Chapter 313 — Raid II

The Aura that had been saturating the building, the energy that every awakener drew upon instinctively, suddenly vanished.

Just... gone.

Like someone had flipped a switch and turned off every awakener’s core simultaneously.

The Mafia members fighting on the floors suddenly found themselves with nothing but their physical stats, skills failed mid-activation, arts flickered and died and enhanced blows became normal hits.

The police officers seemed to understand immediately.

They reached into their pockets and pulled out metallic bracelets, snapping them onto their wrists with practiced efficiency.

The moment the bracelets activated, Aura flooded back into their bodies.

Not their own Aura, but the stored Aura from the devices.

"DIE!"

A C rank officer grinned as he activated a skill, his weapon blazing with artificial Aura.

He drove it toward one of the Mafia members, the blade aimed to punch clean through enhanced combat gear and the body beneath.

BOOM

Brian was there.

His hammer intercepted the blade with enough force to shatter it, fragments of metal spinning through the air. His other hand grabbed the Mafia member and yanked him backward, out of danger.

The officer stumbled, thrown off-balance by the sudden resistance.

CRACK

Brian’s follow-up swing caved in the officer’s skull, brain matter splattering across nearby walls.

Another officer with an Aura-enhanced hammer swung at a Mafia member’s head from behind, the attack perfectly timed to catch him unaware.

Brian moved faster than should be possible at his size.

He covered twenty feet in less than a second, his A rank speed making him blur. His massive hand caught the hammer mid-swing, stopping it cold.

The officer’s eyes went wide.

’How is he so–’

BOOM

Brian’s headbutt shattered the officer’s face, nose and cheekbones collapsing inward. The man dropped, unconscious before he hit the ground.

Brian crushed his skull with one stomp, ending it quickly.

His domain flickered, the edges becoming unstable. Physical domains needed both Aura and Will to maintain and without Aura feeding it, the construct was collapsing.

Damian stopped walking.

He looked around with genuine interest, his crimson eyes taking in the changed atmosphere.

"Interesting technology."

He tapped the ground once with his foot.

Then he moved.

****

Second One:

The first officer died without understanding how.

Damian’s hand was suddenly inside his chest.

It was not stabbing or punching. Just... inside.

The officer looked down, saw the arm buried wrist-deep in his ribcage, felt fingers wrapped around his heart.

’How did he–’

Damian pulled.

The heart came out, still beating in his palm.

THUMP-THUMP

The officer’s body dropped, eyes wide and empty.

Second Two:

Damian was already moving to the next target.

An officer with C rank enhancement activated his bracelet, Aura flooding his system. He raised his weapon.

Damian’s hand caught his throat before the gun finished rising.

CRACK

The squeeze was instantaneous. The officer’s windpipe collapsed, his neck vertebrae shattering under pressure that shouldn’t exist without Aura enhancement.

’He’s not using Aura... how is he so–’

The thought died with him as Damian ripped his head clean off, spine dangling from the base of the skull like a tail.

Blood sprayed in a wide arc across the walls.

Second Three:

Two officers were standing close together, both fumbling with their bracelets.

Damian appeared between them.

His hands shot out simultaneously.

His fingers punched through both their skulls like they were made of paper, entering through the temples and emerging from the other side.

CRACK

CRACK

Brain matter and bone fragments exploded outward. The officers’ bodies convulsed once, then went still, held upright only by the arms through their heads.

Damian withdrew his hands and let them drop.

One of them hit the ground face-first, the impact making a wet sound.

The other fell backward, the hole in his skull clearly visible, brain exposed to open air.

An officer watching from down the hall felt his bladder release.

’He wasn’t radiating A rank Aura... how is he so powerful?!... that’s not–’

Second Four:

Damian moved faster than human eyes could track.

Five officers clustered near a doorway saw nothing but a blur before death arrived.

The first one’s head separated from his body, Damian’s hand moving like a blade through the neck. The head hit the ground and rolled, eyes still blinking.

The second officer tried to turn, tried to raise his weapon.

Damian’s palm strike collapsed his face inward. The nose shattered, cheekbones pulverized, teeth driven back into the brain cavity.

The man’s head looked like someone had taken a hammer to a melon.

The third officer activated his bracelet, Aura blazing.

Damian grabbed his arm and pulled.

The arm came off at the shoulder, tendons and muscle tearing with sounds like ripping fabric.

RIP

"AHH–"

Gurgle...gurgle...

The officer screamed, a sound that became a gurgle as Damian shoved the severed arm down his throat, forcing it in until the man choked and died on his own limb.

The fourth officer ran.

Damian picked up a piece of concrete from the broken floor and threw it.

The chunk hit the back of the officer’s head with enough force to cave in the entire back of his skull.

CRACK

Brain matter splattered across the wall in front of him as his body crumpled mid-stride.

The fifth officer pressed himself against the wall, weapon shaking in his hands, tears streaming down his face.

"Please... please, I have kids, I have–"

Damian’s hand went through his stomach.

The officer looked down at the arm protruding from his abdomen, saw his own intestines wrapped around the forearm.

’My daughter’s birthday is next week... I promised her...’

Damian pulled his hand back, and the officer’s insides followed, spilling onto the floor in a wet heap.

The man dropped to his knees, trying desperately to push his organs back inside, sobbing.

He died slowly, drowning in his own blood.

****

Four seconds had passed.

Every police officer on the third floor was dead.

The Mafia members stood frozen, their masks hiding expressions of shock and horror, despite being seasoned killers themselves.

One of them was trembling, his hand gripping his weapon so hard his knuckles had gone white beneath his gloves.

’I knew he was strong... but that...’

Gulp

Another Mafia member swallowed hard, unable to look away from the carnage.

’How strong are his physical stats?!’

In the cells lining the hallway, criminals who’d been watching through the bars stood pressed against the back walls, as far from the corridor as they could get.

One of them, a murderer serving three life sentences, had seen a lot of violence in his time.

He’d never seen anything like this.

"What the fuck is he?" The whisper came out strangled.

Another prisoner, this one missing an eye from a gang war, just shook his head slowly.

"That’s a... mad man... Just look at how he killed Williams, an entire arm down his throat... Fuck."

A third prisoner, young and stupid, had been shouting for the police to let him out during the fighting.

He wasn’t making a sound now. He’d pissed himself, the dark stain spreading across his pants as he stared at the suited figure standing in a hallway painted red.

****

Damian walked down the corridor toward the stairs, his movements unhurried.

Behind him, bodies lay in pieces, blood dripped from the ceiling where arterial spray had reached and organs steamed in the cool air.

He reached up and removed his sunglasses, now spattered with blood.

They were ruined anyway.

He tossed them aside, and they clattered across the floor, coming to rest in a pool of spreading crimson.

His crimson eyes were fully visible now, catching the fluorescent light.

The record keeper on the second floor, who could see up through the stairwell, made a small sound. It wasn’t quite a scream, nor was it a whimper.

She was the only police staff member still alive in the building.

Damian glanced at her.

She went completely still, like a mouse spotted by a cat.

He said nothing, just turned and continued walking.

Brian fell into step beside him, his hammer resting on his shoulder. The weapon was coated in blood and bits of bone and worse things.

They reached detention room seven.

Damian stopped in front of the door.

From inside, he could hear muffled voices as his hand touched the door handle.

Behind him, the building was silent except for the dripping of blood and the occasional moan from the dying.

Every police officer was dead. Every single one of them.

He pushed the door open.