Read Part of Mine :: Chapter 14 – Conflict

Cole walked to the crowd and made hand movements to tell people to move away from his path. When the crowd moved away, he and David came face to face.

He was shorter than David by a large margin. He was around 1, 70 meters. His build wasn’t as good as David's too. He was older than David, he was probably in his early 30s. He was wearing a shirt with large flower patterns. It looks like he came directly from an overseas trip or something.

“So, what happened here?” He asked with a sarcastic tone.

“Whatever you do, don’t engage in a fight.” David said to Luci through the link.

With one look, David could pretty much tell how kind of a person standing before him. Calm down David, keep your reasoning intact. He thought.

“Hi, I’m Hunter David. There was a break, bird like monsters came through the crack. I’ve counted 53. We defeated all of them, there are no causalities.”

“We?”

“Me and my summons. I am a summoner-type hunter. He is one of my summons.” David showed Luci.

“Oh, HAHAHA... That’s a good one. A hunter that I never heard of clearing a break all by himself huh… That’s fun.”

<Crowd>

“What an impudent man.” Someone said in the crowd.

“I forgot how centered hunters were.”

“He is that Cole guy, right? He has a bad reputation.”

“Yeah, he’s a total pushover.”

“They said that he saved a group of people 3 days ago. It looks like it was a lie.”

“If the newbies weren’t there, we all been dead until now. He never shows up places on time.”

“Don’t you hear the rumors? He uses his fame to get girls and drink all day. He never takes place in the hunts.”

<Crowd>

Cole’s breaths get faster and faster. It’s like he’s having an anger blast. He lifted his hand to hit one of the civilians. But he couldn’t move his hand. There was a chain around his wrist.

It was David. He was the one who activated the skill.

“So sir, what are you trying to do?” David was watching his reaction.

“Kid, don’t try to play the hero. This is not your fight.”

“It is my fight if civilians are in danger.”

Cole tried to get rid of the chain but he couldn’t. “You fucker. You are gonna see what happens when you make an S-class your enemy.” He was struggling.

David chuckled softly. This man, he was weak. David could tell it, even without using a skill. Despite his low mana level, the man was posing no threat to him.

I can blow his head off, right here right now. I can remove one shitbag from this world forever. David thought. But he held himself back. “I’m not trying to make you my enemy. I’m protecting the civilians, that’s all.” He canceled the skill afterward.

“Ha ha ha! So you want me to believe you defeated all the monsters? How can I know you didn't brainwash those people?”

David showed the security cameras. “You can check the surveillance records.”

Cole was pissed. That guy was embarrassing him before all of those people. He swallowed his pride and asked, “I've never seen you before, who are you anyway?”

“I am a new hunter. I awakened just a little while ago.”

“Ha, and you defeated all? The center said there were high B-class monsters around. How can I believe it?”

“So you knew that, and still came late?” David asked with a serious tone. His anger was growing.

Cole was taken aback and stretched his head. “I came to the scene late on purpose. All because of that big-headed association leader. He pushes me to show myself in public, removing my bad reputation or whatever. As long as I will be there and show my face, it will be enough. I don’t care about those people; I’m here for my money. After getting it I can rent a room, grab one or two girls from the street and enjoy the night. Then why is that rat standing before me? Want me to believe him in all the people who defeated all monsters? What a joke… Actually, I can flip the situation on my side. No one will believe him, a new hunter beating all of those monsters. I will get all the praise just like the crack from 3 days ago. This is better than I imagined.”

“Dude, you said all those out loud.” David was shocked. He guessed that man being a total trash, but saying all those out with all the people around? It was a whole new level. “Are you high or something?” David asked in confusion.

“I’ve recorded all!” Said one of the people in the crowd.

“Me too. Dude, just don’t stand still share it!”

“Please do, everyone should know how kind a person he is!”

Cole stood still for a while. “Everything, everything must be destroyed. Those people they know too much, I will kill them all and blame the monsters!” His body gloved yellow and he threw a powerful punch into the crowd. But the punch has never been delivered. A wall, no, a person blocked it.

“Wow, that was stronger than I anticipated. Do you have a skill that makes you stronger when you are angry?” David forced a smile. But in fact, that punch hurt. His arms were shaking, because of the recoil. He looked behind and asked, “Is anyone hurt?”

“So you are bold enough to turn your eyes off me, fucker!”

Cole moved for another punch but David was faster. He held Cole from his face and slammed him to the ground. Cole let out a faint scream, but it was blocked by the sound of the loud voice of the impact. His head was on the ground. He saw nothing but an emotionless face with glowing green eyes. David grabbed him again and slammed again.

“Shut up.”

David’s body started emitting black smoke. His eyes were shining red. He held Cole by his neck and lifted him up. His legs weren’t even reaching the ground. Cole couldn’t react.

“This being a habit. Listen, trash bag. If you lift those arms to civilians again, I will rip them off and shove them… somewhere inappropriate. You got the idea aren’t you?” Cole’s face was purple and the back of his head was bleeding. David let him go when he felt the blood flowing over his fingers.

Cole's body hit the ground.

David looked at him with a disgusted face. “Disgusting.” He created fire around his arm and burned the blood on his hand.

He took a deep breath while deactivating his skill. Tried to remove his ugly face. “Sorry… I showed my bad side. I understand if you want me to stay away…” He turned his back and smiled. Expecting to see faces that full of fear but it was the opposite. The crowd was watching him with shining eyes. When he turned his back, they started to cheer him.

“You saw it all folks. I was right here, in the live-action!! We saw Hunter Cole get beaten up by another hunter. Will he be able to get up? We will see…”

“Hey, stop. You are making him uncomfortable.”

“Young man, you need to rest. You defeated not only monsters but him too.” A man from the crowd came closer to David.

“Can someone bring a chair?”

“No need, please…” David was embarrassed.

Luci was laughing at his actions. “Karma huh?” He walked to David.

“Someone having fun at least.” David grabbed Luci with his arm and started playing with his hair. His hair tips were burned. “Let’s cut your hair when we return home.”

“Okay.”

David knew the source of this notification.

A group of black cars arrived on the street. People with black suits came out and opened the door of the limousine. It was Carter. He walked to the scene and looked directly at David. He tried to figure out what happened. There were crystals scattered everywhere. Hunter Cole was partially buried to the ground and the crowd was cherishing David. Carter collected his thoughts and started talking.

“Hunter David Blake and Hunter Luci Blake. You two, coming with me.”

“They did nothing wrong. They were the heroes.” It was the child from before.

“Yes! Hunter Cole tried to hurt us, but he stopped him.”

“He also stopped the monsters, no one hurt thanks to him.”

“I’ve recorded everything, I have the proof!”

“I have witnesses! Thousands of people watched my live broadcast!”

Carter let out a deep sigh. It was a total mess.

Luci acted first. He lifted the little kid and held him on his lap. “They are not here because we are in trouble. We used too much mana during the fight so we need to rest. They came here to take us home. Right?”

Carter smiled “Yes. We will take them home. They are our newest hunters, we will announce them to the public later. Please keep in check.”

Luci put the little kid to the back and walked to the limo. David followed him. Carter gave some orders to other men and sat in front of the duo.

“Move the car.” His voice was calm. Carter grasped his two hands together. “So, who will tell me what happened?” David attempted to speak but Carter silenced him. “Luci, talk. Tell me all the details. Don’t try to protect your master and answer objectively.”

“We went to the crack this morning. I’ve reached level 23 so, master can use all of my skills now. We were enjoying ourselves in the café. I tried various ice cream flavors; I guess my favorite is chocolate. Anyways, while we were sitting, a break happened. There were 53 monsters. We tried to fight but our power wasn’t enough. Master used his skill again and tamed an ice phoenix. Three of us defeated them. When that walking trash bag arrived, we were checking the civilians. He tried to hit civilians, and said a bunch of bullshit.”

“And I silenced him. If you're gonna punish someone it should be me.” David’s voice came out emotionless.

Carter let out a deep sigh. “I won’t be punishing anyone. The video of Hunter Cole has already been watched by thousands. Since he’s connected to the New World Association, this is their problem. I want to say, thank you. You two, despite not being official hunters, saved dozens of lives.”

“It is our duty. You don’t need to thank us.” David smiled.

“Your duty also includes giving me reports about your whereabouts. Show me, your new summon.”

“Ah, about that… When my summons take a human form, they don’t come with the clothes. If I summon him, he will be naked.”

They stared at each other in silence.

When the silence got loud, David started talking again. “I can’t call him his full form either, I don’t have enough mana. But… I can do this.”

<Summoner’s Mark: The Connection used on Summon Frost>

David’s wrist glowed. Pieces come through his wrist and form a red entity. When the red glow disappeared, a blue-colored bird with long head feathers appeared. It had a red gloving scar on its neck. Frost was roughly the size of a chicken, looking like his original form’s scaled-down version.

“This is Frost. During the morning’s crack hunt, I reached level 25. My Summoner’s mark skill description changed after leveling up. I can make my summons appear with a small size like this. Or using 10000 mana, I can make them appear in their real forms.”

“I’ve heard it before. Unique skill descriptions change by leveling up, it’s not a rare occasion. But this much chance… Sure is unique. Also, the mana requirement is too much.”

“That was genius. We didn’t mention that part of the skill during the test.” Luci talked through the link.

“If I didn’t tell him, he would ask me first. It is better this way. We can’t hide all the effects forever.” David answered through the link.

“Ohh… This is a secret talk room!” It was the Frost.

“Shut your beak up bird. Or else…”

“Waaaa… Master save me!!” Frost said out loud.

Frost flew and landed on David’s shoulder. “I CAN’T BE SILENCED. Even you can’t silence me!”

“You are lucky that, I don’t have the energy to do this.” Luci said in a irritated tone.

“You dare!”

“These two already started fighting. This is gonna be a long ride.” David said it with a low tone. He was barely standing up.

“Not too long. We arrived.” Carter opened the door. They were at David's house.

“I wanted to talk about Harrington too, but you don’t look good so I will ask about it later.”

“Harrington?” Luci asked.

“It’s the man whose master was strangled yesterday. The old one.” Frost answered. “You forgot it already? The summon that forgets this easily shouldn’t be a right-hand man of the master.”

“Right-hand man? Do you think that you have a chance? I can turn you into a fried chicken in any second.”

Carter was watching their fight. David decided to speak. “He was also an awakened person. I just showed him that I'm an S-class. Just because I’m not abusing my power, it doesn’t mean that I can swallow all of his words. I won’t let anyone hurt my summons, ever.”

“He apologized. I just wanted to tell you that…” Carter checked David's condition. “I can tell that you guys are low on mana. So I will let you go. Also don’t worry about reporters, the association will handle them. Just go and rest.”

“Thanks. Let’s go, you two.”

Frost flew away from David’s shoulder and took a few loops around the house. David searched for his key and found it in his pocket. Opened the door Luci and Frost followed him inside.

Carter watched them getting inside. After he got into his limo. After sitting, he opened his phone. It was ringing for a while.

“Carter speaking.”

“You really have the guts to postpone my calls, huh??” It was the minister. His voice was furious.

“You know better than me. There was a break at the city center, I was busy with that.”

“A break huh… One of those rats told me that you called. What’s the occasion?”

“We have a new S-class in our hands. And they are extraordinary.”

“So, you are collecting a council. Just sign the papers for me, I’m busy.”

“Their name is… David Blake.”

“…”

“Ahem… David Blake, your son, he is our new S-class.”

“I heard it the first time you said… This fucking!!”

A loud crash voice was heard from the other side. Carter knew that would happen. He was just lucky that he’s not at the minister’s side right now.

...