Chapter 44: Psycho

Perseus POV

I saw the figure jumped down into the crowd and I ran in his direction.

Amidst the chaos of the protest-turned-riot, I pushed my way through the crowd, every step forward felt like a battle in itself, as I dodged blows and pushed through people who seemed intent on attacking anyone in their path. They can't even differentiate who were their allies or enemy.

I ran the moment I got out of the riot and since navigating through the stupid mazelike town, I climbed on top of a house. With a burst of adrenaline, I launched myself forward as I leaped from rooftop to rooftop.

The wind whipped through my hair as I soared through the air, my muscles straining with exertion as I pushed myself to go faster, to go harder. There was no time to waste, every second counted as I raced to catch up with the culprit.

I could hear the pounding of my heart in my ears as I launched myself forward. Eventually, I spotted his figure and chased after it, it didn't take long for him to realize that I was chasing him as he was trying his best to blend in with the crowd as he ran away from me.

I followed his trail and eventually, he broke off from the crowd and I jumped down and followed closely behind. With each passing second, the distance between us grew shorter, until finally, I was within arm's reach of the fleeing figure.

With a burst of speed, I closed in, my hand outstretched as I reached for him and we headed for the alleyways.

*****

Eventually, I managed to corner him. There was nowhere left for him to run, no escape, but there was only a smile on his face.

"Who are you and who do you work for?"

"I don't know...but why are you chasing me, it's not like you're one of those law enforcement guards." he replied

"I'm not." I admitted, "But someone did annoy me into chasing after you...you work for somebody?"

"Why would I?"

"All guys like you do...if anything...if it helps, I don't mind working for such a boss."

"Who do you have as an enemy?"

"Everyone."

"Everyone? Are you a psycho? I hate a lot of people, but even I care for some."

"Well...answer the question, who are you working for and why do you worship the abyss so much?"

"Worship?" the man replied with a shocked and incredulous tone, "Don't group me in with those idiots."

"Ah...so you just sparked the fire."

"The fire was always there, I only threw fuel into the fire."

"Alright, then what's your goal? Beat the abyss dungeon?"

"Of course, I'm still an adventurer at heart."

"Knowing your personality based on what I saw, you like chaos and bloodshed...but there are worse ways that can be used because there's not going to be any deaths as the law enforcement has arrived....you should have stopped them."

"It doesn't matter...we got what we wanted."

"Are you with that group who's trying to overthrow the nobles?"

"Wrong." he made an X with his arms, "Hierarchy exists for a reason and will always continue to exist, order can only exist if there's someone on top...and since you figure out that I like chaos...well, they do serve as good entertainment."

"Then who are you?!" I asked before brandishing my blade, "I'd rather not find out through force."

"And here I thought that we were about to become friends." he sighed as he brandished out some claw gloves, "Want to make this interesting? No magic since I'm a higher expert, and if you win, I'd tell you...and if I win, you'll become my slave and will follow my every order."

"I'd rather die."

"Fine, if you win, I'll say who I work for and why, and if I win, you'll let me torture you to death. Deal?"

"Sure."

Without warning, he lunged forward, his movements swift and precise as he closed the distance between us in the blink of an eye. I reacted instinctively, parrying his attack with my sword, the clash of meta from his claws, and my blade ringing out in the confined space.

We fought slowly at first as we fought for the upper hand. He was fast, faster than I had anticipated, his movements were fluid and unpredictable as he sought to exploit any weakness in my defenses as I'm not used to anyone with his fighting style.

Beasts use claws and everything, and I even fought some intelligent mutant ones...but they're not trained, this guy is, so it's basically mutant monsters on steroids.

He became faster and faster, and I hadn't gone on the offense once, his movements almost too quick to track as he darted around me with unnerving agility. But I refused to give ground, meeting his strikes with fierce swings and strikes of my own.

He was also cautious after seeing that my sword was of way better quality than he expected.

"Enough playing around."

"Oh, you weren't serious?" he said as he jumped back for a certain distance, "You know what? I'll let you have a hit."

"Will you try to block it?"

"I'll dodge it because that sword will clearly cleave me in half."

"And that's why you guys always end up as dead and forgotten characters."

I then charged in at him at almost my best speed, and once I was close, I swung at max speed, the speed up caught him off guard a bit, but he moved in a way where he was about to dodge my hit completely, but that was my plan.

My blade lit up and flashed a blinding light in the dim alleyway. I closed my eyes and the moment I opened them back, I saw that I managed to chip his hood and something on his face, a black visor or sorts from his face to reveal glowing red eyes on a really scarred and disfigured face.

He then charged in again as I put on magic atop my eyeballs.

"Hah, I closed my eyes in time, what el-"

"Now!" I shut shouted before Elpis instantly shot another blinding light, one that didn't require charging up and was so fast that it was faster than him being able to close his eyes, searing it with hot flashing light as I charge at him and swung my blade at his side, successfully cleaving him in half.