Battle

Although Joe currently couldn't hear very well, he could see the aggression on these people's faces as they charged at him with their weapons. Joe quickly turned around to flee at this sight.

One man stayed back, the one who spoke the most. He watched Joe's attempt to flee after temporarily apprehending the woman who spoke first.

'Miss Amanda said that he should be injured after a brawl with the young master, but he seems just fine.'

Contrary to the man's thoughts, Joe was currently not fine. He was doing horridly. His face ached, but it ached so much that changing his facial expressions hurt, which was why he seemed slightly indifferent.

He was tackled by one of the men during his runaway, and they both fell down. The man grasped his dagger tightly and stabbed it at his face.

Joe rolled out of the way quickly, and he shouted at the men.

"Aren't you going to capture me?! Why go for my face then?!"

The man only spoke three words in reply.

"Dead or alive."

Joe's face paled at that. After a short moment of rational decision-making, he realized he probably couldn't run away, since his enemies had cars.

He had to fight. However, being the low level Wizard he was, conjuring magic would take some time. He stood up and began to run again, faster than before without a care for his stamina. Thoughts rushed through his head as he ran.

'What kind of magic will I use? Fire is too volatile and I may hurt myself with my low control, and I can't implant it on their faces at the speed we're going. Wind and water have no damaging capacity at my level, so all that's left is earth and space. Space is probably going to help stall for time.'

Upon reaching a conclusion, Joe once again drew out spatial elements from his heart magnet and scattered them on the ground around him. Joe stopped moving and panted to catch his breath.

'Expand!'

Although nothing seemed to change on the outside, the distance between them had grown immensely.

The man in the back seemed surprised. He didn't expect the enemy to give up so soon.

He turned to watch as his men ran toward Joe, only to see them running in place.

"What are you doing!? Get him!"

The men seemed to run harder upon hearing their leader's command, but nothing changed from his point of view.

Things were different from Joe's eyes however, as he began to see the men inching forward.

'Damn it. The space element isn't as potent as I thought. I should use fire magic to take them down quickly now.'

Joe gathered fire elements as quickly as he could while sitting in a meditative position. He decided to light them ablaze one at a time, so as to make sure they were down and out. If he separated his attention, he may not take them all down.

While Joe gathered the fire elements, the men had finally realized they weren't moving forward, even though Joe was clearly right in front of their eyes. They began to look around for the source of this strange phenomenon. They looked left and right, yet nothing was seen.

One man took things into his own hands, and threw his dagger at Joe the moment he finished gathering the elements.

Joe had a dagger in his left thigh the moment one of the men's clothes were lit ablaze. Joe screamed from the pain of the dagger. The man who was lit ablaze screamed and shouted before fainting, the flames slowly consuming his body.

The men had realized that the supernatural occurrence didn't apply to their weapons.

The remaining men were afraid from the death of their teammate, but they had already temporarily crippled Joe, and so they were unafraid. The two remaining men tossed their knifes and machetes at Joe, who tried his best to dodge with a knife in his thigh. However, Joe was scraped by a knife on his upper left arm.

The men were left at a loss after tossing their weapons. They hadn't thought about what to do after missing. Joe, meanwhile decided to mobilize his magical abilities again.

He gathered earth elements all over his arm. He had decided to make some kind of rock armor to increase his defense and attack power. However, this kind of magic would take a long time on the magic deprived Earth.

During the men's confusion, Joe had already gathered earth elements all over his knuckles. While the men were still thinking of how to get close to Joe, he had already socked one of them in the jaw.

The other man quickly took notice and attempted to grab his arm. Joe quickly moved his arm away, while the man who was recently hit attempted to retaliate with a kick to the torso.

Joe quickly rolled away, as the attacks of these enemies were overwhelming to Joe, a decently fit guy. The two men went on his left and right sides. They suddenly charged at him.

Joe turned around to the man on his right, the man he socked earlier, and punched at his torso. Joe was currently half kneeling, and couldn't aim for the face from his small height.

The man attempted to grab his fist, but the rocks on Joe knuckles scratched up his hand, forcing him to let go. The man on Joe's previous left was still charging at him. He kicked Joe right in the spine, causing him to curl up on the ground.

The men began to beat Joe up, hitting him just about wherever they could. Joe remained silent throughout this with rage boiling inside.

'When did I get so hot tempered? I was never like this before the system. Usually, at a time like this, I would be trying my best to surrender...'

Joe was internally questioning himself while gathering more fire elements. He couldn't care much about his physical well-being right now. He gathered fire elements for about a minute while simultaneously getting beaten up.

When the two men were closest together, Joe ignited one of their clothes. The fire quickly spread to the other man's shirt as well.

They tried to pat themselves off, but magical flames weren't so simple, as they wouldn't go out without Joe stopping the supply of fire elements. When they realized patting wouldn't put out the flames, they took off their clothes, but it was already too late. The fire had latched onto them. They soon met the same fate as the first man.

Watching from the back, the leader of the group and Joe's driver were watching.

The man in black was internally surprised, but he wouldn't let that show on his face.

'Miss Amanda said he was here to do magic when she first saw him. I guess he really was doing magic around here...'

There was no other way to describe what had happened before their eyes as anything but magic. Flames appearing out of thin air, rocks suddenly appearing on his fists. It was all unexplainable.

The woman was even more shocked, as she never thought the person whom she picked up on the street would be so magical. She was quite curious about the source of his powers.

Joe was currently resting on the hard ground while staring at the man standing by the road. He was also staring right back at him.

The man began to walk out. He stood a few meters away from him and spoke.

"So. You did it. You killed them. What now? You lose, that's what's going to happen. Even though you got rid of those expendables, there's still me."

The man wasn't really confident against Joe. He was only putting on a strong front. Although he was indeed stronger than the others, he wouldn't stand a chance against a hot flame.

Joe was staring at the man with a blank face. He was currently gathering the elements. The two men had a stare-down for a bit, when the man's shirt suddenly lit ablaze. Instead of panicking, the man quickly took off his shirt. If the fire didn't latch onto his body, he could still salvage the situation.

Joe still looked on blankly. The man knew Joe wouldn't surrender after lighting him up, so he directly took action. He ran toward Joe.

Joe quickly used his spatial elements, to which the man threw a dagger he had in his pocket. He cut up Joe's cheek, proving he was trying to capture him dead. He tossed more and more cold weapons until he ran out.

Joe continued with his earth gauntlet ideas, as he gathered more elements around his forearm. The man knew he could only wait for Joe to make the first move. He couldn't get past the spatial elements to attack him without throwing something.

Upon completing the gauntlets covering his fist and forearm in a minute, he attacked the man while still on the ground. He went straight for the balls.

To Joe's disappointment, he didn't land the hit as he was retaliated against. Upon facing the man's punch, he crossed his arms in front of him, with his earthen gauntlets defending him. The man couldn't stop his punch midway, and hit the gauntlets, tearing up his knuckles. He wiped the blood off before continuing his assault.

The monotonous cycle of blocking and attacking continued for quite some time before Joe began to feel woozy.

'Is the adrenaline fading? I have to end this quickly.'

Joe went out on the offense now, not caring for his defense. His wild haymakers scratched up the man in black, who subsequently began defending.

'Damn it! I'm getting drowsier! I just gotta do it then!'

Joe grabbed the handle at his left thigh. He quickly pulled out the dagger and used it to stab the man in his gut. The man seemed shocked at that.

He staggered backwards, still in shock. He looked at Joe with a pale face and fell over. Warmth dissipated from his body. He was dead.

The woman subsequently walked over. Joe took this as his last lifesaving straw, as his drowsiness became even stronger.

"Help! Take me somewhere! Anywhere! So I can live!"

The woman put on a big grin at that.

"Alright! But you have to give me something for my trouble."

"Fine! Anything!"

After that, Joe passed out.