Chapter 6: Real combat.

Trisha thought she was the one he was talking to because she was the only person there with him who did not understand what he meant by that question as she did not hear what Adoth said. Stan was the only one that could hear what Adoth was saying.

“How am I to know how many minutes you have before they arrive here?”

“Shh… I wasn’t referring to you.”

“Wh….” Trisha opened her mouth as she looked around to confirm that there was no other person around whom Stan could be referring to because she began to get scared after he told her that he wasn’t referring to her. It was a very strange behavior for a person to be talking to himself and that was what he was literally doing at this point. All the same she kept quiet as instructed while she watched him continue talking to himself.

[Time is up. You have to fight.]

“But I haven’t made a choice?” Stan became confused as he was given a specific option to act upon.

[You no longer have an escape route and that leaves you with the option to fight your way through.]

“Awesome.” He exclaimed even when he did not like the idea of fighting, but it was obvious he had been surrounded and there is nothing he can do about it. “Hope you are ready to fight?” he now referred to Trisha but she did not pay attention as she thought he was still talking to himself so he repeated in a direct and harsh tone. “Hope you are ready to fight Trisha?”

“Oh, me,” she asked to be sure he was referring to her.

“Yes you. Who else should I be referring to?” he replied forgetting that he was just talking to Adoth which Trisha had thought he was talking to himself.

Trisha was kind of provoked by that because it wasn’t up to ten minutes when he told her that he wasn’t referring to her yet he was talking. But she controlled her temper and answered him calmly. “I’m not too good at combat and you know that.”

“Follow me,” Stan said, disregarding her response.

From what Adoth told him, they must have split up into twos to block all routes so his aim was to beat any pair he meets first and then run from there.

Unfortunately for them, they did not meet any of their colleagues in the direction they had taken, rather it was those hefty men that had blocked their path. This time there were five of them instead of three.

This gave Stan a better reason why Adoth had said there was no more escape route for them except they fight. He was thinking it was their colleagues but with these men ahead, it seemed they were the only ones that had blocked all their paths and not their peers.

“We meet again.” The leader said to him as he laughed furiously. “Let’s see how you are going to survive this time.”

“Do you really want us to fight these men?” Trisha asked as she looked to see that Stan had already clenched his fist ready to fight. She was afraid and doubted that Stan would be able to beat them after seeing how they beat him the last time when they were only three.

“Just be ready to run through them.” That was all he could say to her while he waited for them to attack.

“We should take the other direction.’ Trisha suggested.

“You are free to take any direction of your choice but don’t suggest any for me.” Stan stood by his decision to fight them as that may lead to him getting the information he needed from them.

“I totally disagree with you on this.” Trisha said after predicting that he wouldn’t beat those guys. Her eyes began to run wide looking for the next route to hit.

Immediately two of the men came at them, she ran for the house nearby as she broke the door after analyzing with her ability that the door would be easy to break through. She took the advice of Stan by taking a direct direction.

Trisha was not their target so none of the men bothered to go after her, their target was Stan as they wanted to harvest whatever chip he was implanted with.

Stan was not neutral anymore. His attributes had been increased so he had to put in the little he was able to learn from the school into use. Most essential, he recalled the words of the senior staff in terms of combat training and how he would say ‘the basis of fighting is to avoid strikes and make the counter strike.’ That is more than enough lesion needed to beat those guys at that time.

As they threw their first punch, he dodge but was unable to make the counterpunch yet dodging alone seemed okay to him. Feeling a bit happy that he had dodged their first punch, he did not concentrate on the next one, so he was hit.

“Ow,” he fell down, the force was too much that it then recalled to him that he was in real combat and not one of those silly training which he underwent in the school even though his colleagues made it seem real because of their hatred for him.

“Get up and fight. Show us what you’ve got.” One of them said to him, They were not in a hurry to kill him this time around, they wanted to see all his skills and how he was able to disfigure the face of their friend who did not come with them again.

When he heard this, his mind pant as a sign to tell that he was in real danger, even worse than the one which was coming from his former colleagues in the school, it seemed to him as though he would have listened to Trisha who was long gone by now. but all the same he had to fight because Adoth had told him that was the only way at the moment.

He got up on his feet again, clenched his fist even more tight than before, making a serious face that told his opponents that he was ready for them. He could perceive their waxed anger was because of the other one who he beat up not long ago. Yet he was going to fight his way though as it was obvious that they will pursue him if he follows the path which Trisha had taken and that will also endanger the life of those in the house which Trisha had used as her escape route.

“Yes, that’s what we are talking about.” They said as they came at him again.

Throwing another to his face though he was hit again, but he refused to let that strike push him to the ground, instead he returned the blow, hitting the mouth of his opponent which led to the fall of a tooth.

With this, the others were charged, so all five of them came at him at once releasing their strikes one after another with no second break for him to counterattack.

Even though he was not able to strike back, he was able to dodge the majority of their blows because it was impossible to dodge all. He literally observed that his speed was increasing gradually, but his main focus was to break the circle and run since he would not be able to beat them all the time.

Soon their attention was divided as they saw Stan’s other pursuer; that is the student from the school along with Master Sullivan. Their heart instantly told them that they were there to help Stan and that Trisha was the one who sent for them after running. They accepted their mistake of not going after Trisha, since they believed that if they had done so else those students would not be there to help Stan. But even with the appearance of other elites, they saw themselves being able to beat them all and harvest all chips from them.

Stan was amazed that they suddenly ceased to throw their punches. They took formation again, ready to attack all students at once with the hope that Stan would fall back to the others as he was in between them and Sullivan’s team.

Stan did not look back until he noticed the way they were all looking behind instead of looking at him, so he turned his neck to see what had drawn all their attention away from him.

Immediately he saw that it was his former colleagues, his heart skipped for a minute but then the next move to take came as he looked back at the thugs before wearing a warm smile because he seemed to understand what was going through their minds and probably why they wanted him dead. He made sure he did not make a sign that would tell them that those behind were not for him but also against him.

The smile which he wore helped to convince the thugs that their thoughts were right then Stan Gibson ceased the moment as he set his legs ready to run and so he did by forcefully pushing one of them out off the way unexpectedly, leaving his pursers from the school to contend with the thugs who were after all who had a chip implanted in them.

“Ling, Rudo, now!” Sullivan shouted as Stan took to his hills and those who he had called knew exactly what the call meant so they pursued Stan at once so that they would not lose him again, while the others fought with the thugs that blocked them.

The thugs were surprised to see that Stan was running away from his supposed friends, they concluded in them that he must have stolen something from the school to warrant his chase, but all the same, any chip from those fellows was going to worth something so, the five that had stayed back to fight with their Master Sullivan had to attack them.

Rudo and Ling were told to chase Stan because of their speed which no other student could match, adding to this, Ling was second best in martial art after Atkinson, so with these advantages, it was believed that they would catch Stan in no time and end their mission of getting rid of him.