Themis, The Flower of Justice
Chapter 8 — Hard decision(4)

‘This Delta Man... Does he imitate me?’

Feeling something awkward, the executioner man intended to keep his distance and observe his enemy first. But Nielson did not let the man keep his distance. When the man began to keep his distance from her, Nielson cut the distance and gave no chance of retreating.

In response to Nielson who continued to approach, the executioner man instead broke through Nielson's attack and counterattacked. From a very close distance, he took a swing and launched a high kick that looked like a crescent moon on Nielson's face.

‘Crescent Moon Kick!’

Although his body was slender, the might from the attack was no less formidable than those large-bodied people Nielson had faced before. Nielson who was hit by the attack lost his balance for a moment and was about to fall. The force from the kick was strong enough to blow Nielson away, but Nielson held it back and strengthened his posture. He put a strong focus on his feet like he was about to kick from that position.

Nielson then issued the exact same kick as the executioner's man. The man was surprised, although he already thought Nielson was imitating him, but seeing what was happening right in front of his eyes made him distrustful. He who had not expected to be given a counterattack by Nielson, was hit by a crushing attack that actually made him fall to the ground.

‘What the fuck?! I know that he was imitating me, but a mock counterattack from such a position? Is he a monster?!’

The man was still trying to deny the scene that was happening right before his eyes. He was still stunned by Nielson landing a counterattack in a position that was almost impossible to counterattack.

Unknowingly, the man smiled. He felt that Nielson was a fun opponent to face. Given that he was always restrained by rules that he thought were annoying, he had found a valuable fight after a long time. He became very passionate about facing Nielson and fighting him with all his abilities.

Nielson did not waste the opportunity when his enemy was confused about him, he immediately continued with a powerful straight kick that led to the man's face while being knocked down on the ground.

But Nielson's attack this time could still be contained by the man. The man bounced around and rolled back to regain his balance due to the powerful attack launched by Nielson. He looked at both of his palms that he had made to withstand Nielson's attack, his hands looking bloody and injured as a result of fending off a direct kick from Nielson.

‘I can't believe, is he not exhausted after all the fights before this?’

Looking at his bloody hand from resisting Nielson's attack, fear and delight mixed into one in his heart. On the one hand he is happy that Nielson is very strong to give him a decent fight, but on the other hand he is also afraid that he will lose because Nielson is stronger than him. The man took a deep breath. He must restore his lost composure to all the surprises from Nielson.

Nielson did not stay silent to see his opponent who was restoring his composure and trying to reverse the flow of the fight. He immediately shot forward and launched an impromptu attack. Nielson threw his swift and powerful fists at the man.

‘It... The technique used by the Beta man earlier to deal with it right? Light yet fast... But somehow his attack felt more perfect than the previous Beta man.’.

The man dodged all the quick punches laid by Nielson, he dodged while analyzing his attacks and waiting for the gap to strike back. Nielson, who knew the man was waiting for a crack, did not allow himself to strike back. He replaced his fist attack with a flash and performed the man's crescent moon kick.

Nielson's bizarre combination of attacks has left the man in a crushing attack. The executioner lost his balance, Nielson continued by making a horizontal attack from below. He punched the man by the side of the waist hard until the sound of a broken bone was heard.

‘Uwrgh, my ribs!’

The man vomited a lot of blood as a result of his broken ribs. Losing his strength to maintain his posture, Nielson saw it as an opportunity and launched a powerful assault. Nielson punched the man's entire body more forcefully and quickly to the point of making him look like a punching bag that couldn't dodge an attack.

He was overwhelmed by Nielson's powerful attack. He could not escape all Nielson's attacks and looked certain to lose. The man then hurried to take some distance and scrape something from behind his suit. Seeing the man take some distance, Nielson did not let him. He immediately cut the distance and was about to re-launch his attacks. But—

*BANG

There was a gunshot, blood flowing from Nielson's shoulder. His expression looked very surprised at the unexpected shot.

“UGHHH!”

Nielson immediately knelt down and groaned in pain. He tried to suppress his screams due to the pain of the bullet lodged in his shoulder.

“Haha, what a pity. I intend to shoot your heart, but it looks like you realized it and immediately tried to avoid it~ “

The man mocked Nielson while displaying his vile appearance. He looked extremely satisfied with the shocked and agonized expression displayed on Nielson's face.

Nielson looked at the man.

“Hahaha! Don't look at me like that! We're not in the ring, you know? We are free to use everything! You should also be proud of yourself, you managed to dodge the vital attacks of the bullets fired at you! Ahahaha!”

The man let out his laughter. Nielson clenched his hands tightly, feeling that he was very naive to think that the man would continue to use his bare hands despite being cornered.

‘Haah-haah, I was immersed in the atmosphere and too focused on fighting to forget something basic. This is purely a fatal mistake due to my carelessness,'

His breathing was stingy, as a result of being shot Nielson's breath became rough and irregular. Nielson tried to regain his composure by taking a deep breath. He must remain alert if the man wants to shoot himself again.

“I think you should know that an executor cannot be accompanied by a shabby weapon like this,”

He scratched the other side of the suit, he pulled out a gun but it looked nothing like a regular gun. The gun is much larger than most pistols, even looking like a machine gun. The appearance was black, with a blazing blue-blue line that looked like electrical energy flowing within it.

Nielson's eyes were wide open to see the gun that the man had pulled out.

‘It was a.... Eliminator!’

Eliminator, a very powerful weapon of the third world war. The weapon uses electricity as a power source and then fires electrical waves with a very high voltage. Even when a steel carriage was fired the train's eliminator was instantly destroyed.

After the third world war, all weapons were confiscated because they were considered too dangerous. But it appears that Nielson's organization was able to acquire it and mass produce the dangerous weapon.

“From your reaction it seems you know that this weapon is an eliminator, I think your fate was clear when I took it out. What if you turn yourself in? I changed my mind when I saw your ability. With your abilities I don't think you're any less than the top 10 Alpha. At most you're just brainwashed and installed nano bombs in your heart, but better than dead right?”

“From your expression I think you agree? If you agree then shake my hand,”

Looking at Nielson's distorted expression, the man's face smiled extremely wide, he felt that Nielson would not reject his offer and rejoin them. If Nielson who had extremely great abilities rejoined because of it, then the organization would definitely bestow itself with an incredible reward. Thinking of what he would receive, the man could not help but smile broadly.

The man walked towards the gloomy-looking Nielson as he extended his hand, but the other hand was still pointing at the eliminator towards Nielson.

Nielson seemed to want to shake the man's hand and extend his hand, but—

“Eat the poop there! I wouldn't go back to that hell even if I had to die,”

Nielson pointed his middle finger.

Looking at Nielson's middle finger, the man became speechless. He sighed, his face displaying disappointment when he thought Nielson would accept his offer but instead rejected it.

“So I think a smart guy like you would rather live. Well, I just feel sorry that we're going to lose someone as great as you. But how else, YOU CAN'T BE SAVED ANYMORE,”

The man's expression changed instantly, now he seemed to want to kill Nielson repeatedly. He was upset not because the organization had lost an extraordinarily talented person like Nielson, but because he had lost the golden opportunity he had been waiting for all his life, also because Nielson had already insulted him when he thought that Nielson would accept the offer. The man pointed the eliminator at Nielson. Thinking that the golden opportunity he was waiting for was gone, the man grew increasingly irritated and violently pressed the eliminator trigger.

*BZZZT

Eliminator was charging, before the eliminator could shoot, Nielson took advantage of the very short moment by darting ahead of the man and kicking the eliminator to change the direction of his shot.

*BAM

Eliminator fired his electric wave. Although Nielson managed to change the direction of the attack, the attack still hit Nielson and left Nielson's hand and entire left body smashed. Blood flowed to the floor. Nielson groaned and shouted loudly, the pain this time was on a different level to the previous shot.

“Hmmm, I did not expect that you would attack me and successfully change the direction of his attack. Well even if it was in vain, with such conditions you will not be able to survive more than 1 hour,”

Nielson stared intently at the man while enduring the pain of losing his left side. But—

Nielson smile. The executioner was surprised, he was surprised why Nielson expressed like that when he was on the verge of death. He then aimed his eliminator towards Nielson again.

“Yeah, whatever. I think he's gone crazy because of the pain he's been through. Then, congratulations tingga—“

*BANG

A shooting sound rang out, blood flowing to the ground. But it was not Nielson's blood, but the blood of the man who was shot in his heart.

“You're right, I can't possibly survive more than an hour. But an hour is enough time to drag you to hell with me,”

*BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

Nielson shot the man so hard that the ammunition he used ran out. The man did not have time to dodge, all firing Nielson accurately at his entire vital point. Due to the bullets lodged all over his body, the man immediately fell to the ground and died instantly.

Nielson threw the unloaded gun to the floor and took the eliminator he was holding.

“You think I'm stupid to repeat the same mistake and attack rashly? When I barged towards you it was not to change the eliminator's attack alone, but also to take the gun stuck on your shoulder. Well, I don't blame you for being too focused on my wounded self,”

Nielson spoke to the body of the man who could not answer and explained how he could use the gun. He then examined the eliminator in his hand, but the Eliminator rejected Nielson because he did not have access to the eliminator so it became useless and nothing more than a lump of heavy iron. He threw the eliminator to the ground and stumbled away leaving the bloody field.

“Hahh, my bad feeling is right. I'm dying,”

Nielson, who was in tatters, fell to the ground. He exhaled a long breath, as describing all the fatigue he was experiencing today.

Seeing what Nielson experienced today, mental and physical fatigue must have accumulated in Nielson. From the mentally draining trial of Nielson, to the life and death battle he had endured all the way here, it all left Nielson mentally and physically exhausted. The exhaustion was so great that he felt that no one had experienced this kind of exhaustion.

Nielson sat pensively and looked at the sky, he looked like a person waiting for his death who could come at any time to approach him. He glanced at the very severe wound. Seeing the wounds that could not be healed, Nielson became desperate, and felt that he could not have a chance to live.

‘Well, it's not bad to face death like this. Fighting for justice even to the end of my life... I am quite satisfied with a death like this,'

Nielson's eyes were closed, he was already resigned to face his death. But the droplets of acid rain that fell into his wound retracted Nielson's consciousness. The high acid rain made Nielson's wounds worse and the pain made him realize that there was still something left before he faced his death.

‘True, there's still things left. I must try to keep my promise and meet him. Although I will die at that time.’.

Nielson's expression, which had seemed desperate, regained his life spirit. He seemed to have made up his mind to keep his promise by meeting Alice even though he was about to have a painful death.

‘I must be quick, seeing an executor here I became worried what happened to Alice even though she passed the secret path,'

Nielson rushed over and sped up his pace, he turned towards the direction of the secret passage to catch up with Alice. Her intuition told her that Alice would not be okay. With the executioner here, Alice can face anyone. Although Zeta-003 is waiting at the end of the hallway, Nielson remains worried because he does not know what else the organization will send him, he is afraid that Alice's escape will be sniffed and put him in danger.

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