Prison Break (3)

At the genuinely sounding compliment, Mathew began vibrating with anger.

“Fuck you!”

“I’ll pass.”

“Psycho.”

Instead of getting angry, Alexei chuckled before tucking the cleaver in his hand into his briefcase and sitting on a relatively low boulder while observing Mathew like a zoo animal.

“You….”

“What?”

“That mouth of yours is so dirty. Straight to cursing? I wondered what kind of nasty personality could raise that trashy sister of yours. You’re always preaching about elders and respect, but seeing you, maybe that’s your standard? You’re trash, and the elders you admire are also trash? A trash family?”

“Keep my sister and my family’s name out of your mouth, you bipolar psycho serial killer. You’re a terrible person, a terrible supervisor who literally commits human rights violations, you dragged us all in here, you’ve been murdering people left and right, and now you’re treating me like a dog? Like a rat? Fuck you!” A shrill scream burst out of Mathews’s mouth, and he began panting angrily.

Amber eyes blinked slowly with an expression as if looking at an insane person. The fourth X was added next to Mathew’s name.

Alexei’s long fingers began counting off the offenses.

“Let’s clarify some things. You and your sister begged my friend for a recommendation after doing him a small favor, and then you begged him to ask me to give you your dream job. If you want to roll that back, sure, ungrateful rats are a dime a dozen, and I can respect the balls to burn bridges in high places. The rest of the things are more or less accurate, but come on. Is now the time? In this dangerous place, you want to waste time arguing with the person who’s been protecting you from some of the worst prisoners in the country? Against monsters? Against the person who is trying to optimally get us out of here. I thought you were stupid before, but I see that I underestimated the level.”

Seeing Alexei acting self-righteous, as if he was doing it for the greater good, Mathew lost it.

“You dragged us in here, you fucking psychopath! I could ha-”

Alexei quirked his lips in his usual kind smile while delivering vicious words, “Blah blah blah. All I hear is a diseased rat making noise; I don’t take the snarling and barking of unthinking rabies-filled animals seriously. Even wild animals know not to leave a dangerous threat near their homes, yet you and these criminal idiots want to leave this unknown bomb and run away while drunk on their newfound power? You better hope good people like me are around those you care about. And be doubly grateful for this learning opportunity that I’m giving you. There aren’t many people with as good of a temper as me who are willing to tolerate the bullshit coming out of your mouth.”

“Good? Good-tempered? A psychopath like you? Again, I wouldn’t need to get out if it wasn’t for you in the first place! You’re the one who dragged us into this freaking portal with these monsters and these crazy prisoners! I could have left already and protected my family myself!”

“Okay? Should I just kill you then?” the warm smile on Alexei’s face disappeared into a blank look, and he stared at Mathew with dead fish eyes. “This is, after all, a prison with crazy, murderous psychopaths. Accidents happen, and you’re becoming a liability.” Amber eyes intentionally looked at the green bodies spread around them while the black chains began slinking on the grass toward him.

Pressing down the anger that flared up, Matthew let out a smug smile. Since he had used it once, he would use it again.

As long as he mentioned one name, Alexei would dutifully protect him and not try to kill him at all.

All he had to do was make it out of this monster den alive, and he was home free.

“You wouldn’t dare to kill me. Cyril wouldn’t forgive you.”

Alexei froze for a moment before nodding, the final X being put next to Mathews’s name.

“Fair enough. It seems your brain is smart enough to use Cyril’s name to protect yourself, but it’s not smart enough not to antagonize me in the first place. I’m sure you’ve heard the quote that, ‘The law is distant, but the first is close,’ right? To rephrase it, I’m here, and Cyril’s not. If I want to mess you up, who’s going to stop me?”

As Alexei stretched out his hands, chains began writhing and whipping the ground, causing Mathews’s face to pale drastically.

“Since you’re so motivated to get out, I’ll give you one of two options. You can get past me and leave, or you can join the main fight and leave when the monsters are all dead. You should have observed enough spells to protect yourself, right? That’s your ability?”

“How-?”

Alexei blinked at Mathew’s flustered face before his lips curved slightly.

“Oh, I was right? The first thing you used was quite different from the second one. What was it that you muttered…manaball? Fireblast? You didn’t use it until someone else did, and yours was a bit weaker, though it came out faster. Is your ability like a copycat? Quick shooter? I think being a shoddy copycat is pretty reflective of your real-life ability. From what I’ve heard in the office, my second guess is pretty accurate, too.”

The second guess….

Quick shooter.

As he understood what Alexei was insinuating, Mathews’s face flushed in embarrassment.

“You!”

“Relax~ Your sexual business is private unless you sleep around a firm in which cast it’s not. Your attack is pretty good and you can protect yourself with it. So go ahead and fire away. If you take me out, you’re free to go. I won’t even attack you if you fail, and I won’t dodge out of the way. Scouts honor.” Fully confident, Alexei raised both hands in the air like a man under arrest.

He closed his eyes and turned his head away as if he didn’t need to look at Mathew.

At the mocking smile and easygoing demeanor, Mathew ground his teeth before raising his hand.

“Fireball!” Mathew instantly pointed forward and called out a skill, generating a gigantic ball of fire at Alexei.

Then he activated Instant-Cast and Doubled the fireballs.

The moment it was launched, he stared with complete confidence that Alexei would disintegrate like that monster did or at least become seriously injured.

Quickly weaving a protective net with the chains, Alexei blocked the gigantic ball of fire launched at his face. As the flames split off to the sides of the chain barrier, the heat and concussive force forced him to put some power into his legs and arms, which clutched the boulder.

“Tsk. He’s pretty good.”

Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Alexei activated a secondary skill that neutralized the flames into nothing.

As the flames disappeared, the chains that had dutifully blocked the immense flames disintegrated into black dust that blew away with the wind. Seeing Mathew stare at him in disbelief before away sprinting slowly while staggering, Alexei nodded knowingly.

“So you did copy it. And it’s very strong, though the timing is a bit long. Good. I’ll use you to go test that big guy out for me. My protection of you ends here, so try not to die from now on. And don’t worry, as I said, I won’t kill you. You’ve become quite useful.” Increasing the length of the chains, he coiled them around Mathew, making sure to control the strength to only constrict him without breaking any bones, and slammed him on the ground to stun him temporarily.

Seeing the whites of Mathew’s eyes exposed as he briefly lost consciousness, Alexei sat for a moment to recover some strength while wrapping Mathew in chains.

After making sure he was completely tied up and unable to speak with an extra chain stuffed into his mouth, blocking the strange energy he could feel envelope him, Alexei activated the skill that empowered his body with the same energy he could feel flowing inside.

The world immediately seemed slower, and all his senses were heightened, causing his brain to shudder for a moment before it adapted.

Focusing his ears on where the sound of the most aggressive combat was coming from, his body dashed forward, his chains dragging Mathew’s body behind him.

Whether or not Mathew hit branches, slammed into trees, or even dragged on the ground was none of his business.

As long as this guy didn’t die or wasn’t critically injured, he had done his due diligence to keep Cyril’s friend alive, and he would properly use him to defeat whatever monster he could hear roaring loudly in the distance.

And after this?

If Matthew saw him, he better cross the street; otherwise, who knew what would happen to him?

As Alexei ran through the forest in concentric circles, the moment he saw anybody with an orange prison uniform, he snatched them with his extra chains and flung them forward as far as possible toward the sound of battle.

If they resisted, a quick slam on the ground stunned most people.

In the case of those who actively tried to kill him, he forced more energy into his body, increasing his speed, strength, and visual acuity, dashing into them with his chains restraining them while the cleaver took their life while making sure to keep Mathew tied up.

When the people perished, a large number of glowing crystals with that strange iridescence came out and settled over the deceased body.

Like he had been doing so far, he diligently stored half and absorbed the other half. As he absorbed it, he felt a rush of energy surge, filling every crevice of his body.

A high better than any drug coursed through him, and he felt completely refreshed while craving more of that energy.

It felt maddening, like he was on the verge of being out of control, and the only thing that would calm the urge, the thing that he craved, was more of those crystals.

The urge for those crystals prompted him to conquer everybody here, eliminate them, and absorb the essence represented by those crystals.

A red haze slowly filled his eyes but then Alexei snorted, firming his mind up and driving down those feelings.

“Shut up. If you try to control me, I’ll kill you.”

Angry words were spoken aloud to an existence that he couldn’t confirm was there, but slowly, the red haze received.

He didn’t know what that angel thing was, how it had imbued him with his skills, or the truth of what was happening in the world right now. He didn’t know what the feeling that was now retreating was either.

All he knew was that that thing wanted them to kill each other.

This was quickly demonstrated by the fact that killing those green monsters, those goblins, boasted an incredible difficulty yet yielded 1/4 fewer crystals than killing a human being.

It was demonstrated by the sheer bloodlust that filled people each time they absorbed those crystals, with the feelings being worse if they came from a human.

When the portal appeared in the prison and he saw the timer, a strange intuition took over him, and he immediately knew it had to be stopped.

It was dangerous.

Whatever was inside needed to be eliminated before the ‘break’ happened.

And he couldn’t trust anybody but himself to do it.

With everything that had happened, he knew the government would not be able to respond appropriately, and even if they could, the priority would not be on the people.

Imagining the havoc that would be wreaked on the city if these monsters escaped made Alexei increase his speed toward the clearing in the center now that the majority of the people were focused and fighting.

Rushing into the clearing and stopping at the forests edge, he first flung Mathew off to some corner, hoping he would hit his head somewhere and die before beginning to spread his chains out, pouring energy into them so they would grow long.

Then, his eyes rapidly scanning the field, he noticed that the majority of the smaller goblins had been killed by the inmates armed with the rusty knives and swords that the goblins previously held.

As he watched, a few men and women charged at a massive ogre-like beast that towered over them. It looked similar to the little goblins, but instead of a knife, it wielded a tree-like club.

The people charging it were moving faster than Olympic athletes, but despite that, the massive ogre swung the oversized club, sending some of the people charging at it flying backward with a sickening crunch.

A familiar woman quickly jumped over the fast-moving club and began heading toward a figure that had been hit but resisted flying away, but a big, meaty fist snatched her from the air and tossed her into its mouth.

CRUNCH.

The clearing became silent.

CRUNCH. GULP. CRUNCH. GULP.

Grotesque eating sounds spread across the field.

Unperturbed, the ogre continued eating, even using its large hands to move the food from one side of its mouth to the other.

Then, people began screaming and trying to run away in a panic.

Black chains began slithering around the clearing, each one doubling and tripling upon itself until it grew to a massive size.

Clink.

Clang.

Clink.

Clang.

As the metallic chains rubbed against each other, the clanging sound of metal chains and bars that were so familiar to them was heard and the people stopped running to look back, trying to identify where the sound was coming from.

Clink.

Clang.

Clink.

Clang.

The sound of metal striking against itself.

In their old life, it was the sound of imprisonment.

In this new life that was only a couple hours old, it meant a blond grim reaper who could block their newfound powers…and end their lives.

Almost in unison, all the human eyes turned to face the blood-drenched man emerging from the forest.