This is part six to chapter 4. Hope you enjoy and leave Power Stones if you did.
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Boost!
Whishing out of the trees and over the rooftop of the rundown church, Issei glided downwards to the front doors that were left wide open. Steadying his landing, his feet touched down on the unkept gravel pathway and he cautiously looked around.
Through the ground underneath the church - likely in some kind of basement - was a blue outline of a person. That was the signal that Issei had come to know as a non-hostile person. Making a guess, he assumed that was Asia. He couldn't imagine anyone else who would hang around here be as kind and innocent as her. She appeared all alone down there, everyone else having left to fight them.
All except for the guy staring at him from across the nave.
"Well lookie here! Guess I get to have some fun after all!" The man spoke, his face lighting up in unnerving delight. It was a man in the traditional garb of a priest, robes and all. He also had a silver crucifix necklace around his neck that matched his silver-colored hair to a tee. He was leaning on the decayed pulpit languorously, an unsettling glint in his eyes. For a supposed priest, it was a disrespectful sight regardless if the church was abandoned or not.
Five seconds with the guy and Issei could already understand why people like him were called strays.
Boost!
The man's creepy grin dropped as his eyes caught the draconian gauntlet on Issei's left arm. He made a clicking noise with his tongue. "Shit... maybe this won't be fun..."
Watching the priest quickly lose his eagerness, Issei felt a surge of confidence rekindle. He had lost some after seeing that one of them had stayed behind, but the man had become weary of him after seeing his Sacred Gear. The tiny blonde fallen angel had also been caught off guard after he pulled it out on her.
That meant they both considered him a threat. He decided to confirm the stray's power just in case.
Observe.
Name: Freed Sellzen
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Level: 14
Relationship: Horrible
'Looks like all that training paid off.' Issei thought relieved. The man was weaker by a single level. He would've been afraid to fight this guy a week ago when he was only level five without any experience with fighting or his powers. With all the strength he'd cultivated along with the Boosted Gear, he was ready to play ball.
Explosion!
The silver haired priest named Freed hissed at him, his red eyes glaring holes into him. "Think you're tough, aye? Here, lemme fix that for you!" His hand darted into his dark robe and pulled out a pistol. He was armed with what was likely a magical gun, just like Issei had been informed.
Not waiting another second to get blasted to high noon, the Gamer charged down the church aisle with all his might. Power from the Sacred Gear filled the boy to his core and leaked out into a fierce battle cry. Within a blink of an eye, the distance had been closed between the two. Freed had only gotten a single shot out of his gun, the searing light bullet whistling by harmlessly thanks to the future glimpse of Foresight. Before the crazy priest could reach for his light sword, Issei had ducked down and hit him with the nastiest uppercut possible.
Freed barely had time to gargle as his busted up gums crunched under the force of the punch. The scales of Issei's dragon arm pierced into the priest's chin and jawbone as momentum sent the man spiraling into the air. Flying up close to the ceiling, the stray crashed through the matted stained glass of a rosette window and out the building.
Panting deeply as his adrenaline still rushed within, Issei stared at the broken window as colorful glass shards fell down like raindrops. Hearing a few light thumps nearby over the shattering glass, he quickly jolted in the direction. Holding his gauntlet out wearily, he examined what made the noise.
Creeping up behind the pulpit with his guard up, Issei's hazel eyes scanned across the ground. Through the pitch darkness of the old church, his lit up vision could make out a firearm and what appeared to be the handle of a sword.
Observe.
[Uncommon] Light Gun
[Uncommon] Light Sword
It seemed Freed dropped his gun after getting hit, somehow his sword also coming lose from his robe after tumbling through the air several times. Next to the holy weapons were a pair of brown loafers carelessly strewn near the wall covered in fallen glass.
...
"Did I really punch him out of his shoes?!" Issei stared back up at the window and down at the loafers several times in disbelief, having put two and two together. Koneko wasn't exaggerating at all. He really was strong enough to punch people out of their shoes.
His eyes locked on to the yellow outline several meters outside of the church building. The figure was laying on the ground unmoving. He couldn't use Observe unless he had direct eye-contact with the object in interest, but Issei assumed that it was Freed. Unless he could launch people into the stratosphere, then that was where the man had landed. What was strange about it was that he had never seen a yellow outline around a person before and wondered what it could mean.
Blue likely signaled non-hostile people and red was obviously for hostiles. So what was it?
Help: Yellow stands for potential hostile enemy.
'Somewhere in the middle then.' Good to note. In that case, he'd be on guard around any yellow highlighted people. Potential enemy might as well mean enemy, after all. If they weren't a threat, they'd just appear blue like the devils he allied with.
Leaving the lame loafers behind, Issei looted the light weapons for himself. Quickly stashing them into his inventory, he tried searching for a way into the basement. Since Freed was still being highlighted by the system, that probably meant he was still alive. While it would be smart to move outside and finish him off, he just couldn't work up the nerve to do it. He wasn't built like Koneko, the fallen angels, or apparently anyone else in this kind of business. Disgust ate at his consciousness from the mere thought of ending someone. Unless there was no other way, he chose to avoid murder.
If the priest got back up, then he'd put him on his ass again. Issei was confident he could after their exchange and without his weapons, Freed wouldn't be much of a threat. After getting his face crushed, the man would likely try running anyway. He didn't want no smoke.
Reset!
A wave of exhaustion crawled through the Gamer, causing his legs to buckle. He'd talked to Ddraig about the general usage of Boosted Gear and this was one of the backlashes. He could only power himself up a number of times and the number of times depended on his own constitution. After a short amount of time has passed, the gauntlet would reset its power and he would feel the drawback. If he pushed too far, he would lose all his strength and wouldn't be able to fight anymore. He hadn't pushed himself too far this time, so he could still power up again.
"I'll have to wait before I can Boost again," He told himself, staring down at his armored arm. It was on cool down and would be for a few minutes. He couldn't start boosting until then. "Alright, now where is that stupid basement?"
After walking down the aisles several times and into a few empty rooms, Issei wasn't able to find anything that lead to it. If there was some kind of secret passage that lead to it, then his dumb ass was in trouble. Bringing the whole building down wasn't much of an option if it ended up with Asia trapped underneath the rubble.
Growing worried that he couldn't find it when he was in a hurry, Issei sighed in relief after he was told exactly where the basement was. Thanks to his system giving him another hint, he learned the entrance was hidden underneath the decayed pulpit at the front.
Pushing it to the side, the boy descended the stairs in two quick jumps and raced across the corridor. There were several rooms that resembled somewhat of a living area. It was all run down and hardly serviceable, but it looked like it was being inhabited. Recently used kitchenware and similar objects were scattered across the big excuse for a kitchen. The living conditions here were horrible. That was to be expected from an abandoned area.
Ignoring the grimy rooms and how little they were cared for, Issei followed the cyan silhouette through the wall until he stood right in front of the doorway. Without wasting any time, he forced the rigid wood of the door open.
It was her. Asia Argento. He found her.