146 Delay

Every time I was pushed back I noticed that the man-bull wanted to take some distance to charge at me, it was probably due to his bull nature, so I had to prevent it by going into close quarters constantly to no give him that chance. If he manages to charge there was nothing that stops him from attacking Hayley or someone else in the group.

I have been already 4 minutes with adrenaline burst, and the limit was five minutes. What I had prepared was ready half a minute ago, and I was just waiting for a particular moment.

After the last push, I jumped head-on into the man-bull range and barely avoided his punch. The moment was here, I countered with all the strength that I could gather, and the tomahawk pierced his chest, in the same place that most attacks that I have hit before.

The moment of the impact a sudden burst of blood came from the man-bull who fell to the floor bathed in his own blood.

[Ding!]…

[Congratulations for Killing the first D-Rank Beast, 50 system points and Low-grade Surprise box rewarded]

I turned off Adrenaline Burst, and I could feel all my body get weaker.

[Weakened state -75% on all physical stats and Esper Abilities - 4h 15m 03s left]

I hour per minute I see…

My strength wasn't even at the level it was when all this started, despite the sudden wave of fatigue and the weakened states I was on I managed to stay on my feet after getting dizzy. I looked around and noticed that my vision was blurry, I know that it's still better than when I was a normal human, but for my current self this was horrible, I couldn't activate Aura view either

I ignored the tomahawk on the center of the chest of the man-bull I probably wouldn't be able to pull it out anyway. Around the tomahawk there where many extra cuts, pierce and wounds that made the chest of the man-bull look like if it went through a meat grinder.

This was thanks to insight.

As I had to choose fast, I just did the thing that felt right. Body control and Great impact were the obvious choices for this situation. Bull force might have been a good option too, but I decided for the first one due to the burst potential that the name made me think off.

The wisdom perk was trickier, I had no clue what experience do, so I discarded it right away. It could be related to learning, but there was nothing I could get from it right now. When I read instinct, I felt like there would be many similarities with sixth sense, I might have been mistaken, but in the spur of the moment, I decided to discard it too.

Finally, Insight felt like something that could help me understand certain things faster, and after using infuse, I knew that the ways to apply were bound to my own understanding.

That was how Delay, the third ability of Time Infusion, was born.

Delay as the name said allowed me to delay an attack so it arrives later that it should, the apparently harmless attacks were due to that. Under normal circumstances probably I would never be able to delay so many attacks for so long, but this was an exceptional circumstance where I was under an enlightened state, and adrenaline burst also gives a boost to my concentration that allowed me to apply and unleash all the attacks at that moment.

The result was complete overkill, but I understood the potential that Delay could have when used in the future.

I went to where Hayley was laying to check her state. Since I couldn't use Aura view, I had to check if she had any wounds. I took her wrist to check her pulse, and I could see her chest going up and down with each breath. Her breathing was normal too.

Since I took her wrist, she opened her eyes slowly, when she saw me she tried to get up, but I stopped her.

"Lay down for a moment you hit your head."

She stopped moving and looked at me.

Only when her eyes focused on my body, I noticed the wounds that I got. The fatigue and pain that came from my body after exceeding its limits were merged with it, so I didn't notice it before, but I was in a horrible state.

I looked around Giorgio recovered from the shock of the battle cry and was helping Zak who got wounded. Gabriel fainted somewhere, but with my current condition, I couldn't pinpoint his location. I looked around in the sky when I noticed a blurry figure near me. This even weakened the Astral link.

'Rose, can you hear me?'

Her voice sounded far away barely audible, she probably has been trying to talk to me all this time.

'Spence, I can barely hear you…'

I focused the most I could to send my thoughts to Rose so she could understand what happened, she knew that I got more powers, so this was just an after effect of one of them. It took a while, but I think I managed to reach to her. Next was to communicate with Dante, I don't think we will be able to arrive at Green Shelter without help.

'Dante?'

Unlike the others Dante's voice was clear in my head, our connection was mainly due to his power. It might have not worked as good as usual if I was farther but right now I was in his area.

'There is a group going to recover you~. And don't worry the third wave is taken care of ~.'

'Wait, a third wave?'

'Yes, but don't worry I have someone handling it…'

I was in no condition to fight anyway, but I was curious about how did he handle them.

Hayley was laying on the floor with her eyes closed.

"Do you feel dizzy, nausea, or any place it hurts?"

"No, I think I got a bump in my head thou, and bruise from the fall."

I checked her head, as she said she had a little bump, it was difficult to assure that it was completely harmless, but at least for now she didn't have any symptoms that would point at something life-threatening.

"Let me check the bruises."

"Oh my!! Are you really asking to see my buttock? Rose is gonna get jealous."

She said with a teasing smile.

"I never asked that!!"

"I wouldn't mind, you have medical knowledge, and it's not like you haven't seen them already. I prefer you that some unknown guy checking me out."

Why does it make sense when she says it like that? I'm pretty sure that if I said something like that, I would be labeled as a pervert immediately.

"I have medical knowledge? Yes… but I'm not a doctor Hayley. Also, it's wrong…"

"I know I'm just messing with you, do you think we should go to Green Shelter now? I'm ok."

I might be overthinking it, but I think that she looked disappointed.

"Sure."

I got back on my feet with a lot of pain, it was getting worse. I could feel my muscles stiffer than before, I felt like the day after I ran a full marathon without having run before in my life.

I tried to take Hayley's hand to help her get on her feet but the moment I wanted to pull her up I noticed that instead of her coming up the floor was getting near.

I ended falling on top of her.

"I know I was teasing you before but don't you think this is too straightforward? Rose is going to be mad at you."

To be honest, I wasn't in the mood to answer back, so I just rolled to the side and ignored her comment. I was pathetic right now. I'm never using this ability again.

With my back and arms flat in the ground I lay there for a couple of seconds.

Maybe I should stay here the next 4 hours…

"Spence are you ok?"

The teasing smile on her face changed when she noticed my mood.

"Yes and no… this is a side effect of an ability, after using it, I will be in a weakened state for a while… sorry for falling on you."

She seemed worried. And extended her hand to me.

"Don't worry about it, you probably want to stay there, but we have to go back, you need to get all those wounds checked too…let me help you."

I didn't want to move but gathering my strength, and with Hayley's help, I was back on my feet again. Hayley was okay, so she surrounded me with an arm to help me move.

Giorgio was barely able to help Zak too and with Dante's help we located Gabriel and Giorgio managed to wake him up. After retrieving the tomahawk with the help of Giorgio's telekinesis we left.

Giorgio and Gabriel were holding Zak while we went back to Green Shelter.