Chapter 45: Chapter 45 – Murder
"Don’t move. Get away from that man." Ordered a voice behind Matthew, most likely, holding a gun.
Matthew raised his hands and turned slowly and saw himself facing two mall security guards, both aiming guns at him.
"I can explain. But I don’t have much time." He said using his hands to urge the security guards to calm down. "My friend has been kidnapped by this man."
The guards looked at each other, then looked at the shattered glass all over the floor. They found it hard to believe.
"Please." Pleaded Matthew. "She’s in danger if I don’t go soon."
The older security guard turned to the younger one and whispered:
"This can be a problem if the kid is telling the truth. Cuff the man on the floor, I’ll go with the kid. And call the police." Then he turned to Matthew and asked: "Where is this friend of yours?"
"Over the air conditioning machines" Matthew said pointing at the maintenance door.
"Here’s what we’re going to do. I’ll go with you to see this friend of yours, but you’ll stay in front of me all the time. If you do anything funny, I’ll shoot." The old guard said.
"Ok!" Matthew didn’t wait for him to finish. He just darted towards the maintenance door that gave access to the machinery at the mall’s rooftop.
"Wait, kid!" The old guard ran after him while his partner used the radio to call the police.
The rooftop was a vast concrete expanse with all sort of machinery and outhouses that Matthew had no idea what they served for. He stood still for a while looking around not sure where to go.
When the old guard reached him, he had his gun down. Apparently running away like that made him think Matthew was telling the truth. He noticed Matthew’s indecision and pointed at the west part of the rooftop.
"Air conditioning is that huge white box." He said after getting Matthew’s attention.
Matthew thanked him and ran as fast as he could soon being followed by the guard who screamed:
"If your friend is really in trouble, we should wait for the cops!"
Matthew ignored his plea. When he turned the corner getting behind the huge machine, he saw Mia sitting on ground crying. Her blouse torn open and the bald man hovering over her with a wicked look on his face.
Immediately the demonic mana took over Matthew’s body. He charged screaming in anger, which only drew the attention of the bald man to him. When Matthew reached the man, he was already prepared and skillfully defended Matthew’s punch and counterattacked with a punch of his own on Matthew’s ribs sending him stumbling back a few paces.
As soon as Matthew steadied his position, the bald man was over him covered in the blue light of mana. He was using Imbue Mana on his own body, a skill only available for the Martial Artist class. His punches hurt like hell on Matthew, who used Anesthesia to dull the pain.
Matthew soon realized he made a mistake. Even with the demonic mana, he was unarmed, he left in a hurry and left his new purchased weapons down with Erin. And that man was clearly not just a Martial Artist in class, but also an experienced hand to hand fighter.
Every punch Matthew threw, the bald man would skillfully parry and counterattack with a punch or kick of his own. With the constant use of Anesthesia, Matthew had no idea how bad he was being wounded.
He thought about using Unholy Mana again, but at that position, he would not only harm Mia, but also the whole mall. The air conditioning machine was right beside them, if the mana somehow were sucked by the machine and spread all over the mall, it would be a catastrophe. He had no idea how those machines worked.
He decided to try to keep his distance. With the demonic mana, he felt he was stronger than the bald man, but he lacked fighting skills to face him properly. Therefore he preferred to maintain a distance from him, also maintaining him away from Mia.
It’s then that the old guard reached them and, after seeing the scene, immediately pointed his gun at the bald man yelling:
"Freeze!"
The bald man stopped advancing towards Matthew and stood still with his hands in front of him still in fighting position. He looked at the old guard, then looked at Matthew and for a moment the three men stood still unsure about what to do.
"Kneel!" The old guard broke the standstill, but the command only worked to drive the bald man to attack him.
He shot twice, but both bullets were not able to pierce the kidnapper’s Vital Shield and with a single punch on the ribs, the old guard fell down on the floor coughing.
However, and luckily for Matthew, the guard’s gun also fell to the floor and rolled away. Matthew soon darted to the gun.
The bald man noticed, and also sprinted towards the weapon. However, Matthew was faster.
He grabbed the gun rolling on the floor. The bald man jumped on top of him, his hands holding Matthew’s wrists. They started to wrestle on the floor for the gun. Matthew using his superior strength and the man using his superior technique.
They were almost at a stand still, but it was clear that it was a matter of time before the bald man could take the gun away from Matthew.
It was then that they noticed Mia standing beside them. She was holding her blouse up with one hand and, with the other, she held the bald man’s head. Her face was contorted in pure anger. She gathered all her mana in the palm of her hand and cast a Magic Missile spell at point blank.
It still wasn’t enough to pierce the bald man’s Vital Shield, but it made him flinch enough for Matthew to successfully pry his hand free and shoot the guard’s gun with his Boost Gunpowder skill. The shot being strong enough to draw blood.
The bald man groaned in pain and had no more fight in him. Matthew pushed him away. Got up and removed his eye patch looking down at the man with his left eye spilling red mana.
The voice in his head screamed at him:
"Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill the motherfucker! Kill the fucking rapist! Kill! Kill! Kill!"
Matthew was fighting with himself. He knew that if he killed the man, that could lead to a lot of trouble. He remembered how he was still in trouble with the police just for defending himself against robbers. That? That there was plain murder.
But the other part of him looked at Mia at his side. Her clothes torn, her face filled with anger and her makeup messed because of the tears. That side wanted the man dead.
"Don’t do it kid. You won. You can take her." The man pleaded on the floor for his life with one of his hands pressing the bullet wound on his abdomen.
Just when Matthew was lowering the gun, Mia held his hand up:
"Shoot him Matt. Kill the bastard." She said behind her teeth breathing deeply for having used all her mana with that last spell. "Please. Kill him." Mia finished with a voice that was a mix of anger and crying.
The bald man jumped forward after hearing her plea. But it was too late. Matthew had already made his mind after Mia asked him. He emptied the clip on the bald man before he could come close enough to do anything.
They both stayed silent looking at the man bleeding on the floor. He groaned in pain unable to say anything. He was shot 15 times by Matthew.
Mia’s face was still filled with anger and she seemed to enjoy seeing the bald man bleed to death in front of her.
Matthew used purify on himself before his demonic mana influence made he do something against Mia. It was not safe for him to keep up that state with Mia standing half naked around him. He then put back his eye patch. Walked to the old guard on the floor who saw everything.
"Are you alright?" Matthew asked returning the empty gun to him.
"No. He broke everything." The old guard almost laughed pointing at his ribs, but stopped when it hurt him. "But I’ll survive."
Matthew looked at the man languishing on the floor under Mia’s piercing gaze. She was always so cheerful, always with an open smile on her face. Seeing her looking down at that man like that brought a bad feeling to Matthew that he could not name.
"You don’t need to worry kid." The old guard said after watching Matthew looking at the dying man. "You did the right thing."
The old man then gave Matthew his jacket to cover Mia’s exposed torso and called an ambulance for himself, the bald man, and for Matthew. However, when the paramedics arrived, the bald man was already dead.
Later they met with Faralynn, Erin, Sarah and Faralynn’s security who prevented her from going up after Mia and Matthew after she woke up.
When Erin held Mia in her arms, Mia cried like a baby.
Sarah also hugged her as soon as she started to cry.
Faralynn hovered around the three not sure if she should hug them as well.
Matthew sat on a bench near them. His face and body covered with bruises.
One of Faralynn’s security team approached Matthew and put his hand on his shoulder:
"You did well kid."
"Did I?" Matthew asked more to himself than to the man holding his shoulder. "Then why do I feel so bad?" he thought.