NoGift

Chapter 104: gathering

SPHERES of poisonous liquid flew towards a figure in the forest. The person dodged two of the spheres simultaneously. Then they used the blood sword they were holding and sliced another sphere in half. But the moment they did, gas came out from the sphere. They had to close their eyes for a second but that second was enough for another slab of poison to attack them. This time, they were not able to dodge it properly and it hit half of their mask. It immediately disintegrated showing the half of their face.

Another figure jumped off from a tree. "Ah ah... and here I thought that last one would get you," Viper said disappointingly.

He stared at the figure in front. Most of their cloak was now gone, showing a simple white shirt, black trouser pants, and combat boots. With the other half of their mask gone, it showed a rather youthful side-face. Viper could clearly see the color of one of their eyes - it was pale blue.

Viper thought earlier that the one he's fighting might be a woman because of their height and build. But now that he could see the person's figure and half of their face, Viper could now tell that his enemy was a young man. No, rather than a young man, it was more accurate to call him a teenage boy barely out of adolescence. He's probably only 14, 15 years old.

Now this was just depressing. The dawn was almost breaking and he still hadn't killed this kid. He even had to move their fight in the forest because for fear that their fight would affect Argent's unconcious mother. But most importantly, this kid managed to get decent hits on him. His clothes were full of scratches because of the different weapons the kid had been hurling at him.

It was fine at first since the weapons rot away the moment it touched his skin. But then gradually, the weapons slowly pierced his skin. Viper was certain it had something to do with the brat's blood. After all, it was quite obvious that manipulating blood was his Gift, but only his own it seemed. Because if he could manipulate other's blood, then he should have had manipulated Viper's the moment they met.

Viper dashed forward. This fight lasted long enough. It's already getting boring. He should end this soon. He was preparing for an attack, but the brat was still just standing there. As if what Viper would do next wouldn't matter. When he was about two feet away from him, Viper's body suddenly stopped moving. His body was suddenly racked by immense pain. It felt like something was penetrating his skin, trying to destroy his insides.

Viper looked at the brat, he was staring at him as if he would die soon. He then realized why those weapons he kept hurling at him slowly managed to wound him. It was that damn blood. The brat probably splashed Viper's clothes with small amount of blood everytime he attacked. Then he would control those blood splatter, slowly piercing Viper's skin, making all those small nicks, even before his poison could react to it. Some of those blood probably entered his body. And now it was attacking his insides.

Viper suddenly laughed. "Do you think this pain could stop me? I've felt much, much more pain than this." Then the next moment, he moved and grasped the neck of the brat, forcing him down on the ground. "Die, you f*cking brat."

The skin on the kid's neck Viper was clutching was already showing signs of rotting. But he didn't look like he was affected, there wasn't even a change of emotions in his exposed pale blue eye. Viper was about to inject a much more potent poison into the brat's neck when a huge rock suddenly appeared from his side and hit him. Because it was so unexpected, Viper didn't manage to dodge it and he was sent flying.

Viper flew quite far, finally hitting his back on a tree. Then the huge rock that hit him earlier landed violently on his stomach, causing him to cough up blood. He looked up front and he saw two person suddenly appearing. One was wearing the same cloak and mask as the brat while the other one was wearing a black domino mask and had his long gray hair tied behind his back.

The man wearing a mask looked at him and pointed his palm at his direction. Then suddenly, some kind of portal appeared under his feet. And as expected, he completely sunk down. Not even giving him any time to curse.

When Viper disappeared, the portal closed.

The man wearing a domino mask looked at teenage boy trying to stand up. He clicked his tongue when he saw the rotting skin on the boy's neck. "What's this, you can't even defeat a single man?"

"He's a Dreich Gallere assassin," the boy bit out.

"And so? His Holliness will surely be disappointed in you," the man wearing the domino mask added while shaking his head.

The teenager bit his lower lip and clenched his fists.

"Let's get you out of here before you actually die," the man continued.

"No. I can still fight."

"You can barely stand. I bet you couldn't even defeat a gryphon right now."

"Harlequin-!"

Harlequin - the man with the domino mask - didn't change his decision. "Just come, will you? I have a lot of other more important things to do than babysit you, Your Highness," he said, calling the kid's title full of mockery.

"Don't call me that!"

Harlequin ignored him and turned to the other masked man. "Be sure to follow the plan."

"Of course," the masked mas answered in a very pleasant voice. "I'm not some amateur that would commit simple mistakes."

The teenager glared at the man because it was quite obvious that the amateur he was pertaining to was him. Before he could say anything, Harlequin already grabbed his elbow. And the two disappeared.

The masked man looked up at the already bright sky. [Now how should I handle this situation with everyone getting exactly what they wanted?]

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"What do you see?" Argent asked An Si whose eyes were now both white, showing that he was using his Gift.

An Si's conciousness were now in three birds flying over the three uninhabited island near the site of where the treasure should be. Though he wasn't really that certain of what treasure that might be. And he's not really that interested. After all, the three of them - he, An Liu and An Qi - were only there to follow the orders of their master.

"There was nothing on the two islands on the left but the one on the right, it shows signs of fighting."

Fighting? Did that mean that there was someone other than them who was after those Apostles? "Do you see any woman?"

An Si shook his head after a while.

Those Apostles were probably hiding her mother. But it didn't change the fact that that one island was the place they should go to. Because it's the only one that showed any signs of activity.

"We'll go to that island."

She looked at Lei Feng who nodded at her in agreement.

With that, Argent landed the flying car on the shore of the said island. She didn't have time to care whether some of those Apostles would see that they suddenly appeared there. As long as she didn't turn off the stealth mode of the car, those people would just probably think that they arrived there via some sort of magical tool.

Once the car landed, the four men first went out and she followed. Outside, she took the remote from her space ring and turned the car back into its capsule mode. She picked the capsule and put it back, along with the remote, in her space ring.

Argent looked at the four men in front of her. Before she could even say something, someone just fell from the sky right at the middle of the five of them. It was a man with wounds all over his body. His clothes were almost in tatters. But those were not what caught Argent's attention. It was the man's face. His hair was the palest platinum blond that it almost looked silvery white. And she would just bet that if the man opened his eyes right now, they would see a pair of heterochromatic eyes - one forest green, the other sky blue.

What the hell was Viper doing here?