Chapter 33: Chapter 33 – Kill Them
Matthew hit the man, who was robbing him, hard with his backpack driving him back with the force. However, not before he pierced Matthew’s belly with his knife.
The man pierced his vital shield, he was also an adventurer. Of course he was, Matthew thought to himself, who would try to rob someone dressed in the uniform of an adventurer school if not an adventurer himself.
The second man also drew a knife and both men were now flanking Matthew whose only weapon was his backpack. Inside of it he had the training swords he took from school, but did he have the time to retrieve them? And would they be of any help?
The second man took Matthew’s hesitation and tried to stab him on the neck. Matthew managed to react in time and hold his hand before it landed, but the first man soon approached and stabbed him again on the belly.
When he pulled the knife back and thrust again, Matthew used his backpack to shield himself making the knife pierce through his books. The second man took the opportunity to punch Matthew on the face making him release his hand.
Matthew could tell both were weaker than him. At least two or three levels. But this was still a two on one fight, and they were strong enough to hurt him. However, he felt strangely calm. In fact, he had a smile on his face.
The first man tried another stab at him, which he caught again with his bag sacrificing his books. He ducked under the second man’s attempt to get his throat again. On the same movement, Matthew raised himself in an uppercut on the second man’s jaw and pushed the first one away from him with his backpack letting go of the backpack that fell on the floor.
Matthew, then, charged toward the second man pummeling him and not letting him use his knife. He didn’t flinch when the fist man came from his back and buried his knife on his shoulder. Matthew was already using Anesthesia to endure the pain of his earlier stabs.
Matthew took a step forward taking the knife with him on his shoulder. The first man let it slip from his grasp because of the blood the handle got soaked in. Matthew kept his attack on the second man ignoring the first.
The second man managed to throw a slash in the middle of Matthew’s pummeling, cutting his face slightly and the strap of his eye patch. He froze for a second looking at Matthew’s left eye when the patch fell to the ground. It was glowing with red mana.
Matthew took that opportunity to hit a hard punch on the second man’s face breaking his nose and sending him to the ground. At the same time, the first man tried to tackle Matthew from behind but lacked the strength to make him move.
Matthew didn’t realize it by now, but he could now see from his left eye. However, he was too focused on the fight, that he didn’t take notice. He just used his elbow on the first man’s ribs feeling them break behind him.
Right after, Matthew spun on his heels hitting the first man’s jaw with the back of his fist sending him tumbling back a few steps. And them Matthew laughed. Red mana was now covering his body.
"Kill them!" Matthew heard his own voice screaming in his head.
He didn’t hesitate. Matthew kicked the first man with enough force to sent him flying back into the bus stop shattering the glass. He then charged forward straddling the man on the floor and covering his face with punches. Each one breaking bone, teeth and skin.
Matthew’s hands were covered in blood when he stopped. The man’s face was unrecognizable. Matthew stood up giggling to himself like that was funny. Only then he noticed the second man was already up and running away.
Seeing him flee, Matthew took out the knife from his shoulder and with a sharp throw he hit the second man in the leg making him fall.
Then Matthew ran and reached the second man before he could fully stand up again and kicked hard on the knife that was embedded on his leg.
The second man screamed and fell to the ground. When Matthew straddled him, he tried to stab, but this time, his knife was useless against Matthew’s vital shield.
Matthew laughed. Pried the knife away from the man’s hand and held it with the blade facing down.
The second man saw Matthew’s smile. His eye burning bright with red mana. Red mana faintly covering his body. And more red mana covering the knife as Matthew applied Imbue Mana on it.
"Please!" He cried. "Don’t kill me!"
"Why not?" Matthew’s voice echoed the voice on his head.
"Please... I don’t want to die!"
"Kill him!" The voice on Matthew’s head screamed, but his hand didn’t obey.
Matthew just now realized that he could see from his left eye. That his vision was blurred red because of it. He then looked at his hands covered in blood from the first man. The second man under him was now crying softly, resigned about his fate. And then Matthew realized he was using demonic mana again.
He got up in a jump. Looked around him. The bus stop shattered to pieces, the first man probably dead on the floor. The second man under him with a knife on his leg and urine on his pants.
He took a few steps back. He breathed while the voice on his head screamed:
"Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!"
And then he used Purification on himself. As the gold light of the Purification skill covered him, the voice in his head started to fade. The light on his left eye soon disappeared and he lost the vision on it again.
He sat on the floor breathing heavily. What was he to do now? Wasn’t he cleared from the demonic mana? Did his Purification not work?
He looked to the first man laying surrounded by glass shards. Was he dead? If he were, was he going to jail?
The second man had no more fight in him. He tried to stand up, but soon fell to the floor. His leg too hurt for him to run away.
It took a few minutes for someone to come by and find the horrible scene calling the police and ambulances.
The paramedics were the first ones to arrive. They rushed to first man inside one ambulance and drove fast to a hospital. Apparently he was still alive, but barely.
Another ambulance arrived soon after and two paramedics came to tend to the Matthew’s and the second man’s wounds.
The second man had a broken nose, some shattered teeth and a knife on his leg. The paramedic tending to him was using a healing rod to close the leg wound first.
The paramedic attending Matthew, was a female adventurer with the Healer class. The first wound she was treating was the one on the shoulder. As Matthew kept fighting with the knife stuck in there, the wound got really big. The other two stabs on Matthew’s belly didn’t look deep enough to reach his internal organs, luckily, and could be left to be treated after she closed the one on the shoulder.
"What happened here?" The paramedic asked while applying the Heal skill.
"They tried to rob me." Matthew said taking deep breaths.
"I see." She said looking around. The blood on the floor, the bus stop in pieces, the wounds on the men. She’s seen it before. When adventurers clash it’s always messy.
"Is he going to survive?" Matthew asked looking at the starry sky.
"Who? Him?" She pointed to the second man. "His wounds are not grave."
"No." Matthew pointed to the shattered bus stop. "The other one."
"I’m sorry. I don’t know. I didn’t see him."
Matthew let go of the Anesthesia skill feeling the stings on his belly.
"I should’ve just let them have my stuff." He said remorseful, not about being in pain, but about probably killing a man.
"Sometimes is hard letting go of your stuff." She said moving her hands to his belly to heal the stab wounds there. "Specially when we think we can protect ourselves."
Matthew looked at her. His blue eyes sparkling under the streetlights making her blush.
Before they could say anything else, police sirens sounded on the distance. Soon enough the area was being isolated with police lines. Police officers took statements from Matthew and from the second man, also from the paramedics and the people who were standing around.
After a while a detective came. He talked with the officers before getting to Matthew.
"Are you alright?" He asked.
"Yeah. Maria healed me." He answered referring to the female paramedic who just gave him her number.
"So... The guy there confessed that he and his friend tried to rob you and you kicked the shit out of them. He sounded pretty scared. You really did a number on them."
"Will the other one survive?" Matthew asked on a concerned tone.
"It seems so. Last I checked with the hospital he’s in surgery, but it seems they’ll be able to save him."
"Thank God..." Matthew breathed relieved.
"You went a bit overboard with that one." The detective said fishing for something incriminating.
"I lost my head. I couldn’t stop myself after they stabbed me." Matthew naively said.
"I’m going to need your contact and address. You’re a student at Laufgraan, right?"
"Sure..." Matthew said saying his information to the detective. "Am I going to jail?" He asked realizing that was talking to a police officer.
"I don’t think so kid. You did went overboard, but it’s understandable. I too would went a bit over if it happened to me." The detective replied giving Matthew his card with his number and name: John Richter. "It will depend on the DA, but I’ll be recommending this to be categorized as self defense."
"Thank you."
"I’ll get in touch when I hear more. You should go home now. And don’t leave town or enter any dungeons and gates until I get back to you."
"Ok. Thank you again." Matthew said before going home.