Ability Wielders

"Was it the mysterious White Fox that wears a mask similar to k.u.miho?" The man stopped and asked. "I mean, the sightings are in Seoul, why would they send men all over Gyeonggi?"

"Right?" The other shook his head. "Anyways, in one of the soccer fields, there are apparently two wielders dishing it out, one unknown Level 2 and one unknown Level 3 wielder. The thing is, the Level 2 is actually standing their own ground with the Level 3!"

"Seriously!?" The other exclaimed. "d.a.m.n, that"s some insane power. Is he one of those that has higher compatibilities with essence energy?"

"Should be, it can"t be explained otherwise," the man nodded his head.

Meanwhile, behind the window of her room, Eun-ha was crouching, discreetly listening to the conversation of the two. When she heard of this matter, she was alarmed. A Level 2 wielder? "No, it can"t be… No, it"s definitely not Hayden… He"s sleeping his house, it"s impossible that that person is Hayden."

Taking her phone, she contacted an Ident.i.ty Number. The person picked up after a few seconds of ringing. "Chung-hee, you have to help me."

"What?" On the other line, Chung-hee, wearing her cute pajamas, rubbed her eyes. "Do you know what time it is, Eun-ha eonnie?"

"It"s important!" Eun-ha shouted quietly. "A Level 2 wielder is fighting a Level 3 wielder and is standing their ground, do you think this is not a matter worth getting out of bed for?"

"No, not really," Chung-hee squinted her eyes and replied, smacking her lips. "I mean, there are a few monsters in South Korea that appeared last month ago, so is it really that strange?"

"But the Level 2 wielder is unknown!" Eun-ha said, her tone filled with worry. "Please do me a favor and check on it, okay? I"ll be on my way as well. They"re in a soccer field in Gw.a.n.gnaru Hangang Park."

"Okay, okay, jeez," Chung-hee rolled her eyes as she dragged her "sleepy" body out of the bed. "I"ll see you in the park."

With that, Chung-hee disconnected the call, walked to her wardrobe, dug out an orange hanbok, and, in a secret compartment, took out an orange tiger mask.

In Eun-ha"s house, Eun-ha did the same, taking out a fully white hanbok and a fox mask that was white in color. Swiftly, she changed into the outfit, checked out the window, and perceiving that there were no people in the vicinity any longer, she jumped out and revealed wings made of blue fire.

…..

Hayden and Kidlat crouched on the ground, the two talking as to how they would deal with the dilemma they found themselves in.

"Take this," In Hayden"s hands, two masks appeared, one that of a white fox"s, and one that was simply black. "We don"t want them to see our faces, don"t we?"

The second he gave the black mask to Kidlat, he sensed a huge lifeform above them with his Heavenly Sense.

"f.u.c.k," Hayden pushed off Kidlat as well as himself as a huge gorilla landed from where they previously were. Wearing the white fox mask and crouching, Hayden shouted, "How should I call you?"

"Call me Kidlat, kid," Kidlat said as he wore the black mask whilst gathering lightning into free hand and fired it to the left. "Let"s talk later, deal with the situation first."

"Agreed," Hayden stood up as he fully released his Indestructible Devil, sprinted to the gorilla at supersonic speed, and sliced off its head with his sharp claws.

Meanwhile, Kidlat collected lightning underneath him, jumped straight upwards, and shot down three people closest to him. As those three Level 2 wielders didn"t all possess the predictive abilities required to dodge the lightning bolt, they were fried to death.

On the other side, Hayden sown rampage on the wielders that were unfortunate to be caught by him or intercepted by him. He prioritized those that he observed were doing some kind of peculiar hand motions or muttering something as they undoubtedly had mental Abilities that Hayden had little to no protection against.

As for those that used their bodies or used weapons against him, he mauled those that came in his reach, let the long-ranged physical attacks land on his body, and carefully avoided those that were of elemental nature.

As a result, Hayden was seen as a bloodthirsty devil in the eyes of their enemies, a demon fox that cannot be killed nor damaged even the slightest. Beheading a person that was muttering, he turned around swiftly and caught a woman that was holding a weapon that threw themselves to him. Choking her, Hayden inspected her a bit.

The woman was pretty, yet couldn"t compare to Eun-ha"s beauty. Well, as she was an enemy, even if her beauty was on par or much beautiful than Eun-ha, he would have killed her anyways, thus, Hayden showed no mercy at all. As the woman dropped her weapon due to Hayden"s chokehold, Hayden used his strength to crush the woman"s neck, beheading her gruesomely.

"This is going to take too long." Revealing his wings, Hayden flew upwards a bit, took out a machine gun, and started firing away. "Tsk, b.a.s.t.a.r.ds…"

Hayden rained upon h.e.l.l towards the people on his side. Regardless of Hayden"s machine gun an automatic weapon, each and every single bullet managed to find a head to embed itself into; and as the bullets were infused with essence energy, they pierced them with no resistance at all. After all, those bullets weren"t simply infused with essence energy, they were also bullets that can pierce protective armor! Hayden specifically bought armor-piercing bullets for all of his weapons with the exception of his pistols as his fights are always with wielders, whose bodies are unable to be damaged by regular weapons.

What"s worse is that Hayden reloaded with the help of his s.p.a.ce Ring, making his reload speed nearly instantaneous. Sending a wisp of his essence energy into the s.p.a.ce Ring, taking the empty magazine in, loading back a full magazine, he was done reloading and fired away.

Kidlat rapidly blinked his eyes seeing Hayden"s carnage as he congregated lightning into his Origin Crystal. He couldn"t believe his eyes. Hayden"s accuracy was just too astonishing! Disregarding that in the meantime, Kidlat put his hands on his Origin Crystals as if gathering it into a sphere and unleashed an omnidirectional bolts of lightning, killing about tens of wielders in the blink of an eye.

"Goodness gracious!" Hayden was similarly stunned. The two simultaneously spoke, "I"m kind of glad I didn"t kill him off!"

For a few minutes, the two of them chased people around the soccer field. At this time, the hunter became the hunted, with many attempting to escape instead of trying to take down Hayden and Kidlat.

"Retreat!" At that moment, a loud roar boomed all throughout the soccer field. "We will take care of these people."

On the side of the soccer field, two people, a man and a woman walked out shoulder to shoulder. The woman donned a fancy red dress, and the man sported a red dopo over a white hanbok, wearing an amicable smile, contrary to the woman who was wearing a ferocious expression.

The two were both attractive, with the woman capable of seducing most men she wanted to seduce, and the man possessing the appearance of a typical handsome ladies" man, in spite of his scholarly attire.

"I"ll deal with the white fox, you deal with the lightning man," the woman ordered the man. "I want to see how powerful that white fox is."

Catching this, Hayden squinted his eyes with caution. The man in the red dopo rushed to where Kidlat was, who was similarly staring at them with carefulness. A red spear, to be specific, a naginata, abruptly materialized in the man"s hands, slicing down towards Kidlat.

Snorting, Kidlat sidestepped, leading to the naginata missing Kidlat. However, it didn"t go accordingly as a black naginata phantom took shape beside the one the man was holding and slashed down at a faster pace than the original one.

It was fortunate that Kidlat managed to react in time, barely avoiding the naginata phantom, causing Kidlat to break down in cold sweat.

His face transformed to that of confusion to that of a solemn one, a spear made of lightning appeared in his hand and threw it towards the man.

Meanwhile, the second the man rushed out, the woman shapeshifted into another creature all together. The woman"s dress was ripped apart as her size became twice as large, her voluptuous figure disappearing, replaced by a muscular one, her skin turned into black scales, her face resembling a lion, with a single black shiny horn on her forehead. Her eyes shining red with ferocity, baring her fangs at Hayden and roaring, a tornado formed beneath her, carrying her up.

"f.u.c.k, does it really have to be a Haetae!?" Hayden cursed. A Haetae in Korean mythology was a scaled lion with a single horn that protected the civilians from natural disasters. From the looks of it, the Haetae in front of him can induce natural disasters. "Why the h.e.l.l does she have to have the power to manipulate disasters!? Shouldn"t she be a guardian, for f.u.c.k"s sake!"

This time, Hayden really cursed his luck. He couldn"t help but think again that the universe was trying to kill him off after having one fantastic night with Kim Eun-ha. "Was Kidlat not enough? Does it really have to send me a powerful mythological guardian to kill me off? What the h.e.l.l did I do to deserve this!"

"I knew it, that did not come without a price!" Hayden howled as he flew higher, storing his machine gun into his s.p.a.ce Ring and taking out his Sinukuan. Smiling gently and recalling his time with Kim Eun-ha, he mumbled, "Well, at least it was worth it."

Before the Haetae could reach him, Hayden observed the person down below fully occupied with Kidlat, calculated all the factors in their fight for a second, took aim in a microsecond, and fired the instant he aimed.

This shot of Hayden"s was designed to help Kidlat instead of trying to kill the person with the naginata. It was clear that the man wielding the naginata was a man that possessed the same amount of power to Kidlat, if not, stronger, he wouldn"t want to risk taking a shot only to miss, or taking the shot yet to be blocked off.

This shot of Hayden"s was carefully planned out using his Divine Perception and was fully laced by essence energy. This bullet could, without a doubt, penetrate a modern tank! And, as it was meticulously calculated, the bullet was shot when the man was at mid-swing, when the man"s weight was entirely on the naginata. This was done so that the man would have, in no way at all, a way to shift the naginata"s direction.

As for where the shot landed? It was on the man"s leg. The second the bullet penetrated the man"s leg, Kidlat grasped this opportunity, used both of his hands to touch the man"s head, and produced powerful lightning, electrocuting the man to death.

"You!" The Haetae who was riding a tornado was filled with apprehension. She was ignored by a puny Level 2 wielder and prioritized helping his teammate instead? "f.u.c.king son of a b.i.t.c.h!"

The moment she shouted that, the tornado strengthened and became taller, catching up to Hayden in a fraction of a second. Wide-eyed, Hayden flapped his wings forward, causing him to move backwards. The tornado was sweeping up the surroundings, the gra.s.s, the soccer goalposts, the lampposts, everything, due to its immense power.

"Kidlat!" Hayden bellowed to Kidlat, maintaining utmost concentration towards the Haetae. "I"ll handle this, protect them!"

Kidlat, who heard this, was aggrieved. It was not that he couldn"t bear the fact that a Level 2 wielder was commanding him, it was because Hayden actually saved his life and was implying that he wouldn"t make it by saying to protect "them."

Logically, Kidlat picked up Hayden"s meaning of "them," and that "them" was his parents. He was a loyal man at heart, regardless of being a cold-hearted a.s.sa.s.sin, and when Hayden deduced that the naginata wielder was more powerful than Kidlat although his speed was superior, he was grateful of Hayden.

Of course, Kidlat knew that it was a possibility that Hayden did this for the sole purpose of sending him to protect his parents, but it was undeniable that Hayden did save him! Kidlat would"ve had a chance against that naginata wielder, but that was if he was at full power.

As aforementioned, Kidlat was out of juice already fighting Hayden, beating that naginata wielder without help was next to impossible. Plus, that naginata wielder could actually nullify his lightning by blocking it! Even if he was at full power, he would have had a hard time. What"s worse is that, although it wouldn"t compare to Hayden"s, the man possessed uncanny predictive powers!

Shivering, Kidlat muttered, "And that phantom afterimage… It was best that Hayden performed that shot."

Watching Hayden for a bit, Kidlat rolled his eyes. He wanted to help, but seeing Hayden"s determined gaze from afar that still radiated such thick killing intent, Kidlat shook his head.

"f.u.c.k"s sake…" Kidlat sighed, his nature didn"t dare to make him betray Hayden for this favor. "You be careful, don"t f.u.c.king die, kid, you still owe me money."

"Don"t worry, I won"t die," Hayden smiled under the mask as he muttered. This utterance of Hayden was heard by Kidlat with his essence energy-enhanced senses. For some reason, Kidlat believed that Hayden wouldn"t die.

On that note, Kidlat completely ignored the Haetae after glancing at it, a cold feeling went down his spine prior to moving out to the opposite direction. Arriving a kilometer away from the soccer field, he hopped to a cloud, producing a thunderous boom in the process, and jumped from cloud to cloud using his Ability.

"I"m in danger…" Hayden flew about, resisting the powerful pull of the tornado. "Is there anything that this Haetae can"t do!?"

"Give up!" Haetae bellowed in anger, a nasty-looking smile imprinted on her lion face as she charged at Hayden atop her tornado. "You don"t stand a chance against me!"

"I don"t think so," Hayden smiled as he unexpectedly let the tornado pull him. "Do you really think saying "give up," to your opponent works? Idiot...."

"What the…" Obviously, the Haetae didn"t antic.i.p.ate this as she closely missed Hayden by a hair"s breadth, with Hayden plummeting to the tornado. "f.u.c.king sly son of a b.i.t.c.h!"

Whirling in the tornado, Hayden took a deep breath and closed his eyes, circulating his essence energy and the power of Indestructible Devil to the fullest, constantly healing him no matter what object collided with him, resisting the sharp forces of the wind. A few seconds later, the pull of the tornado considerably weakened.

As a result, Hayden was thrown out of the tornado, landing into the concrete basketball court with a thud, creating a hole on the ground. Shaking his dizziness away, he noticed the Haetae was standing in front of him.

"Bad dog!" Hayden pointed towards the Haetae. In truth, in mythologies, the Haetae was a dog that simply resembled a tiger. Well, it was still a majestic animal, to insult it like this… Perhaps only Hayden would dare to do so. "You don"t hurt people, okay?"

"What the h.e.l.l?" The Haetae growled in anger. "You"re asking for your death!"

"Am I though?" Hayden questioned back, his face forming doubt. "What if I"m just wasting time? Who knows?"

Instead of fighting such a monstrous opponent, he decided it was wiser to attempt stalling first. After all, there"s no way in h.e.l.l he"d beat Haetae!

"What?" The Haetae"s voice contained a hint of unease when it sensed Hayden"s serious yet joking tone. "You"re bluffing!"

"Am I?" Hayden squinted his eyes. "Imagine a Level 4 wielder arriving and seeing me dead, oh I wonder how they would mutilate you!"

"You!" The Haetae"s eyes widened with fervor. This time, Hayden crossed the line, making the Haetae"s judgement clouded with rage. Knowing this, Hayden shivered as he used his tail as a spring, doing a backflip the second he uttered those words.

"I forgot I was fighting a woman…" Hayden sighed. His plan was working, but it all came to wreck when he insulted her. "Women are to be respected, and I disrespected one, I can"t believe it…"

What Hayden was forgetting was that he indiscriminately killed people in the soccer field, whether they were woman in s.e.xuality or man. "No, that was different, I merely killed them, while I a.s.saulted this Haetae with words… Truly a shame…"

Finishing his short internal monologue, Hayden observed the Haetae"s movements. He was estimating as to how much strength the woman"s muscles could generate. Every bit of her muscle was compressed, allowing her to create more or less the same amount of strength as Hayden"s.

That was without essence energy however, and, keeping that in mind, that meant that the Haetae was absolutely stronger than him! Examining her legs, Hayden was grateful that the heavens was not that unfair as she could not possibly run to the point that she breaks the sound barrier, fast, sure, but not that fast.

"The problem is her control with disasters…" Hayden whispered to himself. Observing the sky, a storm cloud was brewing. "Could that be a product of her power?"

Preparing to charge, hail landed in front of him, hail that was as large as a basketball. "Holy…"

Hayden couldn"t even properly finish his obscene words prior to stepping back as hail landed on his former position. He would not risk being hit by that to find out the force contained by that hail.

"Indeed, all Level 3 wielders have a way of covering up their weaknesses…" Hayden formed a conjecture. "Kidlat"s lack of strength and toughness was covered up by his immense speed and insane elemental prowess and can heal as good as me. This Haetae in front of me could create natural disasters to a.s.sist her… Isn"t that too overpowered though…"

Hayden wanted to cry at this moment, dancing amidst the falling hail. What kind of broken power was this? Hail, tornadoes, what if she can induce earthquakes? The only good thing here was that the hail can be easily dodged as the hail was far apart when they fall, creating good bits of s.p.a.ce that Hayden could slip in.

Instead of voicing his complaints, Hayden focused all of his attention to dodging the hail and observing Haetae"s every movement. "It"s a good thing she"s still underestimating me…"

Or that was what Hayden thought. What else can he come up with if the Haetae didn"t move? She was that confident in beating him up? Well, that"s exactly underestimation, isn"t it?

"Contest of strength and toughness is out of the question," Hayden thought as he scrutinized the Haetae"s thick scales. "Each of those scales are, though not as tough as my skin and organs, are enough that a puny essence energy-infused bullet wouldn"t penetrate it, and my claws would not be as effective."

"Then I just have to go beat her up with my strength and speed!" Hayden smirked, moving away from his position whilst dodging the hail skillfully.

Witnessing this, the Haetae was shocked. What kind of human could dodge hail in this manner? What she didn"t know was that the hail she induced was evaded by Hayden due to its size and the fact that it was not as spontaneous as rain, allowing Hayden to find small gaps which he exploited.

Without a warning, a sonic boom ensued, and Hayden literally disappeared in her sight. A force was felt being exerton upon her back as she was forced to go into the radius of her rain of basketball-sized hail.