kick aimed at her knee.
Instead of backing down, Anastasia stepped forward.
Her plan was to lift her leg at the last possible moment and strike the masked man with a brutal front kick.
Unfortunately, her plan failed before it even started.
Just as Anastasia was about to act, Leo unnaturally twisted his leg, changing his low kick into a high roundhouse.
"....?!" Anastasia's eyes widened.
Blocking the kick at this point was impossible, but if she did nothing, her head would fly off in the next second.
Fortunately, at that very moment, Chase jumped in front of Anastasia, raising his shield gauntlets in defense.
Klang—!! Thrack—!!!
The kick harshly collided with Chase's shields, shattering them into a burst of metal shards almost instantly.
The kick continued its trajectory, tearing off a small chunk of Chase's jaw. The pain and impact from the sharp kick sent him sprawling to the side.
"Chase!" Anastasia rushed to check on her injured friend.
But at the same time, Nero used this opportunity and pounced on the cloaked man.
After Leo carried out his kick, his side was exposed and vulnerable.
Though it was just for a split second, it was all the time Nero needed to execute a fatal horizontal slash.
"Nero, stop!" Raymond shouted at that very moment.
Nero frowned, but it was too late to stop his attack now. Just then, he noticed the cloaked man had twisted his upper torso.
In an instant, the cloaked man unleashed a swift reverse roundhouse kick, whipping his leg backward at Nero.
Nero's eyes widened in shock, but he managed to block what could have been his death by swiftly raising his sword.
Klang—!!
Even though it was a near-perfect block, the force of the impact sent Nero reeling to the side.
Now it was him who was wide open from the sides! It was the same position the cloaked man had been in just seconds earlier!
After successfully throwing Nero off balance, Leo once again thrust his palm forward like a sword.
This time, his palm was going for the right side of Nero's chest… It was going straight for his heart!
'No, no, no, no!' Nero frantically thought in that one fleeting second. 'I... I can't die... Not without avenging my mother first!'
In that passing second, he prayed to the heavens to save his life, no matter the cost.
He couldn't meet his end like this, not here, and certainly not before making his father pay for his sins! For what he did to him and his mother!
…Thankfully, the heavens answered his call.
The night sky darkened even further as thunderclouds appeared to veil the moon's fervent glow. Howling winds blew and carried the scent of coming rain.
And right at that moment, Nero felt himself being pushed aside by an unseen force.
He barely had time to catch a glimpse of a shiny Medal of Valor from the corner of his eye.
Leo's palm pierced the chest of the valiant black-uniformed officer who pushed away Nero.
Kach—!!
While Nero staggered to the side, not yet understanding what happened, Raymond violently coughed out blood as Leo's palm impaled his chest.
He slowly turned to Nero and whispered in a hoarse voice, "Te... Tell my mother... I was brave..."
The cloaked man withdrew his hand from Raymond's chest and extracted his heart, which was still beating.
Without any support, Raymond collapsed. As he finally realized what had just gone down, Nero's pupils constricted.
Shakily, he rose to his feet and watched his friend breathe his last, vitality draining from his body faster than the blood gushing out from the gaping hole in his chest.
As the spark of life faded from Raymond's eyes, Leo crushed the chunk of flesh in his hand and threw it away like trash.
