The Understated Legend is Back

Chapter 3: Too late.

He was a second too late.

The steel club had already fallen.

It crashed into Nana's skull with a sickening crack.

Blood sprayed across the wooden floor.

Her frail body twitched once…

...then went still.

Silence.

The six men instinctively turned to look at the shattered doorway. Their hands quickly found their pistols, knives also flashing from beneath jackets.

The leader ripped a small knife from the back of his waistband ready to launch it across the room, while the others spread out on instinct, forming a half circle.

Then, they froze,

Standing in the splintered remains of the front door was a man.

He was tall, well over six feet, with broad shoulders that seemed capable of carrying mountains. His black military combat coat was torn in several places from the battle he had just left.

Fresh cuts lined his forearms, and dried blood… some of his, most not his… stained his sleeves and face. His combat knife still rested in his hand, its blade dripping with dark blood that hadn’t yet dried from the battlefield.

His black hair clung damply to his forehead and rain water rolled from his clothes onto the floor.

His dark brown eyes fixed on Nana… held nothing.

The leader frowned. ‘Why… does he look like Chay… Morgan?’

Then he saw the scar. His pupils contracted violently. His breathing stopped.

“No…” he whispered.

His lips parted. “…Chay… Morgan?”

The room instantly fell deathly quiet. The other five men looked harder, their eyes narrowing, and gradually, their faces drained of color.

One staggered backward.

Another’s pistol slipped from his trembling fingers and clattered onto the floor.

“T-That’s impossible…”

“He died. He died ten years ago…”

“W-What are we looking at?”

For a split second, it genuinely felt as though they were staring at a ghost.

The leader swallowed hard.

Then, all of a sudden, his fear transformed into excitement.

His lips stretched into a grin like he had just found a treasure. “Hahahha…” he muttered under his breath. “Boss isn’t going to believe this.”

Without wasting another second, he pulled out his phone and dialed a number. The call connected immediately.

“Boss…” he said frantically, unable to hide the excitement in his voice. “You’ll never believe who’s standing in front of me.”

“…Chay Morgan,” he continued. “I know what I’m saying sounds like bullshit but I know what I’m seeing, boss!” he exclaimed.

“Whether it’s Chay Morgan or his ghost, I swear on my life, he’s standing right here!” He needed his boss to believe him so badly.

Of course anyone would think he was talking crap. Chay Morgan died ten years ago.

He chuckled darkly and nodded in response to the receiver.

“If the dead really can walk…” his eyes locked onto Chay, “then we’ll simply kill him a second time.”

His words and laughter echoed throughout the house.

But to Chay, it was nothing more than muffled noise. Their voices had faded into the distance like echoes beneath deep water.

His eyes never left Nana.

She looked, so small and so fragile.

Her broken body laid motionless in a pool of blood that continued to spread across the wooden floor.

The same woman who he knew all his life. The same woman who protected him, and waited ten long years for him, had died one second before he reached her.

His finger tightened around his knife. His breathing became uneven. A lump rose painfully inside his throat with every passing millisecond.

He had crossed continents. He had defeated enemies feared by nations. Yet… he couldn’t save the one person that meant the most to him… the one person who had waited all these years for him.

His vision blurred.

He had missed her.

“I’m sorry… Nana,” he muttered under his breath.

The words echoed silently inside his heart, and his grip on his knife tightened until his knuckles turned white. In fact, he didn’t know when blood began to trickle from where his fingernails dug into his own palm.

“Understood, boss,” the leader dropped the call, casually resting the steel club on his shoulder. “Boss is on his way, let’s play with this bastard a little before Boss gets here,” he sneered.

Chay’s dangerous eye finally left Nana. They rose and locked onto the leader’s.

The smell of fresh blood saturated the air. Rain battered the roof.

A cruel smile slowly spread across the leader’s face as he stared into Chay’s eyes.

“Don’t kill him,” he chuckled, twirling the steel club in one hand. “I want him to beg.” His grin widened, “We’ll break every bone in his body, then let Boss decide how he dies… again.”

They burst into laughter. “Again of course!”

Chay didn’t react. Not a blink nor a twitch or even a single word.

Blood dripped steadily from the torn sleeve of his black uniform. Deep claw marks from the battlefield ripped across the armored fabric covering his chest. Dirt, ash and dried blood clung to him like a second skin.

He looked less like a man…

…and more like death itself.

“GET HIM!”

The leader’s roar exploded the room and three men lunged forward at once.

One swung a machete towards Chay’s neck. Another charged with an iron pipe raised high above his head. The third drew two combat knives and attacked from behind.

Three directions.

Three killing blows.

Chay finally moved.

SWISH!

The machete sliced through empty air. Before its owner could recover–

CRACK!

Chay’s fist crashed into his elbow, his arm bent the wrong way and his bone burst through his flesh. “AAAAARGHHHH!”

The scream had barely begun.

BANG!

Chay drove his knee into the man’s ribs and ‘Crunch!’. Several ribs caved inward.

The man folded over. A hand grabbed his face, then BOOM! His skull smashed through the nearby wall. Blood sprayed across the shattered bricks and his body slid lifelessly to the floor.

This all happened in less than 5 seconds.

The second attacker swung his iron pipe with everything he had.

CLANG!

But Chay caught it barehanded.

The man froze. “…What?”

He pulled and the attacker stumbled forward unwillingly. Chay twisted the pipe. CRACK!

The man’s wrist spun almost a full deadly circle.

The iron pipe dropped. Before he could let out a scream– BAM! Chay rammed the pipe into his throat.

The man was allowed to gag violently only for a second before Chay launched another strike that shattered his kneecaps.

His legs folded underneath him and he collapsed. Chay seized him by the collar, and slammed his face into the wooden floor.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

The floorboards split apart on the third slam. The man’s face had already become an unrecognizable mass of blood.

He stopped moving.

Another five seconds gone.

The third attacker was already behind Chay. His twin knives flashed and ‘Slash!’ One blade grazed Chay’s shoulder.

Blood trickled down his arm.

The man smiled. “I got h–“

Chay slowly turned his head.

The man’s smile disappeared instantly.

Those eyes, they weren’t human anymore. They were the eyes of someone who had buried entire armies.

The man’s breathing stopped. “N-No…”

Too late.

Chay grabbed his throat, lifting him effortlessly into the air. His legs kicked wildly trying to save himself from what was coming for him.

Chay squeezed. Veins bulged from the man’s neck and his face had turned purple in that instant. Then,

CRACK!

His windpipe had collapsed beneath Chay’s fingers. Instead of dropping him, Chay hurled him across the room. His body smashed into two of his companions.

The impact shattered furniture and sent splinters flying.

Another five seconds gone.

Silence. Three men were gone. The remaining two started blankly as their weapons slowly lowered.

“W… what the hell.”

“He’s a monster…”

Their confidence had begun to evaporate.

One suddenly roared, trying to encourage himself. “Together!”

They rushed him.

One fired three shots. BANG! BANG! BANG!

Chay tilted his body with great precision, and of course, the bullets missed.

Before the shooter understood what had happened–

A blur.

Chay was already in front of him. He struck his chest with his palm and the man’s sternum caved inward. BOOM!

The force lifted him completely off the ground before launching him across the room. He crashed through the dining table, wood exploded everywhere and his body never moved again.

The last fighter froze, his entire body trembling. His mind screamed at him to run, so he immediately did.

The moment he turned, he felt fingers wrap around his ankle. He looked down, and it was Chay.

With one violent yank, the man hit the floor face first. Most of his yellow teeth scattered across the blood-soaked wood.

He screamed. “Arghhhh”

Chay dragged him several feet across the room on sharp broken pieces of glass. The man creaked desperately, “No… no… please!”

His fingers slipped in Nana’s blood. He looked behind him, Chay was still walking, slowly. Each footstep echoed through the ruined house.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The leader’s heartbeat hammered inside his chest as Chay approached him. The fearless expression he’d worn moments ago was gone.

He stumbled backward. “Stay back!”

He quickly grabbed a fallen pistol with shaking hands. “You hear me?!” he threatened.

His finger squeezed the trigger.

Click.

Empty.

“No…”

The pistol slipped from his hand.

He laughed nervously. “You… you can’t kill me,” his voice cracked. “Jordan Jones is coming! The heir of the mighty Jones family! He’ll skin you alive!”

“…He’ll make you wish you stayed dead! I promise you.”

Chay kept walking.

“Didn’t hear me?!” He was screaming now.

“The Great Jones family will hunt you to the ends of the earth! You think you’re somebody because you came back?! You–“

Chay vanished.

The leader’s pupil shrank. “Uh!”

The next thing he felt was a hand wrapped around his throat, and his feet leaving the floor.

He clawed frantically at Chay’s wrist. But it didn’t move, not even slightly. His face reddened, veins bulging from his forehead.

Chay finally spoke. His voice was low, cold, almost emotionless.

“Where is Molly?”

The leader refused.

Chay landed him a hot wrecking slap across his face, sending five of his smoker teeth flying out.

His grip tightened simultaneously.

CRACK… something in his neck shifter and his eyes bulged. “I… I…”

Another squeeze.

Blood leaked from the corners of his mouth. “W-wait…”

Chay’s expression never changed. “Where?”

“L-Lumen…” the words barely escaped. “Lumen Village… they they already took her…”

“Please…”

“I told you…”

“I’ve answered…”

Chay’s fingers dug deeper the moment he heard ‘Lumen village’. How could they take her there? How could they?

The leader's vision darkened, “I-I don’t want to die..”

“Please…”

“I have children…”

At this point, Chay couldn’t care less.

His neck began to bend beneath the pressure.

One more second, and it would snap.

But suddenly–

“PUT HIM DOWN!”

A thunderous command exploded from outside.

Heavy footsteps that shook the ground followed.

A young man stepped through the ruined doorway, dressed in an expensive tailored suit, dragging heavy chains behind him.

Jordan Jones had arrived.

He was surrounded by about twelve heavily armed men.

His eyes swept across the room...

The corpses. The blood. His men lying broken beyond recognition.

Finally, they settled on the man holding the last survivor by the throat.

His brows slowly knitted together.

"...Chay Morgan?"

Chay slowly turned.

His blood-soaked eyes met Jordan's.

"You're next."