The Culling (3)

Lucas still remembered vividly how the man's bones were broken by his fist.

The man's struggle as he tried to take a single breath and continue living was imprinted in Lucas' mind.

Lucas felt lost and confused, his heart couldn't stop beating hard as he remembered the fact that he had killed another human being.

However, the anger, the disbelief that he felt had eclipsed those emotions as he stared at the burly man walking towards him.

He already knew what it was like to feel guilty and conflicted after his accidental kill.

But from that kill, he also knew how weak and fragile an ordinary human body was.

Lucas moved the mana in his body, enhancing his body with the basic body strengthening technique.

And this time, he also moved the mana to activate the coercive figment.

This was the first time he activated the technique he got from Maya, but just as she said, the high-level technique book had imprinted all that he needed to know about the technique.

That includes how to properly use them.

The mana in Lucas' body started moving in a certain way.

When Lucas had chosen his target, a very faint purple hue began appearing in Lucas' head before instantly disappearing as it shot towards the burly man's head.

None of the people there saw the faint purple hue, not even the burly man as it disappeared as soon as it left Lucas' head.

But for Lucas who had activated the technique, he could feel his own mana go and disappear into the burly man's body, particularly his head.

The burly man who didn't feel anything continued walking forward as he saw Lucas and the kid he was trying to protect just froze in fear.

When he was close enough to them, the man saw Lucas just give up as he fell on his knees, offering himself to be killed first so he wouldn't see the kid he was trying to protect die.

The burly man then began preparing himself, stretching, and swinging his fist into the air to make sure he would be able to hit Lucas on the back of his head as hard as he could.

The man's face was flat as if to show that he didn't want to do this, but deep down in his heart, the man felt different.

It was also his first time killing another human in the huge grassy field before, but after that first feeling of someone becoming lifeless under his own hands, the man felt something awaken in his heart.

An indescribable joy and satisfaction.

It was what he realized when he tried to identify what he was feeling.

So even though he said that he would give the kill to his two comrades who hadn't killed yet so that they could all survive together, the man wondered whether he could kill Lucas in one move.

He wanted to test his own strength and see others crumble beneath his might.

And that wish might actually come true if not for the fact that what his eyes were currently seeing and what everyone else saw was different.

When the burly man thought that he was preparing to punch the kneeling high school boy in front of him as hard as he could, what everyone else was seeing was the other way around.

The burly man seemed to have lost his mind as he stared down at an empty ground, filled with nothing but green grass.

And the two kids who were supposed to be below him were right now standing behind him.

The high school boy who he thought was kneeling in front of him was the one who was preparing to hit him as hard as possible.

Everyone saw how Lucas and the kid just leisurely walked to the burly man's back and stared at the man as if he were crazy.

They thought the man was playing and didn't say anything, but when they saw the man kept staring at the empty ground as if trying to hit something and Lucas had winded up his fist, they finally shouted,

"HEY BEHIND YOU, WATCH OUT!"

The burly man heard the shout and he turned his head backward.

But he didn't see anything and clicked his tongue in annoyance as he turned his head back to the kneeling kid in front of him.

He was finally ready to launch his fist and see whether the kid would die on the spot.

Unfortunately, before he could swing his fist towards the target, the man felt a shock on the back of his head before his world turned dark.

Seeing the man stop moving the second Lucas hit him on the back of his neck and just fell lifelessly onto the ground, Lucas heaved a sigh.

'Thank god what he was saying was true.'

Lucas didn't know how to kill people. He had only killed his first target because of an accident.

But after hearing the burly man about hitting the back of his head, Lucas tried it on the man and it worked.

The man just died without Lucas having to see a gruesome sight.

He once again felt the feeling of bones breaking when he broke the back of the man's skull, but after doing it for the second time, it didn't feel as conflicting as the first one.

'Maybe because I was doing it to a scum this time…' Lucas muttered internally when he saw the stains of blood on his fist.

Deep down, he still felt something was terribly wrong when he killed a human being.

But his head knew that if he didn't do it, he was the one who would be killed.

The fact that he killed a person who attempted to kill him, which was also a scum, didn't leave as much impression on himself compared to his first kill.

'But still…'

He just felt it was wrong.

Even though they were suddenly grouped up together and told to kill each other lest they wanted to get killed, it just didn't feel right.

"HE KILLED TOM!!!"

Lucas' train of thoughts were cut off when he saw one of the men that circled him shout and pointed at the dead body of the burly man.

Lucas looked at the man and opened his mouth,

"I don't want to kill anyone. If you just leave me alone-"

Lucas couldn't even finish his sentence as the man shouted his next words.

"WE MUST AVENGE HIM!"