Alexander sprang forward, delivering a powerful double-legged kick to Dane’s chest with all the strength he could muster

The blow connected, sending Dane rocketing into a half-erected wall that crumbled upon impact.

Alexander's weariness was apparent, and the bruises and fatigue were taking their toll. The fall from kicking Dane with both legs hit him hard, and it took a while for him to stand, his entire body aching and drained of energy.

But he refused to wait. Mustering every ounce of strength, Alexander charged forward. Reaching the freshly created rubble, he moved every brick and slab of concrete to reach Dane and finish the job. The blow might have been enough for someone like Dillon, but not for someone like Dane, who was already E-grade, and if Alexander's intuition was right, deep into it.

Alexander quickly shifted the rubble, finding his target. He was about to finish him off, but something made him stop.

As predicted, Dane hadn’t perished. Despite his battered body, he was still clinging to life. But it was Dane’s reaction that gave Alexander pause—he was laughing, with tears streaming down his cheeks.

The odd tableau lingered: one man weeping and laughing, the other on the verge of striking.

"I did it, didn’t I? Ha, ha ha, ha ha ha. Everyone is dead." Dane cackled, staring up at the ceiling as tears flowed unchecked.

"Why did it come to this? Why did I take this job? Mother warned me so many times that dirty money always had strings attached. Why didn’t I listen? Why am I so fucking stupid?"

Dane turned his gaze to Alexander. "And you, you bastard. Why’d you stop? What, are you pitying me? A no body like you, feeling sorry for the Great Dane? The youngest to ever join the Nova Command, the one who saved so many lives at the Cosmos and beyond?"

“How dare you. I will kill everyone close to you—your father, mother, sister, or whatever you fucking have. If you let me go, I will kill everything you hold dear. Why did you stop? Kill me. Kill me, or I will…”

His words were cut short as Alexander’s fist descended on his head once more. Dane was just about to gather qi in his right hand when Alexander panicked. Without thought, he brought his fist down on Dane’s face. Blood splattered, and flesh mangled, but Dane did not stop gathering qi.

Alexander’s fear intensified. Without thinking, he brought his fist down repeatedly, again and again, as Dane’s face became bloodier and bloodier. But two things never stopped: his crackling laughter, which had remorse mixed into it, and the qi gathering.

Again and again, Alexander brought his fist down, each time harder than before, as the ground beneath them sank and Alexander’s knuckles seemed like they were going to burst. But Alexander only panicked as suddenly the absorption rate grew. Not only that, he started glowing—glowing golden, first his hand and then his whole body.

Alexander’s eyes widened in absolute horror as he swiftly dislodged Dane and threw himself back as far as he could. He felt the pull as Dane tried to hold on to him, but Dane was too spent, or too unstable to do that. Alexander threw himself backward and started rolling.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Squelch!”

In the next moment, in front of Alexander’s eyes, there was a fountain of blood spouting upwards, along with some flesh and skin.

Alexander remained sitting on his butt for some time, the pure dread on his face from fear. It took him some time to get connected with reality.

Slowly, Alexander stood up, ready for a fight, as he could still see Dane’s body. But as he stood up, he felt like vomiting. The belly area of Dane was completely mangled, with his innards clearly visible, with his intestines sprawled about. Below his rib cage and up his ribs, it looked like a bloody skin in an area that would be enough to give anyone nightmares.

Cough, cough

Alexander suddenly heard coughing sounds, and even though he was afraid, he stepped forward and saw Dane was still alive as he coughed out blood. The son of a bitch was still alive. How?

Now, did Alexander know what was going on here? Yes, yes, he did. But did he ever think it was possible? No, never. What Dane did was absolutely absurd. He tried to self-destruct, taking Alexander with him. This wasn’t even a possibility for Alexander. Why? Because this was simply impossible, impossible for an E-grade. This was an art Alexander learned class, or rather, he learned about it in class. An art used in the old ages of war. It was self-destructive art to take your enemy with you. But the thing was, it was an art only a D-grade could perform, just because of the sheer control and amount of qi needed for this.

According to the teacher, when a D-grade exploded, it could take at least a small building with it. And if he was significantly powerful, he could take out half a skyscraper, and a peak D-grade’s damage would destroy most of a large skyscraper and damage the few around it.

In the olden days when there were no cities, this kind of thing was very common, but nowadays not so much, except for some incidents when enemies or criminals, after being captured, detonated themselves.

So, the fact that a newly reached E-grade could do that, or even try to do this, was enough for Alexander to recognize Dane’s talent. Dane was not good for nothing, but his admiration soon turned to fear as he got closer.

Dane’s hand, where the power started to grow, was nowhere to be found, and it seemed the surrounding destruction and upturned part of the floor, in all its center, was his hand. That meant he almost succeeded. And a terrifying thought hit Alexander—if Dane had not been in this banged-up condition, he might have been able to actually pull it off.

Of course, this doesn’t need mentioning that an E-grade self-destructing would not be as powerful as a D-grade, maybe this floor at most. But one thing was for sure, he could take him out, no questions asked.

There was another coughing sound, and Alexander steeled himself to move forward.

Here’s the corrected passage with spelling fixed:

“Ha, ha. I failed even in this, ha, ha ha, ha. Cough, cough…” After seeing Alexander, Dane said, but the words were barely audible.

“Ha, of course, even at the last moment of my freaking life, I lose to someone like you. A junior and loser. Father was ri…” Dane’s voice was cut off as Alexander got the message he was waiting for.

[You have killed a human. 2793 EXP]

All Alexander felt was relief. Even though he was tense and ready for anything to happen, why he even let Dane finish, he had no idea. Maybe he was just too tired. And speaking, or rather remembering about it, Alexander felt it. All the pain and exhaustion overwhelmed him, and he fell down on his butt.

His whole body was tensing up; he could feel the pain, as if it was gnawing at his bones. It was…

Suddenly everything just halted, as if time froze. No, that wasn’t it; he froze, as an overwhelming number of emotions hit him all at once. What had he done? What the fuck had he done? Did he just…

No, no, Alexander started running, where he left Dillon. He refused to believe he just killed three people.

[You have killed a human. 900 EXP]

Just as he was about to reach Dillon, the third and final message came. Alexander slowed down to a standstill and, after 2 seconds, fell down on his knees.

Urghh…

After a few seconds of collapsing on his knees, Alexander vomited, not blood, but…

Urghhh…

But his guts out.

Urghh…

Urghh…

Urghh…

Alexander just could not stop vomiting, especially after seeing the mangled and bloody body of Dane.

“I just killed… I just killed a human. Or I just killed three humans.” These were his last thoughts as he passed out. His eyes rolled behind his head as he completely collapsed.