Ezekiel stared in shock as his entire home erupted in flames. Thankfully, his parents seemed to have sensed the attack before hit arrived and had protected majority of the people within it.
"Ez." Suddenly Matthew's calm voice rang out, prompting the teenager's attention. "Take your friends and go. I'll explain it all later."
The mechanic's eyes widened. From his father's calm voice, he could easily notice the smoldering fury he was hoping to hide underneath, making him realize that his dad was pissed and he already seemed to know who the enemy was.
Still, he held back his questions and nodded. He quickly met up with the disoriented servants and ordered them to retreat before he and his friends did the same.
"Yuri." He spoke as the three crouched atop a building at the very edge of the Central region, his dimensional ring had already opened up, spitting out his Optical Visor.
The young girl nodded and gestured with her hand, manipulating the mana within her body. Immediately, a gray fog appeared around her and enveloped the three of them. If anyone were to look in their direction they would only sense three dead presences. This was the magic she had gained after awakening, Death magic, the antithesis of her brother's Life Magic.
From this, no matter how anyone looked at it, it could be seen that the two definitely did not have a simple background as those two magic types were quite rare among awakened.
But that wasn't his priorities right now. Ezekiel's eyes narrowed as the augmented reality displayed in his visor before him, linked up with the hidden reconnaissance drone that hovered above his home and picked up the presence of 5 individuals amid the clearing smoke. He could easily make out his parents, staring at the unfamiliar three with calm rage.
The three assailants, all male judging by their body structure, wore masks, their body languages displaying a mix of calm and hidden caution. And the mana reading he was getting from his Visor indicated that the first two possessed the Mana quality of mid C rank Awakened, possessing the same amount of strength as his parents, while the third person seemed to be of the peak D rank.
"You're very good at hiding, Shadow. But I guess that comes all too easy with your special affinity." The man at the fore front spoke, his tone calm and measured as if he hadn't just blown tens of people to death.
"Do not call me by that name." Matthew almost blew up in rage as he growled, his eyes darkening by the second.
"Mad Dog, you seem to forget that he doesn't particularly like that name." The man at the side chuckled as he also stepped forward, his mana inwardly increasing its circulation.
The masked man named Mad Dog laughed. "Who gives a shit? You two will be dead anyways. Traitors of the Blood Rose organization are fated to meet their ends. Shadow, Lightning Rouge, you two have been sentenced to your deaths." He then glanced at the last person with them and ordered. "Hurricane, you take care of anybody related to these two."
"Don't you dare!" Evelyn was quickly enveloped in lightning, granting her an incredible speed that allowed her instantly appear before the man nicknamed Hurricane. Unfortunately, Mad Dog seemed to materialize from a burst of flame and block her advance.
He laughed as a wave of fire burst out from his body, forcing the mother to retreat. "Of course he fucking dares. Thorn, let's start the execution."
"You're not the boss of me." Thorn snorted while seeds fell off from his palms and drove deep into the ground. With a snap of his fingers, the ground rumbled and exploded, allowing multiple vines stretch out from beneath, each as thick as a man's body.
Hurricane immediately took this as his cue to leave. After all, the difference between ranks were really too large to just overcome, he had absolutely no use in the coming battle. His mana sense spread out, hoping to find the three children he had spotted closest to the two traitors.
But suddenly a sense of danger filled his senses, his Mana sense suddenly doubled in intensity, trying to find any object within his periphery but unfortunately he found nothing and could only dodge in a random direction. Still, he had taken too much time before he moved his body. He could only grunt in pain as he felt a sharp object pierce through the side of his abdomen before suddenly exploding and taking his flesh with it.
Seeing this, Ezekiel furrowed his brows in annoyance while he placed his sniper rifle back into his inventory. He had hoped the Manaless bullet would have been enough to confuse his opponent enough to successfully hit his target. But it seemed that the man named Hurricane, though weaker than his workmates, still had enough experience to dodge the fatal attack.
His original target had been Hurricane's mana core but, while the man could not sense anything with his mana sense, he had enough experience to trust his gut and dodge to the side. And the man himself easily guessed this too, causing a layer of sweat to seep into his tactical clothing knowing he had almost been crippled. "Where are you, fucking bastard?!"
Hurricane immediately controlled his mana, guiding it to his abdomen, which now sported a gaping hole at the side, and sealing the wound, preventing more loss of blood and stabilizing his condition. Still, he knew he wouldn't last long and would have to seek medical attention. Luckily from the auras he had felt before, two of the teenagers were at the early E rank while he couldn't sense any from the third one.
Unlike Reed who had concluded that Ezekiel was stronger than he let on, Hurricane instead thought that the teenager was instead an Unawakened, after all, he was at the D rank and there was no way a 16 years old teenager surpassed someone of his caliber.
He immediately controlled the wind around him, allowing him step into the air and fly towards the source of the attack.
"We'll take him." Ezekiel's usual sunny expression had seemingly disappeared, showing how incensed he was at the events happening on his birthday. Vahn and Yuri nodded, knowing that even if the mechanic was angry, he wouldn't wish to fight a losing battle.
The three pulled out their armor like suits from their dimensional rings and tapped on it lightly. The armors let out whirring sounds as they opened up to reveal a human shaped pod within it, allowing the three to walk in before it closed back and powered on.
Ezekiel's Battlesuit was painted the same as usual, a bright white, with golden streak designs running along the edges and an amethyst colored design at the center of his chest. The suit looked streamlined with multiple ejector slots transfixed at its back and four Shortswords sheathed at his hip. It seemed to be a more complete version of his Speedster Prototype Model.
Vahn's Battlesuit seemed to be an assault type, possessing a less bulky version of the Impact Gauntlets. And was painted a general azure color with a silver white streak design. While Yuri's Battlesuit looked like Ezekiel's current Speedster Battlesuit, but it appeared to be more geared towards flight and was painted a general grey with a beige streak design.
Ezekiel unsheathed two blades from the 4 scabbards and glared at the approaching Hurricane. "No one fucking messes with my family."