Cain was in a crisis, his right shoulder felt a freezing pain and the scythe was just inches away from him and was ready to slice his tiny frame in two.
Everything seemed to be in slow motion but he didn't panic, he immediately put his whole body weight on his left leg pushing it forward and then swerving in a swift motion to the left before the scythe came down
*swish*
*thump*
Like knife through butter, the scythe cleanly and smoothly separated his unlucky right arm from his body before it fell on the floor of the cave and disappeared.
Cain however already made it past the ordeal and was in the safe area, sweating and panting with his chest heaving up and down like a rabid dog. His left arm clutched his bleeding right side as blood continuously flowed down like a waterfall
He was about to sit down but he sensed danger yet again as five teenagers made a beeline straight for him, he sighed as his eyes turned black and the space around him became a little distorted as the first person arrived a few inches before him
A sword came slashing towards his neck as he agilely dodged it before throwing a curved punch on the stomach of the assailant to the point he bent like a shrimp and spat a mouthful of blood, he didn't stop there as he grabbed the hair of the unlucky fellow and forcefully yanked it out of his head as he became a bloodied mess with his screams drowning whatever atmosphere was present before he fainted
The other teenagers saw this and hesitated as they felt a chill down their spines but that spelled their doom as Cain didn't miss out on that, his eyes still deep black locked onto two boys, they immediately felt that they couldn't move and began to panic and try to free themselves but Cain wasn't having it as he made a grabbing motion in the air and squeezed
They didn't even have time to scream as they twisted and burst into pieces of flesh and blood with the cave hungrily absorbing it like a starved beast before Cain headed towards the rest
The remaining two, a boy and a girl stood rooted on the spot in fear as their faces turned blue. They couldn't believe what they were seeing, 'who said he was inexperienced?' 'who said he's just five years old?' they thought as they subconsciously glanced at a red haired boy whose eyes and mouth were open as he looked on in shock
"Wa-wait a mi-" the girl shrieked as she regained her senses but Cain couldn't care less about her next words as he immediately thrust an uppercut so hard that it made a sounding boom in the cave before her head was sent flying and landing on the ground of the cave with a loud thump as the cave happily devoured it
"ahhh" screamed the last boy not far from Cain as he snapped out of his daze and made a run in the opposite direction trying to escape but that seemed to be a very foolish decision since he wasn't thinking straight as a black scythe resolutely sliced him in half with his blood garnishing the floor of the cave
Cain stood and watched this silently, in fact the whole cave was silent as all the remaining teenagers looked at Cain with apprehension and fear, the massacre didn't even last up to two minutes, they were all mesmerized by his strength but most notably his speed
He didn't even bother to look at the silent and bewildered teenagers as he slowly walked towards the boy who fainted, his footsteps weak and tottering, expressing the fatigue his body has been put through but no one dared make a move or utter a single word
He eventually reached the boy in a few seconds before crouching down and placing his hand on his blood-soaked back as he prepared to try something he had been itching to test before a voice interrupted him
"St-stop!" a young feminine voice broke the silence in the cave in a shaky and trembling tone
Cain frowned as he halted and turned his head to see who interrupted him. He immediately saw the person, a brown haired girl with freckles and cuts all over her body with both her fists squeezing her loose black skirts tightly
He remained silent as he kept staring at the girl with his pitch black eyes, the girl saw his stare and shivered but she still forced herself to speak
"Ca-can you sp-spare his life p-please" stammered the girl with a weak voice
Cain was still silent for a few seconds that seemed like ages to the girl
"No" he uttered in a plain tone that seemed to disregard her existence as he turned back to finish his test but the girl wasn't satisfied and spoke again
"I-I know he was wrong bu-but please, I'm sure he's learned his lesson" this time her voice was a little smoother albeit laced with fear and hesitation
Cain was quite irritated as he slowly stood up with his bruised body and his one arm as he stared at the girl again
"Is he from your family?" he asked with a childish yet assertive tone
"N-No"
"So why should I spare him?" Cain asked again calmly
The girl was silent before speaking "B-Because that is the r-right thing to do"
Cain looked at this girl who was trying to be the hero of the day as he inwardly sneered and felt disgusted. Frankly, he didn't expect this kind of naivety from someone who entered the cave of beginnings, perhaps she accepted those earlier deaths as something she didn't have the power to prevent
He kept staring at the girl as his visage became cold, he was once like this, he would always try to find the good in people and help wherever he could. He always naively thought that his riches were all legitimate, he lived in his own righteous buble and believed the world was good until that fateful day happened, his ideologies were turned on its head and his whole world came crashing down.
He eventually broke the silence and spoke in a calm and aloof tone as he looked at the girl with indifference
"Your naivety will doom you sooner or later, as for your request, I couldn't care less because I kill who I want to kill in whatever capacity I deem fit. If you have the power to stop me then by all means do and if I die by your hands it will only stamp the fact that I died due to my weakness but if you do not have the power to stop me there will only be one end for you which I don't need to spell out, so choose wisely"
Cain said his piece and didn't bother to even look at the girl anymore who was dumbstruck as he crouched back down and placed his left hand on the back of the boy as he concentrated before he heard a prompt
[*** Commencing]
[Target's Health Critical]
[*** Efficiency Reduced...Proceed?]
Cain nodded and not long after, crunching sounds echoed in the cave as the boy's bones kept breaking and his skin peeling. His mind was jolted awake by the sudden assault of pain as he screamed in terror but if fell on deaf ears as Cain watched curiously, the boy's body melted into a dark puddle before entering his body as he felt a warmth sensation coursing through his body
[Locating Critical Areas]
Sounded another prompt but he was lost in the feeling of euphoria so much that he couldn't help but give a loud and satisfying moan
Meanwhile, the rest of the teenagers were still quiet and didn't utter a sound even when Cain was speaking to the girl with the freckles, however they gasped when they saw the boy's body turn into a black liquid before it proceeded to enter Cain's body as they heard a loud moan
But what shocked them more was that, his right arm was regrowing at a terrifying pace and his injuries lessened. They watched everything in horror as they burned this memory into their minds, never to be forgotten.
Cain couldn't care less about what they were thinking as he was drunk in that feeling, when the process ended he was a bit unsatisfied as he casted a quick glance at the silent teenagers before checking himself, his right arm had completely regrown and some of his bruises lessened, the cut on his face however was healed as the area became smooth
He clenched his right fist and nodded 'seems like I have to try this on someone who's doesn't have one leg in the grave, hmm I've got a lot of experiments to carry out then'
He stood up, a little satisfied that one of his ideas seemed useful, he had many things to do and this was just the start, this system of his, heck he didn't even think he should call it a system because he had always felt an intricate connection with it that couldn't be explained.
With all eyes still glued on him, he looked at the brown haired girl again and was reminded of his past, the system as well also a painful and constant reminder of all he had to go through to get here. He shook his head but a single thought was in his head
'I've really come a long way'