"All that detailed planning, and finally the golden opportunity to kill you."
"Are you dumb? If you kill me, won’t there be questions raised?" Thors yelled in defence.
At this, Bishop shrugged his shoulders, and a sinister grin crept across his face. "Don’t worry yourself about all that. My family is influential, remember? Just a slap on the wrist at best."
Thors opened his mouth to speak, but found himself lost for words. He shut his lips, lingered there for a moment, and then stepped back a few paces.
"So this is it."
White curls of lightning began to form around Thors’ arms, surging across his skin with a low, humming noise. His opposition did the same, those with abilities coating their weapons in varieties of auras that flickered and pulsed with restrained power.
While the others took their battle stances, ready to jump forward and attack Thors at any moment.
"Are you insane?" Bishop laughed. "Are you really going to fight nine Superhumans alone? Why struggle against the inevitable?"
A long silence passed between both parties, with neither side making a single move.
At this moment, Bishop tapped on his watch, brought it up to eye level, and another cruel grin peeled across his expression.
"You also have the choice to beg, though. I’ll just get it on camera, and you will be free to go."
Thors’ face boiled at the statement.
To beg?!
He gritted his teeth as his entire being screamed, no!... He would not.
If it was the old Thors, he might have given in to begging and accepting the disgraceful act.
Even now, it was the most logical thing to do.
But no, not with the monster he had met today.
After Valon, there was no way he could even imagine himself giving up.
[Quest: You have encountered a very tight predicament.]
[Fight the enemies and survive... Reward: Death +29 Charisma]
[Plead for mercy... Reward: Half of your Charisma points will be deducted]
[Run... Charisma points -10]
[Each choice has its own rewards. The higher the risks, though, the better the rewards.]
[Double Charisma point active]
Thors grunted within, ’Of all the times for Double Charisma to show up, why does it have to be at this moment?’
Bishop frowned, seeing as Thors did not release his ability.
"Is that your choice... Then so be it."
The man who had threatened to lodge his knife into Thors’ head earlier was the first to react.
His muscles tensed before he lunged forward, knife outstretched, the sharp blade aimed directly at Thors’ chest. His feet tore across the ground with incredible speed, closing the distance in the blink of an eye.
Thors shifted his entire weight to the right at the last possible moment.
The knife whistled past his chest.
He twisted his body with the movement, allowing the attacker to rush past him without even grazing his skin.
But there was no time to breathe.
The next attack came almost immediately.
Two red, burning balls of Mana tore through the air, flying straight for Thors.
Again, he avoided both attacks faster than they came, twisting his upper body away from the first and stepping sharply past the second. The blazing spheres crashed into the ground where he had been standing, erupting into an outburst of smoke, grit, and fragments of broken pavement.
Thors ducked beneath a swinging bat, the length of the weapon covered in a weird, bubbling yellow-like energy.
The weapon passed over his head with barely an inch to spare.
Then the next attack came without warning.
"Switch!" One of the Superhumans yelled at the top of his voice.
In the next moment, Thors’ entire vicinity changed.
The world seemed to lurch around him.
His body disappeared from where he stood and reappeared several meters away, directly in front of—
A bat!
"Shit!"
Thors’ arms shot upward on instinct.
The heavy bat came crashing down against his forearms with inhuman force.
BOOM!
The impact drove his feet into the ground.
His bones rattled violently beneath his skin, pain shooting from his wrists to his shoulders. If not for his increased Charisma points, the force might have shattered both his arms outright.
Thors staggered backwards, shaking off the impact as he raised a hand to retaliate against his attacker.
And then—
"Switch!"
It happened again.
Thors’ vicinity warped, the scenery around him twisting for a split second before his body was forcibly relocated.
He gritted his teeth, expecting the worst from the shift.
He wasn’t wrong.
A giant hand, nearly the size of his upper body, came swinging toward him.
There was no time to dodge.
BAM!
The massive hand struck Thors directly in the chest, the impact folding his body around the blow before launching him into the air.
"Argh!"
His body flew backwards before crashing violently into the ground.
He rolled several meters across the pavement, his back scraping against the rough surface before he finally dug his fingers into the ground and forced himself back onto his feet.
"Shit!"
A glint caught the corner of his eye.
Thors lurched to the side just as a dagger came plummeting down where his head had been.
The blade stabbed into the ground with a sharp clang.
He immediately rolled away as multiple energy balls tore through the space around him, explosions erupting behind him one after another.
Thors raised both hands.
Golden lightning surged from his arms, forming a crackling barrier that intercepted several more attacks.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The lightning flashed violently as the energy attacks collided against it, forcing Thors backwards with every impact.
Every second in this battle was excruciatingly painful for Thors.
He was being forced onto the defensive, constantly dodging attacks that practically wanted to end his life.
There was no rhythm.
No breathing room.
Every time he found an opening, another attack was already coming.
Even when he tried to get some distance to recover, ’That annoying bastard teleports me back into the midst of the others.’
At this rate...
There was no telling if he was going to survive.