Chapter 31)

Morant had been running through the alleys of the city, cutting through each and every nightmare he found with little difficulty. He didn't even have to use any special moves, he mowed down through each nightmare as if they were little ants in his way.

As he confronted a group of nightmares in one of the streets in the city, he saw that they were harassing a group of people who had been trying to defend themselves from the nightmare's attacks.

'Great,' he thought. 'Why do I have to deal with saving these people? Did they not think of just leaving the damn city when they had the chance to? Whatever, I'll just finish this quickly.'

Blitzing through the nightmares, he calmly released his sword, chanting "Tatsu." as the nightmares particles floated into the air. A sigh of boredom, he went towards the group of people.

"You people need to get out of this city now. There's too many nightmares for you to still be here." He began to point towards one of the streets that led outside of the city. "You can go through that way to get to the fields, you'll be safer there."

"But, we can't! Not yet!" One of the people, a man said. "My wife is still in the city, and I have no idea where she is!"

"How did you lose her? Do you know where she is?" Morant asked the man, with little patience as the time spent talking meant more nightmares were attacking.

"We were separated when we were fleeing from the nightmares. I-I'm sure she's still somewhere in the middle of the city, she's probably still with the other group we were with..."

"Alright. I just need you guys to get the hell out of here now. I'll make sure the rest of your group, and your wife is safe." Morant pointed towards the street, as the group of people quickly ran into the distance.

Once he could no longer see the people running down the street, Morant began to run towards the center of the city, giving his promise to the man that he would protect the people and his wife.

Running through the streets, he slashed through the nightmares that tried to attack him as he searched for any sounds of screaming in the city.

'These nightmares are so damn annoying, they remind me of that Ogata kid...' Thinking of Ogata, Morant's mind soon began to fill with sudden anger, as all he could think about was how Ogata had managed to keep up with him in their duel. 

'How the hell was he keeping up with me anyway? The moment he learns how to use Essence he becomes a freaking prodigy? No way.' Morant thought, as he continued to run through the street.

'And he learned how to unleash his sword in a day? Barsanti said that he was special, but there's no way that he could've been able to do that in a day. It took Garrick two weeks before he was able to unleash his sword. There's definitely something weird about him...' 

Running through the streets aimlessly, Morant soon heard the faint screaming coming just north of his position. Blocking all other thoughts from his mind, Morant sprinted towards the location of the screaming.

Running towards the sound, the screaming became louder and louder, as he soon was able to hear nightmare's smashing buildings and destroying the architecture in the city.

'Goddamn nightmares!' Morant thought. His hatred for nightmares was extreme, nothing was able to top his utter anger for them.

Cutting through the remaining nightmares that blocked his path, Morant found himself in the middle of a plaza, where a giant nightmare the size of the tallest building in the area picked up one of the trees and was preparing to throw it down onto the group of people who were cowering in the corner.

"Face me you damn bastard!" Morant shouted, as the giant nightmare looked down towards the street, before changing its direction, proceeding to launch the tree at Morant.

With great strength, the nightmare threw down the tree, where Morant was able to precisely cut through the bark, leaving him unscathed as the tree flew right past him. Flaunting his sword, Morant began to taunt the nightmare.

"It'll take more than that to stop me you ass!" Morant yelled, as he began to run towards the nightmare, who stomped down on the ground, trying to flatten Morant but with little success, as Morant climbed the nightmare's back. Green flames erupting from his sword as he unleashed an attack.

"Gnawing Souls!" He shouted, as his sword unleashed green fire towards the nightmare's neck, small flaming skulls with their mouths wide open to attack.

The skulls latched onto the nightmare's neck gnawing at it's shadowy body as the nightmare roared in pain, falling to the ground as the skulls chewed their way through its skin, the nightmare's head tumbling from its body as large amounts of black particles disappeared into the sky.

The green fire from Morant's sword disappeared as well, as too the flaming skulls, as Morant ran towards the group of people, who looked petrified after seeing the giant nightmare.

"Are you people okay? Is anybody hurt?" Morant asked the people, who all shook their heads with scared eyes.

"Listen, it's not safe in the city anywhere. I need you to leave south through the city. There aren't any nightmares anymore, and the group separated from yours made it there as well." Morant pointed towards the street he ran through as the group quickly began to run from the area.

As he saw the people run through the street, Morant heard the faint hissing from behind his back, as he turned around and unleashed his sword.

Standing in front of him were three of the same nightmares who he had eliminated at the coliseum the night before.

"You again? Don't you learn when to quit trying to mess around?" Morant taunted the nightmare's, who began to lunge towards Morant with their large claws ready to swipe at his body.

"You damn nightmares... BRING IT ON!" Morant yelled, as he ran towards the nightmares with killing intent.