The telekinetic orb moved dangerously close to Elliot, who was already prepared to dodge.
But suddenly, the orbs tripled. Elliot’s expression darkened. He had given Luke too much time.
He had given him enough time to enter his mind and create these simple yet effective illusions. He knew only one was real, but not which one.
The best option was to move away from all three orbs. His body was enveloped in a flash of lightning, exploding in speed as he leaped away in an electric jump at a crackling velocity.
But Luke simply snapped his fingers.
‘Shambles!’
The three orbs vanished from their trajectory and reappeared mere inches from his chest.
Elliot clicked his tongue and, with a growl, unleashed his most powerful defenses, wrapping himself in a lightning shield with all the energy he had available.
BOOM!
A powerful explosion echoed through Sunnyvale. The air distorted in a violent burst of pure pressure.
The asphalt cracked in all directions, streetlights bent and burst into sparks, windows shattered, and the nearest buildings shook as if an earthquake had struck the small town.
The shockwave tore through everything within a 20-meter radius, leaving behind a cloud of dust and debris as the sound of the impact rumbled through the city.
Luke stood amidst the chaos, observing the destruction. Several cars had been destroyed—luckily, no people were around. A massive crater now scarred the street, far larger than the one from Luke’s forced landing.
‘I have to kill him…’ Luke thought, breathing erratically.
His condition wasn’t good. Though he had no critical injuries, he had accumulated severe fatigue and minor wounds from Elliot. Using Shambles and future vision so many times had been exhausting—these were far from simple abilities.
On top of that, he had been pushing his telekinesis to its limit without rest, along with his blue aura, though he hadn’t had many chances to use the latter.
And then, there was his battle against Niklaus, the leader of the Drosia Clan’s secondary branch. Although that fight had been easy, and Luke had walked away without a scratch, it had still drained some of his stamina and energy.
Thanks to his domain, Luke knew Elliot was still alive, even if he couldn’t see him with his eyes.
At that moment, he decided to act. He had to take advantage of the brief window before Elliot could regain his lightning speed and resume his attack. Luke began focusing his telekinesis.
He raised his hand, and suddenly, the nearby cars began to move at incredible speed, propelled by his telekinetic force. Several metallic pieces lifted off the ground, entire cars rising into the air like mere toys.
With a flick of his power, he hurled them toward the crater where Elliot lay.
From within the hole, Elliot looked up, his gaze meeting the sight of massive cars, each weighing several tons, hurtling toward him.
‘His strength grows in the face of adversity…’ Elliot thought, watching as the sheer number of vehicles barely surpassed ten tons each.
Meanwhile, Luke vanished in the blink of an eye, using Shambles to reposition himself instantly. He disappeared from Elliot’s sight.
He had to prepare for a fatal blow. Extending his open palm, he began focusing telekinetic waves.
Energy started condensing in his hand, and the air around him began to vibrate.
He would use his telekinetic slash attack, capable of cutting through mythic bronze, a material stronger than steel. If he struck Elliot with this, he could kill him. But he needed one minute and ten seconds to condense the telekinetic waves to the point where they could cut through mythic bronze.
In the past, when he first used this attack against Atlas, it took him two minutes. Now, thanks to his training, he had managed to reduce that time. Even so, it was still a considerable amount of time, and in a deadly battle, the enemy wouldn’t just let you charge up a fatal attack.
Elliot emerged from the crater where he had fallen after the explosion. He was injured, but not critically. His body was covered in burns and explosion marks, his scorched skin littered with visible bruises and contusions.
One simple mistake had cost him dearly. He had failed to control his disdain for normies, and now he was paying the price.
Still, he remained calm.
‘Where is he?’ Elliot thought, scanning the area for Luke. The place was filled with debris and smoke.
The death of his loyal servant, Atlas, suddenly came to his mind. A gorgon with mythic bronze cleanly sliced in half.
Was the kid preparing that lethal and powerful attack?
However, Elliot didn’t worry about it. He could dodge it.
He knew that attack could not be repositioned using Luke’s Shambles technique, since it wasn’t a condensed orb that could be manipulated.
At that moment, a siren began to wail in the distance, rapidly approaching.
The firefighters and police of Sunnyvale were on their way.
Elliot turned his head toward the flashing lights drawing closer to the epicenter of the chaos he and Luke had caused.
“If you won’t come out… then I’ll make you come out, boy of principles,” Elliot thought, his gaze turning icy cold.
His body crackled with lightning, and in an instant, he shot forward.
Soon, he saw the authority vehicles closing in on the scene.
Before any normie inside the vehicles could react, a massive bolt of lightning struck the leading vehicle.
BOOM!
The vehicle exploded instantly, killing the normies inside. The resulting blast was brutal, sending shards of metal, glass, and fire in all directions.
The vehicles behind had no time to react.
Two police cars were caught in the shockwave, crashing into each other and flipping over completely.
Elliot made another slight movement with his hand, and another bolt of lightning struck the normie vehicles. Within seconds, all the vehicles were destroyed, and the normies inside were, of course, killed.
Luke, with his heightened perception, witnessed everything but chose to stay out of it. The most important thing right now was charging his attack to kill Elliot as soon as possible.
If he stepped in now, the only thing he would achieve was getting himself and the normies killed.
Elliot continued his destruction. Though he held back—he couldn’t afford to waste energy on large-scale, powerful attacks. Even so, the devastation he caused was brutal.
In just a few seconds, he had already wreaked havoc and slaughtered dozens of normies.
‘Twenty more seconds…’ Luke thought, furrowing his brows as he focused harder, condensing telekinetic waves into his palm. The air around his hand vibrated intensely.
Meanwhile, at a nearby restaurant, people began rushing outside, alarmed by the constant booms and flashes lighting up the city.
“What the hell is going on!?” Simon exclaimed, still holding his beer, his brows furrowed.
He, along with Violet, Kate, and their Shadyside teammates, was celebrating their victory in the football game at a local Sunnyvale restaurant.
“Is this a terrorist attack or what the fuck is happening?” Kate muttered, her face pale.
Violet said nothing. Her eyes scanned the crowd, her breathing unsteady.
She had been wondering where Tuesday had gone ever since she disappeared after the game ended.
She had called and sent messages, but there was no response. She wanted to go look for her, but her friends told her to drop it, that Tuesday had left on her own and that she shouldn’t insist—they needed to celebrate.
But now, her worry grew stronger.
What if Tuesday was near those explosions?
Another explosion shook the ground just a few streets away.
A pillar of fire and debris violently shot into the night sky.
“Shit!” Simon shouted, stepping back with the others as the shockwave rattled the restaurant.
The windows cracked, some shattering into pieces.
The screams of the crowd were almost deafening.
Then—a figure appeared out of nowhere in a flash of lightning.
It descended at terrifying speed, landing in front of them with a presence so overwhelming that it filled Violet and the others with fear.
Elliot.
Violet stared at Elliot in shock. The same went for the others as they watched a human being wrapped in crackling blue sparks, as if his body itself was generating electricity.
What terrified Violet the most were the man’s two eyes—two icy abysses devoid of emotion, staring at them. There was no hatred, no rage in his expression—just a stoic indifference, as if he were looking at insects he would soon crush.
The group of people remained frozen in place, caught between the instinct to flee and the pure terror radiating from the being in front of them.
Elliot said nothing. With a slight extension of his hand, he fired a small lightning bolt that zigzagged like a serpent, striking a middle-aged man with a neatly trimmed beard.
The result was immediate and horrifying.
A sharp explosion echoed through the air as energy coursed through the man’s body, triggering a brutal internal overload. His muscles convulsed violently, his eyes bulged, and an instant later, his skin ruptured as if something inside him had detonated. The extreme heat vaporized his blood instantly, creating a small shockwave that sent fragments of bone and flesh flying in all directions.
His internal organs burst, scattering charred viscera across the ground as his torso split apart in a grotesque display of blood and ashes.
Violet, still processing what had just happened, turned her head at the worst possible moment.
A charred piece of flesh struck her cheek, leaving behind a sticky, warm sensation. Her gaze trembled as it dropped to her hands, where she saw dark blood splattered across her clothes. Her stomach twisted violently.
“Oh my God…!” she gasped, her voice breaking, clamping a hand over her mouth as her face contorted in pure horror.
The rest of the crowd snapped out of their shock. Screams erupted like a chain reaction.
Some stumbled over themselves in their desperation, while others sprinted away at full speed, shoving each other in a frenzied attempt to escape the lightning-wrapped monster who had just obliterated a man before their eyes.
‘Useless,’ Elliot thought with disdain, lazily raising his hand again.
It was impossible for these normies to dodge his lightning. A simple chain bolt could slaughter them all like dominoes, but it was satisfying to watch them scurry like ants.
“Violet, let’s go! Run!” Simon and Kate shouted, grabbing Violet’s arm and pulling her away from Elliot.
Elliot’s gaze locked onto the three teenagers, the closest to him. He raised his hand, aiming at them, as a small but lethal bolt of lightning began forming in his palm.
But just as he was about to unleash his attack, his body tensed.
A flash in his perception.
A distortion in the air.
Someone appeared beside him. Just a few meters away.
Elliot turned his head a mere millisecond before a sharp arc of invisible energy came hurtling toward him.
Luke.
Seeing that his three Shadyside companions were on the verge of death, Luke decided to act.
He hadn’t been able to condense his telekinetic waves for a full minute, but he believed that with the nearly 50 seconds he had charged his attack, it should be enough to kill Elliot. After all, Elliot was a psychic, not someone with Atlas’s tough skin.
The air shuddered violently as the telekinetic blade slashed through space at blazing speed, heading straight for Elliot’s torso.
Luke had teleported less than two meters away, an extremely close distance meant to minimize Elliot’s chances of dodging. He knew his enemy’s speed was absurd, but at this range, dodging would be difficult, especially since his telekinetic slash was anything but slow.
To increase his chances of success, Luke invaded Elliot’s mind, issuing a simple mental command to freeze him in place.
For less than a second, Elliot’s body locked up.
The telekinetic blade was moments away from tearing into his torso when—
Elliot vanished with a snap.
Luke’s eyes widened in shock as he saw his attack miss at the last moment, Elliot disappearing from sight.
It wasn’t speed. It wasn’t reflexes. It was something else.
But he had no time to analyze it.
A cold sensation crawled up his spine.
Before he could react, he felt it, something piercing through his torso.
He lowered his gaze, and he saw it.
A sword, seemingly forged from pure electricity, had impaled his abdomen.
‘What…!?’ Luke thought.
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