Spirit's Ascension-Chapter 34—Life on the Line

Cole tried his best to calm down and think of a solution, but he couldn’t. His mind was blank, as if his thoughts scrambled away in fear.

The spiky-haired kid, in a hot-headed manner, switched his opponent from Cole to the new presence.

The spiky-haired kid’s behavior acted like a trigger for Cole. His scrambled thoughts began reforming.

In seconds, he regained a rudimentary form of composure.

"Could he be one of Doctor Thomas’s men? Or someone else?" Cole questioned.

He didn’t have time to dwell on that, though, as the danger was currently still staring straight at him.

The spiky-haired kid finally arrived close enough to the man to attack.

"Ice Spear," he called out, as a thick spear took shape and instantly shot at the man.

The man still stood confidently, unfazed by the attack heading straight towards him.

"Weak innate spirits," he scoffed.

And directly sent a punch at the ice spear; accompanying his punch was some dark energy that screamed death itself.

Crack

The Ice Spear immediately cracked and shattered upon contact with the man’s fist.

The spiky-haired kid’s eyes widened in shock. Though that wasn’t his strongest attack, he didn’t expect the man to take care of it so easily.

"This will be tough," the kid muttered to himself.

He looked back at Cole, who was still standing a bit behind him and watching.

He saw Cole’s calculative gaze, leaving him a little bit of reassurance.

"He isn’t a coward; maybe we can work together," the kid thought to himself.

"Hey kid, judging by what you just saw, you should know that I can’t handle this guy alone."

"We better work together to keep our heads; we aren’t particularly enemies."

Cole had already decided much earlier, so he didn’t say anything, only nodding at the kid. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"I am Lucius, by the way," the kid said to Cole.

At this point the man was already growing impatient; he had expected Cole to recklessly charge so he could subdue him easily, but he was wrong.

Cole was more level-headed than he thought.

"I guess I have to take the active route then," the man said helplessly.

The words hadn’t finished leaving his mouth when he vanished and appeared behind Cole.

He proceeded to send a chopping attack straight at Cole’s nape, but he was interrupted.

He was instead met with Cole’s dexterous kick.

"I see you have already learned the basic combat stances. All better; this won’t be boring then," he laughed.

Cole didn’t respond to his taunting, only concentrating on his attack.

Bam!

His kick landed directly on the man’s legs.

"Damn," Cole suddenly cursed out as pain jolted across his body.

"How could his body be so tough?" he thought while attempting to create some distance between them.

His enemy wouldn’t allow that though, as he tried to grab his retreating body. Before his hand could touch Cole.

Bang!

An Ice Spear suddenly landed heads on, stopping his hands in their tracks.

"Don’t forget I am here," Lucius said with a frustrated face.

Due to Lucius’s interference, Cole was finally able to create some distance between him and the man.

"How do we get out of this alive?"

"He is so much stronger than me. I don’t know about him, though; he seems to have something up his sleeve." Cole thought while looking at Lucius.

Lucius’s battle-hardened brain didn’t even consider the idea of escape, even when it was obvious he wasn’t the target.

Instead, he maintained his position while staring at the man in front of them.

"I need to give it my all now; I can’t be dying without killing Thomas first," Cole suddenly decided.

After making his decision, Cole activated the two things he knew could help him in the battle.

His eyes turned deep golden—a sign of the Eyes of Scrutiny, and flames began forming and merging all around his hands.

Cole realized that his activation of the Eyes of Scrutiny he hadn’t used in a while wasn’t as draining as it used to be; he wasn’t as dizzy.

"Could this be the changes caused by all of those previous slightly warm sensations?"

"That’s great then." He smiled

"Let loose...uhh," Lucius said with a serious face. With a weird gesture of his hand.

A spear carved completely from ice took shape in his hand. The ice spear was different this time, though.

It was much denser, and it even had patterns running all across it.

At the same time, both Cole and Lucius immediately rushed at the enemy opposite them with their all.

Cole was the first to arrive, a testament of higher physical prowess, with Lucius lagging behind him a little.

Upon arrival, Cole sent a flaming punch at his enemy’s head, his stance projecting a tiger’s presence.

The attack was almost successful, but his opponent was smart enough not to attempt to block it directly.

Instead, he leaned to the side, directly dodging the attack. But his form left him even more open.

Using that opportunity, Lucius came in with a spear stab aimed directly at the man’s heart.

Cole wasn’t able to move quickly away to give Lucius a free way for the attack, so his presence ended up disrupting him.

Lack of proper communication cost them an opportunity to land a blow on the man.

Both Cole and Lucius avoided each other’s gaze but the severity of their situation didn’t let them dwell on it.

"I didn’t expect to meet another peak-stage dormant-level freshman so soon," Lucius suddenly said to Cole in amusement.

"Peak-stage? When did I reach the peak stage?" Cole questioned with furrowed eyebrows.

"Wasn’t I supposed to be in mid-stage about a week ago? How did I suddenly jump to the peak stage?" he continued.

"Less chit-chat, kids; I am wasting too much time."

"I guess you need to get out of the way first then," the man said while looking towards Lucius.

He then charged at Lucius with speed so fast that it appeared like he was teleporting.

Instantly he appeared in front of Lucius. Lucius was unable to dodge or move fast enough, resulting in the man grabbing him strongly by the shoulder.

Crack!

"Haaaaaaaa," A cracking sound followed by a scream suddenly echoed out.

Cole stood shocked in his place as he looked at the scene in front of him.

"He must kill him, or else I would be next," Cole decided.

For the first time since the beginning of the battle, he decided to fully activate the Eyes of Scrutiny. What he saw left him totally wide-mouthed.

"What is that in his body? " Cole asked with a still-widened mouth.