First Kill

"No fucking clue," TJ answered with a straight face. "Now get off my property."

Hearing the rude answer, Wayde was offended. He shifted his stance to show he was not to be messed around with. He rested one hand on his waist and propped the baseball bat on his shoulder.

The guy with the knife then snorted, saying, "Dude, this guy sounds like a grumpy grandpa."

"Shut up, Ryan!" hissed the other guy with the baseball bat. "What do you think, Wayde?"

"Hmm," Wayde hummed, tilting his head. "I don't know, Nick. The instruction only says 'Lesser Anomaly'. It doesn't say anything about what he looks like. Or if it's even a he. By the way," he pointed his bat at TJ again, "what's that you got behind your back?"

TJ had been standing with the right side of his body hidden behind the door. But subconsciously, he had begun leaning away from it, so Wayde and co. could see his right hand was holding something behind his back.

"What's that you got in your hand?" TJ asked back.

Wayde's eye twitched in anger. TJ was really starting to get on his nerves.

"Are you blind?" It was Ryan who retorted. "Clearly it's his bat! We need to carry weapons in this changing world now!"

"Well, then obviously I'm also carrying my own weapon," said TJ while shrugging.

His indifferent attitude was really grinding Wayde's gears. Apparently TJ had mastered the art of pissing people off. "You know what? It doesn't matter if you're my target or not. You remember what the message said, right? The strong will rule! And guess what, pussy? I have powers now, powers you can't even imagine! Now, weakling like you must kneel before me!"

"That's right!" Ryan chimed in. "You need to know your place!"

TJ almost rubbed his eyes in surprise. 'Why does his line sound so….scripted? Like a line you find in movies.' He secretly gestured for Summer to lock the door before closing it and moving to stand a few steps in front of the door, ready in case a fight broke out.

"Ryan!" Wayde gave his order.

Without hesitation, Ryan charged ahead and swung his knife at TJ. TJ could clearly see the guy's movement, as if it was in slow motion. He then dodged with ease, before dodging again from the second swing. Ryan was obviously angered by the nimbleness of his target. He kept swinging wildly, while TJ kept dodging. At the same time, TJ slowly led his opponent away from the door, trying to divert the group's attention away from the house.

Wayde wasn't so stupid, though. He could read that his target wanted to distract him from the house, for some reason. 'There are people inside. Wonder if my target is in there,' he thought before starting to walk toward the house.

Noticing where Wayde was heading, TJ decided to put a stop to his dodging and went to grab Ryan's wrist, squeezed on it hard until the guy let out a pained scream. He then twisted the wrist, causing the guy to let go of his knife. After that, TJ punched the guy right on his temple, knocking him out cold.

TJ picked the knife off the ground and threw it to Wayde, who'd sensed the incoming projectile just a split second before it could pierce through his head. He jerked his head back and watched the knife blur past his eyes.

TJ was stunned the big guy could dodge the knife, but he didn't lose his composure. Quickly after watching the knife fly away, he casted [Flamethrower] toward Wayde. The soccer ball-sized fire was aimed for the guy's head, but before it could even burn a single hair of his, a strong gust of wind quickly split it in half. The halved fire ball was put out instantly after.

Wayde had used some kind of wind breath attack.

'What the fuck,' TJ thought. 'How the fuck did this guy learn a skill? Maybe his Author gave it to him freely? His reflexes are also good, which tells me he was boosted. How many other skills was he given? And I had to train for a fucking year to get to where I am? This is unfair! Magnus you stingy bastard!'

Not wanting to let his chance go, Wayde immediately casted what looked like [Wind Bullet], aiming it at TJ's heart. His aim was a bit off, though. And TJ obviously wouldn't just stay still. He moved to the side and casted [Wind Bullet] of his own. His, however, was obviously higher leveled. So it traveled at a greater speed toward Wayde's head.

TJ made sure to always aim for the head, but that could also be a bad move if one wasn't good with their aim. TJ's [Wind Bullet] missed its target and hit a flower pot at his neighbor's front yard, breaking it to pieces.

Wayde turned his head toward the crash sound behind him and for a second imagined his own head being hit by the same projectile. He shuddered for a moment before the fear somehow vanished as fast as it had appeared.

In the time Wayde looked away, TJ had arrived just a few steps away from the guy. But before he could swing his knife, a baseball bat was seen zooming toward his face, forcing him to take a step back and dodged.

It was Nick. He swung his bat again, not wanting to give TJ a chance to get near Wayde. However, that swing was halted by a hand that caught the bat easily, as if Nick had swung it with little force. Except he hadn't. Nick had used his full strength. The batter stared in wide eyes as the pale gloved hand snatched his weapon away with ease and flung it over his own head. It flew away for a few tens of meters before it clanked onto the asphalt. Obviously, the owner of the hand was TJ, and his face showed no hint of his hand being in pain.

Nick was frozen in place and TJ used this opportunity to punch the guy in the gut, sending him hurtling across the street, before he crash-landed and rolled on someone else's front yard a few times. He didn't get up or even move a muscle after that, clearly passed out.

Wayde had used the time his poor friend had provided to abandon his baseball bat and cast another [Wind Bullet]. It seemed as if he'd only been gifted two wind element skills. TJ saw this from the corner of his eyes and turned his body to the side to dodge. He was about to cast another [Flamethrower] before the hairs on his spine stood up. He realized he had forgotten about the last guy, and in the process of dodging Wayde's spell, TJ had left his back open for the guy's attack.

There was a victorious grin on Wayde's face. TJ was now stuck between him and the last guy.

TJ turned his head and finally saw what caused the danger alarm to ring in his head. The last guy held a gun in his hand. In the meantime, Wayde was seen puffing up his cheeks, ready to cast that wind breath attack again.

TJ could just move away and let their attacks hit each other, right?

No, he couldn't. Because the other guy was not aiming his gun at TJ. In fact, he wasn't aiming it at anyone. The target of his shot was the house windows. The guy was going to blindly shoot inside the house, knowing there were people inside. It was a stupid move, because there was little chance he would hit a person. But in the heat of the moment, TJ couldn't really think straight and started panicking.

He decided to turn around to head toward the gun wielder, tanking the wind breath attack in the process. The rough wind ripped through his skin like he was being slashed by many knives, causing many lacerations on his body. His Health also dropped, but not by much, considering his boosted stat. All he cared about now was to get to the other guy.

However, just as he was only a few steps away from him, the guy moved and was now aiming his gun at TJ.

At that moment, when the tip of the gun was less than two meters away from him, he froze.

'Should've used a spell from a distance,' was his only thought. For some reason he knew the guy was hesitating a bit, so he wasn't worried about his life.

However, someone else was. It was his dad, who slammed the door open with his hands holding a shotgun. It was aimed at the nameless guy. "I'll blow your head off before you can even think about pulling the trigger, kid."

Seeing the newcomer, Wayde could instantly tell the man had relation to his target. He then had the bright idea to aim another [Wind Bullet] toward the man. He had halved his mana reserves, but he was confident this attack wouldn't miss and waste his mana.

With one guy aiming his gun at TJ, and Owen aiming his shotgun at the guy, and Wayde about to cast a spell toward the man, TJ was at the end of his wits.

However, seeing the big guy threatening his father's life, anger rose in his mind. His number one priority now was his father's safety. Driven by his anger, he faced away from the nameless guy and casted [Death Flame] toward Wayde. It was the deadliest skill in his current arsenal. Which meant, he wasn't aiming to harm the guy anymore; he was aiming to kill. The black fire ball appearing out of his palm was slightly bigger than the regular one produced when he casted [Flamethrower]. It was shot out and traveled at great speed, not giving Wayde the time to dodge.

The black flame rapidly engulfed the big guy before he could start casting another spell. He screamed in pain for a full minute before his whole body turned to ash, leaving only a charred pile of bones.

Seeing what just happened, both Owen and the nameless guy froze. Meanwhile, TJ realized he had just killed a person for the first time. However, before he could let it really sink in, the sound of feet shuffling against the asphalt drew the attention of the three people.

On the street, there was a woman with her hair tied into a bun, wearing a blouse and knee-length tight skirt walking toward the house. Walking was not the right word, though. Her movement was a bit funny as her feet shuffled forward. Her body kept twitching and her eyes looked unfocused. She was like a zombie, but without the rotten features. She also still looked somewhat conscious of her surroundings, as evidenced by her constant glancing at TJ. The woman already had her target in mind.

Suddenly, she stopped in her track before raising one hand above her head. A swirl of cold air appeared on her open palm, and it quickly expanded and materialized a solid rod made of ice. As the tip finally finished forming, the rod had turned into a spear. With a crazy grin on her face, the woman took a stance, aiming to throw the spear toward TJ.

With a part of his mind that still couldn't move on from the fact he'd just killed someone, TJ barely had a chance to dodge the spear that was now moving like a missile toward his body. Out of reflex, he closed his eyes, half expecting the tip of the spear to penetrate his chest. But instead of that…

*Bang!*

A loud crash followed by the sound of ice breaking into pieces echoed throughout the neighborhood. TJ flinched and after realizing that he remained unharmed, he opened his eyes. Standing unyielding before him was the familiar sight of a blue barrier.

"Whew, that was close!" a slightly husky voice came from down the street.

Seeing his best friend rushing toward the house, TJ sighed in relief.

Magnus quickly flicked his fingers and produced a small water crescent that was shot out horizontally at the woman. It zoomed at a speed that far surpassed any of the projectile skills TJ had both casted and watched tonight. The water crescent separated the woman's head from her body like hot knife through butter. And without any delay, Magnus did the same to the nameless guy.

TJ looked on as his friend killed two people with ease. He then observed his face and saw no hint of the weight one would expect from someone who had just killed for the first time. Instead, there was his signature stupid smile.

"TJ! I'm glad you're safe! And Mr. Haysmith! Whoa, I see you're exercising your right to bear arms!" Magnus then noticed the pile of bones a distance away, before moving his gaze to his friend's face. He understood what had just taken place. "Come on, let's get inside first," he said in a reassuring tone.

TJ nodded and obediently followed Magnus inside, leaving the bones and dead bodies outside.