Lost Origins: SS Ranked Awakening-Chapter 124: Poison

"Grrrrrrr!"

The sound of something primal came from the entrance of the street and when Lucian turned to take a look, he saw just the thing he had been hoping to encounter.

The monster which the young man had spoke of in the bar while wet from fear was currently standing in front of him. There was no mistaking it. It was definitely the same monster, or at least the same type, if multiple of them were roaming around.

Lucian looked at the monster which stood at almost two and a half meters tall. It’s humanoid figure looking rotted as a disgusting smell came from its direction.

Lucian stared at the claws and teeth of the creature which was dripping with saliva. The red eyes of the creature contained madness as it slowly approached the only man in the alleyway.

’Hmm? Was I wrong?’

Lucian thought inspecting the approaching monster once more.

Apart from its humanoid appreance, there was nothing similar to a human. No sort of human parts that might have remained if it was some sort of experimental subject.

This started to make Lucian think that the whole thing was just a monster outbreak from a specific type of monster, but still, something told him that there was more to this.

"I guess I’d just have to kill it first."

He muttered, locking his gaze on the monster that had broken into a full sprint coming for him.

Lucian had no intention of using his abilities. That was going to end things in an instant.

Instead, he was going to take it slowly, testing the capabilities of this monster as much as he could. He definitely wasn’t willing to make the same mistake he had made just a few minutes ago.

"Grrrghh!"

The monster finally appread in front of him, the rotting scent from its flesh and mouth, hitting Lucian with full force, as he stood in place watching the monster throw a fully powered swipe at him.

BANG!!

"Hmm?"

A sound of surprise escaped his mouth as he blocked the monster’s hit, staring at his feet.

He had been pushed back!

Not even the union of those five awakened were able to accomplish that, but this monster had managed to push him back by a few steps and he could very well feel the pressure coming from the monster’s claws as it pressed down harder, wanting to cut in.

Unfortunately Lucian skin was like iron, and no matter how much it tried, it just couldn’t penetrate. Giving up, the monster pulled uts heads back in a cross slash, using the sharp, curved ends of its claws to inflict some scratches.

Lucian’s eyes went cold almost immediately, as he spread his legs apart and lowered his body, throwing a punch at the monster which retreated almost immediately sensing danger from the opponent in front of it.

Unfortunately, Lucian’s hand was faster that it’s retreat, landing a solid blow that sent the creature flying backwards, crashing on the floor.

"Hmm, I see why it could easily kill some awakened. Especially baby ones like them!"

Lucian muttered, looking at the thin white lines on both his forearms, the scratch that the monster had manged to make.

With what he had observed so far, the monster was fully capable of killing awakened, but only the weak ones like the 6 he had faced earlier.

Those six were just at the second stage of awakening, not even anywhere close to the third stage.

To the normal and average human, a level two awakened could do things that they couldn’t even dream of, and that was a whole lot of difference and advantage when it came to fights on a human level, which was how Lucian understood that the group named Zeryl was operating.

But that was when it came to human level battles and fights. In the awakened world, a level 2 awakened was no different from a new born who had yet to understand the full dynamics of what it was capable of.

Even the kids at the camp had long since surpassed that stage. The monster would have no issue dealing with people like those.

"Grrrrrrr!!!!!"

Lucian watched the monster get back to its feet, let out a loud scream as it approached him again, this time, moving in random zigzag motions.

"Oho, it’s actually intelligent!"

Luacians eyes sparkled a little as his cold voice rang through the alleyway.

This monster was capable of more than it was given credit for.

Unfortunately, that didn’t matter before Lucian as he also moved, meeting the monster mid way and throwing a jab in the same spot as earlier. The soft decaying flesh of the monster distributing and reducing the force behind his weapon.

’No wonder it stood back up!’

Lucian didn’t care if the monster was related to his investigation or not right now. His curiosities had been piqued and he found this worth spending a little of his time on.

With rapid movements, he exchanged blows wit the monster which howled in pain at each hit.

Lucian pushed and tested the limits of what the creature was capable of, in terms of speed, strength, adaptability, and how far its intelligence could go.

When the monster couldn’t take it any more and Lucian didn’t notice any sort of improvements anymore. He punched a hole through the center of its chest and watched it fall.

"Sigh!"

He glanced at his bloodied fists and pulled out a rough piece of cloth, to wipe off some of the blood, taking steps towards the entrance of the alleyway. There was nothing more for him here any more.

"Grrrrrghhhhh!"

Lucian paused, hearing the same growling from a monster he had supposedly killed.

Turning around, he was met with the monster, on its two feet! It’s eyes were red and filled bloodlust as it’s body bled from the hole in its chest which had not closed up or disappeared.

The beast let out a scream before jumping at Lucian, all the intelligence and cunning it exhibited previous having disappeared. It appread more like a beast now than previously.

Lucian didn’t waste any more time on the creature he had ready defeated once, blasting it with a face full of flames and watching its body fall to the ground while the head disintegrated into a pile of ashes.

He waited some more to see of he’d be surprised again, but it seemed like it had truly died this time around.

He approached the dead body of the monster and glanced at the rotting flesh, wondering where something like that eveh originated from.

He was about to stand up and take his leave when his eyes caught onto something strange.

Barely visible on a part of its flesh that was still solid was a branding mark which read, "DF-265".

There was no way this was naturally occurring.

"Seems like it was related after all!"

He was in search of a couple of researchers who did live, human experiments and he had just encountered a monster which seemed like it had been experimented on.

The connection was quite clear. After all, from the info he had gotten from inside the chip, the culprits were willing to take whatever approach was available to them, so who was he to rule out the possibility that they were mixing both human and beast gene together to cause some sort of mutation.

"It would’ve been better if it could talk though!"

Lucian muttered, waking away from the corpses that surrounded him only to be blocked by a masked figure staring him straight in the eye.

"You managed to kill it!"

The figure said, looking at the dead monster behind him.

"What a shame, it was a rather promising subject. Maybe you could replace it."

"Yes, I think you would make a perfect substitute. Oh, before I kill you, I also have to say thank you for the awakened bodies you prepared for me!"

The masked figure said, and Lucian looked on with a strange expression, snapping his fingers and almost immediately, the corpses behind him all lit up, turning into ash statues.

A small gust of wind was what needed to blow them away.

"How sad! I guess I would have to make do with you today. Watching you now, you should be more than enough compensation!"

The figure said, rushing out to meet Lucian in a single burst, leaving a rather huge crater in starting point.

Lucian’s unbothered facial expression changed the moment he blocked his opponent’s first move.

The man hadn’t thrown a fist or any hard moves at him. He only used his cross guard as a platform to jump behind Lucian, ready to throw another attack which Lucian blocked successfully.

Lucian stomped hard on the ground, sending several pieces of rock flying up and he used that to quickly retreat, taking several steps back.

Glancing at his arms, be understood the reason behind his opponent’s cocky and overconfident tone.

His once fair arms were now purple in the places where he had touched him.

’Poison!’

And an effective one at that.

But if the man seriously thought that was all he needed to defeat Lucian, then was very wrong.

"I guess some people just don’t learn!"

Lucian’s cold voice rang out and his black flames ignited around him.