BOOM!
Chaos ripped through the apartment blocks, turning what should have been a quiet afternoon into a full-blown war zone.
Damon was completely disoriented.
He was only here to drop off a package for the illegal outfit he worked for.
He had no clue what was inside. Maybe some low-tier Hunter elixirs, but it did not matter now.
Only one thing mattered: if he did not deliver, he did not get paid.
And Damon always finished his jobs, no matter how illegal they were.
A rank F Hunter did not exactly have many legal ways to make a living.
He raised a hand to his head and felt something warm.
When he pulled it back, it was drenched in blood.
A lot of blood.
He did not understand how he was still alive. The ringing in his ears was unbearable.
'Damn it. If my Vitality stat were any lower, I would already be dead,' he thought as he forced his vision to focus.
Damon scanned the destruction and spotted someone else. A man dressed in black from head to toe lay among the rubble. His suit seemed to swallow the light around him, although it was shredded and smoking.
"Hey! You! Get up! What are you doing!" Damon yelled, but the stranger did not react.
'What the hell is going on?'
Although deep down he already knew.
It was impossible, but it was happening right in front of him.
A portal had opened.
Right in the middle of the city.
He froze as the Spiritual Pressure pouring out of it crushed the air from his lungs.
At his level, if a monster came out now, he was done for.
"Damn it! We need to get out of here!" he shouted again at the man in black.
Suddenly, the man let out a low groan. A sound of raw, scraping pain.
Damon had no choice. He grabbed the guy by the shoulder and dragged him toward one of the shops that was still standing in the back.
'I cannot even fight,' Damon thought as his lungs burned.
It was hopeless.
Trash tier.
A pathetic F rank Hunter.
Then the man in black stood up on his own.
He did not speak.
He simply stared at Damon with burning yellow eyes that did not look human at all. They were like two suns on the verge of exploding.
With a quick gesture, he signaled Damon to stay put.
Then he walked straight toward the monster that had just crawled out of the portal.
It was massive, close to 20 feet tall. A zone boss radiating pure bloodlust. Its skin looked like molten rock and when it roared, every window on the block shattered.
CRASH!
Damon could not comprehend how something like that could appear in a residential area. He searched for any sign of the neighbors, but the streets were empty.
The man in black raised one hand. Mana compressed with such violent force that Damon felt the air crackle with electricity.
Before he could process anything else, the world detonated again.
BOOM!
A blinding burst of raw energy and a shrill scream erased every sense he had.
Something struck Damon's hand. It had been flung out by the explosion. Instinctively, he closed his fist around it.
When he looked up, the man in black was gone.
Only silence and smoke remained.