22. FIRST KILL.

Noah stopped running. For real this time. He entered the forest walking a little bit far away from the road. He didn't feel safe sleeping near the road.

After walking for a few minutes, he picked a random tree to climb.

Climbing onto the top of the tree Noah let his conciousness unfold, he didn't want to get caught off guard if anything happened, and he had also found out that sleeping did not stop his mental waves from working. His mind could still see everything in that 10 meter radius around, his eyes would just be closed.

Actually it was really weird to explain.

Noah sat on a branch, with his back resting on the tree .He stayed like that for a while ,thinking about his current strength, his mysterious enemies and the whole world in general.

After a few minutes,he closed his eyes to sleep .Or rather he tried to.

BOOOOOMMM!

An explosion resounded, with splinters of wood flying everywhere.

Noah opened his eyes , Immediately activating his speed force. Everything single thing slowed down, the sound, the splinters of wood, even the electricity his body emitted.

Then he jumped down from the tree , "What the fu*k" Noah cursed, looking around, he saw that the explosion was from the road .

Furrowing his eyebrows ,Noah walked towards the road, he was still under the influence of the 'speed force' ,so he knew no one would be able to see him, on his way to the road Noah waved off flying pieces of wood. It was as if he had put a pause on the world.

He could change the direction of the objects.

Getting to the road, Noah saw some trees on fire, and a carriage across the road ,and around the carriage there were people fighting themselves , while a fire ball was in the air ,there were even bodies in the air, probably due to the explosion ,all of them still moving in slow motion to him.

Noah heaved a deep sigh, 'Somethings will never change even in a different world ' , Noah said in his mind. This was definitely a group of bandits attacking a carriage scenario.

Noah was about to run off, he really wanted to help, but he wouldn't risk his life and secret for people he didn't know unless he wanted to.

But before he could ,he saw something that drawed his attention .It was a little girl.

She was still inside the carriage, but he could see her from the window, She had black hair ,with a pale skin, he could not see what her eye colour was, but he didn't care ,the thing that was most striking was that she was crying.

Noah frowned at this sight, he didn't like this scene at all. The girl was definitely the person the men around the carriage were protecting , and from the looks of it they were her guards and they were on the losing side.

Noah could guess which were the bandits and which were the girls guards, because a few of the fighting men wore a black skin-tight jumpsuit, with their faces covered, actually they looked like ninjas, while the other men fighting wore green coloured leather vests and trousers.

The most suspiciously looking men were those in black ,so they were definitely the bandits.

Pondering about what to do, Noah walked around, his stamina was burning, and sooner or later, the bandits would notice, the figure glowing with orange radiance. he was simply moving fast enough to percive things that way. Not that they were really moving in slow motion.

Gritting his teeth,Noah decided to help. Firstly he ran towards the carriage, what he was about to do was dangerous. So he entered the carriage, the girl was still moving in slow motion, he carried her ,and ran back to into the forest, and hid her behind a tree a few hundred meters away from the road.

With the weakest person there in safety, Noah stopped running. Hiding behind a tree ,Noah watched as the girls guards fell into chaos. A particular man, was screaming orders at the other men he was probably the leader. So Noah inspected him.

[Benos ]

[Tier: 1]

[Level: 24]

[Chances of death: 0%]

It turned out that Benos was weaker than Noah, by a lot. The system didn't even recognize him as a threat.

Shaking his head Noah cast 'Energy Armour'.A magic circle appeared beneath him, and thick lines of lightning shot out, wrapping around his body from head to toe, then they turned invisible, only a small ash halo could be seen around him.

After casting the spell, Noah heard a high pitched scream that belonged to the girl "Time to move" Noah shouted in his mind.

Jumping out of his hiding place,Noah stretched out his palm and cast "Air Spears" ,A magical circle appeared on his palm then Five Spears made of densely packed air materialised , aiming it at five bandits, who currently in a sword fight with the guards.

The result was immediate.The 'air Spear' struck the five bandits he had aimed at ,sending them flying, he wasn't sure if they were dead or not, But he didn't pay much attention to that.

Immediately he had attacked, everyone on the road noticed him, and the result was that a fire ball was sent towards his position.

Rolling to the side Noah dodged it ,and immediately he sighted the person that cast the spell. The man looked like the leader of the group.

In that span of a second Noah inspected the man.

[Munoz]

[Tier:2]

[Level 29]

[Chances of death: 20%]

Noah's eyes widened at this, before he could do anything, a second fire ball was sent towards him, Noah dodged it effortlessly, but as it was about to pass him, it detonated.

The explosion sent Noah flying sideways , he hit a tree, breaking it and some other trees. He got back up immediately, his armour had protected him, but he didn't want that to happen again.

There were exactly 11 bandits and Noah has taken down 5, The remaining of the 5 were busy with the guards, while the leader was busy with him.

Before he could do anything , two more fire balls were sent towards his position, not wanting the same thing to repeat itself ,Noah executed 'Mountain stomp ' to propel himself into the air, And that was a mistake.

He had successfully dodged the two incoming fire balls, but before he could celebrate, another one , struck him.

The impact sent Noah flying backwards for a few meters "How can he be so precise" Noah shouted in his mind with annoyance, while rolling on the ground

He wasn't injured ,but he didn't like his situation,if he continued like this he would have to use his super speed. Getting up immediately Noah saw three incoming fire balls.

Taking a deep breath, Noah activated the 'speed force ' ,he wasn't going to continue getting thrown around. Everything slowed down including the fire balls.

This was his first fight with a human and ,and so far he had confirmed that he was a rookie, and that without the system or 'speed force' helping him ,he would get killed faster than he expected.

It had only been half a minute since the fight started, and he was already learning.

Looking at the incoming fire balls,Noah simply walked passl them away from their trajectory.

Immediately he out if their way, Noah pointed his palm at where the leader was and he cast a spell that he had not used in while, 'Small Energy Bomb'.

A white magic circle, appeared on his palm ,and from it a ball of condensed electrical energy the size of a tennis ball shot out.

Stopping the speed force, Noah watched as the bomb struck the position of the surprised man.

BOOOOMMMM!

An explosion akin to three hand grenades resounded, the shock waves , sending some of the bandits and guards flying.

It seemed that no one died, but a lot of them were badly injured.

With that ,the short fight ended with Noah almost killing everyone.

Before the leader could recover, Noah rushed to his position, he didn't use his speed but he was still incredibly fast, crossing a distance of 50 meters, in two seconds.

Arriving in front of the leader who was in a critical condition, Noah inspected the kneeling middle aged man ,who looked at Noah as though he wanted to rip his head off and chew it.

The man had a face that only a mother could love ,coupled with the unholy amout of scars on it and the patches of burnt skin, the man looked truly ugly.

Noah was at loss of what to do, he had not killed anyone before, and the thought of doing so, made him freeze.

He thought of leaving the man to the guards, but he was tier 2.

During Noah's moment of hesitation, Munoz grabbed his arm saying with a resolute voice " I am not going down alone" . Then magic a circle appeared beneath them, but before he could complete the spell, Noah instinctively punched Munoz in the face with all his strength. which resulted in Munoz's head exploding, because of the massive force the punch packed.

Blood and brain matter splattered everywhere and on Noah's body ,but he didn't move, Noah stayed there standing in a slightly bent position ,staring at his right fist covered in blood ,he ignored the men that stood offensively, surrounding him.

He also ignored the system notification that popped up.

All Noah could think was ' I just killed a person '.

After a few seconds, Noah began to shiver, his breathing becoming ragged, his eyes wide open ,as the reality of what he had done dawned on him.

Then orange Sparks began to flicker around and on his body. The guards mistook this as a sign that Noah wanted to attack them.

They all lunged at him with their weapons, but before they could touch him.

Noah moved.