Chương 21: Abilities of the Group.

Cain leaned against the shackled bear as he watched the others fight. His presence was very faint, as the others were busy fighting their opponents, so what he was doing wasn't noticed by everyone. Well, almost everyone...

'Interesting...'

The eyes of a certain red-eyed, white-haired girl glittered with curiosity...

Meanwhile, Cain was observing the others. From what he had been able to gather, their levels all fell between level 12 to 15, with the highest leveled ones being Manny and Evangeline at level 15.

'They all have different fighting styles as well. Even the elemental attributes vary.'

They all had some form of martial arts training. Although learning martial arts wasn't as common as learning how to dance, sing or cook as a hobby, some people learned it, and some didn't. It was treated as a popular sport and was common on every media platform that existed before the apocalypse.

That was why Cain had an inkling that the number of people inclined to survive. The ones who had a reason to practice martial arts in a world full of peace were those who had demons in their hearts to confront. They were either going to be good allies or capable enemies...

The first person that drew Cain's eye, was Manny. Although Cain had seen him fight before, he was still very curious as to how such an undisciplined blade could perform so well. Although Cain wasn't one to speak, seeing as he neglected his training a lot, and his physical stats before the apocalypse were maintained at the minimum.

The way Manny swung his blade, coupled with his newly acquired wind attribute powers, told a story Cain couldn't quite place his fingers on.

"Hahaha! Eat metal, bitch."

He rained down attacks upon the poor monster, every attack cutting out huge chunks of the mutant's flesh. Cain concluded that it wouldn't take him a lot of time to finish off his opponent.

The next person Cain switched his attention to was none other than Blaze.

Blaze held onto a spear that generated explosions of fire with every swing and or stab. The way he used the spear told of his disciplined and stiff character. It was reminiscent of old military-style martial arts techniques that had been forgotten ages ago. Every attack of his didn't even draw blood, as the wounds created were instantly cauterized by the heat, leading the mutant to release screams of agony.

Vincent's way of fighting was even more eye-grabbing. The fatty avoided confrontation with the mutant. He just ran as he rained attacks with his gun onto the poor mutant while at the same time teasing it. The gun he used could shoot out concentrated bullets of mana as a form of attack.

Although he was really fat, he wasn't slow by any means. With the ability to raise one's stats with the aid of the system, the fatty could be as fast as he wanted to be. One exceptional thing Cain was able to notice, was that all of the fatty's attacks never missed. They always hit the head of the mutant. Always...

Cain could tell that the fatty had been trained...

Cain figured out that the fatty could have ended the fight ages ago if he wanted to, but was just being a bully...

Hunter and Dan fought their enemies together. They both used conflicting elements, fire, and ice, but somehow, they were unaffected.

Hunter was a summoner. Before the start of the fight, he activated his magic to summon a very large fiery wolf. It stood at almost 6 feet when on its hind feet, and was very muscular. The spectacular thing about this wolf was that it could use fire elemental attacks. Every one of its paw slaps caused the flesh of the mutant black bear to be burnt through. Hunter could also attack his own with his bow that shot out exploding arrows. All in all, he was a very dangerous opponent to have. He was also very smart and timed his attacks with near-machine accuracy.

Dan on the other hand was a human tank. His main skill was a transformation-type skill that created a condensed armor of ice around him. Since he was very slow, however, he wasn't the main attacker. He just stood there, and tanked all the attacks of the mutants, allowing Hunter and his summon to attack as freely as they wanted.

David and Susan had teamed up to fight their opponents as well. From the way they fought, Cain could tell they had done this a couple of times before and were getting used to it. Susan was the main attacker between the two of them. She would use her now to fire arrows of light elemental mana at the bears, while David defended her with his shield. If Vincent's shots were always on target, and Hunter's shots calculated, then Susan's were the definition of perception and accuracy.

'Beautiful...'

Cain couldn't believe he was saying it, but he did.

The way she handled the bow was almost perfect. She clearly had a lot of training under her belt. With every twang of her bowstring, the mutants before he would let out strings of pain.

As for David, he was the definition of a human shield. His defense was even better than Dan's. He conjured a crimson barrier over his shield that took all the beating. Cain couldn't identify the elemental attribute he was using as well. His attacks on the mutant didn't have any obvious physical effects on them, but every time an attack landed, something weird would happen to the mutants. If their attack speed didn't reduce drastically to the point they were as slow as snails, then they would just freeze up, or their punches would just be extremely off-target leading to the releasing cries of confusion and frustration.

'Interesting...'

Cain knew that David had to be strong if he wanted to lead this motley crew, but he had exceeded his expectations.

The next person to fall under his observation was Steve. Cain had labeled the guy a weirdo since he met him. From the way he spoke to his mannerisms in general, he just seemed like a goofball. However, Cain was about to be surprised once again. This was because Steve was actually one of the most powerful in the group when it came to attack power.

With every swing of his wooden staff inlaid with gems, a bombardment of spells fell upon the poor beast. Cain didn't even know if he was to feel sorry for the poor beast or not.

"Wind blades!"

"Fireball!"

"Water whip!"

"Lightening bolt!"

All the mutant could do was try to avoid the barrage of spells, but still, it could do nothing about it. When it tried coming closer, activated another skill that sealed the mutant's fate.

"Quicksand!"

The ground beneath its feet turned into a death trap. The more it struggled, the more it got stuck. Steve, while humming an unknown song to himself, continued the bombardment with a half smile on his face.

'Yep... This dude definitely has a few loose screws.'

Cain had to admit that everyone in the group was strong, and could hold their own against the mutants. They might even have a chance at survival on their own.

But they were all fighting together now. Cain could see the future ahead with this group would be full of surprises if he played his cards right.

Moving on to the final member of the group, he was a bit startled to find her staring at him with her ruby-colored eyes. She didn't even try to break eye contact when she noticed her. She just stared...

'Hmmm...'

Cain was curious about this girl. From the first day he met her personally, she kept staring at him like he was some kind of zoo animal. She did this fully aware that he knew she was doing so, regardless of how rude it seemed. Cain suddenly felt a feeling of curiosity beginning to grow in his heart. He wanted to know why she kept staring at him...

He stared back at her for a while before breaking eye contact to look for her opponent, well what was left of it...

'Oh?'

To say he was surprised wouldn't be very far from the truth. At first, he thought what he was looking at was a rotten tree that had fallen at one point, but upon closer observation, he realized that what he was staring at wasn't a tree. It was the damned mutant's corpse!

'Well, I'll be damned.'

Not only was she pretty, she most likely was dangerous as well.

Like a white rose with thorns...

All of these observations took only five short seconds. Those he was observing were moving at incredibly high speeds, which Cain was only able to see thanks to his high perception stat. The fights were very brief ones. It didn't even take most of them 5 seconds to finish off their opponents...

'Well... I better finish up quickly as well.'

Turning back to the bound, now docile mutant before him, Cain contemplated on how to end the things life.

Before he could do that however...

ROAR!!!!