Chapter - 15 - Devil's Trap [2]

Not wasting a second, the woman thrusted her knuckles to Joshua's face which he blocked with a basic-level [Magic Shield]. Feeling the mana around them twist, the woman and her men seemed to be surprised as they didn't expect the child in front of them to be a magician. Even so, the level of magic wasn't too exceptional for them to back away.

Irritated by the intervention, the woman punches the shield for a second time with more force. With the mere three seconds Joshua earned from the distraction, he adds a few particles of fire magic to his shield and evades the sudden attack. The moment the woman's hand touched the shield, she let out a high pitched scream.

"Ahhh--!"

She takes a step back as she covers the burnt mark with her other hand.

The other members of the group were planning to stay out of it for their leader to vent her frustration but hearing her scream, they didn't stand still.

One of the long-ranged people shoots a bullet at Joshua which he couldn't respond to in time. The bullet passes through the tendons in his left leg. Losing his balance for a second, he falls to the ground.

'Fuck!'

When Joshua misses the time to evade the group and sneak up on them, they took advantage of the situation instead.

A man with a bat-like weapon arrives before Joshua. He raises his weapon high up before swinging it down harshly. Gritting his teeth, Joshua activates <Resilient Mind>. He feels his body cooling down as his senses become sharper than ever. He didn't have enough time to dwell on the feeling back in the gate test because of his unsettled state and the darkness that covered his vision but now that he could, he felt refreshed. Though, his facial expressions didn't show how enthusiastic he was.

With the fog and the ache he felt in his brain clearing up, he faced the man with clearer eyes. The man noticed how his spirit changed in a second but for him, it looked like courage in the face of death.

Joshua quickly created a geyser right under the man's arm that rose from the ground. The man, who didn't expect Joshua to use another element was caught unprepared as his hit bounced back by the sudden amount of pressure. The bat in his hands flew to somewhere in the fog which caused the sounds of it hitting the wall a bit later. The enraged man throws a punch as two other people from the fog could be seen nearby. Joshua could see a sword in one's hand while the other had an axe but when he looked closely, he saw another two following right behind them.

Unfortunately, this distraction didn't save him from the punch he tried to evade completely. The man hit his right arm, causing him to lose his balance as he bit his lips too hard, making them to bleed. Before the man raised another punch, he checked his mana

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[Mana: 34/50]

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Luckily, he still had 2/3 of his mana.

Before the man's punch hit him again, Joshua waited for the second where the group of five were closest. Just as he could feel the air waves hit him before the man's punch came through, he created another wave of water, pushing all of them back. He kept sending water waves as five people; the woman, the now bat-less man, a swordsman, a warrior and a shooter kept on attacking him through the water.

Even though some of their attacks were blocked or were slowed down by Joshua and granting him enough time to evade, there were still some attacks that managed to pass through, injuring him here and there.

Joshua checked his needles nearby while repeating the same process. Using his mana on two different things at the same time was definitely too much for his brain capacity at this moment but he had to make up for it with his skill... hopefully, it would work.

After five seconds, he confirmed another person who seemed to be the 8th member of the group approaching. He quickly sent 8 of his needles to the man as he evaded a sword that managed to cut the water, somehow.

Once he confirmed the other member to be dead, he checked his mana again and saw that he now had 1/3 of it.

'This much distance should be okay...'

Joshua lowered the magic output in the waves. The ones on the other side noticed this change as they attacked more fiercely, thinking the end of this little battle was near.

When they were busy trying to get out from the waves, Joshua checked if the fog around him was moist enough. He approached the wall on the dead end and covered his hands with mana. He started climbing the brick wall without much difficulty. When the others were free from the water, they quieted down to track where Joshua was from the sound.

Once he was high enough, Joshua entered a balcony of someone's house as he took out a needle and input most of his mana in it. The bronze needle glowed with golden colour that was hard to miss even in the thick fog. He quickly directed the needle to the puddle he formed while fighting below him. When it came in contact with the water, the fog glowed with a yellowish colour before starting to disperse. Joshua could hear screams and a black smoke rose from the ground. The effects of the electricity reached as far as his water waves hit before stopping.

Joshua quickly checked the situation with his [Observation]. He could see H-rank members fainted on the ground with black marks while G-ranks had burnt marks all around their body that immobiled them. Unlike them, the woman seemed to be holding up well as she only had slight red marks that looked like nothing more than one or two bruises.

'As expected of the starting rank of the awakened... the difference between F-rank and G-rank is apparent.'

He couldn't admire the F rank any longer as the old man with a girl that looked around the age of 8 stormed in the balcony. The man was holding a vase like a weapon while the girl was warily looking around with tear in her eyes. Before they spotted Joshua, he pulled his cloak with his hand and jumped down to the balcony beneath.

"AAAH!"

He heard the woman scream in frustration at the death of her men. She kept on punching the fog around her, enraged. Even though Joshua obviously wasn't there, she managed to disperse a part of the fog just with her hands.

Joshua turned to the other two who stayed behind. They were completely unharmed by the electricity as the fog that spread through the herb hadn't evaporated enough to transmit it. It was nothing more than a gas that had no purpose but to block one's view to some degree.

From the two, one was the crossbow shooter while the other looked like a close-range combatant with a weird glove. Joshua directed his needles to the long-ranged shooter as he looked like the only one that was capable of hurting him from this distance but he still eyed the man near him warily as they were too close to not notice his attack.

𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘥-!

The combatant near the shooter heard a noise as he turned in an instant but when he saw the shooter on the ground with blood flowing from his neck where stood colourful needles, his eyes shot open. Taking advantage of that trifling second, Joshua sneaked up on the man with his [Stealth] activated. By the time the man tried to turn to this unknown person, all he could see were two purple balls that stared at his soul under the cloak and a piece of iron that pierced right through his chest. Joshua cut the man's throat before he could process the situation and scream in pain. The 'iron' he used was none other than one of the [Requiem Twins].

Unfortunately, his attack didn't seem to be lethal as the man punched him as he looked back at the woman and the sole G-rank near her.

𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩-!!

Joshua felt his lift up from the ground and shot straight at a wall. With one of the twins that was in his hands flying away, he felt some bones in his body breaking as he couldn't hold his scream in this time.

"AHH--!"

The man seemed to have lost consciousness after spending all his energy on that punch but the same couldn't be said for the other two. The woman and the swordsman who seemed to be free from his immobiled state.

<[A/N: For the ones who didn't read the noticement before, I have decided on posting more frequently with shorter chapters. Let me know if you guys are not happy with it.>