15 Departure (2/2)

Hayden knew of Scarlet's true power and that Daniel wouldn't be a match at all against her. With that, Hayden hit the gym. As a wielder, and with the effects brought by Devil's Persistence, his metabolism was incredibly fast and efficient, that's why he had no pretenses in exercising even though he ate just a few minutes ago.

Lifting weights, doing push-ups, running, Hayden did it all for a few hours. Soon, the clock hit 9:00 PM. Checking his phone, he contacted his mother to say that he was going to stay at the place of his student as his tutor asked him to do so.

Hayden long established his independency and was already an adult at 16, thus, his mother didn't reject it. Hayden notified his father afterwards.

With that, Hayden booked a room in Liwayway Hotel, took a shower, and checked his bank account. There were an added 200,000 credits for when he previously checked it. He was giddy on the thought of buying that Space Ring.

Viewing his supporters, it was at 6.8 million supporters, growing steadily by the minute. He couldn't help but feel grateful to Ares for featuring him on a livestream, granting him countless fans. Every minute, credits would seep inside his bank account.

”Seriously,” Hayden exhaled heavily with a smile on his face. ”I guess I really have to show up at Pro Assembly this year, huh? Otherwise, they would think I ran with my tail between my legs.”

For the past six months, Hayden was termed as unbeatable as Hayden carried in all of his games without losing at all. He would, time to time, show his states for proof that he hasn't played a single match that wasn't recorded, and that each and every game was absolutely fair. This led people to speculate that Hayden, or rather, his online identity, Supremacy, was better than Ares. Fan wars started to blow up, arriving at a deadlock when Supremacy's fan argued that Hayden was simply too good, while Ares' fans retorted that Philippine players were weak, which was true.

'Well, I don't really care…' Hayden thought to himself. 'I started it simply as a means of business, and I achieved it, right? It's off the charts as well! I'm exceedingly lucky when it counts, huh?'

Having nostalgia to the times he was frowned upon by Lady Luck, he was put in a bitter mood. Closing his eyes, a few minutes later, Hayden drifted to sleep.

…..

Waking up at 2:00 AM, Hayden readied himself. Hitting the gym once more for an hour, taking a shower, eating, putting on his uniform, ensuring that two of his tranquilizer pistols were fully loaded up, with his stun gun and two karambit knives behind his waist. Loading up, Hayden put the six grenades on the optional grenade bag, and put some throwing knives in the leftover five spots.

As this was his first mission, and that they were not ordered to perform stealth kills, but subdue the perpetrator, Hayden and the two was needed to confront the wielder and not kill the 'innocent.'

This was the reason Hayden didn't bring his Sinukuan sniper rifle and only a single one of his Black Piercer and a few of his throwing knives.

At 3:30 AM, Hayden was fully readied. If people saw him, they would think that he came out of a fictional movie, a handsome, tall man, with a powerful presence and militaristic aura, a main character of a movie.

Confirming that everything was in place and that he didn't forget anything else, Hayden went downstairs to see Daniel. The last person they were waiting on was Engkanto, their supervisor. For their first mission, naturally, Engkanto would be there to assist.

Although the word 'assist' was used, in reality, supervisors was simply there to watch the performance of the Initiate instead of actually helping them. They moved only at crucial times when the Initiate encounters a situation that would bring greatly endanger their lives.

Waiting for five minutes, Engkanto arrived in a Puting Araw uniform with a yellow sun symbol that had eight rays, symbolizing that he was an Eighth Rank Special Agent and a member of the Walong Sinag ng Araw.

Asking if they were ready, the trio boarded a black SUV going to SUV. In the car, Engkanto briefed them once more, this time, he gave them the full details of the mission, how many men were inside, where the base of Bakunawa was, and a video of the recently awakened wielder fighting against police.

…..

Arriving on their destination, the backside of an abandoned building, the three alighted and went inside. ”In the front side of this abandoned building is where the base of operations of the Bakunawa gang. Simple enough, right?”

”However, I have to make you watch the video once more,” Engkanto said. ”Maybe you'll be able to deduce something.”

The two of them were given tablets and the video last night played. In the video, a flash was running around, killing police, while the police were trying to fire at the figure. Clearly, it was a human, yet, even Hayden was unable to deduce the human as it was in a video.

”Okay, what do you want to do? Head-on confrontation, or covert ops assassination?” Finishing the video, Engkanto asked the duo.

”Covert ops assassination (Head-on confrontation)” Hayden and Daniel answered at the same time. They turned to look at each other. Reaching a compromising agreement, Daniel was the one who spoke this time.

”He'll be in the background, supporting me and assassinating, while I go to confront people directly.” Daniel said. Hayden didn't intervene in Daniel's speech, agreeing with Daniel. ”I guess we'll be depending on senior to save our lives if the situation is dire.”

”Of course, leave that to me,” Engkanto was an amicable person. He knew that the two recognized that he was there solely for grading their performance and protection. At the end of the day, if they stayed inside the base cooped up for their entire lives, they wouldn't grow. ”Go now, then!'

It was currently 5:10 AM, Hayden, holding a Black Piercer on his right hand and a karambit knife in his left, was behind Daniel. Hayden mistakenly thought they planned to draw out the leader by killing the forces first.

”First time killing, are you okay with that?” Hayden asked Daniel if he was okay with killing people. ”Will you be really okay?”

Daniel paled when he heard this. He had a look of horror when Hayden asked him this question. ”We're not going to kill people! We were ordered to subdue, not kill! Wait, you have killed people before?”

”Singular, person.” Hayden affirmed. ”Aswang attacked me, it was self-defense. Law of the jungle, hunt, or be hunted. It was necessary.”

”Oh…” Daniel was speechless of Hayden's reasoning because it was factual in the absolute sense. Even Daniel would be willing to kill if he was attacked by a serial killer and targeted his life. ”Well, we were tasked to subdue, so do not kill people!”

”Okay, okay, I get it.” Hayden shrugged it off. ”I guess I'll use this…”

Hayden hesitantly put away his Black Piercer and karambit knife, taking out a tranquilizer gun on his right and a stun gun on his left.

Then, the two exited on the main entrance of the abandoned building and noticed two guards in front of an abandoned factory.

…..

1 Bakunawa – In Filipino folklore, Bakunawa was a dragon (the eastern serpent-like one) who attempts to eat the moon during lunar eclipses, and is said to be the causes of earthquakes, rains, and wind.