Chapter 15: A Gamble

Once again, the man charged at Lucas but this time around, Lucas could sense a dangerous vibe from the opponent. If the previous strikes were an attempt to take Lucas down and capture him, the pressure Lucas felt at this moment was similar but mixed with killing intent. The spy was now serious.

Whoosh.

A fist tore through the air heading towards Lucas. The latter tried to dodge but proved slower than his attacker as the strike landed. However, once again, the blow didn't result in anything substantial, but the spy was unperturbed by this as he unleashed a flurry of attacks on Lucas.

Even though Lucas was immune to harm, the constant hits by the spy seemed to be somewhat effective as it managed to shake Lucas.

According to the system's description of 'harm', any amount of force capable of injuring Lucas would be mitigated. However, this didn't mean that all the force from an attack would be eliminated. A slight amount of force would remain, but to Lucas, it was very negligible. However, with the spy constantly attacking and not giving him any breathing space, the force began to have a minimal effect on him.

To put it into perspective, it was like using a massaging equipment on your body. The force from the equipment isn't enough to injure and could be described as soothing. However, if one were to have hundreds of massaging equipment acting on their body at the same time, the force would become uncomfortable and might even cause harm.

This was what Lucas was experiencing. Nonetheless, it wasn't harmful but uncomfortable, which caused him to shiver a bit.

The spy noticed this and presumed that his attack was having an effect, strongly believing that he was close to reaching the breaking point of Lucas' 'equipment'. As such, he increased the strength and speed of his attacks.

Most times, Lucas failed to dodge the attacks and was struck by multiple of them. But there were a few times he either managed to dodge or block the attacks. Even so, things didn't look good for him as the spy successfully dodged each of his counter attacks.

If Lucas couldn't turn things around, the spy might eventually get tired and decide to end things quicker, forcefully seizing Lucas. The Host Protection Mechanism could only protect Lucas from direct harm, but being captured didn't constitute as direct harm. Also, being sedated with a tranquillizer didn't count as harm too, which was why Lucas had faked his silhouette on the bed with a couple of pillows to avoid the tranquillizer gun.

Realising that at this point, things looked bad for him Lucas decided to change his strategy.

Lucas fired a fist at the spy but the latter easily dodged it by moving his head to the side.

At that moment, Lucas' eyes turned vicious.

'Restore.'

A chisel appeared on his other hand right when Lucas counterattacked and he flung it at man. But the enemy dodged it and instead countered with another ferocious blow to his.

Previously, the spy had been aiming at Lucas' abdomen and limbs, but this time around, the attack was aimed at Lucas' head. He wanted to knock Lucas out and end the battle.

'Restore.'

Lucas didn't retreat in the face of the attack, rather he couldn't. Nonetheless, there was no worry in his eyes as he summoned another chisel from his system inventory and stabbed at the spy's neck. He planned on taking the hit while delivering a ruthless attack of his own.

The spy realised this and prepared to retreat, as it was impossible for him to continue with his attack and dodge Lucas' attack due to the angle it came from. However, he noticed that there was a slight trace of hesitation and worry in Lucas' eyes and this made him have seconds thoughts. All this happened within a few milliseconds and there was not much time to think, so the spy bit the bullet and continued with his attack.

The man's thought pattern was that Lucas wouldn't be able to handle his attack and was bluffing with his. The trace of worry and hesitation in Lucas' eyes was what made him confident in his estimation so he went on with his attack.

The man guessed that Lucas was approaching his limit and his attack was threatening to the latter. So, as long as his attack hit, Lucas would be injured and unable to go on with his retaliation.

Puchi.

Blood dyed the ground as the sounds of fighting went still.

He spy had his eyes wide open as he stared at Lucas who was unharmed, however, the same wasn't true for him. Blood spurted out from the injury on his neck as reluctance hung in his eyes, but his emotions couldn't change the result. His gamble had failed.

Seemingly realising something, the man glared at Lucas and wanted to say a few words, but the latter strengthened his grip on the chisel and stabbed deeper into the man's throat.

The spy still tried to hold onto his life, refusing to believe that this was how he would do down, but Lucas wasn't so nice. With a frown, Lucas moved his other arm -which also had a chisel in it- and stabbed at the other side of the man's neck. Then he took out both chisels, leading to a stream of blood flowing from the two wounds. The spy was now plagued with two grievous wounds and the light in his eyes became clouded until they went dark.

In the end, the spy died despite his unwillingness. As his last thoughts turned dark, he couldn't believe that this was how he departed this world; at the hands of a human who didn't even have a shred of stellar energy. The man didn't even go all out against Lucas and only relied on his physical abilities, but that decision of his had now cost him his life.

Lucas stepped away and let the corpse fall to the ground. He let out a sigh of relief as he sent the chisels back into his inventory and massaged his head.

Although the Host Protection Mechanism had successfully kept him safe throughout the fight, Lucas couldn't help but finally feel relieved.

As for how he won, it was a trick he played mid battle. Lucas made a slight expression of fear and hesitation when the spy struck out, but he hurriedly kept it back. In truth, this expression was feigned and the intention was to mislead the spy. With the skills of the man, it wouldn't have been difficult for him to dodge Lucas' assault if he gave up on attacking. As such, Lucas had to prevent that from happening, hence why he gave the man hope through his expressions. Being quite skilled, it was naturally for the spy to spot the 'hidden' meaning behind Lucas' expression. In the end, he took the bait and fell at the hands of one he looked down on.

Many factors affected this battle and led to Lucas' victory like the fact the spy underestimated him, or his lack of knowledge on the existence of the Host Protection Mechanism or its impregnable characteristic. If the spy had from the start utilised his stellar energy or gotten his hands back on his tranquillizer gun, Lucas would have lost.

This battle made Lucas aware of weakness and further strengthened his resolve to learn magic or stellar refining at the very least. This time round, the system came to his rescue but what about next time? What if he was assaulted outside the store? He could no longer keep dulling; this wasn't Earth.

With the spy now dead, Lucas couldn't question him about his identity and hirer, but that wasn't a problem. Lucas searched the corpse and found a communicator just as he had suspected. From the spy's attitude, it was clear he didn't find Lucas a challenging opponent, and with that being the case, he wouldn't see the mission to be stressful. This might not seem like much, but it meant that the spy would be less cautious, to the point of carrying evidence and traces with him. If the target was a more higher or powerful figure, the spy wouldn't move around with his communicator, lest his leaves behind trails once caught or killed.

Lucas used the biometric option and activated the communicator after using the man's finger. He then scrolled towards the message app and went through them one at a time, until he found something interesting; a name that made his blood turn cold.

Kalvin Petri.

The name wasn't familiar to him, but the words written beside it was what caught his attention.

Kalvin Petri (Vinis Store vice-manager).

It was somewhat unexpected that the spy, or kidnapper, was sent by the higher-ups from the Vinis store. While he had been a bit suspicious, Lucas had his attention more on the debt-collector from earlier or the three gang members he killed previously. He even felt it was more likely for a stranger who had seen him before to assault him as he had already experienced the 'allure' humans had on his first day. The Vinis store was on the lower side of his list of suspects, after all, the store had a good reputation in the West Wing district for doing business. But it looked like that was a lie, a well-hidden one.

'I guess I owe them a visit one day.'