62 Max(2)

Max had met many people in his life.

Up to the age of five, he had grown up in a World Government Orphanage, where he had experienced, where he had met many like him: those who had been too young to even remember their parents who had died in incidents like hordes.

He hadn't liked that place. It had been filled with hopelessness and despair, with most searching for and crying about things they didn't even remember correctly.

He had been different. He had a secret which allowed him to be different, and he had been able to identify that that wasn't where he was supposed to be.

He ran away, and he was taken in by a Hamlet.

Up to the age of ten, he grew in that Hamlet, surrounded by a 100-strong family who had all loved him equally. He had had fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, brothers, nephews…the list went on and on, and those had been the best years of his life.

He had wanted to live there forever, forgetting his secret, but life had different plans for him. In a single night, all the adults in the Hamlet were massacred by an organization that opposed the World Government, and he was forcefully taken to their base to be groomed as one of them.

Up to the age of eighteen…he had blocked those memories out, surviving through everything with a single thirst for revenge.

At fifteen, he set fire to the Energy reserves and blew up the entire place.

That hadn't been enough for him, though. At that moment, he made a vow, and since then, he had been Ascending the Path to fulfill that vow.

The thing was that almost everyone he had met until now had functioned by the basic laws that he believed governed all humans, good or bad: self-preservation, greed, and lust.

He didn't know the power of the one who had taken the mission to escort him, but he had been alerted of the fact that he should be cautious when the guy had been able to instantly find his escape route that he had hidden very carefully. Only someone with the acute senses of a Tera might have been able to detect anything, at all, but it had been simple for him.

Hence, he had started off with the threat to hopefully scare his opponent, or, at least, unsettle him.

Only, he could never have expected that the guy in front of him would actually…shrug off the information, and proceed to say, "Very well. Let us have a Tera Battle."

What the f*ck?!

'Very well'?! Excuse me? That's how you respond to the statement that chilled so many guards that they didn't even dare to come near my cell? Who the f*ck are you, a mass murderer who boasts an even higher kill count?

It wasn't that the guy was being disbelieving, or that he was scoffing. Max prided himself on his ability to read people and situations, and this guy had definitely believed him, but he had still responded like that.

All kinds of warning bells went off in Max's head, and that was never a good sign.

After thinking for a bit, he did something that didn't fit into the character he was known for to others, at all.

Raising his hands, he shook them and put on a bold pose and said, "You know what? I'll spare you, since you remind me of someone I'm very fond of. Call this your lucky day, and finish your mission."

He was known for loving Tera Battles, and he had a habit of challenging everyone he could find everywhere he went.

Yet…that was only when he could generally judge an opponent.

This guy, though…was off, and Max wanted nothing to do with him.

He had initially planned to escape the house arrest that awaited him in the Hamlet by getting away from the Ascender who would come to escort him, but he decided that he would much rather take his chances there, even though it would be tough.

A threat or situation he could judge and estimate was much more attractive than an anomaly, and it was clear that this guy was the latter.

Only…it looked like the decision wasn't his to make.

Shaking his head, the guy said, "No, we must battle. The old man has warned me about you, so I'm not going to travel with you unless I find out exactly how strong you are. Take out your Tera and fight. Don't think about holding back, because if you do, I will know."

The words said in a calm tone sent a chill up Max's spine, and all he wanted to do was run the f*ck away from this guy who seemed crazier than him.

Yet, the damn bracelet didn't give him a choice.

However, after thinking for a moment, he decided to take a chance.

He still continued his 'tough guy' action, but it was already feeling weird.

"Interesting. If that is your wish, so it shall be. However, can I ask why you said 'very well' when you heard the news of my latest rampage? I don't expect that you heard about it before?"

The guy thought for a bit whether he wanted to answer or not, but after that, he seemed to make a decision.

"It doesn't matter to me. You say you killed them. Maybe you needed to. Maybe you didn't. Maybe it didn't happen. Maybe you were defending yourself. I can't make a judgment on it, so I simply won't. I am a bit more cautious, but that's it. So, I thought that was the best response."

'I can't judge, so I won't'?

My friend, where is that mind of yours from? Can I find out, so that I can avoid that place at all costs?

The only reason Max got this thought was that he had realized that this guy wasn't…normal, at all.

All of Max's experiences and history were not enough to estimate him, and the policy of his life was to never get involved in things he couldn't judge, or understand.

So…Max made his decision.

He sat down on the ground, right where he was standing, and declared, "Screw you. I won't fight. The Ascender Mission dictates that you can't hurt me unless it is in self-defense, so no matter what you do, it ain't happening."

As Aaron heard this statement, he was perplexed.

He wanted to get on with his Path and see what changes Bonding with Woof had resulted in, but before that, he had to escort this guy.

Yet, he really didn't want to do so without fighting him first and finding his strength.

What should he do now?

As this question appeared in his head, he suddenly got an idea.

Contacting Woof who was comfortably napping in the Core, he said, "Remember when you bit the fur off of a Scavenging Hyena to scare it away because it wouldn't stop following us around to eat what we left? Get ready to do something similar now…"