7 Stumbling Home

Immediately after the referee announced the result, Lucas bolted!

Within a second he nimbly climbed up the net surrounding the stage and as soon he reached the top, he started running on the top edge of the net.

The net was shaped like a square as was the stage so running in a straight line was theoretically possible if one didn't factor in the fact that one needed to maintain their balance.

As soon as he reached the end of the rope on his side of the square, he vaulted! With the the grace of a trained professional Lucas flew ignoring the dumbfounded crowd.

With his arms and legs practically parallel to each other, he soared through the air to reach a small window meant for ventilation.

Straightening his body he caught the ledge of the window with both hands as his body slammed hard into the wall. Fortunately, although one of his hands slipped Lucas was able to hold on with his other hand.

Performing a pull-up with that one arm, he swung his fist at the window. Many shards of glass pierced his arm as he reached his hand through to grasp the ledge on the other side. He then proceeded to pull himself through with his unoccupied hand in one swift motion using the momentum of bouncing lightly on the arm holding himself up. Though the many shards of glass stabbing into him was painful, he was able to forge on with practised discipline!

Pulling himself up with a grunt, Lucas sprinted towards "his" bike as he ignored the shouts and curses that could be heard from all over the building.

Lucas pulled out a rusted coin seemingly out of thin air as soon as he heard the engine growl. He immediately flipped the coin in a very practised manner. Immediately, a strange pattern formed of individually rotating ever-changing polygons appeared within his left eye making it faintly glow lilac in colour. Text started to appear within his mind.

[BLOOD THICKER THAN GOLD]

Blood of certain beasts are worth their weight in gold! Your greedy heart believes your blood to be the same! Using gold as a medium you are able to draw blood spilled from your body into the gold medium with not a drop wasted.

As soon as the rusted coin fell on his palm, the blood on the stage and around the window evaporated leaving no traces as the coin on his palm turned slightly red. Pocketing the coin, Lucas smiled to himself.

"Another bountiful harvest."

He mumbled looking at the newly appeared bag of coins that contained exactly 75 coins. With a flip of his hand, it disappeared.

Stopping the bike under a bridge, Lucas decided it was time for to tend to his wounds. He currently was sporting many gruesome looking wounds but in reality the worst one was the one that looked the lightest. The blow he took to his head from Snake was starting to make him feel dizzy.

With a flip of another coin he mumbled yet another verse. In reality he didn't need to chant anything due to him being extremely familiar and proficient in them but sometimes he likes to say them out loud especially when he's alone.

[REMEDY OF THE 7 SEAS]

Those who've traveled the 7 seas have a strong belief in the power of salt. Able to heal most external wounds to a certain extent if only one is able to bear through the pain only a true sailor would understand.

A pouch full of salt now rested on his hands. Clenching his teeth he rubbed them into all of his open wounds.

His eyes started to turn bloodshot and his gums too started bleeding! Lucas let out a ragged breath.

"Ahhhhh, always hurts damn it."

Lucas sighed. Honestly this was one of the most masochistic abilities he's ever seen. That was why he was always so reluctant to use it on himself. Though he's always more than happy to help Ron out, even if it was something as simple as a paper cut.

Chuckling as the thought, Lucas examined his wounds with a small smile adorning his usually expressionless face and saw that all of them had scabbed over and some of the lighter ones were even showing signs of peeling.

Dumping the bike into a nearby alleyway and changing out his torn up clothes, Lucas left the scene. Plugging his earphones in, Lucas inserted the buds into both his ears and proceeded to unwind as he unconsciously slowed his previously quick gait.

He already knew many were going to be looking for him. But he was confident in his skills in erasing his tracks.

With a bottle of cheap liquor he bought from a nearby pub, Lucas stumbled him way home. With music in his ears and some liquor swishing about in his stomach, he felt absolutely content. Though he looked absolutely sloppy and careless at the moment, if one examined him with a high grade Analysis type ability, they might've noticed that he was actually using an ability as he drank.

[CHEAP DRUNKARD]

Your body has come to love cheap liquor more than the expensive kind. Drinking cheap liquor calms your body and aids in healing of internal wounds. Different additional bonuses are applied when drinking alone and drinking with friends.

[LONELY]: Internal regeneration is doubled but likelihood of getting piss-drunk increases with each sip.

[EXCITED]: Liquor drunk by friends is also included onto user's personal tab. [CHEAP DRUNKARD] shows effect on all friends drinking. All friends except user will get piss-drunk.

Now normally the possible side effect of [LONELY] would be highly unfavourable to the user especially one who was at the moment trying to dodge pursuit. But his innate passive ability easily negated any worry [LONELY] could cause.

[RUM BUM]

Having drunken rum so much throughout your life, all forms of alcohol have come to acknowledge you as one of their own. All side affects caused by drinking will be negated and those present during drinking will be paused till you finish your drink.

Honestly the name irked him sometimes. Like, seriously, how could he ever be described as a bum. Dashing? Cool? Charismatic? All of those and more would've been a better alternative but he figured it wouldn't sound as catchy.

With cheap liquor dripping from his chin, he squinted at the moon. It shone so brightly, so beautifully that it never failed to captivate him.

Looking up at the moon when feeling lonely was a habit he started since he was young. Maybe even before that…

As he made his through a familiar neighbourhood, Lucas yawned.

"Can't be sleeping just yet. Got more work to do. Power, responsibility, proportionality as some dude once said isn't that right, Stephen?"

Lucas seemingly voiced out his thoughts to the moon but the latter part sounding more sharper and dangerous. Lucas squinted at a seemingly normal tree. With a slight fluctuation in the space in front of the tree, a man was revealed holding a large shimmering blanket. Nothing seemed special about the blanket save for the shimmering blood red sequins that covered one side in its entirety.

"Whoa…how did you know I was here?"

Stephen was truly puzzled as the blanket he was currently was an artifact that he had obtained by chance. Even though the name was really embarrassing it was one of the most useful and powerful artifacts he had.

Glancing at Stephen through his lashes, Lucas paused. His left eye started to glow in a familiar manner as he looked at the sequinned blanket.

{LOVERS' TRYST}

A blanket used by a certain royal family for generations led to it awakening as an artifact naturally. Embodying the wish of all its previous users to hide them and their partner, this blanket although extremely gaudy can mask the presence of 2 individuals at max. Moving whilst using the blanket can effect the performance of the blanket though has a bonus x2 effect while participating in intercourse with another individual.

Lucas's eyes widened in shock. This artifact was too perverted and disgusting ewww. Generations used that thing! Lucas almost forgot to respond whilst being overcome with disgust. Lucas made a mental note to NEVER touch that…thing, unless his life depended on it.

"Secret."

Stephen frowned at that. He understood the logic behind why he chose to answer as such but he really wished to know why his trusty artifact had failed him. Stephen decided to get to his point first and worry about he little details later.

"Sooo, you must be wandering why I was waiting here for you hidden-"

"You weren't really hidden tho.."

"…As I was saying..The reason I was out here waiting for you was because of a certain favour I would like to ask of you."

"And what makes you think I would just help you,hmm?"

"Maybe the fact that you stole my Harley Davidson and that I have something that could actually tempt you, hmph!"

This made Lucas pause. He could've sworn he had left no clues behind but it seemed he had missed something. That overlooked key point alone would be valuable enough info but he actually claimed to have something that could tempt him! Right now all he wanted to do was go home and take a shower and collapse in bed. But a tiny part of him wanted to see what this guy was all about. Raising an eyebrow at him, Lucas waited for him to continue.

Clearing his throat, Stephen smiled as he dropped a bombshell that left Lucas looking at him in disbelief.

"I have THE {Heart of the Ocean}!"

"!!!"