*Splurt!*

"Urgh...?!" Before anyone could say a word or react in any form or fashion, suddenly a blood-drenched clawed hand pierced straight through the man, tearing away the clothes, skin flesh, and gore in equal measure.

The man himself, most shocked of them all, turned agast mostly with the initial shock of seeing a hand coming out from the center of his torso. Yet, not even a second later, his nervous system flared up, sending jolts of information to his brain.

First, it was the searing, burning sensation. As if his flesh, his skin was burned away with fire. Then, the adrenalin kicked it, suppressing the sensation, at least momentarily. Even the heat seemed to have calmed down...

Yet, he knew something wasn\'t right. He could feel a rapidly encroaching exhaustion, he could feel as his stamina was draining away at a rapid pace. He could feel a warm liquid pouring down his chest, making its way, slithering towards the ground.

The man felt as if hours passed, bringing forth strange, new sensations. Each step worse than the one before.

Breathing gradually turned more and more of a chore. Each inhale grew weaker as if his lungs just couldn\'t support the increased need of his body. With each failed attempt to fulfill this newly risen requirement, he felt more and more of his own strength slipping away. Eventually, his legs could no longer sustain themselves, they wobbled and in the next instant they gave up completely.

By the time his head touched the ground, he could only see blurry silhouettes and the flashes of what seemed to be the muzzles of lots of guns. He could no longer hear the bangs, the explosions, or the hopefully painful cries of his murderer... He had a new horizon to explore.

Though it has seemed like hours for the man, actually barely a couple of seconds have passed since Aziel suddenly flashed across the makeshift battlefield and tore a fist-sized hole in the man aiming his gun at the girl. Tearing away the waning but still beating precious organ, the man\'s heart, Aziel didn\'t hesitate but quickly gulped it down before the shocked then horrified eyes of the crowd.

Even the three teens, Jake, Jay, and Myra was shocked and terrified as they saw the horrific, nightmarish scene. As for the thugs, they were stunned, petrified at what they witnessed. One of their own, gone! Just like that!

"D-d-don\'t just stand there... K-KILL HIM! SHOOT, YOU IMBECILES!" The first one to break his trance was the leader himself, standing behind the three youngsters.

His previous playful attitude was nowhere to be seen, his face was contorted into an ugly frown as he shouted orders. Still, his figure was shaking of what he had just seen, despite the power of his bellowing roar.

As if a magic word was uttered, the thugs holding the teens at gunpoint shook their heads and one after another broke their daze. The shock in their gazes swiftly transformed, fueled by the helplessness, the dread they all felt, it slowly turned into an uncontrollable rage.

Their faces contorted into the same ugly mug that of their leaders, they exclaimed almost in perfect unison, albeit throwing a variety of curses.

"DIE!!!!"

"B*STARD!"

"MONSTER!!"

Shifting their stances they all ignored the teens and instead snapped their guns at the silver-haired, monster that was supposed to be a silent boy a moment ago. What they thought was just his timidness turned out to be hiding a terrifying monster.

The muzzles flashed as a rain of bullets was hailed at the widely grinning, almost euphoric-looking boy. His face painted crimson with the smeared blood of the now-deceased human, Aziel was basking in the feeling that he had missed for so, so long.

He could also feel a strange warmth deep inside him, but before he could dive deeper and inspect the sensation, he felt as if hundreds and hundreds of bees had tried to sting him.

His body felt weird, tingling all over yet with each passing instant it grew number and number to it. His physique, his [Essence Restitute] was working actively, using his reserves of inner energy, his [Aether] to accommodate to the pain.

The men were growing increasingly more and more shocked as well as terrified seeing how the storm of bullets didn\'t manage to hurt the boy, only grazing off his skin as if it was some superalloy, some sort of reinforced, resistant material.

Yet, without any other method to vent all their growing, gradually settling frustrations and unease they continued to pull the trigger and empty out their cartridges.

At around a minute later as they all emptied their magazines, they all hastily searched for a replacement. Knowing that the monster was now unleashed and not suppressed by any of them, they did their best to find a replacement and resume their actions.

No matter how futile their actions were, they didn\'t know what else to do, how else to combat such a threat.

Aziel remained still, almost baptizing himself in the rain of bullets. At first, it felt rather painful, even though guns of their caliber couldn\'t possibly do any lasting damage, it was still a new, unexpected experience. His body has grown resistant to many forms of trauma, but these pellets, metallic projectiles were something new.

As the seconds passed, so did the discomfort slowly, steadily settle down and eventually go away completely. By the time the storm ceased, he barely felt anything.

The grin on Aziel\'s face curved higher, which made it all the eerier with how bloodied his face still face. A cruel, vicious glint flickered in his eyes as he looked at the thugs hastily searching in their pockets and bags.

"W-wait.. Watch o-"

Yet again, as the leader reloaded his rifle, and was about to resume his firing, his face turned pale. He wanted to cry out, and warn his brothers, but before he could even do so, the monster\'s figure flickered once again, only to reappear not even a moment later in the midst of the crowd.

Aziel arms\'s swung down with a lightning-fast motion, his dark, ebony claws reflecting in the faint sunlight as they sliced through flesh and bone as if it was nothing but dense air.

Blood splurted trailing the arcs of his hands, each swing tearing apart skin, flesh, ending a life in the most gruesome, brutal manner possible. Each time a small piece of their matter was absorbed through Aziel\'s skin. Each time feeling a bit more of the same warmth in the center of his frame, making him grow more and more curious about it inwardly.

In the following thirty seconds, the leader has been thrown into the deepest, vilest pits of hell. Not even a minute had passed, yet his friends, his brothers he had survived through all that storm, all the misery of their lives were now gone. Their bodies were torn to pieces, mutilated, or in some cases even worse, they were all beyond redemption, beyond any chance of saving.

Still, their murderer, this reaper... this horrific monster that was now fully bathed in their blood, stood over them, looking more and more of an incomprehensible creature by each passing second, with each look the leader gave to him.

He could no longer care about how could the boy\'s hand transform into what felt looked like the hand of a prehistoric-looking beast, how he suddenly sprouted such a horrifying set of claws.

He needed to enact vengeance for the lost souls of his brothers. He needed to end this monster, yet he knew his gun was hopeless in penetrating that strangely resistant skin of his.

Anger clouding his judgment and mind, he could no longer bother, in the end, he flicked his arm, and aimed towards Aziel\'s head as he shouted and pulled the trigger at the same time.

"JUST F*CKING DIE ALREADY... YOU MONSTER!!!" He yelled, pulling the trigger as hard as he could.

A new storm of bullets sailed across the air, crossing the meager distance in an instant, flicking off Aziel\'s body without any form of damage caused. Aziel grinned at this, grinning widely. He slowly began to approach the man, ignoring the hailing storm of projectiles, pushing against it as if he was going against a tide.

"DIE DIE DIE DIE!!!" Crazed and losing his mind at the nightmare he had just gone through the leader of the thugs continued emptying out his last magazine, ignoring the fact that once that very last bullet left the barrel, so would his life end along with it.

His chance of survival was with this last couple of bullets, his last hail mary. He roared like a crazed, cornered beast, no longer bothered by worldly emotions and attachments. The only thing that mattered now was the slowly approaching menace, the blood-drenched monster that hid behind that youthful, vigorous human\'s flesh.

Yet, neither bullet he fired could penetrate the boy\'s skin. His clothes were long since shredded, leaving only just a vague neckline covering him, leaving his body bare once more.

As the last butter was loaded but the automated mechanism and was then released not even a fraction of a second later, the leader no longer felt anything. Not even fear itself. He no longer bothered, he no longer cared. He felt no regret, no grief, no sorrow. He just wanted this torture, this nightmare to finally end.

He closed his eyes, opened his arms wide, waiting for the inevitable to come.

Yet, as the second passed, followed by another, then another... that awaited end never came. The sounds have calmed down along with the last of his bullets that were fired, making him puzzled and then gradually more and more confused about what was going on.

As his eyelids nervously parted apart, temporarily returning his vision to the leader he instantly grow shocked at the seemingly impossible scene revealed in front of him.

The monster, the impenetrable skin of the monster was somehow overcome, the silver-haired creature was found lying in the ground, the same evil smile plastered across his face with only a bloody hole replacing his right eye!

=====

We are steadily getting closer to the first goal and with it the first bonus chapter! Great job guys (and gals!)

Powerstone Goals

100 Power Stones -> 1 Chapter (Getting closer!),

200 Power Stones -> 2 Chapters,

300 Power Stones -> 3 Chapters,

Golden Ticket Goals:

50 Golden Tickets -> 1 Chapter,

100 Golden Tickets -> 2 Chapters,

150 Golden Tickets -> 3 Chapters.