Solo Cultivation in The Apocalypse

One shot was not enough to stop Tengoku, and when he was getting lost in the dark, Hitori rose to take serious action.

"Give him everything you have," he said.

Reon held the gun straight at Tengoku and fired multiple shots. Hitori swung his wand and charged bolts of electricity, but it was hard to aim in the darkness, and they could not risk getting close to him or his men.

"You bastard, stop!" Hitori stepped forward, almost exposing himself to the front-liners, and fired another electrify spell. "Electrify!"

Reon fired the last bullets in the magazine. The heavy magazine fell from the gun as she drew another from the back of her skirt. But by the time she loaded the gun, Tengoku had disappeared.

Hitori lowered his wand and leaned forward to run when Reon grabbed him. "Do not do that! It will cost your life!"

"But he—" Before he could complete, Reon pointed the gun at the fog ahead. Hitori clenched his fist, then raised his wand too. "It will get through something."

She pulled the trigger and Hitori cast the spell. The dark absorbed the bullet and the bolt but gave them a shriek in return.

They exchanged glances, then Hitori swung his wand. "Fireball!"

A ball of fire went into the fog and cleared the front for them. The man's chest erupted in a fire on collision. Tengoku jerked the man and dropped him to the ground. He glared at Hitori for the last time before disappearing into the crowd.

Hitori stayed paralyzed for a moment– did he just use his man to protect himself? The bullet and the bolt too, and now this fireball. And so just like that, another man was gone.

Reon clicked her tongue and lowered her gun. "We need to get back."

Hitori nodded. He disassembled the shield when the bitter reality struck him. He remembered Akira and Kyo-san's words: 'We can not let him go. If he gets away this time, he will come back with a plan we would not be aware of. So end him while we know what he is doing.'

Suddenly, he started feeling like a piece of shit. He could not kill a single man. A single, already suffering, man. And that was a miserable feeling.

At the age of twelve, Kaori had told him to bring groceries from the market on his way back. He had an important final raid scheduled, so in the excitement, he forgot to go to the mart. She did not scold him but told him to go back and get the groceries.

Kiku protested, but while arguing with a former delinquent, one had no choice but to do what she wanted. Kaori handed Hitori the money, which he squeezed into his jacket.

He was running behind schedule because of this chore. Halfway through the barren lands, he removed his hands from the jacket's pockets and started running. After he bought the groceries, he was next in the waiting queue. He went for his jacket's pocket but when he found it open, his heart skipped a beat.

The young lady in front of him moved and it was time for Hitori to checkout. The color of his face faded and he could not move. With the basket in his hands and his mouth dropped open, Hitori turned.

He dropped the basket in the way as he dashed out of the mart. He searched everywhere, but he could not find what once occupied his empty jacket pocket.

He considered using his pocket money, but he had been saving it for the next big game launching event, so he was not letting his hard-saved money go for some vegetables.

Kaori was angry this time. If it was not for Kiku, she would have hit Hitori for committing such a stupid, idiotic mistake. (Yes, she was an angry soul). "I gave you one job. You are busy playing, you are earning some money, so I do not tell you any chores. But when I give you one, this is what you do? It was a silly mistake, Hitori."

He could not do a single job. His job was to hold Kakashi, but he could not. His only job was to stop Tengoku right here and now, protecting and surviving this attack was a compulsion.

"Shit…" he muttered, "he has not gone yet… shit, shit, he has not!" Hitori exclaimed.

Reon stopped in the middle. "Can you run? We can not let him go."

Hitori dug his feet in the dirt. "We got to stop him. We need to stop him." He clenched his toes– the right one still hurt– then ran. "Come on!" he shouted.

Hitori saw the turn around the corner, straight ahead were the woods which made him wonder about the Guardian again. Fuck the Guardian Spirit.

The pain in his toes was numb, all he could feel was the air on his face. Hitori swung his arm and grabbed the corner wall. He pulled himself forward, jumped on the wooden platform, then rushed inside.

Akira and Kyo had left their cover and they were squatted on the side. The shine split in opposite directions and they fired green and yellow color beams.

"We need to stop him!" Hitori shouted. "Tengoku! He is getting away. Please!"

Kyo glared over his shoulder, and Akira jumped, then fell on his butt. "H-Hitori?"

Hitori was not waiting till Akira was done examining him. "Tengoku, I missed him. And now he is getting—"

Kyo rose to his feet, he brought his wand above his head, muttered something under his breath, then fired a spell at the ground.

The rain had stopped already, all that remained was the fog and smoke, which he blew away. Hitori rushed to the sofa and squinted at the front yard. Kyo looked at Akira. "Set everything on fire," he said.

Akira jumped to his feet, raised his wand, and lowered it. He lit the yard once again. Fire blazed from the veranda stairs, reached the front-liners, and caught a few branches on the ground.

"Look for him!" Kyo said. "Find that man, Hitori."

Hitori narrowed his eyes and looked as far as he could with the available brightness. The screams and the puffs of the fire made it hard for him to focus, not as if he could ask for anything more.

As far as his eye went, the fire followed till a specific point. Then darkness took over and Hitori's vision could not look any further.