Eugene Versus The Red Hawks (Part-2)

One of the Red Hawks weakly looked at his homies, his gaze containing intense meanings.

"Guys, I don't know why but I feel like the wind took my strength away with it."

"It's not just you, bro."

Everyone's eyes turned to the person who had just said that.

He continued, "I feel exactly the same like half my strength has left my body."

A Red Hawk swept his gaze over all his homies before saying, "From the looks of your expression, I presume it's the same for you all, too, right?"

"It's unbelievable, but yeah."

"Holy shit, did he do something to us? Maybe he is one of those supernatural guys that has been popping around the globe?" Gunner's guess was not too off the mark as Eugene did have superpowers, but he wasn't exactly the same as superhumans.

"Maybe we're being paranoid."

Solar saw that everyone was feeling afraid of Eugene, so he tried to wipe that fear from their heart. However, the words he chose didn't prove helpful to anyone.

"No, we are not being paranoid, and you know that, Solar."

A french boy pointed at Eugene and said, "This guy is a creep."

"I don't feel like fighting him anymore."

A few people behind him came to a mutual decision that they didn't want to brawl with Eugene.

They actually began stepping back from him while staring at him cautiously and in fear.

He had defeated Allen and Kaiser, the strongest two of their gang. So what chance did they have against him?

His display of strength had overwhelmed them mentally.

Thus, they didn't feel like brawling it out with him.

"Are you serious? How can we let him go after he betrayed us and then beat our new boss in front of us?"

The members of the Red Hawks were feeling so afraid of Eugene that they were considering backing off from him instead of fighting him to the bitter end, even though he had brought great disgrace to their gang and betrayed them.

Gunner and Solar, however, were not willing to settle their grievances with Eugene peacefully.

Eugene, who had eavesdropped on their conversation and understood that they were afraid of him because they felt like he had something to do with the sudden feeling of weakness emerging from the very fiber of their beings, stared at the rest of the wannabe thugs with a provocative gaze.

"What are you all waiting for, huh?! An invitation? Or is it that you have the same thought as me – that you all need to head hole first and drink your momma's milk before you can become man enough to beat me? Hahaha!"

Eugene wanted to beat them up to complete the quest and earn great rewards, so he added oil to the fire that had nearly extinguished in their hearts.

Gunner composed himself almost immediately and glared at his cowardly fellows, "Anyone Who Walks Away From This Fight Will Die To Me Later On!"

Gunner's threat worked wonders.

Eugene was fierce, but the Red Hawks knew Gunner was cruel.

He loved to do what he said, and there has never been a time when he didn't subject his enemies to rough beating.

The cherry on top of the cake was that Eugene was an orphan while Gunner had loving and wealthy parents willing to protect him and his friends from the law!

"Eugene is just a rat trapped in a cage with nowhere to run. We can win against him because he is one man and will get exhausted us!"

Solar added more fuel to the spark that Eugene and Gunner lit up in the hearts of the Red Hawks.

"He is just acting tough. If we work together to attack him, we will overpower him with our numbers."

"We can for sure beat him to a bloody pulp!"

"Hahaha!" Eugene mockingly laughed at them. "If you don't want to fight me, roll out of this alley. I will magnanimously let you go. However, If you want to fight me, stop barking like roadside dogs and attack me already."

While saying this, he added injury to insult them by pointing his middle finger at them and moving it back and forth.

"You're dead, you son of a bitch!"

"Take revenge for the old boss and the new boss!"

"Get him!"

They all marched towards him.

Because this place was narrow, and only some of them could close upon him at a time, it wasn't going to be Eugene against all twelve of them.

At least, it will be a few against him at a time.

Still, fighting three to five guys with only his hands wasn't an easy task for him.

Thus, Eugene decided to show them the real reason why he baited them into this place.

"You scums, I'm done warming up!"

Eugene willed, and his mental energy flooded out of the mental energy storage space beside his heart and charged into the skill mark on the back of his hand, causing it to light up.

[You've activated the skill, Speed Reduction!]

In the blink of an eye, everyone and everything in Eugene's line of sight slowed down.

The Eleven conscious members of the Red Hawk moved towards him in slow motion.

They were no faster than slugs.

To Eugene, it felt like they were suffering from a network lag in real life!

The specks of white and snowflakes floating down the air and entering his line of sight also slowed down their descent.

The wind breezing through the alley that coincidentally fell into his field of vision also seemed to slow down as if something invisible was pressing down on it.

The world in Eugen's eyes has changed entirely, slowing down by many times.

Only he remained unaffected by the change caused by his awesome godly skill.

[You've consumed 3 units of mental energy.]

However, his mental energy was decreasing at a rapid pace because he was using this skill inefficiently.

The way he could efficiently use it was already in his brain.

He decreased the main effect of the skill he had just activated.

[You've decreased the effectiveness of the skill, Speed Reduction, to lower the toll on your mental energy.]

[The movement speed of everyone and everything in your field of vision will decrease by only 50%!]

Now, although his enemies weren't moving as slow as a snail and were only around two times slower than their normal speed, the rate at which the usage of this skill was consuming his mental energy had decreased significantly.

"The different way I can use this skill is ridiculous but even more so amazing."

Eugene praised the skill he had earned back in the hidden realm and rushed towards the Red Hawk closest to him.

"I should focus on dealing with them to finish the quest for now."

They swung their fists at him.

However, Eugene, who was several times faster than them, easily avoided all of their attacks by using the bare minimum of movement, such as tilting his head to move his face out of the trajectory of their jabs or taking a single step back, to the right and to the left to step out of the spot where their kicks would land.

'I have time to find out whether they are fainting an attack or not, what they would use to actually attack me, and also calculate the trajectory of their attacks and where their strikes would land. My ability to slow down their movement speed is amazing!' Eugene was really feeling how great this skill actually was while battling them. His initial assessment of Speed Reduction was nothing special, but now he understood he was wrong. This skill has granted a mortal like him a terrifying power!

After dodging their strikes, Eugene kicked two in the guts and forced Gunner to say hello to his knuckles.

All three of them stumbled backward as another four engaged him in a combat as if they were gallant knights stepping out in the world to eradicate the greatest evil.

Yet, the same situation unfolded.

As Eugene continued to dodge their every attack using minimum action and inflicting them with pain, they screamed in frustration.

"What the heck is going on? Each time I feel like I will land a hit on him, I miss and hit snowflakes."

"Idiot! It is not us who are attacking empty air but he who is dodging all of our attacks with ease."

"He has dodged all of our attacks so far."

A few moments after hearing what they said, Eugene realized that he hadn't just slowed them down but also their sense of perception!

They didn't know they were walking at a slower pace than usual. Only he knew that.

Right at this moment, a notification rang in his mind. Its content widened his eyes.

[As you've slowed time for 15 seconds, your mental energy has temporarily decreased by ten.]

He lost ten points of mental energy suddenly, and a wave of exhaustion washed over him just because he had slowed them for fifteen seconds.

He only had 70 mental energy points left in his storage. Eugene realized that if he continues using this skill, in a minute or two, not only would he feel dead tired, and it would automatically stop remaining active, but he will also not have the strength to fight them.

"I need to end this fight soon. No, I must knock them out in 15 seconds!"