Rebirth: The Shadow Of Greed

The same force had lifted them up off the ground they were standing at and suspended them in mid-air.

"Damn it! The barrier broke, we're in trouble now." Odrunn shouted, upset that the barrier failed to hold up.

"Hey! Who are you! Addison said he only sent us for the job, are you here to steal our prey? Go away! We're not sharing the credits!"

The skinny hunter shouted towards the newcomer walking towards them with his hand outstretched.

"Yeah! The boy belongs to us! So does the girl! You won't be having any!" the hunter with the wooden swords shouted.

The newcomer, dressed in a black cloak, wearing a mask with the number 8 on the side glanced coldly at the hunters that were shouting at him.

8 ignored them as he calmly strolled towards the trio that was trapped in the psychic grip.

"You can't just ignore the Skinny-fat group like this!"

The hunter gripped tightly on his wooden sword and swung it to the back of 8's head, smashing the wooden sword into bits.

"That's what you get for crossing us." The hunter shouted, his body still in an attacking pose.

Z looking at the mask that the newcomer was wearing had a chill run down his spine, he might not be too familiar with the man behind the mask, but he was very familiar with what the mask meant and roughly how strong the masked man is.

Odrunn was stunned by the situation that was playing out in front of them, without even thinking he tilted his head slightly towards Soli as he asked,

"Soli, is he after you too? Is being a noble so difficult? I feel sorry for you."

Soli blushed and could only frown miserably in response.

Z watched the entire situation extended his hands and tapped the two on their t.h.i.g.hs getting their attention.

"It seems, the situation will escalate, once that happens, let's make a break for it. The guy in the mask is bad news, we have to get out of here as soon as possible. Soli, can you create mist?"

"Yeah, I can. But when do I do it?" She replied.

"I'll give you the signal, let's watch the situation play out first," Z replied.

Slowly, the hunter with the wooden swords started to float in mid-air as if he was being grasped by something he started to convulse as he started to make choking noises, then, silence. The noises stopped as his body fell down into a slump right beside 8.

"You bastard! you killed him! that's against the code of hunters!" The fat hunter screamed as he started to launch orb after orb towards 8, but it was dispersed even before it managed to touch him. The skinny hunter ran forward and grabbed a hold of 8 while he was distracted and managed to hold on to him, his limbs extending as if they were rubber and grabbing hold of 8 tightly leaving only his head exposed.

The psychic grip that was on the trio slowly dissipated as they were dropped on the floor. "Soli! now!"

Mist filled the ground as it slowly became blurry. The trio started to run into the direction of the forest and trees that were in front of them.

"Go! go catch up to them! Fatty and I will restrain this guy." The skinny hunter shouted as he struggled to keep 8 in check. The hunter using insects started to run after the trio as they disappeared into the jungle.

Fatty started to launch more and more orbs to hit the head of 8.

"Assh*le, see if we won't kill you now. How dare you try to steal our prey and kill our man"

Orbs flashed as Skinny started to grab tighter.

"How long are you going to mess around?"

8 spoke for the first time since he entered as he launched a blast originating from his core making Skinny loosen his grip and blasting him away at the same time.

"Was it fun? hitting me with your pathetic attacks?"

8 started to levitate off the ground, he gripped the fatty with his psychic grip and lifted him up, he held him in the air for 2 seconds before slamming him viciously into the ground. 'Crack' a sound could be head as Fatty's head went limp as it hung from its body, 8 tossed the body away as he moved slowly towards skinny who was on the ground.

"You, how far can you stretch?"

Skinny felt invisible hands grab his legs and head as he started to feel like he's being stretched out.

8, holding Skinny up started to wring him like a washcloth, sure skinny's manifest could make him stretch, but there was a limit to how far he could stretch. Popping and cracking noises could be heard as the bones in his body all started to snap.

After he was unwrung, what was left was a broken corpse. 8 released the grip on the corpse as he dropped it and mumbled incoherently as he started to head into the forest trying to find the trio that escaped.

Z, Odrunn and Soli were already deep in the jungle, while Odrunn and Soli were running forward, Z was at the back-breaking branches and occasionally sweeping up the tracks behind them.

They had been running for a while, thankfully all of them had been strengthened by their training to be able to sustain that amount of distance. After what seemed like an eternity of running, Z finally told them to stop when he spotted a cave and asked them to quickly head in. Both of them entered the cave while Z did some cleanup work to hide their tracks.

Entering the cave, Z sat down beside them as he asked Soli to condense water from the vapour in the air. After running for such a long distance, it was a sure thing that they needed water to hydrate themselves.

Digging into his satchel Z fished out a nutrition bar to eat and asked Odrunn and Soli to do the same. He needed to replenish his energy and so did they.

After a few minutes catching their breaths, Z dug into his satchel and calmly pulled out a glowing blue liquid.

He looked towards Odrunn and Soli who were still trying to swallow the horrid nutrition bars in their mouth. He shook the little vial of glowing blue liquid as smiled and said

"I think it's time."