Chapter 241: Did I Say You Could Leave?

Chapter 241

But to Alex, who was watching him close the distance, the man’s speed felt agonizingly slow, almost laughably so, like watching a snail attempt to sprint across wet pavement. That was just how slow the man seemed in his eyes.

So all he did was to sidestep, easily dodging the man’s attack without so much as breaking a single sweat. To the onlookers his movement looked so fluid and effortless like he’d done this a hundred times.

The bodyguard’s eyes went wide for a split second as something between disbelief and irritation flashed across his face, but he quickly dismissed it as nothing more than a lucky break, especially since he’d just confirmed once again that there wasn’t even the faintest trace of primordial essence radiating off the man standing in front of him.

As far as his senses were concerned, Alex might as well have been an ordinary civilian off the street.

"Nice reflexes, kid," the bodyguard sneered while cracking his knuckles as he reset his body into a fighting stance. "But that was probably just some dumb luck or something. Anyways, I want to see just how far that luck carries you when I crush it completely."

Without wasting another second, he launched forward into a flurry of lightning-fast punches, with each one aimed exactly at Alex’s vital points, with the aim of crippling him rather than simply causing minor bruises.

It was like the kind of truly viscious strikes meant to end a fight permanently within seconds, proving the guy at least had some decent knowledge of martial arts.

To any ordinary fighter, even a well-trained one at that, it would have been nothing short of an overwhelming, inescapable barrage. Especially paired with that kind of superhuman speed.

But Alex just dodged every single one of them with ease, weaving and tilting his head just enough to let each strike whistle past thin air. To everybody who was witnessing the fight his handsome face looked bored to the point that he actually let out a long sleepy yawn in the middle of the fight, before proceeding to cover his mouth lazily with the back of his hand as if the entire exchange was so boring it made him want to sleep.

"Mmm," he murmured while leaning his head to the side as another punch grazed past his ear. "You know, I had a pretty long day doing very important things that you can’t even begin to comprehend. So you mind wrapping this up a bit faster?"

The mocking tone in Alex’s voice only seemed to fuel the bodyguard’s rage even further and his punches became faster, and much more unrestrained with every passing second, but the results remained exactly the same. Not a single blow landed.

And the longer the one-sided exchange dragged on, the more the man’s expression began to shift, from boiling anger to something closer to shock, and finally, unmistakably, into creeping fear.

Soon cold sweat began to form along his brow as he finally staggered back a step, with his chest heaving from all the exertion of throwing all those punches that had in the end accomplished absolutely nothing. And then his mind soon started to race through various desperate explanations that could explain why all this was even happening.

Could this brat actually be sitting at some absurdly high realm, one far beyond his own, because that could certainly explain why he couldn’t sense a shred of primordial essence from him? Or, worse, could this kid simply be some kind of freak of nature, or secret government lab rat experiment?

Either of the possibilities sent a fresh wave of dread crawling up his spine.

Realizing he had absolutely no advantage left to exploit, and knowing fully certain that continuing this fight would only end in nothing more than his own destruction, the bodyguard’s priorities shifted instantly from pride to trying to survive at all cost.

After all, he was only around thirty or so, still very much in the prime of his life, and there was still so much of that hard-earned fortune he hadn’t even gotten the chance to properly enjoy yet. He absolutely could not die here, not like this, not over some spoiled rich brat’s petty grudge.

Without another word, he turned to flee, and in the next instant, something resembling dark, glossy crow feathers began sprouting rapidly from his back, unfurling into a pair of sleek black wings that carried him upward off the ground in a sudden burst of speed.

Alex blinked, genuinely caught off guard by what just happened before his very eyes. He hadn’t expected that. As far as he knew, flight was an ability reserved almost exclusively for Transcendent Realm Awakened, individuals like that elegant silver-haired woman he’d encountered before, who had soared effortlessly through the air without any wings at all, demonstrating why Transcendent Realm was revered. But this man’s ability was completely different, relying instead on some kind of physical transformation to sprout actual wings.

That actually explained a lot, Alex realized. It was no wonder the man hadn’t used this ability at all during their fight. Flight clearly wasn’t a combat-oriented power, not in any practical sense anyway. Though, it was a pretty good ability to have.

Snapping out of his momentary musing, Alex’s expression hardened slightly as he watched the bodyguard climb higher, clearly intent on putting as much distance between them as physically possible.

"Did I say you could leave?"

His said in a voice that sounded calm and almost conversational in tone, completely at odds with what was going to happen next. He raised one hand, fingers casually shaped into something resembling a gun gesture, and activated Celestial Thunder.

A crackling bolt of brilliant blue lightning erupted from his fingertip and closed the distance between it and the fleeing bodyguard in less time than it took to blink. Then it punched clean through one of those freshly sprouted wings and spread wildly throughout the man’s entire body.

The scream that came out sounded straight up gut-wrenching as the man’s body convulsed mid-air before plummeting straight down, crashing onto the club floor in a heap with a sickening thud.

His appearance looked really miserable as faint wisps of smoke curled up from his smoldering form, and his once powerful limbs twitched involuntarily. It was a good thing that Alex had deliberately controlled the output of the attack, and held back the vast majority of its true destructive potential. If not, if he had instead chosen to unleash it at full strength, there would have been nothing left of the man at all, just a small pile of ash.

On the side, Julian’s entire body stiffened as the earlier bravado he had displayed just seconds ago evaporated instantly the moment he watched the bodyguard he’d paid a fortune for collapse so easily, as if the man had been nothing more than a minor inconvenience.

Then Cold, bone chilling fear began seeping into his veins, and his legs, without his permission, started trembling uncontrollably beneath him.

From off to the other side, Mia let out an amused snort, propping her chin up on one hand as she watched the entire spectacle unfold with glee in those lively eyes of hers.

"Wow, I never knew that Vice Squad Lead... I mean, Alex, sorry, Alex, was such a big show-off."

Alex didn’t pay any mind to her words, because he was too busy ignoring the still-paralyzed, twitching bodyguard sprawled across the floor, and instead turned his full attention back toward Julian, who immediately stumbled backward in panic the moment their eyes met.

His legs gave out entirely, sending him crashing down onto the floor, but even in his terrified state, he began frantically trying to crawl backward. Trying to put as much distance as possible between himself and the approaching threat.

It didn’t matter because Alex caught up to him within a single stride, and with a casual, almost lazy motion, he brought his foot down on one of Julian’s legs, snapping it cleanly with a sickening crack that made a disturbing scream well up from Julian’s throat.

Alex raised his leg again, clearly intending to repeat the process on the other leg, when Julian’s desperate, blubbering pleas finally registered enough for him to pause mid-motion.

"Please! Please, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, just don’t, please!"

Alex lowered his foot slowly, tilting his head as if genuinely considering the request, and a faintly amused, almost thoughtful expression crossed his handsome features.

"You know," he said eventually in a tone that sounded so casual, maybe even almost friendly, as if discussing the weather rather than a man writhing in agony at his feet, "I can spare you."

He let the words hang there for a moment, watching the hope flicker across Julian’s tear-streaked face, before continuing.

"But... you’ll need to offer up a little compensation to my two friends over there." He tilted his head slightly toward the direction of Ella and Sylph. "Got it?"

Julian, who was now practically sobbing with relief and lingering terror in equal measure, nodded his head frantically, so fast it looked almost painful, before fumbling desperately with trembling hands to pull his phone from his pocket.