Chapter 52 - I Did What I Could!

Old man Jenkins yelled as he ran towards the swordsman. His intention was to charge right through him. No human, beast, spirit or god would stop him from saving the boy. Now that his head was in the clear, he felt very guilty and thought it was his responsibility to keep Wilson alive. The swordsman raised his left hand and turned it anticlockwise as if he was tampering with a safe lock. Old man Jenkins immediately felt himself slow down a little. It was just by a little, barely noticeable but that was all the swordsman needed to take control. The swordsman swung his double handed silver claymore at old man Jenkins. Old man Jenkins knew that he was a goner if that claymore touched him. His pupils turned green and thick green mist flowed out of him to meet up with the swordsman's sword. The sword corroded badly and by the time it hit old man Jenkins, it was pretty much just rust. The green misty veil that covered old man Jenkins' body further corroded the sword and it broke just milliseconds after impact.

The swordsman was infuriated. His beloved sword! It was gone just like that? His smile turned to a scowl. He waved his hand and a new sword appeared. Old man Jenkins paused, processing his thoughts at the speed of a supercomputer. He stared at the sword, trying to find if anything was special about it, but no, it only seemed like a regular claymore, which made Old man Jenkins instantly feel on edge. He looked at the swordsman whose smiling face had darkened into a sinister scowl. He knew he had to be cautious. After all, why would the swordsman angrily materialize a regular sword after seeing the extent of his ability.

'He has access to rare spatial rings. There must be something special about this sword. I have to be careful.' Old man Jenkins thought as he briefly looked over the swordsman shoulders and saw that Ruthless had grabbed Wilson by the collar of his button-up shirt that was riddled with holes in the front from him taking the male twin oldie's punches. Before he could make out anything else, the swordsman groaned and swung his double handed claymore horizontally from the left, intending to split him in half at the waist. Old man Jenkins immediately faced his own troubles first.

"I cannot help the boy if I'm dead! He will just have to take care of himself in the meantime." Old man Jenkins muttered to himself as he flipped backwards at the last second, hit a lady, who wanted to strike at him, in the face, and rushed at the swordsman that almost succeeded in splitting him in half.

Old man Jenkins swung his right fist and tried to punch the swordsman in the face, but his hand movement visibly slowed down. The swordsman's eyes were white all through.

"Sh*t! Time ability!" Old man Jenkins groaned. He thought that was the ability embedded in the previous sword but now that he was up close with the swordsman, he could tell that that was the swordsman ability. This was going to be a lot more troublesome than he thought. Wilson would have to endure a lot longer than he previously thought.

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Wilson thought of all possible solutions to his predicament. He considered running away before the person approaching him got to him, but he knew tat there was the probability of the approaching person being a superfast person. He considered just standing up to fight but he was afraid the person would be stronger than him, not to mention that he, Wilson, was already very injured and weak. He contemplated giving the person a surprise killer hit but his posture as he laid still on the floor would minimize the required effect.

The person finally arrived but contrary to his expectations, the person stood above him. Wilson remained on the floor, pretending to be unconscious. He waited for a couple seconds for something to happen but nothing happened. Wilson was already uncomfortable with the fact that someone was approaching him to begin with, but now that he person stood over him without doing anything, he became nervous and was tempted to take a glimpse of this person.

'why aren't you doing anything? Are you here to protect me? Why? Did I suddenly become someone important?' Wilson asked. Of course, he did not say a word out. That will blow his cover.

The person bent down and grabbed Wilson by the collar of his shirt.

"Wake up!" the person said.

"Ruthless!" Wilson identified the voice instantly and blurted out. He opened his eyes wide in shock and cursed in his mind.

"You recognize me? And just by voice?" Ruthless asked with surprise. Then he frowned and asked, "How do you recognize my voice?" Ruthless' terrifying aura began to spill out again. Wilson felt oddly familiar with the aura. It might have just been his dreams, but they were realistic enough.

"That is because you've been appearing in all of my nightmares!" Wilson answered without thinking. He had already blurted out those words before he realized it.

"Oh yeah? That is interesting!" Ruthless said. "What kind of dreams?" he continued. Wilson did not answer this time. He kept his mouth shut. Ruthless was not one to give up until he had all the answers he wanted.

"I believe they said you had no ability or magic cells. Were they mistaken? Late awakening? Is that what happened, huh?" Old man Jenkins asked questions upon questions. His face brightened up in excitement. Wilson was already lost in all the questions and words that were used and he had little to no idea about. He got even more confused when he saw Ruthless, a man he thought of as the worst demon in the world, look excited and anxious. He never thought he would see Ruthless look....like that.

"What do you mean?" Wilson could not resist asking. His face displayed pure confusion.

"What do I mean?" Ruthless asked, perplexed. Did this boy have no idea what he was asking about? Was he not taught what abilities were? Usually, Ruthless was a violent man who cared nothing for others' lives, but upon thinking about all he has to gain if the boy was a late awakener, he chose to care....for the mean time. He suddenly did not care about any of this dispute anymore. He just wanted to educate the boy and run several tests on him, so as to get the answers he wanted.

"Let's go!" Ruthless said and slapped a talisman out of midair into the ground. Ten seconds later, a portal opened and stabilized and Ruthless, carrying Wilson on his shoulder, jumped into the portal. His swordsman followed right after, ignoring the damage he received from Old man Jenkins in those few seconds before he entered the portal.

Old man Jenkins groaned and picked up his tattered self from the crevice he fell into. The swordsman had battered him but he stood up and rushed towards the portal that was starting to close.

He limped as he ran. Two seconds before reaching the fast closing portal...one second...

*Fwoosh*

Old man Jenkins gazed in shock.

"SH*T! My granddaughter!" He turned around and limped as quickly as he could out of the ruins that used to be a building, deftly avoiding the stray and focused attacks as well as the attacks with area of effects like the explosives.

He had missed the portal and now he realized, he had temporarily forgotten about his granddaughter in that brief four minutes. Now that he had some time to think as he ran, he realized he did not have to fight for any stupid revolution. All he had to do was get his granddaughter and escape this damned place. As for Wilson;

"Meh! I did what I could! Alice is more important." Old man Jenkins said to himself and shrugged the Wilson problem off his shoulders.

A short, thick-bearded man (a dwarf with bushy beard), with a long tail stood in old man Jenkins' path and grinned at him.

"MOVE IT!" Old man Jenkins yelled and increased his speed. He kicked the dwarf out of his way. The dwarf flew through the air, yelling in pain as the green mist clung to him and peeled off his skin, then flesh and even dried up his blood until only bones were left. The dwarf had already died before he landed. Only his skeleton landed beside instructor Jack who rolled on the floor and jumped as he grabbed the dwarf's big head and threw it at an unsuspecting gangster fighter. The gangster fighter realized it too late and had a skull embedded in his chest.