59 Chances to Counter

"Well, there is no point in dwelling in the past. I have to finish this farce that is already getting boring by the second." Aster considered his mistake a good one. His thoughts were giving out some quotes to appease him. 'Power is after all dependent on the user. A deadly skill can be the most harmless attack for the greatest pacifist.'

"Oh! That's right. I need to finish this quickly!" He suddenly remembered the encircled duo and his mind formulated deviousness on how to render their deaths a satisfying one. 'Grappler should be the one to go with next. I still have plans for the scheming and frightened Alcor.'

"You can wait for me here, girls! I'll be back in a jiffy." The girls only heard his words and in a blink of an eye, he vanished from the spot he stood on. The rotating wall of blood was too thick for the girls to see what is inside but they knew that he blinked through the thick and high wall with apparent ease.

They were not wrong on their conjecture as Aster marked space mana in the center of the duo that it certainly spooked them like timid mice when he suddenly appeared out of thin air.

"Hello!" Aster smiled like he was just greeting old acquaintances that he wanted to share some information with. "Have you heard of the rumors, pals?"

"What... rumors?" Grappler was still struggling along the lines of learning and stupidity, so he subconsciously asked. Being a vice in a delinquent group, he socialized with small talks and speculations amongst them. Tears formed in his eyes as his mind was flooded with memories of his noobie fanboy.

'He would always say to me about everything... but now, he is long gone. I only knew him for a short time but... he is a genuine friend.' The poor Grappler reminisced in images and even dreamed up some fake ones to reinforce the fact that he had. The truth of the matter is that he had none at all.

"Nothing much but it is rumored that the both of you are going to be dead..." Aster paused for tension and dramatic effect until he said. "...today."

The duo had already scampered towards their back to get away from him and hearing him say those words just made them stagger back some more. Fortunately, they still had the awareness to stop or else, they would be shredded by the monstrous turning of already highly pressurized blood.

If it was water inside a washing machine, the owner of dirty clothes did not have to worry about what soap to use in such quick revolutions because everything would be rendered to bits if he placed clothes inside of it.

With a simple step of Aster's foot, he arrived in front of Grappler in no time at all. It was akin to a Space Skip with how fast his current speed is to the untrained eyes.

"Come on, muscle coach! Show me what you got." Aster smiled as he uttered his words of challenge. Despite him being taller than most, he would always be technically smaller in stature and build than Grappler. However, Alcor can see that their confidence and aura was quite the opposite.

In the duo's eyes, Aster was the freaking giant that can easily crush both of them ants.

"You asked for it!" Grappler was not to be daunted because in moments of fear, his latent idiocy's weakness becomes his only strength. Many main characters of an animated show suffer the same fate of idiocy but their idiocy becomes interpreted as heroism. They always save the day but unfortunately, Grappler is not some main character that has his quirky and unkillable fate.

The huge muscle man would always wear sleeveless and shirts that are easy to tear off. At this moment, he showed it off and tore it apart like it was some sort of intimidation ritual for him.

"Hay! I was giving you this chance to punch me and make the fight more interesting." Aster said in disappointment after seeing Grappler's useless stunt. "It was one of your limited chance and you did not even take it. What a waste of my hypocritical mercy!"

Aster threw a punch right towards the gut of the muscle man. It dug deep into the veined abs of that pretty much looked like fat in his eyes. Given his body art's background martial techniques, the punch that he threw had a miraculous effect.

The force of the punch would have thrown the big man away even if he was relatively heavy. Instead, it just let him stay on his standing on the spot and deformed the jumble of organ's inside him.

"BWAH!!!" Grappler's mouth opened wide to let out blood and his earlier meal that was displaced. Aster did not want to have to clean up on the grassy meadows and also not have his body be bathing in an oaf's gastric juices and bile, so he had his hand skillfully close the mouth in a quick fashion to block the flux of disgusting discharge.

The poor guy who had trained even the muscles of his face could not help himself as his cheeks bloated unnaturally like a special frog's bubbling sac.

"Thank you for the meal!" Aster uttered and he guessed right on what would happen next. Like a certain culture, Grappler would always say that phrase before or after eating. By virtue of his instinct, he swallowed back down the disgusting puke that he was about to let out.

Aster took a little step and he was back to his previous position on the center of the circle made by the wall of blood. He let the big man some time to breathe and said. "Here's another chance for you to counter! Better take it before it expires."

His back was facing the young master with a complex mood. Alcor was really nearing insanity from the continuous flow of dreadful surprises that he was given.

"Die...!!" Like a crazy madman, he dashed towards Aster with his flaming fist still in full power. His steps were heavy and he would occasionally stumble as he charged ahead. It was only a few meters but his instability of emotions just made his balance to borderline imbalance.

Aster sighed and commented. "Man! You really need to know the virtue of giving sneak attacks. I thought you learned from me after you saw how I beheaded your old servant. I guess you haven't learned anything at all. Shame. Shame, indeed."

Alcor eventually reached close enough to give the sissiest punch Aster ever saw and he even had the gall to shout. "FIRE PUNCH!"

Like a boss, Aster gave a side step to easily dodge and he even carefully placed his foot to trip the gayish Alcor.

Taking this as another chance, Grappler's smart moments appeared and he dashed as well with his heavy steps. "This is a mantis, bug, and bird moment!"

Alcor eventually tripped to plant his face on the relatively soft and hard ground. While Grappler delivered the most epic punch he made in his lifetime. The heavy punch made contact and even made a heavy thudding sound.

"Tsk... tsk! Quite close, muscle pig! Quite close!" Aster shook his head while his arms were in a guard position to take the punch.

"Not done yet!" Grappler was incensed and desperate as he gave out a succession of punches.

In rhythm and pattern, the fighting duo would move a bit further while at other times they would pause in place.

The reason for such happening is due to Aster's manner of countering Grappler's fists. Grappler was punching out like a simple barbarian with his left fist and followed with his right fist.

To play and to not get dirty at the same time. Aster took in the punch from Grappler's unhurt hand while he skillfully dodged the bleeding hand which was still riddled with splintering wood from the broken door.

The big man was too invested in his rain of punching that he failed to notice such complexity. He, instead, interpreted it as himself overpowering the devilish youth.

"Hu... ha... hu!" Grappler was chanting a weird punching chant as he gave out a predictable rhythm of successive punches. In his head, he was going crazy with delight. 'Hahaha! I may have experienced enlightenment. My godly muscles have not failed me. I am winning against this blood freak and after killing him, I shall take my place in the heavens as the long-awaited muscle god!'

Aster was getting bored from the fact that he felt himself being somewhat similar to a training coach. 'Hay! What a drag of a fight but at least the muscle pig is distracted. Hihi! I can't wait to see what face he will make when he realizes this little trap I have made for him.'

'I seem to have heard him say about mantis, bug, and bird. Smart but not too much appropriate with his situation.' Aster continued to distract himself with his own little monologues while Grappler was not noticing that they were moving towards the shredding twister of blood. He was too engrossed into looking at where his punches connected with.

Not long from that, Grappler gave out a punch with his wounded fist. He knew that he would punch nothing but he was still doing it. As usual, he would follow with the other fist but his brain processed the most factual sensation it could give him.

"Aaaaaaa!!! No... no!!!" Grappler looked in front of him and his fist was actually submerged in the fearful blood. The youth that he was treating as a punching bag was gone and out of his sight.

"Aaaahhh!!!" Like a natural reaction to how one should touch something unpleasant, Grappler moved his hand away and saw that it was literally cut off in jagged perfection. No bones, no flesh, no nothing because there were no fingers and hand there at all.

"Tsk!" Aster clicked his tongue in discontent. "I did not realize that the shredding process is too fast and strong. It would have fun to see you get dragged in circles as your fist slowly gets torn off. It would have happened if your bones were still hard enough to endure the pressure."

"You... MONSTER!" Grappler's eyes were filled with tears as he looked and listened to the discontented youth who reappeared in his sight.

"Aren't we all monsters in our own way? I am just a bit more extreme than you guys." Aster replied nonchalantly as he kicked the guys towards the blood wall.

Grappler did not even have time to scream in terror as he was submerged. Given his size, he would have passed through the other side of the wall of liquid but sadly, his bones and flesh were not enduring enough to survive the deadly chipping of supposedly harmless blood. The torn-up shirt that he left on the ground was not spared as it was grabbed by a quick thread that let it have the same fate as its wearer.

Another chill appeared around Aster as his soul and spirit devoured the newly dead man added to his kill count. 'No afterlife for you, little soul. Just become a discount to advance my slow pacing cultivation.'

The shredding blood was too over the top for him at this moment and he willed it to stop. With that, the liquid blood slowly reduced its revolution and dropped the metal objects that it failed to chip into nothingness.

"Up, harden, and good riddance." The wall of blood followed along as it rose up to the sky and dispersed slowly from its form. Instead of being rained into the silent and green meadows, it crystallized into little shard particulates that were blown by the wind and into the training forest.

The girls found the sight to be quite riveting and beautiful. It slowly drifted away but before it could reach the beast infestations, it disintegrated into an unseen formation.

'What a powerful barrier! It is strong enough to fend off the beast but I guess parents are too paranoid to have their precious babies near it.' Aster commented while he turned to look towards his face planted target. 'This is going to be another distraction.'