At that moment, Luke felt like he was on top of the world. Well, maybe not exactly the apex where the late Zayn Larson used to be, but he was pretty close to that within the nation.Thinking about Zayn made him sentimental.It was only a few days ago when he received news of the young man’s untimely death at Mount Septimus. It had been a bombshell to him, not least because Zayn was very much close to unbeatable and invincible to him. This was the man who had managed to attain unfathomable power and become the combat instructor for the Insurgent Trifecta in spite of his youth and relative wetness around his ears. His future prospects had been very promising, if not immeasurable. Give Zayn a few more years, and who knows how much further he would go beyond known limitations.And that was when a genius of this caliber died. Gone and disappeared like ashes and dust, like every other corpse.Suffice to say Luke’s opinion of Zayn was rather complicated. Unlike Sean Wilson or Gordon Hayes
The first person he saw was Zayn, and boy, was it unbelievable! Rumors and stories he had caught wind of simply confirmed Zayn Larson to be dead—he was pursued by a perfect class legendary nonpareil at Mount Septimus, who injured him gravely, before getting caught in a massive explosion!There had been search parties conducted around the mountain after the event, and the people involved were the ones who concluded Zayn as “deader than dead”, whatever that meant. However, only after a few days, the “dead man” was standing right before him—Without any critical injuries or long-term damage in sight!To make matters even more complicated, Jim could sense that Zayn had become even stronger now. Standing in front of him made Luke feel as though he was looking up a towering mountain. The feeling of being dwarfed was so overwhelming, Luke found his breathing stifled.As his thoughts roamed, the ground broke Jim’s fall with his right arm numbed. His contact with Zayn was no more than a tap
Contrary to her usual demeanor, Agatha retorted. “As if you’re one to speak! You goaded him into coming here—that’s just psychological manipulation and you know it! You’re just not man enough to admit it!”Their tiff quickly escalated into an all-out altercation, dragging everyone else into a whirlpool of chaos.Zayn’s frown deepened. On one hand, he was touched by Agatha standing up for him despite their less-than-optimal optics. On the other, the kind of abuse Jared slung at him was so debased, it angered Zayn.But what took the cake was Luke’s attitude. His inaction was grating. It was as if the guy thought Zayn had become a toothless tiger simply because some powerful enemies had their eyes on him—as if Zayn was no longer the mighty whom Luke should respect!Zayn snorted in disdain. It was by no means loud, yet it somehow reverberated throughout the room and exploded in everyone’s ears like a peal of thunder. It rocked their senses so hard, their faces paled. Luke, in particula
It seemed very likely that Luke was determined to not look up until Zayn permitted him to do so, so the latter—knowing when to let up the highfalutin act—nodded slightly as a sign of forgiveness. “Fine, fine. It’s your big day today and I’m not gonna ruin it, man. Go, have fun.”“R-Right, sir!” Luke said, his voice relaxing in relief before looking up. Scanning his surroundings, he noticed the shock on their faces for the first time and felt a slight pang of embarrassment.Still, Luke thought it was only natural that he showed submission to Zayn. The man had always been his superior; nothing wrong with showing fealty to his liege when he returned, right?Above all else, he was more curious about what happened to Zayn over these recent days. While the thought hung in his mind, Zayn patted Luke on his shoulders. “It’s your fiftieth birthday today, right? I’ve prepared a big gift for you, but it’s only gonna come later.”Luke froze. He spied Zayn’s empty hands. What gift?Well, not t
A shriek scrapped against the air from behind. A man dove towards Zayn and fell forward into a kneel with an ugly face marred by snots and tears. “Mr. Larson, I’m sorry! I was too blind to recognize your greatness, and now I offend you! Please, I’m begging you—I’m just a blind cur who doesn’t know what greatness is even if it stares me down on my face!”It was Jared. Gone was the arrogance and lofty sneer in his face. Now, he was just a crying embarrassment on his knees whining to be forgiven, his dignity be damned. Jim was not inclined to be left out, too, so he dropped down to his knees to apologize profusely like a maligned servant.Of course they regretted how they treated Zayn. Had they known he was the kind of supreme bigshot—whom even people like Luke deferred to—from the very beginning, they would have never had the gall to show an ounce of disrespect to him. Hell, they would have thrown themselves at every opportunity to stroke Zayn’s ego!Jared was especially mortified. Go
Agatha was so startled, her phone slipped out of her fingers. Zayn was quick enough to catch it, fortunately, so he swiped it before it hit the ground and returned it to her.No one would have faulted her for her reaction—the intrusion was that sudden. A coffin was heavy enough to see it basically sailing through the air before landing right by Luke’s feet—among the crater its fall created, to boot. Had Luke’s reflexes failed him, the flying coffin could have smacked him right on his face and injured him!As it turned out, the coffin’s momentum was far from over. It ricocheted from where it landed and continued its forward onslaught. Fortunately, Luke, being a superior class fighter, had the speed and strength to stop it dead on its tracks with his own hands, therefore inadvertently saving many of the attendees around him.Whatever force driving the coffin was clearly superhuman. The impact spread through his innards like a wayward tide. He felt nauseated before spitting out a mouth
A dozen more stood behind him, all of them apparently expert pugilists. Among them, the one standing at the right was a stony-faced man clad in a vintage trench coat and leather shoes.The pugilist in question looked deceptively normal at first glance, but the more one scrutinized him, the more he unsettled them. He was like a man-shaped black hole, a tear in space that drew everyone’s attention into it until all there was left of the onlookers were the chills in their stomach.Now that was a superior class tier-3 fighter, Zayn realized. Trench Coat Man’s battle prowess could give Dick Cheney a run for his money—which was a big deal in and of itself. Superior fighters were, generally, a rare breed among humans simply because it was hard for a normal fighter to ever get here. After all, not everyone was lucky enough to be a once-in-a-million-years genius like Zayn.“You! Syrus f**king Wright!”Just the sight of that man caused Luke to erupt in a burst of malice, dyeing his cheeks a
Zayn did not step forward immediately but chose to wait and observe. He wanted to see how Luke would manage this. As he was confronted by Luke’s anger, Syrus’ expression was filled with glee and joy. He loathed Luke to his bones because no thanks to the latter, over the past few years, he had constantly gotten into trouble. In fact, his biological son was in jail because of Luke’s doing. At present, they were bound by a blood feud. However, Luke had been an acquired fighter for a long time and had always struggled to become a master fighter. As a result, Syrus constantly had the upper hand in his battles with Luke, and he ended up seizing a large number of Luke’s resources. Just as he was about to deliver a fatal blow and take over Luke’s business empire at one go, for some unknown reason, the moron Luke actually made a breakthrough in his training and became a master fighter!Moreover, Luke was rather powerful, and his previous abjectness was swept clean. Luke was so quick an