POW!
The sound of fist meeting flesh echoed across the air.
Upon delivering a devastating blow, Fenris drew his fist back and watched one of his attackers crumple to the ground in a pathetic heap.
The man's body twitched once before going still.
His eyes had rolled back, signalling that he had lost consciousness. Most likely, he wouldn't be waking up for a while.
Fenris exhaled slowly, shaking off the sting in his knuckles. His eyes shifted toward the remaining assailants circling him like starving wolves.
None dared move.
"...So who's next?"
The tension in the alley thickened. One of the delinquents swallowed hard, gripping his steel pole tighter. Another took an uncertain step back.
Why did they look like lost puppies?
Swinging his head from side to side in clear disappointment, Fenris let out a low chuckle before a mocking grin spread across his face.
"Huh? What's this? Don't tell me that's all you've got. You were so eager to take me down a few minutes ago, what happened to all that fire, huh? If I'd known you bastards were just a bunch of bitches, I wouldn't have bothered wasting my time proving I've got the bigger balls!"
Someone snarled through gritted teeth. "What did you say, you bastard?!"
"That's it! Let's really kill this son of a..."
"I'm gonna mess up that pretty face!"
As expected, his taunt reignited their fury; the delinquents regained their motivation and charged at him.
Fenris's grin widened until it looked almost feral.
"Ha ha ha! That's more like it! Now you're fun this way! Now this'll be worth my time, you perverted filth!"
He kicked off the ground and surged forward to meet their charge head-on.
There were six of them.
On paper, it made no sense. Beating one opponent was easy. Two was still manageable, though risky. Any more and retreat was the only sane option. Besides, the delinquents were armed with metal pipes and the like. From a street-fight perspective, his dash into them was nothing but foolish.
Lucky for him, they had chased him into a narrow alley, which neutralised most of their weapons. Even if one of them had a gun, the cramped space would make it difficult to aim without endangering his own men. Given their shabby clothes and bravado, he seriously doubted any of them even owned a firearm.
Reminiscent of a wild beast, Fenris lunged into their midst, striking with ruthless efficiency.
In mere seconds, the alley fell silent once more. The only sound left was the ragged breathing of the last man still conscious somewhat.
Fenris seized him by the collar and effortlessly hoisted him off the ground.
"P-please… s-spare me!" the delinquent stammered with a trembling voice. Snot dripped from his nose, and a dark stain spread down his pants, obviously overcome by terror.
He had watched his friends get utterly destroyed by a single person. Something that was impossible if one followed common sense.
Fenris looked him over, unimpressed, then sneered.
"Spare you? Spare you? What are you even talking about?! You should be thanking me! I'm going easy on you compared to what could've happened! Do you even know who you just tried to piss off with your perverted crap, huh?!"
The man's lips trembled, but no sound came out. He looked genuinely clueless.
Seeing that expression, Fenris let out a long, weary sigh and muttered under his breath:
"…Unbelievable."
It was August 3rd.
Everything had gone wrong because of that damned date. Maybe it was the summer heat frying his brain, or maybe he'd just been in too good a mood. After all, tomorrow marked the start of his long-awaited break.
Feeling generous, he'd picked up a random manga from a bookstore shelf — even though one glance at the cover had told him it'd be trash — and decided to treat himself at a family restaurant. A rare moment of peace, or so he thought.
Then he saw a high school-aged girl cornered by a pack of clearly half-drunk delinquents.
Naturally, he couldn't just ignore that.
What he hadn't expected was for half a dozen more of their buddies to stumble out of the bathroom like it was some kind of clown car.
He'd always assumed only girls went to the restroom in groups. Apparently, he was wrong.
Gritting his teeth, Fenris spat out with venom.
"Because of you bastards, I had to bolt before my chili fries and escargot lasagna even showed up! I didn't get a single bite and now the staff probably think I'm some dine-and-dash punk. All because I had to waste my time saving your sorry asses!"
Unable to hold back any longer, he drew his right fist hand back, clenched a fist and swung it forward.
CRACK!
The blow connected squarely with the man's jaw, sending him flying backward like a rag doll. He hit the ground with a dull thud, skidding across the dirt before slumping motionless beside his fallen friends.
Fenris exhaled sharply through his nose, shaking out his hand as if to fling off the irritation still clinging to his knuckles. His crimson eyes burned with residual adrenaline.
"Damn it," he muttered, running a hand through his sweat-damp hair. "I didn't even want to get involved today but it couldn't be helped."
August 3rd. He had picked up a manga at the bookstore despite knowing from the cover alone that it was trash, entered a family restaurant to treat himself, for once, to a decent between-meals snack, stumbled upon a high school girl being surrounded by a pack of half-drunk delinquents, and decided that a little rescuing was in order.
However, Fenris hadn't exactly been trying to save the girl. Rather, he had tried to save the boys who had foolishly approached her.
His reasoning was simple enough for even a child to understand. Genesis City was the kind of place overflowing with strange people and even stranger phenomena. Some time ago, a mystery known as the "Awakened" had surfaced and completely changed the structure of society.
Come to think of it, the Awakened had first appeared after the First Cataclysm, an event that had nearly wiped humanity off the face of the Earth. Monster outbreaks and Gate incidents hadn't lessened in the slightest since then, but Genesis City remained the most heavily fortified metropolis in the world. Not only because countless influential figures resided here, but also because every major corporation, government, and private investor had poured their fortunes into making sure the city never fell.
Despite that, the Awakened were far more impressive, and far more terrifying, than any ordinary human could ever hope to be. No amount of training, meditation, or so-called "enlightenment" could bridge the gap between them. No martial arts, body-forging techniques, or even clever mind games. Nothing at all.
The difference was simply beyond imagination.
And by sheer misfortune, the girl those delinquents had chosen to harass happened to be a Tier 5 Calamity — the Wraithspawn Seraphis.
Calamities were unpredictable by nature whose moods could shift from calm to catastrophic in the blink of an eye. Provoking one was less an act of stupidity and more a death sentence.
Had he not stepped in, that girl would've incinerated those poor bastards on the spot, turning them into nothing more than a pile of smoldering, charred meat!
…Or so he thought.
In truth, Seraphine probably wouldn't have gone that far. At best, she would've just… singed them a little. Maybe.
But he couldn't take that chance, especially not when she was infamously clumsy and had a track record of "accidentally" destroying public property.
What if his favorite restaurant got reduced to cinders next time because someone couldn't control their temper?!
That would be unacceptable!
"Tsk. Damn those arrogant Awakened! Don't they care about regular folks like us?"
Fenris muttered irritably. But no one answered him, mostly because all the people who could have were currently sprawled across the alley, beaten black and blue.
He let out a heavy sigh.
"It can't be helped. What now? Should I head back to the restaurant? …Nah, that's too much of a hassle. Guess I'll go home instead. Maybe grab some groceries on the way."
With another sigh, Fenris scratched the back of his head and started walking toward the street.
Then, he suddenly stopped. For some reason, his legs refused to cooperate with his efforts.
A voice whispered:
[Your soul have been influenced by the Calamity Tree of Desire.]
[Awakening dormant powers...]