Killing for the First Time

Despite clearly winning the encounter, Damon and Hunter are very much alert.

Against someone who could dodge a sniper bullet using his reflex alone is enough to put both of them on edge. No matter the situation, the two could only breathe in relief if they could reduce Blake into nothing but a corpse.

But seeing Blake is not as scared as earlier, the tension inside the room is heightened.

It was naught for a moment but the air around Blake changed in an instant as soon as he gets into his battle stance, raising both of his fists in front of him. Something is off about him, and the two usurpers can feel it.

"Why the fuck are we scared of him, let's get this over with!" Damon shouted and rushed in.

Upon seeing that Damon charges forward recklessly, not wanting to accept the fact that the two of them are being alert against a nobody, which sits unwell with his ego, Hunter wanted to stop him but he was too late.

Damon has already reached Blake, holding his knife in a comfortable reverse grip.

Mercilessly, he started attacking Blake with it.

Blake started to dodge the attacks, his eyes were unblinking as he was at the peak of his focus right now, looking not only at the knife in Damon's hand but also at Hunter standing behind Damon.

Following Salana's teachings, he was prepared for anything the two threw at him.

Unlike before, Blake didn't stay on the defensive.

Dodging a wide swing done by Damon, he quickly grabs a vace from the desk in front of the sofa. Being versatile, he used the vace as a weapon, swinging it upwards and hitting Damon on the chin with it.

Receiving that blow, Damon staggered a couple of steps back.

Not stopping at that and keeping the momentum going, he threw the vace right at Damon.

Damon didn't sit idle and dodged the vace that was thrown at him before it shattered upon hitting the wall. It was clear that he was trained in combat, yet he was surprised when he got kicked in the stomach.

Bam!

"Arggh!" Damon grunted as he got flung back.

Hunter was surprised when he saw this, he finds it unbelievable that Damon is losing.

Just like him, Damon has a well-developed core that is also conditioned through rigorous training to increase its resistance against blunt forces that one can suffer in a fight. But even then, Damon was left gasping for air after receiving that kick which hides more force than expected.

The kick forces him to crouch on the ground, holding his stomach in pain.

After doing that, Blake quickly grabbed the TV remote and click the power button as well as increasing the volume enough to the point the entire room is banging with kids' songs. He doesn't want his neighbors to come knocking at his door because of the noise they made.

"Look out, Hunter is coming!" Salana warned while watching from the side.

Upon hearing this, Blake looks over his shoulders and saw a glistening object.

It was a knife that heads straight to his face, and in reflex, he ducked down and rolled forward. But in the process, he got kicked and crashes against the wooden cabinet, groaning in pain.

Not having time to recover, he quickly gets up as Hunter keeps pushing his offense.

But soon, Hunter pushes away the idea of using his knife.

Since the apartment room is cramped with furniture, it was not effective to use a knife, Blake could defend himself by putting the furniture between them easily. Due to that, he takes out a pair of brass knuckles from his waist pocket.

"I don't know how you're doing this, but you're dying today fucker!" Hunter barked.

Damon also got up and played with his knife, ready to attack again.

Glancing around the room, Damon started grabbing stuff and throwing them to the side, making a clear pathway for them to attack Blake together and take him down. Wiping Blake's option to use the room to his advantage.

"Salana, help me out here! Do something!" Blake whispered.

But Salana shrugs her shoulders, she couldn't do anything, "I can only touch you, not them"

"Raarggh!!"

"I'm going to kill you, bastard!!"

Screaming out of sheer anger, the two mercenaries charge forward once again.

Blake snapped out of his daze and raised both of his arms again, he saw Hunter and Damon sprinting at him with extreme malice in their eyes. During that few seconds, time started to slow down in the extreme of the moment.

In this slowed moment, he can even hear his breaths and also the movement of his muscles.

'Damn it, if I lose my standing then I'll lose! If I got knocked down, they are going to kill me!' Blake screamed inside his head, he can see that Hunter is going to tackle him while Damon is going in for the kill.

Gritting his teeth strongly, Blake's eyes bulged, and the veins in his eyes expanded.

Under the intense and rapid circulation of blood that was caused by the extreme adrenaline and survival instinct that is triggered right now, the veins in his eyes burst, turning the white part of his eyes red.

But as soon as that happened, something changed in his vision.

'Eh...?'

Although he was still breathing heavily, his vision started to melt from colorful to black and white. Other than that, there was only the color red, and those red colors only came from the inside of Hunter and Damon's bodies.

Like a natural reaction of his body, he became focused on the blood coursing inside them.

It only takes a fraction of a second for Blake to realize what was going on.

Upon realizing that he managed to connect the Nocturnal Blood Sight skill to the real world, a maniacal smile appeared on his face. Blake wiped the blood drizzling down the side of his mouth as his battle intent sparked.

Something that he feel from inside the game world resurfaced into his actual body.

Upon seeing this, Salana realized what had happened.

'Oh... I think he managed to tap his power. If that's the case, those two are going to be sorry'

Continuing their attacks, Hunter ducked down and threw his entire body forward to try and tackle Blake to the ground. While Damon, on the other hand, followed right after with a knife in his hand, ready to stab Blake repeatedly.

Just as Hunter was about to reach Blake, he suddenly got hit with a knee on his jaw.

Bam!

Despite the knee shouldn't be that powerful as Blake doesn't have the time to actually threw a proper knee, it managed to rattle Hunter's brain, and for a moment he experienced a sense of loss to the surroundings.

At that moment, Damon also stabs the knife forward, aiming to stab Blake's chest.

It was a decisive move to cover Hunter that failed to tackle Blake.

Since the timing is perfect, this should connect, there's no way that Blake could dodge this.

Oblivious to what Damon was thinking, Blake easily dodged the attack as if he could anticipate how Damon is going to attack before he does it. A vicious spat to the face as the knife failed to reach Blake.

Following that, Blake wraps his arms around Damon's extended right arm.

Crack!

"Raargghh!!"

Damon shouted in pain when Blake hits the back of his elbow and hyperextended his arm which resulted in his arm bending forward in an unnatural way with the edge of his humerus puncturing through his skin and poking out.

However, Blake didn't stop there and grabbed the knife from Damon's hand.

Upon holding the knife, Hunter snapped out of his daze and punched Blake right in the face. The force from the brass knuckles permeates through his skull and forces his head to turn to the left, facing the window.

'It hurts, I feel like my bones are breaking' Blake thought.

Clenching his jaw, he wanted to retaliate but saw a glistening object from outside.

Finding this glistening object under the sun, Blake's eyes widened in shock as he quickly lifted his knife up to protect himself. Instantly after that, another loud bang rattled his ears and a bullet struck the knife, shattering the steel into two pieces.

The bullet ricocheted off the blade and flew past Blake's cheek by mere inches.

Once again, his quick reflex and awareness are terrifying.

Hunter simply couldn't believe his eyes, meeting someone like Blake feels surreal to him, 'It's not real, this is not real! What's the deal with this Limited VR Helmet anyway, is it a tool to make super soldiers or something?!'

Blake is currently on autopilot, his sole desire is to survive this encounter.

Not showing any mercy, ignoring the fact that he was using a broken knife, he jabbed the knife right in Hunter's jugular strongly before twisting it. A glint of killing intent flashed in his eyes as he did this, causing Hunter to choke with his own blood.

Following that, he kicked Hunter away before he ducked down and went for Damon.

Despite his broken right arm, Damon still tries to retaliate by trying to kick Blake away. However, it doesn't matter, Blake shrug the kick away and started stabbing Damon's chest repeatedly, blood splurting and dyeing the wall in crimson.

Some of the blood even splashed onto Blake's face, but he didn't care.

Finding that Damon was already gone, his body has turned corpse cold, Salana used her minuscule energy to pull Blake away as he kept stabbing the corpse repeatedly, "Alright, Blake, that's enough! He's already dead"

Upon hearing this, Blake sat down, panting heavily as his mind was clouded right now.

On the side, Hunter could only hold his bleeding neck while looking at Blake in horror. But he was bleeding too much, and it didn't take long for him to also die, choked by his own blood, defeated by a nobody.

Blake fixed his eyes on Salana before he tries to calm down, trying to regain back his mind.

"Calm down, it's alright... I know it's hard since this is your first kill, but you have no other choice. In this situation, it's either them or you. Like any other sane person, you chose not to die and kill them" Salana said, trying to comfort Blake that is clearly shaken.

Now that he killed the mercenaries, he was now looking at the mess he had made.

Although he has killed inside the game world a couple of times already, the feeling of knowing that this is the real world, and he killed people are too much for him to handle. Before all of this, he was only a normal person.

Both of his eyes are trembling while his mind trying to wrap around the situation.

Seeing that Blake is still completely silent, breathing rapidly and deeply while darting his eyes back and forth between Hunter and Damon's dead bodies, Salana kneels beside him before she rubbed Blake's head gently, trying to calm him down.

If she could, she wanted to embrace him right now but she couldn't.

Even though she wasn't able to embrace him due to her condition, her rubbing his head seemed to be working. Blake's breathing started to become calmer, he was feeling more relaxed by the second.

"I-I'm fine, I-I'm okay, I-I'm alright"

Blake keep repeating the same words as his head was caressed by Salana's petite hands.

Although he seemed to be telling Salana that he was fine, it was more of him trying to convince himself that he was fine. Taking a moment, he then eventually wiped the blood on his face and glanced at the window leading to the balcony.

The kids' songs are still blaring inside the room, perfectly masking the ruckus they made.

Upon taking a deep breath, Blake saw an earpiece on Damon's ear that seemed to be buzzing. Grabbing the earpiece, he then puts it on his ear and stands up recklessly, gazing at the building across his apartment complex.

Harnessing his Nocturnal Blood Sight skill, his eyes were exposed to straining pain.

It was so bad that his eyes even started to bleed.

But he simply didn't care, and he then points at the rooftop of the apartment building across.

Looking directly at the sniper, his eyes flashed murderously, "You're next..."