A palpitating aura of danger erupted from Kael's lone figure. Despite looking ragged—his body caked in dried black blood and his forearm torn—the confidence in his gait and the sheer pressure he exuded as he held his sister intimidated Ben's group of four.
"...And you are?" Kael's voice was slow and steady.
It took Ben a few seconds to find his tongue.
"Ben. That is *Mr.* Ben to you." He regained his composure as he spoke, but a flicker of anger shone in his eyes at his brief display of weakness.
Kael didn't reply. He simply watched him in silence, his bloodied face a mask of predatory calm.
"I came for the girl in your arms," Ben said, his tone layered with a heavy threat. "I don't know your relationship with her, but it would do you good to hand her over."
Despite hearing a stranger demand the person he had nearly died to find, Kael found himself strangely calm. Very calm. But behind that facade was a devastating rage begging to be released.
He hated that Ben spoke of his sister as an item rather than a person. He hated that they had cornered her. He wanted nothing more than to tear the man's head from his shoulders.
But Kael was cautious by nature. He didn't know Ben's abilities, and with his Energi at rock bottom, he wouldn't act senselessly. He was a Primordial, yes—he was strong—but he wasn't arrogant.
'It's past 19:00. I can't waste time. Better to regroup with Alice; together, our chances of surviving the night increase.'
These thoughts flashed in a fraction of a second, fueled by a Mind stat that now sat at a comfortable ten. Kael shifted his gaze to Rose. She still clung to him, crying quietly against his chest, oblivious to the standoff. The bright blue text floating above her head caught his eye.
[LV. 5 (LEGENDARY)]
A small, rueful smile touched his face, hidden by the shadows. 'A Legendary class, huh?'
Rose was the first person he'd seen with a rank higher than Epic. He wondered if her Level 5 status was linked to the zombies she commanded. Ben's angry voice shattered his focus.
"I'm talking to you, you stupid brat! Has the apocalypse dampened your respect for your elders?"
Kael looked up, his eyes resting on the black-haired young man. He didn't reply. He knew the best way to deal with people like this was to get under their skin. Silence maintained his shadow. He just needed one more minute for a single point of Energi to regenerate.
'Only then will I move.'
The silence stretched. Within ten breaths, Ben's composure began to fray.
"Leader, why don't we just act?" one of the boys behind Ben hissed, annoyed by the passiveness.
A dangerous glint flashed in Ben's eyes, yet the lack of a status window above Kael's head forced him to remain wary. To the side, Claire was a knot of tension. She knew that with Rose's zombies, Ben stood no chance—but she also knew that a loud fight at night on this haunted campus was a death sentence for everyone.
Ben lowered his hand, his voice losing its edge as he tried a different tactic: persuasion.
"That girl's ability is too valuable, boy. With proper coordination, she can control the battlefield and keep us all alive. But in the wrong hands..." He offered a faint, oily smile. "She becomes a liability."
The temperature in the room seemed to drop as Kael shifted. He patted Rose's head and gently pulled her from his embrace.
"Give me a moment," he whispered into her ear.
As he rose, he saw a small girl move away from Claire to hug his sister. She looked away shyly when she caught his glance, her pale face flushing. Kael's smile vanished the moment he turned back to Ben.
'Annoying,' he thought, the torchlight glaring in his eyes.
He took the single unit of regenerated Energi and poured it into his Mind stat. The world shifted. His thoughts flowed like silk; his perception became a razor, sharpening his range, and Kael found himself entering that peculiar zone.
He scanned the group.
'He's the only Rare class. The others are Common. But they're high-leveled... they must have been hunting the infected children. They should be far easier prey than the adults.'
It explained Ben's Level 6 status and the others being at 8 and 9. But it didn't matter. Kael spoke for the second time.
"Let's make this simple."
He took a step forward, causing Ben's expression to twist into a mask of fury.
"You're courting death!"
Ben summoned his mana, activating the only attack skill in his arsenal. Ten metallic darts manifested in the air around him, their serrated tips glinting in the flickering light.
Ben watched Kael approach with a sneer. He didn't mind the closing distance; his skill's piercing power spiked the closer the target was. At under a meter, the darts were practically undodgeable, and he wanted to see the exact moment the light of defiance died in this brat's eyes.
Claire gasped. "Be careful!"
Nathan moved to intervene, but two of the boys stepped into his path, their eyes gleaming with malice. Rose shifted against Sophia's shoulder, her zombies growling in agitation, but when she saw her brother's straight back and calm gait, she lowered her head again. She trusted him.
Kael didn't even look at the darts revolving around Ben. He kept his footsteps light and measured, making Ben's heart hammer against his chest.
'He's bluffing! He has to be!'
Ben waited until Kael was within arm's reach—the optimal kill zone—before launching the darts in a golden blur. To everyone else, the projectiles were streaks of light too fast to follow.
But Kael had just spent his remaining attribute points: three into Agility and two into Mind. The lethal darts now moved at a crawl pace in his vision.
Ben's choice backfired. By letting Kael get so close, he had placed the darts right within Kael's reach before they could even hit terminal velocity.
To the stunned witnesses, Kael's arm became a predatory blur. Before the air could even whistle from the launch, Kael plucked them out of the air like he was gathering fruit. With a tight grip—and three more points poured into Strength—he crushed all ten darts into metallic dust that drifted away on the stagnant air.
Kael took one final step, looming over Ben. He was only half a head taller than the teacher, yet in that moment, he felt like a mountain. The boy holding the torch behind Ben trembled so violently that the shadows danced wildly across Kael's face.
"You know..." Kael's voice was a low, vibrating growl. "If I didn't want to sully my sister's eyes with your corpses..."
He let the silence hang, heavy and suffocating. The boy behind Ben gulped audibly. A bead of sweat rolled down Ben's temple as he watched Kael lean in, his voice dropping to a chilling whisper.
"But I will remember you."
No one moved.
No one breathed.
Kael turned his back to Ben with utter disdain and walked back to his sister. He took her hand, offered a small smile to the shy Sophia, and looked at Claire.
"Let's leave."
Claire nodded mutely as she watched the scene.
Kael walked forward, Rose in tow, Claire and Sophia following behind like disciples. When they reached Nathan, the two boys blocking his path stumbled over their own feet in their rush to get away.
The group disappeared into the darkness, the zombies trailing behind like silent, macabre guardians. The room remained graveyard-silent for minutes.
"Leader...?" the boy behind Ben finally whispered. "What do we do now?"
In the flickering light, Ben's shadow stretched long against the wall. Only the two boys in front could see his face—a twisted, violent mask of humiliation and a volcanic rage, underscored by a lingering, cold trace of fear.
*****
AN: Thank you for reading. Vote power stones if you enjoyed the chapter😁.