Chapter 233: Chakra-Engorged Thugs

Chapter 233: Chakra-Engorged Thugs

There were thugs blocking both sides of the alley and no one else in sight. It looked like two on each side... no, there was a fifth standing on top of the buildings. Kai had expected the gang to have either made their bid or attacked already, but they seemed to be moving oddly sluggishly. He used the time to examine them properly.

Name: ???

Total Power: 215

Fighter Class: 150 (160)

Physique Level: F-8 (46)

Soul Level: 3 (9)

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For the first time in years, his eyes blurred and he struggled to interpret all the symbols he saw. The lead thug looked like he had a Class with an impossibly high Level, yet something seemed wrong. Not only did it break what he thought were the limits for Classes, there was a fuzzy sigil he didn't quite understand.Reead new chapters at novelhall.com

Even though Kai had never trained in this specifically, he had a strong foundation in the concepts and he'd been practicing on chakra for a while, first with Omilaena and then throughout the city. He looked again, trying to tighten his spiritual sight and see more accurately.

Name: ???

Total Power: 215

Fighter Chakra-Engorged Class: 8 (160)

Physique Level: F-8 (46)

Soul Level: 3 (9)

>

Now it made more sense: the thug didn't have an insanely high Class, he had a lower number of "Chakra-Engorged" Levels that seemed to be worth more. Kai hadn't seen many Goralians, but he guessed that this was a way to inflate the strength of a Class. Other than that, which was admittedly a hefty amount of Power, the thug didn't seem that experienced.

All of the others were roughly comparable, though some had more mana-based abilities and one had an Irunian Path. No particularly high Physique or Soul Levels, but they had enough overall Power to potentially harm him.

In the silence, two body parts hit the ground. The archer on the roofs had been cut in half by the Tyrant's Claw and the pieces fell over the side. Those wet thumps broke the others out of their trance and they let out shouts of anger and fear. Technically Kai could have retreated down the empty alley, but he charged toward the Fighter and Stonecaster.

When the next stone fragments shot at him, Kai fixed Void Gaze on them. While they froze in the air, he ducked past the swinging Fighter and struck at his legs. The Stonecaster reacted in time, manifesting new shards, but this time Void Gaze froze both the man and his projectiles, up until Kai snapped up them both in one bite.

To his surprise, the last thug had managed to deflect his blow with his heavy sword. Kai turned on him and the man took a step back, starting to stammer some sort of argument, but it was too late for that. When Kai swung another Tyrant's Claw it battered down his weapon, leaving him vulnerable to a bite. It only took one.

His mouth was filled with human flesh and Kai was still bleeding from his injuries, but there was no time to rest. He examined the alley and saw that no one was looking, though he heard noises behind some of the boarded windows.

Before anyone arrived, Kai used Isulfr's Bite to remove all the corpses. Hunger burned deep within him, but it had nothing to do with that, or so he told himself. It was simply a logical decision to remove the evidence - no witnesses, no arguments, hopefully no trouble. All that remained were some weapons, which he took, and bloodstains, which didn't look out of place in the grim alley.

Only after all that did he stop to catch his breath. Those injuries actually hurt, and he could imagine enough thugs like that getting a lucky hit on him. More than the demon, who was simply an elite, this brawl showed him the danger of Rosemount.

These thugs had been amateurs, but absorbing the local chakra had given them enough brute power to be a threat. Inhabitants of Rosemount who weren't incompetent, who refined their power, who had trained as hard as him... they would be far worse. He didn't have a chance against the real threats on the continent until he managed to draw on the same strength. So far trying to draw in chakra had felt wrong and left his stomach a little sick, but he would master it eventually.

Just when Kai was about to leave, he heard a creak and whirled. For just a moment he saw a snake monster on the other side of a shutter and almost attacked, but his human brain reined his monstrous instincts in.

Not monsters, just two lizardmen. Or maybe a lizardwoman, if he was judging the strange scaly face right. She had been peering out and froze when she saw him... the remnants of Void Gaze fading in his eyes probably didn't help.

"We didn't see anything," she said in heavily accented Goralian. "Nobody likes the gangs anyway. Please..."

The second monster was actually the lizardwoman's son, squirming in her arms like any other child, albeit with a few more scales. Kai started to smile at them and barely remembered to keep his lips closed, since he wasn't sure how bloody his teeth were.

"Just defending myself," he said.

"Nobody will care, not here. We won't say a word, but the gang will be on the lookout. You should go."

Would they turn him in the second he looked away? Kai assumed that they meant well, but if the gangs threatened them, of course the lizardwoman wasn't going to choose a stranger over her family. It didn't really matter. Even if he had the stomach to eliminate all witnesses, that would only turn a brawl the authorities would ignore into a mass murder that would make everything worse.

Belatedly he realized that his new clothes had been torn and bloodstained during the fight. They'd barely even lasted two days. Since they would just make him look more guilty, Kai decided to retreat as quickly as possible. He started to go back toward their hotel, then realized that he might be tailed. Normally he thought he could lose followers, but he had to assume that Rosemount would have more dangerous stealth or tracking techniques.

So instead he headed out of the city, toward one of their rendezvous points. As he went, he wondered whether or not he should blame himself for this one. Should he have known the alleyway was dangerous, or could he have found a clever way around the fight?

Or was fate ready to punish him again?