Then, Cane woke up - to see a fist covered in black mist, flying right at his face.
What the...
Before he had time to readjust himself, the Mask of Truth caved inward - having already taken one too many impacts. Meanwhile, Cane flew backward through the building wall, crashing, tumbling and rolling to a stop on the third floor.
F*ck, was it Nightmare!?
Indeed, it was.
Back when Cane had been embedded into the wall, he fell unconscious for 2 seconds. At this exact moment, Cassidy used her final Nightmare, before collapsing unconscious too. But it'd worked.
For the next minute, the 5 (now 4, because Cassidy was out of the fight) prepared to release their most powerful attack. Having been thrust into the Empty Districts without warning, they lacked weapons from the start. For all this time, they had been hunting - and now fighting - barehanded.
Therefore, they could only use their abilities and physical power to achieve the strongest possible attack.
First, Dalton used Battle Song again. Having used it quite a bit now, he was facing similar issues to Cassidy - overuse and backlash. He estimated that he would also collapse within the next 10 minutes. Hopefully, they would be able to kill Cane within that time.
After Dalton used Battle Song, Nick turned into mist and wrapped around Rake's fist. Rake activated Rush multiple times, and Hook too. Then, James threw Rake at Cane with as much force as he could muster.
Under the combined power of Battle Song, Desperation, multiple uses of Rush, and the 100% accuracy of Hook, Cane was sent flying backward!
And he finally made his way through the whole wall, rather than being stuck halfway.
After the vicious blow landed, Nick wrapped his body around Cane's face and turned solid once more. He'd been blown apart too many times to count, and realised that the only way he could effectively fight Cane would be in solid form.
The constriction was like a snake's, squeezing his head and suffocating him. Cane reached up to his face and attempted to pry Nick off.
Sh*t... I... Can't get him off...
Hiding Spot!
Cane once again disappeared. Inside of the crystalline walls of the Hiding Spot dimension, he took off the cloned Mask of Truth and looked at it. It was crumpled and tattered, so Cane dissipated it and used Steal to get another one.
Additionally, he donned the defensive cloak, the military gauntlets, boots, and the chest and leg plates. Previously, the fight had been too sudden for him to properly put on the armour he'd won from the tournament arc - although, the same was also true for the other five. He then wrapped the Omnitool around his body, creating a thin layer of silvery armour.
Due to the fact that the Omnitool was more like millions of individual, tiny nanobots working together, it was an item that he couldn't use Steal on. Thus, he chose to put it on, since he was already in Hiding Spot.
Finally, Cane fumbled through his pile of random items, and found the Red Badge, another item won from the tournament arc. He'd never used it yet, mostly due to the high energy cost, so he wasn't too sure of the effects. All he knew was that it had a one-time use, with an attack power reaching Apprentice Master rank.
If he had a choice, he'd like to stay in Hiding Spot forever, but his energy was running a bit low. Thus, he peeked outside through the Crystalline walls, and saw that the five (four) had regrouped and were surrounding his previous location.
Due to the rank up he'd received before being sent to the Empty Districts, Hiding Spot's space had grown 4 times larger - by simply adjusting the time rate inside of Hiding Spot and walking to a corner, before exiting, Cane could achieve an effect similar to short-range teleportation.
So, that was exactly what he did.
Meanwhile, the four had surrounded the location where Cane had been - only for James to see Cane reappear a few metres away! The other three turned to face him, and a new standoff occurred.
It only lasted for a few seconds before Cane and Rake simultaneously shot forward. Cane reared his fist back to strike, but Rake narrowly dodged by tilting his head. Then, he countered with a knee to the stomach!
Immediately, Rake cursed and retreated. As James and Nick brushed past him, he warned them.
"Cane's got armour on! Target the head!"
Nick enlarged, blocking Cane's vision in an attempt to wrap himself around Cane's head once more. James used the opportunity to punch into Nick, going through his elastic-like body, and smashing onto Cane's face!
From beneath Cane's clothes, a tidal wave of silvery liquid erupted. This was his Omnitool!
It wrapped around Nick in reverse, simultaneously trapping James' arm, and began constricting!
Cr... crack!
James' arm bone shattered. Following that, the liquid metal of the Omnitool travelled down his arm and onto the rest of his body, constraining him by the wrists and ankles! With both James and Nick bound, there was no chance of their escape, and Cane thus began to activate the Red Badge.
"F*ck!"
Seeing this, Rake cursed and shot forward with another Rush, hoping to stop him in time. But...
BBOOMM!!!
It was too late.
From the Red Badge, a gigantic beam of red light exploded towards James and Nick. It was almost 3 metres in diametre, and along the way it dug deep grooves into both the floor ceiling. James and Nick were enveloped by the light almost instantly, and it continued travelling out the other end of the building.
An instant later, the light beam had disappeared, leaving behind trails of glowing red, burnt concrete. James and Nick... had been completely eviscerated by the beam.
"... F*ck! My Omnitool!"
Cane scanned the remainders, but didn't find it. The Omnitool had been permanently erased, just like James and Nick.
"... Oh, sh*t."
Rake cursed stopped in place, completely stunned by the devastating effects of the Red Badge. Then, he took advantage of Cane's lapse in attention, turning and beginning to run-
Rake wanted to escape! Escape Cane, and hide!
Dalton, seeing this, also began to run as well!
But, using Hiding Spot's "teleport" function, Cane caught up after only a few hundred metres. He appeared in front of Rake without warning, causing him to slam himself onto Cane. Rake reeled back from the impact, and then had his neck grasped.
Cane lifted him up by the throat, squeezing all the while. After a few seconds, Rake's throat was crushed with a sickening Krack!
The light faded from his eyes.
Cane then turned to watch Dalton, who was escaping at a much slower speed. He proceeded to do the same, "teleporting" after Dalton and killing him. Finally, he used Hidden Strength to sense for Cassidy - found her unconscious, and let her sleep for eternity.
Somehow, suddenly, in just a single night, Cane had found himself inexplicably killing all of the people he once knew.
It was unthinkable, and so Cane decided not to think about it.
He... was still very wounded, too.
Broken ribs, internal bleeding, and the many impacts to his head were definitely not pleasant. If not for the Mask of Truth, it could be estimated that he'd have gotten a concussion long ago, falling and getting killed by those five recently deceased.
"Pain, pain, go away, come again another day..."
Cane limped back to the camp, pushed aside some rubble to find his old makeshift bed, and collapsed.
...
A week later, Cane awoke completely healed. As a full rank Warrior, his body's healing capabilities were 81x faster and more powerful than a regular human. Additionally, he had 3 Hidden Strength marks, giving an additional 6x boost - in total, he could heal at a rate of 486 times faster than the average human!
But now, having healed from his injuries, he faced another issue...
He was so hungry he could barely move.
Sh*t, how am I going to hunt anything in this state??
He crawled his way around the rubble, clawing himself forward 1 arm at a time. Reaching the pile, he dug for a few minutes, but came up blank.
They hadn't stored any food for later - it did make sense, too. It wasn't as if there was any meaningful access to refridgeration in the Empty Districts, and without Heddler's Frost Energy, this was even more true.
Cane cursed, and then stopped, deciding not to waste extra energy on vulgarities.
Why on earth did I sleep for a week? If only I had woken up a few days ago - injured but able to hunt, I'd be healing even faster!
And, of course, he wouldn't be in the situation he was in at the moment.
He didn't know for how long he'd crawled, before he stumbled across the first sign of life. Or, well, death.
He'd found Cassidy's body, exactly the same as he'd left her, with a stab through the throat. Due to the special nature of an Awakened physique, Awakeners would decay at a slower speed than normal people. This decay was slowed even more for an Apprentice Warrior.
The intense fight had likely scared all the nearby Monsters away, so there was no other sign of damage to Cassidy. For the weak Monsters, they were too afraid to get close. And any Monster strong enough to ignore the fight, would also be too strong to care about a few Apprentice Warrior corpses.
The moment he saw her, he suddenly felt an ominous feeling.
Cane was still... very hungry.
And he couldn't hunt.
And, Cassidy was already dead anyway - and she'd been trying to kill him previously! Did she really deserve respect after death?
As for Cane's own morality, he'd long forgotten the last time he felt bad for doing something. Even at the thought of cannibalising on his former friends, he could only muster a small amount of guilt.
I really shouldn't be doing this, haha. Anyway...
He craned his neck forward and opened his jaws as wide as they could go.
Crunch.
Crunch. Squelch...
Gulp.
As he consumed, he felt an increase in power like never before. Everyone knew that eating Monsters could make your EXP grow faster...
Why had no one ever tried to eat an Awakener?
Once Cane was done with Cassidy, he stood up, a strange and ferocious gleam in his eyes.
It's a pity that James and Nick were completely erased by the Red Badge. But...
Dalton and Rake's bodies are still where I left them, right?
...
3 days later, even if a professional investigation team came, they wouldn't be able to find any proper clues regarding Cassidy, Dalton or Rake.
The best answer one could give, if they saw the scene, was that some Monsters ended up killing them and eating them - how tragic.
During this time, Cane had ranked up once more - he was now an Apprentice Master. With a 50% increase to all his stats, he was now 729x more powerful than the average person. Additionally, he'd gained a new ability. Or, well...
He'd lost three and gained one.
Hidden Strength, Hiding Spot and Stealth had seemed to... merge? It didn't match anything he knew, but his new ability, Spy Master, was exactly that.
[Spy Master]
The user can no longer use new Hidden Strength marks. The user can no longer be subconsciously ignored, regardless of the visual cover percentage. The user can continue to use the Hiding Spot dimension, but cannot enter within in - all items intended to be placed inside will enter automatically.
The user can now seem like someone else when Spy Master is active, and the first attack, if done towards the target's back when using Spy Master, is 6 times more powerful - but upon attacking, Spy Master automatically deactivates. If attacking the front, the user's attack becomes 20% more powerful, and applies an 8-second vitality drain. It can only activate if no one sees it happen. Additionally, the user may choose to go invisible instead, for up to 15 seconds.