3 The life of a PKer

After touching the small light that appeared in front of him, the world went back to normal. However, Tobias felt nothing. No power, no crazy enlightenment, nothing.

'What a crap cheat! The all-powerful nothingness!'

Even with that thought, Tobias felt it necessary to act as if something happened. The bluff wasn't over yet.

"Kehahaha! The power! I feel the power! This is incredible... you three mongrels are no longer worth my time!" he said.

On that note, Tobias tried to leave.

"Wait right there..."

"Yeah!"

"Er."

Tobias steeled himself and tried to act in such a way that'd scare them off, his previous life as a nerd helping in the process.

"What is it mongrels? My time is precious, don't waste it."

The white-haired thug took upon himself a derisive smirk and began to speak.

"What you just received was a blessing... the thing about blessings is that the power assimilates into the holder through mastery, not immediately. This isn't magic we're talking about."

Tobias clenched his fist as sweat rolled down his left temple; this wasn't what he had expected. Something magical just happened, and these people were acting casually about it.

"Boss! If we kill him we get the blessing right?!"

"Er!"

The one that is known as "boss" simply stared at the two with contempt and continued to speak to Tobias.

"Of course, most people know such things. So tell me... are you confident that you can take us all on?" he said, pulling a combat knife out from his back pocket.

After the boss of the trio took out a weapon, Tobias all but knew that there was nothing he could do but fight.

'Stop shaking, legs! This'll be my first PK so I'll do it right! First to attack wins!'

Tobias darted his eyes around the area he was in, trying to find something he could use. There was a variety of abandoned houses, a setting sun that hurt his eyes, a chair in front of the wooden houses, and the dirt beneath his feet.

"I'm fucked, aren't I?" was all Tobias had to say.

"Yep!"

"Heh."

"Er."

'Talkative lot aren't they...'

Tobias firmly planted his feet in the ground, lowered his center of gravity, and pushed himself in the direction of the trio. After the trio saw what Tobias was doing, they all equipped themselves with their respective weaponry and copied his movement.

'They're almost here...'— Tobias lowered himself even more and stopped running —'now!'

Tobias dug his right hand into the ground and picked up a small hill of dirt, throwing it in the eyes of the boss, in reaction the boss staggered back, screaming a variety of curses at Tobias.

"Fuck! Attack him nimwits!"

At the command of their boss, the little and big thugs ran at Tobias, the little one arriving first. The weapon that the little thug was carrying happened to be a dagger, suited for stabbing.

'Perfect.' Tobias thought.

The little one took a chance to thrust his knife-hand towards Tobias, prompting a dodge from the latter, Tobias then took his left hand, and wrapped it around the fist of his right, aimed his right elbow at the little one's face, and pushed with all his might.

Tobias could feel and hear an audible crack just above the little one's chin, exactly where he had hit.

"Eat dust, mongrel!" Tobias declared as the thug fell to the ground.

At this moment, the bigger of the two had arrived, his weapon of choice being a club.

"You bastard! You killed Timmy!"

"And you're next, you tub of lard!" Tobias said, sprinting in the direction of the chair.

'Although the kid probably isn't dead...'

The thug grunted in anger at Tobias's action and ran after him, while the boss of the three had finally recovered from the dirt being thrown into his eyes.

After arriving at the chair, Tobias simply lowered his center of gravity and prepared, looking similar to a sumo wrestler in the process. Being agitated at running more than he had ever run in his life and the loss of a friend, the thug didn't have the energy to consider a trap. This was his downfall.

When the thug arrived he continued to dash at Tobias, in an attempt to tackle him, and Tobias simply stepped to the side as the giant tackled the chair.

'And now... a body slam!'

As the thug struggled to detach himself from the chair, grunting and whining as he did so, Tobias jumped forth with all his might, push the same right elbow he used to knock out the other thug forward, and fell. With no time to react, the giant thug was out.

"The weather sure is nice today!" Tobias said.

Taking his time to reclaim his breath, Tobias thought it necessary to check if their boss had recovered yet, and slowly turned his head in the direction of where it all started.

A scream was heard throughout the city, and the source was located directly in front of Tobias.

"You bastard!"

The moment Tobias saw a knife being held above his head, his mind went into a state of autopilot. He immediately jumped at the torso of the white-haired thug, tackling him, and the thug lost grip of his knife in surprise.

As they fell to the floor, the thug was already preparing to get his knife back, Tobias doing the same. For a few more seconds, the two straggled for the knife, in a heated contest of wits and..., not skill.

Eventually, the two simply started to brawl. Tobias going for jabs and the thug boss trying to push him down. With one final punch, the boss was out. He had been paying too much attention to

Tobias's posture, scared of another pile of dirt being slung into his eyes, his downfall was to be expected.

"So, I can leave now right?" Tobias asked, the question directed at seemingly no one, his straight back, and shining smile dimming from view as the Sun fell into slumber.