Birth Of The Crafts-God

Lucas might always act calm and cautious most of the time, but it didn't mean he was one to take a beating without hitting back.

A peak Body Strengthening stage practitioner might be able to survive gunshot on Earth, but it was still not enough to tank a shot from a vestige. The weapon might have sounded just like a gun on Earth, but the mechanics as well as the rounds differed, resulting in a more intense power. However, Lucas wasn't scared.

Compared to an average Body Strengthening stage practitioner, he had his self-made vestiges and the system's equipment.

'Who could it be this time?'

Lucas began pondering once he had hidden himself in an alleyway.

There were two parties possibly after his life.

The Vinis pawnshop had already proven themselves to be a possible main suspect after their kidnapping attempt a few weeks ago. However, with Lucas repaying the bill and taking back his ingot, they should have taken a more subtle approach than this.

The store had a reputation and if they were found out to be related to this incident, even if Lucas was a human, their reputation and business would fall apart. They would lose customers and the City Patrol Corps would react aggressively, especially since a hyuman had been involved as a victim.

The other suspicious party was the group of harassers who had been after him since Lucas got the building. They were an underground organisation and even after Lucas had asked Harry to help him investigate the name 'Ramirez', there was not much information about them except that the individual was a former freelancer.

However, their desperation to get back the land, to the point of sending a second level Apertures Opening stage stellar practitioner after him was insane.

The two sides were equally suspicious and guessing around wouldn't lead to any outcome. So, Lucas decided to take matters into his own hands.

. . .

The assassin wasn't exactly a professional as he didn't keep a lookout for any pursuer. Truth be told, he couldn't be blamed. The incident had only occurred less than two minutes ago, which wasn't enough time for the Patrol Corps to react. Also, who would have expected that the target wouldn't retreat, but chase after him?

From a typical logical perspective, the assassin needn't worry about any retaliation or tracking, at least for the next two minutes. But reality gave a different story.

The hunter had unknowingly become the hunted.

"Damn that fucker. That bastard human. Why the heck did he have to jump at the last moment?"

The man cursed under his breath as he ran away. He had parked a hover car about two blocks away from the scene in an isolated spot as part of his escape measure. As long as he got to it, the assassin could have a chance of leaving the district. This was only a chance at escaping the district however, not the Patrol Corps.

'There it is.'

At a certain corner that had almost no hyuman traffic, an unsavoury and typical hover car was parked by the side, almost as if it were neglected. It looked like a sedan from Earth, but with some slight differences. However, with the current technology in this world, such a ride was lacking in taste.

Despite its looks though, this hover car was packed. The engine had been switched with a more powerful one that utilised nuclear technology with heat conversion devices, ensuring that there was almost no energy lost.

The vehicle had an exhaust pipe but hover cars didn't use an internal combustion engine; the exhaust pipe was actually a set of nitro-benede boosters, a variation of nitrous oxide that only exists in this world.

It was pretty much a sleeper build.

The assassin hopped into the hover car and started the engine almost immediately. The car hovered into midair at around fifteen metres, before hanging there and beginning its taking off sequence. During that moment, the man noticed that there was a figure a few metres ahead, looking his way. The man gawked at the figure in disbelief.

"I can't believe this shithead chased after me." The man cursed.

He wasn't scared of Lucas as the latter was a human and a Body Strengthening stage practitioner at best, the same as him. However, Lucas might take a picture of his vehicle which would aid the Patrol Corps in finding him faster.

"Dman that brat. You've ruined me and I still can't do anything." The man growled.

In order to increase his chance at escaping, the man had initiated the hypersonic drive sequence before booting his ride. That way, he would be moving at top speed as soon as he took off. If the Patrol Corps were on his heels, it would take some time to initiate the hypersonic drive sequence, hence why he started it now.

The vehicle was a typical hover car and not a Sare [1] like the Autumn's Gate guild's which was equipped with attacking options. A hover car was just a civilian vehicle after all.

Glancing at his timer that had ten seconds on the clock, the assassin decided to forget about Lucas. There was nothing he could do to this target of his, and at the same time, there was nothing Lucas could do to stop him.

Was what he thought...

Lucas stared at the hover car up in the air, with its engine slowly gaining momentum. Even though he had never driven a hover car nor knew its principles of operation, he could easily surmise that the vehicle was about to depart with great speed; the assassin was clearly trying to escape.

This wasn't what Lucas wanted, but with his target now encased inside the vehicle which offered some sort of protection, he was somewhat out of options here.

"Retrieve."

The craftsman gloves made an appearance once again as they wrapped around Lucas' hands. But that wasn't all he took from the system inventory. A spear had also appeared in Lucas' hands -the same alloy spear he had used in digging the Violent Sun ores in the Igrum steel mines.

This was Lucas' most powerful weapon in his arsenal, thanks to the mix of Red Iris stone. Although he was lacking mystical energy, which would have increased the power of the vestige and ensured that it would penetrate the hover car, Lucas wasn't worried.

Gripping the spear tightly, Lucas took a stance and aimed at the hover car.

The assassin, who was inside, noticed this, but smirked at it. Even though the exterior of the hover car looked nothing special, it was still not something just anyone could damage. It was durable and strong, as the intention was to survive a hypersonic speed trip. It wasn't something that a Body Strengthening stage practitioner could wreck by just tossing a spear.

The man was thinking how much of a fool Lucas was to try and attack his hover car when Lucas shot the weapon. In the next moment, only half a second was left before the hover car entered hypersonic drive, but Lucas' attack had already appeared before it.

*Bang*

To the astonishment of the assassin, the spear pierced through the exterior of the vehicle and happened to strick the engine.

*Boom*

A loud explosion sounded as the hover car was forced from its hypersonic drive by force, following which it crashed towards the ground.

*Boom*

The hover car crashed horrifically to the ground, and with the already damaged engine, an explosion set off on the spot. Lucas retreated, but not before taking the spear which was thrown away from the vehicle by the explosion.

Immediately after that, Lucas turned away and left the scene.

Luckily, the area was empty -an intention of the man, which ended up killing him and aiding Lucas to cover his tracks.

By the time the people outside had noticed what had happened, Lucas was already gone.

A short while later, a Patrol Corps member has appeared at the scene and closed the place off before informing the others, following which more Patrol Corps officers arrived and blocked off the area while investigating. Twenty minutes later, a hover car landed close by and from it appeared three individuals; the three members of the Red Fangs.

"Is this his last location?" The woman asked.

"Based on the security clips, yes. He was here about twenty minutes or so. Apart from him, the assassin was also present." The red-haired man said.

"We surmised that the assassin was trying to escape with a hover car fitted with hypersonic driver systems. But for some reason, he has failed."

"Do you really think it's a strange that he failed?" The woman glanced at the red haired man and asked.

The latter was stunned a bit before shaking his head.

"Even if we want to say he did it, there's no evidence of that happening. Also, he is a human; how can a human destroy a hover car, especially one with hypersonic speed capabilities and structure?" The brown haired man said.

The lady stared towards the horizon as she said,

"There's only one way to find out."