Chapter 31: Red Skies.

Alex took a deep breath in, "Okay." He tried to calm himself. By the looks of his surroundings in the map, there was no one else nearby to take this gate. He would be the only one to take on the Reapers.

Alex looked forward, towards the gate. It seemed to shake a bit, "Here they come." Alex said as he watched a small reaper walk out of the gate. It had a small smirk on its face as it looked at Alex.

[Reaper- Level 10]

Alex felt relieved that it was close to his own level. This would be an easy fight. But, before Alex could attack the reaper, another reaper stepped out. "There are more. I think that's the last one from a D-Rank gate." He looked towards the other reaper.

[Reaper Ranger- Level 8]

Alex didn't see much a reaper before, it had thinner limbs and an overall smaller body. In its hand, a long bow.

"One close range reaper, only 2 levels higher than me and one long-range reaper, the same level as me. Shouldn't be a big deal." Alex felt confident. He felt fired up.

*Swoosh!*

An arrow flew straight towards Alex. "Fast!" Alex said as he quickly dodged the arrow. However, he did feel a bit less confident. 'That arrow was fast, I need to deal with that long ranged reaper quickly.' Alex then looked towards the other Reaper, it was sprinting towards Alex while it laughed. "KEKEEKEKE"

Alex focused on the close ranged reaper, "I don't think this one will let me hurt its a friend. So I have to take it down first." Alex also sprinted towards the reaper.

*Clang!*

The two collided blades. Alex however pushed forwards just in time to make the reaper lose its balance. "Kekeke" The Reaper however didn't seem to be affected, it flipped backward and landed on its feet. Alex's push didn't affect him.

The two once again were at a staredown but before he could sprint towards the reaper once more, Alex felt a surge of pain in his left shoulder. He quickly looked towards it to see a long arrow had penetrated his shoulder. "Arg!" Alex grunted in pain as he looked towards The close ranged reaper, "I need to deal with this one quickly." Alex didn't pull out the arrow just yet. He had a plan.

Once again, the two ran towards each other But just before they collided, Alex activated his ability, "Might!"

*Clang!*

The two clashed blades once more but this time, Alex had overpowered the reaper. Completely pushing it back. The reaper slid back, still unwilling to fall. It looked forward, determined to win the next clash but its eyes opened in horror. A small dagger, similar to its own, only just larger in shape had been flung towards it. To save its own Life, the reaper quickly tried to dodge the dagger. "Kekeke" The reaper laughed mockingly, it knew that Alex didn't have a weapon. The reaper slowly looked forward but its eyes quickly opened wide, in complete horror.

"AHH!" Alex ran towards the reaper at full speed, his hands on the arrow in his left shoulder. Before Alex could collide with the reaper, Alex pulled out the arrow. His face cringed in pain but he kept on running towards the Reaper.

"KAAAAA"

The arrow entered straight into the reaper's head, penetrating it. The reaper screamed in pain as it tried to fight back but the pain overwhelmed it. As a last ditch effort to live, it tried to pull out the arrow but the other end was already broken. Alex had stabbed the arrow straight into the Reapers' head and broke the arrow before it could have taken it out.

Alex, now covered in blood ran straight towards the other reaper.

*Swoosh!* The reaper shot another arrow towards Alex.

This time, however, Alex had dodged the arrow. His eyes were red, and his shoulders were still bleeding from him taking out the arrow.

"AHHH!" Alex screamed as he chased the reaper, which was now running away Alex. As it ran, the reaper still shot arrows towards Alex. However, due to his enhanced speed from Might, Alex could dodge them.

Alex was slowly getting closer to the reaper. The close he got, the more the reaper decided to panic. It started to shoot arrows at a faster rate but in return, it's accuracy had decreased. Some flew far away in different directions. Some hit buildings and shattered glass. "Kya!" Alex could hear the screams of people inside the buildings when the arrows hit the windows. "Shit!"

Alex had forgotten that there were still people, hiding in the building. They couldn't escape as the gate was right in front of the building so the only thing they could do was hide.

Alex now had to hurry and take down this reaper, until now those arrows only hit the windows but Alex was afraid of the chance of them actually striking a powerless person. Alex sprinted with all his strength.

"I'm finally in range!" Alex said as jumped towards the Reaper and pushed it to the floor. As a last ditch effort of survival, the reaper shot another arrow to Alex. "ARG!" This time, it hit him. Alex didn't expect the reaper to shoot another arrow at such a close range. Luckily, it had penetrated his sides so no vital organs were pierced. He punched the reaper with all his strength. He then took out the arrow from his sides,"AHH!" And quickly stabbed the reaper in its chest finally ending it.

"It's over," Alex said as he played on the ground. He looked at his stats.

[Alex- Obscure Vigilante]

[Level- 8]

[health- 20]

[Mana- 18]

Alex took a breath of relief. He stood up, still in pain from his wounds, and used his Healing ability. "I still have enough Mana for this."

Alex said as he watched as the wounds glowed in bright green light and slowly started to close into itself. Alex no longer felt pain, all he felt was even more relief. However, a certain thought popped into his mind, haunting him. Alex's eyes opened wide as he looked towards the gate. "It didn't say out of combat," Alex said to himself as he continued to watch the gate.

In the apartment, two people watched Alex, both of their eyes open wide. "Did… Did you see what he just did?" The woman said as she blinked countless times in confusion.

"I… I uh… I don't know. Did… Did he just heal himself?" The man had already lost composure when he saw Alex heal Himself. They didn't clearly see his wounds healing but the green light around where the wounds were.

"Those… That was the healing glow, no doubt about it. I've only seen that when someone is being healed. That light doesn't just happen for no reason." The man quickly jumped out of the building. "I need to be sure!"

The woman also jumped out and followed the man towards Alex. She also wanted to make sure.

However, before they could reach Alex, the two of them looked towards the sky in horror.

"RED!" The woman screamed as she watched the sky above the gate slowly turn a shade of red. The man hurried towards Alex, screaming "Get the people out of the area!"

Alex also seemed to realize something was wrong. The gate hadn't shut. Instead, it seemed to be growing. Alex heard the man's scream and nodded. He quickly ran towards the nearby buildings and said in a loud voice, "Everyone, this is the best moment, evacuate!" Alex had no clue what was happening but he knew that things were about to go south.

Alex helped the people escape the building. Soon, the man and the woman also arrived to help Alex. "Midnight and Buster?" Those two were the same people Alex saw in the meeting this morning. Both A rank awakened.

"Alex, you did well on the gate and we do have a lot of questions but we need to talk about that later. Catch your breath, this might be a rough ride for you." Buster Said as he looked at the gate.

Alex nodded, he wanted to ask what was happening but his current priority was to help the people in the people stuck in buildings in front of the gate evacuate.

After everyone was evacuated, Alex rushed towards Buster. He wanted to ask what was happening but when he looked towards the gate, Alex's question was already answered.

"It's evolving into a higher rank gate?" Alex said as he watched the gate slowly increase in size.

Midnight nodded, "Yes, It's happened before but not here. It's only happened a few times in other countries. This is the first time we've seen it happen here. We don't know how big it will be so for now, go and rest. We can't say for sure that we don't need you, more people means a higher chance of survival. I've already contacted the bureau."

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Thank you for reading!

I hope you all like it so far. I've been enjoying writing this novel (especially when you know what will happen in the future, you can't contain the excitement.)

If you want to talk to me, you can join my discord server!( Link in synopsis)

And I'd be really nice to get some power stones!

Once again, thank you!