Awakening (Pt 1)

Ethan sprinted towards the shadows that was close to him and as expected, the shadow swung it's scythe in an horizontal sweep.

Thanks to his training, Ethan was able to react quickly by ducking under the attack and smashed the shadow's head with the baseball bat. The shadow with its head destroyed, fell down and stopped moving altogether.

He couldn't celebrate his victory as two of the remaining shadows attacked him at once. Ethan jumped, evading the shadows sweep and destroyed the head of the shadow on his right.

The shadow on his left threw a vertical sweep and Ethan was forced to block with the baseball bat. As expected, the baseball bat couldn't withstand the slash attack of the shadow's scythe and it was easily sliced into two.

But, this was within Ethan's expectations as he managed change the trajectory of the scythe and he acted swiftly by performing an Uppercut on the shadow. As his fist connected on the shadow, the shadow's head immediately exploded exceeding his expectations.

He didn't dwell on it and immediately sprinted towards his next target. He pushed his body through the air with inhuman speed and threw a straight jab in the empty air.

Shuuuck-!!

His fist flew out like a bullet and slammed into the shadow's head, causing its head to explode upon impact and it's body fell on the ground with a loud bang.

"Fuu…."

Ethan bent down and exhaled a large gulping of air. Luckily, those creatures weren't as strong as he thought, otherwise, he would have been in trouble. But what he didn't know was that if he was a average man, he would have died before he even entered this alley.

Then, his eyes suddenly widened as he remembered something. "Weren't there six shadows, where is the last one?" He got up immediately and began to survey the alley. He then looked upwards and saw the missing shadow.

"Damnit!" He cursed as the shadow was already dangerously close and was swinging it's scythe.

Even if he wanted to act now, he won't be able to dodge in time. As he thought about the best course of action, the shadows body was suddenly engulfed in flames. It let a terrifying scream before it was turned to ashes.

"My god....I made... it... on time." Hearing a familiar female voice at the entrance of the alley, Ethan turned towards the source and was deeply shocked.

"Uh... Rose, what are you doing here?" Ethan asked, confused.

"Wait... Let me catch... my breath." Rose said as she tried to catch her breath.

"Did she run all the way here? Nevermind that, how did she find me in the first place?" Ethan thought.

After resting for five minutes, Rose took a deep breath and began to speak, "Sorry but there's no time, you are being targeted by demons."

"Demons?"

"Yes. They are evil entities that come from the Nether realm and prey on the souls of humans." Rose explained

"Wait, wait, wait! You're telling me those things are demons?" Ethan asked with a look of disbelief while pointing towards the dead shadows in the alley.

"Yes, is that so hard to believe after what you experienced?" Rose asked with one of her eyebrows raised.

"No it's not that, why are those things are after me? (2) how were you able to find me? (3) Why did that shadow burn all of a sudden?" Ethan loaded Rose with a ton of questions, this entire situation didn't make any sense.

"For you first question, I don't know and for your second question, it's the same way those things were able track you. And the answer for your last question is obvious, its magic" Rose answered Ethan questions with a straight face.

Ethan was dumbfounded by this and stood still with his mouth slightly open. Why kind of horse shit is this? First, he is attacked by those creatures and now he's learning that magic exists. This was too much!

"I know this is shocking to you but we need to leave." Rose said as she grabbed Ethan's hand and dragged him out of the alley.

"Wai..." Nathan was about to protest but he stopped as he felt a heavy pressure descending upon him. The pressure was like a weight of a mountain.

"What the hell?"

"Shit!" Rose cursed and immediately frowned. Nathan followed her line of sight and was frozen stiff with nervousness in an instant.

Because there was another being that stood before them. But this creature emitted a goosebumps-inducing aura indicating strength on another dimension altogether compared to those shadows that he encountered.

It was a tall, humaniod like creature in colored armor with blue, pulsating lines running across it, and a purple, bat like cape. Its helmet was engraved with a humanoid face with no eyes and the helmet also has red and blue horns protruding from the top, thus framing its face. it also had round shoulder pauldrons, a pointed chestplate, and grieves with spiked kneepads.

It slowly approached them with a massive, broadsword in its hands. Just the faint aura emitted from that creature made Ethan skin tingle and shiver from nervousness.

However, Ethan began smiling for some reason. An electrifying sensation thrilling enough to make all the hair on his body stand up wrapped around his entire being.

"Rose, what the hell is that thing." Ethan asked with a wryly smile without looking at her.

"A Demon knight called an Angelo, although, it feels stronger than others." Rose replied with a cold voice.

"Well, I will be dawned."

Then without warning, the demon knight was already standing right before them. A dark aura shone from the sword swung by the creature. Both of them reacted quickly and jumped to the side, evading the demon knight's blade.

A thundering boom echoed as the demon's broadsword slammed into the ground. The ground was crashed by the force of the sword and spiderweb like cracks spread across the floor.

Gulp!

Ethan swallowed his dry saliva.

He only had to take one look at the spot where he was, a moment ago to know that he would have been a goner if that attack touched him.

Then a flash of flame like aura passed him and slammed into the demon knight. He looked behind and saw that it was Rose that unleashed that attack. When the smoke cleared, the knight was revealed to be unharmed. Rose's attack wasn't in any way weak, it was the knight's armor that was too strong.

"Tsk!" Rose clicked her tongue, obviously annoyed that her attack didn't do any damage. To make matters worse, several shadows arose from the ground.

"Great, now it's calling its backup." Ethan cursed and then he immediately thought of a plan.

"Hey, Rose! Take care of those shadows, I will take care of that Big guy." Ethan said while cracking his knuckles.

"Is this b*stard crazy?" Rose thought with a slight frown but still accepted.

Ethan walked until he was infront of the knight and slowly raised his clenched fists. What was needed in defeating the knight was pure blunt force and he was confident in his strength.

'...'

Angelo quietly observed Ethan for a while, before it abruptly took off its red cape.

Plop!

The cape fell to the floor.

'What's it doing?' Ethan watched with a raised eyebrow.

The b*stard's strange actions didn't end there. The knight also threw its broadsword aside before it clenched its fists and took a fighting stance.

Ethan's eyes grew wider.

'Could this b*stard be thinking of….?'

"Was this thing going to fight him bare-handed because he was also bare-handed?

'….It's looking down on me.'

However, Ethan was not angered by the knight's provocation. This was part of his plan, he knew he couldn't beat the knight alone so all he needs to do was to keep the knight busy until Rose finished killing all the shadows and joins him.

His heart began beating faster and faster, his eyes became sharper and calculating.

'Come!"

Perhaps reading his mind, the demon knight made a beeline towards him.