1% Lifesteal

Freddy had never approached loan services of any kind—other than the bank. Thus, he was a little surprised by what he saw. He had the image of a considerably sketchier place in mind before coming there.

But by all means, the business they arrived at looked pretty legit.

It looked pleasant from the outside and clean on the inside, with a small, modernly decorated lobby scattered with a few plastic houseplants and a polite-looking young lady sitting at the front desk. Promotional pamphlets were laid out on neat racks, with happy-looking generic families and couples on the pages right beside a bunch of special offers for loans and extra benefits.

Lucas gulped and walked up to the reception desk.

"Welcome to FinNado Financial Services; how can I help you?" The woman sounded cheerful and pleasant, with a wide smile and bright eyes.

"I'm here for Hellen Black," Lucas said.

The woman's eyes suddenly darkened, and Freddy noticed a quick smirk flash on her lips. That actually shocked him quite a bit. It wasn't uncommon for ordinary folk to get jobs at extremely sketchy places.

Seeing someone who seemed actually evil was kind of refreshing!

However, other than the quick smirk she shot Lucas, she also gave Freddy a strange look. He waved at her with a broad smile on his face, flashing his pearly white teeth.

A moment later, she grabbed a small crystal and whispered something into it. Then, she turned to face them. "Please wait a moment," she said.

Freddy wasn't keeping his gathering hidden, but he was keeping his aura subdued. That was enough that nobody under the second star would be able to tell how powerful he was, but… well… nobody was going to think he was a mortal. If anything, not being able to sense someone's gathering was just a good way to tell that someone was dangerous.

Not even a minute later, a man in a suit walked out of a door on the other side of the room. He was followed by four men wearing similar get-ups. He was a two-star, no further than 40% along in progress. Clearly not a combatant.

His dark brown hair was starting to gray along the temples, but he looked healthy, with spotless skin and rested eyes. His slightly uneven beard was cut down to short stubble, and his brown eyes shone with apprehension as he glanced at Freddy and then finally looked at the young man beside him. "I take it you are Lucas?" he said in a gruff voice.

Lucas nodded.

"And who might your friend be?"

Freddy knew that the man could roughly sense his power. "Oh, me?" he asked sarcastically as he walked over and swung a hand around Lucas's neck. "I'm just Lucas's buddy! We go way back; ain't that right, Lucas?"

Lucas looked at him in confusion but nodded anyway.

"I heard you guys were quite generous," Freddy continued. Then, he bowed with exaggeration. "Thank you for helping their family when they were experiencing such harsh financial trouble. Really, the world needs more heroes like you!"

"I am not in the mood for sarcasm," the man said.

"Are you in the mood for a punch to the throat, then?" Freddy asked with a smile.

The men put their hands on the metal batons sheathed on their hips, but Freddy could tell that they were nervous. Realistically, if a fight broke out, they had no chance of winning against a peak two-star.

"Look," Freddy said with a chuckle. "Cut the shit. I'm not here to cause trouble." He patted Lucas on the back. "I hired this fella as a helper for my delves, and I'd really appreciate it if this could be resolved peacefully. I'll give you the money, and we'll walk away without any funny business, okay?"

The man nodded at that. "That would be for the best."

Freddy proceeded to sign them a check to cover the full debt, and they brought Lucas's mother out.

It turned out that they weren't quite as gentle as they could have been.

They brought a middle-aged woman with long black hair out of the back room. She looked surprisingly young, maybe only in her late thirties. That wasn't what got Freddy's attention, though.

Her face was bruised, and she looked dazed. Her lip was cut, and within her slightly open mouth, Freddy could see that she was missing a few teeth.

Lucas's expression instantly turned livid. He clenched his teeth and fists, glaring murder at the men.

Freddy knew that the best choice would be to walk away and leave it at that. It would be trivial to pay for some quick healing for minor damage like this.

But something within him stirred at the sight.

Lucas started shaking, and tears from the repressed anger started running down the side of his face.

The men released his mother and she walked over to him. "Lucas…" she said with lisp. "I'm so… sorry."

"Now this is no good," Freddy said in an exaggerated, disapproving tone

"I advise you to leave it at that, sir," the suited man said. "We have settled our business, and—"

"Settled our business?" Freddy laughed. "Sure, sure, we have settled the debt issue; there are no problems there. But who will pay for this woman's healing? Who will pay for the psychological damage?"

"I am warning you," the man said.

Suddenly, Freddy released the full power of his aura. The knees of the weaker among the guards buckled at the unbridled suppression, and the receptionist woman yelped as she lowered her head.

"You are warning me?" Freddy asked as he took a step forward.

Sweat visibly dripped down the man's face, but he remained composed.

"What exactly do you mean by that?" Freddy took another step. "You couldn't possibly be threatening me. I mean, what kind of a fucking idiot"—he took another step—"would threaten someone in this position?"

"I get it," the man said, gritting his teeth. Then, he brought out a check and scribbled something on it. He presented it to Freddy.

It was a check for five thousand dollars.

"Here you go. That should be more than enough to cover the medical bill."

Freddy slowly and neatly folded it three times before putting it in his mouth and swallowing it.

The man snarled. "Fine!" Then he pushed Freddy's 60,000-dollar check into his chest. It fell to the ground. "Be stubborn then. We'll see who has the last laugh when—"

Before the man could finish the sentence, Freddy's open palm struck him across the face with a deafening slap. The man tumbled into one of his guards and nearly fell to the ground. His left eye bled, and he spat out a few teeth. The whole side of his face had a hand-shaped print on it.

"Bastard!" one of the weaker guards shouted and swung a metal baton at Freddy's head. It clattered against Freddy's skull with a loud clang, only to bounce off without leaving a mark.

Before the man even had the time to regret his choice, the bottom of Freddy's foot slammed into his chest, sending him flying through the wall and into the back office, where he crumpled to the ground, dead on impact.

For a moment, everyone stood in stunned silence. Then, all hell broke loose. The guards tried scattering and running away, but there was no point. They were already cornered.

With every punch, Freddy's fist shattered bones and cracked skulls. The boss tried pulling something out of the storage ring on his finger, but before he could, Freddy's leg slammed into his hip, breaking his entire body in half.

The receptionist screamed and tried running away, only for one of the men's bodies to come flying at her. The sharp sound of her spine breaking was the only sound she released.

Lucas looked in abject terror, but his mother cheered, "Get the bastards!"

"Mom!" Lucas shouted at her.

"What!? They deserve it! Rotten animals…"

"Damn, Lucas," Freddy said after finishing the final guard off. "I didn't know your mom was chill like that."

"This is too far…" Lucas muttered with a glance at the dead receptionist. "This is way too far…"

"Nah," Freddy said. "Your mother is right. These people are animals. The world is better off without them."

"But didn't you say that doing this was dangerous!?" Lucas reminded him.

Freddy simply smiled at that. "Go outside and head a few blocks away. I'll be there soon."

"Come on, sweetheart. Listen to the kind sir and move outside," his mum said while tugging on his sleeve.

"I'm coming, god, let me go!"

The two of them went outside and ran.

Meanwhile, Freddy took a close, careful look at the crime scene. He first gathered the bodies and then threw the spark of undeath on the pile. The mass of wriggling meat got to work, devouring the flesh and bones, leaving nothing but the metal and plastic pieces of clothes behind. He scooped those up together with the blob of flesh and stored them in his ring.

As it all vanished, one item remained—a small ring. It was the storage ring that the man had. He put that in his pocket.

He also made sure to pick up the check that dropped to the ground. With that, most of the evidence was taken care of. There wasn't much more he could do to hide his tracks.

With that out of the way, he donned his helmet and headed outside. It was already nighttime, and few people were around.

Even if someone saw an armored, bulky man, that was hardly a precise identifier. Without any bodies as evidence, it would be challenging to puzzle out what exactly happened.

Things like this happened in Repentawa all the time. Whoever owned the place would most likely pin it on a competitor.

At any rate, Freddy wasn't particularly concerned.

People didn't lightly pick fights with powerful two-stars.

Even if someone suspected him, challenging him over a minor incident like this just wasn't worth the trouble.

After walking into a nearby alley, he proceeded to take off his armor. It took him a bit, but he was relatively fast. After storing it in his ring, he put on a spare set of clothes. After throwing out all of Janhalar's junk, the space inside the ring felt practically unlimited. It wasn't, of course, but it was plenty big.

He walked back in the direction he and Lucas came from and soon found them waiting.

Lucas looked perturbed. Meanwhile, his mother lightly picked at the split on her lip, trying to feel the damage.

What an easy-going woman.

"I'm here."

Lucas jumped at the sound of Freddy's voice.

Before the boy could say anything, Freddy cut him off. "Let's get your mother treated, and then we'll talk."

***

Healing the damage to the woman's lip and face was both cheap and quick. A nature-affinity healer simply sped up her natural recovery, and in a few breaths, the damage was almost entirely gone.

Her missing teeth were a bit more trouble.

Lucas and Freddy waited outside the dentist's office while the woman's teeth were being fixed.

Lucas gave Freddy a strange look. "Don't you think that was a bit too far?"

"You looked like you wanted to tear them apart," Freddy said.

"That woman just happened to be working there," Lucas said with a dark look. "I don't think she deserved to die."

"On the contrary," Freddy said. "In my opinion, 'people who happen to be working there' are the fucking worst."

"People don't always have a choice."

"Sure they do. They can always kill themselves."

Lucas winced at that.

"Don't buy into that shit, Lucas. People always have a choice. Saying otherwise is just an excuse. Everyone claims they don't have a choice. Either that or they say that 'if it wasn't them, it would have been someone else'. And if they don't have a choice, who says I do? Should I let her live to act as a witness and get me in trouble? If she didn't have a choice… then neither did I."

They both went silent for a bit.

"Are you still up to come live at my place?* Freddy offered again.

"Do I have a choice?" Lucas said with a chuckle.

"Always."

Lucas chuckled a bit at that. "Thank you. Really. I'm not really a fan of… murder," he said with an awkward chuckle, "but… you stood up for us. I appreciate it."

"No problem. That's what friends are for."

Lucas snorted. "Right. Friends…"

A few moments later, Lucas's mom finally left the dentist's office. "Wucas, wook," she slurred, then pulled her mouth wide open to showcase her teeth. "I haw a mouf fuw of feef!"

Lucas chuckled and got up, putting an arm on his mother's shoulder just as she looked like she was about to trip. "That's great, mom… Let's sit you down for a bit."

"Okie dokie," she said as she fell into the chair.

They gave her some time to sober up, but she fell asleep in the chair instead.

"Don't worry," Freddy said, picking the woman up. "I'll carry her."

"Thanks."

They walked towards Freddy's place. The whole time there, while she wasn't snoring loudly, Lucas's mom muttered things and chuckled to herself.

Freddy laughed. "Your mom is quite tough."

"Yeah," Lucas confirmed. "She had a rough life. We both did."

"She's young, too. She's what, forty?"

"35."

"Oh, wow," Freddy said, feeling a bit awkward at the discovery. She looked a bit old for that age. "And how old are you?"

"I'm eighteen."

"Hmmm…"

Lucas chuckled. "Yeah, she had me at seventeen. I had an older brother, too. Three years older."

"Oh wow. And had, huh?" He paused. "My condolences."

"It's okay. And thank you. But…" He looked hesitant for a moment. "While I'm not so coldblooded that I'd say I don't feel bad about his passing, I can tell you he was dead to me even before that."

"What happened?"

"It's a long story," he said, laughing with a pained look in his eye and shaking his head slightly. "We don't have the same dad. While I never met mine, his dad is a total piece of shit."

"Yeaaah…" Freddy sucked air through his teeth. "Some quick mental math would suggest so. Your mum was seventeen when she had you and your brother was three years older, so…"

"Yeah." Lucas gave his mother a sad look. "The bastard is a wealthy two-star. My brother actually always looked up to him; can you believe that? He was lucky enough to manifest a good prime and become an archhuman. You know what he did then? He abandoned us to go work for his dad. He completely cut us off."

"Ouch. Sorry to hear that."

"Don't be. He was violent and generally unpleasant. It would have probably been worse if he stayed."

"What about your mum? You said she has a job, right?"

Lucas winced. "Yeah… She is, uh…"—he coughed—"a professional dancer."

"I'm guessing…"

"Yeah, yeah—of that kind."

"Well, what's wrong with that?"

Lucas gave him a strange look. "Well… nothing, but you know… People and judgment."

"I get it."

"What about you, big guy?"

"Who, me?" Freddy grinned. "It's complicated. I was abandoned at birth, then adopted, then abandoned again. I worked through my teens and manifested a vestige right about when I turned 21. A lot of stuff happened since then."

"Wait, wait, what!? You said you're 23 now, right?"

"Yup. My birthday was like a week ago."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Lucas said with a huge frown. "You're trying to tell me that you went from mortal civilian to peak two-star in two fucking years!? How in the… what!? There's no way…"

Freddy laughed. "Well, I became a peak two-star like 9 months ago at this point."

Lucas stared at him with eyes wide open. "That can't be possible. Wouldn't that make you a world record holder?"

Freddy shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe. But the world is a large place. I'm sure someone beat my time at some point in history."

"Still… how did that happen? Are you one of those freaks who constantly rushes at things above your level?"

"I'd say it's more the other way around."

"How didn't you like… lose any limbs?"

"I did. I lost my whole body once."

Lucas squinted at him. "I think you might be fucking with me."

Freddy laughed. "Eh… I'll explain it one day."

After another while of walking, they made it to the building where Freddy was living. A short trip up, they made it into his apartment.

"Wow…" Lucas muttered. "You know what? I think you just became my best friend."