May Peace Grace Us

Chapter 42: It's in the blood

At some distance before they reached their destination, Aila was blank-faced as she saw some gangs blocking the road. She is very familiar with this practice of theirs and she is very displeased with seeing them doing so. They are in a hurry and she does not want to deal with them at all.

Her normal reaction was to scare them away using a display of power. But thinking that it is not too advisable to be too showy at the moment, she also thought about eliminating them to avoid future problems. However, her mother does not approve of that method and has asked for diplomacy before doing something drastic.

Thus, this resulted in Stephen going out of their RV to have some talk with the gang.

For the sake of a peaceful journey and listening to the request of his dear wife, Stephen did his best to negotiate with them, despite the fact that it was clear that they would not be hearing him out from his own personal experience.

From the RV Aila could see from the conversation they had gone to the drain really fast. Aila could certainly see that her father had no patience to actually talk with them. Hewas angry enough to give them a signal that these people are already a lost cost. Indicating they should be prepared to use violence should the other party use force against them.

Aila held a gun in her hand as she continued watching the development of the talks outside of their RV. The rest of the girls also had a weapon at hand, ready to open fire the moment things got ugly outside. Although this was the first time they had encountered something like this, their actions were well coordinated enough for others to doubt them.

The other side was first to open fire. They aimed at the RVs and openly mocked Stephen, who immediately revealed his own weapon, killing the ones near him with practice ease so that Aila could see why there were quite a lot of hidden weapons in their home, then went to the side to avoid the others’ bullets aiming at him. With practiced ease, he killed a few more before he confirmed that the RVs were fine.

The RVs were specially commissioned to be bulletproof so most of the bullets from the other side did not hurt any of them. The first thing the girls did in the large RV was to protect Judith, who was holding the young child. Among them, Judith is not the most combat ready person and she is the most vulnerable one in their group. Thus, this is the reason why their first reaction was to protect the older woman in the face of danger.

To return the favor the other side had shown them, Aila went out first and returned fire on the other side. Her blood was boiling and eager for some c*****e. She then looked at the situation of her father, who was already fuming and had unleashed his fury after they attacked the RVs. Coordinating with each other, they wiped out the ones visible to them.

The boys also came out and used the weapons at hand. The girls, on the other hand, did not come out as Aila had warned them of some horrors that women faced during this time period. Although she believes that they could protect themselves well, there is nothing wrong with being wary. Understanding her concern, the girls called themselves a reserve force in order to consolidate their pride.

Those who have abilities do not showcase their abilities so easily as to let others put their guards down. Aila tells them that there are only so few who awaken their power in the first month of the apocalypse. Stating that most of them are arrogant, thinking they are some protagonist and doing all sorts of atrocities. This, of course, has resulted in them being greatly harmed or killed by those who feared and jealous of them. To avoid the same thing from happening to them, a consensus has been made that, unless necessary, they will not showcase their abilities in front of other people.

Though it is true that most of the early bloomers are arrogant and a majority of them are indeed a pain in the ass. There are some who are sly enough who bid their time in order to make things in their favor, like Alfred. To not attract those kinds of people, Aila wanted to use their ability as a last resort. No need to startle the snakes so soon if they could help them.

Felix was someone who had more experience of using guns compared to the rest of the hyenas. His family was more involved in the military until he and his brother turned their backs to the family profession. His brother had established a company and Felix himself was more inclined to be an ordinary engineer. But even if they leave, it is inevitable that some traits of their blood will not be separated from them.

Felix calmly took the lead of the boys and commanded them to clear those he saw. Using a sniper, he shot a man hiding in an obscure area. And after he was done with that, he then slowly wiped out the upcoming reinforcement.

Seeing that he was the one who did most damage, a ball of fire suddenly appeared in his vision. Thankfully, his reflexes were originally so good and coupled with Bella’s usual surprise attacks on them, an almost instinctive reaction was already ingrained in him. This has him easily dodge the flaming ball upcoming to him even without seeing them coming to him. Though his shirt was slightly burnt due to the delay of his actions. His skin was otherwise unharmed because of the slow changes in the bodies of humans.

Albert instinctively wanted to put out the fire using his ability, but he remembered Aila’s words and held back. Only that he was cursing their luck for actually running to these people.

“Guests from afar I see!” The man Aila identified as a fire supernaturalist said as he blatantly coveted the vehicles they had. “Can’t we not continue this mayhem any longer?”

The man lit a fire with a wave of his hand at the nearest tree to show them he was not someone they could cross. Like some proud peacock, he then roamed his eyes on Aila, who was the lone girl in the assault force. No doubt thinking of something not suitable for children.

The boys were more or less sensitive to those looks, as they are quite protective of the girls of their group even if they are quite capable of protecting themselves. Jerome, who is often someone who suffered from the girls' ire, was particularly angered at the other’s undisguised bad intentions towards his friend. If he was not oriented and warned of being reckless, he might have open fired the second the opportunity presented itself.

Aila herself was also on the verge of gauging out the other’s eyes when his sight fell on her. She is very familiar with these kinds of eyes and she more or less gave those eyes’ owners a life worse than death. She hates this type of man for so many reasons. The biggest reason of all was that it was under these lustful beasts that Jemma fell under.

But she held back. Because she could feel someone else who was more angry than her. And this person was someone who personally wanted to teach this bastard a more memorable lesson.

“We did not want to come to this at all, but it was your people who first wanted to harm us.” Stephen said as she stepped up, one of the bodies near him. “Are you even in the position to say something to us?”

Stephen was pissed and no one could stop him now that he started venting. First was that they were attacked when he was being civil to them. Second, this bastard is actually eyeing his daughter. And third, this sonofabitch is actually thinking he could scare him away using this fire trick. He has no patience to deal with this ignorant wanna-be anti-humanity superman.

With coldness colder than arctic eyes, he lit all the lifeless bodies to ashes in seconds around him without lifting a hand at all. Blue flames encircle him and the children under his wings. They were not scorched nor were they burned by the flames, but it gave them warmth as well as protection.

But on the opposite hand, it was definitely something that came from hell. Some of the newly arrived reinforcements could not move forward as the flames were too hot for them to bear. Those who believe this is some sort of bluffing illusion tried to go forward, only turned into a heap of ash as the smell of burning flesh fermented in the air.

Stephen’s fire continued burning without actually eating those he did not want to burn. The plants were not burned by the fire. Creating a strange image of green, blue and blackened soil.

The fire supernaturalist knew that he kicked a steel plate at that moment. He thought these people were like the rest of the people he and his group had taken advantage of. This is something he cannot deal with at all.

Smiling like some forgiving saint, he began to talk of cooperation like fellow people with the same ability. Painting an image of the grandeur of being someone at the top of the food chain. Telling Stephen that they should be working together in order to make it happen.

Returning the other's foolish words with a mocking smile, Stephen simply did not give mind to the future the man was dreaming of having. He cut down the talk easily by throwing a fireball at the foolish boy's feet. Making sure that the other will get the fact that he does not have any intention of working together with him.

This made the others mad and gave another to have them regret their decision to not work with them. In his mind, he was thinking that the group before him was only a small group and he and his men were quite a lot. They could win by virtue of their huge numbers.

However, reality has shown them that the disparity between their strength and that of the other side was too much.Their numbers did not give them an advantage and they are the weaker side, no matter the angle one would look at their fight will say. Even if he could fight the other head on, it is estimated that he would be greatly inconvenient. He dares not to think of how miserable he will be by then.

“Boss! Shall we talk about this?” The fire supernaturalist said with a flattering smile as he weighed the pros and cons. “Can you put this away so that we can calmly talk about our misunderstandings?”

“Misunderstanding?” Stephen was irked at the words the other said. It was clear the other was only like this because he does not benefit if they fought head on. Funny enough, Stephen wanted things to be peaceful at first, but the other side did not listen to him at all. “Which part did we have a misunderstanding?’

“When I asked for a negotiation for us to pass along this road?” Stephen hummed a little as he said this. “Or when your people openly fired at my entourage? I am simply too confused about which part was a misunderstanding.”

When Stephen’s final words fell, the temperature had risen to a new high so that even part of the land the flames were burning had turned molten. The rest of the fire supernaturalist’s people cannot stand the heat because they retreat far from the flames, afraid that they will be the next ones to turn to ashes next to the now molten rocks.

“Definitely a misunderstanding, boss!” The fire supernaturalist said, as the temperature was simply too much for him. Although, as a fire ability supernaturalist, high temperatures were something that should not harm him, this was something far beyond his body could cope with. “There is nothing stopping you from going through the boss. My subordinates did the wrong thing. They are already turned to ashes by your boss. So can you put this away?”

“Well, that is true,” Stephen said as he motioned the children to go back to the RVs. “I have already made sure they returned to the dust they all came from. But I don’t want to put my fire away at all.”

“Tell me what I can do to appease your boss!” The fire supernaturalist looked unwilling as they said this. Ever since he had awakened this power, he was never this pathetic.

“I will remove my flames. But you must promise to never do any trick towards me or to my people.” Stephen said as he stepped forward towards the fire supernaturalist. “Promise that you will not and I will spare your life here.”

“I swear! I swear!” The man said as he felt like the fire was so close to consuming him and burning him like his subordinates did.

Stephen reached out his forefinger as a small blue flame emerged at its tip. He then pressed it to the other’s forehead until it was absorbed by the other’s skin. Satisfied with his handiwork, he retrieved his hand and waved away his flames.

“I left a mark on you,” Stephen said as he saw horror in the other’s eyes. He had especially asked his daughter if there was a skill that would make sure they would not turn back their words, and this was what Aila had told him. Following Aila's intrusions from before, he simply put them in practice with the man before him.

“My daughter has told me a clever trick on how to use my abilities. Once you do something that will harm my people, you and a yard radius of you will be engulfed in my flames. So you better not do anything that will bring danger to my entourage, okay?”

Stephen showed a strange manic smile similar to what his daughter shows when she is slaughtering zombies behind everyone's backs. After that, he left the now weak-legged man and led the other RV away from the area. This episode has made them truly feel the malice their own fellow men bring towards them.