The shockwaves of the explosion swept through the area, making the small rock fragments shatter into fragments.
Some four hundred meters away, behind a boulder, Sophia, and others stared at Zed.
"You call this as taking precautions?" Sophia asked, her cute face filled with obvious shock.
She has a feeling this was what Zed has in mind when he gave them those items, but the scale and power of explosion were far beyond her imagination. Even a level IV mutant would have a hard time surviving such an explosion, much less youngsters like them who were only Gammas.
"Yes," Zed answered innocently. "Have I did anything wrong?"
Sophia was left speechless by his question.
Had she not known his kind and honest character, she would have thought he was pretending to be oblivious to his actions.
Regardless, she couldn’t fault him. In fact, she was secretly relieved that he wasn’t overly kind, and someone who would spare every person with antagonistic thoughts.
A few days ago, outside the core region, he has spared Launcelot and many others. While she was impressed by his character and was happy he wasn’t killing her acquaintances, she was worried as well.
Her mother has always said kindness should have a limit. One shouldn’t let kindness become a weakness.
Now seeing him killing a group of twenty who obviously had bad intentions, she was both happy and impressed.
"He is fierce when the situation demands! No wonder he survived slums!" Jenina thought while glancing at the fading explosion.
"Let’s go before more people target us!" Divya said.
She didn’t think joining Zed and Sophia would make them the target of jealous competitors. She regretted her decision but then she looked at Zed, and then recalled the miracles he has pulled off. The thoughts of regrets instantly disappeared.
She knew he was the most trustable and reliable person in the entire core region!
"I don’t think anyone would dare move after us for some time," Jenina said with a smile.
The explosion has fully smashed the two boulders, leaving behind a crater. Such a sight should be more than enough as a warning.
Jenina has just completed saying this when she felt fire energy fluctuations from Zed.
"In this world, there are two things you should never underestimate," Zed said as flames erupted all over his body. "Greed and envy."
He stretched a hand towards his right, and a fireball hurtled out of his palm. With a whistling sound, the fireball rushed forward, and after crossing a distance of thirty meters, suddenly, it was sliced into two. The severed portions of the fireball crashed on either side, creating a dent over the ground.
"What?!" Sophia was startled.
She checked the place the fireball was sliced apart but could see nothing. But knowing what has just happened, it left no doubt there was some person standing in that area.
"Invisibility?" Jenina wondered while wrapping her body with a glistening liquid. A rope made of the glistening liquid formed into her hand.
"Duck!" Zed warned and others instantly crouched down. Just as they did, they felt air above them slice apart.
Zed, on the other hand, propelled himself high into the air with streams of fire exploding below his feet. As the attack passed, he shouted, "Jenina! Create a barrier!"
Jenina quickly created a barrier of glistening liquid around her and others. But Zed was out of her range, and she felt it must be intentional otherwise he wouldn’t have leaped high into the air.
As Zed began moving down, he muttered, "Firestorm."
Instantly, the temperature within a radius of a hundred meters crossed boiling point. Heat haze appeared for the briefest moment of time before turning into a raging firestorm.
The blistering heat threatened to incinerate everything.
Some distance away from Zed, a scream came out.
"Argh! Bastard!"
The speaker of the voice seemed to be shocked by this attack. It was like he never expected such type of attack or even thought that Zed was capable of such a method.
At this moment, Zed landed on the ground. His face was pale and blood was trickling down from the corners of his mouth.
"Times like this I miss being Kiba," Zed mused with a wry smile.
The firestorm vanished just as soon as he reached the ground. It didn’t even last for four seconds but it has done the task Zed wanted.
Some distance away, a man was extinguishing flames on his body armor. If not for this precious armor, he would have been burned to ashes.
By the time the flames extinguished, the armor was glowing red from heat, forcing the man to discard the armor. As he did, his face became visible.
"Willard!" Sophia called out.
Even if not for Zed’s help, she would have survived Willard’s attack thanks to her protective charm, but that didn’t mean she appreciated a sneak attack.
She gazed at him with anger.
Before the start of first trial, he has tried to spend some time with her but was unsuccessful due to Zed. After this, Willard has tried to provoke Zed by saying that he was trying to flatter Sophia to gain her beads.
Sophia was happy when Zed gave Willard a virtual slap by passing the trial in no time. She didn’t think he would try to kill both her and Zed.
"You want our beads just like that group?" Sophia asked while snapping her beautiful teeth.
Willard’s expression was unsightly.
He was behind the group of twenty when they were obliterated. As he was invisible, the group didn’t notice him.
When the explosion occurred, he was terrified as he avoided death just by his decision of maintaining a safe distance from the group. He never thought this decision would save his life in such a manner.
While the explosion was still going on, he took a different route to find Zed. He felt the launch of such a move by Zed and others would give him a perfect opportunity as their attention would be on the explosion.
By the time he found Zed and others, the explosion has ended. And just as he thought he would kill to take beads, that damn slum dweller shot out a fireball in his direction.
He couldn’t understand how he was caught.
Wasn’t his invisibility perfect?
He has even covered his body smell! So how could a fire elementalist find him?!
Even that was fine to a certain extent, but then that punk summoned an overpowered attack that forced him to show himself.
"Willard! Answer me, you ugly toad!" Sophia shouted, her voice filled with anger. "Are you so ashamed of your ugliness that you have to turn invisible?"
"You!" Willard was both incensed and shocked by her insults.
"No! Now is not the time to give in to her provocation! I have to kill them now otherwise if she survives, I would have to live the life of a refugee!"
He knew the power of aristocrat families. There was no way the World Government would intervene and stop the family from targetting him if they learned of this.
Willard snapped his teeth and decided to attack again by turning invisible.
After seeing how Zed was bleeding from his mouth, he was sure that overpowered attack couldn’t be used again.
"Ugly toad!"
Sophia was not really waiting for his answer.
Her mother has said that one must learn from opponents to advance further. Insulting an enemy was something she learned from that shameless villain. She hasn’t really used the art but she felt it could be used to create a distraction.
By the time Willard decided, she has already charged at him, her fist wrapped with streams of energy.
Willard’s pupils rapidly shrank and he turned invisible. Sadly, he was not quick enough as by the time he turned invisible, the fist has rammed into his chest.
Along with a loud cracking sound, blood splashed out. Willard felt as if he was smashed by a hammer instead of a girl’s small fist. His internal organs were in a complete mess, and as he coughed up blood, chunks of flesh also streamed out.
"Damn! She is a monster!"
Willard rapidly backed off to create distance. Alas, even though he was invisible, blood was leaking out of his orifices, and as blood fell down, it gave more than enough clues to Sophia.
"Don’t even think about escaping!" Sophia closed distance by launching multiple fist attacks.
The entire air was filled with hundreds of fist afterimages, and they brutally landed forward, resulting in tragic screams.
"Don’t force me!"
Willard was on backfoot but that was mostly due to advantage from surprise factor. A sharp knife stretched out of his hand and he sliced it forward.
The air cut apart, resulting in sharp ear-piercing sound.
Sophia couldn’t see the knife but could hear the sound. Energy enveloped her feet and she leaped into the air, narrowly missing the knife.
As she was in mid-air, Willard didn’t stop and he changed the direction of knife.
The knife was modified, embedded with energy crystals capable of destruction. A bright flash erupted from the knife and rushed at Sophia like a sword.
Sophia snorted coldly and somersaulted in the air while punching at the flash.
Her body was more flexible than a gymnastic, and her movements were filled with grace and elegance even as she attacked in middle of a somersault.
As the fist made contact with destructive flash, ripples of energy swept out, creating strong vibrations.
The flash was destroyed and Sophia landed on the ground. Her fist was covered with scratches from which blood dripped down.
By now, Willard has created a safe distance and consumed a healing pill. He was just sighing in relief when a rope made of glistening liquid wrapped around his hand.
"How?!" Willard couldn’t believe he was caught again despite being invisible.
He raised his knife to cut the rope and just as he did, a smashing sound ringed out, and he let out the most heart-wrenching scream a man could ever.
His invisibility disappeared and everyone could see how his eyes were filled with blood threads. Tears were streaming down his cheeks and his face has turned deathly pale.
Willard was hastily flapping his hands as smoke trailed off from his lower body with a ghastly stench.
His pants have literally caught fire! What’s more, the fire has attacked neither region.
"Oops! Sorry!"
Some distance away, resting a hand on Jenina’s soft and smooth shoulder, Zed lowered his other hand covered with flame.
A few seconds ago, he has launched a fireball, and it smashed just below Willard’s belt.
"I apologize," Zed made a bow with his free hand while taking support from Jenina. "Please forgive me."
Forgive?!
Bastard!
I will rip you to pieces!
Willard wanted to shout curses, but when he opened his mouth, all he let out was a cry filled with despair.
Jenina felt fine hair on her body standing up as she heard the violent screams from him. Even a man on deathbed wouldn’t wail like him.
While Jenina was a female, even she could well understand the type of pain a man in Willard’s shoes would feel. So she wasn’t that shocked by his cries but still, she felt he must man up and accept the pain.
He shouldn’t make a kind and honest man like Zed feel he has done something cruel!
Zed gripped Jenina tightly as more tragic screams reverberated in the area.
"Did I went overboard?" Zed asked as Willard collapsed on the ground; rolling to extinguish fires and save remains of his lost treasure.
Jenina placed an arm around him to offer him more support. With a smile, she said, "No. You could never do that."
Knowing his character, Jenina was sure it was an accident. After all, Willard was invisible and Zed was exhausted so there was nothing strange for a shot landing on a forbidden area.
Besides, in brutal fights, attacks don’t have eyes so she felt Willard should have no right to complain.
Sadly, Willard continued to howl.
"Willard, stop screaming!"
Sophia ruthlessly kicked him.
"You are making an innocent man like Zed feel guilty for nothing!"