The Astral soul system-Chapter 114: I’m not that crazy

The man slowly creeped closer to the very young girl that was already shivering with tears streaming down her face. Behind him, the girl’s grandpa was fighting and screaming to get himself free but it was pointless.

The man was about to grab the kids when suddenly

’Tsss!’

After a few seconds with nothing happening,the girl slowly looked up and saw her soon to be captor with a long blade poking out through his body.

The man’s body slowly fell down and behind him stood a figure with pure silver hair that glistened in the moonlight. Her entire face and parts of her clothes were covered with blood. She menacingly looked down at the dead body and pulled out her katana before looking at the girl she saved who was just blankly staring back at her.

The atmosphere became a bit tense as everyone there was frozen by what just happened. Sable looked at the little girl staring back at her with her big wide eyes and didn’t know what to do. She understood that it would be terrifying for any normal child to be in this situation, plus she understood that her current appearance wasn’t exactly the friendliest she’d looked.

*Clap! Clap! Clap!*

Zaine slowly walked to the scene with a smug smile, clapping his hands.

"Not bad. But you made a few mistakes"

"Who the fuck are you? Do you know who you’re messing wi-"

"Shut up"

The gang member he just shut up grit his teeth angrily and looked at the one holding down the boy.

"Break the kid’s hands. And then kill him slowly. You’ve lost your chance old man. Blame these idiots for your kids’ deaths "

Hearing that, Zaine’s pleased expression was replaced with one of annoyance. He was very easily angered,or maybe it was best to say he was always angry, and he didn’t like people acting like he was beneath them.

A whooshing sound rushed through the air and before the gangster could touch the boy, something spun in the air, bursting with flames before cutting his arm straight off from his shoulder.

Zaine immediately dashed towards the man and grabbed his face.

[Equipped soul:Freya]

An intense aura of lightning gathered at his hands before being discharged almost immediately, frying the gangster’s brain until it resembled a turkey on thanksgiving.

The equip only lasted for a few seconds before he cancelled it.

Unfortunately he’d still lost over a hundred astra and even some health. Theia started nagging him that this was irresponsible but Zaine assured her he knew what he was doing.

Zaine caught the throwing star that came back to him. Sable had given it to him when she noticed he didn’t have a weapon. When he asked why she had it, she simply said Zen gave it to her for safekeeping.

Previously when Zen had used it against beasts it had seemed ineffective, but that was the whole point,it wasn’t made to be used on beasts.

Zaine looked down at the boy that could only stare at him in silence and gave him a malicious grin before throwing something at Sable.

"You forgot to get one of these"

Sable caught what he threw and noticed it was a plain white mask

"Sorry if it’s the wrong color. I didn’t have time to look for a blue one"

"Where did you get this?"

"A shop a few blocks back. You should probably go say hi to the shopkeeper,he seemed pretty upset i took these without paying"

Zaine looked at the rest of the gangsters and didn’t bother putting it on yet since it was pointless, they had already seen his face, and for that they would die.

He’d already gotten the bonus Fifty exp for killing the first one, so he knew he was in the right place. Now he just needed to get things done.

Unfortunately he’d have to use his fists and support with the star since he’d lost his sword, but that wasn’t a problem. In fact it just made things more interesting in his eyes.

These gangsters clearly weren’t high level, whether in strength or in their gang since Sable just killed their leader with minimal effort.

Two shadow tendrils popped out of the ground, each costing 10 units of astra. They both wrapped around the necks of the two holding down the old man before pulling them off.

The tendrils normally weren’t too strong, but thanks to the effect of his title, they were strengthened in the dark especially at night.

Zaine used a dash to get closer to them before quickly using charge to boost his strength before punching him in the fac, the system confirming his kill.

He noticed a light coming from the other ones hands and realized he was about to use an ability. Reactivating Charge, he grabbed one of his arms before just ripping it off at the shoulder. He repeated the same with the other one before dropping him there and leaving him to bleed out, relishing in the screams of agony that followed his actions.

Looking back, he noticed that Sable had felled another gangster in the time it took him to take down two.

He immediately picked his next target who, fortunately,was running towards him shooting fireballs.

The system specified that the method of death had to be gruesome and basically torture for him to get his bonus exp, and he wasn’t afraid to do that.

He moved erratically, dodging every attack until he was close enough. The glove around his hand turned into claws in response to his will and he stabbed his hand into the body of the gangster, retrieved the glove into his skin and immediately after started charging a soul gun with his hands.

Zaine held the gangster in place for a few seconds before

*Boom!*

The soul gun detonated after it got too big. Plus, Zaine wasn’t actually looking to control it,so it went out of control faster.

Feeling an attack from behind, Zaine pulled out his arm from the mutilated corpse and without looking back, grabbed the deformed claw that use to be someone’s hand.

"Transformation?"

A gruesome sound was heard from the arm as Zen exerted as much force as he could, twisting it and flipping the gangster on his back before stomping on his chest, causing his chest to cave in.

[+50 exp]

That sweet dinging sound followed by the notification was all that was on his mind in this.

He threw the star at one that looked like he was about to run away

[Drill strike]

The weapon hit its mark on the gangster’s back. A sound resembling a blender was heard as the star began to spin and spin in place, tearing apart the gangster’s insides.

Zaine sighed and looked behind him, noticing that Sable had finished all of hers about the same time as him.

"Not bad, for a warm up"

Zaine walked back to the previous spot and saw Sable taking deep breaths. She didn’t look like she’d taken any damage,in fact she didn’t look tired, the deep breathing must have been because of something else.

"Is that....all of them?"

"Almost. We just need to wipe them out completely. You’ll need the mask for the next part, that is,if you still want to do this "

Sable didn’t answer but he could tell she still wanted to help.

"Your choice, but that means NO ONE can see our faces"

Zaine directed a look at the old man and his grandkids,a strange glint in his mutated eye.

"Don’t do anything stupid. Let’s just let them leave, they’ve got nothing to do with this "

Zaine acted like he didn’t hear her. He stared into the eyes of the boy he saved who just stared back at him, and then he did the same with the girl.

With a sigh he looked up and said.

"I’m crazy, but I’m not that crazy. Haven’t been for a while"

Feeling a sudden itch inside his mind, Zaine suddenly turned around and saw something moving towards him at high speeds. This feeling was immediately followed by the call of a bird Zaine recognized.

It was the raven, and looking at its talons,it had something.

Once it was close enough, Black released it, letting the inertia carry it to Zaine who caught it by the hilt.

It was his sword

"So that’s why you went back"

Giving it a few swings, Zaine confirmed it was his and was pleasantly surprised.

Black circled him a few times before landing on his shoulder and cawing a few times.

"You want to help too? Fine"

Zaine took one last look at the kids and their grandpa before putting on the mask.

"Thank you! Thank you"

The old man said, shivering and shaking. He looked so brittle that it looked like he could be swept up by just the evening breeze.

"Tell us everything you know about these goons"

The old man immediately started to tell them everything he knew. It was quite obvious he was being honest with them,he had no reason not to be.

Appearantly the tiger gang was a new gang that sprouted up out of nowhere a few months ago and had immediately taken control of this area. They ruled just as cruelly as any other gang. Over the past few months they had constantly challenged and defeated other gangs, rising rapidly and expanding until they were the third largest in the city.

Zaine was a bit impressed. A regular person had created a gang and taken it to the top three in sentinel city in a couple months. It was a first even for him.

Once they got enough information, Zaine figured there was no more use for this three.

"Leave. And lock your doors and windows tonight. Things might get noisy" He said threateningly.

The old man bowed in thanks and quickly grabbed his two kids before running off as fast as he could .

"Get ready. That was just the appetizer." Zaine cracked his knuckles as he said.

"It’s going to be a long night"