The Culling (4)

The people who were shocked before when they saw the strongest man in their group just die like that suddenly woke up from their stupor.

They didn't expect a kid to be able to kill a fully grown adult with a single punch.

Shock and confusion were the only things that they felt when they saw what had happened.

However, the single shout of the man had woken them up from their shock.

"We can't just let this kid go after what he did! He was just lucky that Tom went easy on him!"

The man shouted once again,

"There are 10 of us, if we all just go in together, there's no way the kid will be able to do anything!"

His loud voice was heard by the 10-people group and some of them began nodding their heads.

Seeing the people finally choose to attack once again, the man began walking forward, leading the others to close in even more toward Lucas.

His hands were still rather clean and only a few stains of blood were found there.

He hadn't killed anyone yet, and the countdown in the sky had just turned 30 again after yet another random person died.

He didn't know how many people were left, but he was sure that he didn't want to be the next random to be picked up and slaughtered like a pig.

He clearly saw how a high school kid just killed a man with a single punch, but he knew that he didn't have much time to find another target to pick on so he could kill them.

And his actual target was the weak-looking boy hiding behind the high school kid.

"Let's go!!!"

With his lead, the group of 10 people started walking closer and closer towards Lucas and the boy.

The encirclement was getting tighter and smaller and there was no way out of the circle of people.

Lucas somehow had expected that the people who grouped up with a scum would also be another scum.

But seeing with his own eyes how the 10 people really got closer and closer to him with their fists balled, Lucas could only stare at them with disbelief.

'I didn't think a day would come where I would be gangbanged by 10 peopl- Wait, that doesn't feel right.'

Lucas shook his head.

'Whatever.'

The basic body strengthening technique was still active so Lucas only moved his mana once again to activate the coercive figment.

The technique was on the verge of manifesting when Lucas suddenly heard Maya's voice straight to his head.

'Lucas, please make the figments more subtle. I forgot to tell you this, but no one should know about you knowing this technique. At least not yet.'

Lucas had planned to make an illusion of himself running towards them and make the people hit each other.

However, after hearing Maya's words he had to change his plans.

Every time Maya spoke or told him to do something, questions always appeared in Lucas' head.

But because she was basically his guide in this unknown world, Lucas decided to keep his questions for later and just followed her instructions.

The coercive figment formed once again as Lucas' mana infiltrated another human being.

Lucas tried to use the technique on two people at the same time, but he just couldn't do it and the technique book also didn't tell him how to do it.

So he activated it twice and targeted two out of the 10 people that stood next to each other.

Knowing the technique activated successfully, Lucas started darting towards the two people head first.

His speed was fast due to his physique being enhanced by the basic body strengthening technique, but it was no way fast enough to be able to escape a human's sight.

However, even when the 8 people saw what happened and they started preparing for the fight, the two people that were directly in front of Lucas did nothing.

In their eyes, Lucas was still standing unmoving in the middle of the encirclement and they were slowly but surely inching towards him.

So when Lucas was right in front of them and the two of them did nothing, the people soon found out that something was wrong.

"HEY! IN FRONT OF YOU!"

One of them shouted, but it was too late.

Instead of launching two punches each to those two people, Lucas grabbed one of them from their side and pushed them onto the person next to them.

And with the 10 people standing right next to each other, a domino effect has soon befallen the group as Lucas knocked a few of them hard from the side.

4 people fell from Lucas' sudden push and the other 6 were on the other side of the encirclement.

They tried helping their friend, but Lucas had already decided on what to do next after making those people fall.

Contrary to using his punches to knock down these people, Lucas used one of the hardest-hitting attacks a human body could produce.

And that was none other than using the heel of his feet to stomp downward.

Starting with the people closest to him, Lucas stomped hard on the person's foot, breaking it as easily as it was a twig.

He then moved on to another person and did the same.

The move was simple and quick, but the effect was huge as the 4 people who fell down never stood back up.

Not only was their foot now unusable, but the sheer pain of having their foot broken so violently occupied their minds as they all screamed their lungs out.

The other 6 who tried to help their friends couldn't do anything. 

They even froze in fear when they saw Lucas easily stomp on everyone's foot without having a shred of hesitation or doubt.

Deep in their minds, they all thought along the lines of,

'Is this person really human…?'

But they didn't have a lot of time to think as they now saw the inhuman high school boy staring at them with a flat expression on his face.

If they thought they were all seeing things wrong before when they saw Tom die in just one punch, they all know now that whatever the kid was in front of them was, he was anything but an ordinary human.

Knowing what they were facing wasn't something they could handle, the remaining 6 people simultaneously turned their bodies and started running.

It was probably the fastest they had ever run in their lives.

But who could blame them, they felt their lives were on the line if they didn't get away as soon as they could.

And Lucas did let them run away. 

He wasn't someone who would just kill anyone. He had killed two, but it was because he had to do it, not because he wanted to.

However, Lucas did not let one person go away easily.

The man who spoke about revenge and walked first to close in on him was the one who was lucky enough to be able to run away.

And he might be able to do just that if not for Lucas activating the coercive figment once again and sending an image to his mind.

The man who ran with all his might suddenly stopped moving as he stumbled down.

He didn't know what happened when his eyes suddenly could only see darkness and his feet tripped due to him losing his balance.

He regained his sight soon after and looked back and found that the high school boy was now slowly walking towards him.

The man quickly tried to get up, but he stumbled down hard enough that his ankle was sprained.

The man tried crawling away, but it was useless.

"No… Please… I'm sorry… I just want to live…."

The man pleaded as Lucas was now standing right in front of him.

"Your mouth and heart are nasty," Lucas said as he raised his foot, preparing to stomp down on the man.

But before Lucas could push down his foot, Lucas suddenly felt strength leaving his body as his other foot began shaking when it tried to prop up his whole body.

His raised foot then came back down to support his body to keep standing, but even his two feet weren't able to keep him from wobbling as it was on the verge of falling.

'What is happening to me…?'

He asked the question for himself, but an answer arrived from the pendant on his chest.

'Your body is still a mortal's body. It was already a miracle that you could use these techniques consecutively without drying out your mana.

And now, you have completely run out of mana.'

After Maya finished her explanation, Lucas fell down head up as he saw the countdown on the clouds showed the number 6.

'I did enough.'

He had killed two people and he doubted that he would be the person with the least amount of kill, he didn't need to worry about the punishment anymore.

So when the countdown reached zero, Lucas just stared at the sky with his still weak body.

And not even a shred of worry entered him when the woman chose the next person who would be punished.

At least, that was what happened until he heard a little boy's voice coming from behind him.

Lucas might not be able to stand, but he could still move his body albeit slowly.

So when he heard a boy's scream, Lucas quickly turned his head to see what was happening behind him as fast as his weakened body could.

Although he had already guessed it, he couldn't just take what was happening right in front of his eyes as he saw the boy he was protecting all this time begin floating up into the sky.

"NO! DON'T TAKE HIM!"

Lucas forced his body to move, but lifting his leg from the ground for a second was the only thing that he could do.

Lucas tried activating the basic body strengthening technique to find the strength that he needed to lift his body.

But no matter how hard he tried mobilizing the mana in his body, none of them moved as he had run out of them.

The boy screamed and flailed his arms as he looked in Lucas' direction. 

Lucas wanted to help him, but he couldn't do anything.

The boy's hand reached out towards Lucas, who was now high up in the sky.

"NO!!!"

It was the only word that Lucas could shout as he saw the boy's head explode.

When the boy's body fell and turned to paste, the unknown woman's voice could be heard once again from the sky,

"Congratulations! There are only 100 of you left now! We welcome you all to the world of Gula and The Rising Sun of The East, Aarush Kingdom!"