BOOM...!
"Ugh!"
The explosion reached him with terrifying force. The shockwave and heat crashed into his back like a speeding truck. Adam gasped as the force of the explosion sent him flying. He violently slammed into a building, the impact rattling his senses.
’M-My car...’
Agonising pain shot through his back like a lightning whip. His immediate thought, however, had been about his precious and new car. His vision momentarily darkened, his ears ringing. Adam helplessly slid onto the cemented ground and grunted.
Screams echoed from the surroundings as the people who had been close by ran for their lives. Most were not fighters, and definitely had no hero complexes. They saw danger; they ran.
None of that mattered to Adam.
His clothes were mostly burnt, exposing red skin with several bleeding cuts and burns. Adam groaned as he slowly managed to turn his body around and lean against the wall. Staring at the destruction, he sucked in a cold breath.
He would have been severely injured, or worse, died on the spot.
Colour drained from his face as he realised how close to death he had truly been. Dread and anxiety gripped his racing heart like a vice, freezing him in place. Adam swallowed hard.
Never had he been so close to death!
’I-I need to get out of here!’ But his body refused to move. Fear kept him rooted to the spot. ’Damn it! Who’s tryna kill me?!’ He had his suspicions. But there were just that; suspicions.
’There we go.’
Adam felt his body recovering, the fear keeping him grounded in place fading like melting snow. His body was already recovering, the mythic-ranked physique pushing his body back to peak physical state.
Right at that moment, his eyes shifted. He picked up a cluster of sounds as footsteps approached. Turning his head, he saw four figures coming toward him.
’It’s them!’
Adam recognised the four figures in an instant. They were the same guys laughing and messing around at the supermall’s parking lot. They had been tailing him since he left the academy.
"Whoa...! That explosive disc was awesome! Too bad he managed to get out in time." One of the guys expressed in a chirpy voice.
"Wouldn’t that be too disappointing, though? It would be an insult to his so-called monstrous talents."
"Yeah... but this is still good. He’s barely able to move."
"Hehe... The fool really thought we would just drive past him."
The four guys came close enough to surround Adam, their shadows looming over his face ominously. They were no older than he was: maybe a year or two older, but they were young.
Adam’s body had recovered more than enough to move, his cuts and burns stinging less. But he chose to see what they intended to do. From the little bit he had heard them say, their goal was more than just killing him. Blowing up his car had simply been the opening move.
One of the guys crouched and looked Adam in the eye, tilting his head as if to get a better look at him. Adam read his energy signature and swiftly deduced that the guy was in the second realm.
"He doesn’t seem like much, though."
Slap!
The guy viciously slapped Adam across the face, the force whipping his head to the side. For a moment, he was stunned, unable to believe what had just transpired.
’T-the hell?’
The slap came out of nowhere, leaving him more shocked than hurt.
"Oo... That was a good one."
"Best be careful, Greg. He’s got flames and wind."
"So?" The one known as Greg looked over his shoulder and smirked. Turning to face Adam, he smirked. "They said he’s strong for a new awakener. But I doubt he can take all four of us at once."
As the guy remarked smugly, he retrieved what looked like a black tactical handcuff. Adam stared at the device as it beeped once. ’So they’re taking me to whoever hired them.’
There was no way they’d have known what his abilities were without someone telling them. It was his chance to meet the mastermind. Adam was confident in his strength and the arsenal of abilities he had.
He could break out of these guys’ formation with ease if he wanted to. But to get to the bottom of this, he needed to play the fool, act like he was injured from the explosion.
Greg roughly grabbed Adam’s hands closer as he threw the cuffs over his wrists. His eyes remained glued to Adam, a knowing smirk tugging at his lips. It almost looked like he could tell what Adam was thinking.
At that very moment, Adam felt some strange energy rush through his wrist into his body. He frowned, not sure what that strange energy did to him. Before he could take a closer look to understand what it was, or even toggle at the cuffs, the guy spoke.
"Don’t bother," Greg said smugly, his smirk turning into a grin. "This handcuff is designed to block the flow of Spark. You won’t be using any abilities anytime soon."
Adam’s eyes widened in horror.
"There it is..."
Greg and his friends laughed out loud as they took in the look on his face. Adam’s heart thundered in dread. He had been too confident! But in his defence, such a handcuff did not exist.
Even law enforcement did not have devices like this!
’I’m fucked.’ He realised with chilling clarity. ’Damn it! How far will these people go?!’
"Hahaha... I have to say, his expression is priceless!" Greg remarked boisterously.
"I bet he was thinking he’ll attack us when we least expect it!"
"Hahaha...!"
"Haa... I feel sorry for this dude. He must have been feeling smug about his new status."
Adam gritted his teeth as he glared at them. Their mockery stung more than he would have wanted. If only he had attacked them just like they had thought mockingly.
But no.... He had to go thinking he was some hotshot who could break out of any situation without a hitch.
"W-who sent you?" He finally asked in a low voice. "Was it those three?!"
Greg only smirked at Adam’s desperate attempt to regain some semblance of control. The young man shook his head and then shrugged, "Who knows?"
"Let’s get out of here before the cops show up," Greg added as he roughly pulled Adam to his feet. The guy looked at him with that same annoying smug face. "You’re in for a world of hurt, pal. When we’re done with you, you’ll wish for death."
Adam subtly swallowed, the dread returning in full force. The bleakness of his situation battled with his body’s natural recovery to peak physical state. One more joined Greg to grab his other arm as they dragged him away.
The four guys pulled him toward the previous street where they had circled back to attack. Parked along the side of the street was the black SUV they tailed him with. They snickered as they threw him in the back seat.
"I thought he would have struggled more, you know?. But he’s a lot more composed than I thought. I think he’s realised how despondent his situation is."
"Who knows what’s going through the head of a genius? Maybe he thinks he can break out anytime he likes."
"Hahaha....!"
They continued to mock as they jumped in with him. Greg hopped into the driver’s seat, the third in the passenger seat. Looking back, Greg flashed Adam another smirk and taunted. "Get comfortable, genius. This is gonna be a long ride..."
As soon as his words came to an end, one of the two guys beside him threw a transport hood over his head. But Adam’s physique had pulled through once more, allowing his body to relax enough to critically think his situation through.
His thoughts had been thrown into disarray due to the shock and surprise that came with the incident. He flashed a soft smile under the transport hood when his unique skill proved to still be capable of functioning.
He was not entirely hopeless.
First Principle could not be suppressed like his circulation of Spark.
Once he understood how the suppression effect was achieved, it would be a breeze countering it and breaking out of the cuffs. As his abductors drove off, Adam pushed his perception through the hood and peered into the cuffs around his wrists.
[Ding!]
[Runic Index Unlocked.]
[Runic:....0.01%]
<Rune Theory:.....0.01%>
<Enchantment:.....0.04%>
<Formations:....0.00%>
<Seals:....0.04%>
<Summoning:.....0.00%>
<Contracts:...0.00%>
’Runes?’
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