Ascension of the elder

"Awesome time to be a badass."

Now some people may say that the decision to move before Kyle had the power to defend himself from the possible attacks from the shadows was a tactical blunder, however you should remember that sometimes the threat of a strong response is sometimes enough to prevent the attack in the first place hence the saying 'if you want peace prepare for war'.

During his training Kyle had been messing around with the use of mana through his sub-nodes and he believed that the limit of special skills at level five was due to being able to release enough energy to externalise the energy, which would allow for elemental magic's and the large scale sword waves everyone knows from stories.

However due to his nodes and sub-nodes being clear and reinforced Kyle was able to use mana within his body to do some inhuman feats, such as when he charges mana through the third node in his brain and entered his reflex or matrix time where his senses and reflexes gave the illusion of everyone else slowing down.

Kyle used this skill as he moved to the enemies and looked at what they were doing. The group was composed of 11 men, the leader and 9 others were turning towards Kyle and his group while the last was moving towards Mavis and raising what appeared to be a club getting ready to strike her.

As Kyle saw this he was able to use the slowed time and produced a 'shield' array and projected it protecting Mavis. While it was only his mind that was accelerated in this state and his body couldn't move as fast, this allowed Kyle to use arrays in ways no one else could. Other masters would assemble an array and then project it but Kyle due to the advantage of his soul force, could create an array almost instantly and project it further.

To everyone else's view the 10 gang members that were turning towards Kyle looked intimidating and the last whom was ready to strike Mavis caused them to feel pity for the girl when suddenly there was a vivid flash as the club struck a golden symbol which suddenly appeared and the man was flung away like a poor dog's chew toy.

The others started to look towards the fallen bandit but before they could even turn Kyle was already amongst them. This was another cheat he had found while experimenting. By infusing mana into the sub-nodes in his legs he could generate a blast of speed in a linear direction, so he covered the distance between him and the bandits in the blink of an eye.

Kyle didn't draw his sword and instead used his fists and feet in ways no one else did in this world. First he took a low kick to one of the men's knee dropping him down in front of him, as the man dropped Kyle kicked the man in the face with the sole of his foot breaking his nose and launching him across the floor.

Using the counter force from this strike, Kyle made a back flip and made an axe kick taking down the man directly behind him. At his right a man tried to strike by swinging his club but Kyle moved with this clumsy strike and hit the man in the sternum with his elbow dropping another man.

The rest of the bandits tried to move in as they had him surrounded but as the first fist came towards Kyle's ear, he grabbed the man's wrist and pulled him in the way of another incoming fist which caught the unfortunate man in the temple knocking his out.

As Kyle was pulling the man's arm he used this as a pivot and spinning 180 degrees he made a straight kick to the next man's groin. The man dropped while whimpering and groaning on the ground. Kyle still had hold of the previous man's wrist and as he felt him going down rolled over his back kicking the man who had struck his meat shield in the face making him stumble back.

Kyle let go of the man letting him fully drop to the ground. There were now 5 men still up 2 of which were already injured, the leader had a chopstick through his hand and the man he had just kicked had stumbled back while shaking his head trying to clear his dizziness.

Kyle looked to the remaining 3 who were shaking at this crazy kid who had taken out over half their number in seconds. Dylan was still drawing his sword and Maria hadn't yet finished charging her mana when the pause in the fight happened. They were shocked seeing the speed of this fight, how can anyone fight like this it's beyond a fight between humans.

Kyle was aiming for this as there were others present in the inn and showing this level of power would make people worry. Where had he learnt this, who taught him and if he's this strong already just how strong would his teacher be. Paranoia and fear of the unknown would be Kyle's greatest allies and weapons until he was able to survive a straight up fight.

The last three bandits were looking at Kyle as if he was a demon beast in human form. The one closest to the door slowly started to walk backwards towards the door, but how could Kyle allow this so with another burst of speed he shot between the two in front and did a double kick to the chest of the retreating bandit literally launching him through the open door and a good 5 meters clear. Using the counter force once again Kyle flipped and finished standing on the last 2 combat ready bandit's shoulders.

They looked slowly looked up while Kyle was looking down at them and as if by command both looked over their shoulders seeing the last of them laying face down in the road as he'd flipped over when his head hit the road.

"Give up?"

Kyle asked them with a smile on his face to which both just nodded so Kyle jumped back off their shoulders and landed softly in front of them once again. Once Kyle landed they both got down on their knees and began grovelling in front of him. As Kyle was watching them he caught a movement coming towards him from his peripheral vision.

It was the man who he had kicked earlier who was dazed and had finally recovered enough to lunge towards him. Kyle turned and was ready to defend himself but Dylan came in like a wrecking ball and shoulder barged him so hard he slammed into the wall nearby and was knocked out cold.

As Kyle began to breathe deeply to recover what little mana he had lost his mother came over to him and began to fuss over him. Checking everywhere for injuries, she was only satisfied a few minutes later as not even his clothing was damaged in this altercation. Kyle moved over to the leader who was still howling from having a chopstick stuck in his hand, while Dylan was checking on Mavis and Maria was watching over the still conscious bandits with lightning sparking around her arms. She was rather angry to put it mildly and she almost hoped these men would try something.

Seeing Maria with the lightning playing around her arms, Kyle couldn't wait till he punched through the fifth level and could do these things as well maybe while wearing a dark robe and saying something about being in the dark.

Dismissing these thoughts Kyle returned his attention to the leader of the bandits. He grabbed the chopstick and infused some of his mana into it allowing him to pull it free. The bandit dropped on to his ass while cradling his hand before looking at Kyle.

"So are you going to tell me who you work for?"

"We are members of the seven snake's gang."

The leader didn't even pause, after he had seen this fight he had no intention of disobeying these people. They hadn't even managed to touch a hair on the kid's hair let alone hurt him. As the leader spoke Dylan was the first to respond.

"That gang is a protection racket from the slums, why are you her?"

"I truly don't know the bosses said to start operating around here so we did."

Kyle was watching the man and could tell he wasn't lying, he had been ordered to do something and so he did as he was told. Kyle was watching the man intently which started to make the man uncomfortable.

"What is your name?"

"My name is Derek."

Kyle asked the leaders name as he had a feeling he would have a use for this man and his subordinates. But before he could continue with this train of thoughts there was sound from the street as a squad of guards ran over.

"What's happening here and who are you."

The guard captain who was red faced from running over called out before directing his question at Kyle who was standing over a known criminal boss.

"Me I'm Darth Badass."