Covered from head to toe in a dark blue robe with a few curling patterns on it, from what little of her face he's able to see, it's clear she’s a stunning.

But Mansa could only stare blankly after all he didn't have the slightest clue about who she was or why she was speaking to him.

“huh?”

The young lady stared at him in a daze because of his reaction before sizing him up, staring into his eyes for a few seconds before letting out a deep breath filled with mixed emotions.

“Come with me”

Mansa remained seated.

“I’m sorry but I cannot, I'm waiting for someone”

The young lady stared at him again this time like she was looking at an idiot, the anger and annoyance in her eye became harder to suppress the more she looked at him.

This made Mansa even more confused.

“He couldn’t be…..no but why….”

The young lady began mumbling under her breath.

Shortly afterward while the young lady was still mumbling a few men dressed from head to toes in white, cover their face with a white half mask.

When they entered they scanned the entire room before their eyes finally landed on Mansa.

No words were spoken to each other, with a nod all five of them surrounded Mansa, the young lady was completely petrified when saw them no daring to say a work.

“Come with us now”

Although this was his first time out in the world and he marveled at the tiniest thing he saw, he wasn’t stupid so seeing all these men surrounding him at a glance he knew they didn’t have good intentions.

“I cannot I’m waiting for a friend”

When these words were spoken everyone in the room either looked at him like he was an idiot or with pity but one thing was for sure none of them looked surprised.

Mansa scanned everyone in the room before his eyes landed on the young lady revealing a small smile.

This didn’t escape the eyes of the white clothes men two of them walked behind her.

He stood up from his seat without saying a word walking behind the man who led the way, the young lady could only grit her teeth and walk.

Once outside the first thing Mansa saw was the old man who had been treating he so nice.

Feeling his gaze the old man looked at him and smile no trace of shame, guilt or any other emotions that would show remorse.

“Sorry kid, it was just your bad luck”

After saying that he collected some paper from one of the men and walked off.

They were completely surrounded there were another eight men in front of them while another few were scattered on different buildings watching them.

“Hahaha, sorry kid you, not the first he’s sold out, I doubt you’re gonna be the last”

The one who just spoke stretch his hand to pat Mansa shoulder, putting his size aside Mansa still looked like a sixteen-year-old kid.

But what he did next was completely out of everyone’s expectations, without turning he kicked the man who was patting his shoulder in his stomach sending him flying back.

Before they could react he grabbed the young lady’s hand, pressed down on his legs and springs forward, thrusting his right knee up into the face of the white clothes man directly in front of him.

The mask on his face was completely shattered pieces of it lodged in his face, everything happened in an instant and before they could process what was happening Mansa used his body as a stepping stone to get on top of a nearby building.

Without missing a beat he threw the girl over his shoulders and jumped to another building that ran in the same direction as the old man.

It only took less than a millisecond after Mansa jumped buildings for the men in white to react, after getting rid of their initial shock, they started about a dozen of them started chasing his some in the streets some on top of buildings.

The young lady was in a daze but when she noticed that he was going further away from the exit of the city she instantly woke up.

“Where are you going!? The exit is the other way! Turn idiot”

Her voice no longer sounded as soothing instead it sounded like shrieks but considering the situation it’s understandable.

“I am not the first but I will be the last”

At first, she didn’t understand what he was talking about but after a few seconds, she understood.

“You're not the first but you’ll be the last?....idiot save yourself before you think about saving others or at the very leave save me!”

He completely ignored her and after another building hop or two, he finally stopped the old man walking without a care in the world.

For someone as old as his as well as the nature of his jobs he’d be a fool if he couldn’t danger and when he looked back he saw eyes that resembled that of a predictor when it locked onto its prey.

Instinctively his feet started to move as fast as they possibly could.

The men in white that were chasing Mansa looked as calm as ever, most of the men that were following on the ground had been lost because they couldn’t maneuver as easily as those above.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

After a few twist and turns the old man was at a dead end but before he could turn around the giant Mansa fell from the sky blocking his path.

The old man's face showed fear but when Mansa looked in his eyes it was more condescension even his tone was the same.

“Boy kid I’ve met a lot of you over the years but…….never one as stupid as you hahaha, is this your first time coming out into the world? In your next life try not to be so stupid”

The contradictions made Mansa feel like he was planning something but he didn’t have to wait to find out what he was planning.

Shortly after he landed so did the men in white.

“Trust me, kid, it’s better you go with them quietly, it hurts a lot less that way”

Mansa didn’t reply but he once again launched himself forward with an open palm slamming his head into the wall, even if the old man had nine lives he wouldn’t have survived.

Taking a deep breath Mansa took the young lady off his shoulder who was still in a daze and placed her on the ground.

“I do not know who you are nor what you want but I do not plan and going with you”

While he’d already raised his guard and before finishing his sentence he’d already sprung forward covering the meter or so the distance between them.

When he ran he ran in low and by the time the closest person to him was going to put up his guard Mansa was already within range.

Thrusting up his elbow diagonally under the mans chin forcefully uprooting him from the ground, the elbow thrust was followed by a fist to the stomach sending him flying in the direction of his comrades.

Before Mansa could make another move a vicious kick came from his right which Mansa welcomed with an elbow strike.

A clear cracking sound could be heard followed by a blood-curdling scream when the leg bent in an unnatural ninety-degree angle.

Once again he rushed forward performing a forward push kick but he didn’t allow the man to go far before grabbing him by his collar and slamming him into the ground which he followed up with a backward spin kick that took down the man directly behind him.

Swoosh

A blue light flash past him followed up by a crackling sound that resembled lights instinctively he jumped back until he was beside the young lady again.

Clap Clap Clap

“Wow, this is the first time I’ve ever seen one of you managed to do this much damage to us in a city”

A man in white that was clearly a superior stepped forward, his eyes were filled with greed from the time Mansa was fighting his cloak flew up many times revealing what was several pieces of gold that were underneath.

Himself as well as a few of his comrades couldn’t wait to get a hold of all that gold and find out where this kid got it from.

Everything that he’d just done only took a few seconds so it wasn’t that the men in white took a while to react just that everything happened way too fast.

“But unfortunately If this goes on you’ll make us look bad…...take aim”

By this time all the men who’d gotten lost along the way showed up so standing in front of them was nothing less than twenty men all aim metal cylinders at them.

“We have to run now!”

The young lady finally came out of her daze and when she saw what was being aimed at them she became terrified but it was too late.

“Fire!”

To Mansa, the sounds that followed sounded like roaring thunder and what shot out looked like lighting.

Some were aimed at it while others were aimed at the girl.

Mansa had no idea how to react with up fast they were approaching he could try to scale the builds and escape but if he did that he’d have to abandon her and if he chose to grab her and then scale the building there wouldn’t be enough time, no matter what he couldn’t abandon her because in retrospect she was only trying to help him.

With no other choice he bit the bullet and dashed in front the young lady who still slumped down on the ground, he used his body as a shield.

The pain that came was far worse than what he could’ve ever expected because what he expected them to fire they didn’t.

He expected them to fire something like lightning and that’s what he prepared himself for although that did come what came after was unexpected.

What they fired was indeed electricity but in the midst of all that were small grappling hooks that ripped through his skin lodging themselves firmly inside his skin.

Mansa screamed like a pig that was being slaughtered with a really really dull knife.

But something happened that caught a few of the men’s attention, the back of the cloak had already been ripped apart or burn by the electricity so they could see the two black lines running up his back.

“Oh…...you and you keep firing on those black lines on his back”

The man who had walked out earlier issued an order after noticing something was off.

Although it was a little bit strange but for all they knew are cared it was just some strange tradition they had where he came from so that wasn’t was caught their attention it was the fact that no matter how many grapplings or electric bullets hit that area it was completely undamaged.

If the grappling hit that area full force they crush under the force of its own impact while the electric bullets would just fade out.

The number of people that noticed it continuously grew in number and along with that came fear.

One of the white clothe men had said earlier that this wasn’t the first time the old man sold out someone to them but if those people had abilities how could they be captured without causing major damage to the city?

And if they could cause major damage to the city why would these men in white attack them openly wouldn’t it be simpler to just use a sneak attack to save the city from ruin?

The answer, there must be something in the city that suppressed ability users but here this kid was who seemed like he was still able to use his ability so wouldn’t that mean that whatever they used for suppression was starting to fail?

Or was this kid just an oddity? Whatever it was they didn’t plan on letting him leave here alive

“Tie him down!”

Immediately the men who weren’t firing at the back immediately ran forward with a little machine they then proceeded to tie the ropes of a few grappling to it and started whiling them in.

Mansa was already on the verge of crying his eyes were filled with water, less than a weeks ago he was just a sixteen-year-old living with his mother and now here he was getting impaled, the change happened a bit too quickly.

He had just started to bare with the pain when they started pulling on the hooks in his back dragging his backward.

The young lady had been staring at his water-filled eyes the entire time, no one would be able to tell if she was conscious or not.

No matter what he had to resist because if he went back it was only a question of when he and the young lady would die.

“Ughh!!.......ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!”

He couldn’t suppress it anymore the hooks were on the verge of ripping his skin apart.

“Pull harder!”

They already come this far to get rid of a major oddity as well as a major payday they weren’t going to give up now.

“Please, mother help!”

Everyone was momentarily stunned…..

He was calling for his mother……

All the men in white wanted to roll on the ground in a fit of laughter but still, they choose to keep their eyes on the prize.

The young lady looked at him strangely despite his the situation they were in but instantly after she was stunned his already blue eyes started glowing.

Without any warning a heavy pressure envelope the area forcing the men in white to drop to the ground everyone including the young lady felt like they were being crushed but it disappeared just as quickly as it came and when it left so did Mansa and the girl.

What replaced them were two trees what was strange was that the exact area where the hooks were embedded in Mansa body was the exact same place they were in the trees.

“How’s this possible?”

“Does he have two abilities?.....it looks like one of them is substitution?”

All of them were stunned they were sure how to react, it was hard for them to contains the questions they had inside.

“If his ability is substitution then based on the trees he must be outside the city right? Let’s go we can’t let them get away!”

When everyone was ready to run off the one who was clearly the leader spoke.

“All of you stop!! Look at the trees good have you ever see anything like it before around the city? I doubt there in the area anymore……quickly collect as much of the blood as possible and let’s go”

The leader was aware of how strange his words sounded, how was it possible for someone to use their ability in the city much less the amount of power it would take to traverse the entire desert?

Some of them ran forward and took out some viles and collected as much blood as possible shortly after the blood on the ground started to evaporate but no one was surprised by this.