33 Tinos Relief (2/2)

It was at this moment that Taku's eyes turned bloodshot as his whole body turned into smoke. His body quickly drifted out of the trajectory of the arrow as if the wind itself was carrying him. His speed once again doubled as he sped towards Bruce and sent a kick out.

Bam!

Bruce raised his blade by instinct and managed to just barely block the attack, but he paid a heavy price from it. His hands turned numb as he flew away whilst spinning awkwardly in mid-air. He landed several meters away, but at the moment he could barely get up. A hint of fear could be seen in his eyes.

”These damn Gutu freaks!”

He looked at the battle between the other three and noticed that his teammates were actually about to be defeated. He struggled to stand up and looked and Taku who was just standing there looking mockingly at him. He then looked towards the lady and poke softly.

”My lady you should hurry and escape. Even if we all die you should escape.”

The man this time had spoken more like a servant would to his master. Instead of calling her captain he had used 'My lady'. The lady hesitated for a bit. ”Do not let my sacrifice be for nothing.” This roar from Bruce's immediately brought her back to her senses as she turned around and ran.

Taku was about to go chasing after the lady, but at this moment that Bruce used all his strength to launch a barrage of attacks towards Taku. Taku had no choice but to take a couple of steps back in another direction, he could tell that this man was now going all out to let that lady escape.

Bruce then spoke. ”If you want to chase after her then you will have to do it after you have stepped over my dead body.”

Taku was calm as he replied. ”As you wish!”

Taku then launched himself towards Bruce, blade and fist met as a deafening boom sounded out. Taku took two steps back as his fist felt a little bit numb. The man staggered back as he spat out some blood, the tip of his spear was slightly melted when he looked at it.

When he was about to attack Taku he noticed that another silhouette passed by him and entered the forest. He then looked towards the place were two of his teammates were fighting with another youth. And as his eyes scanned over he was greatly shocked to find his two mates lifelessly lying on the floor.

His heart sank when he saw this. He did not bother chasing after the boy who went chasing after his captain. He knew it was pointless because this boy in front of him would not let him turn around even if he wanted to.

Seeing the situation the blade wielding man threw himself towards Taku. He used his last remaining strength to throw this attack towards Taku. He knew that he would not be able to kill the boy, but he was hoping to injure him enough for the boy to be unable to move. He knew that if he lost here then Taku would be able to chase after his captain and with his speed he would be able to catch up to her in no time.

Even though the other youth was fast, he would still need to discharge a lot of energy to catch her. So he was still slightly confident that she would be able to escape. He was very grateful at the moment that the other three would not be able to chase as well.

This last strike of his contained all his remaining power and it was pretty scary. The captured trio's faces all turned ashen when they saw this. Even though they thought that Taku was powerful, they also knew just how powerful this attack from Bruce was.

Taku just stood there motionlessly as he welcomed the incoming blade attack. The blade was only two feet away from him when he finally threw out a fist. The roar of thunder this time was very deafening as fist and blade met one last time.

Boom!

It was at this moment that the intertwining threads of fire and lightning exploded and sent both Taku and Bruce flying. As Bruce landed with a thud his body released his last bit of breath as he died on the spot. On the other side Taku was slowly getting up. he looked towards Bruce's lifeless body and then sighed in relief.

Just as he was about to stand and give chase his vision suddenly turned blurry. Taku knew what was going to happen, so in order to keep his new teammates and Tino safe he sat back down and began meditating.

The trio behind him were not surprised by this because they thought that he was heavily injured from the last exchange. What they did not know was that Taku was actually about to lose control like he did a couple of years back.

The smoke around his body began to fade as he meditated. He felt like he had just dodged a bullet. If it was not for the fact that he was a little bit more powerful than he was back then, then he probably would've have lost control again and attacked everyone on sight.

Just as the last strand of smoke disappeared Tino came back. He looked rather dejected as he walked back but when he saw Taku meditating he only had one thought in his mind.

Thank God! At least it's not like four years ago.

Even though Tino had not been part of that group that witnessed Taku's brutality, he was still informed of it. Especially when they were leaving, he was told by his uncle to run away if Taku began using this strange power of his but the stone in his heart landed when he realised that Taku was now somewhat able to control it.