Chapter 563

Jake didn’t move a muscle. With a half-bored look on his face, he watched Roland barrel toward him, the man’s heavy footsteps pounding against the asphalt. There was no tension in Jake’s posture, no sign that he considered the charging human a threat. He had already been in plenty of similar situations when humans tried to attack him, convinced they could bring him down through sheer numbers, strength, or determination. But so far, none had succeeded, and as Roland was going to learn in the next several seconds, he had picked an opponent who was way out of his league.

Sure enough, Flynn stepped into Roland’s path, trying to prevent a fight from breaking out.

“Roland, stop it,” he yelled at his team member. “There’s no need for that crap!”

His attempt to de-escalate the situation failed miserably.

While Flynn was considered the leader of this group, Roland was one head taller than him and way heavier, his broad shoulders and muscular frame making the difference between them painfully obvious. While most of the humans in this group accepted Flynn’s authority, Roland apparently wasn’t one of them. He didn’t even slow down as he reached Flynn.

The team leader’s eyes widened as he realized Roland wasn’t going to stop. Seeing that if he didn’t get out of the way, Roland would barge right into him, Flynn attempted to jump to the side. Only he was a bit too late.

With a powerful swipe of one of his strong arms, Roland shoved the leader of the team out of the way in a decidedly not-so-gentle manner. Flynn stumbled sideways, flailing his arms as he desperately tried to keep his balance, but there was little he could do. His feet tangled beneath him, and he landed hard on his butt with a pained grunt.

Several nearby humans gasped. They definitely hadn’t expected to witness their leader being treated that way, especially not so dismissively and roughly. A few exchanged awkward glances, clearly unsure whether they should help him up or pretend they hadn’t seen anything. Either way, it probably wouldn’t do much for Flynn’s reputation as the leader of this group.

Jake barely spared him a glance. He kept his ground, standing casually in the same spot and watching Roland get closer and closer to him. He continued holding the Aberrant in his right hand, but he certainly wasn’t going to shoot the human. There was no reason to use a weapon against someone he could handle with his bare hands.

Roland kept charging at him, his expression twisted with anger and one fist swinging through the air. His eyes remained fixed on Jake, apparently expecting his target to panic or at least try to retreat.

Jake did neither. He waited until the last possible second. As the human got within striking distance, he slowed just a little, planting one foot firmly against the asphalt as he threw a punch aimed directly at Jake’s face. The fist came toward him with enough force to break a normal man’s nose, perhaps worse.

Jake waited a fraction of a second. Then, when the fist was just about to connect with his face, he danced away, moving like a shadow slipping out of sight. One moment, Roland’s fist was about to slam into his face, and the next, Jake was no longer in front of the human.

It happened so fast and unexpectedly that Roland didn’t have time to react. Carried by his momentum, he stumbled forward, his boots scraping against the asphalt as he struggled to regain control of his body. He couldn’t immediately arrest his movement, and by the time he finally managed to skid to a stop, he had already put several feet between himself and where Jake had been standing.

He spun around, searching for where his opponent had disappeared. Only Jake hadn’t gone anywhere. He had merely taken one leap from where he had been standing, landing lightly on the asphalt a short distance away. Now he stood there with the Aberrant still casually held in his right hand, looking back at Roland with an amused expression on his face. There wasn’t even a hint of strain in his posture.

Upon seeing the amused expression on Jake’s face, the human got even more furious than he already was. His face reddened as his fists clenched at his sides. He roared something incomprehensible in rage before charging at him again.

But just like the previous time, when he got within striking distance and attempted to punch him, Jake dodged the blow without any effort at all. He shifted his body just enough for Roland’s fist to pass harmlessly beside his face. This time, however, Roland was ready. He didn’t let his momentum carry him forward. Instead, he planted his foot, twisted his body, and recovered from the miss almost immediately, spinning toward Jake again and throwing another punch.

But he missed once more. Undeterred, he threw another. Then another. And another. But each time, Jake was already somewhere else. He ducked beneath one punch, leaned back from another, and stepped casually to the side to avoid a third. He effortlessly slipped out of the way of every blow, moving with such grace that it almost seemed as if Roland were fighting a ghost rather than a person.

Roland’s frustration only continued to grow. He grunted with every punch, and his breathing was becoming increasingly ragged. Sweat began to form on his forehead, and soon he was panting and wheezing between attacks. His arms were starting to feel heavier, his movements losing some of their initial speed, but he refused to give up. Jake, meanwhile, was completely relaxed.

It was amusing for the first ten seconds, but he quickly got bored. Watching Roland swing wildly at him while accomplishing absolutely nothing stopped being entertaining quickly enough. So when Roland threw a left hook at his head, Jake ducked under it, but this time, he didn’t slip away. Instead, he stepped toward his opponent as he came out of the dodge.

Roland’s eyes widened in alarm. Until now, all his opponent had done was dodge and slip out of the way of his blows, and Roland had grown used to it. He had started to assume that Jake would keep doing just that, allowing him to continue attacking without ever fighting back. But seeing his opponent step closer to him instead of slipping away like he had every previous time threw Roland off.

For the first time since the fight had begun, uncertainty flashed across his face. The human knew his opponent had finally decided to shift from the defensive to the offensive, and he had no idea what to expect.

Before he could do anything, before he could assume any kind of defensive stance or even properly react to the sudden change in distance, Jake balled his left hand into a fist. His right hand still held the Aberrant, so he had no intention of using it. He then drove his left fist into Roland’s solar plexus.

Jake knew how much more powerful he was than any human being, so he pulled his punch at the last moment. Even so, the blow was incredibly heavy.

Roland’s entire body jerked from the impact. A strangled gasp escaped his mouth as he bent forward, all the air violently forced from his lungs. He desperately tried to draw another breath, but his body refused to cooperate. His mouth opened and closed as he futilely struggled to get air into his lungs.

Jake didn’t give him time to recover. He stepped to the side, then swept Roland’s feet out from under him with his leg. The human’s legs suddenly disappeared from beneath him, and he had no chance to regain his balance. He crashed onto the asphalt with a heavy thud, groaning as his back struck the hard ground. And he remained there, staring up at the clear sky above, his chest rising and falling unevenly as he struggled to breathe. His face was contorted into a mask of pain, and for once, there was no anger in his eyes.

Seeing that his opponent was out of commission, Jake took a step away from him and swept his gaze across the humans standing nearby. They were all staring at him, their faces showing a mixture of emotions. Some seemed amused by what they had just witnessed, with a few struggling to hide their smiles. Others had incredulous looks on their faces, as if they couldn’t believe the most powerful person on their team had just been brought down so easily and in such a humiliating way.

But most of them were simply scared. They had seen Roland charge at Jake and had been absolutely confident their team member would emerge victorious. But then they had watched him throw punch after punch without coming anywhere close to landing one, only to be dropped by a single blow. Whatever confidence they might have had in their own ability to deal with Jake had clearly vanished. None of them knew what to expect next, and judging by the uneasy looks they exchanged, nobody seemed eager to find out.

Interestingly enough, all this time, Flynn remained on his butt, watching the altercation from his position on the asphalt. He hadn’t moved since Roland had shoved him aside. Perhaps he was still shocked that Roland had dismissed his authority so easily. Or maybe he had been so engrossed in the short fight that he had completely forgotten to get back up.

Jake glanced at him briefly before turning his attention to the rest of the group.

“As I said, I’m going to carve a path through those crystals all the way to City Hall. If you want, you can follow me. If you don’t, feel free to get back wherever you came from. Whatever you do is fine with me.”

His voice was calm and casual. There was no threat in his words, but after what they had just witnessed, he didn’t need to make one. Nobody said anything, and Jake didn’t wait for them to. He turned and started down the street. The humans standing in his path immediately stepped aside to let him pass, some moving a little faster than necessary to get out of his way. Nobody tried to stop him. Nobody even spoke as he walked past.

Jake continued down the street for a short distance before halting. About thirty yards ahead, he spotted the first cluster of aether crystals clinging to the side of a building. He raised the Aberrant and pointed it in their direction. He barely took the time to properly aim before pulling the trigger.

A bolt of energy shot from the weapon and streaked through the air, striking one of the crystals in the cluster. The impact caused it to explode, sending hundreds of sharp fragments flying in every direction. Tiny shards clattered against the asphalt and nearby walls. The vibration from the explosion traveled through the connected crystals. They all cracked and ruptured before the entire cluster exploded in a chain reaction, filling the air with glittering fragments and the sharp tinkling sound of shattering crystal.

The next crystal cluster was farther down the street, so Jake continued walking as he channeled some of the mana from his inner reserves to replenish his gun. The sensation of mana leaving his body and flowing into the Aberrant was familiar now. He hadn’t had this gun for very long, but he’d already grown used to it.

He had only walked for a short while when his instincts suddenly told him he was being followed. He glanced over his shoulder and saw that the humans had indeed started after him. They were keeping a safe distance behind, however, clearly unwilling to get too close. They moved in a loose group, occasionally exchanging glances but mostly keeping their mouths shut.

Only two humans hadn’t followed him. One of them was Flynn. Comically enough, he still remained seated on his butt exactly where he had fallen. He had apparently spent all this time watching the others leave without bothering to get back on his feet. For some reason, nobody had offered to help him up, either. A few of them had glanced in his direction, but no one had actually stopped. It seemed his reputation as the leader had taken a bit of a hit.

The other person was Roland, who had only now begun to rise from the ground. He moved slowly, one hand briefly pressing against his stomach as he recovered from the blow to his solar plexus. Once he was finally back on his feet, he straightened his back and looked around.

Then he did something that surprised Jake. Roland stepped toward Flynn and extended his arm toward him. Flynn looked up at him for a moment, apparently just as surprised by the gesture. Then he reached out and grabbed the offered hand. The bigger man pulled him to his feet with ease.

For a moment, the two of them stood next to each other, conversing. Jake was already too far from them to hear what they were saying to each other. Flynn occasionally gestured with one hand while Roland listened. His expression was considerably calmer than it had been earlier. After another moment, Flynn and Roland started after the rest of the group and disappeared into the loose formation of survivors following him.

Jake turned his attention from them to the next cluster of crystals that was waiting for him farther down the street, while the group of humans continued down the street behind him.