Unexpected Encounter

Another mobster, frozen in fear from seeing this, just screamed and hurled down his own wooden bat. Instead of dodging or blocking, Lycanos caught it. Being jerked down initially, he remained firm and the two opponents began angrily pushing at each other.

Lycanos stared into the man's eyes and looked into his soul as he pushed on. His cheeks lightly trembled as he pushed, but he soon started pushing the bat further up.

With a final shove, the man was hurled back several steps, and he couldn't believe what was happening. Some scrawny little kid happened to be overpowering him, and he was almost twice the boy's size.

"I'm not dealing with this." He muttered, revealing a firearm.

It was a suppressed pistol, and Lycanos' eyes widened upon seeing it.

Pip! Pip!

Two bullets were wedged into his torso, and the force behind each bullet knocked him back. The pain was intense and he lowly grunted while falling to a knee.

Seeing this, the man hid his gun once again and nodded to his remaining comrades, before turning.

"Where are you going?" Lycanos weakly said, before spitting out blood.

He hurled himself back onto his feet and lurched around briefly, but then stood upright once again.

The bullets were forced out the closing wounds and bounced around on the ground before rolling around slowly.

"I'm not done." He declared, while his eyes flashed a blood red.

The other two gangsters ran off in that direction, and he just watched them run off into the distance.

"T-thanks very much." The young woman softly said.

She had blonde hair of medium length and looked to be in her early twenties.

"No problem." Lycanos says, looking down at the corpse ahead of him.

Blood drops covered his hands, and the woman rushed off out of the alley right after thanking him.

He licked off every last drop of blood from them, before lifting one of the corpses on the ground.

Almost in reaction, his eyes started to glow red and his fangs took form. Digging into his neck, the blood was harder to suck out due to a lack of flow. It remained stagnant and only entered his mouth as he sucked.

He couldn't stop himself from filling his mouth with the caramel delight. It was like heaven on earth, and he dropped the body only after having nearly an entire litre of blood.

[Weekly Quest Complete!]

[+4 XP]

[LEVEL UP]

[+1 Stat Upgrade]

[+2 HP]

[+5 Energy]

[New Talent!]

[Talent: Lunar Strike]

[The strength stat doubles for a single punch]

[Cost: 30 Energy]

He smiled with joy upon being met by this level-up panel, and he almost instinctively opened up his stats.

[User: Lycanos (Ramio) Damaskus]

[Level: 3]

[XP: 0/30]

[HP: 14/14]

[Lunar Empowerment: 1]

[Regeneration: 1]

[Strength: 2]

[Speed: 1]

[Durability: 1]

[Stat Upgrades: 1]

[Energy: 110/110]

[Talents: 2] [expand]

Inspecting this skill of his further as he walked away, it seemed like a true gem. He wasn't sure if the skill would literally double his true strength, but it still seemed like a quality technique to add to his arsenal.

Seeing that his strength was pretty much handled by that skill, he decided to place his stat upgrade into his speed this time. It would help with his fighting if he could move a lot faster and deliver his punches and kicks more rapidly.

'I'll need to try out that skill somewhere.' He thought.

He couldn't try it in his school gym -well not when anyone was around- to not raise suspicion. He could already punch like a man more than twice his size, even though he had no clue how to punch and was incredibly scrawny.

With this skill, he was sure he'd be stronger than any human being.

****

In the alley, a group of police officers had crowded around the two corpses. Alongside them was a man in a grey tweed trench coat.

He also had a hat of the same colour, and wore circular glasses.

"These marks are the same as were left on that girl. The person that killed that girl also did this." The man declared.

"Are you sure this isn't an animal sir? Who would leave such bite marks in a human like that?" An officer asked, holding an assault rifle.

"I only rule out the impossible to find the truth. That possibility isn't impossible, and I shall, therefore, not rule it out." The man explained, while inspecting the corpse.

He lifted before giving off a worryingly keen smile.

"This is way more interesting than I thought." He said, readjusting his glasses so that the moonlight gleamed off them.

****

Lycanos continued on his training and had 9 days before he would have to consume human blood. This removed a portion of the stress on his mind for the time being, but he was still invested in trying to find the man that had killed him.

His search turned into an obsession, and he now felt a strong abhorrence toward him. Every time he would think of him, he would think of the blade that was repeatedly stabbed into his gut. The agony, the apathy and arrogance of his killer.

The slight hatred had intensified into loathing, and chaotic but focused anger.

Once again, his eyes flashed red as he surfed the web. He scoured the internet, looking for criminal records and previous deaths in Kol heights to try and find the man. Just as he thought, there was nothing of value to him that he found, and he had no leads.

The days went by once again, and the time that he took to complete his 10km run was shaved off by more than a minute. He finished 10 km in 21 minutes, and still felt like he had some capacity to run further.

However, he didn't have to run as fast as he could since he could run a 25 minute 10km run with ease now.

He completed the other daily quests he had received too and wasn't totally expending himself. It was a great feeling, and he felt pleased to return to his local park every evening to complete them.

6 days had passed, and he only had 3 remaining days before he would have to find human blood. It irked him slightly, but he still had time and placed the thought in the back of his mind for now.

He tried not to mull over it to keep himself calm and stable.

He walked home with Enzo, as he usually would, and was currently eating a packet of chicken fillet.

He waved his friend goodbye as usual and walked up his apartment's steps. Apartments were located on the exterior, where paths that resembled balconies wrapped around the structure.

Turning the final corner, he remained still and dropped the empty packet of chicken that he was holding.

"Leave him alone!! Samson, no!"

Ahead of him stood two suited individuals, where one wielded a metal bat. The man turned, to reveal the tattoos partially covering his face. He was bald and gave the boy a closer inspection.

Upon doing so, his eyebrows raised, and his face became pale.

'How is that kid still alive?'

Lycanos rushed ahead as fast as he possibly could and covered the tens of metres between them in a flash.

To conceal his identity from his uncle and auntie, he lifted up his hoodie. The second gangster that was present couldn't stop looking at the boy. Once he reached close enough, he recognised him immediately and sprinted in the opposite direction as fast as he could, leaving his bald accomplice on his own.

BAM!

Landing a singular punch, he managed to force the man to the edge of this balcony.

He bounced off the balcony wall and hurled down his bat as he rebounded, aiming for his head. Lycanos managed to catch the incoming attack and began to wrestle with the man.

Giving his face a closer inspection, he knew for a fact that this was the man that had killed him. In their struggle, he let out a deep roar, and his eyes began to glow a dark red.

The man, while pushing on him, widened his eyes upon seeing this phenomenon. It took his mind off their scuffle and he slightly released his push on the boy.

A lethal mistake, Lycanos forced his metal bat to the side to then throw two punches right to his face. He disoriented his opponent and made him partially slip down the wall he leaned on.

His face was that of disbelief. This boy that he could easily throw was, somehow, giving him a tough time. He also couldn't take his eyes off the blood red eyes that continued to glare at him.

"You bastard!" Lycanos shouted, with a deepened, beast-like voice.