God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

"Fuck. That hurt a lot..." A groan escaped from Hunter as he tried his best to steady his shaky knees. Cain had done a number on him, but since he had fairly good defense stats, and Cain didn't intend to take his life, he was still breathing. Wounded, but breathing...

Cain stared him down for a while. Suddenly, he slowly let a smile creep onto his face.

He re-sheathed his blade, then placed a finger on his chin as though he was in deep thought.

Curiously, Cain asked, "Who taught you how to fight?"

"Hmm?" As this question was unexpected, it truly caught Hunter by surprise.

With a raised brow, he asked, "Why do you want to know?"

"Well, you fight well. I want to know who your master is."

'This just might be a lead...'

Cain owed his life to the mysterious man that had taught him how to stand up for himself and defend his pride. He had tried looking for him, but since he didn't have any actual clues of his teacher's identity, he always ended up empty-handed.

He had tried asking around in most of the dojos on campus and in the city, but to no avail. He had thought that with the popularity of martial arts, it wouldn't be hard at all to find something that could only be known as a mater, but apparently, he was wrong.

No one had any information on who his master was. It was almost as if he just appeared out of thin air, and then vanisher right back to where he came from...

"That is none of your business. Besides, a dead man has no business knowing such things." Hunter said. There still wasn't much of a change in his facial expression, but Cain could tell there was something a bit different...

Cain let out a chuckle, "Me? A dead man? It seems I didn't whoop your ass enough." He placed his hand on the hilt of his blade but didn't draw it.

'If he's this confident, he certainly must have an ace up his sleeve.'

"Trust me, it was enough... Ouch!" Hunter winced as the pain from his bruised body intensified over time.

The look in his eyes seemed to intensify as well, "But trust me, what I'm about to do to you will be a whole lot worse."

A provocative smirk stretched the corners of Cain's lips, "Oh? Humor me."

Hunter shrugged and cracked his neck as though the bruises no longer affected him even though he was still covered in them from head to toe, "It's best if I show you. That way, you get the full experience."

"Summon: Demon Wolf!"

A magical rune appeared on Hunter's palm, and an identical array magically appeared from the ground next to him. 6 fairly larger-than-average wolves with a fiery coat accompanied by a dense smell of sulfur appeared from the runic array on the ground.

"Summon Sacrifice: Recovery!"

Three of the wolves dissipated into motes of light that melded into Hunter's body. His bruises visibly began to heal up very quickly until they had all completely disappeared.

CRACKLE!

He stretched a bit, and all his bones that had been knocked out of their place by Cain during his beatdown were pushed back to their original positions. All these were done without him even flinching...

Light shone briefly before a blue-colored potion appeared in his hands. He pulled the cork of the bottle, before dunking all the MP regen potion down his throat. Cain watched him get prepared without doing any more to stop him.

Once he was done, the little glass bottle shattered. This was normal because as soon as an HP Regen or MP Regen potion was emptied, the glass vial, which was its container would shatter into pieces, without leaving behind a single piece of debris.

Cain checked his stats and was pleased to find out that his mana pool had almost regenerated back to full capacity.

'{Mana Heart} is such a convenient skill...'

His stamina and HP were also barely depleted, so he assumed he didn't even need any preparations.

Once Hunter was done with his, he figured it was about time round two started.

As soon as he was done preparing, Hunter stared right at Cain, "If I kill you, just know it wasn't my intention to do so. You are one of the strongest opponents I have ever faced in my life. So, I am going to fight you at full capacity now. There will be no holding back, so I might end up killing you."

Cain could tell that whatever string of morality that had been holding Hunter back, had broken completely. He could see in his eyes that Hunter desired to fight him without holding anything back.

And he felt just the same way...

He fought with restraint before because he didn't want to end up killing someone accidentally. Although he was a fighter, he had never needed to take someone's life before.

So he held back...

Every time he fought with someone else, he held back. He set unconscious limitations on himself because he didn't want to go overboard and end up with a life on his hands. He might be crazy, but he knew that killing someone had to be a point of no return.

But here he was, seriously considering it. He noticed that the limiters he put on himself were gone. They had simply vanished completely. And he knew why.

Cain realized that the threat he was facing, had become real. It wasn't like those he had come in contact with in the past. This was the real deal...

If Cain knew of Hunter's origins, he definitely won't be as lax as he was right now. Hunter was a killer, an infamous one at that, but Cain was just a teenager who happened to come in contact with a good fortune after a lifetime of bad luck.

With the arrival of the apocalypse, these two characters gained superhuman powers. One a murderous teenager, and the other a potentially murderous teenager. Both skilled in the art of battle, they decided to clash to find out who was superior...

This was what happened when two predators of the same species met. They would go head to head in a brutal fight for dominance, either until one of them was defeated or killed. This was the world that worked...

Cain's face turned somber, "I could say the same thing. If you are ready, come. There will be no holding back this time around..."

"Hmph!"

With a snort, Hunter got into a weird stance. He bent his legs forward, yet didn't seem to fall over because his center of gravity shifted to favor his stance. He spread his arms apart perpendicular to the ground with his beastly claws stretched out. His bulging muscles began to twitch and spasm.

Cain was filled with a deep sense of shock as he stared at this transformation, 'What is this?!'

A deep guttural growl escaped his lips as he looked over at Cain with bloodshot eyes. There was a mixture of savage brutality and calm within his eyes, like a predator waiting for the right moment to strike at its prey.

'His aura changed completely. He looks more like a beast than ever before now. I haven't felt this way in a long time.' Cain could feel his heart racing a little as he gazed directly into the eyes of the monster crouching before him.

'Is this fear or excitement? It's hard to tell...' Cain was stumped for words, but his body instinctively got on the defensive.

His blade was quickly drawn from its sheath and placed diagonally in front of him. He adopted a defensive stance, ready to take Hunter head-on.

Blood pumping through both their veins, they were ready to tear at each other until the stronger one was decided, covered in the blood of the other.

Between this moment and 1:40 am, exactly twenty minutes had passed...

02:00 am...

Just as they were about to clash once again, it came...

At first, they heard the sound of whistling accompanied by distant rumbling. Suddenly, extremely bright flashes of light came from the distance, followed by several loud bangs.

Breaking out of battle mode in an instant, Cain turned to stare at the source, "What the hell was that?!"

Then, he saw it...

The only words that could be used to describe what he saw, was death...

Because of his high perception stat and how bright they were in contrast to the dark skies, he could observe them with ease.

"Fucking hell..." The fatty muttered as the bright flashes of light reflected within the depths of his eyes. The rest just stared on without saying a word.

The bloodlust and fighting spirit wafting in the air was blown away in an instant. Cain and Hunter paused to stare as well...

Hundreds of ballistic missiles fell upon the city like the angels of death themselves. Everyone stared at the city in shock and despair, as they couldn't believe what they witnessed. They weren't able to hear anything for a while due to the terrifying booms as well.

Cain looked in the distance and was able to see a shadow piercing through the clouds, aimed at them. It didn't take him long to realize what it was.

"Everyone, brace yourselves!" Cain yelled out as loud as he could.

"Shit! Shit; One of those things is headed this way!" Vincent screamed at the top of his lungs in a panic.

"What?!" The others were just as shocked. They gazed at the patch of the sky Cain and Vincent were looking at, and their faces turned a shade paler.

"May we share grace?" Steve asked in a calm voice, hoping to get his last laughs out before he died.

The others ignored him as they thought of what to do.

"Is there a shelter for these sorts of situations in the school?" Cain turned to David to ask.

"No... This part of the school was just built recently, so nothing like that was included when the building was being made." David said. The look of hopelessness and despair that crept onto his face as he spoke caused Cain to feel a tinge of worry in his heart.

He usually didn't feel emotions for others, but when someone a little close to him showed such despair, he couldn't help but want to do something about it.

Despite all the commotion, he was still extremely calm. Within his mind, he began forming a plan...

'There is only one way I can think of to stop this thing.'

"Everyone, listen to me. In less than a minute, that thing is going to get here, and if we don't do something, we'll turn into ash. Anyone who has a barrier type or defense type skill, activate it. Do whatever you can to survive!"

"It isn't going to work. There is no way any of our skills will be able to stop a warhead of that size. An explosion from that thing would wipe out all life in the area." Hunter said.

"What's the point of instilling false hope in them?"

"False hope? I don't think so. If all goes according to plan, we will all survive. I'm sure of it..." Cain said as though he wasn't even a bit bothered by their situation...

'This guy is crazy. Does he think it's possible to stop a warhead? These things were used in the old era to take down battleships and aircraft. Stopping a warhead isn't something a human can do...' Hunter thought to himself.

In his mind, he had already accepted his fate. Even if he did die, he wasn't going to be bothered. He would just take it as restitution for all the lives he had claimed in his life.